Sure and as a consumer I can decide its not worth it to me

More content
Than a game like NWN 1 or 2, or TES III or IV with a strong modding community? Hardly

The multiplayer model I'd like to see more companies following is the one used by NWN. Fan-created and run servers but that doesn't make money directly for the developer.

Well of course - that way they make more money, but the point is that that is more than enough, much more.


Myeah. :thumbsup:

I know what I'm talking about.

If TES V came out as an MMO (I know it won't), would you pay a monthly fee. I'd be interested to know if the people against these fees would still play?

Personally I've become very reluctant to spend any more than even $20 on a video game. That said, I honestly don't mind paying $15 a month to play a game like WoW. The money is no issue, and when you have a job that's a drop in the bucket.

It's just the WoW, and most all MMOs, are terrible games. I really really want to like WoW and play it and enjoy it like so many other people do, but I just can't bear it for long enough to "get to the fun part at level 80". I keep remaking characters and switching sides and whatnot that I've never progressed passed level 43 or something.

Now I like Guild Wars alot. I've played through 80% of the Prophecies campaign several times through and enjoyed it most every time. The problem with Guild Wars is that it forces you to use a party system, and there are just times (Thunderhead Keep how I hate you) that it's IMPOSSIBLE to put together a competent enough group to progress. Beyond that I kind of feel left out in the game these days. Everyone has all of the expansions and here is dirty-peasant me with just the original one.

Nope.

I'm against monthly fees because I feel like I don't own the game. If I stop bleeding money for even a month, I suddenly can't play the game any more. It doesn't matter if I've been paying for years, and have spent hundreds of dollars in monthly fees, if I ever stop playing, I no longer own the game. IMO monthly fees are no better than DRM.



Probably not. I would probably put aside some money and play it for a few months, then never play it again.

I pay for a WoW subscription, it's about as much as a cinema visit and I feel that I get more value out of my WoW time than cinema.

Nope.

Do you rent games, it's the same thing?

I usually pay ?10 for World of Warcraft a month. I think it's worth it seeing as how many hours I put into it and the sheer amount of content available.

No it isn't the same thing. I rent games specifically because I do not want to own them. I play a few bucks, play them for a week, and then return them, the whole time knowing that the game is not mine. But in the case of MMOs with monthly fees, I play $60 to buy the game disc that I own, but I can't actually play it unless I spend an additional $15 every month. It isn't at all like renting games. If I buy the disc that is required to play the game, I should be able to play it without paying any more money. But instead, I have to keep paying, and if I ever stop paying, the disc that I bought is rendered useless.

Precisely. You basically buy the game in order to be able to rent it. Brilliant, but unfair.

actually, any online multiplayer game for the xbox has required you pay the gold xboxlive account fee, 5$ IIRC a month which doesn't even go to the game developers

Why would you pay $60 for the disc when you can download the game for free?

Do you pay for cable/satelite, a different form of entertainment, if so then you pay for channels that you'll never own, what's the difference?

You have to buy an original serial key before you're allowed to purchase monthly subscriptions.

Not with any of the MMOs I've played. Downloaded them, some on free trials and the only fees I payed was for the month/months subs.

I'm not sure how it is today, but when Age of Conan was released you did have to pay full price for a cd key. And it's still like that with WoW, and you have to pay a rather considerable amount of money for each expansion too.

Trading in-game money for real money = ban

and that is essentially what you are doing

Seem circuitous too.

Why play game? To earn money. Why earn money? So you can play game. Why play game? To earn money.

Because, like I said, I want to own something. Downloading the game for free, or paying to download, means I don't own anything physical. Think about it, after I stop paying the monthly fee, I don't even have a useless disc lying around, just a bunch of useless information stored on my hard drive.



Again, it's not the same thing. When I pay for TV, I don't expect to own the channels and shows I watch. When I rent a game, I don't expect to own that game. When I lease a car, I don't expect to own that car. But when I buy 99% of the games out there, I DO own them. With most videogames, I expect to own the videogame, and indeed, I do own it. The copy of Fallout 3 in my disc tray? Yeah, I own that. All of my Xbox games? Yeah, I own them. As long as I have the machine to play them, I can play them forever and ever. But with monthy fee MMOs, while I expect to own the videogame like I do with most, I do not. I don't own it. I pay and pay and pay, but I don't own it. It's not right, and it's why I don't play them.

Actually I'm trying to remember if I did have to pay an upfront fee for AOC, it's been a while, if so it certainly wasn' anywhere near $60. Looking on their site the current offer is ?17.99.

I payed ?50 for it (not the worst money I've ever spend, but close), which is unfortunatly the standard price for new games here. Guess they dropped the price because the game wasn't exactly a huge success.

I don't mind paying but the fees are too high, IMO. If Blizzard reduced them by 50% I'd consider it a fair deal. I can play Call of Duty and Guild Wars online as much as I want for free, so if those companies can do it then so can Blizzard and others like them.

Maybe you shouldn't expect to own the game then, which I'm sure you don't, so I don't understand your point. You're paying a fee to enter a virtual world, to interact with hundreds of other people from around the world, something you can't do in a conventional game, not even online.

I don't see how you're constantly missing my point. I do expect to own the game, and because I can never actually own a monthly fee MMO, I wont play one.

Listen, you asked why people don't like monthly fee MMOs, and I stated my reasons. I don't know if you don't understand my reasons, or simply don't want to, but I stated them, and I'm tired of repeating my point over and over and over again. So lets leave it at that for now.