Down with monthly fees

Diamedes

I can't wait till GW2 comes out and hopefully sets a trend to do away with monthly fees for MMOs, I think it makes devs lazy and we should only pay for new content, if they want more money give us an expansion or even charge for big content patches (10-20$ or whatever). Im fine with in game advertising on the loading screens or wherever but when a game like age of conan can charge a monthly fee for a game as instanced as guild wars you start to wonder if its a bunch of BS.

In summary, make us pay for content not just because, Im pretty much done with the monthly fee game, will probably enjoy AoC until my month is up and cancel and don't plan on paying any more monthly fees after that.

 

orionite

I don't mind monthly fees. It's worth it to me and I believe that it is a legitimate way to support the continuous development and support of a MMO.

GW is using a different model, which is also successfull. Great!

Spend money on stuff that's worth it to you and stop demanding that companies change the way they do business. It ain't gonna happen.

 

btw, why did you get AOC if you don't want to pay a monthly fee? I assume you are - for one reason or another - disappointed with your purchase, which in turn led you to rant a little about evil game companies charging for their services. But anyway. Pay what you can afford and enjoy it.

Josher

Down with quality, full featured, persistent worlds too!!!!

SinzOfMan

I'd rather the guildwars model aswell.  monthly fee's attach this feel of needing to play to get your money's worth and can only result in an unhealthy addiction. 

demalus

Too bad Guild Wars isn't really an MMO...

ianubisi

Down with common sense and reason!

SinzOfMan

gw2 will be an mmo.  who cares if gw isn't an mmo, fact is you can't deny the pressure to play more with a monthly fee.

gath

Originally posted by demalus


Too bad Guild Wars isn't really an MMO...

Oh, yeah, that's right, how annyoing i keep forgetting, GW is a single player game!

Tatum

Monthly fees are still pretty cheap.  Hell, Id pay even higher monthly fees if some one could produce a worthy MMO.  Guess the chances of that are slim though, since I wont even pay $10-$15 a month for whats out there now...

katriell

To the OP:
No.

Diamedes

Originally posted by orionite


I don't mind monthly fees. It's worth it to me and I believe that it is a legitimate way to support the continuous development and support of a MMO.
GW is using a different model, which is also successfull. Great!
Spend money on stuff that's worth it to you and stop demanding that companies change the way they do business. It ain't gonna happen.
 
btw, why did you get AOC if you don't want to pay a monthly fee? I assume you are - for one reason or another - disappointed with your purchase, which in turn led you to rant a little about evil game companies charging for their services. But anyway. Pay what you can afford and enjoy it.

 Im not "demanding" companies change the way they do business but I think it should 1 or the other; either pay a monthly fee and get everything including expansions included in that fee or pay no monthly fee and pay for every expansion and content patch. I just think it makes the devs lazy, why rush out any new content if people are paying the monthly fee anyway, give them a reason to work for their money I say.

And about AoC I think its a fun game my point was that it feels a lot like Guild wars as far as instancing and they seem to do fine without a monthly fee so its becoming more obvious these MMO companies are just trying to milk their customers every month, you can either let them or play their game for a month or 2 and cancel and make sure and let them know why.

Paying for the content you get is nothing but good for the customer, just look at the expansions guild wars has put out compared to pay to play MMOs. I could never get into GW but I envy people who do enjoy the game just because of the content they get.

 

drklunk

i think MMOs should follow Hellgate's model. the online is free with an optional monthly charge which is only $10. with the monthly charge you get constant content and quest updates and sometimes full on expansions. i dont mind paying for an MMO as long as i dont feel my money is wasted. which, so far, it feels that way. i dont plan on paying for Hellgate until i reach the level cap and can enjoy the extra content, also when i have time.  when i played WoW i felt like i was wasting my money. i never saw any of the new crap they added, patches were only to tweak or nerf classes, and a $50 expansions was in no way worth it.

i think they should keep the subscription, just make it optional. i dont have time to be playing $10-$15 worth a month but id still like to enjoy the game.

Hoobley_deleted

ffs it's only 15 dollars a month... If you can't afford that then you should be doing something else with your time.

 

Be it a job or chores for your folks to earn the money for it.

 

Welcome to the real world where you pay for services.

Kordesh

Down with this thread. If you REALLY believe that a high quality MMO can operate without monthly fees, then you know nothing about how MMOs operate. Guild Wars, a game that classifies as an MMO in only the barest sense, can do what it does only because its entirely instanced and the overhead is incredibly small, and the only additional content is provided via expansion. Games with persistent non-instanced game worlds with constant updates cannot afford to run without a fee unless you bog the game down with advertising to an invasive and painful level, and even then I would say it's a stretch. Hellgate London is instanced but does throw out the occasional patch to non-subscribers, but even they need some advertising to keep that going.

The "free" MMO is a pipedream thought up by 13yr olds with no money who play games like Maplestory and go "WHY CAN'T ALL GAMES BE LIEK THIS!" Until developers and publishers can print money, it's not going to work unless you want an ad infested instanced mess, with few updates and low production values.

SinzOfMan

as if guildwars didn't make tons of money with there model.

 

but it's not about money.  when I bought lotro I played it for maybe 7 hours that month.  sell me a 60hour time card for $15 and you got a deal.  I'm not paying the same amount as some freak who plays 12 hours a day, why should I?

 

anyways that's just my idea I don't play any mmo's right now.  it's more fun to read these forums lol.  there hasn't been a game that has appealed to me in a couple years.  city of heroes looked like a good game but playing it wasn't very fun so maybe champion's online will be good. 

