DC Universe Online For PS3 Can't Be Traded In

[night_chrono]

The dumb local swappers will still take it. There is an Ohio chain called "The Exchange" and my local one has used copies of WoW, Guild Wars, and LOTRO, priced between $15-$35 all without licence keys. I have personally told the store manager that they are online only and that licence keys are required and only one use. Two weeks later there was a used copy of Cataclysm.

 

[Negatempest]

Spoiler: Long quote

Well...Duh, it's an MMO. People forget this for some stupid reason. Whenever I go to a youtube video or something, there are people absolutely pissed off because they'd need to pay to play for month. Playstation Network is free, so I don't see why 15 bucks a month is so bad. you pay the same price for WoW each month and they're not screaming for vengeance.

The problem is that you play starcraft for free you play any game for free online, MOs are just fetish games that we have been brain washed into thinking they need monthly fees to stay alive, while in fact they do not, It costs blizzard 12cents a month(if you stay online for a while month) per person to play

Are you high?
maintenance costs alone per person are more than that. Nevermind server admins and the moderation team. And the development team who consistenly patch fix and improve the game.

While they certainly don't need them to survive, you would have a pretty bare bones service without them.

Unless you give me proof that it costs more then 12 cents per person then your argument is nothing.
And no i am not intoxicated

The support employs jobs can be outsourced so for all that you know the support team gets payed $1/hour


If your saying development costs justify the monthly fee then lets look at it like this, So you WoW players pay 15/month you get a patch every 3/4 months a patch can be broken down into this

1 Raid
1 or 2 new models for the bosses
A bunch of number edits on skills to give "balance"
Maybe a few quests if you been good

And that will cost you $60 or $45 if its every 3 months

WoW if for $60 a development team cannot create a Raid and a few models then how do game company's survive making good quality games and only charging $60 ONLY $60

Yes because those FPS don't charge for 3 new maps at $15. Nor do some publishers charge $10-$15 for a 2 hour expansion. Also some fighting games have never charged money for new costumes.

Okay, my brothers have SSF4, Dead Space 2, Mass Effect 1-2, and throw in Red Dead Redemption as well. Lets see, SSF entire DLC content would cost about $20+ if you don't buy the bundle. Dead Space about $15 dollars. Mass Effect 1-2, I personally put about $50 in DLC on the games combined so far. Read Dead Redemption is about $30 dollars for the DLC.

Sure almost $100 to keep up to date on 4+ different games, but compared to an MMO the subscribers are practicably getting pampered with patches and DLC. I understand your anger about "playing" to pay a game, but this is also a game that is under constant fine tuning. To relate it to the car, it's like if the car came with a pit crew who would fix it when the car so much as "coughed". You could pay a monthly fee to have them or not, but you shouldn't whine when they aren't there to fix your car once it breaks down. (*cough*MW2*cough*)

 

[Falke]

For me the real interesting question is just how many people are already bored and trying to do this.

 

[Live4Lotus]

That is a really good marketing strategy they have...sell a terrible game that no one wants to play, but block people from reselling it, so everyone buys their own copy that they don't play. Forget making an enjoyable game to stop resales; if you do that, then you are spending money to keep the servers going. Better to make a steaming pile of crap that no one will play but no one can sell either.

 

[Altorin]

that's not standard operating procedure on the PC, not really.

Most games where you're buying an account don't require the cd, so basically all you're buying is the account. Most MMOs for instance, once you set up an account, you can get the client for free in a myriad of ways.

If it really requires the disc and the disc is tied to that account, that's pretty silly. Your friends have to bring their disc over to your place to play their accounts? If your disc breaks, you have to either start again or buy a brand new copy of the game and jump through some hoops in order to play the game you've already bought and are (probably, I haven't researched it) paying a subscription for? That all seems dicey to me.

 

[88chaz88]

And this is a surprise?

 

[Revenant02]

I think people need to remember that how MMOs function isn't necessarily common knowledge, especially to the console market. I would think DCUO is the first MMO most of its users have played. And despite how simple it seems to us that are in the know, the general public seems to have a really hard time with the concept of buying media as buying a license to use somebody's intellectual property, not a commodity.

I think that Sony will take a hit on DCUO, that a lot of ppl who got bored of it will be pissed off when they go to trade in the game, and 3 or 4 years from now somebody else will try and bring an MMO to the consoles and joined the hallowed ranks of PSO, FFXI, and now DCUO.

