This is the worst thing they can do. A large nubmer of the people who played GW1 never played a MMO and they are definitely not willing to pay for a MMO. GW players are not necesserily MMO players. And the reason is not only the price tag. It's also the fact that MMOs have boring practices a lot of people can't stand.
A sub will ruin everything about the game. I mean if they had a sub they will have to come up with grind to keep people subbed which is a bad thing.
All who don't want to play GW just because it doesnt have a sub there are many other games you can play.
People who like sub model do so because that way they have a whine-card:
"I pay for your game and unless you want me to ragequit, and believe me, 100 more people will follow me, yes, 100+ of my close friends are raging as we speak and we are all quiting today if you don't change the game to our liking!!!!"
"IF YOU DON"T DO X I WILL QUIT AND THE GAME WILL DIE!!!!"
You know...stuff like that.
With no sub money "threats" like that don't work heh, cry babies have no whine leverage.
GW2 will rock.
I care about your gaming 'problems' and teenage anxieties, just not today.
People who like sub model do so because that way they have a whine-card:
"I pay for your game and unless you want me to ragequit, and believe me, 100 more people will follow me, yes, 100+ of my close friends are raging as we speak and we are all quiting today if you don't change the game to our liking!!!!"
"IF YOU DON"T DO X I WILL QUIT AND THE GAME WILL DIE!!!!"
You know...stuff like that.
With no sub money "threats" like that don't work heh, cry babies have no whine leverage.
GW2 will rock.
Yea...i still dont get why some people want them to change the payment model when this one in gw1 worked...gw2 would just lose players if they changed it.
As someone said in another thread: "a better question to ask is what those other companies actually do with your subscription fees"
really? compare games that aren't subscription based gw1/diablo1/2 starcraft 1/2 warcraft 3. ALL of these games have very little content added if at all, the content added is an expansion in which you pay for.
WoW lineage 2 (im using these as they're the mmo's i've spent my most time playing) they have progressive updates all the time, WoW more than lineage 2. WoW you buy an expansion let's say, 6 months down the road there is a ton of stuff added to the game. Lineage 2 has free expansions (i think they have 12 by now).
- If you really don't think that a subscription does anything as far as companies using these fees than you are just ignorant.
I'm not saying gw2 having a subscription is a good or bad idea, but gw1 had very little content added in between expansions. It really depends on how much you like a game to progress and to stay the same in between expansions.
Also on a side note, WoW's customer support is the best in the business i'm happy to pay some fees just to go to this. Lineage 2 on the other hand (NCsoft) has one of the worst customer support.
You're wrong about WoW. When you bought WotLK, you were buying all the way through ICC and beating the Lich King. The difference is, you didn't have access to all the content right away... you had to wait over a year for them to release the content that would allow you to actually fight the Lich King. Meanwhile, you're forking over $15/mo for a game that you don't have access to all the content yet.
yup thats the best way to lose customers at this point.
If them game is worth it....they will pay. As will I
Incorrect.
Many will give it a pass simply because it's a subscription. Many *more* will give it a pass because they want to maintain a sub to another game and won't support two subs at the same time. Then there will be others that give it a pass simply because they don't like it, regardless of awesome it is.
yup thats the best way to lose customers at this point.
If them game is worth it....they will pay. As will I
Incorrect.
Many will give it a pass simply because it's a subscription. Many *more* will give it a pass because they want to maintain a sub to another game and won't support two subs at the same time. Then there will be others that give it a pass simply because they don't like it, regardless of awesome it is.
B2P is the way to go.
I've never seen anyone mature take the stance that a game deserves a pass solely based on being subscription based. In fact, I've seen that as the best way to weed out the very lowest common denominator. It would improve the game experience substantially.
yup thats the best way to lose customers at this point.
If them game is worth it....they will pay. As will I
Incorrect.
Many will give it a pass simply because it's a subscription. Many *more* will give it a pass because they want to maintain a sub to another game and won't support two subs at the same time. Then there will be others that give it a pass simply because they don't like it, regardless of awesome it is.
B2P is the way to go.
I've never seen anyone mature take the stance that a game deserves a pass solely based on being subscription based. In fact, I've seen that as the best way to weed out the very lowest common denominator. It would improve the game experience substantially.
