The many reasons why MMO games charge you a monthy fee to play

I keep hearing people complain about why games charge you to play them. Here are the REAL reasons why....

• To keep the servers online
• To keep content fresh
• TO provide future expansions
• Provide one hell of a gaming experience.

I'm probably gonna get flamed for this but the reason why Guild Wars doesn't charge a fee because 3/4 of the game is instanced. And doesn't need to pay much to keep servers up.

TO provide future expansionsSteameffekt

A subscription also helps limit cheating and other lameness.

Money makes things go.

What about all the other F2P MMOs guild wars is not the only one lulz and the expansions theory is stupid, you have to pay for the expansion anyway. Its like for example paying sony to make a game during development and then when it comes out paying them again to buy it

What about all the other F2P MMOs guild wars is not the only one lulz and the expansions theory is stupid, you have to pay for the expansion anyway. Its like for example paying sony to make a game during development and then when it comes out paying them again to buy it. plenty of servers are free, even blizzard still hosts battlenet entirely free so i dont see why mmo shouldnt be

cuz EQ did it so everyone else does it...the end.

cuz EQ did it so everyone else does it...the end.

BLaZe462

What about all the other F2P MMOs guild wars is not the only one lulz and the expansions theory is stupid, you have to pay for the expansion anyway. Its like for example paying sony to make a game during development and then when it comes out paying them again to buy it. plenty of servers are free, even blizzard still hosts battlenet entirely free so i dont see why mmo shouldnt be

marcellis

cuz EQ did it so everyone else does it...the end.

BLaZe462

This.

Oh wait...no. Subscriptions for online games started waaaay before EQ.

[QUOTE="BLaZe462"]

cuz EQ did it so everyone else does it...the end.

Ca_shadow

No, it's for the initial development costs of creating the game, starting hardware costs, ect. Basically for everything to get the game running...once that's done the fee takes care of all ongoing costs of keeping the game running, improvements, new hardware, customer support, ect.

[QUOTE="Steameffekt"]TO provide future expansionsLuminouslight

[QUOTE="BLaZe462"]

cuz EQ did it so everyone else does it...the end.

dnuggs40

This.

Oh wait...no. Subscriptions for online games started waaaay before EQ.

What about all the other F2P MMOs guild wars is not the only one lulz and the expansions theory is stupid, you have to pay for the expansion anyway. Its like for example paying sony to make a game during development and then when it comes out paying them again to buy it. plenty of servers are free, even blizzard still hosts battlenet entirely free so i dont see why mmo shouldnt be

marcellis

Pay to play MMO's normally have regular updates with content, fixes, updates tweaks and so on.

The 'free to play' MMO's are not actually free. There are always a cost somewhere. Whether it's tied to buying the better weapons for real world cash, or you need it to avoid leveling insanly slow, or need to pay for special dungeons, classes, inventory space.. There is always a way to generate a profit. Guild Wars for example. Instead of charging a monthly fee they release full prices expansions, want all the abilities for PvP? You'll have to pay extra. Wan't the abilities from the other game packs? Pay extra. Extra bank storage, You need to pay NC Soft a couple of bucks, More character slots? Guess what...

Don't get me wrong. I think NC Soft did a good job of creating a good free to play MMO in Guild Wars. I Own a copy of the three 'full game' packs and like the idea that I dcan start it when I want and not worry about paying pr. month. But when you compare it to pay to play MMO's you see where the money went IMHO. Games like WoW are far bigger, far more diverse, more complexity, more depth, more content.. all that cost more money.

I'd never pay to play a game I already paid for.

[QUOTE="BLaZe462"]

cuz EQ did it so everyone else does it...the end.

dnuggs40

This.

Oh wait...no. Subscriptions for online games started waaaay before EQ.

This.

I remember you certainly had to subscribe to play Ultima Online, and I expect that wasn't even the first one to do it.

So what? Deal with it!! I do when Aion launches. Hekynn

Having MMOs charge fees is so the people running it can not only keep it running, but to keep things fresh and to fix bugs and stop hackers and ect.

I can't afford mmo fees these days, so i stick with free games, but even free ones give you the options like Item mall so you can get special items and give the game owners money so they can keep it up for it players.

So what? Deal with it!! I do when Aion launches. Hekynn

I don't think this guy actually read the TC post.

Either read the thread or GTFO

What about all the other F2P MMOs guild wars is not the only one lulz and the expansions theory is stupid, you have to pay for the expansion anyway. Its like for example paying sony to make a game during development and then when it comes out paying them again to buy it. plenty of servers are free, even blizzard still hosts battlenet entirely free so i dont see why mmo shouldnt be

marcellis

[QUOTE="dnuggs40"]

[QUOTE="BLaZe462"]

cuz EQ did it so everyone else does it...the end.

broken_bass_bin

This.

Oh wait...no. Subscriptions for online games started waaaay before EQ.

This.

I remember you certainly had to subscribe to play Ultima Online, and I expect that wasn't even the first one to do it.

[QUOTE="marcellis"]

What about all the other F2P MMOs guild wars is not the only one lulz and the expansions theory is stupid, you have to pay for the expansion anyway. Its like for example paying sony to make a game during development and then when it comes out paying them again to buy it. plenty of servers are free, even blizzard still hosts battlenet entirely free so i dont see why mmo shouldnt be

Nerkcon

[QUOTE="broken_bass_bin"]

[QUOTE="dnuggs40"]

This.

Oh wait...no. Subscriptions for online games started waaaay before EQ.

Captain__Tripps

This.

I remember you certainly had to subscribe to play Ultima Online, and I expect that wasn't even the first one to do it.

Was that the one with Red Baron? If so yeah I actually used to play that...Red Baron online was the **** Must have been 15 years ago at least...

Well we'll see if NCSoft/ANet have got it wrong by not charging when GW2 comes out, as that will not be instanced, and will be an MMO in the more traditional sense of the word. If you all really believe that any company 'needs' to charge up to $15 a month from every single player just to keep running, then you're being a tad naive. That is a LOT of cash.

They could probably run the servers and support on the sales alone. And subscription fees more than likely help towards other projects for the company as much as anything, so you're not necessarily paying for what you're playing. To be honest, I'd much prefer to NOT continually pay for a game I've already payed for just to do endless quests that are exactly the same (I did that with WoW for much more time than I should have). There are only so many different types of animals/people/things you can kill over and over and over again before you wonder just where your money is actually going. It's certainly not going in to creative development, that's for sure.

They're making a lot of money from sub fees, and one would hope that would trickle down and give the consumers better, more original games to play....yet all it seems to really achieve is yet more of the same old same old; games whose main intention is to hook people in so they can keep the money rolling their way. There is no going forward if people remain obliviously happy about paying fees. Nothing will change. Nothing will improve. You'll be given the same formula over again - the same standard MMOs that all look and play the same.

That big pot of money just begging to be spent on improving creativity and advancing the whole idea of MMOs is just being churned back around because if they're making money doing what they're doing...what's the point in striving for better things? I like to think there are some developers and games that think a little more outside the box than that. That wish to advance the format rather than stick with what people know, and what brings in the cash.

Guild Wars was a big step in the right direction for online gaming and not having sub fees paid a big part in that. Sure they didn't get everything right, but at least they tried to push the envelope. They could have just stuck to the tried and tested formula and made a bunch of money. But there should be more to this business than just money :)

There's room for creativity in there, and I for one applaud developers that dare to do it differently.