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Why are mmo's so damn exspensive???
Salenger
Member UncommonPosts: 554
Well like many here i have been following and playing the mmo scene since the begining i know the cost's of making and maintaining etc etc, i often wonder how the bigger companies that create mmos are allowed to get away with such robbery. For example recently a few games have gone donw the free to play path, with options of upgrading your account with better and rare items, and rake in cash from advertising and third party influence, also a few game sites ask for donations to keep the servers up and running.
So why is it that these companies ask so much for a pc game, A) greed 
Greed C) ignorance, they definately dont have to charge so much, i understand the smaller companies with smaller budgets whose games are created usually on loans etc, they need to make ther quota. But as for games like WOW, EQ2, L2, that still cost 30-60$ to buy off the shelf and that have already made millions upon millions, i ask why thers no reason for it, seeing as they all have expansions and could easily follow the path of AO and go free for the basic game, which in itself is the best form of advertising.
Anyways i am just venting because i am sick of playing weak games with big hypes, and paying 20$ a month for it, if we all do the math thers no way they need to charge this much.. eg; 50,000 accounts x 20$= 1 million a month nuff said. peace
Comments
well the way i see it...
you take a company as big as blizzard and compare it to say.....NCSOFT
Blizzard has a bigger and mor well know company.
so say blizzard has 5000 emplyees and ncsoft 3500
blizzards need mroe money for their crew. all the officers and computers used. then tons and tons of advertising since wow was like based of the already well knwon WC series so they needed tons of advertising. Upgrades to content., etc
personally if you dislike it then don't play mmo;'s thats the only way to get rid of the expensivness
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well the reason mmo's cost monthly is due to 3 things:
1) server maintence/ hardware costs (good mmo's come out with faster/better servers or just more of them as needed)
2) content updates .. (programmers dont work for free, if new content is being released regularly, then labor costs factor in)
3) advertising, and miscellanious (spelling, sry) business costs... such as tech support/customer support, website maintence....
i like to look at it like this: a movie at the theatres, which provides at maximum 3hrs of entertainment (roughly), costs about $7-8... so go to a movie twice a month and u would get about 6hrs of entertainment for $14-16... meanwhile MMO's are HUGE timesinks and you can easily spend 50+ hrs a month. so, my conclusion, was to stop going to the movies :-P
Also paying for customer support (although some companies don't do that.)
Thats like asking why a mercedes benz cost so much , why does a hummer cost so much , why do ritz crackers cost more than generic crackers and the topper.........why do Nikes cost so much more than a pair of walmart shoes?
The reason....cause people will pay.
Ofcourse most of them are going to charge a Monhtly Fee!
1.They need to keep there game servers up.
2.To pay there staff.
3.To make updates.
SOme of you say "Guild Wars doesn't charge monhtly fees!" that is because they got City Of Heroes n City Of Villains and Lineage and Lineage 2 that CHARGE Monthly Fees!
They want to make huge profits for their future games tbh!
If they wanted to they could make a profit on the gaem being a free download and just running subs every month and expansions for free!
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Don't click here...no2
The zen-like purity of Lunamonster-thought cannot be imitated (unless you're channeling Ram Dass, or something).
No such thing of an exspensive mmo.
Just poor customers.
They are expensive because MMORPG games need alot of staff to repair bugs and improve the game. And having a MMORPG server is very expensive also. They need megasupercomputers to have a server. Thats the reasons of that the MMORPG games are expensive.
Sorry but your last point is incorret for the following reasons:
1. Yes, you attempted to do SOME of the math. Now do the REST of the math -
- A mmorpg that costs 20 million to make will take HOW LONG to re-coup its investment money before it can even start to make a profit?
- It is intresting you picked the number 50,000 accounts. LOL! Because that is the number I, and others, have long known about that is the bare minimum a mmorpg needs in order to have a chance in heaven or hell of re-couping its investment money.
- MMORPGs have an intended shelf life of 5 years. After 5 years, the moneymen could care less if it goes belly up, gets discontinued, or becomes freeware, or whatever. Because by then not only have they re-couped their investment money. But they have also made a very sizeable profit. Which is what capitalism is about.
- Welcome to our capitalistic society, and world. IF mmorpg companies can get people to pay $20.oo (USA) and make millions per month, for years and years, more power to them. That is CAPITALISM. (Why do you think during the Cold War the Russians called Americans, and all capitalists .... "You capitalist pig!". BTW, did you know many players have... *drumroll* more than one account? Play more than one mmorpg at the same time? If 20 bucks will break your budget, risks you going without food and water.... I strongly suggest you stop playing mmorpgs, concentrate on finnishing school, concentrate on getting a good job, a career, save up, then 5 years from now, come back to mmorpgs when you are making 35k or more per year for a single person.
