GW can work because its a multiplayer online game but not a MMO. It takes very little server power or bandwith to run since most of the game is run by your own PC back home. They more or less just provide the network your PC game use to be in contact with other players. Its a very smart model but it also means you cannot have the open massive multiplayer worlds that people love to be in. guild wars 2 will have a massive multiplayer world. and no monthly fees. Free to play games are not free. They are designed so the free part shall hook you and after that you have to pay up if you really want to play it seriously. And often you end up paying a great deal more than you do subscription based games. Only exception is games paid by adds. Pay to play games most of the time signify quality of product and it also create a more stable continuity in the game than you see in FtP games. You also see better customer support and lately a trend to add more and more "free" stuff into the game too (which of course isnt really free since you pay for it via your subscriptions). * is still waiting for quality to pay for* .. I spend hundreds a month on games and have yet to find the quality I am looking for , in mmorpgs. All in all both types of games will exist and will attract different people but FtP will not push out PtP games, simply becase their model will not be attractive to many many customers. it is the limitations that make them not attractive.. when a smart dev figures out that and makes a quality game with something for all types of players to do on one server .. they will make a fortune.
Paying full price for expansions is not a bad model, but it doesn't make companies a whole lot of money and you are sadly mistaken if you think this is the route they will take. If they go with a system, it will most likely be the one that makes them the most amount of money and so far that seems to be the mis-named free to play games, where you have to buy items, powers or specific content. They literally nickel and dime you to death and before you realize it, you're spending $100's a month instead of $15. What we don't know so far is if this will really have an appeal on non-gamers or the current crop of casual gamers. We do know it's quite popular with hardcores and the rich. We also know that this method does not foster any sense of fair play, but then again, we already aren't seeing that in the current games that are so fixated on their hardcore customers by giving them the best content and the best rewards, but still charging everyone the same subscription rate despite the essential denial of content.
I am wealthy, and a hardcore gamer.. I do not mind monthly subs if it is a quality game but I have yet to see one that has that combination. I refuse to play games with an item shop, but then again what you fail to realize is that the wealthy are also intelligent and the scam of the item shop games is as blatent as the poor quality of the games that contain them. You forget most of the wealthy did not obtain that wealth by being ignorant or gullable.
Can the wealthy spell? Blatent = blatant, gullable = gullible. Seriously install firefox bud.
lol ! typing is what the secretary is for .. though it would be harsh for me to make him come rant about mmorpgs for me ... btw I am a woman .. not your "bud".
Whoa Whoa there Deviliscious! I don't think some of these lads can handle a real woman who plays MMO's. Just tell them you're a guy and they'll go away.
tying them to a tree and leaving them there covered in honey works too .
a mmorpg is a massive mulitplayer online role playing game .. and guild wars does fit into that catagory and thus is the reason it is listed as such on this site... what is your definition of an mmorpg? I mean it is preety obvious what should be in the genre in the title itself.
In order for a game to be an MMORPG, a player needs to be able to play with a massive amount of people. This is never the case with Guild Wars because all players are in their own instance ALWAYS, with the exception of city HUBS.
Jeff Strain,the producer of Guild Wars at ArenaNet has also confirmed GW is not an mmorpg.
Guild Wars 2 is looking to change this. About GW2 not having a monthly subs, don't forget that we're getting content updates with monthly fee and micro transaction games. This may not be the case with GW2, new content may possibly ONLY be delivered through expansions.
gw always has "patches and upates "when I log in , in winter there is snow .. in spring it goes away.. and holiday items and tournaments that are not applied in expansions those are maintained and added through updates.
gw always has "patches and upates "when I log in , in winter there is snow .. in spring it goes away.. and holiday items and tournaments that are not applied in expansions those are maintained and added through updates.
Those aren't really content updates. Content updates are things like new dungeons, new lands, etc etc.
That is just the thing .. I am paying for junk updates with these monthly fees.. If they would actually give me content I want then i wouldn't mind paying for it. In these updates how often do they give new skills? I mean instead of giving more of the same ol same ol like dungeons and npc junk make the game more exciting with truely new content .. adding to the map , adding more quests, all of that is npc involved activities rather than something truely for the players enjoyment. Like adding siege wars to games, battle of the minds, in game court to punish players .. no they are too lazy for that they only want to give the bare minimum with these updates .. is why i am finding such a hard time finding one that keeps my attention. In these games there simply isn't enough variety in what you can do.
