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MMOs with subscription fees... what are you paying for?
Volkon
Member UncommonPosts: 3,748
in Guild Wars 2
Great article at Gamasutra
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/37537/Opinion_Guild_Wars_2_Fights_The_Subscription_Racket.php
Makes you wonder what those subscription fees are really there for, besides greed that is.
Oderint, dum metuant.
Comments
Keep in mind that a LOT of server bandwidth is SAVED by having instances outside of towns. I'm not saying this is an excuse but can you imagine the bandwidth of WoW where you can be randomly running from IF to Wetlands and meeting up with people randomly? Does NOT happen in GW.
GW and GW2 are different games. There is teleportation travel in GW2, but it is NOT all instanced like GW1 and you CAN slow travel (walk or run) between zones and areas.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
I wonder if there will be trial, because so far, I had to pay retail prices for ArenaNet games just to play for a week or two until I got bored.
If there's no trial, then I don't see any benefit from no subscription/no microtransactions, because you pay for all the bandwith/server other players are using, and that's not fair neither.
What am I paying for in a sub game?
An active team of GMs (in theory)
Stability and maintenence (in theory)
Ongoing development (in theory).
An even playing field (in theory).
FULL access to ALL content (and, yes, Fluff IS content) that is EARNABLE by PLAYING the game (in theory).
Only if you're paying for an Activision/Blizzard game......so, you're not welcome.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
So, basically, the stuff GW2 will provide you without a sub fee.
Interesting.
Oderint, dum metuant.
Paying to have access to everything I would otherwise pay MORE for in a F2P option. F2P is ALWAYS more expensive if you wanna get anything done.
B2P at least gives box sales, and GW2 will still have an item shop for certain things. It's not revolutionizing the industry in any way.
Sorry you were so easily swayed by this article, but don't - for even a SECOND - think that F2P games are backed by developers that are in any way less 'greedy'. Why you believe paying for a service at $15/month that you are gonna spend countless hours on is greedy, though, is beyond me.
It helps pay for developer salaries and other employees throughout the company.
The cash shop will help cover those cost.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
Aww, The whole reason you made this thread was to be able to reply to a post just like that one.
No other substance to work with here. Carry on people.
No, but I admit it was hard to resist. Basically, everything that companies have been claiming they need your subscription fees for has been demonstrated to be smoke and mirrors, simply an excuse to dip even further into your wallet. We've seen the B2P model is successful with the original Guild Wars, so much so that they're keeping the model with GW2. We also see more and more companies dropping subscriptions from games that initially had them (to varying degrees)... isn't it time they gave up the charade of subscription fees altogether?
Oderint, dum metuant.
I used to think I was paying for bandwidth. However, after learning that someone who was running a free WoW-emulator (before they got busted) with over 40,000 registered players, I don't know anymore.
Actually, no.
The last part in red in actually the most important and, to me, what makes the sub model so preferable and isnt true about GW at all.
You selectively ignored that though I guess because of your need to prove your point so badly.
Saying that, I do really like GW, just to be clear I'm not 'ttacking'that game specifically or anyhing.
I'm paying for the opportunity to play a good game.
Back when i used to pay 25 cents a game to play Street Fighter 2, i was also paying for the opportunity to play a good game. It didn't have servers, developers, GMs or improvements. Yet I still paid and I feel that i got good value for my money.
The lines are blurring in terms of what can be had free and what can be paid for in the MMO world. Ultimately, if i'm getting a product I like at a reasonable price, I am happy to pay the price. Especially when paying means that the product is more likely to get imroved or updated.
I'd gladly pay double the monthly fee if some company actually had RP-enforced servers with live GMs that kicked people off the server for talking about football, pretending to be space-vampires or level 1's pretending to have killed dragons.
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Yeah, because cash shops and micro-transactions are in no way there for greed.
This.
And as I'm fond of saying, the average MMO monthly sub is $15.00
That's fifty cents per day.
If you can't afford that, stop playing so many games and get a job.
The mmos WORTH paying a subscription fee for, usually update content, and quickly. Two good examples are Lineage 2 - all free expansions (mind you they are not that quick, but they are still free).
WoW - say what you will about the game, compare a released expansion of WoW and come back 6 months later, there is a ton of new content that has been implemented.
GW2 isn't out yet so i'm sure you hope that it will be like that. Others like myself are more skeptical of that, I personally wouldn't of played GW if they made me pay a subscription fee (I wouldn't of played diablo 2 either if they did the same thing). Clearly an untested method proves that all other sub based games are just greedy. only time will tell I guess.
LOL, and greed doesn't exist with F2P business models?
At least P2P is straight up honest, and it's a level playing field for all the players. You access everything. No cash shop cr*p and the little deceitful game design to nudge you more and more (somtimes bluntly with a warhammer to the face) to buy the convenience items in the cash shop.
Now, B2P? I'm cautiously neutral with that. It sounds good on paper, but the only game I tried with a B2P model is GW1. And I had a big problem with those fools that run that show when after a break from the game, I come back to find my account is gone. Talking to those fools that run it was a painful nightmare that didn't get my account back. A sweep of accounts that weren't active and deleted them? But the "supposed" way of business was: Buy the game and you've always got access, no sub fees. Buy the occasional expansion, same deal. But the removal of my account because I was gone for a bit? F*ck 'em.
"I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold." (First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, US Marine Corps, Soissons, 19 July 1918)
How about EQ1? Currently at 17 expansions.
GW2 is gonna put a hurtin' on subscription based mmo's.
Godspeed my fellow gamer
You're assuming that people only want to play one game at a time. Plus, with my wife and two teenage sons I can't justify playing 4 subs, plus additional subs for other games I enjoy also. I agree, $15 is chump change...but that adds up.
I am not sure this is really true in reality but paying for a game sometimes filters out the community and garners you the possibility of more mature players. When you demand a payment generally the people who pay may be loath to behave poorly.
Also f2p will focus on the shop rather than the game.
F2p games also will probably allow cheating and other aspect to go unchecked as they can use the excuse that it is f2p whereas p2p cannot do the same since you are paying for them to solve that issue. Not that less cheating occurs in p2p.
Well as opposed to f2p I'm paying for a development team focused on making the game engaging enough to keep me interestedin playing as opposed to a development team focused on making a game that steers me towards the cash shop as much as possible.
Of course it is. Its gonna kill WOW and all P2P games in one fell swoop.
Really? This game sucks and Im not having fun? Im going to unsub right now. Thanks for the tip.