Why Do MMO's Cost Money?

[TBA]

This may be a really stupid question, but why exactly do MMO's cost money? I thought that it was for server upkeep, but then I remembered that games like Team Fortress 2 have servers that run just fine without anyone paying for it.

So, what reason, other then money, is there to have people pay monthly for MMO's? I know that I, personally, would definately get into an MMO if I didnt have to pay for it monthly, which I find ridiculous.

 

[goodman528]

Because it's an addiction. It's like asking why drug dealers get unbelievable profit margins.

 

[Vlane]

Somehow you have to pay the people who make the game and give you more content.

 

[TMAN10112]

Because they can

 

[Vlane]

This may be a really stupid question, but why exactly do MMO's cost money? I thought that it was for server upkeep, but then I remembered that games like Team Fortress 2 have servers that run just fine without anyone paying for it.

So, what reason, other then money, is there to have people pay monthly for MMO's? I know that I, personally, would definately get into an MMO if I didnt have to pay for it monthly, which I find ridiculous.

Remember that you actually pay for TF2. The difference is that you only pay once (when you buy the game).

 

[stormcaller]

I'm guessing from say WoW they can without but it will be alot worse for it and you wouldn't get SC2 or Diablo 3 quite as good as I'm guessing they will be without all that funding.

 

[TOFUM4ST3R]

This may be a really stupid question, but why exactly do MMO's cost money? I thought that it was for server upkeep, but then I remembered that games like Team Fortress 2 have servers that run just fine without anyone paying for it.

So, what reason, other then money, is there to have people pay monthly for MMO's? I know that I, personally, would definately get into an MMO if I didnt have to pay for it monthly, which I find ridiculous.

In many cases, Pay-to-Play MMOs create new content over time. Essentially, you are paying for DLC, except every month. FPS servers, by the way, require less upkeep than MMO servers, which generally keep track of thousands more people, so that also factors into monthly fees.

 

[sheic99]

This may be a really stupid question, but why exactly do MMO's cost money? I thought that it was for server upkeep, but then I remembered that games like Team Fortress 2 have servers that run just fine without anyone paying for it.

So, what reason, other then money, is there to have people pay monthly for MMO's? I know that I, personally, would definately get into an MMO if I didnt have to pay for it monthly, which I find ridiculous.

Mabinogi, Sword of the New World, Fly for Fun, Pi story, Maple Story and several other are free. They get their upkeep through special items. There are many Free mmos you just need to look for them.

 

[Isaac Dodgson]

Server upkeep is a factor regardless to other games having it for free. Along with it comes content updates, improvements of services, the staff (usually dependent on size) and a way for the company to make money ultimately

 

[Rednog]

This may be a really stupid question, but why exactly do MMO's cost money? I thought that it was for server upkeep, but then I remembered that games like Team Fortress 2 have servers that run just fine without anyone paying for it.

So, what reason, other then money, is there to have people pay monthly for MMO's? I know that I, personally, would definately get into an MMO if I didnt have to pay for it monthly, which I find ridiculous.

MMOs require Gamemasters to keep the general population in check, the also help with a variety of player problems. In TF2 if some one is being a jerk you just boot them off the server, it doesn't work like that in MMOs a GM has to deal with it. Also a shooter like TF2 you don't have to account for inventory, instances, mobs, economy etc. And I don't know where you got the idea that no one pays for the TF2 servers, people rent or buy servers, they aren't magically free, they're free to play on but some one somewhere is paying for it.
Like other people said MMOs usually release new content every so often and someone has to make that content. So in the end, no, its not ridiculous that you have to pay for MMOs, a company invested their resources into a game, they have to pay people to run it, and they have to make a living.

 

[DJPirtu]

This may be a really stupid question, but why exactly do MMO's cost money? I thought that it was for server upkeep, but then I remembered that games like Team Fortress 2 have servers that run just fine without anyone paying for it.

So, what reason, other then money, is there to have people pay monthly for MMO's? I know that I, personally, would definately get into an MMO if I didnt have to pay for it monthly, which I find ridiculous.