 

[irequirefood]

As most people have said previously, it is an MMO, and therefore that's how it should work.

 

[StBishop]

This is incredibly stupid of them. Why would you not want to sell activation keys to people who bought the game used? You're cutting off revenue, period. Plus, now it's even less likely that people will buy the game in the first place, as it has literally zero resale value. At least Blizzard is smart and sells activation keys online directly from them. That's how MMOs should work.

Think about what you're saying.

"Why would they not sell activation keys to people who're giving another company money?"

Because they don't want their customers to give another company money.

They want to get a fair slice.

I'm fairly sure you would be able to buy activation keys online if there were a digital distribution option for DCU on PS3. But there's not so there is no point.

Do the WoW codes sell for a little less than retailing the game? Thought so.

They charging you the exact same, just without the $3.00 mark up that Game Stop/GAME/EB Games/Gametraders put in.

Also, as everyone in the galaxy has surely said by now. When you buy an MMO you're buying an account on that MMO. Not a disc. The disc is free. (Literally. I got a free WoW disc with vanilla WoW and a couple of patches when I re-bought the WC3 battle chest. They aren't just giving out trials now.)

Also, I have never ever met a single person that even considers the "resale value" of a game. Ever!

I understand that plenty of people trade games in. I don't personally.
I also understand that people try to trade them in when they're still new, thus getting the best money for their trade in, if you're selling something you want to sell it while it's valuable right?
But who looks at a game and thinks "I wonder what this'll sell for when I'm sick of it."?

I am not saying that noone does this. I'm not that silly, but I've never met anyone who thinks this way about games.
I know stacks of people.

True Story.

 

[StBishop]

What else do you think DRM on PC games is for? It certainly isn't meant to combat piracy, considering most of it is about as effective as a paper towel in that regard. Yet why do developers keep using DRM that has long become obsolete? To prevent used game sales. It worked too...while piracy is as strong as ever, used game sales for the PC are effectively dead.

With developers and publishers complaining about used game sales on consoles, it is inevitable that this will become standard practice. Of course, that is going to hurt the business in the long run. Unfortunately, most businesses in the game industry are far too shortsighted to realise this and care only about the short term (well that and most businessmen who get involved with the game industry consider gaming to be a fad that they want to quickly cash in on).

With one notable exception it is dead in Australia.

EB Games and GAME have a company policy that prohibits the trading in of all PC Games.

Gametraders (who specialize in imports and retro games) will trade in a game if it doesn't have online activated DRM or whatever. But that pretty much eliminates all PC games made in the last 7ish years.

man... not a very impressive title AND no re-sale value? the price of this game is gonna go down like crazy...

I really disagree. Every store I know of in Perth is sold out of the PS3 version.

It could just be that restocking is lazy here but I don't think that's the case.

Unless you give me proof that it costs more then 12 cents per person then your argument is nothing.

Unless you give me proof that it costs less than or equal to 12 cents per person then your argument is nothing.

 

[StBishop]

Too many posts

 

[Nikki_Viper]

Pretty much yeah, that's how it works for an MMO... you are buying an activation code, not the game. Subcription fees maintain the activation code. The CD is given as a convenience.

What a lousy system you say, who in their right mind would do that? I do, because, IMHO even a bad MMO is better than a good shooter.

You can't buy it at the Playstation Store because I did check, and it would be a miserable download.

I want DCUO, definitely I will get it eventually, but I hear on the forums that cheating is creeping into PvP, so they are going to need to fix that urgently, along with a few other things before this is a buy for me.

With all the sales lately I have a few un-opened games now collecting dust that should keep me busy in the meantime.

I don't know what kind of cheating's being done, but the map wasn't thought out. In WoW, you need to train your way through many areas in order to gain the experience to get to contested areas. Want to fly over it all? okay, you still need to be a certain level to fly.

In DCUO, you can fly, run, or scale your way to anywhere from the get go, so you get alot of people accidentally running into level 20 quest areas while they're level 5... Or alot of level 20 camping level 5 questing areas for easy kills do be dicks.

I've noticed the Villains are actually the nicer crowd, and from the chat I read while playing, villains refuse to go and camp a levelling area if the "Heroes" attacking are just there because they're questing (villains and heroes share the opposite ends of a quest) while the heroes encourage being dicks

 

[Nikki_Viper]

man... not a very impressive title AND no re-sale value? the price of this game is gonna go down like crazy...

