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Why do people complain about monthly sub MMOs?
Fadedbomb
Member Posts: 2,081
Seriously, the amount of $$ per month is rediculously LOW. Not to mention the fact that EVERY time i mention a new game to some friends of mine they don't even care whatsoever about the "box" price, but their initial question is "Does it have a monthly fee?".
So, let's take the most common monthly fee and break it down ok?
Average MMO monthly fee: $14.95/month ($15).
So, for $15 per MONTH, I get "unlimited" access to the game & all it's content (unless it's a Pay to Win game, then you DON'T).
So, myself with a moderately busy schedule for a collge student that's taking 14hrs worth of credits this semester & a part time job I find I have roughly around 1 to 3 hours per day I have time to decompress and chill with. that's 7 to 21hrs per WEEK I have time for online gaming.
Next, we take 7 to 21hrs per week of supposed "game time" and we see how much per month that is, and it comes out to 28 to 84hrs of possible gametime. *Note*, the range is so vast because one week I will play as much as possible (2-3hrs), and another week I don't play whatsoever. So it's hard to quantify this into a solid number 
!
So, for 28 to 84hrs of online gaming in a monthly fee MMO for ONLY $15/month is quite an accomplishment for modern businesses concidering MOST console & PC games that are NOT monthly fee (and range from $30 to $70 for the box) only come with around 8 to 30hrs worth of gameplay (30 being generous considering most single-player or co-op games have more around 8hrs worth nowadays).
Finally, let's put that 28hrs to 84hrs worth of gameplay for ONLY $15/mo into perspective:
-On a low budget, due to being a college student with a part time job, I can normally swing subway for lunch once a week. Subway, when there isn't the supposed "$5 foot long" deal going on, turns out to be $7.49 per week. That's $29.96/month just in eating lunch ONCE per week in a month!!!!
Now let me ask you, do those subs from subway sustain my hunger for more than 8hrs in a single day, let alone for a week? I think not. Additionally, "chilling out" or getting rid of stress from everyday life is an essential part of living, just like eating & drinking to sustain your body is.
So why, WHY do people complain so adamantly about $15/month? Most people don't even give a DAMN about the $30-$70 box price. Even a poor college student like myself with a part time job and only a couple hours per day of available time CAN AFFORD IT.
So why 
?
The Theory of Conservative Conservation of Ignorant Stupidity:
Having a different opinion must mean you're a troll.
Comments
well i have never paid and probably wont EVER pay a monthly subscription. Why, u ask? well $15 a month does seem like a small amount of money compared to other things, however...im not sure about you, but i think of paying 15 bucks for a game as....spending $15 for very colorful moving pixels. Although F2p games are mediocre quality at best, to me it does the exact same thing as p2p games,it helps pass the time/relieve stress.
Well not sure about your friends but i usually like b2p even though the price of the game is pretty steep its a buy once play forever kind of deal, unlike p2p where if you want to keep playing its 15 bucks every month and that kind of cash can eventually add up
ALso another reason is becuz im a cheap ass
It all adds up though, and it's just like another poster said, there's no way to be sure if it's even worth it until it's too late usually. So it's not just $10-15/mo, it's $50-60 and then the monthly sub, for something you might not like or could end up shutting down or being sold and turned f2p in a matter of months.
There's just too many coming out now and too much of a risk involved to be forking out hundreds of dollars, in a way it's like gambling without any way to get your money back.
So it's not really about being able to afford it, it's more about the logic in spending anything on it, weither it's $1 or $1000 doesn't matter if something isn't worth it, that's money lost for no good reason.
The only mmo i'm even considering paying for is GW2 now, nothing else seems to innovate enough to justify the continued cost to me, even more so when they don't really differ much from the plether of f2p's out there that all do the same basic things, without even spending a dime in the cashshops.
Would rather just f2p hop every other month and get the same ammount of gaming for nothing, than to pay the initial starting cost for what could easily keep me interested for the same ammount of time.
because parents today teach their kids that they are entitled to everything, not responsible for anything, and therefore shouldnt have to suffer any type of ramifications for anything be it monetary or otherwise.
15.00 a month doesn't seem like much if you pay one sub fee for one game.
But if you're like me, you sometimes want to play more than one game at a time, and some games really lend themselves to having multiple accounts (see DAOC, EVE, etc) and then I have more than one person to pay for in my family, and they enjoy variety as much as I do.
At times my monthly sub fees for MMORPG's has averaged about $100.00 a month and then you toss in the price for the initial game purchase and any expansions that most games have.
So sure, one 15.00 fee, no big deal, but when you buy more it starts to hurt.
Add in the fact that if you play mulitple MMOs/accounts, you probably are playing each account for less time and an a la cart approach to purchasing playing time starts making sense.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
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
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"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
This is the most correct post I have seen on this forum in a long time
/slow clap
"All expectation leads to suffering" Buhhda
Amen.
