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

[thenumberthirteen]

I still haven't finished New Vegas, Mass Effect 2, or Dragon Age despite owning them for a while. I don't want to keep paying for a game that I'm not playing. If I mainly played WoW, etc then I'd be more than happy to spend the extra money a month, but I like to mix and match my games playing them piece by piece over a long period of time.

I know I can go and complete Assassins Creed II any time I want, but if I want to play more Star Trek Online (though I don't know why I would want to do such a thing) I'd have to pony up extra cash to play.

 

[HijiriOni]

I have a problem with the money to time ratio. MMOs are designed to do nothing but waste your time. If I recounted the hours I spent in FFXI and how many of them I actually did something enjoyable the amount of money I spent monthly doesn't even cover half the value of entertainment I got from other games like Lufia, Earthbound, Mega Man X4, Metal Gear Solid, or whatever else.

 

[Macrobstar]

Well I don't pay a monthly fee becaus eI got bored of WOW before the weeks trial was over, "go here and kill X ammount of Y" could about sum it up

 

[GonzoGamer]

Because when I can buy other, in my opinion better, games for $15, and enjoy them for the same amount of game time I'd spend on an MMO then I see no point. I'd rather play interesting, new and unique experiences every month, rather than limiting myself to one mind-numbingly dull game over and over.

Yea. I pay a monthly fee but that's for my rental service. So for the same price I get to try 2 (sometimes 3 if I don't play through them all) games a month for the same price.
I can only see those monthly mmo fees being worth it if that's the only game you play. I know a guy who plays EVE and while it does look cool, it's the only game he plays so for him its worth it.
I think a monthly fee for a console title is a bit more silly because most people play multiple games on their consoles.

 

[Korten12]

.
The fact that there are, what, 5-6 expansions for Guild Wars, each sold at full price, doesn't make it look prettier.

Guild Wars Trilogy - Comes with Factions, Prophies, and Nightfall, all Stand-alone games, meaning optional - $30.

Guild Wars: Eye of the North - The only one that is an expansion - $30

total - $60.

but that requires Prophies so if you didn't want nightfall or Factions thats only - $20.

Total - $50.

so you can get all of the content for $60 bucks. So in the long run its much much cheaper. Since its the price of a standard game.

 

[Vakz]

There is still the matter of everything else I said..

 

[Nova Helix]

Paying per month is a rip off, there is no new content for that 15$ and over a year thats a decent amount of money.

As people have said several times on here; Guild wars. Once you buy it it is yours, that is why I play it. Also theres games like Little big planet or the multitude of games that are on steam. All free, all multiplayer. Suck it Xbox live and pay per month mmos.

As for your dragon age example I got 150+ hours from that game.

 

[AVATAR_RAGE]

Well I don't play MMO's because of the monthly fees. It's not because I think they're stupid, I fully understand why you would have to pay. I don't play the £15 (or whatever) a month because
1) I like to buy games fairly often (for that £15 I could get one, maybe two descent pre-owned titles) and because of this I spend my time jumping from game to game, meaning they never get stale.
2) I only have a laptop, which isn't really ideal for gaming.
3) I'm not all that big on online play (with the exception of fighting games) and prefer singleplayer.
4) Sometimes I barely find time to play games at all, meaning that I could be throwing away money (granted that's only if I'm not paying a month at a time)
If I ever got a descent set up I'd probably consider starting a pay monthly MMO, as I do think games like Warcraft look quite fun, but it's unlikely, I'm happy to spend my £15 a month on other things.

I'm in pretty much the same boat as you. I have paid for 2 sub based MMOs in the past though, but only for short periods of time, and when I was a sub I found my self ignoring important things that should have taken priority over the game just to get my moneys worth.

I eventually found a middle ground which was Guild Wars. It filled the MMO niche, no monthly fees, same price as a regular game (cheaper in the sales) and it is a fairly small file compared to other MMOs, nor does it need a super computer to play without lag.

 

[Irriduccibilli]

This is just like with DLC. I hate it when people say that it should have been added in the game to begin with. You pay for extra content if you want it. Its not like anyone is forcing you to buy it, if you want it you pay for it. Of course you should pay for something extra.

 

[Zechnophobe]

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.

This isn't true. You don't actually pay for the amount of time you play the game. Otherwise Minecraft should be like 100 dollars.

Rather, the monthly payment for an MMO is nominally for the servers and GM's and other ongoing costs associated with it.

Of course, that said, they obviously sport a significant amount of profit based on those monthly charges.

Consider too that if I were to buy Rift for 50 bucks, I'd also need a monthly subscription. What if I didn't play it all that much two months down the line? If I do not KEEP PAYING they take my character privileges. This is even if I don't partake of any new content (assuming there is some).

It is even arguable that the timely content they provide is actually worth it. Killing 100 Soul Manglers to find their Decrepit Hearts, so I can get some slightly better pants, likely has me fighting the same exact battle, using the same skills in the same order, a myriad of times. Is this more content? Is it really?

