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No monthly fee for the nex-gen mmo?
Puoltry
Member Posts: 956
Ok so i puruse the forums a bit sometimes and ive noticed that the phrase "next generation" describing the up and coming mmo's being developed.
Ive noticed something else though.
A dangerous trend is developing with some games.
The client is free and downloadable.Its free to play even.But the things we take for granted in most mmo's are NOT free in some games being developed.
From the Roma Victor FAQ:
23: Is the game really going to be free to play?
When we launch the game you'll be able to either download the client or purchase the full retail box. From then on it's free to play.
Here is question 24:
24: Umm, so how are you going to pay for the development, maintenance of the servers and bandwidth?
After the game's release, RedBedlam will introduce its revolutionary alternative revenue model in order to pay for the on-going development of the virtual world and maintenance of the servers. Added in-game services and features will be made available at that time in return for donations.
It makes me wonder what kind of "features'?Housing or new weapons?
I dont know about you guys but im willing to pay up to 20 bucks a month for a really good game but im not going to put up with being nickel and dime to death.Project Entropia and the station exchange are changing the way things are being done in mmo's to a degree that i really dont like.
Hell 1st we have sattelite radio then monthly fees for gaming and now i might have to pay for housing?In a game?Im not just pointing out Roma Victor i just happened to read the FAQ.
Want to ENJOY an mmo?
Dont start a guild and dont be a leader or volunteer to be coleader or captain.
Just play the damn game:)
Comments
haha, your minimum is way too high for me on the poll, how about the max being, 14.99 US per month?
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-Anarchyart
All you friggin suburban white kid wannabe poobutts that are in love with G-Unit are sad and pathetic. Find your own identity
Exactly same...
...
That's just Roma Victor. The real major upcoming games are still the same old monthly fee, $14.95 to $19.95.
I recall from the Xbox 360 conference at E3 that they were going to try to sell content in bits similar to Project Entropia. Not sure if that is still the plan, if it will even catch on, or if I even understood correctly
If that is case and it does catch on I'm sure more MMO's will be coming out similar to that. It's nice for people who don't play much. They won't be spending a lot. However, it's going to hit the hardcore players probably pretty hard since they blow through content so fast. I'm indifferent. I'll have to play myself and see how annoying it is to monitor my funds and if I actually have to spend a lot.
its been said on the forums by the mods at roma-victor.com that you can donate money and you will recieve some in-game money.. and there will be a limit per month. And i get the feeling by what they said that it will be more of a donation: less of a money buying deal.
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nogold.org....
Well i hope SOE stick to monthly fees
Otherwise we'd have like ads in the games everywhere you look!
Altho with SOE they'd probally do that anyways
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Don't click here...no2
Although this thread is about monthly fee/donation, I hardly think that client will be free. Wording suggests that you have to pay for download option.
Yes, Roma-Victor uses that kind of revenue system. you pay for getting in-game money or items in the game. in the same FAQ you quoted, however, is also said that is completely voluntary affair and you can very well pay nothing and try to do it all by yourself in-game.
They say it will be harder and will try to balance things so you need a modest amount of real world money to play without problem. I.E: 15 a month.
Basically, in their view, they are giving you the option to decide how much you pay each month, depending on how much you play and what kind of things you want in the game. A good plan, but i wonder how they will deal with the inflaction that ususally hit Mmorpgs after a while, but then Roma Victor is quite different game and i doubt is gonna have some super uber loot of weapons, armor or the like.
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
micropayments, yes. Microsoft announced them at E3 and there is no reason to think they have been cancelled. They do not apply to MMorpgs only, being that 99.9% of the games coming out for x-box 360 aren't, but will undoubtly affect them.
The system, allegedly, works that you pay money to buy points that you can then spend on various extras for your games. like i dunno, buying a new secret outfit for master chief or obtaining couple secret levels or who knows? the details are still fuzzy.
