The Elder Scrolls Online Will Have Subscription Fees

nuttshell

New member
Aug 11, 2013
201
0
0
Subscription fee...hm. Premium experience bla, updates bla, pro-support bla...you also have to buy the game bla- what? Sorry ESO, too bad, we didn't even get to know each other.
 

eBentl02

New member
Jul 9, 2012
1
0
0
If the game doesn't have a base cost then I might give it a go, not very likely I'll end up paying a subscription fee though, shame I was really looking forward to this
 

Matthi205

New member
Mar 8, 2012
248
0
0
This, at least to me, seems like a bad situation to be in for them. If they go F2P, they know they're going to fuck it up, if they're going buy-to-play, they can't keep the big-ass servers running, so the only thing that's left is the subscription model. And that, at this point, dooms the game to failure.

What is the game competing with? Here's a list of the biggest probable competitors:
  • WoW.....................Subscription-based, lower subscription fees [footnote]As far as I know.[/footnote], very sucessful
    EQNext..................Probably F2P, might attract people due to destruction physics
    FFXIV:ARR............Subscription-based[footnote]As far as I know.[/footnote]
    GW2......................Buy-to-play, very sucessful
    TERA.....................F2P, similar combat system

Now. Let's take a look at who is going to want to play this game:

  • Elder Scrolls Fans
    MMORPG fans looking for something slightly different
    Action-MMORPG fans (like, say, me)
    MMORPG and TES fans (arguably the demographic they make this MMO for)

So, if somebody is already playing WoW/Rift/TSW/SWTOR/GW and looking for something that uses slightly different mechanics, they're going to be turned off primarily by the action-focused combat that can't be macroed. These people are likely to either continue playing their game or start playing Guild Wars or FF14.

If somebody is a TES fan, they're going to hate the inability to mod the game and the subscription fee.

If somebody is an Action-MMORPG fan, they're probably going to be better served playing TERA or EQNext (from what I've seen at least).

The only demographic this game is still for, is the demographic that has no problem with paying 15 bucks a month, loves the Elder Scrolls series, isn't concerned with modding, and has friends who belong to the same demographic. I'd say this narrows the potential playerbase down somewhat. Well, at least they won't need more servers than they have now when the game launches.
 

DarkhoIlow

New member
Dec 31, 2009
2,531
0
0
I am very saddened by their decision.

I am already an active subscriber to WoW since it's release and this news really made me kinda give up on this game. Because of this the only games i am interest in are games similar to Guild Wars 2 payment models (Buy once to play) and F2P.

That's quite a risky business model for them. I will try the game once it goes open beta but after that I will just wait until they eventually goes F2P, just like the sub games before it (Tera, Swtor, Rift etc).
 

LordNerevar

New member
Feb 24, 2012
14
0
0
Daystar Clarion said:
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I'm out.


It's 2013, the only MMO that can even get away with charging a subscription fee is WoW.
And EVE.

Daystar Clarion said:
Nobody wants to do that any more, nobody wants to fork out X amount of money per month.
Don't forget about us EVE players :)

On a more related note, I will probably try the game out when it is first released. But it will need to bring A LOT to the table to keep me paying/playing.

*sigh*Why Zenimax Online? Y U NO one time purchase!?
 

lancar

New member
Aug 11, 2009
428
0
0
I had very low expecations of this game before. Now, they're even lower.
I paid the monthly fee in WoW for over 6 years, and the only reason I continued to do so for half of that time was due to my guild, which I loved (kinda still do, as they still exist. Both in WoW, and now in swtor as well).

That they made TES into an MMO annoys me greatly. I really liked the last 3 singleplayer games in the series, and I really do NOT want them to take it in the mmo direction, as it's simply not conducive to the gameplay I want from it.

My point being, for me to even look at TESO, it'd either have to be a good quality F2P title, or the best friggin' game ever made this side of the millenium.
 