I don't disagree that it would weed out the bottom-feeders. It's not a mature stance to take by any stretch, but it is an excuse that many are prepared to use. They're willing to put out for the box fee, but nothing beyond, especially nothing in the cash store. And let's face it, GW2 will live or die by box sales.
yup thats the best way to lose customers at this point.
If them game is worth it....they will pay. As will I
Many people are picking up the game due to it having no fee. If they will announce a subscription fee now it will be a shot in the head for them. Instead, they will try as hard as they can to make everyone pay more money. I'm not sure if you heard of it again, but many companies tend to release an unfinished or half game and put the rest up as DLC...which has been the case of Mafia 2 (I think everyone knows about that controversial issue).
Might as well, buy content as you go is not what most people had in mind. I was thinking that they may have an XPac every 6 -12 months I would have to pay for, but now this buy dungeon MTs and all this crap? They should have free updates, and then release xpacs every so often. What is so hard to understand about that? This is what most people here were lead to believe would happen. Now all of a sudden it changes, and some people were already aware of this DLC system.
adding a sub to a game that has been advertised as B2P for something like 3 years is suicide. Anet doesn't want to do that anyways. MTs are cheaper so long as they remain optional (meaning players don't even have to buy anything, but many people will either to support Anet or because they love the cosmetic/account fluff that Anet offers for GW1). /thread
I used to TL;DR, but then I took a bullet point to the footnote.
adding a sub to a game that has been advertised as B2P for something like 3 years is suicide. Anet doesn't want to do that anyways. MTs are cheaper so long as they remain optional (meaning players don't even have to buy anything, but many people will either to support Anet or because they love the cosmetic/account fluff that Anet offers for GW1). /thread
Optional is subjective. When after a year of GW2 I'll end up having less than half the content if I haven't spent anything other the box then I'd rather pay a subscription, have all the content handed to me and have everyone around me having the same content as me. Yes, that's right, that last one is important for people that consider a game's community and can be a major factor on people's list and most certainly is important to me.
Something cheap like 7$ or whatever. Even if they made 1$ a month "profit" per subscriber they would still make a killing without worring about charging for extra content like dungeons and stuff like that.
Then could still make their cash on fluff items and expansions on top of that.
I would prefer this option over possibly paying for periodic content thats NOT an expantion.
You sound like a college kid. Bright and wide-eyed and all...thats a good thing.
Ask the 5 million that bought Guild Wars 1 what they think about that, and get back to us.
adding a sub to a game that has been advertised as B2P for something like 3 years is suicide. Anet doesn't want to do that anyways. MTs are cheaper so long as they remain optional (meaning players don't even have to buy anything, but many people will either to support Anet or because they love the cosmetic/account fluff that Anet offers for GW1). /thread
Optional is subjective. When after a year of GW2 I'll end up having less than half the content if I haven't spent anything other the box then I'd rather pay a subscription, have all the content handed to me and have everyone around me having the same content as me. Yes, that's right, that last one is important for people that consider a game's community and can be a major factor on people's list and most certainly is important to me.
or you could realize that, because its most likely that this additional content is going to be sold through expansions, the reason you don't have the extra content is because you are too lazy to buy it.
I say most likely because the reason we are even discussing subs is because a flawed PCgamer article stated that Anet would-->might sell us dungeons piecemeal. There are a lot of very good reasons that Anet shouldn't do it this way that don't even involve pricing concerns and as far as I am concerned PCgamer is guilt of spreading misconceptions which has altered the discussion on this topic to something based in rumors and vague non-answers meant to avoid confusion, not create it.
saying that you would rather have a sub than DLC is fine but don't say that you think Anet is going to have DLC without some kind of evidence/reason for thinking that they will have it. It just creates a baseless argument that makes dumb threads like this one.
I used to TL;DR, but then I took a bullet point to the footnote.
I agree that the MMO community matters, and that is why I am against a subscription for GW2: the fact is that the majority of GW1 players are playing because there is no subscription, and if ANet were to have implemented a subscription for GW2, they would lose a majority of those players regardless of whether the players could afford $15 per month. I support ANet because I support their philosophy that I don't have to rent access to their game after purchasing it. I have regretted every single subscription I have paid, and of three games I currently can play for "free" - two due to lifetime or long-term memberships - GW1 is the only one I still regularly play and enjoy. I would not play GW2 if they implemented a subscription, because that would be ANet going back on every principle they have thus far sought to uphold, and if they went back on that principle, what else might they sacrifice?
