General: Pre-Orders and Lifetime Subs

Stradden

MMORPG.com's Jon Wood uses his column this week to express his displeasure with the concept of both pre-orders and lifetime subscriptions.

In the past, I've complained about the current trend in marketing practices leaning toward offering access to beta trials as a selling point for pre-orders, collector's editions and the like. It's a bad idea that sets up strange expectations among even your game's strongest supporters and makes it difficult to have your game judged on its launch merits rather than the "way it was in beta".

So, having time and time again given flack to the developers over that subject, I think that it's high time that we turn our focus back onto ourselves, the players, and talk about a couple of the ways that we are shooting ourselves in the foot when it comes to getting the kinds of quality releases that we're looking for in our MMOs.

Pre-Orders

The first thing that I want to talk about is pre-ordering. The long and the short of my argument is that no one should do this. Ever. There are only a couple of reasons that I can see to pre-order a game:

Read Pre-Orders and Lifetime Subs.

JerYnkFan

After my experience with STO, I agree with him.  I pre-ordered STO from Best Buy and kicked around the idea of getting the lifetime sub.  Well needless to say after playing the game for beta and headstart, I am glad that I didn't get the lifetime sub and wound up returning my pre-order as I didn't open the software so no harm no foul.  I would be kicking myself if I dropped 350+ dollars on that game and honestly would have wound up playing for maybe a month.

On the flip side, I really wish I would have gotten the lifetime for LOTRO. I know they offer it sometime again so I may jump on it next time. 

Kyleran

Nailed this one Jon, especially the part about pre-orders/lifetime subs who demand their money back (or do chargebacks on their CC) saying they didn't get the product they ordered.

Wait till the game's released, then give it a try and if it doesn't suck, buy it.

That's my new mantra and I'm not falling for the pre-order hype anymore.

iamjmk

Well one more reason to pre-order would be to stretch out the payment. Ten this week, ten next week and so on. Some people can't shell out 50$ or 60$ at the drop of a hat. So for those folks pre-orders can act as a form of lay away if they just have to have it on launch day. (Which ties into the Cool factor I know)  So I would add economics to the list of reasons some may pre-order. Other than that I agree with the central point. 

Hope you all have a good day / evening.

Toquio3

The only game I ever pre-ordered was Guild Wars Factions. I dunno, I guess Im just easy to please, but I never bought a mmo I didnt like, and even on single player games, I can count with the fingers of one hand the ones I didnt enjoy.

I'll totally pre-order TOR for example if I have the chance, same with WoD. I know my tastes pretty well, and if I look at a game, even if its in development, and I think Im going to like it, chances are I will.

I think when it comes to mmorpgs, the fun begins with you. Its true in my case.

nAAtimus

I couldn't agree more. Top notch article.

Thillian

Good read.

You put it harshly on the lifetimers. I'd put it equally harshly on the companies offering lifetime. Cheap lifetime is a clear sign that the company doesn't really care for long-term retention but rather for short term money injection. There are only 4 games in MMORPG history with lifetime: Lotro, Hellgate, CO, and STO. Look at lotro, started strong, still shows the same x-fire ranking -> the amount of updates dropped down horribly. Now they have to rely on paid expansions, as most of their customers are already lifetimers (like free to play players in DDo terms - as shown on multiple polls on official forums).

It's like a Guild Wars model. You pay 200$ up front. Recieve no free-updates, and then pay for each additional content update called miniexpansion packs. This is Lotro's business model since Moria.

Turbine is no better than Cryptic. Asheron's Call 2 is still one of the biggest fiasco's in the gaming history. Releasing a paid expansion claiming everything is great, and then three months announce to shut down all servers without any SORT of compensations to its playerbase was the worst blow a company could ever do to its community (ever worse than NGE).

CcDohl

On the subject of preorders: I fell in to the "super excited" category of preorders when I preordered Champions Online. I was absolutely certain that the game would be great and that I wanted to play it as soon as possible.

I paid $5 at Best Buy for the preorder and got early access to the Beta a few short weeks before release. Long story short, I hated the game and found it unbearable outside of the character creation screen.