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
I really like the RV revenue model, it makes a lot more sense than the typical monthly sub and means I pay when I'm playing and not when I'm not.
-Marca
I like this style of payment, that means i can keep playing an mmorpg that i bought but may of not liked at the time or couldnt afford multiple subscriptions.
Basically they are taking the place of Ebay and the Seller. There will always be a market for virtual goods in MMORPG. However, the people with the most income will be the ones to fully benefit from it.
The rich win again.
I think you'll all be very surprised how fast these "alternative payment methods" bleed you dry.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
I don't care for charging for ingame items either. With a monthly fee at least the playing field is somewhat level.
But as in RL its going to turn out just like the golden rule
"He who has the gold rules"
Support Bacteria, its the only culture some people have.
Personally I won't play any MMO that charges Real World money for in game items (or money). It's one thing for folks to buy em on Ebay. It's an entirely different matter when the MMO starts charging me $ to buy a damn sword in a virtual game.
IMO it's bad design and leaves the company wide open to lawsuits if any kind of in game scamming causes players to lose things they had to pay real money for.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
I think there is no way around the monthly fee for a mmorpg that wishes to be succesfull, and for those that will scream Guild wars at this... remmenber... its not a mmorpg and its server arquitecture or game design(instancing) is nowhere as complex or demanding as an mmorpg.
IF you want developers to be able to afford new servers, server maintenence, GM salaries, content dev salries for the content updates and so on.
I think the price will be something around 15$ a month for the next years mmorpg´s, + or - a couple of dolars.
What they are trying to do is take the streams of revenue they see relating to their intellectual property being siphoned off by IGE and others and try to keep them in their own pockets. Station Exchange is the same deal, really. The reality is that there will *always* be a real currency market for in-game currency. The game companies are now coming to realize this and are taking steps to try to bring some of that money back to themselves. The risk they run is that it creates two classes of players: the "haves" who can afford to buy currency and items, and the "have nots" who can't, at least not without grinding it out for countless hours. But I think you have this dichotomy anyway in the games now ... no gaming company is being really effective at cutting off the IGE sales because they can't really do it without really increasing the monitoring, which is not economically feasible in terms of manpower. So, as the saying goes "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" ... and I think tha's what this is about ... namely a recognition that folks who want to pay real currency to make their virtual gaming lives easier are going to do so and you're probably not going to be able to stop the vast majority of them, so why not make the service available to them in the game, and keep that money to yourself than seeing it go to IGE? Now the "fair players" will scream and jump up and down ... but will probably keep playing, anyway, just as they have kept pleying despite the massive amounts of currency sales that are being fed into all of these games through IGE and Ebay.
I know it's a natural feeling to be afraid of change, human nature right ? But this trend really scares the beejees out of me. I've never minded paying a monthly sub for a game, especially for a quality game that the perspective development team puts good work into, so for a good amount of time now I've handed over my $14.95/month with a smile... keep me entertained boys, or else I yank the CC number away. Kinda like looking at a comedian you just paid to get into a club to see and yelling at him, "Make me laugh funny boy!"
But this is an entirely different beast, one I don't feel I really know enough about to comment on but again, fear takes over right. What if everyone starts doing this, what if one day whether I enjoy myself in an MMO is dependent on whether I pay into that game as much as other players do?
Big guy down the block says: "Look at me, I have a huge house, the best hide clothing, the biggest sword, 50 slaves and a kingdom to rule because I throw $100.00 at this game every month"
Little ole me: "Err, well I have two jobs in real life and I'm a student and I pay my rent and books and I have to eat now and so all I got was this in game T-Shirt that says 'I'm broke', a shack on the outskirts of Gutterville and a letter opener to protect myself from that nasty looking rabit over there thats been looking at me kinda funny all day."
My other fear is that these companies are putting all these thoughts into "new and innovative" income potentials, which is great of course, don't get me wrong I completely want them to make money, without money theres no games but at the same time, most of them are just spewing out repeats of repeats of repeats of past games. Sure have some innovation in how you make money but, and call me crazy here, how about some innovation for the games too ?
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No, monthly fee makes more sense because MMO is a service, no matter you as a single player play it or not, it will cost them a fortune to maintain it per month. and since MMO producer is a business, business want to make money not lose it.
BTW, RV developers need work very hard to make sure there's no spam in game otherwise i sense lawsuite coming because those're no longer virtual item/money obtained by just playing, they are paid by real money......
What you'll see in the near future is gaming companies teaming up in order to compete with SOE's $21.99 all access pass. Lets face it if SOE can add 1 good game to that they'll own the industry. Being that they have the most money to play with i wouldnt doubt that in the next year or so you'll see a huge game on the SOE plan. I look at the 21.99 price as something similar to a premium movie channel. I hate paying so much for other games. I keep thinking well if SOE is only charging me $3 per game why am i paying $15 to these other guys? Are these other guys just being greedy? I'm fully expecting to see SOE keep adding titles too. MxO is coming and i wouldnt mind suggesting a few more titles for SOE to buy up that havent seen their full potential. Earth and Beyond and Horizons comes to mind right off hand. I think EnB would be a perfect title for SOE to add.
Make a difference!
LOL if they resurrected E&B EvE might take a hit... a LOT of E&B players would defect from EvE to go back to their old game and be able to play all of SOE's other titles.... yikes!
But you are right. I have a feeling SOE is on the prowl both for new titles to produce as well as older titles to snap up on the cheap. They also appear to be working hard to revamp their own older titles (witness the massive updates to EQ2 and EQ1 lately as well as the sudden development burst for SWG and I heard a rumor that they're working on a new update to PlanetSide?).
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
It's really already happened in games like Second Life, where the company lets you buy in game money for real life money, you have to pay real life money for land and stuff like that. To a lesser extent it's happening in the more "game"-type games as well, just on the sly as countless numbers of people sneak IGE and Ebay-bought money into the game for that horse, that uber weapon etc., it's just not out in the open and the profits are not going to the game, but to the third party sellers. Given the amount of time money and effort IGE and others are putting into this, you have to know that there are tons of buyers out there in all of these games ... next time you look around in WoW or EQ2 or even EVE, you can be sure that there are folks around you who are Ebaying their currency ... there is a real demand for it, clearly.
I'm not advocating that people should be permitted to do this, because I think it makes things really imbalanced and creates backwards incentives for people in a competitive environment. But unless companies are willing to hire the staff they would need to really enforce the rules against Ebaying and the like, it seems inevitable at some stage that companies would want to keep some of this money to themselves, rather than seeing it go to IGE.
It's really already happened in games like Second Life, where the company lets you buy in game money for real life money, you have to pay real life money for land and stuff like that. To a lesser extent it's happening in the more "game"-type games as well, just on the sly as countless numbers of people sneak IGE and Ebay-bought money into the game for that horse, that uber weapon etc., it's just not out in the open and the profits are not going to the game, but to the third party sellers. Given the amount of time money and effort IGE and others are putting into this, you have to know that there are tons of buyers out there in all of these games ... next time you look around in WoW or EQ2 or even EVE, you can be sure that there are folks around you who are Ebaying their currency ... there is a real demand for it, clearly.
I'm not advocating that people should be permitted to do this, because I think it makes things really imbalanced and creates backwards incentives for people in a competitive environment. But unless companies are willing to hire the staff they would need to really enforce the rules against Ebaying and the like, it seems inevitable at some stage that companies would want to keep some of this money to themselves, rather than seeing it go to IGE.
I'm not against allowing people to purchase in game items.
I'm saying it's a bad idea to try to fund the game based on it and force people to do it even to a minimal extent.
It's just that simple. If people have the OPTION to buy things in game that's fine. I really could care less. As long as they aren't intentionally making it necessary for people to do so in order to fund the game. I, for one, won't play a game that REQUIRES me to spend money on day-to-day necessities in the game. I'd much rather pay a monthly fee that is easy to keep track of. You can get nickel-and-dimed into spending tons more money a month than you ever expected to. It's a scam...