"Mans got to know his limitations ." Clint Eastwood
My problem with a monthly subscription is not actually about the money per say, but about the game itself and what it feels like it is worth to me. I have many times looked at games that seem decent, but I can't get a good look at them because they offer no kind of "free trial". I have unfortunately tried to play a few of these games and always came away disappointed. Now granted, I bought the game and got a "free" month to play. But it just was not worth $15.00 a month for that game. So the money I paid to buy it was a waste. For instance - I currently play two MMOs at this time. City of Heroes and World of Warcraft. CoH is on my dime and worth the $15.00 a month I pay for it (and the cost of the game itself), but just barely. WoW on the other hand is NOT worth the money, either for the game or the monthly subs, I don't care how much content it has. While it's graphics are just fine, the art style is beyond childish and many of the animations are pathetic (being polite there). Thankfully I do not pay for WoW since I am piggybacking on a friends account. Maybe if the entire WoW package was $50.00 and the monthly was $5.00 I would find the game worthwhile, but not at it's current prices.
So for me it is about percieved worth. If the game is good, I don't mind paying. If it is bad, I am pissed I wasted the money to buy it in the first place and wouldn't pay a suscription fee for it.
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
Roses are red
Violets are blue
The reviewer has a mishapen head
Which means his opinion is skewed
...Aldous.MF'n.Huxley
"Life has no limitations, except the ones you make" - Les Brown
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
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
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"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
BULL SH!T!
Not with cash shops or SoE style lotteries (TCG) - you get access to the game, but the majority of new "stuff", WILL be introduced via cash shop. New "stuff" IS content for people.
The REAL problem with kids today, isn't the parents, it's the lazy ass attitude of accepting sub standard crap. For my money, I expect more.
It's not that hard to answer this, theres only two options, you guys are thinking about this way to much.
1 : They're greedy and poor.
2 : They are to stupid or young to have/get a job.
There, was that so hard?
oh and, TLDR
Exactly! Also I find it funny that people are willing to pay 10€ for a movie that lasts less than 2 hours but hesitate to pay 15€ for a game you can play a whole month. That's a price of 3 pints of beer in my country, and no one seems to have problems with that.
I can also pay €50,- for Fallout: New Vegas, a game that could keep you amused for over a hundred hours. Also, that movie you were talking about took probably more than 10 months to develop. If the movie would be Avatar, than the story would be equal in terms of quality to that of an MMO. And in this case your €10,- would be spend on a movie with a budget over $200 million dollars, where as I am required to pay €15,- a month for a game with a budget between $50-$130 million dollars.
Lastly, why pay €15,- a month for an MMO having basically the same mechanics like any other MMO. All other MMOs that have been released in the last 3-4 years where not even worth any money at all, because of their unfinished content.
Its not that a lot of mmos don't justify a sub its that a lot of them arn't worth 15 dollars a month . Some would be far better charging 5 or 10 . At 5 I would play the likes of Warhammer or AoC at 10 maybe some of the newer mmos like Aion would be worth a try . Sadly sticking to the antiquated pricing system dogmatically only leads to companys having less players and less profits . Its one of the reasons I'm for the f2play movement (ddo style) .
THOU SHALT PAY NO MORE OR LESS THAN FIFTEEN DOLLARS PER MONTH FOR THY MMO
was'nt one of the ten comandment ya know :P Time these companys realised that and got competative in their pricing . It applys to every other market just not the blinkerd folk who release these games .
I think their are alot of valid points from all the posters.
P2P is a often something assuring that you will have a quality game, not allways, but often. And everything is unlimited and you only have to pay those 15$, or for me 12.99€. But that is all inclusive. And some of them has a fluffitemstore. Wow has it, Aion has it and probably a bunch more has it. Those 2 I know has a itemstore with showoff stuff. Pegasus anyone?
F2P is often a missunderstood genre of games, yes it is free to play, but it isn't free per se. Often the itemshop games has pay2win items. Then their are those much nicer games that only has fluffitemshop, pay2lookcool^^ With pets and skins. And the ones with premium, and all the sudden the f2p becomes a p2p. In these games we have lotro, silkroad, everquest2extended and so on. You can level up your char for free, but if you want it all you have to pay a montly fee or atleast pay to open up the features. Or pay to have the ability to have more than 2 gold^^
See that 15 a month adds up when you want to play and try other MMORPG games. And most of these MMORPGs arent even worth it
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
I certainly get the people who say that some of these games aren't worth the money, and I understand that you don't know until you buy, but let's take a look at how that really breaks down:
If I buy a new single player game, launch price is probably $50. If I get home, and it rocks, I'm a happy camper, and I play the crap out of it, and(as the OP said) I can probably play the whole thing through in 10-20 hours. If it's good enough for me to lose some sleep, that might be only a few days, even with work/school/etc.
