What, if anything, would make you pay?

[Tsukuyomi]

So a friend of mine has been asking me why I don't play World of Warcraft anymore as he's discovered it and he enjoys it. I do find myself missing it sometimes, mostly missing the people I knew and the good times I had, which seem to be more than what I got from Rift or League of Legends or even TF2. It got me to thinking about WoW and the pay-to-play model in general.

Many people seem to dislike the model, and I can understand. You've paid your money, theoretically you own the game. It does seem an insult to have to pay MORE money just to play. But knowing that development of new content takes time and energy and whatnot, along with general upkeep of the game-servers and whatnot, I don't find it unreasonable for Blizzard or another company to ask me for some cash if they don't wanna go with the usual in-game-real-money-store option. I had a good time playing, I enjoyed the content they put out. For me that was enough to merit parting with a bit of cash every month.

But lots of people don't see it that way. That's absolutely fine. If you don't like it, you don't like it. Nothing wrong with having the opinion you have. But it does make me wonder:

If what gaming companies offer currently isn't enough for you to be okay with paying a monthly fee, what WOULD it take to get you to pay? What would have to be included for you to decide that the money is reasonably well spent?

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

New content every month. If I'm paying every month, there better be a good reason for it.

 

[Barbas]

No matter what was added, I would probably never pay a monthly subscription fee, because I have the tendency to lose interest and drift away from things easily, for weeks or months at a time. I manage finances badly, so if I started a subscription, I would likely forget about it for a long time and find out after a year away from the game that I've been losing a fair amount of money.

 

[MysticSlayer]

For me, it has less to do with what game companies provide so much as it has to do with my limited finances. I simply can't afford the monthly subscriptions fees over an extended period of time, and if I can't play the game for an extended period of time, I don't see the point in paying extra for it.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Nothing. It's not that I have anything against the model it's that I can't afford it without a regular job. If I'm working, I simply don't have the time for an MMO; especially since I like too much other stuff. On the other hand, if I'm NOT working, I don't have the money. I get some money from doing freelance compositions, but not enough for yet another monthly bill to come out.

 

[Thebazilly]

I prefer subscription models, just because the alternative is usually an awful 'free' to play version. Of course, buy-to-play games with no subscriptions (Guild Wars, The Secret World, etc) are my favorite.

 

[Genocidicles]

My problem with the subscription model is that I feel like I'm wasting my money unless I'm playing the game whenever I have the chance. I might buy a month's worth, and only play it for a week or two before I become bored and decide to play another game, so that's however much money wasted on those two weeks I'm not playing.

So what I want is to get my full money's worth.

As in, I buy a month subscription, and it literally gives me a month of in game time. Every time I log in to play it takes time off of the month I bought, and it doesn't go down when I'm not playing/signed in.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

New content every month. If I'm paying every month, there better be a good reason for it.

You realize you're paying for development of new content which isn't necessarily easy work. This involves character/npc model artwork, design concepts, balancing of old content and introduction of minor new content (spells/talents/abilities), map design, and of course in-house testing before its released to beta-testers. Also included is server maintenance and upkeep, continued network and account security procedures which need to be developed constantly due to the mercurial nature of network security. All of that for your $15 a month that pays the people who keep these background things going. And usually the content updates are fairly large.
Monthly content updates aren't an easy schedule, and they'd detract from well-thought out content. You aren't just paying for privledges to play, you're investing in the future of your play.
Incidentally your account is also secured even if you aren't subscribed short of you replying to a phishing scam, get keylogged or what not. Its rare that I've heard of a Blizz side issue that caused account vulnerability.
So, for your money you don't think its worth paying folks for their hard work on keeping the game running and constantly attempting to keep it fair, keep it fun for everyone and introduce new things when they're ready and interesting?

 

[aozgolo]

I prefer subscription models over free-to-play with cash stores, that being said, I think there is a way to add more value to Subscription Models.

For example: Make it more like a preloaded phone plan. Instead of a flat monthly rate, you only are charged for days you use it. So if a monthly subscription to a game is 15$, just make it instead where you preload your account with however much money you want, and each day you actually log in and play the game, $.50 is deducted from your account. I think this would be a greater incentive to pull in more players.

 

[DugMachine]

Seeing as I already pay for WoW, they just need to keep doing what they're doing.

As long as the game is polished and has new content being added I'm okay with subscription. A lot of F2P games are also B2W and that's not okay with me. I don't care if I can grind that same piece of gear that guy bought for $5, if somebody can get an edge over me in a game by just paying a few dollars then I won't play it.

 

[Tsukuyomi]

I prefer subscription models over free-to-play with cash stores, that being said, I think there is a way to add more value to Subscription Models.

