Dissapointed in RIFT's subscription status

[Tomas Krystinik]

Was anyone else heart broken when they went to RIFT's site and signed up after getting their beta key from here only to find out all too late that there's the usual BS monthly fees? Now, I'm not trying to step on toes here, but I feel they should have mentioned in the beta key announcement that you'd get to play for, what, two days while there's beta events or something, before having to shell out 14$ or so a month?

I don't have money to be spending on games. I've always found it, for lack of a more polite term, "rather silly" to pay per month to play games. Sure, there's free mmorpgs out there, but I own a mac with a very finicky virtual machine running xp on it. Most free mmorpgs for windows that say they're compatible actually aren't, because either it won't start up or your character/floor/enemies are invisible, or worse. And the rest that I've found just couldn't keep my interest.

As for actual Mac mmorpgs, well, there aren't many that are genuinely free, and the ones that are are even worse than the windows ones (for the majority of its time online PlaneShift was built on lies and unfulfilled promises, many features the game said it had it just didn't. Even now that it does have them, they're not nearly as good as promised). RIFT doesn't look like it sucks, and it looks like it would be compatible with my vmachine. I'm not sure if I wanna do the beta stuff cause then it's gone and itching at me if it was good.

So my question for yall is this: What's your take on this situation? Do you think the escapist should promote free mmorpgs more often? Do you think Rift should get off its high horse and let folks play for free? Do you think I'm an escaped mental patient off his meds who doesn't even own a computer? There are no wrong answers. Except answers that are obviously wrong.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

I think that RIFT should have stated something about the subscription fees before just dropping the ball on it. I was also in the beta, and found out the hard way, but that's about all the NDA really allows me to say.

I'm not really for or against subscriptions themselves, but the lack of notice about it isn't appreciated, but I think it is a business issue and each business will have to decide how to pay for the game they built. It worked for a few MMOs, most notably EQ and WoW, but it's not for everyone.

As for what escapists advertises, or promotes, they did with Vindictus, which is a very fun, free MMO... until it gets way to repetitive. They'll advertise for pretty much whoever pays them for the space.

 

[Mcface]

So.. you are upset that you have to pay for a game?
And what is the bit about high horse? They want to make money on the thing they spent years making, and they are suddenly on a high horse? the fuck?

Also subscription models are by far the best setup for a MMORPG. Servers to hold thousands of players cost money. Keeping a dev team working on the same title for years costs money. GAMES COST MONEY. the micro bullshit shops of F2P games are the main reason most of them fail. No, i dont want to take out my cc every time i want to play a dungeon, or drink a potion.

 

[Radeonx]

How are monthly fees BS?
They spend tons of time working on the game even after it is originally released, so it is only fair that they get payed for their work.

 

[Kilgengoor]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold it right there. So let me see if I got this correct: you were all in the RIFT beta and all of a sudden they just started charging you? But you had to give no CC details or anything of the sort to get in, right? how did that even happen?

I'm happy I dropped the beta earlier if that's the case. I got in there, saw it was some kind of a WoW / LoTR hybrid with improved graphics and just lost any interest on it.

 

[Jasper Jeffs]

I always assume MMORPG's have a subscription fee, only the shit ones don't. I think you're being pretty greedy. As for subscription fees in general, I prefer them. I'd rather pay £8 a month for an MMO with unlimited content than pay £40 for new releases that last under three days, with shit online components in an attempt to make them last longer. People always associate monthly fees with being ripped off, it's quite fun to read.

 

[TriggerHappyAngel]

Almost all the "good" MMO's needs monthly subscribtion fees to keep the server running.

Except for Guild Wars, those servers run on magic.

 

[Gxas]

Sure, there's free mmorpgs out there, but I own a mac with a very finicky virtual machine running xp on it.

This is your problem. I'm not against Macs, but if you're going to complain about lack of games, at least get a computer that is made for gaming. You cannot complain about anything related to gaming while trying to run XP off a VM on a Mac. It just doesn't work that way.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

i am sick to death of people bitching about monthly fees for MMOs. what most people fail to consider, when they make that complaint, is that the average MMO will suck down far more of your time than another game would. paying $15/month has often saved me $100+/month when i consider where i would have spent my money if i didn't have an MMO to keep me occupied. plus, there is a shit-ton more support that goes into an MMO than to an offline or limited-online game.
also, in my experience, f2p MMOs usually will cost you more than a subscription-based MMO.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

I always assume MMORPG's have a subscription fee, only the shit ones don't. I think you're being pretty greedy. As for subscription fees in general, I prefer them. I'd rather pay £8 a month for an MMO with unlimited content than pay £40 for new releases that last under three days, with shit online components in an attempt to make them last longer. People always associate monthly fees with being ripped off, it's quite fun to read.

Except they often don't. Rehashed quests and some new items justify a subscription fee do not.

Some games periodically add meaningful content. Most don't. 15 dollars is a quarter of the price of the original content, do you even get ten percent worth of new stuff each month? No? Then a fee isn't justified.

 

[Jasper Jeffs]

I always assume MMORPG's have a subscription fee, only the shit ones don't. I think you're being pretty greedy. As for subscription fees in general, I prefer them. I'd rather pay £8 a month for an MMO with unlimited content than pay £40 for new releases that last under three days, with shit online components in an attempt to make them last longer. People always associate monthly fees with being ripped off, it's quite fun to read.

Except they often don't. Rehashed quests and some new items justify a subscription fee do not.

Some games periodically add meaningful content. Most don't. 15 dollars is a quarter of the price of the original content, do you even get ten percent worth of new stuff each month? No? Then a fee isn't justified.

Read the guy above you.