As written by someone who perhaps fails to realize just how expensive it is to run an mmo, with multiple servers. Think monthly costs higher than what most people make in a year. Bandwidth is not some magical substance that appears out of thin air. It costs a lot. Peering arrangements to move said bandwidth around costs a lot. Servers don't just sit in the office corner. Datacenter space costs a lot. Proper technical staff costs a lot. Proper datacenter services (cooling, remote hands, etc) cost a lot. Electrical power costs a lot. Redundant backups of all of the above costs a lot. Monitoring costs a lot. Programming and marketing staff costs a lot. Customer service staff and space costs a lot.
We the players only see the end result. Well except we the very few who happen to work in datacenters and deal with customer network applications and needs on a daily basis.
There is a reason f2p games generally are crappy low end games.
As written by someone who perhaps fails to realize just how expensive it is to run an mmo, with multiple servers. Think monthly costs higher than what most people make in a year. Bandwidth is not some magical substance that appears out of thin air. It costs a lot. Peering arrangements to move said bandwidth around costs a lot. Servers don't just sit in the office corner. Datacenter space costs a lot. Proper technical staff costs a lot. Proper datacenter services (cooling, remote hands, etc) cost a lot. Electrical power costs a lot. Redundant backups of all of the above costs a lot. Monitoring costs a lot. Programming and marketing staff costs a lot. Customer service staff and space costs a lot. We the players only see the end result. Well except we the very few who happen to work in datacenters and deal with customer network applications and needs on a daily basis. There is a reason f2p games generally are crappy low end games.
This.
A monthly sub does not pay for new development. It pays the bills plus some profit. Don't believe me? How much are you paying for your cell phone? Roughly an equivalent network (obvious difference being cell towers). Paying 40 a month for a cell is fine, and you get a few hours of time a month talking with it. You pay $15 a month for a game like WoW, and log over 100 hours a month, and for some reason that's a rip? I don't really get it.
Hell I drop 30 bucks to see a friggin movie ONCE.
nethervoid - Est. '97 [UO|EQ|SB|SWG|PS|HZ|EVE|NWN|WoW|VG|DF|AQW|DN|SWTOR|Dofus|SotA|BDO|AO|NW|LA] - Currently Playing EQ1 20k+ subs YouTube Gaming channel
I have played many of the MMO/MMORPG's, and i have to say that as of this moment in time the ONLY one worth paying for is LOTR Online, I stopped playing WoW a while ago, BUT, i do intend to go back to it with the release of 'Wrath' later this year. I just don't see the point in continuing to upgrade my chars gear if it will be obsolete in a few months. EVE while good isn't really my thing, hence i haven't included it in the ones worth paying for. As for Everquest I +II, Asherons Call i think that while they were worth the monthly fee upon release, they are now to old/dated to command such a fee. I appreciate that there are costs in running games such as these, BUT in the case of these older ones i think they either have to be overhauled/ modernized or they need to lower their fees to around $5pm or maybe even bow out gracefully. In the case of games that have made HUGE profits then they may decide to run them for free for a while as thanks to the loyal players{ obviously not all MMO's could do that, as quite a few have failed and made nothing at all.}. Just my 2cents..:)
EDIT:
What people must remember is that computer technology and software is constantly developing, so whats cutting edge this week will be old hat next week (quite literally in some cases), ergo..games that are 5 years old are the OAP's of the gaming world. Software is outdated soo quickly that to charge a fee for a 5+ year old game that is the same (or there abouts) to what new games are charging is ridiculous.
yes diablo2 should be considered an mmorpg ... because it is massive and multiplayer and you play a role... poker should not be because you are playing cards not a character in a role.
MASSIVELY.
I still call guildwars an mmo because it plays the same, has many simularities to the genre so hey shoot me. but technically its not a mmo because its not massivelymultiplayer. you can see alot of people in a town, couple of hundred? but you can't play with them all. most the play is in groups of 8 and the largest amount of players in play is in a 12 vs 12 alliance battle.
if anything guildwars is a MORPG (see what I did there?)