So, on one hand, access to the beta and, strangely enough, the early access weekend cost me $5. The only other option would have been to pay full price to try the game to find out that I did not enjoy it.

Since most big MMO's don't offer trial accounts without an access key early on, this early beta access is a good chance to try out the game and find out if it is really fun. Granted, demos and trials should be free, but since MMO economies usually require that these not be given out, I'm willing to put $5 down to try a game out to avoid spending $50 on something that I don't like.

fyerwall

I agree with pretty much everything that was said in that article.

I myself however will usually Pre Order a game if I think I might like it. I usually only put down the minimum amount ($5) and pay the rest at launch. But I also know that if the game sucks no one forced me to buy it. The devs didnt hold a gun to my head and force me to PO the box, it was my choice and I will have to silently live with the consequences of that choice.

As for Lifetime subs, I totally agree with you. Lifetime subs are great if you really enjoy the game in its current state, but we all know games change and often times for the worse. That and as you said, you paid all the money you are going to pay, so the company really has no incentive to listen to you as a paying player.

I currently only have one Lifetime Subscription, World of Warcraft, which I didnt pay for (original launch competition thing from EB games - Store that sold the most Pre Orders in a region won lifetime subs for each employee). While its nice to be able to just load up the game and play anytime I want without having to worry about billing or account balances, if I had to pay for that lifetime sub I would feel that I would have to play everyday for the next so many months to get my moneys worth, even if the game sucked. Now thats not something I would want to do.

championsFan

I benefited enormously from the pre-order + lifetime special offer in Champions Online.   It took me about 40 hours of playing during the open beta to be certain that I wanted the lifetime sub.   

I know myself well, and I did my research.  I also did not let myself make the decision based on things that could easily change, which is why Bill Roper's launch day panic patch didn't phase me, I didn't buy an LTS based on defense or damage numbers.[

Anyway, to conclude my story, back at launch there were a few nice weeks before people started to quit the game, bash Cryptic etc.   Being a pre-order + LTS during those weeks was especially satisfying.  I took vacation from work, stayed up all night everynight playing with RL friends, and derived a lot of satisfaction out of my choice to commit to this great game.  

Not too much has changed since then, but I did learn to appreciate special times like that.   The satisfaction of making a commitment is the thing that Wood's article is missing.

Lord_Vayde

I personally enjoy having preorders available to me, in particular the ones that offer a spot in beta, because just as a poster above said its not very painful to toss $5 on the preorder and be able to know if I'll want to buy the game at launch or not based on the experience in beta.

Of course, there are other ethical issues when it comes to "selling" beta slots through preordering, but as far as preordering itself goes I think it can be both negative and positive, much like anything else, based on how people take advantage, or are taken advantage of by it.

As far as I'm concerned, the preorder acts as a pre-launch free trial with a $5 collateral. I've never had an issue getting my preorder money back when I decided I didn't want to follow through on it.

Xondar123

If we look at STO, other additional problems crop up with lifetime subscriptions. For example, the players who bought a lifetime sub now feel like they invested in the game, and that they need to defend their investment to prevent bad press and lost subscriptions so the game survives long enough to get their money's worth. This has the effect of them attempting to shoot down and drown out all criticism of the game, legitimate or otherwise, and if the devs don't know what players don't like about their game, how are they to improve it?

The second problem is that when you look at STO's upcoming list 13 of those items are C-Store items. Because they have so many lifetime subscribers, they feel it's perfectly OK to have over half their updates be paid items to sell to these lifetime subscribers. This might be fine if the game had been around for 2 1/2 years and those lifetime subscribers had already gotten their money's worth of game time, but there is no way the list of paid items should be longer than the list of free items less than three full months into the game. Not only that, but this has the effect of penalizing anyone who didn't buy a lifetime subscription. It simply becomes not worth it to pay the monthly subscription to STO.

Oddbot

Originally posted by Thillian

It's like a Guild Wars model. You pay 200$ up front. Recieve no free-updates, and then pay for each additional content update called miniexpansion packs. This is Lotro's business model since Moria.

