Pay To Play

[Sephina]

Actually I kind've am hoping that it turns out to work like guild wars, where any money they make comes off expansions, and regular bug-fix updates and stuff like that is free.

- Sephie

[gstwin]

this was a question i was wondering, myself. or/also whether the servers will be private ( prone to hackers severely) or company owned ( not as prone) plus cheaper to maintain paying fees , plus costing less for an outfit, than private servers

[connnnn]

Guarantee the servers will be run by Webzen. Otherwise the MMO scale they're wanting would not be possible.

[Fauqs]

There could also be a third method for payment.

I heard recently that Lord of the Rings online will give people the chance to pay $200 when they first get the game so they never have to pay a monthly fee, ever.

I think that would be a good median, because if you can afford it, it would save you money in the long run, but if not, the monthly fee is there too.

[connnnn]

Hah that's pretty sweet...

Pay 200, play the game, if you end up not liking it after a few months, sell the account to someone else for 200 and get all your money back.

[Lexington]

id be willing to pay $30 a month to play this game.

[mikkado]

Guild war isnt a MM and Guildwars is far from online IMO, I played it and 99% of the time you do instanced like battles. SO because of that, they can keep it free. It was also the thing I hated about GW, so I played WoW instead.

WoW is very boring now, so now I play UT2004, HL2 and such to kill time until Huxley comes.

[Sephina]

Originally Posted by mikkado

Guild war isnt a MM and Guildwars is far from online IMO, I played it and 99% of the time you do instanced like battles. SO because of that, they can keep it free. It was also the thing I hated about GW, so I played WoW instead.

WoW is very boring now, so now I play UT2004, HL2 and such to kill time until Huxley comes.

Hmm... I'd say the endgame of WoW and GW are very much the same though, even if GW isn't considered a true MMO...

GW endgame:
instance PVP battles
Instanced PVE missions and encounters with groups of other players

WoW endgame:
instanced PVP battles in BG
instanced PVE dungeons or raids with the amount of people that go with you ranging from only 4 other players (for 5-man content) to 40 other players (big-raid content), or more recently, up to 25 players (for the newer raids)

point is, in the end for both of them most of the stuff you do is instanced with the exception of a few world PVP objectives in WoW. Also, in both games if you want to take a break and just kind've hang out and talk to other people, you run into other players in the town on both of them =) This is just kind've how I see the two games in comparison to one another, even though in GW you get to the end game much faster.

- Sephie

edit: and yes, I know you don't have to be in a town to run into other people on WoW, just that there's alot more people in the big towns, such as Stormwind and IF, and the small town phenomenon known "Goldshire" heh

[mikkado]

Hehe yeah, at the endgame they are alike indeed. It's also the same boring endgame that killed it for me ^^ No more raiding for me. Although I do miss seeing critical numbers, that was so satisfying!

[LizardPariah]

MMOs do not necessarily require a monthly fee. You're forgeting the MMO company GPotato who currently supports Flyff, Space Cowboys Online, Rappelz, Corum Online and soon Accro Xtreme all COMPLETELY FOR FREE. THAT'S 5 MMORPGS.

Also remember these games are not independent no one cares games. Rappelz landed best MMORPG of 2006 and most popular free MMO (knocking down Silkroad Online). (info taken from http://www.gameogre.com/2006awards.htm, mmorpg.com and xfire) Also keep in mind that all Gpotato games are 3D and gameplay/graphically up to date. (well since Rappelz and corum came out within the last 3 months duh).

I play Rappelz and the game updates weekly/monthly basis. There's also give aways like Ipod shufflers, and keyboard mouse combo.

Also Webzen's S.U.N. MMO will likely be free to play (since the asian version is F2P).

I dont see why Huxley has to be Pay to play, at most it should be retail.

If you dont believe me see for yourself: http://gpotato.com/

World of Warcraft is runned by an evil corporation. No matter what Blizzard will not let Wow be even PARTIALLY free despite it's popularity and advertisment. Also because of WoW, blizzard stopped ALL OTHER PROJECTS. (Starcraft: Ghost, Diablo 3 anyone?) Stupid Blizzard. heck, even UBI Soft's Shadowbane went free when the popularity soared recently.

[connnnn]

Actually none of those are really current-gen engines. The license for Unreal 3 engine alone will cost Webzen around a million dollars. I'm not sure what those other games use, but I guarantee it's not costing them nearly as much for the license.