I personally dont care and will continue to call it an mmorpg for the sake of ease, but I'm not going to argue that it is a mmorpg.
I'd love to see more mmo's can the monthly fee and just charge for expansions. no one likes to pay for the time they are using that feels like a scam, they don't mind paying for content. the money from expansions could pay for servers and development etc. aslong as you make a game people love and keep releasing good content.
I also don't mind monthly fees if with it I am paying for content. ie they keep putting in free expansions, i keep paying the fee. EvE, lotro I hear have both added in alot of content, so I would be happy paying the fee. but charging fee and for expansions ala EQ, like previous poster mentioned, I do NOT like.
basically:
I WANT TO PAY FOR CONTENT
the only sub I've kept for a long while was runescape, only because they added stuff every week. the game was constantly growing, I didn't feel completely ripped off. the cost was like a mini expansion each month.
developers can make more money from just selling expansions than just a sub, as if someone new joins the game they have to buy all the previous expansions to get all the content. Ie I started playing guildwars on it's third expansion, i liked it so much I had to buy the previous too and the next one. If guildwars was just a sub I would have probably saved my self money, but I LIKE buying content because I don't regret buying it all it will last me as long as I want.
That is just the thing .. I am paying for junk updates with these monthly fees.. If they would actually give me content I want then i wouldn't mind paying for it. In these updates how often do they give new skills? I mean instead of giving more of the same ol same ol like dungeons and npc junk make the game more exciting with truely new content .. adding to the map , adding more quests, all of that is npc involved activities rather than something truely for the players enjoyment. Like adding siege wars to games, battle of the minds, in game court to punish players .. no they are too lazy for that they only want to give the bare minimum with these updates .. is why i am finding such a hard time finding one that keeps my attention. In these games there simply isn't enough variety in what you can do.
This post is speaks very closely to my original post.
There is no big problem with paying a monthly fee, I guess...but WHERE IS THE VALUE?
All you people who think that making an online game automatically means its pay to play are partially responsible for the propuslion of the craptastic wave of games we have recently.
Is paying $15 a month really worth it anymore? Maybe for some. But for some of us who have been wathcing and playing in this genre for 10 years its clear that that $15 that is received each month goes straight to the bank.
when the time comes to give me soemthing fresh and new - i have to pay again.
Pay to play in most mainstream games is a scam. I'm basically playing $15 a month for access to my record table in a database and some bandwidth. I dont pay this money to enjoy new content.
Every F2P game isn't free. You want to advance...pay us for items, land, ect. Sorry no thanks.
I'll pay whatever I feel is "worth it". DAOC was worth the 6 months. WOW was worth the couple of years. Other MMOs I played were worth it too. GW for me wasn't worth a monthly fee because it didn't offer me anything I couldn't get from any FPS out there and I don't pay a monthly fee for that. GW's pay plan was not rocket science. No one in their right mind would've paid a monthly fee for it and ArenaNet knew this. Their game simply isn't worth it, because they don't need to mantain servers like a full featured MMO and don't have anywhere near the content either. Their game is set up no different than any FPS out there, except with a lobby you can run around in. I did that in Phantasy Star Online on my Dreamcast with no monthly fee.
You have got to be kidding me. Look at the content in any of the f2p MMO's and then look at the content in the monthly fee ones. There is a HUGE gap. If you enjoy content you pay the monthly fee.
I see nothing wrong with paying the $15 a month for a continually updated, good MMO. And of course people will say, "but there are no good ones... blah, blah, blah"... then don't buy it or stop paying for it. Would you waste your money on a normal game?
Think of it in terms of normal games. They are $50 ($60 for console) a pop and keep you entertained anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months (depending on how you play). We'll say you are a slow player and really enjoy a game for a while so you're buying a $50 every 2 months... that's $25 a month... more expensive than the $15 a month subsciption fee you are paying.
Edit: Oh... forgot about the expansion packs you have to pay for. I do think those are ridiculous unless they are really huge and game changing. That $15 a month you pay should be covering updates. Espeically since expansion packs are far more necessary for MMOs than for regular games, they should at the minimum only put them out every 2 to 3 years... not every year.
