I don't really know if this has been mentioned yet because I don't feel like reading through the whole thread...
but
The pay by hour thing has already been done before. Thats how the old MUDDs used to be on Computerserve, Genie, and AOL... not because the games themselves where pay-by-hour, but because the only way to access them(the ISPs) was pay-by-hour.
The games, of course, were designed to take a long time to level in for exactly this reason. If you think Aion or Lineage is bad, try leveling to cap in Gemstone IV. It literally takes years of 8 hours a day.
I remember seeing some folks who had $200+ ISP bills back when they were playing Gemstone on Genie.
Of course, once one provider went Unlimited Access, it fell apart. Nobody is going to pay by hour when there are alternatives.
I cant disagree enough on 4. The asian model is per hour and it works very very well.
Theres a number of reasons its better.
1. Culls botting - why pay for a bot to play
2. Pay for YOUR play not the hardcores.
Why should a working family man who in a lot of cases taxes are already paying for that no life to sit at home on benefits lapping up a MMO and worse still that same working family man is paying for the habit of when they don;t remoteley cost the same in overheads.
A hourly rate forces them to starve to play, cut down on play or heavesn forbid get off their backsides and get a job.
3. Can aid against gaming addiction with a set budget per month and certainly in some asian titles hours above the 40 hr payment coming at a premium price so people budget their time better rather than spending every waking moment online.
I would personally love to see a western title adopt a 40 hr per month flat fee with per hour charges afterwards. I have always hated the fact I work and have a family and I pay the same as those who have absolutely no life and are often being funded by my taxes to sit at home and play x not only are those who keep the genre alive paying the same we get shafted in game as everything these days is time based grinds.
I'll not even get started on RMT and the hollier than thou attitude those same benefit claiming sit at home on a MMO all day scum have against someone with spare income using to get a leg up in a game to get on a even playing field.
Know what happens when you try and punish a person for an addiction monetarily?
You end up with a addicted broke person who's suffering not only emotionally, but financially. This is on prime display w/ drug addicts, gamblers, and alcoholics.
I'm sorry, but I disagree with you in perhaps the most extreme way its possible to disagree with someone.
Yea. Those last three things. I would never, ever play a game that did any of those things. Outrageous. Yes, it could be much, much worse, but I doubt any of it would really stick at this point. I think players would fly into outrage at the very thought. I suppose it is quite fortunate for us that they did not start with by the minute charges or commercials in the game. Very lucky.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
No. 4 - Why not? Why should guy who plays 5-10 hours a week pay same as guy who plays 60-70 hours a week? Different payment models are something i support.
No. 3 - it goes hand in hand with payment models - pay sub/some other payment play without ads, or play for free with ads. As long as 15/month is standard fee (as current model) its ok
No. 1. - Dont really see how MMOs do it differently - spam your ingame/RL friends to do some dungeon so some of you may get some uber lewt. On a schedule. Its same thing.
No. 4 - Why not? Why should guy who plays 5-10 hours a week pay same as guy who plays 60-70 hours a week? Different payment models are something i support.
In the first place we shouldn't be paying monthly fees..but I know that's not your point. I just want to mention it.
Seriously, did you even read the article? And you wonder why MMO's are going downhill....
What makes you think MMO's are going downhill? I'm pretty sure there are more MMO gamers now then ever before. Not too mention definitely more MMO games out now then ever before.
No. 4 - Why not? Why should guy who plays 5-10 hours a week pay same as guy who plays 60-70 hours a week? Different payment models are something i support.
In the first place we shouldn't be paying monthly fees..but I know that's not your point. I just want to mention it.
They should just have a base line model where up to x hours is this much, y hours is this much, and then a month is 14.99.
But really, they probably don't do it for simplicity for their billing departments.
I cant disagree enough on 4. The asian model is per hour and it works very very well.
Theres a number of reasons its better.
1. Culls botting - why pay for a bot to play
2. Pay for YOUR play not the hardcores.
Why should a working family man who in a lot of cases taxes are already paying for that no life to sit at home on benefits lapping up a MMO and worse still that same working family man is paying for the habit of when they don;t remoteley cost the same in overheads.
A hourly rate forces them to starve to play, cut down on play or heavesn forbid get off their backsides and get a job.
3. Can aid against gaming addiction with a set budget per month and certainly in some asian titles hours above the 40 hr payment coming at a premium price so people budget their time better rather than spending every waking moment online.
I would personally love to see a western title adopt a 40 hr per month flat fee with per hour charges afterwards. I have always hated the fact I work and have a family and I pay the same as those who have absolutely no life and are often being funded by my taxes to sit at home and play x not only are those who keep the genre alive paying the same we get shafted in game as everything these days is time based grinds.
I'll not even get started on RMT and the hollier than thou attitude those same benefit claiming sit at home on a MMO all day scum have against someone with spare income using to get a leg up in a game to get on a even playing field.
Know what happens when you try and punish a person for an addiction monetarily?
You end up with a addicted broke person who's suffering not only emotionally, but financially. This is on prime display w/ drug addicts, gamblers, and alcoholics.
I'm sorry, but I disagree with you in perhaps the most extreme way its possible to disagree with someone.
Do you think it's better to punish everyone else just to benefit those who have no will power?
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
Know what happens when you try and punish a person for an addiction monetarily?
You end up with a addicted broke person who's suffering not only emotionally, but financially. This is on prime display w/ drug addicts, gamblers, and alcoholics.
I'm sorry, but I disagree with you in perhaps the most extreme way its possible to disagree with someone.
Do you think it's better to punish everyone else just to benefit those who have no will power?
Know what happens when you try and punish a person for an addiction monetarily?
You end up with a addicted broke person who's suffering not only emotionally, but financially. This is on prime display w/ drug addicts, gamblers, and alcoholics.