Sacrificing a known population (that of GW1 who mostly support this game because it has no subscription) for an unknown population (those who might subscribe if there were a subscription) would be a foolish move on ANet's part, and would KILL the Guild Wars community, because it would swap that community out entirely.
adding a sub to a game that has been advertised as B2P for something like 3 years is suicide. Anet doesn't want to do that anyways. MTs are cheaper so long as they remain optional (meaning players don't even have to buy anything, but many people will either to support Anet or because they love the cosmetic/account fluff that Anet offers for GW1). /thread
Optional is subjective. When after a year of GW2 I'll end up having less than half the content if I haven't spent anything other the box then I'd rather pay a subscription, have all the content handed to me and have everyone around me having the same content as me. Yes, that's right, that last one is important for people that consider a game's community and can be a major factor on people's list and most certainly is important to me.
or you could realize that, because its most likely that this additional content is going to be sold through expansions, the reason you don't have the extra content is because you are too lazy to buy it.
I say most likely because the reason we are even discussing subs is because a flawed PCgamer article stated that Anet would-->might sell us dungeons piecemeal. There are a lot of very good reasons that Anet shouldn't do it this way that don't even involve pricing concerns and as far as I am concerned PCgamer is guilt of spreading misconceptions which has altered the discussion on this topic to something based in rumors and vague non-answers meant to avoid confusion, not create it.
saying that you would rather have a sub than DLC is fine but don't say that you think Anet is going to have DLC without some kind of evidence/reason for thinking that they will have it. It just creates a baseless argument that makes dumb threads like this one.
And I hope that's the truth. If ANet manages to keep the game to expansions and a vanity shop then I'm all for it.
adding a sub to a game that has been advertised as B2P for something like 3 years is suicide. Anet doesn't want to do that anyways. MTs are cheaper so long as they remain optional (meaning players don't even have to buy anything, but many people will either to support Anet or because they love the cosmetic/account fluff that Anet offers for GW1). /thread
Optional is subjective. When after a year of GW2 I'll end up having less than half the content if I haven't spent anything other the box then I'd rather pay a subscription, have all the content handed to me and have everyone around me having the same content as me. Yes, that's right, that last one is important for people that consider a game's community and can be a major factor on people's list and most certainly is important to me.
The same can be said for any game with an expansion you have to pay for. Lets use WoW, as it is the most popular MMO on the market. You have vanilla, BC, Wrath, and soon Cata. As we all know, WoW is about the end-game raiding. So, they raise the level cap and give you more dungeons and areas. If you don't buy any of them, your end-game is seriously gimped. You are not as effective in PvP and the game's population has moved beyond the vanilla, leaving you with less people to raid with. You are paying a subscription and not recieving all the content avaliable to you, you must now pay an extra fee to get more content. I don't mind if they charge for a sub fee, but charging for the box AND expansions AND subs you're dipping into 1 too many revinue streams.
Also, The additional content avaliavble for GW2, when they were talking about it, was said to be in either the DLC style of the GW Bonus Mission Pack, contained 4 single player senarios detailing important events in GW history while giving unique skins to those who complete it, or as expansions like the Eye of the North, entire areas dedicated to those who have reached the level cap with dungeons and more difficult content. They already said they won't be doing campaigns like they did with Nightfall and Factions. If you didn't buy the Eye of the North or the other campaigns you would fall behind the PvE and PvP meta, but the Bonus Mission Pack had absoloutly no impact on gameplay other than a somewhat easy way to get un-modded top tier weapons.
Also, a note about the OT, were ArenaNet to announce a subscription fee their core fanbase (those that played GW) would scream bloody murder. I would to as I am one of those people who enjoyed the game. They said no subs, you don't want them to go back on their words, would you? I will support the game by buying it and its expansions, and maybe a micro trans or two. Depends on if my wallet is heavy enough or if there is something nice to get. I suppose they could set up an optional sub fee with no aditional benefits, just for those of you who can't see beyond the sub fee. ; )
But that's the beauty of Guild Wars 2. They won't charge for updates and content that aren't considered major expansions. All of those content updates still come free. You have to understand that although this seems like such a crazy thing, it's exactly what it is. WoW has set the "norm" in that sub fee's pay for content that should or should not be added to the game. However, GW2 is setting something beautiful in that you pay once (for the game) and updates are free, yet no sub fee's. Beautiful in my opinion. Perfect balnance between RPG and MMORPG.