I've thought about it more and If i had to redo this post i would focus more on the cost of the expansion rather then the cost of the monthly fee.
Eve has it right. Expansions should not cost the subscriber extra money. THe pay to play paradigm is ok , I guess, as long as there are updates to the game PERIOIDCALLY and not stupid things either.
The point is we should be able to expect more for our money then just access to a game we've purchased. I understand the statements made about Guild Wars and its instancing approach. However there is a space between total non hosted, instance game play, and complete hosted game play that sits well below $15 a month.
I have no problem paying a monthly fee. We should just be grateful there has not been an increase in sub fees as every other cost seems to be on the rise.
Money will attract talent which will help companies turn out more games. One of those games is gonna be the WOW killer I have a feeling though the WOW killer will be Blizzards mmo in development.
I'm was a huge GW freak and played for about 4 years. Played it since day 1, and I do think that GW is a mmorpg simply because it's massive in the sense that there are 4 million people to play with, multiplayer for the obvious, it's online and is a RPG. I loved GW until they bought in the heroes and henchies, which caused groups to be formed on rare occasions.
As for GW2, I'm worried. I've known about GW2 with the persistent world and all being free to play and all, but I'm worried because NCSoft introduced something they call NCcoins, or something of the sort, which is something like all the item malls in the f2p mmorpgs. I really hope it doesn't go that way. But it would be understandable if they wanted to keep their word on it being completely free with no campaigns as they did with GW1.
I understand the need for money to come in constantly for anything that's internet related. Servers need bandwidth to operate. And like gas, water or electricity, BW is something that's constantly used and needs to be replenished somehow. The replenishing requires money, and that's part of what we're paying for. The other part we're paying for is the devs' salary, they are humans and they are in need of money as well. And finally the 3rd thing we pay for is the companies that are involved in the mmo. They are companies, and they need profit in order to survive since they have bills of their own to pay. Surely, if we like a game we want the company to survive.
All that being said, I do think that most companies cut corners after a while to save a a buck or two and that's where the problem occurs. Them cutting corners should equate to us having to pay less, or having us supplied with more content. I know Blizzard lowered their subscription fee after a while since they had a good amount of subscribers as well had WoW stable for the most part. The problems with subscription based is after the game takes off and gets some millions of subscibers. Does it really cost them $30,000,000 to $120,000,000 ($15x[# of subscribers]) per month to pay the devs (who get paid too little), pay the bills, and get enough BW? I own a business, so I know profits are great, and the more, the better. But I also believe in giving back to the customers every now and then. Wouldn't it be great of some MMO companies took a little of that money and invested back in the subscribers? Maybe give us a month free as a thank you.
Well that was alot more than I intended to write. Ah well.
Does it really matter how they collect money for their games so long as you are enjoying the game and find it worth the money?
There are ups and downs to each pay strategy which can cost more or less money depending on how it is rolled out. So don't think that one is better just because at this point in time it is lighter on your wallet.
Guildwars is a unique game and was designed to be as cheap as possible, the things that make that game less costly to run are the very things the people above are thinking about when they say it is not a true MMORPG.
"The liberties and resulting economic prosperity that YOU take for granted were granted by those "dead guys"
Paying for expansions is crap, EQ only had pay expansions because it didn't make sense to download huge patches on 56k so they were pretty much forced to make CD's for expansions. WoW is just making expansions cause they're greedy.
Monthly fee I guess I don't really care, however I wish the MMO's would do something more like $0.15 an hour, that way you could sign up to more then one game at once and not feel like you're not getting your moneys worth and if you did only play one game and played a lot it would still only be around $15-25 a month.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You? if I were to kill a titan tomorrow and no CCP employees showed up to say grats I would petition it. Waiting for: the next MMO that lets me make this macro if hp < 30 then CastSpell("heal") SpellTargetUnit("player") else CastSpell("smite") end
Comments
I am wealthy, and a hardcore gamer.. I do not mind monthly subs if it is a quality game but I have yet to see one that has that combination. I refuse to play games with an item shop, but then again what you fail to realize is that the wealthy are also intelligent and the scam of the item shop games is as blatent as the poor quality of the games that contain them. You forget most of the wealthy did not obtain that wealth by being ignorant or gullable.
