MMORPGs?

[ShoobieRat]

I don't play MMORPGs because of one simple reason - I'm not going to pay a monthly fee just to play a game! And even after the PURCHASE PRICE!? No way!

MMORPG's aren't like regular games.

(-Insert massive "DUH" here-)

Paying for the game when you buy it off the shelf pays for the creation of the game. The monthly fee pays for the operation of the game environment (servers, support, extensions, etc).

Why people see paying subscriptions for MMORPG's as so radically new and stupid, I don't know...

You buy the TV, you pay for cable.
You buy the modem, you pay for internet.
You buy the waterheater, you pay for water.
You buy the phone, you pay for service.
You buy XM radio, you pay for the service.
You buy the game, you pay for connection support.

It's not that hard to understand.

Combined with the fact that MMORPG's are phenominally huge logistical problems. Someone's gotta pay to keep it all going.

 

[dartgande]

quote:

You buy the TV, you pay for cable.
You buy the modem, you pay for internet.
You buy the waterheater, you pay for water.
You buy the phone, you pay for service.
You buy XM radio, you pay for the service.
You buy the game, you pay for connection support.


Yeah! So why should people have to pay to play games now!? It seems like everything has a stupid subscription fee, and now they have to rip the one time cost away from video games too?

And if Guild Wars is a free MMORPG, in terms of subscription costs, then why can't the others do the same? But of course Guild Wars is promising a plenthora of Expansions to make up for the lack of a subscription costs, but still, expansions mean extra content, and it is still only a one time fee when you buy the expansions, not an on-going thing...now if they started releasing expansion packs with stupid or minimal additions, then that would burn me out of MMORPGs all together, but let's hope they do not, and make a product that will drop other MMORPGs to their knees.

 

[Hinrichisgod]

yes, I can't wait for Guild Wars.

 

[Harper]

Yeah! So why should people have to pay to play games now!? It seems like everything has a stupid subscription fee, and now they have to rip the one time cost away from video games too?

Think about it this way.

Last May, I paided AU$78 for a copy of KOTOR. With in about 24 hours, I complete the game. I playied in again so I could see the Sith ending. But after that so KOTOR get put on the playied games pile.
Last July, I paided AU$90 for a copy of Far Cry. With in about 14 hours, i complete the game. So Far Cry get put on the playied games pile. .
Last September, I paided AU$89 for a copy of Doom III, and with in about 16 hours of play, I completed the game.
Last December, I payed AU$90 for a copy of half life 2. With in about 12 hours of play, I finish Half Life 2. So HL2 gets put on the playied games pile.

And yet, I paid US$15 per month for Worlds of War Craft or StarWars Galaxies, and I get endless hours of play in a dynamic game enviroment

I find that I save more money by playing a MMOLRPG as appose to going out and purchasing a game and playing it once and forgetting about it. And I feel that I get more out of it. I used to spend about from AU$50 to AU$90 per fortnight on computer games as I used to finish them quickly and i rarely single player a game more that once.
I SAVE MONEY BY PLAYING MMOLRPGS as there is always some thing new to try out.

Like tonight I am going to most likely do another From Dusk To Dawn WoW Run.

The only genunie complant that I see with MMOLRPG is those younger players that are too young to own a credit card (which is an all too common method of payment for these game)



Personally my view of MMOLRPG is they are a subsitute for pen'n'paper role play games (PnPRPG). Give me a PnPRPG any day over a MMOLRPG.

 

[dartgande]

Good point about the paying to play, but it comes down to if it is for you or not. My opinion is that paying to play sucks, but that is just one voice. I will just stick to guild wars. You see, Guild Wars is promising to release 2 expansions a year, and if you think about that, it nearly adds up to all the monthly subscription fees of the others.

 

[ShoobieRat]

dartgande - Yeah! So why should people have to pay to play games now!? It seems like everything has a stupid subscription fee, and now they have to rip the one time cost away from video games too?

You missed my point entirely. Re-read my post...and actually read it this time.

You're not paying subscriptions and bills just for the sake of paying bills. What, you think the electricity, water, cable, internet, phone-service, magically appears and provides itself like some act of god pulled out of nowhere? The stuff costs money to build, opperate, and distribute!