They don't need to sell alot of games. Wow encourages you to lend your game discs to friends, let them download the game, and simply start paying month to month. They don't care if you buy the game physically or just pay month to month, they get $40 out of you on a regular basis. DCUO won't care if their game costs a penny.they will get money

 

[Nikki_Viper]

Well...Duh, it's an MMO. People forget this for some stupid reason. Whenever I go to a youtube video or something, there are people absolutely pissed off because they'd need to pay to play for month. Playstation Network is free, so I don't see why 15 bucks a month is so bad. you pay the same price for WoW each month and they're not screaming for vengeance.

The problem is that you play starcraft for free you play any game for free online, MOs are just fetish games that we have been brain washed into thinking they need monthly fees to stay alive, while in fact they do not, It costs blizzard 12cents a month(if you stay online for a while month) per person to play

Are you high?
maintenance costs alone per person are more than that. Nevermind server admins and the moderation team. And the development team who consistenly patch fix and improve the game.

While they certainly don't need them to survive, you would have a pretty bare bones service without them.

Unless you give me proof that it costs more then 12 cents per person then your argument is nothing.
And no i am not intoxicated

The support employs jobs can be outsourced so for all that you know the support team gets payed $1/hour


If your saying development costs justify the monthly fee then lets look at it like this, So you WoW players pay 15/month you get a patch every 3/4 months a patch can be broken down into this

1 Raid
1 or 2 new models for the bosses
A bunch of number edits on skills to give "balance"
Maybe a few quests if you been good

And that will cost you $60 or $45 if its every 3 months

WoW if for $60 a development team cannot create a Raid and a few models then how do game company's survive making good quality games and only charging $60 ONLY $60

And as I mentioned in a previous note, Prove to us that it is only $0.12 per month for ane entire account or your point has been moot this entire time. "For all we know" support TEAMS do not get payed $1 per hour, you're using vastly underestimated numbers that you're estimating to try and support something you are trying to prove to be fact. Support TEAMS are not paid $1 per hour. That would be like a video game sweatshop.

and do you have no concept of the development process? Even if you use copy and paste, it take more than $60 to devellop a raid. You know those computers they're using? Eletricity, costs money. You know the building they're sitting in? Rent. Costs money. You know the chairs, the desks, the people, the SNACKS they put in the vending machines or cafeteria, the air conditioning/heating, the overtime, the servers. It ALL COSTS MONEY. you don't pay a team of people $1 an hour to make you a raid. That's just serious ignorant and stupid, and you have no concept of a business model. NONE.

The reason that WoW can make Tons of money is because of propotion. Lets say for arguments sake that it costs you $30 to maintain a server for one person per month. You charge them $45. $15 per person okay? Easy number. Now lets see this:

10 subscribers: $150 profit
50 subscribers: $750 profit
10,000 subscribers: $150 000 profit
11 million subscribers: $165,000,000 profit

THAT is how they make money. even a low profit margin of $15 a month can become HUGE profit with 11 million subscribers

 

[ionveau]

Well...Duh, it's an MMO. People forget this for some stupid reason. Whenever I go to a youtube video or something, there are people absolutely pissed off because they'd need to pay to play for month. Playstation Network is free, so I don't see why 15 bucks a month is so bad. you pay the same price for WoW each month and they're not screaming for vengeance.

The problem is that you play starcraft for free you play any game for free online, MOs are just fetish games that we have been brain washed into thinking they need monthly fees to stay alive, while in fact they do not, It costs blizzard 12cents a month(if you stay online for a while month) per person to play

Are you high?
maintenance costs alone per person are more than that. Nevermind server admins and the moderation team. And the development team who consistenly patch fix and improve the game.

While they certainly don't need them to survive, you would have a pretty bare bones service without them.