Plus, those games are all supported by selling items to players, especially ones that can't be obtained in-game. Some people don't have an issue with that; some do. It's important to consider though.

[Maverick]

I think there should at least be something like they did for SWG where you can try the game for like a month (maybe a week or two) free that way you can see if it was worth your money. Then, they have the annual monthly payments (which for this game I'd be willing to pay 10-15 maybe 20 a month). Or you can to what LOTRO: The Shadows of Angmar is doing**and offer those who pre order the game a cheaper monthly payment or a lifetime payment and some cool extra items. But this game has to have some sort of payment method, especially since MMOs in general tend to stick around from anywhere from 2-6 years minimum after release. But that's just me.

Maverick...OUT


**=giving props to may game there :D

[connnnn]

That lifetime purchase option deal seems interesting... but I don't get what keeps people from just buying it, then selling their account to someone else for basically the same price later on.

I don't see how it's good for the company in the long-run... then again the same thing happens with Guild Wars. So I guess it's just not common enough to actually cost the company much money.

[LizardPariah]

I think it would be reasonable for Huxley to be retail without fee (like Guild Wars). For it to be completely free to play is asking too much (even if S.U.N. is).

[zeekgenateer]

Originally Posted by Maverick

I think there should at least be something like they did for SWG where you can try the game for like a month (maybe a week or two) free that way you can see if it was worth your money. Then, they have the annual monthly payments (which for this game I'd be willing to pay 10-15 maybe 20 a month). Or you can to what LOTRO: The Shadows of Angmar is doing**and offer those who pre order the game a cheaper monthly payment or a lifetime payment and some cool extra items. But this game has to have some sort of payment method, especially since MMOs in general tend to stick around from anywhere from 2-6 years minimum after release. But that's just me.

I believe that for any game that's too much. For most high schoolers and some college students, we can't afford 10, 15, or 20 a month. I see a fee of 5 dollars a month acceptable but above 10 dollars is outrageous. No game is worth 10 a month for me to play. And Sony killed SWG so do not speaketh the name again. It is dead to me.

[LizardPariah]

Originally Posted by zeekgenateer

I believe that for any game that's too much. For most high schoolers and some college students, we can't afford 10, 15, or 20 a month. I see a fee of 5 dollars a month acceptable but above 10 dollars is outrageous. No game is worth 10 a month for me to play. And Sony killed SWG so do not speaketh the name again. It is dead to me.

I completely agree. At most is 5, but all of my friends cant pay so if Huxley is pay to play then none of us will play. (This is the main reason why Planetside isen't too popular).

I believe it to be reasonable if Huxley is retail only

[Maverick]

Originally Posted by zeekgenateer

I believe that for any game that's too much. For most high schoolers and some college students, we can't afford 10, 15, or 20 a month. I see a fee of 5 dollars a month acceptable but above 10 dollars is outrageous. No game is worth 10 a month for me to play. And Sony killed SWG so do not speaketh the name again. It is dead to me.

Oh trust me dude, I loved that game, fricken CU, yeah I quit the day it came out, seeing as that was the day in the village I was going to be a Jedi initiate, and I was also a master commando, there werent too many of those around anymore, same with TKMs, so yeah I hate it now.

[mipe1984]

i wrote it some month ago and ill write it again this game arent all THAT to be demanding pay per month, geeses i looked on most of the movies ppl might as well play UTseries, its free and the same graphic and with the "lvl program" thats been intregrated in ut2004 u can even gain lvls with extra ammo, life, speed, and so on.. and i quitted wow and sold the account to someone since i thinked it was a waste of money to pay per month.. hell give me "free to play" then this game could rock easy but major suckiness comes when all say hey you where just dumb enough to give 400dkr (62$ for dollar users) just to get a cd, and now you must pay even more to be allowed to use that cd????

i mean the is the next step you also have to pay per month for windows?

[connnnn]

Keep in mind that UT (and all other FPS type games) servers are only "free" because other people pay for the costs of hosting them. And most of the time they're paying way more than $15 a month.

For bigger servers that require more modern hardware, it'll be even more cost per person per month. And then you have to look at costs for a support staff, and further game development (unless they actually sell expansions).

The plus side is that including console players means the initial market for the game will be pretty huge, which means they don't have to be as conservative with their pricing to make up some initial costs.