If it sucks, I'm out the money. I probably only played a few hours, at most. A console title might be worth a little on trade, but since this is an MMO site, I'll figure a lot of us are buying single player games for PC, as well.
So, I buy a brand new MMO, also for $50. I get a free month of play, so I can play a month and not be out any more money. If it rocks, I'm happy, and I can spend 10-20 hours on if in a few days(also, losing sleep). I'll then spend many more hours during the rest of that month, all without spending any more money.
If it sucks, well... see above under the single player section. Pretty much the same, except no chance of trade in value.
So, at the end of the first month, I've spent the same money either way. If they sucked, I'll be spending more money on a new game.
The difference is that if the single player game rocks, I'll still be spending money on a new game, likely another $50. With the MMO, I'm only spending $15.
Now, this is obviously a simplification. However, I hope you can see the point. You can rebel against the OPs logic if you want, but it seems sound to me.
(hours of fun) / (money spent) = value
Great post.
Downside: you reminded me of how much money I used to waste on games before I made my way into mmos.
For me, P2P is the only way to go. I'll buy the game, pay a monthly sub, and in some cases pay for an expansion. I will not however, allow a studio to pick and choose what content should or should not have an attached price tag. I like to enjoy these games over the longterm, so I certainly do not want to get involved if I know there's a good chance the'll eventually be selling something that crosses my line.
I'd much rather pay a sub (which haven't gone up in price for how long?) and enjoy all of what the game has to offer.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
If you worked for that dollar go ahead and ask its fine at least they know the value of 15$ dollars over a year.
Either way the simplest solution is just to find a game that has a box cost but no sub hmmm lets think..........Jeopardy theme.................Ah i got it guild wars problem solved.
$15 a month for a game that's being developed, fixed, updated, patched, and content added is not bad at all. $15 a month for a game that's not being developed, has no future visions, no expansions, no updates/patches....now that's bad, and people have every right to complain.
Lately, people complain about $15 a month because more and more items that used to be included as a part of game's content patches are now being sold in online cash shops. So you are in fact being pulled to spend more than $15 a month, and you in return are getting less and less as they put more and more on cash shops.
So I'd say people have good reasons to complain majority of the times. Other times, well there are always people who really should be out working rather than worrying about playing games.
EQ1-AC1-DAOC-FFXI-L2-EQ2-WoW-DDO-GW-LoTR-VG-WAR-GW2-ESO
To OP
Why ? I will tell you Why. First you spend $60 . $60 for what? the title? Then you must spend $15 a month to play it, and its not like you will be playing every hour. (You should be charged by the hour and only charged when you are playing in the hour) Its still a scam to me. Answer me this, why is Playstation Network free and Xbox live isn't?????? They both give you the same stuff right? Same scenario goes with F2P and Subs. You get the same experience. A persistent world and quests like kill X number of Y. Some crafting bullcrap and horrible graphics.(except Aion , Aion looks nice
)
Also there are other things people pay fees for like cell phones, internet service, tv service, electricity, water, gas money. It really adds up. The only reason why you are pro- subfee is because you like having the feeling of an obligation to play so you don't waste money that you spent for the month in the first place. It is a stupid mind cycle.
I'm sorry we are not all rich and money doesn't grow on trees. It is sad to value a game more than real life currency which only buys everything you need in real life. Your friends can simply live without playing sub-fee game , simple as that.
-I am here to perform logic
personally my problem with the sub is you pay for the content update and the patches but if you don't keep paying you lose all the money you invested in the game I would rather that they made content in the form of Micro downloadable content that isn't required to buy like new dungeons or areas and put a tax on it so they can cover costs of balance changes and server costs. lets be honest the same people who make balance changes also work on the new content as well. . The should stick the rest of the new content in expansions like they already do. They buy to play model seems like the best model because I can play the game as much as I want for what I spent and if I want new content I have to buy it. If I don't want to play the new raid dungeon than I won't have to buy it, and wont have access to it. you can use WoW as an example they release a new dungeon like every 3 to 4 months, if they are being fast. in monthly fees that adds up to $45-60 for a dungeon, I can buy a whole new gameplay experience for that much.
Let me put into perspective for you why I don't pay a monthly sub. I am a student who has minimal income due to tuition and am floored most of the time with work. When I have time to play it is usually about 8 hours a week at most. This just makes no sense to pay $15 for that little bit of time when I could get something that is cheaper and have much more value.
Reason I like Lord of the Rings Online, I put down a little bit and play whenever the work load is low and don't have to worry about anything. I refuse to play the 'pay to win' f2p games also so it just isn't a case of being cheap but more of a case of getting what works best with my schedule.