Can the wealthy spell? Blatent = blatant, gullable = gullible. Seriously install firefox bud.
lol ! typing is what the secretary is for .. though it would be harsh for me to make him come rant about mmorpgs for me ... btw I am a woman .. not your "bud".
Whoa Whoa there Deviliscious!
I don't think some of these lads can handle a real woman who plays MMO's. Just tell them you're a guy and they'll go away.
tying them to a tree and leaving them there covered in honey works too
.
Jeff Strain,the producer of Guild Wars at ArenaNet has also confirmed GW is not an mmorpg.
Guild Wars 2 is looking to change this. About GW2 not having a monthly subs, don't forget that we're getting content updates with monthly fee and micro transaction games. This may not be the case with GW2, new content may possibly ONLY be delivered through expansions.
gw always has "patches and upates "when I log in , in winter there is snow .. in spring it goes away.. and holiday items and tournaments that are not applied in expansions those are maintained and added through updates.
Those aren't really content updates. Content updates are things like new dungeons, new lands, etc etc.
That is just the thing .. I am paying for junk updates with these monthly fees.. If they would actually give me content I want then i wouldn't mind paying for it. In these updates how often do they give new skills? I mean instead of giving more of the same ol same ol like dungeons and npc junk make the game more exciting with truely new content .. adding to the map , adding more quests, all of that is npc involved activities rather than something truely for the players enjoyment. Like adding siege wars to games, battle of the minds, in game court to punish players .. no they are too lazy for that they only want to give the bare minimum with these updates .. is why i am finding such a hard time finding one that keeps my attention. In these games there simply isn't enough variety in what you can do.
If the game able to sell for money, they will do it. If they can't sell for money, they are fishing the money.
I do not want to be a fish so I will never buy anything from any F2P.
As written by someone who perhaps fails to realize just how expensive it is to run an mmo, with multiple servers. Think monthly costs higher than what most people make in a year. Bandwidth is not some magical substance that appears out of thin air. It costs a lot. Peering arrangements to move said bandwidth around costs a lot. Servers don't just sit in the office corner. Datacenter space costs a lot. Proper technical staff costs a lot. Proper datacenter services (cooling, remote hands, etc) cost a lot. Electrical power costs a lot. Redundant backups of all of the above costs a lot. Monitoring costs a lot. Programming and marketing staff costs a lot. Customer service staff and space costs a lot.
We the players only see the end result. Well except we the very few who happen to work in datacenters and deal with customer network applications and needs on a daily basis.
There is a reason f2p games generally are crappy low end games.
This.A monthly sub does not pay for new development. It pays the bills plus some profit. Don't believe me? How much are you paying for your cell phone? Roughly an equivalent network (obvious difference being cell towers). Paying 40 a month for a cell is fine, and you get a few hours of time a month talking with it. You pay $15 a month for a game like WoW, and log over 100 hours a month, and for some reason that's a rip? I don't really get it.
Hell I drop 30 bucks to see a friggin movie ONCE.
nethervoid - Est. '97
[UO|EQ|SB|SWG|PS|HZ|EVE|NWN|WoW|VG|DF|AQW|DN|SWTOR|Dofus|SotA|BDO|AO|NW|LA] - Currently Playing EQ1
20k+ subs YouTube Gaming channel
I have played many of the MMO/MMORPG's, and i have to say that as of this moment in time the ONLY one worth paying for is LOTR Online, I stopped playing WoW a while ago, BUT, i do intend to go back to it with the release of 'Wrath' later this year. I just don't see the point in continuing to upgrade my chars gear if it will be obsolete in a few months. EVE while good isn't really my thing, hence i haven't included it in the ones worth paying for. As for Everquest I +II, Asherons Call i think that while they were worth the monthly fee upon release, they are now to old/dated to command such a fee. I appreciate that there are costs in running games such as these, BUT in the case of these older ones i think they either have to be overhauled/ modernized or they need to lower their fees to around $5pm or maybe even bow out gracefully. In the case of games that have made HUGE profits then they may decide to run them for free for a while as thanks to the loyal players{ obviously not all MMO's could do that, as quite a few have failed and made nothing at all.}. Just my 2cents..:)
EDIT:
What people must remember is that computer technology and software is constantly developing, so whats cutting edge this week will be old hat next week (quite literally in some cases), ergo..games that are 5 years old are the OAP's of the gaming world. Software is outdated soo quickly that to charge a fee for a 5+ year old game that is the same (or there abouts) to what new games are charging is ridiculous.