Unless you give me proof that it costs more then 12 cents per person then your argument is nothing.
And no i am not intoxicated

The support employs jobs can be outsourced so for all that you know the support team gets payed $1/hour


If your saying development costs justify the monthly fee then lets look at it like this, So you WoW players pay 15/month you get a patch every 3/4 months a patch can be broken down into this

1 Raid
1 or 2 new models for the bosses
A bunch of number edits on skills to give "balance"
Maybe a few quests if you been good

And that will cost you $60 or $45 if its every 3 months

WoW if for $60 a development team cannot create a Raid and a few models then how do game company's survive making good quality games and only charging $60 ONLY $60

And as I mentioned in a previous note, Prove to us that it is only $0.12 per month for ane entire account or your point has been moot this entire time. "For all we know" support TEAMS do not get payed $1 per hour, you're using vastly underestimated numbers that you're estimating to try and support something you are trying to prove to be fact. Support TEAMS are not paid $1 per hour. That would be like a video game sweatshop.

and do you have no concept of the development process? Even if you use copy and paste, it take more than $60 to devellop a raid. You know those computers they're using? Eletricity, costs money. You know the building they're sitting in? Rent. Costs money. You know the chairs, the desks, the people, the SNACKS they put in the vending machines or cafeteria, the air conditioning/heating, the overtime, the servers. It ALL COSTS MONEY. you don't pay a team of people $1 an hour to make you a raid. That's just serious ignorant and stupid, and you have no concept of a business model. NONE.

The reason that WoW can make Tons of money is because of propotion. Lets say for arguments sake that it costs you $30 to maintain a server for one person per month. You charge them $45. $15 per person okay? Easy number. Now lets see this:

10 subscribers: $150 profit
50 subscribers: $750 profit
10,000 subscribers: $150 000 profit
11 million subscribers: $165,000,000 profit

THAT is how they make money. even a low profit margin of $15 a month can become HUGE profit with 11 million subscribers

Ok even though i cant give you exact numbers the whole "they need money for maintaining servers" is just BS

As you can see from this link
http://webhostinggeeks.com/
http://hosting.webcity.com.au/

Web hosting prices are much lower then WoW monthly cost you know why? people that want web hosting are not fools and know how much it really costs to support a person using there servers.

Alot of company's use outsourcing of jobs to second world or third world country's to cut costs, How do you know that person your talking to is not from India

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1127055/000095012306007628/y22210exv99w1.htm
If you read that it tells you that for the 11million players online they only use 9,000 servers

If you scroll down in china the Sub is only 3,00 for 60 hours of game play (remember time goes down as you play not like over here)


After looking for an answer to your question i have no reason to think that blizzard pays more then even 5 cents per person

Server hosting is not expansive get over yourself


Yes it costs more then $60 to develop a raid but not more then 660,000,000 witch is how much money gets sent to blizzard in a 4 month span

 

[Nikki_Viper]

Well...Duh, it's an MMO. People forget this for some stupid reason. Whenever I go to a youtube video or something, there are people absolutely pissed off because they'd need to pay to play for month. Playstation Network is free, so I don't see why 15 bucks a month is so bad. you pay the same price for WoW each month and they're not screaming for vengeance.

The problem is that you play starcraft for free you play any game for free online, MOs are just fetish games that we have been brain washed into thinking they need monthly fees to stay alive, while in fact they do not, It costs blizzard 12cents a month(if you stay online for a while month) per person to play

Are you high?
maintenance costs alone per person are more than that. Nevermind server admins and the moderation team. And the development team who consistenly patch fix and improve the game.

While they certainly don't need them to survive, you would have a pretty bare bones service without them.

Unless you give me proof that it costs more then 12 cents per person then your argument is nothing.
And no i am not intoxicated

The support employs jobs can be outsourced so for all that you know the support team gets payed $1/hour


If your saying development costs justify the monthly fee then lets look at it like this, So you WoW players pay 15/month you get a patch every 3/4 months a patch can be broken down into this

1 Raid
1 or 2 new models for the bosses
A bunch of number edits on skills to give "balance"
Maybe a few quests if you been good

And that will cost you $60 or $45 if its every 3 months

WoW if for $60 a development team cannot create a Raid and a few models then how do game company's survive making good quality games and only charging $60 ONLY $60

And as I mentioned in a previous note, Prove to us that it is only $0.12 per month for ane entire account or your point has been moot this entire time. "For all we know" support TEAMS do not get payed $1 per hour, you're using vastly underestimated numbers that you're estimating to try and support something you are trying to prove to be fact. Support TEAMS are not paid $1 per hour. That would be like a video game sweatshop.

and do you have no concept of the development process? Even if you use copy and paste, it take more than $60 to devellop a raid. You know those computers they're using? Eletricity, costs money. You know the building they're sitting in? Rent. Costs money. You know the chairs, the desks, the people, the SNACKS they put in the vending machines or cafeteria, the air conditioning/heating, the overtime, the servers. It ALL COSTS MONEY. you don't pay a team of people $1 an hour to make you a raid. That's just serious ignorant and stupid, and you have no concept of a business model. NONE.