Most people go through life pretending to be a boss. I go through life pretending I'm not.
As someone said in another thread: "a better question to ask is what those other companies actually do with your subscription fees"
really? compare games that aren't subscription based gw1/diablo1/2 starcraft 1/2 warcraft 3. ALL of these games have very little content added if at all, the content added is an expansion in which you pay for.
So does most other sub based mmo's, WoW, AoC, EQ1 and 2 etc all charge for expansion packs on top of sub so it didnt answer the question.
Guild Wars will never have subscription fee and if Arenanet chosse to start requiring a subscription they would lose a major part of there player base. The current model works fine as it is, Expansion packs every 3-6 months and micortraction such as more inventory space and the like works perfectly. However, if they were to make Dungeons and Content avilable through the store I wouldn't opposed it assuming it was done it a similar manner to how the Bonus Mission Pack was implemented. The fact is there will be some individuals who will want more content outside of what Arenanet would normally be able to make avilable and if we had DLC Arenanet would be able to make more content avilable based on what the players wanted, without giving them a advantage over other players.
Something cheap like 7$ or whatever. Even if they made 1$ a month "profit" per subscriber they would still make a killing without worring about charging for extra content like dungeons and stuff like that.
Then could still make their cash on fluff items and expansions on top of that.
I would prefer this option over possibly paying for periodic content thats NOT an expantion.
They should not :
ArenaNet’s Global Brand Director, Chris Lye, sent us a note to clarify a couple of things about their plans for Guild Wars 2 post-release content:
“We haven’t decided on what exactly we are or aren’t going to offer for money post-release. We’re open to whatever our players seem most interested in. If, after release, you guys would like more story content, more dungeons, more events, more maps or whatever, it’s something that we have to consider because ultimately making you happy is what makes us successful. Whether we release that in DLC (like the bonus mission packs in GW1) or whether we do it through expansions (Like Eye of the North) is yet to be determined. As to whether or not there are going to be items like XP boosts available in the in game store, I can only reiterate what we’ve said before (and will continue to say,) that we’ll release details on it when they are available, and that our core philosophy of not requiring you to spend additional money to play the game and not making the game difficult or painful to play in order to encourage you to buy things from the store still stands.”
I really like the idea of paying for additional content, its much fairer then subscriptions.... and widely accepted in all game genres accept MMO's
I do not like Chris Lye's spin on it all. They are tiptoeing around the concept of not providing things in your cash shop that provide in-game advantages (xp boosters for example) and then they try to turn it around and imply that they would only charge for things because the FANS want it, and because their #1 goal is what the FANS want... not because they want to find ways to make money post-release.
I would much rather he just be honest and admit that GW2 as an MMO will not be able to sustain itself without heavy micro-transaction business.
Something cheap like 7$ or whatever. Even if they made 1$ a month "profit" per subscriber they would still make a killing without worring about charging for extra content like dungeons and stuff like that.
Then could still make their cash on fluff items and expansions on top of that.
I would prefer this option over possibly paying for periodic content thats NOT an expantion.
They should not :
ArenaNet’s Global Brand Director, Chris Lye, sent us a note to clarify a couple of things about their plans for Guild Wars 2 post-release content:
“We haven’t decided on what exactly we are or aren’t going to offer for money post-release. We’re open to whatever our players seem most interested in. If, after release, you guys would like more story content, more dungeons, more events, more maps or whatever, it’s something that we have to consider because ultimately making you happy is what makes us successful. Whether we release that in DLC (like the bonus mission packs in GW1) or whether we do it through expansions (Like Eye of the North) is yet to be determined. As to whether or not there are going to be items like XP boosts available in the in game store, I can only reiterate what we’ve said before (and will continue to say,) that we’ll release details on it when they are available, and that our core philosophy of not requiring you to spend additional money to play the game and not making the game difficult or painful to play in order to encourage you to buy things from the store still stands.”