I still call guildwars an mmo because it plays the same, has many simularities to the genre so hey shoot me. but technically its not a mmo because its not massively multiplayer. you can see alot of people in a town, couple of hundred? but you can't play with them all. most the play is in groups of 8 and the largest amount of players in play is in a 12 vs 12 alliance battle.
if anything guildwars is a MORPG (see what I did there?)
I personally dont care and will continue to call it an mmorpg for the sake of ease, but I'm not going to argue that it is a mmorpg.
My blog:
guildwars make thier money by expansions really.
I'd love to see more mmo's can the monthly fee and just charge for expansions. no one likes to pay for the time they are using that feels like a scam, they don't mind paying for content. the money from expansions could pay for servers and development etc. aslong as you make a game people love and keep releasing good content.
I also don't mind monthly fees if with it I am paying for content. ie they keep putting in free expansions, i keep paying the fee. EvE, lotro I hear have both added in alot of content, so I would be happy paying the fee. but charging fee and for expansions ala EQ, like previous poster mentioned, I do NOT like.
basically:
I WANT TO PAY FOR CONTENT
the only sub I've kept for a long while was runescape, only because they added stuff every week. the game was constantly growing, I didn't feel completely ripped off. the cost was like a mini expansion each month.
developers can make more money from just selling expansions than just a sub, as if someone new joins the game they have to buy all the previous expansions to get all the content. Ie I started playing guildwars on it's third expansion, i liked it so much I had to buy the previous too and the next one. If guildwars was just a sub I would have probably saved my self money, but I LIKE buying content because I don't regret buying it all it will last me as long as I want.
sorry for long post.
My blog:
This post is speaks very closely to my original post.
There is no big problem with paying a monthly fee, I guess...but WHERE IS THE VALUE?
All you people who think that making an online game automatically means its pay to play are partially responsible for the propuslion of the craptastic wave of games we have recently.
Is paying $15 a month really worth it anymore? Maybe for some. But for some of us who have been wathcing and playing in this genre for 10 years its clear that that $15 that is received each month goes straight to the bank.
when the time comes to give me soemthing fresh and new - i have to pay again.
Pay to play in most mainstream games is a scam. I'm basically playing $15 a month for access to my record table in a database and some bandwidth. I dont pay this money to enjoy new content.
Every F2P game isn't free. You want to advance...pay us for items, land, ect. Sorry no thanks.
I'll pay whatever I feel is "worth it". DAOC was worth the 6 months. WOW was worth the couple of years. Other MMOs I played were worth it too. GW for me wasn't worth a monthly fee because it didn't offer me anything I couldn't get from any FPS out there and I don't pay a monthly fee for that. GW's pay plan was not rocket science. No one in their right mind would've paid a monthly fee for it and ArenaNet knew this. Their game simply isn't worth it, because they don't need to mantain servers like a full featured MMO and don't have anywhere near the content either. Their game is set up no different than any FPS out there, except with a lobby you can run around in. I did that in Phantasy Star Online on my Dreamcast with no monthly fee.
You have got to be kidding me. Look at the content in any of the f2p MMO's and then look at the content in the monthly fee ones. There is a HUGE gap. If you enjoy content you pay the monthly fee.
I see nothing wrong with paying the $15 a month for a continually updated, good MMO. And of course people will say, "but there are no good ones... blah, blah, blah"... then don't buy it or stop paying for it. Would you waste your money on a normal game?
Think of it in terms of normal games. They are $50 ($60 for console) a pop and keep you entertained anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months (depending on how you play). We'll say you are a slow player and really enjoy a game for a while so you're buying a $50 every 2 months... that's $25 a month... more expensive than the $15 a month subsciption fee you are paying.