 

[titaniumChampion]

Actually from a financial standpoint the pay-to-play MMO is a better model for gaming-to-dollar ratio. Your mileage may vary, cost effectiveness depends upon how much time you will play.

In a given year, a WoW user will spend $15 per month for a total of $180. In contrast, if you buy a new game at release for $60+, you could only get roughly 3 a year for that same amount of money. There are trade-ins to consider that could extend the amount, and we would need to examine the length of time a user would spend on these to truly make a comparison if they are worth the cost versus a subscription. But the MMO is always expanding or building upon its foundation. Each patch brings new content, bug fixes, and new quests/stories. A retail game is routinely static, unless a developer supports it which will add some DLC. DLC leads to a pricing model similar to the Free-to-Play-Pay-to-Upgrade model of playstyle. You get your content when you're willing to pay, nothing wrong with that, but it can be overpriced.

Also consider that Gamefly costs the same per month as WoW to rent a game (Standard: $15.95/month @ 1 game out at a time). It is pretty much the same business model.

In conclusion, I feel that I spend far less money subscribed to WoW than trying to stay current with console releases. The amount of time I can spend in an MMO vastly outnumbers the amount of time I'd spend on a console title. Plus, I have ADHD when it comes to games and constantly switch discs; which is a hassle and infuriating when each disc has a standard amount of time it needs to show company logos just to even get to the game.

 

[loc978]

Another MMO"RPG" set in a generic fantasy world not living up to the expectation of converting a large number of people from World of Warcraft? Say it isn't so!
*ahem*
I apologize for that, my sarcasm got the better of me.

If you're looking to run games on your mac, though... my suggestion is to learn Linux command line. OSX is a Linux shell now, you can run Wine if you know what you're doing, and Wine can run every MMO I've ever encountered.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

I always assume MMORPG's have a subscription fee, only the shit ones don't. I think you're being pretty greedy. As for subscription fees in general, I prefer them. I'd rather pay £8 a month for an MMO with unlimited content than pay £40 for new releases that last under three days, with shit online components in an attempt to make them last longer. People always associate monthly fees with being ripped off, it's quite fun to read.

Except they often don't. Rehashed quests and some new items justify a subscription fee do not.

Some games periodically add meaningful content. Most don't. 15 dollars is a quarter of the price of the original content, do you even get ten percent worth of new stuff each month? No? Then a fee isn't justified.

Read the guy above you.

Yes, MMOs are addictive. However, that still doesn't (to me at least) justify continual payment.

For me to pay additional money, I need an additional amount of content. For MMOS, this could work by only giving people the new stuff if they pay for it. Expansions, basically.

Also, "See the guy above you" doesn't really count as a response. Just rehash what he said, or quote both of us.

 

[Kilgengoor]

Lol no, that's not the case. Beta is free throughout. Essentially he's saying that it's BS that they didn't tell him that the retail version of the game will have a monthly fee before they got him hooked with the free beta. I thought it would pretty much be assumed for a game like RIFT.

Thank God I just stumbled upon another "paying for an MMO is unjust!" thread instead of a shameless robbery from a developer. Which in my opinion isn't making you pay for an MMO.
We have a lot to thank to the current generation. You've got frankly good Mumorpurgers for almost every kind of gamer (if someone knows of one in which actual stats and strategy win over vanity items and bullshit fancy armor please tell me, it's the one I'm missing), and I think RIFT was announced to be Pay2Play quite a long time ago, when I pondered wether it'd be worth my while to get into the beta. However, don't wanna pay? there's plenty of other options:

- LotRO: is kinda-sorta Free2Play, at least for a bunch of levels. Then you'd have to fork over about 30? per expansion pack, which should make a grand total of 60? if you consider the two expansions. If you want to pay they won't only unlock A LOT of the game's content, but also give you an actual allowance each month, so if you're clever and save up further expansions are free.

- EVE Online: You pay a monthly fee alright, but the massive game universe and subsequent expansions are free. AND its content is efectively pushed forward by players participating in events the developer puts in games

- Champions online has recently gone F2P. I don't know the specifics on it, but it should work similar to LotRO.

- Warhammer Online's got this "Free forever trial" or something, I don't know much about it, though.

- Guild Wars, 'nuff said.

Plus, you've got a TON of free massive entertainment options available out there, or that require a small (almost symbolic): Haven & Hearth, Minecraft, That-one-that's-sorta-like-minecraft-but-kinda-more-realistic-thingy, and much more.

So, if you really want free online games, go for them. But don't expect a game will be F2P just because the beta, or some lunatic in its forums says so.

 

[Zakarath]

Yeah, Rift isn't worth it costing a full game's price to buy and then costing subscription prices on top of that. (From the beta, I'd say it really doesn't have much to recommend it over the other MMOs out there.)

 

[Jasper Jeffs]

Yes, MMOs are addictive. However, that still doesn't (to me at least) justify continual payment.

For me to pay additional money, I need an additional amount of content. For MMOS, this could work by only giving people the new stuff if they pay for it. Expansions, basically.

Also, "See the guy above you" doesn't really count as a response. Just rehash what he said, or quote both of us.

I don't really find them addictive, I play most games for their multiplayer, and I find WoW to be an assload more fun than COD, or Team Fortress. To each their own though, I don't mind WoW's subscription fee, it is (to me) much better than any retail game. MMOs do have additional content, I don't know if you've ever played one, but they are practically endless, and I still find it fun to level up new characters, questing in different zones than where I was before. It's fun, and that's what I'm paying for when I buy any game, subscription fee or not.

I couldn't be arsed quoting him either. MMOs and subscription fees are a matter of taste, we have different tastes...

 

[Woodsey]

Sorry, are you saying they're charging you to be in the beta?