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Monthy MMORPG $Cost$ what will you pay?
dreary79
Member Posts: 32
in Guild Wars
This last year I got married and bought a home. I don't have 13-15 dollars a month to spend on a game; my wife wouldn't let me if we did. Guild Wars looks to be my answer. How much would you spend on an MMO game? I've tried all the free ones and they're not worth playing.
Thundercats Ho!
Comments
Thundercats Ho!
MMORGPs should not charge monthly fees, on top of which they charge players for expansions. P2P does not ensure that you are going to get more content. The extra content you get usually comes from the expansions that these companies release, so what are we getting for these monthly fees? I'll tell you what the companies are getting .. more money in their pockets that's what!! MMORPGs have been raking in the bucks with this scheme. With no monthly fees, it forces these companies to deliver a quality product or die. They make money on merit which is as it should be, not on vaporware!!
We the gamers have been paying these fees for games that are nothing more than betas, in alot of cases. If these games were good products they would have no trouble getting massive revenues just from their inialial sales and then expansions ie just look at the revenues that Blizzard have made on their games.
The folks that are making Guild Wars know this, they have seen it happen. I am confident that they will be a huge success. They have the knowledge and experience to create a good game, this is already evident from the Alpha testers comments. Hats off to these folks.
Pax
Beware !
They will release expansions! Many of em too!
(I'm too lazy to quote Miss Gaile, but they will release em (according to Miss Gaile) twice a year).
How much will these expansions cost? Maybe it will be like a condensed monthly fee!
Just don't give your hopes up, please.
When I first looked into it, I was all ecstatic about a no-monthly-fee game, but then again I didn't realize that they would be launching expansions so frequently
Mayhaps you've heard of AO or the like... not a bad game 5$ a month.... it's as good as any new game.... just that it has a monthly fee.
Try the trial out and decide for yourself. I just feel guilty for having pummeled em with my commentary to the ground.
"That's not a toy. Hey wait a minute. Don't f* around homey you can lose an eye with it. That's mah double-blade-razorwhip-chop-jimmy and it's mine mf*er so gimme gimme."
-ICP
Toy Box
Riddle Box
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
""ie just look at the revenues that Blizzard have made on their games.""
Uh Blizzard hasnt made any MMORPG's yet.
Aside from that if you think you wont be paying a monthly fee for Guild Wars, think again. Their expansions will likely cost 50 dollars each which is roughly the same as paying 9 dollars a month. (if they have 2 expansions per year). Its funny that people think they are getting a game for free. They will make it so that if you DONT buy the expansions you'll be left in the dust by all your friends and wont be able to do the cool things everyone else is doing.
Laying in bed, looking up at the stars, a single thought passed through my head. Where the fuck is my roof?
-----------------Censored------------------
I don't think anyone here thinks that "they are getting this game for free".
Everyone knows full well the game will cost money to purchase AND will have expansions.
Everyone also prefers to pay for a game + exp packs (traditional model) than to pay monthly fees using a credit card or pay pal (untraditional model).
Just thought I'd clarify.
Most current MMORPGS not only cost TOO MUCH to purchase, but also have abusive monthly fees.
Also most current MMORPGS have abusively expensive EXPANSION PACKS.
Just to emphasise the point
Monthly fees NAY
No monthly fees YAY
Evil-Killa(ToA) aka Tiberiux
I think I'll keep playing and paying for mmorpgs until:
The list goes from the most possible to the most impossible.
Completely disagree with you.
Firstly I'm 25 nearly 26, and I HATE games where other human Game Masters tell you what to do and what not to do.
Frankly, I prefer a game which lets me curse in it than one that tells you how to behave (I already have enough restrictions in real life without having to be restricted in my gameplay).,
The 2 most disturbing things for me in pay-to-play mmorpgs in order of importance are:
1) Monthly fees
2) Restrictions and Game Masters.
I understand there's a certain more mature crowd who plays MMORPGS who wants a controlled fantasy game to take up their time, but for the HARDCORE gamers we detest the 2 above things.
There are people like me, who beleive that once you're in a game, you should do whatever feel like within the bounds of the game. If the game lets you creep-jack or loot-steal I think it adds a level of entertainment to do so and I think the game developers should fix those issues if that's not how the game is supposed to be played. I am totally against hacking, but people should not be penalised for flaws in the game, or playing a game the way they want to instead of how "some people" think it should be played.
The idea that in a game you have humans controlling your actions in which in a dispute they might decide unfairly against you is just silly. Also having super powerful players running arround with ridiculous abiliities outside of game bounds also detracts from the over-all immersion factor.