I really like the idea of paying for additional content, its much fairer then subscriptions.... and widely accepted in all game genres accept MMO's
I do not like Chris Lye's spin on it all. They are tiptoeing around the concept of not providing things in your cash shop that provide in-game advantages (xp boosters for example) and then they try to turn it around and imply that they would only charge for things because the FANS want it, and because their #1 goal is what the FANS want... not because they want to find ways to make money post-release.
I would much rather he just be honest and admit that GW2 as an MMO will not be able to sustain itself without heavy micro-transaction business.
What's not to like? Experience boosts, for example, have been rendered pretty much moot with the flat leveling curve (same time to level from 29 - 30 as from 79 - 80), so if people do demand them be available for purchase why not have them... after all they won't provide any real advantages. (Keep in mind that level isn't nearly as big a deal in GW2 as it is in other games with the scaling and all that). If people want a handful of dungeons in a "dungeon pack" through the store, it would be silly to not leave that option open (great way to add content between expansions).
We know that there are at least what... five elder dragons in the world? Six maybe? This first go is against Zhaitan, leaving the potential for four or five major expansions in the future with regards to the dragons alone, so expect major content purchases in the future (expansions).
Guild Wars did quite well with the no-sub-fee, some cosmetic micros model... they've made enough money to still be going strong and allow for GW2 to be developed. They're doing something right without milking the customer.
Something cheap like 7$ or whatever. Even if they made 1$ a month "profit" per subscriber they would still make a killing without worring about charging for extra content like dungeons and stuff like that.
Then could still make their cash on fluff items and expansions on top of that.
I would prefer this option over possibly paying for periodic content thats NOT an expantion.
A good part of their player base would go into absolute hysterics over something like that. If you thought the antics of the anti shop crowd were funny, this would make that pale into near nothing. ^^ They are fine the way they are.
Something cheap like 7$ or whatever. Even if they made 1$ a month "profit" per subscriber they would still make a killing without worring about charging for extra content like dungeons and stuff like that.
Then could still make their cash on fluff items and expansions on top of that.
I would prefer this option over possibly paying for periodic content thats NOT an expantion.
A good part of their player base would go into absolute hysterics over something like that. If you thought the antics of the anti shop crowd were funny, this would make that pale into near nothing. ^^ They are fine the way they are.
I have to agree, there's no way this could ever be suggested, the player base would totally abandon the game if they tried.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Subscriptions almost make you have to play the game in order to get your money's worth. With one time purchases you don't get that feeling of obligation because of the monthly fee.
Never had that feeling, personally. At most its $15 a month. Not nearly enough to be concerned with. Have you seen the price of first run movie tickets lately? ^^
Comments
This is the worst thing they can do. A large nubmer of the people who played GW1 never played a MMO and they are definitely not willing to pay for a MMO. GW players are not necesserily MMO players. And the reason is not only the price tag. It's also the fact that MMOs have boring practices a lot of people can't stand.
A sub will ruin everything about the game. I mean if they had a sub they will have to come up with grind to keep people subbed which is a bad thing.
All who don't want to play GW just because it doesnt have a sub there are many other games you can play.
I'll explain.
People who like sub model do so because that way they have a whine-card:
"I pay for your game and unless you want me to ragequit, and believe me, 100 more people will follow me, yes, 100+ of my close friends are raging as we speak and we are all quiting today if you don't change the game to our liking!!!!"
"IF YOU DON"T DO X I WILL QUIT AND THE GAME WILL DIE!!!!"
You know...stuff like that.
With no sub money "threats" like that don't work heh, cry babies have no whine leverage.
GW2 will rock.
I care about your gaming 'problems' and teenage anxieties, just not today.
Yea...i still dont get why some people want them to change the payment model when this one in gw1 worked...gw2 would just lose players if they changed it.
You're wrong about WoW. When you bought WotLK, you were buying all the way through ICC and beating the Lich King. The difference is, you didn't have access to all the content right away... you had to wait over a year for them to release the content that would allow you to actually fight the Lich King. Meanwhile, you're forking over $15/mo for a game that you don't have access to all the content yet.
Oderint, dum metuant.
Incorrect.