Edit: Oh... forgot about the expansion packs you have to pay for. I do think those are ridiculous unless they are really huge and game changing. That $15 a month you pay should be covering updates. Espeically since expansion packs are far more necessary for MMOs than for regular games, they should at the minimum only put them out every 2 to 3 years... not every year.
I've thought about it more and If i had to redo this post i would focus more on the cost of the expansion rather then the cost of the monthly fee.
Eve has it right. Expansions should not cost the subscriber extra money. THe pay to play paradigm is ok , I guess, as long as there are updates to the game PERIOIDCALLY and not stupid things either.
The point is we should be able to expect more for our money then just access to a game we've purchased. I understand the statements made about Guild Wars and its instancing approach. However there is a space between total non hosted, instance game play, and complete hosted game play that sits well below $15 a month.
I have no problem paying a monthly fee. We should just be grateful there has not been an increase in sub fees as every other cost seems to be on the rise.
Money will attract talent which will help companies turn out more games. One of those games is gonna be the WOW killer
I have a feeling though the WOW killer will be Blizzards mmo in development.
15 dollars. Oh boy what a drama. Where I live that is a simple lunch.
I'm was a huge GW freak and played for about 4 years. Played it since day 1, and I do think that GW is a mmorpg simply because it's massive in the sense that there are 4 million people to play with, multiplayer for the obvious, it's online and is a RPG. I loved GW until they bought in the heroes and henchies, which caused groups to be formed on rare occasions.
As for GW2, I'm worried. I've known about GW2 with the persistent world and all being free to play and all, but I'm worried because NCSoft introduced something they call NCcoins, or something of the sort, which is something like all the item malls in the f2p mmorpgs. I really hope it doesn't go that way. But it would be understandable if they wanted to keep their word on it being completely free with no campaigns as they did with GW1.
I understand the need for money to come in constantly for anything that's internet related. Servers need bandwidth to operate. And like gas, water or electricity, BW is something that's constantly used and needs to be replenished somehow. The replenishing requires money, and that's part of what we're paying for. The other part we're paying for is the devs' salary, they are humans and they are in need of money as well. And finally the 3rd thing we pay for is the companies that are involved in the mmo. They are companies, and they need profit in order to survive since they have bills of their own to pay. Surely, if we like a game we want the company to survive.
All that being said, I do think that most companies cut corners after a while to save a a buck or two and that's where the problem occurs. Them cutting corners should equate to us having to pay less, or having us supplied with more content. I know Blizzard lowered their subscription fee after a while since they had a good amount of subscribers as well had WoW stable for the most part. The problems with subscription based is after the game takes off and gets some millions of subscibers. Does it really cost them $30,000,000 to $120,000,000 ($15x[# of subscribers]) per month to pay the devs (who get paid too little), pay the bills, and get enough BW? I own a business, so I know profits are great, and the more, the better. But I also believe in giving back to the customers every now and then. Wouldn't it be great of some MMO companies took a little of that money and invested back in the subscribers? Maybe give us a month free as a thank you.
Well that was alot more than I intended to write. Ah well.
Does it really matter how they collect money for their games so long as you are enjoying the game and find it worth the money?
There are ups and downs to each pay strategy which can cost more or less money depending on how it is rolled out. So don't think that one is better just because at this point in time it is lighter on your wallet.
Guildwars is a unique game and was designed to be as cheap as possible, the things that make that game less costly to run are the very things the people above are thinking about when they say it is not a true MMORPG.
"The liberties and resulting economic prosperity that YOU take for granted were granted by those "dead guys"
Paying for expansions is crap, EQ only had pay expansions because it didn't make sense to download huge patches on 56k so they were pretty much forced to make CD's for expansions. WoW is just making expansions cause they're greedy.
Monthly fee I guess I don't really care, however I wish the MMO's would do something more like $0.15 an hour, that way you could sign up to more then one game at once and not feel like you're not getting your moneys worth and if you did only play one game and played a lot it would still only be around $15-25 a month.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
if I were to kill a titan tomorrow and no CCP employees showed up to say grats I would petition it.
Waiting for: the next MMO that lets me make this macro
if hp < 30 then CastSpell("heal") SpellTargetUnit("player") else CastSpell("smite") end