"Paying a monthly Fee is stupid" - No..no it's not.

[Ghengis John]

So to get my money's worth out of a MMO, I'd have to play 15 hours a month on top of an initial 50 hours to get the same game/$ ratio you get from Dragon Age. I don't have the time or the money, quite frankly. and playing 15 hours of a game every month sounds like an awful lot of grinding to me.

But I don't even like MMOs, so I'm just came into this thread to moan a bit.

I think you hit upon the main facet of the argument here. Paying a monthly fee is fine. So long as you perceive or derive a value from it. If you don't, then why bother?

 

[Nexus4]

I just always figured that those were complaints from kids who didn't have jobs, but really wanted to play the game. Once you are working, $15 a month isn't that big a deal.

Unless you're a uni student and don't have time to earn a decent amount, let alone pay it in addition to bills and shit you just barely cover

I just always figured that those were complaints from kids who didn't have jobs, but really wanted to play the game. Once you are working, $15 a month isn't that big a deal.

Unless you're working in the creative industry, then it's two days of food.

Just OOC, how do you afford other games if your so pressed for cash that $15 is a major purchase decision? Or do you only buy like 1-2 games a year?

I usually go about 1 per year...so yeah

 

[Nexus4]

I just always figured that those were complaints from kids who didn't have jobs, but really wanted to play the game. Once you are working, $15 a month isn't that big a deal.

Unless you're a uni student and don't have time to earn a decent amount, let alone pay it in addition to bills and shit you just barely cover

so if you don't have time to earn a decent amount of money how do you have time to play an MMO?
those things take a lot time after all.

I don't actually play MMO's, I just wanted to point out that I couldn't afford to even if I wanted to

 

[Sabiancym]

Whenever I'm reading articles about MMOs or topics about MMOs on this forum I always see some familiar words.

"This game looks cool, but I'm not paying $15 to play a game I already bought."

"15 Dollars a month!!! That's ridiculous, I paid for the game once, let me play it!!"

"MMOS are Ripoffs!!"

"LOSERS!! PAYEING $$$ TO PL4Y a GAEM. U AINT L33T!"



Are these people that mathematically challenged?


When you pay for a regular game you get a certain amount of content for a certain amount of money. Let's take Dragon Age for Example. If you do everything in the game once, you get about 40-50 hours of gameplay. Yes you can replay it, but for the most part, there is only 40-50 hours of new content. So if the game costs $50, that's a dollar per hour of gameplay.

Now if you take an MMO, you have hundreds and hundreds of hours of gameplay. PvP, crafting, leveling, raiding, etc. Even if you only play a couple days a week, the dollar per gameplay hour ratio is way way way higher than a normal game.


So the "Ripoff" that people claim is not even close to true. The sad thing about this is that companies are taking advantage of this stupidity and going with "free to play" games. This gets the anti-monthly fee guys addicted to a game because it's free, and then charge them crazy prices for in game items and gold.

So the people who were against paying money for an mmo now end up paying potentially more money for an inferior game ruined by micro-transactions.


So before you complain about other people paying a monthly fee for a game. Do the math.

The whole idea of subscription based gaming is evil. When I had WoW, every moment of every day I was thinking, "If Im not playing this game right now, Im wasting that $15 I spent to play it this month." Thus I became a shut in and played the game damn near 20 hours a day every day. Its that horrifying. Fuck online subscriptions. And you may think "Its only $15." Not everyone can afford luxaries. I was still fresh out of high school and barely even had a job.

I've heard this argument before and it still makes absolutely no sense. You think that because you paid $15 this month that you need to play it to get your money's worth? So what about when you pay $60 for a single player game? Do you need to play that game constantly for the first couple of months? It's the same amount of money.

 

[Chibz]

Whenever I'm reading articles about MMOs or topics about MMOs on this forum I always see some familiar words.

"This game looks cool, but I'm not paying $15 to play a game I already bought."

"15 Dollars a month!!! That's ridiculous, I paid for the game once, let me play it!!"

"MMOS are Ripoffs!!"

"LOSERS!! PAYEING $$$ TO PL4Y a GAEM. U AINT L33T!"



Are these people that mathematically challenged?


When you pay for a regular game you get a certain amount of content for a certain amount of money. Let's take Dragon Age for Example. If you do everything in the game once, you get about 40-50 hours of gameplay. Yes you can replay it, but for the most part, there is only 40-50 hours of new content. So if the game costs $50, that's a dollar per hour of gameplay.

Now if you take an MMO, you have hundreds and hundreds of hours of gameplay. PvP, crafting, leveling, raiding, etc. Even if you only play a couple days a week, the dollar per gameplay hour ratio is way way way higher than a normal game.


So the "Ripoff" that people claim is not even close to true. The sad thing about this is that companies are taking advantage of this stupidity and going with "free to play" games. This gets the anti-monthly fee guys addicted to a game because it's free, and then charge them crazy prices for in game items and gold.