Many will give it a pass simply because it's a subscription. Many *more* will give it a pass because they want to maintain a sub to another game and won't support two subs at the same time. Then there will be others that give it a pass simply because they don't like it, regardless of awesome it is.
B2P is the way to go.
I've never seen anyone mature take the stance that a game deserves a pass solely based on being subscription based. In fact, I've seen that as the best way to weed out the very lowest common denominator. It would improve the game experience substantially.
subscription?! HELL NO!
Guild Wars 2 Youtube Croatian Maniacs
My Guild Wars titles
I don't disagree that it would weed out the bottom-feeders. It's not a mature stance to take by any stretch, but it is an excuse that many are prepared to use. They're willing to put out for the box fee, but nothing beyond, especially nothing in the cash store. And let's face it, GW2 will live or die by box sales.
Might as well, buy content as you go is not what most people had in mind. I was thinking that they may have an XPac every 6 -12 months I would have to pay for, but now this buy dungeon MTs and all this crap? They should have free updates, and then release xpacs every so often. What is so hard to understand about that? This is what most people here were lead to believe would happen. Now all of a sudden it changes, and some people were already aware of this DLC system.
"When it comes to GW2 any game is fair game"
adding a sub to a game that has been advertised as B2P for something like 3 years is suicide. Anet doesn't want to do that anyways. MTs are cheaper so long as they remain optional (meaning players don't even have to buy anything, but many people will either to support Anet or because they love the cosmetic/account fluff that Anet offers for GW1). /thread
I used to TL;DR, but then I took a bullet point to the footnote.
Optional is subjective. When after a year of GW2 I'll end up having less than half the content if I haven't spent anything other the box then I'd rather pay a subscription, have all the content handed to me and have everyone around me having the same content as me. Yes, that's right, that last one is important for people that consider a game's community and can be a major factor on people's list and most certainly is important to me.
No they shouldn't.
Archlinux ftw
You sound like a college kid. Bright and wide-eyed and all...thats a good thing.
Ask the 5 million that bought Guild Wars 1 what they think about that, and get back to us.
or you could realize that, because its most likely that this additional content is going to be sold through expansions, the reason you don't have the extra content is because you are too lazy to buy it.
I say most likely because the reason we are even discussing subs is because a flawed PCgamer article stated that Anet would-->might sell us dungeons piecemeal. There are a lot of very good reasons that Anet shouldn't do it this way that don't even involve pricing concerns and as far as I am concerned PCgamer is guilt of spreading misconceptions which has altered the discussion on this topic to something based in rumors and vague non-answers meant to avoid confusion, not create it.
saying that you would rather have a sub than DLC is fine but don't say that you think Anet is going to have DLC without some kind of evidence/reason for thinking that they will have it. It just creates a baseless argument that makes dumb threads like this one.
I used to TL;DR, but then I took a bullet point to the footnote.
I agree that the MMO community matters, and that is why I am against a subscription for GW2: the fact is that the majority of GW1 players are playing because there is no subscription, and if ANet were to have implemented a subscription for GW2, they would lose a majority of those players regardless of whether the players could afford $15 per month. I support ANet because I support their philosophy that I don't have to rent access to their game after purchasing it. I have regretted every single subscription I have paid, and of three games I currently can play for "free" - two due to lifetime or long-term memberships - GW1 is the only one I still regularly play and enjoy. I would not play GW2 if they implemented a subscription, because that would be ANet going back on every principle they have thus far sought to uphold, and if they went back on that principle, what else might they sacrifice?
Sacrificing a known population (that of GW1 who mostly support this game because it has no subscription) for an unknown population (those who might subscribe if there were a subscription) would be a foolish move on ANet's part, and would KILL the Guild Wars community, because it would swap that community out entirely.
And I hope that's the truth. If ANet manages to keep the game to expansions and a vanity shop then I'm all for it.
The same can be said for any game with an expansion you have to pay for. Lets use WoW, as it is the most popular MMO on the market. You have vanilla, BC, Wrath, and soon Cata. As we all know, WoW is about the end-game raiding. So, they raise the level cap and give you more dungeons and areas. If you don't buy any of them, your end-game is seriously gimped. You are not as effective in PvP and the game's population has moved beyond the vanilla, leaving you with less people to raid with. You are paying a subscription and not recieving all the content avaliable to you, you must now pay an extra fee to get more content. I don't mind if they charge for a sub fee, but charging for the box AND expansions AND subs you're dipping into 1 too many revinue streams.
