Poll: Subscription Fees...

[oppp7]

Are they really required for a game? I understand that MMORPGs need them for maintainence, but isn't that covered by the purchase of the game? Example: Guild Wars didn't have sub. fees and did pretty good. I can also understand it for big things such as Xbox live. But why do MMOs feel the need to get extra money from us? Overall the entire thing seems like more a deterrent from the game than something important. Whenever you meet someone who's a fan of MMOs, they normally only play 1 MMO. WoW still gets a lot of people despite it's sub. fee, but that's an exception.

 

[Xorghul]

Hate sub. fees. That's why I don't play MMOs. So I really ought to thank them...

 

[Zacharine]

Required?

Well, mostly no. At least, not to the insane level they are at. Sure, some money is required to keep the servers going, but considering if 100 000 players each pay 1? a month, that's 100 000? per month usable for maintenance. If each pays 20?, and assuming that 100 000? is actually used for maintenance, the company just made 1,9M?. Per month. For almost nothing. The product has already been developed, advertised and sold I mean.

No, this is just the same old corporate money making. And why shouldn't they? Supply and demand. If people are stupid enough to pay for a game over and over again each month, crank up the price as far as you can and rake in the profits I say!

Sure, us players lose. But hey, is that news somehow?

Welcome to capitalism.

 

[Proteus214]

They contribute a lot to the maintenance of the game's infrastructure, which has a great payout in the long run. I would gladly pay a reasonable fee every month to maintain and improve the quality of a game that I enjoy playing regularly.

 

[pipboy2010]

I never play MMOs because I don't personally want to pay money for a game, and then pay to keep playing it.

I understand the point of them, and usually people who do want to pay get good stuff for it (exclusive items, more DLC, better support, etc). But I really can't be bothered with it all.

 

[Talendra]

For some games yes. Though I would prefer if they were a bit less, oh well.

 

[wrecker77]

Required?

Well, mostly no. At least, not to the insane level they are at. Sure, some money is required to keep the servers going, but considering if 100 000 players each pay 1? a month, that's 100 000? per month usable for maintenance. If each pays 20?, and assuming that 100 000? is actually used for maintenance, the company just made 1,9M?. Per month. For almost nothing. The product has already been developed, advertised and sold I mean.

No, this is just the same old corporate money making. And why shouldn't they? Supply and demand. If people are stupid enough to pay for a game over and over again each month, crank up the price as far as you can and rake in the profits I say!

Sure, us players lose. But hey, is that news somehow?

Welcome to capitalism.

Couldnt have said it better.

Good thing I dont play any though.

 

[Subzerowings]

I usually play mmo's for about 20 minutes, and then stop. So I'd never pay for one. It seems unfair that people already buy games like WoW in stores and then pay monthly, unfair or stupid.

 

[oppp7]

Some free online MMOs only have advertisements to keep the servers and workers paid for. The problem with this is that the lack of workers can lower the output of DLC. I have seen this problem with 2Moons, but that could also be because 2Moons is obscure (and run by Acclaim).

 

[Legion]

For Xbox Live and such, fine. They are a fairly decent price and allow for updates, maintenance and they give you the ability to play any game and chat in a party of 8 people even if you are in different games.

For individual games? Hell no, at least, not the price they charge.

Think about this: World of Warcraft has over 10 million players, each one charged around £9 or $13 (for the in between option, don't be picky) per month. Let's round the numbers to 10 million, the amount of money they make on subscriptions in a month is around £90/$130 million.

Does anybody seriously believe it costs them anywhere near this much to run the game with updates as well?

Obviously they want to make money, they are a business, but that is fucking ridiculous.

 

[oppp7]

For Xbox Live and such, fine. They are a fairly decent price and allow for updates, maintenance and they give you the ability to play any game and chat in a party of 8 people even if you are in different games.

For individual games? Hell no, at least, not the price they charge.

Think about this: World of Warcraft has over 10 million players, each one charged around £9 or $13 (for the in between option, don't be picky) per month. Let's round the numbers to 10 million, the amount of money they make on subscriptions in a month is around £90/$130 million.

Does anybody seriously believe it costs them anywhere near this much to run the game with updates as well?

Obviously they want to make money, they are a business, but that is fucking ridiculous.

That's my reaction to the industry. Even at $5 a month they would have enough to pay for everything for a few months, so why do they need $15? I think we should just boycott the damn games until they lower their prices or just add advertisements that don't cost us anything.