"Industry Vets Create Bedlam" is the headline that greets visitors to the Gladius Online Website which harkens the coming of Gladius Online (or as their I Clavdivs-style Roman placard puts it: Gladivs Online), the first project from RedBedlam Ltd., a newly-formed developer that describes itself as "the UK’s first dedicated virtual world development company" (thanks RPGvault). The game is described as "a massively multiplayer online game based on the Roman Empire, circa 180AD," and the website describes their plans to "shake up the way games are developed and played online. Crucially, the company will establish a new financial model that will allow users to play for free - leaving subscription-based titles to fight amongst themselves for diminishing revenue." There is no concrete description of how this will work, other than to say the game is being designed "purely for entertainment value," and "the revenue model relies on simulating proven real-world mechanics," which the FAQ goes on to describe as a "radical and unique revenue model that doesn’t use subscription, advertising or phone bills to generate the revenue required to maintain the service" (though there is a PayPal donation button on the site). Since the "six industry veterans" that formed the company all seem to be from the business/marketing/journalism end of the gaming scene, maybe they have some unanticipated tricks up their sleeves for making this all work.