You pay for most MMo's when you buy them and all the updates besides (IM LOOKING AT YOU WOW!)Vlane said:
so i dont see an issue there. Has blizz at anypoint calculated profits if they just sotpped subs and depended on fresh sales of the game?
Why Do MMO's Cost Money?
- Thread starter TBA
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so i dont see an issue there. Has blizz at anypoint calculated profits if they just sotpped subs and depended on fresh sales of the game?
Wrong. A GM is just a fancy name for admin. There's absolutely no reason private servers can't have admins take care of issues. If you think it's impossible you clearly never had to admin a good server in a popular game.Rednog said:
@OP: MMOs cost money monthly for a couple of reasons. First, because most of the time creating the "huge" and constant worlds requires significantly better infrastructures than running a TF2 server. You can get a decent TF2 server running on a server "box" for around 20 bucks a month (don't quote me, I'm a bit outdated on my pricing, but around that). For a decent WoW server you'd need to shell out at least 100 for a full dedicated server, although a cluster would be more recommended, which would amp up the price even more. Most people don't have dedicated machines in their homes, and aren't very willing to shell out over 1k a year for it... This makes relying on user-ran machines complicated... An MMO would die pretty fast if it only had a handful of servers available scattered around the globe. So, ultimately, and to assure everyone has a similar experience, companies decided that given the current technology, it's easier for them to host the game themselves. This, off course, has upkeep and maintenance costs, and not exactly small ones as previously mentioned, so instead of trying to force a couple of people to shell out thousands of dollars a year for inferior servers, they try to make everyone shell out a couple hundred for better servers to even it out.
Second, because they can... Running the servers themselves gives them both a choke-hold on the game, dictating what runs where, when and how, and a reason to justify permanent income. If you make the math you'll realize most of these companies aren't really doing their math to "maintain the upkeep". They're doing it to maintain the upkeep and then some extra. Hey, it's business. People play along so, why not?
Firstly, to pay the Developers to make and add more content. Secondly, for Server Maintenance. Yes TF2 runs fine without any body paying for it, but TF2's servers also don't have to deal with over 5 million people logged in at once, every single person doing a different thing, and a constantly moving and evolving world, now do they?
server upkeep
MMO servers contain thousands and thousands of players at the same time. TF2 doesn't.
The MMO servers are also all official dedicated servers, so yeah.
Also, new content and updates
MMO servers contain thousands and thousands of players at the same time. TF2 doesn't.
The MMO servers are also all official dedicated servers, so yeah.
Also, new content and updates
Multiple reasons in random order.
1: Profit, lets face it wouldn't you if you where running an MMO.
2: Server costs, a decent MMO has entire buildings full of hardware just to run the game.
3: Content, sure you pay 50bucks for an expansion but that is usually levelling/new tilesets/abilities. the actual endgame content does not ship with it.
4: Employees, you know staff, GM's,developers etc.
5: Return on investment + funds for new projects.
Oh and those tf2 servers? they are not run by the developer (sometimes a few are, but not a lot of them) they are run by people/clans/groups and they pay for them themselves. Or you can buy a server PC and do it at home ofcourse but there is still hardware and ISP costs involved.
1: Profit, lets face it wouldn't you if you where running an MMO.
2: Server costs, a decent MMO has entire buildings full of hardware just to run the game.
3: Content, sure you pay 50bucks for an expansion but that is usually levelling/new tilesets/abilities. the actual endgame content does not ship with it.
4: Employees, you know staff, GM's,developers etc.
5: Return on investment + funds for new projects.
Oh and those tf2 servers? they are not run by the developer (sometimes a few are, but not a lot of them) they are run by people/clans/groups and they pay for them themselves. Or you can buy a server PC and do it at home ofcourse but there is still hardware and ISP costs involved.