XX Y XY

New member
Apr 2, 2011
77
0
0
:D Sweet. I actually prefer this pay model. I've been playing MMOs since they were MUDs and in all of my experience, I'm yet to find an F2P MMO that is worth playing... GW and GW2 are the only possible exceptions. They all have terrible communities populated mostly by young children and trolls, no customer support, little if any content updates, unfinished broken gameplay and mechanics, P2W, and ridiculous paywalls. Maybe there's a good way to do a F2P model but I'm yet to see it. And to me not having to deal with all the kiddies is worth the $15 a month alone. As long as the content is there to justify the fee, I'm in. We'll just have to see what Zenimax delivers.
 

Feylynn

New member
Feb 16, 2010
559
0
0
Subscription is dead to me.
I'm rather confident they'll convert to F2P within a few years anyways. If that doesn't happen? I'm not hurt because offline ElderScrolls has mods if I want to play something new.

I dare them to make me a liar by developing a game so good I am forced to pay for it because that would mean I'd have a better game to play than I expect them to release by many many magnitudes.
 

immortalfrieza

Elite Member
Legacy
May 12, 2011
2,336
270
88
Country
USA
Subscription fees for playing a game you've already bought is B.S. and always has been. It's like buying a bicycle from a bike shop and then having the manufacturer being allowed come by and take it away if you don't pay them more money every month. Even the car analogy works, at least when you buy a car but don't buy more gas you can still sit in it, sleep in it, and/or listen to music instead of driving it.

ESO is even worse, since there are already an entire series of Elder Scrolls games that don't cost any more than the initial purchase price, why would anyone get this MMO that does cost more than that when we already have that?
 

viranimus

Thread killer
Nov 20, 2009
4,952
0
0
I had zero interest in this before but now I am pleasantly intrigued.

What is beyond bizarre is the people complaining about not liking f2p model mixed in with the chorus of "ITS THE FUTUR!" Such a defeatist mentality to see something people wish did not even exist but accept it with such zeal as if it can be no other way as if people are somehow powerless to dictate the will of commerce.

It actually astounds me that anyone would be interested in anything Free to Play. Sure no one likes paying money for anything, but the experience one has with subscriptions is unquestionably superior vs free to play. F2P is a horrible model for the individual, any game it is in, MMORPGs as a genre, and the industry as a whole. ......BUT ITS THE FUTUR!!!

So, I guess this is another game giving players another undeserved chance to pull the genre back away from the lamprey pulling its strings before its future is realized for what it is. Perpetually futile pay to win simulators. Of course that will fail as there will be so many pumping their fists screaming "We want the chance for you to leverage inequality against us. We want omnipresent reminders of fiscal properties before any sort of pesky immersion has a chance to creep in. If the model is good enough for strippers and street walkers, then it is good enough for us! Give us our F2P with an extra side of genre herpes for everyone!!!!"
 

Sight Unseen

The North Remembers
Nov 18, 2009
1,064
0
0
lancar said:
I had very low expecations of this game before. Now, they're even lower.
I paid the monthly fee in WoW for over 6 years, and the only reason I continued to do so for half of that time was due to my guild, which I loved (kinda still do, as they still exist. Both in WoW, and now in swtor as well).

That they made TES into an MMO annoys me greatly. I really liked the last 3 singleplayer games in the series, and I really do NOT want them to take it in the mmo direction, as it's simply not conducive to the gameplay I want from it.

My point being, for me to even look at TESO, it'd either have to be a good quality F2P title, or the best friggin' game ever made this side of the millenium.
How is TES's gameplay not conducive to an MMO? Whenever I first started playing elder scrolls game it felt to me like a single player MMO. I feel like an MMO is a logical extension of what TES is, although I would have been just as happy with a co-op mode personally.
 

Taurus Vis

New member
Jan 12, 2013
62
0
0
I will consider buying this game if and when the subscription drops below $10.00. Otherwise, Dark Souls 2 will be hoarding all my attention due to being exactly what I wanted from an online enabled Elder Scrolls game. Online functionality in a single player focused experience. Why can't I just do some adventuring with a buddy in Tamriel. Get out of here with that subscription crap. At $15 bucks a month, even if they only have 3 million players (There will be way more) they will make $45,000,000 a month. I don't care how much your overhead costs are, more than half a billion dollars a year on top of original purchase price is obscene. We are progressing to a point where flagrant monetization of videogames is common place, and it's sickening. I was very much looking forward to this, but I will absolutely not pay for a new game every four months when they can't hope to produce enough content to justify the subscription price. Fucking Zenimax.
 