I'm sorry, but I disagree with you in perhaps the most extreme way its possible to disagree with someone.
Do you think it's better to punish everyone else just to benefit those who have no will power?
Exactly how are you punishing everyone else?
By allowing bots, and making casuals pay hardcore prices. Basically everything in the post you originally responded to.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
I cant disagree enough on 4. The asian model is per hour and it works very very well.
Theres a number of reasons its better.
1. Culls botting - why pay for a bot to play
2. Pay for YOUR play not the hardcores.
Why should a working family man who in a lot of cases taxes are already paying for that no life to sit at home on benefits lapping up a MMO and worse still that same working family man is paying for the habit of when they don;t remoteley cost the same in overheads.
A hourly rate forces them to starve to play, cut down on play or heavesn forbid get off their backsides and get a job.
3. Can aid against gaming addiction with a set budget per month and certainly in some asian titles hours above the 40 hr payment coming at a premium price so people budget their time better rather than spending every waking moment online.
I would personally love to see a western title adopt a 40 hr per month flat fee with per hour charges afterwards. I have always hated the fact I work and have a family and I pay the same as those who have absolutely no life and are often being funded by my taxes to sit at home and play x not only are those who keep the genre alive paying the same we get shafted in game as everything these days is time based grinds.
I'll not even get started on RMT and the hollier than thou attitude those same benefit claiming sit at home on a MMO all day scum have against someone with spare income using to get a leg up in a game to get on a even playing field.
While I agree with some of your points about mmos. The only thing I would say is becareful what you wish for . The liklyhood in the current climate is that you'll soon end up as being one of those people sitting at home on benefits . I've paid taxes all my life and in my 20s I thought the same way as you but when I was made redundant in the mid 90s I saw the other side of the coin . You may one day be greatful for the taxes you've paid towards that system . Try to think of it more as putting money away for when you have hard times because you will unless your very lucky . You'll be a lot happier that way .
Actually back when I used to live in Asia, Thailand to be exact there were options to purchase game time cards hourly. So you just pay for the hours that you play. ofcourse monthly was also available but for the occasional gamer you had the hourly option which was some what cheaper than paying for the full month.
Comments
I don't really know if this has been mentioned yet because I don't feel like reading through the whole thread...
but
The pay by hour thing has already been done before. Thats how the old MUDDs used to be on Computerserve, Genie, and AOL... not because the games themselves where pay-by-hour, but because the only way to access them(the ISPs) was pay-by-hour.
The games, of course, were designed to take a long time to level in for exactly this reason. If you think Aion or Lineage is bad, try leveling to cap in Gemstone IV. It literally takes years of 8 hours a day.
I remember seeing some folks who had $200+ ISP bills back when they were playing Gemstone on Genie.
Of course, once one provider went Unlimited Access, it fell apart. Nobody is going to pay by hour when there are alternatives.
Know what happens when you try and punish a person for an addiction monetarily?
You end up with a addicted broke person who's suffering not only emotionally, but financially. This is on prime display w/ drug addicts, gamblers, and alcoholics.
I'm sorry, but I disagree with you in perhaps the most extreme way its possible to disagree with someone.
Yea. Those last three things. I would never, ever play a game that did any of those things. Outrageous. Yes, it could be much, much worse, but I doubt any of it would really stick at this point. I think players would fly into outrage at the very thought. I suppose it is quite fortunate for us that they did not start with by the minute charges or commercials in the game. Very lucky.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
WTF? No subscription fee?
"We live in some dark days, I just hope the light at the end of the tunnel is not the front of an oncoming train."
There was only one train leaving the MMO platform six years ago, we all got on it and look where we are now.
No. 4 - Why not? Why should guy who plays 5-10 hours a week pay same as guy who plays 60-70 hours a week? Different payment models are something i support.
No. 3 - it goes hand in hand with payment models - pay sub/some other payment play without ads, or play for free with ads. As long as 15/month is standard fee (as current model) its ok
No. 1. - Dont really see how MMOs do it differently - spam your ingame/RL friends to do some dungeon so some of you may get some uber lewt. On a schedule. Its same thing.
In the first place we shouldn't be paying monthly fees..but I know that's not your point. I just want to mention it.
What makes you think MMO's are going downhill? I'm pretty sure there are more MMO gamers now then ever before. Not too mention definitely more MMO games out now then ever before.
They should just have a base line model where up to x hours is this much, y hours is this much, and then a month is 14.99.
But really, they probably don't do it for simplicity for their billing departments.
Do you think it's better to punish everyone else just to benefit those who have no will power?
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
Exactly how are you punishing everyone else?
I also read what Writer Bill Murphy told about MMO's, but its quite silly though.
"be glad that the industry started with a standard subscription".
Perhaps I am just showing my age here... but MMORPG's started as pay per hour/minute. This model is still used in many parts of the world.
This could also be why I think that the F2P model is a good idea in many cases.
By allowing bots, and making casuals pay hardcore prices. Basically everything in the post you originally responded to.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
All good points and total props for the American dad refrence
While I agree with some of your points about mmos. The only thing I would say is becareful what you wish for . The liklyhood in the current climate is that you'll soon end up as being one of those people sitting at home on benefits . I've paid taxes all my life and in my 20s I thought the same way as you but when I was made redundant in the mid 90s I saw the other side of the coin . You may one day be greatful for the taxes you've paid towards that system . Try to think of it more as putting money away for when you have hard times because you will unless your very lucky . You'll be a lot happier that way
.
Actually back when I used to live in Asia, Thailand to be exact there were options to purchase game time cards hourly. So you just pay for the hours that you play. ofcourse monthly was also available but for the occasional gamer you had the hourly option which was some what cheaper than paying for the full month.
It's cold, it's dark, let hell loose...