Actually, the idea that monthly fees separate the mature crowd (which has credit cards and wants a "cooler" sims online game) from the immature crowd (those that like nothing better than to get in a game and be the best and kill the most and come up with awesome strategies HARCORE GAMERS) is quite good. Less boring people that won't yell "STOP STEALING MY KILLS OR ILL TELL THE GM"
No monthly fees
No games masters
More hardcore players
More competition
Better designed games that don't need HUMAN-NPCS with silly powers
MORE FREEDOM
Less restrictions
More actions
Peace in life
War in games
I'm out
Evil-Killa(TOA) aka Tiberiux
P.S. I'd like to keep my Evil-Killa nick but it doesn't agree with your terms of conduct? F-U!
It would be more reasonable if monthly fees were in the neighborhood of 5.00 dollars a month but this is NOT the norm. Most MMORPGS are charging 12 to 15 bucks a month now and continuously raising the scale ie .. Lineage2 charges 15.00 a month. So for 12 months its 180.00 if your paying on a monthly basis (many of us don't want to pay for a yearly subscription). Add to this ~50.00 for the yearly expansion which is again the norm in the industry and the initial cost of the game of ~50.00. Total investment for the first year is 265.00 ( the first month being free)
Now Guild Wars for one year with say 2 expansions will cost ~150.00. So that 110.00 bucks in my pocket.
Also if I don't decide to get the expansion I can still play the game this is not true for MMORPGs with monthly fees. If you don't resubscribe you lose all .. that's bullshit IMHO.
Again with this scheme of no pay to play, it will force companies to deliver da goods, no more freebies from the community. With this business model they have no choice but to deliver a good product no one is going to buy their expansion if the initial game sucks, nor buy other expansions if they are crap.
Everyone is going to have a chance to see what this game is all about on May 12th to the 14th, from what I've read on their website, fansities and forums they seems to have come up with a decent concept .. gameplaywise that is. Only time will tell but at least we won't get the Royal shaft up the bazoo and wind up paying monthly fee for a beta game..
Pax
FlaminDeath
FlaminDeath
Having played Shadowbane (open-PvP), I can see than GuildWars will be alot more balanced as far as PvP is concerned.. No more of this ganking groups in mid pull bullshit .. this fact alone makes the game more truely competitive and enjoyable.
Spawn more Overlords!
Down with the Zerg
my 2 cents
FlaminDeath
FlaminDeath
You people who think that youre getting some kind of great deal because theres no monthly fee have another thing coming. They will get their money out of you one way or another. No company is in it just to give you something for nothing. They are in it to make money. Dont trick yourself into thinking otherwise. They will get it through higher priced expansions, or high priced original version (or god forbid like FFXI where they charge per character) etc.
Laying in bed, looking up at the stars, a single thought passed through my head. Where the fuck is my roof?
-----------------Censored------------------
Thundercats Ho!
FlaminDeath
FlaminDeath
Im not dogging GW, I think it will be a great game. But when 100,000's of people are trying to log on to a "free" game and they have to open X number of servers just to try to keep up, you can bet they will be looking to charge the consumers.
Laying in bed, looking up at the stars, a single thought passed through my head. Where the fuck is my roof?
-----------------Censored------------------
Ramadin
You have been fooled into believing a few things which aren't necessarily true.
1) That many expensive servers are needed to hold 100,000s of people
2) That those servers represent a very large chunk of a companies revenue
3) That the network code used is equally streamlined (or unstreamlined) for all games
4) That the game design for all MMORPGs is the same in terms of server loads.
Now lets look a reality.
First and most important is that technology has improved since 4 years ago. Servers are more powerful, handle more bandwidth and are overall cheaper.
Second, Arenanet have designed the entire process from the ground up, unlike other companies which have just used existing technology to build their game worlds and client-server code. Guildwars has been designed to use as little bandwidth as possible. Lowering lag and bandwidth was their priority from day one.
Companies want to maximise profits. Hence the monthly fees. All those MMORPG companies could run their games just fine without monthly fees. BUT they would make smaller profits (yes they would still make money, just not as much). Hence Monthly fees. They boost profits through the roof. This is why companies like Lucas Arts and Sony even decided to do this. Those companies only go into projects with mega profits, and monthly fees gives them exactly that - mega profits.
Monthly fees are not a requirement they are greed.
Arenanet has discovered a way to eliminate monthly fees while still making as much or even more profit than the rest. Optimized net code, instanced maps, and more expansion packs allow them to do just this.
If guild wars is successful, not only will they sell 10-50 times more copies than the next best (non-lineage) mmorpg, but they will probably also make 10-50 times the profit even without monthly fees.
One more thing to keep in mind. NCSOFT the publishers for Lineage, by far the most popular MMORPG on the planet, have placed their bets on Guild Wars. Why? Because you can bet your butt off that they're confident in the profit structure - EVEN WITHOUT MONTHLY FEES.