The main difference difference between the MMO servers and FPS servers (like those of TF2), along with the earlier mentioned number of players they server at one time, is the fact that very few FPS developers actualy upkeep their own servers. At least not very many of them. Usualy they just release the server side software, after witch the community is responsible for providing the players with enough servers to play in.

And those servers cost money, just like any other servers. The difference is in the people who actualy pay this money. Some servers are financed by the very same people that up keep them. Some depend on donations of the community surrounding them. Maybe a bit of both. Maybe something else entirely.

 

[Vlane]

This may be a really stupid question, but why exactly do MMO's cost money? I thought that it was for server upkeep, but then I remembered that games like Team Fortress 2 have servers that run just fine without anyone paying for it.

So, what reason, other then money, is there to have people pay monthly for MMO's? I know that I, personally, would definately get into an MMO if I didnt have to pay for it monthly, which I find ridiculous.

Mabinogi, Sword of the New World, Fly for Fun, Pi story, Maple Story and several other are free. They get their upkeep through special items. There are many Free mmos you just need to look for them.

Yes there are many f2p MMO's but not many are as good or nearly as good as p2p MMO's. I only play f2p MMO's and I know that there are people who spend up to 150? each month on those f2p MMO's.

Of course you can play without buying anything but I doubt that you will be one of the highest players on your server.

 

[DirkGently]

Y'see, you don't have fifteen million people playing TF2. You also paid $60 for your Orange Box, and there isn't much character data to save, and there isn't a huge fucking game world to play in. MMOs have subscription fees for a very good reason: what you get when you buy WoW for $20 is worth far more fucking money.

 

[Fightgarr]

The reasoning is that MMOs require constant patching and thus you have to keep paying so that they can actually complete the game they made. The real reasoning? Because people will pay for it.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

I'm assuming the size of a server would be drastically different between an MMO server and a TF2 server. Hell, you could probably run a dedicated server off of a Pentium 1 machine using Linux or some rediculous thing like that.

 

[shadowform]

Sheic, most of those games you mentioned (1) are in beta, (2) will always be in beta, (3) involve terribly tedious amounts of grind, (4) are populated primarily by 12 year olds, (5) are full of bugs, and (6) are poorly programmed. Saying that they're free is like me standing on the side of the road holding a sign that says "GET AIDS TODAY - FREE!!!"

One other advantage that FPS games have over MMO's is that, in an online environment, latency (and thereby bandwidth use) increases exponentially with the number of players in a given area. If you have a 16-person deathmatch, each player needs to send information from the server, and then recieve 15 similar sets of information from the other players, plus whatever environmental data is relevant. In an MMO, this can easily be 20, 30, 50, 100, or more people, plus greatly increased amounts of 'environmental' data, as NPCs run their AI scripts and whatever else occurs. Aside from this is the increased amount of (admittedly, fairly inexpensive cost-wise) storage space needed to keep information on character profiles, world data, etc. On top of this is maintenance staff to keep it all running and connected, and (as Rednog mentioned) customer service staff to make sure people aren't busy speedhacking in WSG or otherwise being a jerk about it.

 

[JWAN]

Because it's an addiction. It's like asking why drug dealers get unbelievable profit margins.

that and run the servers

 

[cainx10a]

1. Server Maintenance (Done every week)
2. Game Updates/Maintenance and Patches (Done each 1/2 weeks, or months)
3. New Content Update
4. A game that has over 1000+ hours of content
5. And pretty much what every else said before me. It's a premium service, considering you don't have the rights to host your own servers.

 

[Woe Is You]

This may be a really stupid question, but why exactly do MMO's cost money? I thought that it was for server upkeep, but then I remembered that games like Team Fortress 2 have servers that run just fine without anyone paying for it.

The thing about TF2 servers is that most of them are run by fans, not Valve. That means Valve isn't paying a dime for most of the servers out there, they just provide the server software so that people can set up their own servers.

You also have to take into account that running a server with 20-30 people is quite different from running one with 2000-3000 people.

Some MMOs offer some of the content for free and then make the player pay for the really good items. It's comes with its limitations, though; you can't really make an MMO that's based on player vs player since all it'll degenerate to is the folks putting the most money will invariably end up being at the top.