I have played a few games where payment was required WoW, Warhammer and Conan. The latter the developers were obviously looking to cash in and go out with a big paycheck cause they did nothing to improve the game which is why it failed so miserably. No I really can't say that because maybe they just bit off more than they can chew.TBA said:
Really it's because they can but also because it costs alot to keep those servers that contain thousands of people. Blizzard has really justified the 15 bux a month fee because of all the work they put into the game. But don't get it twisted those cats are making bank and only spending a small portion of the money they get to keep their servers working so well. That really is nothing but good business. At least they go above and beyond to keep the players happy though.
You said something about TF2 and how their servers are fine...well it only host a handful of players at a time and there aren't near as many of the variables involved when it comes to server gameplay. You run around capture flags and shoot people. There is not quest line, gathering loot, dungeons and all the other variables that come along with playing the game. It takes a lot of money to make sure the stars stay alingned.
The fact that Blizzard puts so much effort in making that happen attracts millions of paying players which results in tons of money being spent which is just an added bonus for Blizzard. They could easily knock the price down to 5 bux a month, but why? They only care about the money people continue to give to them and if they have to spend a portion to keep the players happy...why not continue? It's just good business on the part of Blizzard.
Fusionxl said:"For calendar year 2009, Activision Blizzard's GAAP net revenues were $4.28 billion"
( source: http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=444224 )
I'd say they could easily run a small country
For a start those figures are for all activision and blizzard products not just wow. The amount of profit they made in the same year was $113m, a margin of around 0.2% which isn't exactly running an extortion racket. $4.28 billion is will just about run Zimbabwe for year so it can run a small country for year as long as its a very poor one.
MMOGs cost money for three main reasons:TBA said:
1) In TF2, most of the PC servers are either independant hosts or clan servers. Clan servers are run by whoever independantly, so they have to raise the funding themselves, and it costs Valve nothing. (Valve also collect a cut of all Steam sales, not just their games, plus they advertise for what they want you to buy, etc.) In MMOGs, most servers have to be run and upkept by the company, eg Blizzard. Independant servers are normally pirated.
2) The company has to pay for people to staff these worlds and their forums. So in WoW, you have admin players that deal with issues. These people are hired by Blizzard to do this as their job. These people will often keep the forums under check as well. In TF2, most admins will either be the host (for an independant server) or a trusted regular (for clan servers).
3) Both need updating, but MMOGs need updating more often, for issues like balance, exploits etc. in TF2, because of the smaller game world and item count, it needs updating less often.,
Wow, judgmental. OK.ionveau said:
I don't play MMOs for the sake of MMOs. If I just wanted to play a PC based RPG, I'd pick up Baldur's Gate or Diablo 2, or Guild Wars if I'm feeling masochistic. But I have a life and friends. Saying that all MMO players don't have a life or friends is a really blanket and frankly, false statement. I keep up with the majority of my friends on WoW because a.) it's fun, and b.) Twitter, Myspace, Facebook etc. is lame. See, WoW is a social experience for me, enabling me to game with my friends that live outta state or something.
Digitaldreamer7 said:
Well i really hope your trolling and i am a moron for not seeing it but lets see what you just told meDigitaldreamer7 said:
Your telling me that a server costs $10,000 to maintain/month? and that it takes 30 of them to run 1 realm? what are you going to tell me next, It costs blizzard $ to change your characters server?
While we are on this topic explain to me how FPS game servers stay up?
It costs blizzard $0.25 to keep each player connected to the server for a whole month
Umm what the hell are you talking about? And why are you quoting something that was posted a year and a half ago. Looking back at this topic and my post, the point I made GM/Admins (whatever you want to call them) have to deal with people. Maybe on private servers they do it for the love of the game and most likely they are players too. But for legit servers admins/GMs are hired to do the job, they usually have to deal with a ton of people and no one is going to walk off the street into a game company and say, hey sure I'll go through game tickets and forum posts all day solving people's problems for nothing. Part of the MMO cost goes to hiring someone to deal with the tons and tons of people.Caliostro said:
Is there a reason you referenced a post from january, 2009? I mean, okay, the thread gets brought back from the dead, but why the hell do you quote something on the first page from over a year ago. :wtc:TheEvilCheese said: