Would you pay 6$ an HOUR for an MMO?

[dochmbi]

Yeah, if it was the best game ever made by a huge margin, but it's really tough to imagine such a game with the current state of technology.

But yeah, paying for an MMO hourly would be a nice thing compared to the monthly charge. 25cents per hour would be about right, that would equate 15$ a month at an average of 2 hours / day.

 

[Flap Jack452]

Maybe if it came with a blowjob machine, otherwise no.

 

[Summerstorm]

Well, i think it wasn't meant to be "grindtastic" as todays games. Most people would pop in at the weekend, play two hours and that's it.

Let me go back in time a bit... when i roamed the strange new (for the mainstream) internets with my mighty 56k modem. I played Meridian 59 (still one of the best MMORPG i have ever played) And at that time i had to play hourly for the ISP. I think i (my parents) paid about 1.20 DM that time... about 0.7 euro? So.. yeah i had a clock sitting atop the PC indicating how many minutes i had still left. Things were expensive, and it was still worth it.

I remember one guy on my server when he said goodbye he said: "Yeah i played too much, my parents are taking my computer away for a year now." He burnt 500 DM over 2 months for that game. (First signs of upcoming gaming addictions... yay)

But back to the question: Meh 6 dollars? nah, that's for rich people, like cellphones and cars under 15 years old... and apartments over 40 qm².

 

[not a zaar]

Don't forget back then people (or their parents most likely in this case) also paid for their internet connection by the hour. It was expensive to game online back then.

 

[Beltaine]

AOL charged by the hour back then anyway.

You gotta remember these were the days when a 9600 baud modem (that's 9.6k) was screaming fast.

When 14.4k modems released, AOL actually charged you MORE per hour for access since you could potentially download more material in that hour than someone connected at 9600, or even the poor bastards on 4800 or 2400.

By the time 28.8's and 56's rolled around, the charged by the hour thing had changed into a monthly fee, since you could now get Internet without having have AOL or Compuserve's craptastic content.

 

[CosmicGrenade]

Would you pay 6$ an HOUR for an MMO?
No
Would you play an MMO if you get paid 6$ an HOUR?
Yes (be better if it was £6 an hour)

 

[Gamer137]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Are they serious?! What kind of bullshit can they think of next? Charging $50 account activation fees and charge $70 for the game itself and $30 per patch? Even if that is true, who would have fallen for that?

Anyway, no game is worth $6 an hour.

 

[duchaked]

ergh...I wouldn't pay
I'd do Maple Story if I had no other choice for online gaming ><

 

[Hazy]

It better be the best damn MMO ever. And even then, no way would I pay $6 an hour.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Never.

 

[RichardEdwards]

You have to put yourself back in the times, some of the people who said no here.. likely would have done so back in those times. I saw a documentary on it once, people at the time were going nuts.

Couldn't agree more.

Would you pay $6 an hour for an MMO when it was the first of it's time, way back in 1991, (a dollar back then was worth less wasn't it?) and you'd previously been constrained to pen and paper games?

I know I probably would have, but how often I played it would have to vary based on how badly I wanted to eat.

 

[NeutralDrow]

...I think I'll stick with my $15 a month games.

 

[Hamster at Dawn]

$6 an hour? In 1991 that would let you take 3 steps in one direction.

 

[Avernus]

Heheheh, I remember those days.

The fees were all about the amount you were charged for non-local calls. If the server happened to be in the same locality then it was cheap to play (I never had that opportunity, I'd be damned to be paying those kind of fees). Still, for online multiplayer, this was what was available back in the early 90's.

Anybody remember TEN? Total Entertainment Network. The big draw of networks like these were for exclusive games like Airwarrior (A WWII sim), if you were an aviation gronard, the temptation was big... but the cost

 

[kaziard]

gah? i have only paid for an mmo once, and that was one month subscription for FFXI before i realised i dont like additional fees on games. (free downloadable mmo's FTW!)

 

[blackriderrom]

I'd pay 6 dollars an hour if a MMORPG would have at least all of these:
1. Good physics engine;
2. Crysis-like graphics;
3. Lots of blood;
4. Innovative gameplay (in which you wouldn't be able to grind even if you wanted to) + at least tens of different play modes for each character type;
5. Possibility for huge prizes (PvP contests);
6. Belgium.

 

[Therumancer]

The original Neverwinter Nights game came out at a time when online services were new and people were just moving away from BBSes. Things like "Plus time" on PClink and the like were a big deal and companies figured they could get people to pay by the hour or even the minute for these services.

Neverwinter Nights, Kesmai, and TEN (Total Entertainment Network) which ran "Dark Sun: Crimson Sands" all tried to use the hourly, or minute-based fee schedule, but it died out. Though there are periodical attempts to try and get rid of monthly flat fees for internet services and the like.

Personally I'm happy with the monthly flat fee for services, especially when it allows me to use gametime cards and such.

>>>----Therumancer--->

 

[Da_Schwartz]

I've had women that have cost me less the 6 dollars an hour.

 

[tenlong]

I would if it came with hookers that screwed me the whole time i was playing it.

 

[DrunkenKitty]

Maybe a super-realistic(Holodeck) sex sim.