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
I think the whole concept is simply flawed. While these games might not be about roleplaying anymore, a lot of people still log into fantasy environments wanting to be the hero, that shining knight, that glamazon princess, or even that dastardly assassin, if only in their subconscious. In a game with a level playing field, people from all over the world, people of various economic strata, people from different cultures can begin the game as equals- what you put into such a world is what you get out of it; you can be the hero, you can be the princess, you can be the assassin if you work hard enough to gain the power, the fame. Now, apparently, you can just buy it. No more level playing field, no more equality.
Sure, you can say that people were buying game currency on Ebay, but in most cases that was against the CoC. Players knew that the developers were against it, and occasionally there were reports of people being banned for it. You can't catch everyone, but at least everyone engaging in said activity knows they're breaking the rules, they're taking a risk; they're the black sheep. When the developer actually sanctions an exchange of real world cash for game world trappings, they're basically saying "screw immersion, screw the effort, we'll sell you your dream- if you can afford it." They're turning their back on a principle of fairplay, and that's a dangerous statement for a game developer to make. As someone else mentioned, it creates a class system in the game, and I'm not talking about fighters and druids. There are the favored spenders and the unwashed masses, and nobody wants to be the dirty beggar in this scenario. Remember? They want to be heroes, knights, princesses.
Of equal improtance, it nullifies any satisfaction the game might otherwise have provided to "competitive achievers." I'm sure you all know the group I'm talking about, since they tend to make up quite a large number of MMO subscribers. These are the people who do a lot of research so they can get that new quest weapon on patch day, the people who find the most profitable place to sell loot, who find that perfect place in the dungeon to rake in experience. They compare their own achievements with the achievements of others, or perhaps they just take pride in walking around with that "Level: XX" next to their name, proclaiming how much they've done.
In a game where these things can be purchased with a Visa card, all of those "accomplishments" will feel empty, hollow, and utterly unfulfilling to this type of player. Sure, game achievements are ultimately meaningless anyway, but the enjoyment involved in doing quests and leveling up hinges on a suspension of disbelief; it has to feel like an accomplishment to have value. Of course, there's also the fairplay issue. At the next world series of poker, let's just allow players to buy the cards they need. Why not? They might've just snuck some cards in with them. How about we let high school basketball teams buy points during the game? How about professional teams? When real world money can buy success in a game, it ceases to be a game and instead becomes a business. Are MMOs businesses? Sure thing. The question is, will they still be games.
Here's the premise I think should be a building block for all MMOs: "No amount of money will entitle you to success in the game. It will only allow you an equal opportunity to achieve it." If that ceases to be the case, then it will no longer be a form of recreation in which I have any interest whatsoever. Allowing real world cash to purchase game world luxuries/privileges is the same thing as allowing unattended gameplay (combat macros, etc); it reduces or removes the effort required to obtain the reward. If the reward is simple to obtain, it isn't really rewarding at all, is it? It's a receipt.
(For the record, this is primarily hyperbole, worst case scenario stuff. I purposely slanted it, because the whole premise really puts a foul taste in my mouth. You'd never guess.
As long as it's just a few games following this model here and there, no worries, no harm done. What worries me is if this formula should prove successful. How many times have we seen success copied? Well, how many reality tv shows have aired since Survivor initially came out? How many versions of EQ have we played with different titles? I would hate it if this became an industry standard.)
I have to agree with Jenuviel, this type of payment method puts a foul taste in my mouth.
I'll not play these upcoming/released games that incorporate real $$ for ingame money/items. And I'll close an account with any game that switches to the "revenue model" or what ever.....
Dev: I'll become rich because players want respect....whole guilds want respect and they'll pay through the nose to get it. insert evil laugh here ...And when everyone becomes UBER, no one will be.