Regards,
Evil-Killa(ToA) aka Tiberiux
You know, there's one argument that I'm really sick of hearing (no, nothing to do with religion or politics) and it hads to do with corporations. You'll always hear someone accusing corporate powers and companys of being evil for whatever reason, whether it's a price that's "too high" or a game whose quality is "sub par." Oh dear, gasp even! They are sinister demons spawned from the pits of hell because they're only human and they need to make money in order to stay afloat in our capitalistic society. They charge "too much" and that must mean their only after our hard earned money tucked! Evil scum! They should lower prices, no, in fact that should make games free for all of us to enjoy! Bleh, that was sarcasm, by the way.
Now, by no means does it make game companies (or any other company) saints, but it doesn't make them evil or bastards right off the bat. Hell, you don't even know what they're thinking! How many of us can say we've actually met any of the people we claim are after our very souls? Yes, I'm sure there are a few (or many) greedy inviduals who want [your] money, but who doesn't want money in general (that's a rhetorical question)? It's hypocritical, then, to say that they're evil for wanting it and you aren't.
I do agree that the prices are getting out of hand, with games having expensive initial prices on top of large monthly fees. It makes it hard for younger audiences to play without being funded by their parents who, I might add, would be a big peeved that they're paying for something they probably have no interest in. It makes it hard for those of us who aren't children anymore but are still gamers at heart. Not all of us are going to have stable jobs to support MMORPGs on top of our actual lives outside of the game. As nice as it would be if games were free or had extraordinarilly low prices, it's hard to avoid
With all that said, I'd like to say that I do think monthly fees are a necessary "evil." I don't think any of the current MMORPG would survive without the steep costs they possess. Every server is flooded with thousands of players (tens of thousands in some cases), all simultaneously doing one action or another. In order to meet the needs of the players, they must constantly be developing and introducing new content (which in itself is a hard task, what, with constant patching and all), correcting glitches and bugs, monitering servers (for bad behavior and whatnot) and responding to player complaints, holding events to keep things fresh, and making sure everything in general is running smoothly. Then there is maintaining the functionality of their servers of which they must constantly upgrade and expand in order to support burgeoning communities that grow on a daily basis. Oh boy, don't even get me started on the creation of the actual game before it can be released to the public. I think I'd faint after that, but the point is it all costs a lot of money and the majority people don't want to be doing this sort of crap on chump change for the rest of their lives. Would you? Trying doing customer service some time. It may only give a small taste of some of the things I mentioned, but it's enough to put things in perspective.
I won't lie - I don't have any solutions or advice, but if it's that much of an issue, I suggest putting a little more weight and faith into the free days/months that each game offers. Then measure the fun/fee factor. Was the MMORPG fun enough for you that you'd be willing to shell out to the companies that bring you those games? If not, forget the game and move on. Sell your disk on ebay or something and cut your losses
I don't know if that 'rant' was necessary, but I needed to vent. It's been on my mind for a while, I guess, but I apologize if any of you felt it was a bit 'excessive.'
Moving on, I'd like to directly address the issues concerning Guild Wars. From my understanding, the game will not charge a monthly fee and that's pretty cool. It's great in fact, but how well will the game be managed? Only time will tell. Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying the game's going to suck. Hell, I hope it rocks, but don't just automatically assume, on that basis that there's no monthly fee, the game will be awsome.
Still, if all goes well, it would be an incredible step up and apart from the rest of the genre. If they can pull it off without a hitch, gamers on all levels would at last be able to enjoy a quality MMORPG and for a longer span of time without wasting a vast fortune. People that can't afford the patches/expansions don't have to download them, at least until they DO have the money and that's only if they want it (no doubt many will)! It's optional, but people'll want to do it anyway in order to further enjoy the game. Heh, it's like--no, it is a optional monthly fee in a manner of speaking. I find that to be incredibly intelligent and, dare I say, cunning if it succeeds.
-Ryan V.
-Ryan V.
Personally, I'd rather pay a monthly fee and just get all the new additions included with that. Much like Asheron's Call does (with the exception of one VERY VERY CHEAP expansion that included the entire version). I just think it's more of a hassel to keep buying new games and having to install them. Better to just auto update I say, and get it when it comse out.
But I don't really mind the no monthly charge, just expansion model that much. It works for me. I'd just rather pay monthly. Either way this looks like the best MMORPG coming out.
_______________________________________________
"Getting it is easy. Filling it with illegal substances and sending accross the border is not."
-Ignignokt
---Playing---
Ownage MU
Played AC for 4+ years.
_______________________________________________
"Getting it is easy. Filling it with illegal substances and sending accross the border is not."
-Ignignokt
---Playing---
Asheron's Call
It's just like any other MMORPG, Mcygee, and you forget about the half-hour to an hour long patches that come every few days or weeks. You'll likely be buying expansions, anyway, only in this case you'll be saving money where as in, say, Everquest, you buy the first game, pay a monthly fee, and then have to buy the expansions separately. With Guild war, you'd be buying the game (except I've heard a rumor saying that the initial game is free) and then paying for expansions whenever you decide you want them. I suppose it's like paying for patches, only, with their streaming technology, I'm pretty sure the transition will be a lot faster and easier.