Sorry, but that's just not true. Free updates may have slowed down a bit (it's obvious the LOTRO live team isn't as big as it once was) but Turbine has given plenty of content away for free in the time between MoM and SoM, including two 3-man dungeons, a six boss raid, a 1 boss lair raid encounter, as well as almost an entire new zone, while at the same time redoing much of the early zones to make them flow better, and of course with every major update, a new chapter of epic quests

Yup, no new content there.

dirtyjoe78

I do agree wiht the lifetime subscription part of the article.  However i do not agree with the pre order part of it.  Pre-Orders work both ways you dont have to buy the game put the minimum down usually $5 and get beta access, and if you dont like it you can cancel your preorder.  The game companys get nothing out of a pre order besides maybe some customer interest level data to see how many servers they should have at launch.  The only part about Pre-Orders that beta access is usually exclusive to pre-orders there seems to be no more open beta for MMO's just pre-order exclusive beta access or early access. 

AOCtester

Great article John.  This is what we as gamers need to realise.  I have been trying to point this out since it Vanguard launched and we are getting more and more of these offers that includes - even special races and all sort of stuff that should really be in the games. 

The fact of the matter is that its ONLY in the best intrest of the publisher and the developers to pre-order and subscribe for life.  They make it sound like its our benefit... but after the last 3-4 years we must start to realise that the more we hear of these offers.. the less of a real - polished and finished game we are getting.

The message from me is simple.  Pre-ordre or buy lifetime sub -  Don't ever do it.    If a game is unable to offer REAL open beta.. .then dont be fooled.  If a game is offering specials.. dont fall for it.   After all we want to play games... and you are not playing a game when you pre-order.  You are just givning away money.

Amathe

This article is the gospel truth. Preach it brother Jon!

 

It used to be that games sometimes short sheeted you on what they promised. But today's gaming hype machine makes political campaign promises look like peer reviewed articles in the New England Journal of Medicine.

 

I pay one month at a time now. Never more. And only after the game comes out and I can watch player reaction to it for a week or two to see if it is a turdblossum.

Bob_Blawblaw

 

Originally posted by Stradden

...buying a lifetime subscription to a game completely undermines your power as a consumer.

 

EXACTLY!  Jon nails it here.

Why would they need to 'woo' us as customers when we've already let them have their way with our wallets?

 

Good article Jon.

Loke666

Originally posted by iamjmk

Well one more reason to pre-order would be to stretch out the payment. Ten this week, ten next week and so on. Some people can't shell out 50$ or 60$ at the drop of a hat. So for those folks pre-orders can act as a form of lay away if they just have to have it on launch day. (Which ties into the Cool factor I know)  So I would add economics to the list of reasons some may pre-order. Other than that I agree with the central point. 

Hope you all have a good day / evening.

If you can put away 5 bucks a week until the release you should be able to save those money until the game releases, check the reviews and forum and then buy it. You know when it is releasing so I don't see why a pre-order should make it easier to save those 50 bucks.

If you are low on cash this should be a lot smarter than ordering something you might not want.

Jon is 100% right, I doesn't always agree with him but this time he really hit the spot.

SnarlingWolf

Well crap, the world is coming to an end. He actually agress with me for once, the tag line I use in almost every thread when someone is disatisfied with a game is

"Never preorder a game EVER, never buy a lifetime subscription unless you know 100% you will play the game for 2 years, and finally hold out for the free trial. No use paying when every game goes to free trial mode anyways"

 

So since I can't complain about his article, I'll just say he's copying me now.

bstripp

I disagree that lifetime subs undermine your power as a consumer.  A company does not want to loose people playing their game.  They want to keep sub numbers up and sell more subs/lifetimes as the game matures.  However, even if they are not getting a sub from you, they do want to sell you all of the other services that are in a game, like respecs/costume packs/slots/xfers or whatever they offer.

Then there will be the inevitable expansion packs and other material.  If they can't retain you as a customer, that is all lost sales.  They do need you and you do keep your power.  While that power may be somewhat reduced it is not gone.

With that said, I'll never get one as I don't play a MMO for more than a few months before moving on to something else.