Doclector

New member
Aug 22, 2009
5,010
0
0
I'm not sure how I feel about this.

See, whilst everyone else was being all excited about the elder scrolls online launch trailer, I was sitting there thinking "well, no point in me getting hyped. It'll likely need subs"

My interest picked up a little when I heard it was a possibility that it could be a one off buy, but still, I remained fairly disinterested. So I'm not all that devastated.

However...I probably would've given a free to play/one off buy ESO a try. But at the same time, I know that the money has to come from somewhere, and likely in the form of dreaded microtransactions and pay to win tactics.

So yeah, it'll probably be a better game for not having to always be trying to get gamers to cough up something while they play, but at the same time, $14.99 a month is a lot of money. It'll take it's toll if you plan on being committed to it for any decent length of time. Then, if it's successful, we can expect expansion packs and the like.

So yeah, I'm mixed on this. Sure, said subscription completely bars me from entry, I am out, I am completely disinterested now, but at the same time, I've got to wonder whether this really will lead to a better experience for those who do decide to pay the toll.
 

Extragorey

New member
Dec 24, 2010
566
0
0
I'm actually glad it's subscription-based, because that means it's cheaper for me to try it and ditch it after a month (and probably pick it up again once it becomes F2P further down the road).
I don't like to commit myself to monthly subscriptions, so I always go for one month - to make a recurring sub worthwhile would require a lot of playtime, and frankly I can think of better uses of my limited free time.
 

prigdishnak

New member
Jan 17, 2012
16
0
0
This is interesting. I had been wondering since first hearing about this game if they would do anything like this. For me personally, don't mind all that much. But, here is something I would like to know.

I don't recall which game I heard of this with. But in the game it was subscription based. But. It based it off of how long you actually played. If you bought a months time and played for five days, you would still have those 25 other days still there for whenever you came back to the game. Now honestly curious here. Why is this not used? Is there some form of limitation with such a style of subscription I'm unaware of? Or is this system simply not considered at all profitable and thus no major game uses it?

As for TESO itself. I will be looking extremely closely at reviews and the like when things get going. I have a slightly silly cut off point for if I would get the game or not. If the Argonians look like crap or are effectively not at all different from the other races except for looks, or if there is any sort of class/race limitations that make me unable to have my Male Argonian Mage and Female Argonian Warrior. Nope nope nope. Other than that, willing to give it a try down the line.
 

Foolery

No.
Jun 5, 2013
1,714
0
0
Daystar Clarion said:
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I'm out.


It's 2013, the only MMO that can even get away with charging a subscription fee is WoW.

Nobody wants to do that any more, nobody wants to fork out X amount of money per month.
Bullshit. Final Fantasy XI says otherwise pal. You don't want pay a subscription. Others do.
Though I admit, I won't be playing Elder Scrolls as I'm already jumping on board Final Fantasy XIV:ARR.
 

Korten12

Now I want ma...!
Aug 26, 2009
10,766
0
0
Nocturnus said:
Fast forward to now... the new artwork is becoming non-existent. The new weapon and skins are gated behind the microtransaction store at ten dollars a pop, and content has become pretty much all temporary.
.
What. There is no Weapon skins in the store. All new weapon skins are gained from getting items during their events. I have no idea what your spouting but it's bullshit. Also in general new weapons? Um, you can't buy actual weapons with stats in the store anyway.

Also the latest new content (Invasions) are actually here to stay. Not as often as they're happening now but these events are across the game world and it brings a lot of players together. Lastly while content is temporary, at least stuff is actually going on. In a lot of games there would be nothing going on for months and then one content update would come out and then another time of no content.

At least with the living story there is actually stuff to come back and do every two weeks.