So the people who were against paying money for an mmo now end up paying potentially more money for an inferior game ruined by micro-transactions.


So before you complain about other people paying a monthly fee for a game. Do the math.

What I complain about is games that have monthly fees but then go on to sell expansion packs regardless. THAT is massively stupid.

I'm looking at you, Blizzard.

 

[Sabiancym]

Whenever I'm reading articles about MMOs or topics about MMOs on this forum I always see some familiar words.

"This game looks cool, but I'm not paying $15 to play a game I already bought."

"15 Dollars a month!!! That's ridiculous, I paid for the game once, let me play it!!"

"MMOS are Ripoffs!!"

"LOSERS!! PAYEING $$$ TO PL4Y a GAEM. U AINT L33T!"



Are these people that mathematically challenged?


When you pay for a regular game you get a certain amount of content for a certain amount of money. Let's take Dragon Age for Example. If you do everything in the game once, you get about 40-50 hours of gameplay. Yes you can replay it, but for the most part, there is only 40-50 hours of new content. So if the game costs $50, that's a dollar per hour of gameplay.

Now if you take an MMO, you have hundreds and hundreds of hours of gameplay. PvP, crafting, leveling, raiding, etc. Even if you only play a couple days a week, the dollar per gameplay hour ratio is way way way higher than a normal game.


So the "Ripoff" that people claim is not even close to true. The sad thing about this is that companies are taking advantage of this stupidity and going with "free to play" games. This gets the anti-monthly fee guys addicted to a game because it's free, and then charge them crazy prices for in game items and gold.

So the people who were against paying money for an mmo now end up paying potentially more money for an inferior game ruined by micro-transactions.


So before you complain about other people paying a monthly fee for a game. Do the math.

What I complain about is games that have monthly fees but then go on to sell expansion packs regardless. THAT is massively stupid.

I'm looking at you, Blizzard.

No it's not. Expansion packs contain hundreds of hours of new gameplay. The dev time and content put into these packs is just as much as a regular single player game.

The monthly fee covers the very expensive servers, constant bug patching, moderating, support that is way more involved than a normal game, etc. Expecting to get a new expansion out of that fee is asking way too much.

They could release expansions free, but they would be of way lower quality due to no incentive for them to develop it. If you already had a solid MMO with a growing playerbase, why would you bother wasting dev time to create a major add-on? The only answer to that is money.

 

[Chibz]

No it's not. Expansion packs contain hundreds of hours of new gameplay. The dev time and content put into these packs is just as much as a regular single player game.

The monthly fee covers the very expensive servers, constant bug patching, moderating, support that is way more involved than a normal game, etc. Expecting to get a new expansion out of that fee is asking way too much.

They could release expansions free, but they would be of way lower quality due to no incentive for them to develop it. If you already had a solid MMO with a growing playerbase, why would you bother wasting dev time to create a major add-on? The only answer to that is money.

What, you mean lower quality than just the same palette swapped monsters? That would be a catastrophy!

The selling point (for me) of the pay-to-play model was that I get more frequent updates and support. What's the point of paying for more frequent updates if they're going to just sell me them for the price of a full game extra. And yes, they charge the price of a retail game but deliver substantially LESS than that. How many expansion packs does WoW have now? How much does it cost for a genuinely new player to get INTO wow? $20 (WoW + burning crusade) + $20 (Wrath of the Lich King) + $40 (Cataclysm). These are the digital prices, of course. Don't have prices for physical games at the moment. That's $80. Sweet jumping sarcophagus.

And besides, many games (as previously mentioned) avoid this scam-like business model.

 

[Hiken no Ace]

15 a month...Hrm...should I spend it on food, or should I spend it on a crappy game I'll grow bored of in a month and a half...decisions decisions...

Well if that's all that's stopping you, think of it like this. $15 = ~3 meals, yes? So if you really wanted to play that game, just eat ramen or PB&J 3 times when u want to eat out that month, and wham! No major loss of weight there. You may get tired of the game in a month and a half, but the $15 is just for a month, so you're safe to play it before getting bored. On the other hand, if it's just a 'crappy game' you probably have no interest in in anyways, so the decision to spend money on it is rather moot. Right?

 

[Hiken no Ace]

15 a month...Hrm...should I spend it on food, or should I spend it on a crappy game I'll grow bored of in a month and a half...decisions decisions...

Well if that's all that's stopping you, think of it like this. $15 = ~3 meals, yes? So if you really wanted to play that game, just eat ramen or PB&J 3 times when u want to eat out that month, and wham! No major loss of weight there. You may get tired of the game in a month and a half, but the $15 is just for a month, so you're safe to play it before getting bored. On the other hand, if it's just a 'crappy game' you probably have no interest in in anyways, so the decision to spend money on it is rather moot. Right?

Or I could not be a colossal moron and buy the food.


Honestly setting the cash on fire would be a better use than paying for a COD subscription.