Darth_Osor

Originally posted by Bob_Blawblaw

 

Originally posted by Stradden

...buying a lifetime subscription to a game completely undermines your power as a consumer.

 

EXACTLY!  Jon nails it here.

Why would they need to 'woo' us as customers when we've already let them have their way with our wallets?

 

Good article Jon.

 Agree 100%.  What are you going to do as a LTS if you are unhappy with the direction a MMO is taking...quit?  LOL.  As much as I'm looking forward to TOR, I wouldn't buy a LTS if one was available.  You have to make a company keep earning your business.

 

Preorders are different.  Yeah, I'll put down $5 to get early access to see if I like a game.  Even if for some reason I can't at least get store credit...eh, it's only $5.

Edit: typo

Spellforged

Originally posted by Thillian

It's like a Guild Wars model. You pay 200$ up front. Recieve no free-updates, and then pay for each additional content update called miniexpansion packs. This is Lotro's business model since Moria.

Turbine is no better than Cryptic.

I disagree with just about everything you said.  The game frequently adds rather large updates, so you obviously haven't played it.  I should also mention that everybody currently subscribed when Siege of Mirkwood released got the $29.99 expansion completely free.  Please do some research before you decide to bash a game.

olepi

I would say that if you pre-order, and then don't like the game, you do not get your money back. You are gambling that with early access, you get something. If you can win the gamble, why not be able to lose it? Charging back a $5 charge probably costs more than $5 to do. Pay the $5 to play early, end of story. No refund.

I see nothing wrong witih lifetime subs, so long as you already know you will play the game for a long time. Get into a closed-beta, learn to like the game and developers, play in open beta, keep enjoying the game, and then buy the lifetime if you want.

Glad to see a good article on it!

Mysk

I agree with the article 100%.

As far as pre-orders are concerned, I don't know where everyone goes to put down $5 that they can refund.  The rule that I've seem at Gamestop is that once you get the code there's no refunding the money.  Or take Aion for example.  The beta pre-order registration code was the same serial used for the live game. The serial simply carried over.

So clearly I'm missing something, and it's probably obvious. ;D

Hokie

I have to say as a subscriber I like the idea of a lifetime sub. But Ive never seen it offered in a game that Id drop that kind of money on. Namely Eve online.

I spend around $30-$45 a month on game subs. With me almost always having two active subs, and that extra $15 going into games that I try out. So a lifetime sub for me wouldnt be that bad, as in the end (especially in the Eve case) would have paid for it self.

 

But I also understand that in the long run lifetime subs can hurt a game. Eve is a good example of this. Eve for its...is it almost 7 years old??? Wow...!

Okay, back on topic. Eve for its 7 year run has never once charged for any of its expansions. And they (CCP) have added so many expansions the game really has evolved from Eve to Eve-2. Im positive we would have never gotten free expansions had they offered lifetime subs.

 

Like someone else said in this thread. It seems a lifetime sub is just a way for developers to make some quick cash from its customers. Seem very much like getting hustled. Especialy when a game has a pay-with-cash item shop mall. Those poor STO life'rs are never really gonna break even.

 

So to sum it up I think its double bad to offer a lifetime sub. Its bad for the customer and  the developer.

And it truely makes me wonder when a company offers it, do they have long term plans for the game (past the 3-4 year mark).

Sovrath

Since I try most games out, regardless of others' reviews, If the pre-ordre allows for beta access and I'm interested in the game I'll do it.

worse case scenario is that I would have bougth it anyway and been amused for a small bit and that's it.

Best case, if they offer early access then I can be slightly ahead of the curve (if it is a competitive game) or just more time in game.

I always like to see things for myself so if I don't get into a beta or preview event I'm going to try it anways.

however, I really don't see myself ever purchasing a lifetime sub because I just don't know if I will want to play the game into the future.

These games don't seem to wear well the longer they go on. inevitably something will change that will be antithetical to my desire to play.

But I suppose that is the gamble. If I end up playing for years then the lifetime sub would have been a bargain. yet again, I can't really show my displeasure by canceling and thus voting with my wallet.