The reason that WoW can make Tons of money is because of propotion. Lets say for arguments sake that it costs you $30 to maintain a server for one person per month. You charge them $45. $15 per person okay? Easy number. Now lets see this:

10 subscribers: $150 profit
50 subscribers: $750 profit
10,000 subscribers: $150 000 profit
11 million subscribers: $165,000,000 profit

THAT is how they make money. even a low profit margin of $15 a month can become HUGE profit with 11 million subscribers

Ok even though i cant give you exact numbers the whole "they need money for maintaining servers" is just BS

As you can see from this link
http://webhostinggeeks.com/
http://hosting.webcity.com.au/

Web hosting prices are much lower then WoW monthly cost you know why? people that want web hosting are not fools and know how much it really costs to support a person using there servers.

Alot of company's use outsourcing of jobs to second world or third world country's to cut costs, How do you know that person your talking to is not from India

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1127055/000095012306007628/y22210exv99w1.htm
If you read that it tells you that for the 11million players online they only use 9,000 servers

If you scroll down in china the Sub is only 3,00 for 60 hours of game play (remember time goes down as you play not like over here)


After looking for an answer to your question i have no reason to think that blizzard pays more then even 5 cents per person

Server hosting is not expansive get over yourself


Yes it costs more then $60 to develop a raid but not more then 660,000,000 witch is how much money gets sent to blizzard in a 4 month span

But you're assuming that activision/Blizzard is one of those companies. and hosting a website is not the same as running 9,000 servers. Even if you only use 9,000 servers, you have 11,000 000 players capable of making up to about 20-40 toons. across those servers. that actually 220,000,000 - 440,000,000 players worth of information approximately. no, hosting a single website doesn't cost very much, but this isn't a website they are running. Wow isn't simply a domain name and a website, so the two cannot be compared.

I don't believe activision actually employs second or third world peoples. they run just about everything out of their main building (I believe). You cannot Say "THEY ONLY PAY THIS MUCH" as a fact and then state general global statistics that MIGHT apply to them. Do not make a statement as fact unless you KNOW it applies to them.

Even then, as mentioned, you are still forgetting all the overhead charges. You cannot ignore these as a company and often time they cost a lot more than you employees do.

EDIT: I also feel the need to point out: That looks like what the consumer pays in order to play the game in china, not what it costs them. And notice it's $3 because the yen and yuan are foreign currencies. That has no bearing on what they actually pay

 

[ionveau]

Well...Duh, it's an MMO. People forget this for some stupid reason. Whenever I go to a youtube video or something, there are people absolutely pissed off because they'd need to pay to play for month. Playstation Network is free, so I don't see why 15 bucks a month is so bad. you pay the same price for WoW each month and they're not screaming for vengeance.

The problem is that you play starcraft for free you play any game for free online, MOs are just fetish games that we have been brain washed into thinking they need monthly fees to stay alive, while in fact they do not, It costs blizzard 12cents a month(if you stay online for a while month) per person to play

Are you high?
maintenance costs alone per person are more than that. Nevermind server admins and the moderation team. And the development team who consistenly patch fix and improve the game.

While they certainly don't need them to survive, you would have a pretty bare bones service without them.

Unless you give me proof that it costs more then 12 cents per person then your argument is nothing.
And no i am not intoxicated

The support employs jobs can be outsourced so for all that you know the support team gets payed $1/hour


If your saying development costs justify the monthly fee then lets look at it like this, So you WoW players pay 15/month you get a patch every 3/4 months a patch can be broken down into this

1 Raid
1 or 2 new models for the bosses
A bunch of number edits on skills to give "balance"
Maybe a few quests if you been good

And that will cost you $60 or $45 if its every 3 months

WoW if for $60 a development team cannot create a Raid and a few models then how do game company's survive making good quality games and only charging $60 ONLY $60

And as I mentioned in a previous note, Prove to us that it is only $0.12 per month for ane entire account or your point has been moot this entire time. "For all we know" support TEAMS do not get payed $1 per hour, you're using vastly underestimated numbers that you're estimating to try and support something you are trying to prove to be fact. Support TEAMS are not paid $1 per hour. That would be like a video game sweatshop.

and do you have no concept of the development process? Even if you use copy and paste, it take more than $60 to devellop a raid. You know those computers they're using? Eletricity, costs money. You know the building they're sitting in? Rent. Costs money. You know the chairs, the desks, the people, the SNACKS they put in the vending machines or cafeteria, the air conditioning/heating, the overtime, the servers. It ALL COSTS MONEY. you don't pay a team of people $1 an hour to make you a raid. That's just serious ignorant and stupid, and you have no concept of a business model. NONE.