I can get behind a small MMO trying to break way into the market needing server costs, and per month payments of some kind, as it helps ensure their investment. But there is NO REASON a well established company should need one, or more than a very minor fee. Consider DDO, LOTRO, Guild Wars, Global Agenda, Etc. All these games use various means to get around that cost.

 

[brodie21]

i just dont want to pay the fee. there are other things i can spend the 15 a month on, like food, gas, a new lifejacket, TES V, etc. besides, MMOs never really held my interest for long. i get bored of the grind quick

 

[Zechnophobe]

Also take into account that NCSoft have several other MMOs which DO have a monthly fee. Honestly, I doubt Guild Wars would still be up if NCSoft weren't getting in a whole pile of money from their other games.

You are insinuating they are using their money to provide Guild Wars for the rest of the world as, what, a gesture of gratitude? That's asinine. You pay money up front for the product, they provide dedicated servers to run it on, to give you a good gaming experience, so that you feel inclined to purchase the expansions/sequels/whatever. Same exact system the 'free to play' games on Turbine use, but a slightly different buy-in mechanism.

BECOME CATOTH! (captcha)

 

[JimmyC99]

Online games also have the fun of servers to maintain, databases to make sure work, new content to develop, paying there devs and GM's other costs and then profit, 'cus noone makes a product if there not after profit.

 

[Nieroshai]

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.

Especially for those of us 18-25(30?) who are the main demographic for the games anyway that are single and just working a regular job with no obligations but paying the rent. $15 is the same it costs to feed my cat, and by this point it feels like a negligible cost since I always pay it anyway.

I use timecards for WoW anyway, just so I don't have to pay for months when I want to play something that just came out. Like I will for Skyrim. On that note, in an MMO $60 gets you half a year of time to explore nigh-indefinite content whereas a $60 game from a store entertains me for a month before I shelve it to come back to a year later.

 

[Hiken no Ace]

Look if it's unafordable for someone, obviously you can't do it. But don't complain about it, just get a different game. Whenever I do subscribe to an MMO, it's only a month at a time. That's about all the time I've got for it anyways, so I may play a month, then come back 5 months later to see what they got that's new. The only one I've done that with recently is Champions Online. I get bored to fast with point-click MMO's nowadays. Too many of em are to similar. I've been playing mostly free action titles like Dungeon Fighter Online or Lost Saga. But really subscriptions aren't that big a deal. Its the same as magazine subscriptions. If you don't have the money, do it in small amounts when you can. If you do, then there's no problem.

 

[Desaari]

snip

Also take into account that NCSoft have several other MMOs which DO have a monthly fee. Honestly, I doubt Guild Wars would still be up if NCSoft weren't getting in a whole pile of money from their other games. I tend to think of Guild Wars as sort of a gateway-MMO. It allows NCSoft to get you started online, make you get used to be social while gaming, and then they can subtly recommend these other MMOs they also have. The fact that there are, what, 5-6 expansions for Guild Wars, each sold at full price, doesn't make it look prettier.

How long do you think it would take from the time that game sales started on the downward slope, until the servers have to be closed down, if the company didn't have other products to fund it's "free" MMO?

Think of it like this: Everyone who plays and pays for the other MMOs, are partly paying so that YOUR MMO can stay free. How would you like it to be on the other side of that fence?

Guild Wars is not made by NCsoft. It's made by ArenaNet and is published by NCsoft. Guild Wars is the only title developed by ArenaNet, so they receive no additional income from pay-to-play games.

Since obtaining the game I've put upwards of 3000 hours into it and have only seen one instance of any incentive to buy an NCsoft game, and that was a purely aesthetic reward for pre-ordering Aion.
Also, there are three stand alone games and only one expansion. Each of the extra stand alone games have around the same amount of content as the original game. Looks prettier to me.

 

[veloper]

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.

It's a bad deal if you don't play often, like for example only on saturdays, or if a game cannot hold your interest for long.

In the case of WoW and also most premium MMOs when they start, you also pay for the box initially (and maybe buy the expansions later too).

Then it's game VS MMO:
$50 vs $50+$15/month

On Steam you can get slightly older triple-A titles for 15 during a sale. When you want something new, that may be far more interesting than buying another month to your MMO account.

 

[Metal Brother]

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!!"



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

Stupid is as stupid does, and just because you don't understand someone else's perspective, it doesn't make it wrong.

I earn a comfortable six-figure salary, and could easily afford an extra $15 per month, but I definitely echo the sentiments quoted from your post, above. I'm not 15 years old, I'm not broke, but I just don't like ongoing payments for any service, no matter how valuable. I'll pay for internet every month, but beyond that and my mortgage, I have very few monthly bills.

Another aspect of the problem with monthly fees is that they put in place a mental framework that you must play the game more in order to "get your money's worth." If I pay $15 and play 100 hours, that's a bargain, right? But if I pay $15 and play 1 hour, that sucks. But for me (and I assume for others as well) my most valuable asset is my time. I want to play my games when I want to play my games, and I don't want to feel pressured to play more.

So is paying a monthly fee stupid? I guess it depends on your perspective - it certainly would be stupid for me.