For example: Make it more like a preloaded phone plan. Instead of a flat monthly rate, you only are charged for days you use it. So if a monthly subscription to a game is 15$, just make it instead where you preload your account with however much money you want, and each day you actually log in and play the game, $.50 is deducted from your account. I think this would be a greater incentive to pull in more players.

I could totally go for this. I know WoW still uses pre-paid game-cards, as that's what I used to use and still intend to use. It makes things very easy for those times where I'm a bit strapped for cash and I need to take some time off. I haven't put in a card? My account's frozen until I put in another card's worth of time. But your idea would make it even more worthwhile.

The only thing is that, as has been said, development of content is an ongoing cost, so if too many people are playing sparingly and rationing out their time, the cash-flow required to keep content coming might not be there or be as strong as it needs to be. As a developer I'd be worried about giving my players good content, but also worried about the designers working with and around me being able to feed and clothe themselves and their families....maybe giving them some well-deserved vacation time after spending six months of 12-hour days modeling, rendering, coding, and bug-fixing that shiny new dungeon people will clear in like a week. The content may not seem like a lot to the player, but a lot of time may be put into MAKING that content. I can only imagine how terrible it must feel for a level-designer to burn so much time making a new raid or dungeon and then to see it launch and the first feedback they get is: "WTF MAN?! THIS WAS TOO EASY! Stupid game! STOP PANDERING TO THE CASUALS!"

but...but I....I just spent SIX MONTHS on that! I lost entire nights of sleep! I missed my son's football game for that! I....I....

.....I'm gonna go curl up in my cubicle under my desk and cry now until the bitter cynicism takes over.

Catchpa: "is it enough"? No, Catchpa. For some people, there is never enough. And that is sad.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Ironically, I lost interest in WoW within 24 hours of paying for my first month. I had made three characters in the free mode, wanted more and right as I was getting down to it I had "the realization" and went back to console gaming. There isn't really anything that would entice me to pay for a game to continue playing that game. There are times when I would buy a game more than once but that's more to have it on a different console...don't ask.

 

[Something Amyss]

My problem with the subscription model is that there's not really a game out there I find to be worth that much money for the time I put into it. For the prices they're charging, a game would have to really engage me, and for a long time if I'm paying every month.

I don't know if a game could do that and justify a five or tend dollar model.

 

[Mad World]

I'd be willing to spend a monthly payment on an MMO that I really like.

Issue that I have with World of Warcraft, though, is that it also has microtransactions, I believe. May not be a lot, but one can purchase mounts and pets, no? I don't think that an MMO should have both monthly payments AND microtransactions.

 

[nightmare_gorilla]

I don't mind the subscription thing, I have been a subscriber for the old republic and still kinda am tempted to go back every now and then. my issue with WOW has always been gameplay not price. I just havn't yet played it where it was actually fun to play. my best friend plays and tries like hell to get me into it but after trying for probably combined total of two or three months. I just can't do it. the combat is boring. apparently i'm the only one who thinks this but to me it's mind numbingly boring. like if i'm not doing something else while playing I get bored and tune out. I keep being told it gets real interesting at lvl 20, I reached 20, nothing, still boring, still no real options in building your character. then they say it gets interesting at lvl 60 and I said F that. a lvl 20 anything in wow plays exactly the same as every other lvl 20 of the same class. they even have the exact same skills in their quickbar. in damn near every other game ever two lvl 20s have different play styles. hell in borderlands lvl 10s can play drastically differently depending on which skill tree you buy into. the progression is just so damn slow and while there is stuff going on it feels like nothing is happening.

I don't hate subscription based games, I played a lot of phantasy star universe on 360 but that had a great combat system. also DCUO I subscribed to for a while but once you hit lvl 30 that game turns into agrind fest for like a month or so and there's not much else to do once you raise a hero and a villain.

 

[Flunk]

I'm cool with paying monthly as long as I enjoy playing the game. I find that most modern MMOs are very dull and boring. It's all about cycling button presses and lather rise repeat gameplay. Wake me up when skill matters again and there is some variety.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

It has to be literally my ideal MMO, and I do mean literally as in literally, not the pansy figuratively definition.

Anything else and it really just isn't worth the trouble. Especially with the modern-day WoW clones which don't touch my interest at all.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

No matter what was added, I would probably never pay a monthly subscription fee, because I have the tendency to lose interest and drift away from things easily, for weeks or months at a time.

Pretty much this. I would never get a monthly subscription to a game because I constantly bounce around different games. I'll lose interest in one game for a week or two, and come back to it later. On average I'll be cycling through 3 or 4 different games during any one time. So if I was paying a subscription fee I'd be wasting tons of money because I wouldn't be playing that game all the time during the course of that subscription.