I don't know why you made this post anyways as it makes no sense and doesn't address any points I made. The point I was making is that a subscription fee on a game like Call of Failure is bound to, umm, fail. There is no need for such a fee on a game that doesn't have any upkeep costs once it's rushed out the door half finished, and even if there was the bilking for last game's maps would more than cover it.

I think you mistake my meaning. I wasn't talking about Call of Duty, because I've barely played it and I never would buy it. I made my original post that you quoted earlier as a response to paying a fee for MMO's, not for Xbox live. That is what I thought you were talking about too. Of course there's no good reason to spend $15 a month on a game you don't even like.

 

[Echo136]

Whenever I'm reading articles about MMOs or topics about MMOs on this forum I always see some familiar words.

"This game looks cool, but I'm not paying $15 to play a game I already bought."

"15 Dollars a month!!! That's ridiculous, I paid for the game once, let me play it!!"

"MMOS are Ripoffs!!"

"LOSERS!! PAYEING $$$ TO PL4Y a GAEM. U AINT L33T!"



Are these people that mathematically challenged?


When you pay for a regular game you get a certain amount of content for a certain amount of money. Let's take Dragon Age for Example. If you do everything in the game once, you get about 40-50 hours of gameplay. Yes you can replay it, but for the most part, there is only 40-50 hours of new content. So if the game costs $50, that's a dollar per hour of gameplay.

Now if you take an MMO, you have hundreds and hundreds of hours of gameplay. PvP, crafting, leveling, raiding, etc. Even if you only play a couple days a week, the dollar per gameplay hour ratio is way way way higher than a normal game.


So the "Ripoff" that people claim is not even close to true. The sad thing about this is that companies are taking advantage of this stupidity and going with "free to play" games. This gets the anti-monthly fee guys addicted to a game because it's free, and then charge them crazy prices for in game items and gold.

So the people who were against paying money for an mmo now end up paying potentially more money for an inferior game ruined by micro-transactions.


So before you complain about other people paying a monthly fee for a game. Do the math.

The whole idea of subscription based gaming is evil. When I had WoW, every moment of every day I was thinking, "If Im not playing this game right now, Im wasting that $15 I spent to play it this month." Thus I became a shut in and played the game damn near 20 hours a day every day. Its that horrifying. Fuck online subscriptions. And you may think "Its only $15." Not everyone can afford luxaries. I was still fresh out of high school and barely even had a job.

I've heard this argument before and it still makes absolutely no sense. You think that because you paid $15 this month that you need to play it to get your money's worth? So what about when you pay $60 for a single player game? Do you need to play that game constantly for the first couple of months? It's the same amount of money.

Your counterpoint doesnt work. You pay $60 for a game, and you can play it a week from now, a year from now, or 10 years from now. Hell, I've got games from the late 90's that I play every now and then You spend $15 on a subscription and its only good for a month.

 

[Jack Macaque]

I just don`t see a need to throw more money at companies, look at Blizzard...

 

[justnotcricket]

I think it really all depends on how much you feel you get out of a game. If you really feel that the game is worth paying a subscription for, then go right ahead. I'm sure there are times when people start MMOs or take a trial, and decide that it isn't quite right enough for them that they want to subscribe. So they try another, and this one they prefer. so long as an MMO has enough new content/stuff to explore/experiences/etc for you to enjoy, why not, if you can afford it?

In any case, what people spend their money on is up to them. I'm not into MMOs myself (no time, also my PC is a dinosaur and my internet connection at home is arse), but I won't judge someone for paying for something that they enjoy. they're not asking me to pay for it, after all.

As for giving more money to companies already swimming in it, well, if you're against that, then there are a lot of companies you'd better be boycotting. Like the power companies, for example. And the telecommunications ones. So long as enough of that money goes into developing great games with excellent support and well managed communities, why not?

 

[Shakudo]

Personally, the fee of the more popular MMOs has kept me away from those games, even though they are honestly my favorite genre. There are hundreds of dollars I could have spent playing games that languished in my bank account for lack of entertainment value.

I feel like the post-purchase "Fee v. Free" argument is missing a very important middle ground. Deciding whether a subscription is "worth it" works very well for the guys at either extreme; the avid gamer or those who have better things to do. But what about the undecided or casual player?

If I want to play, but I don't want to pay that much because I just don't have that much free time, I'll go find a free game or one with small fees for special items and services. They're all over the place, and if you don't play much, you're willing to sacrifice a little quality for the better price. You're...honestly not sacrificing much. A little lost in translation, maybe. And you don't spend enough time in the game for it to really matter, anyway. If the fee was a little lower, I might go for the better game. But it's not, so I'm not. On top of the price of the game, those fees would build up to astronomical sums as the months went on, but I wouldn't even notice because it would be within my monthly budget. I might even go for automatic payments if it were low enough, and if I didn't play for a month? "Oh, I forgot to cancel that. Nevermind, I'll find more time to play later."

Am I the only one who thinks this way, or is the game industry missing out by not having a lower fee for people who play a lot less?