-Ryan V.
-Ryan V.
You can log in and play every once in a while without having to pay $15 a month even if you aren't playing. Why is this so hard to understand?
You spend $40 on your MMORPG of choice. And you play for a couple months at $15/month. Then you decide to stop for a while. But you aren't sure if you are going to play or not, so you don't cancel your account. Then you end up not playing for two months. $30 down the drain... Or, you may just want to log in once a week for an hour or so. Is that worth $15 a month?
With Guild Wars, you buy the game, and you can play it when you want. No worry about $15 a month going to waste. Not much dfferent than a single player online game.
The initial game WILL cost money. This has been stated over and over and confirmation can be found on www.guildwars.com.
The game WILL NOT have monthly fees. This has been stated over and over and confirmation can be found on www.guildwars.com.
The game WILL have 2-3 expansion packs a year (that is their target) and they WILL cost money. This has been stated over and over and confirmation can be found on www.guildwars.com.
To the guy defending big corporationgs, no where in my thread did I say they were evil. I called them GREEDY. Which is exactly what they are. Anyone how has laboured for a medium-large sized company (or worked with one) knows this full well.
And once again, you're basing your knowledge of server costs on pure myth and beleiving what the companies are telling you.
Companies like Blizzard have had networks dealing with hundreds of thousands of players simultaneously totally free for years. And the reason they are making people pay monthly now is they want maximum profits and can take advantage of the fan-base.
This much surely you should realise. If not, then stay with the wool over your eyes, but certainly DO NOT DEFEND such corporate abuse(greed).
Monthly fees were justifiable in the early days of MMORPGs when data was tremendous, servers very expensive and bandwidth was narrower. Nowadays though, with instancing and improved technology there's really no reason for it (except greed).
The success of guildwars may well shape the future of online gaming. Should it fail don't be surprised to see every new online game charge monthly and see this sickness start spreading to other genres. Should it triumph we might well see MMORPGS dwidnle down to very few as more companies will compete with Arenanet.
Regards,
Evil-Killa(ToA) aka Tiberiux
TaskyZZ,
Very good point.
Also quick FACTS
5% or less of MMORPG owners are online at any given time. This is a statistic based on my beta tests which developers releasd.
A stress test is normally successful if 10% of game owners (or testers) are online at one time.
Now let's do some simple maths to see if SERVER COSTS are really NECESSARY...
Lets say 100,000 people buy Earth Siege.
At any given time, AT MOST 10,000 people will be on.
Lets say GreedCorp charges $15 a month for the game.
That's $1.5 million a month to run servers that host at most 10,000 users online simultaneously....
Don't know about you guys, but that to me seems EXCESSIVE.
I have worked closely with a telecom company in my area, and I can tell you right now, $1.5 million a month is ridiculous by a huge factor.
And don't say that part of that money goes to patching, almost every game on the market patches their games free and releases extra content post retail. And your patch team isn't being paid $10,000 a month per programmer either.
To really know what the cost is, you have to know the inside info. We can guess all we want. But multiple gigabytes of bandwidth costs quite a large some of money.
Then, you have to know the amount of man power that is behind the game. 20 developers can easily cost $200K per month or more. Then you have customer service personnel, in game and out... etc...
These things do cost money. Sure, they make a lot of money, but that is the idea behind capitalism. Get what you can out of the market. These are not charity organizations or not-for-profit organizations, they are game developers trying to make money like everybody else.
You charge what the market is willing to pay. You have analysts that figure out what the charge should be (these cost money too).
Bottom line is, a great MMORPG is going to be a cash cow and make loads of money. A decent one is going to make enough money to survive, and a bad one is going to suffer and fight to stay alive.
FlaminDeath
FlaminDeath
A major issue I have with Monthly fees besides the rising monthly costs. Is the fact that you have to pay to play. For example I bought Shadowbane and the expansion, 2 copies of each cause without a buff bot you dont stand a chance in PvP, paid monthly fees for a year. I got totally frustarted at the lack of good customer support and bug fixes, this game was going nowhere fast. After months of posting and praying that they were going to address these issues it became evident that things were not going to improve.
So I have cancelled both accounts and what am I left with a bunch of useless data on my hardrive. I have dished out ~500.00 bucks to these folks over the past year. Sure I had some fun but obviously the frustration out weighted the fun factor otherwise I'd still be playing.
At least with Guild War's buisnes model I know that no matter what in the end I'll still be able to play the game. This is a very compelling factor after being riped off with the pay to play model.
Pay to play , you get what you pay for ... my arse!!
Pax out