 

I do hope some company implements the timecard for us casual gamers.

deviliscious

I don;t mind monthly fees, though I do like the way guild wars does it better than monthlys. I say down with item shops! I would much rather pay a monthly feee for all content then have to buy junk in the game. I don;t mind if they sell in game money, but not items. I think that a game would actually make more $ overall if they had say a $10 a month monthly fee and sold in game $ on their site, rather than charging $15 a month in fees alone. Since one player could spend $20 on gold and $10 on membership fees, and the game would be able to make up for the lower fees overall.

Diamedes

Originally posted by Kordesh


Down with this thread. If you REALLY believe that a high quality MMO can operate without monthly fees, then you know nothing about how MMOs operate. Guild Wars, a game that classifies as an MMO in only the barest sense, can do what it does only because its entirely instanced and the overhead is incredibly small, and the only additional content is provided via expansion. Games with persistent non-instanced game worlds with constant updates cannot afford to run without a fee unless you bog the game down with advertising to an invasive and painful level, and even then I would say it's a stretch. Hellgate London is instanced but does throw out the occasional patch to non-subscribers, but even they need some advertising to keep that going.
The "free" MMO is a pipedream thought up by 13yr olds with no money who play games like Maplestory and go "WHY CAN'T ALL GAMES BE LIEK THIS!" Until developers and publishers can print money, it's not going to work unless you want an ad infested instanced mess, with few updates and low production values.

You sound like your just spouting off what MMO companies tell you about maintaining an MMO but don't really have a clue. An average WoW server has about 20,000 people on it, thats $300,000 a MONTH for 1 server, are you telling me it costs 300,000 to maintain a damn server? And I don't want to hear about expansions because you pay for them too. The only thing that would make monthly fees worth it would be if we actually got content on a regular basis and I haven't played a game that has done that yet.

DeadlyMage

guild wars is not an mmo. just a morpg

 

Nightsorrow

If a game doesn't worth I won't even play it, if it is worth I don't mind paying reasonable amount for each month, simple as that.

So OP if you think it does not worth then just don't play, that's it.

It all about demand and supply, that's why a successfully business can earn a lot more than the cost.

spinach8puff

Monthly fees keep the majority of the immature prepubescent kiddies away. Keeping them is a good thing imo.

Vrika

I think that monthly fees are good on MMOs. That way those developers who make a good enough MMO to keep us playing for years (for me atm Blizzard) also get our money. And those developers who release bad and/or incomplete products (like Vanguard producers) don't get so much money for it either.

Kyleran

If monthly fees start exceeding the 50.00 a month range then you can complain about them.  At 15.00 a month its the entertainment bargin of the century, I can afford to pay it an not even play the game at that rate and not feel bad about it.

 

wjrasmussen

 

Originally posted by Diamedes

Originally posted by Kordesh


Down with this thread. If you REALLY believe that a high quality MMO can operate without monthly fees, then you know nothing about how MMOs operate. Guild Wars, a game that classifies as an MMO in only the barest sense, can do what it does only because its entirely instanced and the overhead is incredibly small, and the only additional content is provided via expansion. Games with persistent non-instanced game worlds with constant updates cannot afford to run without a fee unless you bog the game down with advertising to an invasive and painful level, and even then I would say it's a stretch. Hellgate London is instanced but does throw out the occasional patch to non-subscribers, but even they need some advertising to keep that going.
The "free" MMO is a pipedream thought up by 13yr olds with no money who play games like Maplestory and go "WHY CAN'T ALL GAMES BE LIEK THIS!" Until developers and publishers can print money, it's not going to work unless you want an ad infested instanced mess, with few updates and low production values.

You sound like your just spouting off what MMO companies tell you about maintaining an MMO but don't really have a clue. An average WoW server has about 20,000 people on it, thats $300,000 a MONTH for 1 server, are you telling me it costs 300,000 to maintain a damn server? And I don't want to hear about expansions because you pay for them too. The only thing that would make monthly fees worth it would be if we actually got content on a regular basis and I haven't played a game that has done that yet.

Assuming your "facts" are true, do you really think that money is just for the server?  Does Betty the CFO's receptionist charge everyone who calls her boss or comes to meet her boss for a meeting? No, her salary comes from somewhere.  Same with the people who work on staff for coding, setting up test labs and the services they hire like adp and janitorial services.  That all costs money and some part of that $300.000.00 goes for that.  Buildings aren't free, electricity to run equipment isn't cheap and you also need to cool it down which is expensive.

 

Lets not even talk about all the taxes, social security matching, worker compenstation, unemployment insurance, medical coverage and so on and so forth.  Sure, that is all free.

Cavadus

Guild Wars is a single player game.  Between heroes and henchmen you don't ever need other players for PvE and the PvP is nothing but small scale team deathmatch and CTF.  Ooh, 8 vs 8 and 12 vs 12.  How very MMOish. 

A Counter-strike server can hold twice as many people as that...

GW is a single player game who's multiplayer chat lobby just happens to be graphical.

RAWRG

Yup, gonna echo everyone else.

Monthly fees are what make MMO's decent! Of course that means your content needs to be worth the money...

Kolepech

I went to Indiana Jones last week.... ticket and snacks were just over 20.00.  I was there for just over 2 hours. Works out to about 10.00 an hour.

I pay 30.00 for a 60 day game card for WOW. I play about between 5 and 10 hours a week ( on the weekends mostly ) for a total over 2 months of 40 to 80 hours.  Thats 75 cents an hour or less.  I'm not sure about anyone else, but I think thats a fair price to pay for a decent game.  I don't feel pressured to play since its only 75 cents ( my kid takes more than that from my pockets for his piggy bank most nights.

I'll pay a fee as long as the games are worth it... 75 cents is a pretty good deal to me.... I'd hate to think what its worth to a hardcore gamer...  1 or 2 cents an hour, if that.