- 20 bucks comes to 5 bucks per week! LESS than 1 buck per day!!! That is litterally NOTHING! Computer games, mmorpgs, are a luxery! They are NOT a necessity! If you cannot afford this luxery, then you cannot afford it! This luxery is NOT for you.
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-> $11 - $15 bucks..... Cost of seeing 1 movie a month. LENGTH OF TIME entertained = 2 HOURS!
->$25-$200.... cost of a Broadway play, music concert ticket. LENGTH OF TIME entertained = 2 to 12 hours.
->$12-$25.... cost of a magazine subscription. LENGTH OF TIME entertained = 1 to 12 hours to read the entire magazine.
->$50-60...... cost of buying a stand alone game every month. LENGTH of time entertained = 12 to 40 HOURS to finnish the stand alone game. Definatly finnished in 1 month LOL!
->$12-$20.... cost of subscribing to a MMORPG. LENGTH OF TIME entertained = 30 DAYS!! 1 to 12 HOURS EACH DAY. How many hours is that?
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Greed
Gordon Gecko said, "...greed is good..."
The word is luxury.
/golfclap
Cost of one month of gameplay = $12-15
Cost of one large supreme pizza = $15-18
Other comparison --> pizza doesn't last a whole month.
~ Ancient Membership ~
It simple and applys to all entertainment. The customers demand more.
For Movies: Good known actors, Newer movie technology....
For Console Games: Better graphics, better sound/music and content. The morre you want the longer the developers have to be hired.
For MMorpgs monthly cost it all about the servers and customer support with added content every month. We demand more twitch base or all players in a zoneless world what cost more sever power.
Now I have no clue why World of Warcraft cost 15 dollar a month. Maybe it to do with the more experince developers they have? but I do see they add more content every month then most other mmorpgs.
Why do we see games with no monthy fee or no software cost? becuase of all above things are lesser then the ones that do and many more.
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To the people who say MMorpgs are inexpensive, you are completely wrong.
You need to pay for broadband/internet access $50 a month. ( Please don't say you can do other things with the internet becuase you can get it free 56k internet)
You need a good computer what cost around $1000 every few years.
( please don't say computers do other things not everyone use it for them or can buy a 500follar computer and use that for 5+years with little upgrades. Also you can goto library and use one there for free. )
For a non-mmorpg I played way more than 40 hours. I see people who playd CS:S over 200hours. It took me 60+hours to "beat not 100%complete) FF7, zelda games, and many many more RPGS.
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Ok, first off you may be slightly older than i, but you arrogance about what you think you know is so damn wrong...
.2. Modern, current, mmorpgs cost 20 to 25 million to make. This means after they release, no matter how much millions they make each month, they are NOT making a profit until they FIRST re-coup their investment money. Aka the 20 to 25 million it cost to make them! Guess how long it takes to make a MMORPG
obviously you must be insane, i went to school for 2 years to learn how to make video games, i undertand source etc, and an mmo can be created basically with no budget and alot of spare time, if a company needs the corporate feeling and deems it necessary to hire an entire office of 20-30 people even then your 20-25 million is perposterous, unless video game designers cost 1 million a year ( i really wish that was the case)
alos server cost are lower than they ever have been, so i dont know where you came up with that stat, and adding content to online games is a piece of cake once you have a finished product.
To answer all of your other i know every but really nothing replys to my original post, all i have to say is that you must follow exactly what the media tells you, honestly where do you get your info from, websites?, if thats the case then you are misinformed i suggest you call up a server rental place and ask them how much it would cost monthly for 5-10 servers on a rental or lease basis, and as long as you sign a yearly contract you will be very surprised at how little it actually costs, and as for what the dev teams make lol please let me know how much you think they make in order to bring the total to 25 million. And one more thing yes it is cheaper to play mmos than go to the movies twice a month but um it takes about 48 hrs minimum before you see any progress in an mmo, movies you can finish the story line in 2 hrs and thats what alot of people look for plus it gets you away from the pc before you become a damn zombie literally lifeless.
YOU LOSE! GOOD DAY SIR!
seriously though, a mmorpg can NOT be created like that, why do you think EVERY SINGLE PROJECT that started like that flops? some that aren't even like that even. Horizons, mourning, wish, irth(i have not heard 1 good thing about this game from anyone). All have been miserable failures. Those are just the "bigger named" projects. There are alot of other smaller ones being developed by small groups of people(black moon chronicles for example, game went bankrupt IN BETA).
Have you really been to school for video games? Have you even looked into mmorpgs? Do you know how much content needs to be released on a regular basis to keep customers? Do you honestly think a group of people in their free time could create and MAINTAIN a decent mmorpg that would pool them any profit?