The reason that WoW can make Tons of money is because of propotion. Lets say for arguments sake that it costs you $30 to maintain a server for one person per month. You charge them $45. $15 per person okay? Easy number. Now lets see this:

10 subscribers: $150 profit
50 subscribers: $750 profit
10,000 subscribers: $150 000 profit
11 million subscribers: $165,000,000 profit

THAT is how they make money. even a low profit margin of $15 a month can become HUGE profit with 11 million subscribers

Ok even though i cant give you exact numbers the whole "they need money for maintaining servers" is just BS

As you can see from this link
http://webhostinggeeks.com/
http://hosting.webcity.com.au/

Web hosting prices are much lower then WoW monthly cost you know why? people that want web hosting are not fools and know how much it really costs to support a person using there servers.

Alot of company's use outsourcing of jobs to second world or third world country's to cut costs, How do you know that person your talking to is not from India

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1127055/000095012306007628/y22210exv99w1.htm
If you read that it tells you that for the 11million players online they only use 9,000 servers

If you scroll down in china the Sub is only 3,00 for 60 hours of game play (remember time goes down as you play not like over here)


After looking for an answer to your question i have no reason to think that blizzard pays more then even 5 cents per person

Server hosting is not expansive get over yourself


Yes it costs more then $60 to develop a raid but not more then 660,000,000 witch is how much money gets sent to blizzard in a 4 month span

But you're assuming that activision/Blizzard is one of those companies. and hosting a website is not the same as running 9,000 servers. Even if you only use 9,000 servers, you have 11,000 000 players capable of making up to about 20-40 toons. across those servers. that actually 220,000,000 - 440,000,000 players worth of information approximately. no, hosting a single website doesn't cost very much, but this isn't a website they are running. Wow isn't simply a domain name and a website, so the two cannot be compared.

I don't believe activision actually employs second or third world peoples. they run just about everything out of their main building (I believe). You cannot Say "THEY ONLY PAY THIS MUCH" as a fact and then state general global statistics that MIGHT apply to them. Do not make a statement as fact unless you KNOW it applies to them.

Even then, as mentioned, you are still forgetting all the overhead charges. You cannot ignore these as a company and often time they cost a lot more than you employees do.

EDIT: I also feel the need to point out: That looks like what the consumer pays in order to play the game in china, not what it costs them. And notice it's $3 because the yen and yuan are foreign currencies. That has no bearing on what they actually pay

A website costs the hoster WAY MORE again WAY MORE then a silly game, storing a players data for 40 characters would cost them about 10MB if not less, Just like you said i dont know how much it costs then you dont eather there for i can continue thinking it costs them 1 cent per person and you can continue thinking it costs them $10 out of the 15 you pay to support there servers(even though i know that private server owners pay around 10 cents per person)

 

[night_chrono]

A website costs the hoster WAY MORE again WAY MORE then a silly game, storing a players data for 40 characters would cost them about 10MB if not less, Just like you said i dont know how much it costs then you dont eather there for i can continue thinking it costs them 1 cent per person and you can continue thinking it costs them $10 out of the 15 you pay to support there servers(even though i know that private server owners pay around 10 cents per person)

Having played around with Wow server emulators, I can say with 100% certainty that it's more than 10 MB for 40 characters. I don't remember exact number because it was years ago and just something a friend and I did to kill a couple days. I do remember that data grew at a huge rate.

Also it may cost someone running a private server .10 cents per person because they are running it on a home computer, with a home internet connection, and they have player moderators only (or maybe some friends that are in on it but are doing it for free). Not massive data centers, with a dev team making $55,000 a year, support staff, plus electricity cooling, bandwidth, etc.

So go ahead and have your ignorance and keep thinking that a kid in his basement running a private server for 100 people is the same as Blizzard managing thousands of servers for millions of players.