Come on, dude...DUH!

Take the phone system. Say you have a phone server that can serve 40 people with telephone service. You have 40 thousand people with telephones, stretched across 40,000 square miles, in 400 residential developments, with need for service 24/7 and more. Then you need people to build the phone network to support that, pay those people, pay for the materials, permits, connection services, planning, development, support services, and more.

And you want the phone company to run off the freaking $39.95 you paid for your phone for the rest of their existance?

Get real.

So now I bet yer thinking "yeah, fine, but this doesn't apply to MMORPGs."

Wrong.

Say you've got a server that can support 40 users...and there are actually 400 thousand users spread out on a GLOBAL scale with the need for connection, update services, bandwitdh support, user support, chat services, help support, infrastructure, content creation, licensing, real-time monitoring and distribution, real-time interaction and connectivity, and more...

And you want them to do it all on the $40 bucks you paid for the game? I hate to break it to ya, but 16 mil won't cover things for long. It likely won't even cover the cost for setup and development, let alone salaries for support employees and developers.

Oh, and lets not forget the fact that if they have 400,000 users at 40 bucks for the game, they won't be getting the 16million they should be getting because software pirates will cut into that 16 million by at least 20% if the gaming company is lucky.

The subscription cost isn't just a money pit where you give free money to Blizzard (or whoever) for nothing. You're paying for the ability to be supported. That $40 a month is what it costs for you to ride.

And you know what? If they only use $30 of your $40 for the actual infrastructure and pocket the other $10, that's just fine. That's called making profit (oddly what they set out to do in the first place) and is well deserved for what they accomplish.

As for supposed "free" MMORPGs, you can't deny that the money has to come from somewhere, and that the companies are out to make profit so you can bet they're making a profit off this somehow. Either by selling your identity, spamming you, restricting you, denying you add-ons, or some other back-end profit that will come around and nip you in the butt one day. I guarantee it. And if they aren't doing the above, I guarantee they'll either be disappearing soon in a wake of logistical failure, or they'll be popping the "Please Donate" or "Subscription Now Required" notices shortly after.

The only way around opperating the expensive MMORPG network setup is to have an ad-hoc arrangment where everyone plays on a SETI network, and lord don't we all know how unreliable and painful those things are.

Bottom line...Having you pay a subscription for this is not crazy or stupid or anything. That's the cost of the business. It's not opinion or political, it's the logic. Anyone can do the math. Maybe subscriptions aren't the best way, and maybe the majority of MMORPG players are unemployed/low-income people who want more than they're willing to give for...but that's the way it is.

I'm not trying to start a "war" here, but it just infuriates me to no end. The amount of screaming and yelling and cries of "help help I'm being oppressed" is just pathetic sometimes. I can safely say no Blizzard DP woke up one morning and said "Hey, we should charge people a monthly fee just for the hell of it." And I can sure as heck guarantee you that the game developers didn't say that.

 

[dartgande]

And did you not pay attention to what I said? Guild Wars is making up for the monthly subscription fee by releasing two expansion packs every year. And I still don't care, pay to play is BS, and you are entitled to your OPINION. I'm sure some of what you said is true, but you seem to know a lot for a guy that doesn't run a gaming company.

 

[ShoobieRat]

1. So instead of paying monthly subscriptions, GuideWars is going to have you buy two upgrades a year...So they're going to somehow split a 40x12 ($480) cost into two payments...which blasts you with a bigger payment...which not all people will upgrade...and which has the potential for greater piracy damage.

2. Just because you don't like to pay, doesn't mean it's BS. I think I've proven twice now that the subscriptions can be easily justified.

3. One, I wouldn't want to run a gaming company. Do you have any idea how much stress that is? Two, I'm sorry for being so drastically out of the norm as to try to know a little about what I'm talking about. Three, I worked in the gaming industry. That's how I know.

 

[dartgande]

Two costs a year is actually cheaper. If they both cost fifty bucks each, then that's a grand total of a hundred a year, which is even cheaper than a ten dollar a month subscription fee.

 

[dartgande]

And it is BS in my mind, my opinion, it isn't BS to you, or anyone else that plays MMORPGs. I don't think monthly subscription for games is justified, and I never will. Simple as that.