The point is mmorpgs are cheap. you buy your game for 50 bucks, maybe cheaper, maybe more(some people love collectors edition). You play for 1 month, lets say you only play for 2 hours a day, thats about 60 hours. at 15 bucks a month that rounds down to about 4 hours for 1$. Tell me where in the world can you get that much enjoyment for that little money. thats just for casual players, some will play for 200 hours a month, thats about $.30 for 4 hours(estimate too lazy to actual do the math) How is that expensive. You can get a job and work for a week and have enough money to p2p a mmorpg for almost a year. Tell me, how is that expensive?
Sure your paying for the same game OVER AND OVER, but how many video games do you buy and then play over and over for the same amount of time you play any mmorpg.
Sure it takes a long time to progress in a mmorpg. But if it didn't you'd play for a week and be done. The end. A mmorpg with no progression can not last in this days market. Simply from the fact that pvp, and raids get boring after awhile. And if everyone is maxed out, why would they do simple things like solo dungeons, or the like. Heck even if theres a tiny reward, 80% of the people won't explore. Saying it takes 49 hours to get anywhere is a joke, And don't give me examples such as mourning(daoc has ALOT of 50 advancement, practically more then going 1-50) since it's really... not a success. Most new mmorpgs coming out, or are out(wow and coh/cov for example) start fun at level 1. After 49 hours, guess what? It's STILL FUN. Heck even eq2, eqoa, ro, all start fun, and are still fun after 49 hours(which is less then a month even for a casual gamer).
Guess what, first of all, staying at pc makes people lifeless? I know someone who works on his pc all day, and then he PLAYS GAMES on it after hes done working. Is he a lifeless zombie? No way in heck.
I had a teacher at our skill center for electronics and computer design(from building a computer to photoshop... it wasn't that advanced, but it taught me alot more then any normal high school course would have.) Who worked on his computer at night, making lesson plans and presenting them through powerpoint etc. He worked on designing websites, for the local paper etc. His life revolved around computers. He spends way more then 80 hours a month on computers, yet he has a wife, children, and he is NOT a zombie.
computers are a easy way to relax and do something you enjoy in your spare time. Be it after school, or after work, you can spend 5 hours a night on your computer, and be just fine, still have a social life, still be healthy. For example i went to school from about 6 am to 3 pm, i then went with friends, or with my parents, around places, to their houses etc. And got home at around 7 pm, i played till midnight and went to bed. some nights i got home earlier, some i didn't come home at all. 4-7 hours a night can get me really far in a month, sure alot of other people got further, and some not as far, but no matter how much time you spend getting somewhere in the game, as long as you like the game. Thats what matters. I've known people who have gone to see movies, and then complained about the movie after they got out. How many times have you see someone pay the 15 for a extra month of a mmorpg, and then complain that its a lousy game. Not many, since they are weeded out in the first month(which is free). And guess what? The same thing happens with other games. You can buy em and hate em.
Why do people have to complicate things so much and get into pointless arguements?
I will answer your simple question for you.
MMO's are so damn expensive because companies aren't there to just make games for you to have fun and not pay. Companies (any, not just game companies) are out there to make as much money as they can, it's their job.
If you were the owner of X company, and you just made a product, would you charge it for x amount of money or 10x amount of money, and the amount of people who purchase your product remains the same (or very little difference)?
MMOs are expensive (in comparison to other games) largely due to greed and game maintenance. Also, content is usually made by artists and designers, not programmers.
Personally, I just dislike the subscription business model. I think that a yearly sub of $35 to $50 is without having to purchase a box is reasonable. I have been kind of toying with a three pronged alternative business model lately. It consists of.....
1) In-game real estate. Anyone can play the game for free but you have to pay for a parcel of land in order to set up a shop or put up a house. I'm thinking that any game with this system would have to use elements of A Tale in the Desert. You would have several people using equipment to do a series of smaller jobs to accomplish large projects like mass producing weapons and armour, constructing siege equipment, or making magical items. Likewise you would have to make it so that some items cannot be crafted any other way. This would probably give rise to non-combative guilds of blacksmiths, masons, merchants.
2) Auctions! Set up your own official auction site for in-game items. Players could sell their stuff for real world cash and you could take 2% off of every sale or 25 cents per sale ala ebay.
3) Leagues and ladders. A whole heapin lot-O-people like PvP so why not give them what they want. PvP could happen anytime for free but you could have "exclusive" events where players get ranked and winners can recieve uber rare items that are not available anywhere else in the game.
Obviously, none of these ideas could work on it's own. All of them together however, can support a large player base and make a healthy profit doing it. Yes there will be alot of people that don't put a dime into the game. Those that do pay will more than cover them though.
BTW, a game can be made on a thumbnail budget by a handful of people as a labor of love. If you don't believe me, check out Mount & Blade. This game was made by a husband and wife time over a period of two years. One programmer and one artist.