Also, The additional content avaliavble for GW2, when they were talking about it, was said to be in either the DLC style of the GW Bonus Mission Pack, contained 4 single player senarios detailing important events in GW history while giving unique skins to those who complete it, or as expansions like the Eye of the North, entire areas dedicated to those who have reached the level cap with dungeons and more difficult content. They already said they won't be doing campaigns like they did with Nightfall and Factions. If you didn't buy the Eye of the North or the other campaigns you would fall behind the PvE and PvP meta, but the Bonus Mission Pack had absoloutly no impact on gameplay other than a somewhat easy way to get un-modded top tier weapons.
Also, a note about the OT, were ArenaNet to announce a subscription fee their core fanbase (those that played GW) would scream bloody murder. I would to as I am one of those people who enjoyed the game. They said no subs, you don't want them to go back on their words, would you? I will support the game by buying it and its expansions, and maybe a micro trans or two. Depends on if my wallet is heavy enough or if there is something nice to get. I suppose they could set up an optional sub fee with no aditional benefits, just for those of you who can't see beyond the sub fee. ; )
Disagreement Heirarchy
But that's the beauty of Guild Wars 2. They won't charge for updates and content that aren't considered major expansions. All of those content updates still come free. You have to understand that although this seems like such a crazy thing, it's exactly what it is. WoW has set the "norm" in that sub fee's pay for content that should or should not be added to the game. However, GW2 is setting something beautiful in that you pay once (for the game) and updates are free, yet no sub fee's. Beautiful in my opinion. Perfect balnance between RPG and MMORPG.
Most people go through life pretending to be a boss. I go through life pretending I'm not.
So does most other sub based mmo's, WoW, AoC, EQ1 and 2 etc all charge for expansion packs on top of sub so it didnt answer the question.
Guild Wars will never have subscription fee and if Arenanet chosse to start requiring a subscription they would lose a major part of there player base. The current model works fine as it is, Expansion packs every 3-6 months and micortraction such as more inventory space and the like works perfectly. However, if they were to make Dungeons and Content avilable through the store I wouldn't opposed it assuming it was done it a similar manner to how the Bonus Mission Pack was implemented. The fact is there will be some individuals who will want more content outside of what Arenanet would normally be able to make avilable and if we had DLC Arenanet would be able to make more content avilable based on what the players wanted, without giving them a advantage over other players.
I do not like Chris Lye's spin on it all. They are tiptoeing around the concept of not providing things in your cash shop that provide in-game advantages (xp boosters for example) and then they try to turn it around and imply that they would only charge for things because the FANS want it, and because their #1 goal is what the FANS want... not because they want to find ways to make money post-release.
I would much rather he just be honest and admit that GW2 as an MMO will not be able to sustain itself without heavy micro-transaction business.
What's not to like? Experience boosts, for example, have been rendered pretty much moot with the flat leveling curve (same time to level from 29 - 30 as from 79 - 80), so if people do demand them be available for purchase why not have them... after all they won't provide any real advantages. (Keep in mind that level isn't nearly as big a deal in GW2 as it is in other games with the scaling and all that). If people want a handful of dungeons in a "dungeon pack" through the store, it would be silly to not leave that option open (great way to add content between expansions).
We know that there are at least what... five elder dragons in the world? Six maybe? This first go is against Zhaitan, leaving the potential for four or five major expansions in the future with regards to the dragons alone, so expect major content purchases in the future (expansions).
Guild Wars did quite well with the no-sub-fee, some cosmetic micros model... they've made enough money to still be going strong and allow for GW2 to be developed. They're doing something right without milking the customer.
Oderint, dum metuant.
A good part of their player base would go into absolute hysterics over something like that. If you thought the antics of the anti shop crowd were funny, this would make that pale into near nothing. ^^ They are fine the way they are.
I have to agree, there's no way this could ever be suggested, the player base would totally abandon the game if they tried.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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Never had that feeling, personally. At most its $15 a month. Not nearly enough to be concerned with. Have you seen the price of first run movie tickets lately? ^^