| This is a think that I've been thinking for a very long time and of course it's the main reason why I never got hooked onto any MMO is for the monthly fee you gotta pay. The thought just came up again to me for seeing Final Fantasy XIV on Humble Bundle for $4 and I'm like "What's the point of getting it for that low if you'll still gotta pay more for the rest of the experience?". And don't get me wrong, I'd love to play FFXIV I've been hearing nothing but great things about that MMO. Now I know they need the money for their big servers and it's understandable, but to me that's still a lot of money you gotta give just for one game. Sure there are other MMO's out there that are Free-to-Play but those end up having some form of limitation. What if you could just buy an MMO at full price without worrying about the monthly fees and that's it? An example of this would be how Guild Wars 2 did it, just an MMO at full price and no monthly fees. I'd like to see more MMOs try to do this but from what I know there really haven't. I always hear about how fun and social MMOs can be, from making new friends to new faces to even your future girlfriend or boyfriend and etc. I've never touched an MMO but even though I'd like to, I wish I didn't had to pay more. What do you guys think of this? Do you think more MMOs should not include a monthly fee? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. |
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| I've never had this trouble, I guess. I've always played free ones, like Onigiri, and Elsword. |
| Is it you...or me? |
| It's better than the game being pay to win. |
| F2P MMOs are usually shit. I don't mind paying a monthly fee for a better game. |
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| Try MMOs first, FFXIV and WoW both have free trials after you download the game and make an account (no credit card needed). That's what I did and once I realized in that time/level limit that I wanted to play the game a lot, I payed for it. I did wonder about the same thing indeed, and I still do. I don't mind paying since 15$ a month is nothing at all to me. Oh, plus in some MMOs, you can pay by your in-game money or tokens I guess. Look how that works up, you need to be a very good player to do it, though. |
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| The monthly fee is a ripoff model. Initial server cost for the hardware is expensive but once the infrastructure is there it's mere pennies for upkeep and the monthly fee is just 99% pure profits pouring in. Even when you factor in regular patch updates for games like World of Warcraft, it generally takes about 3-4 months before each major patch update, which usually includes a handful of new dungeons and armor sets. 3 months x $15/month = $45 for that content. $45 is around the cost of a full-on expansion set typically, but instead you just paid the price of an expansion for what would normally pass as a $10 DLC pack in another game. As much as the season pass model is generally bullshit in other games, I think it would make much more logical sense for MMORPGs, because it would give a much fairer price for content updates than the subscription model without needing to resort to pay to win tactics. |
kingcity20 said: Oh for the love of -_- nvm gotta love MAL |
| Depends if the game is really really awesome then YES. But if NO, then they should stick on Free to play and just sell items and stuff. |
| It depends on specifics. |
| In a world where a big mac meal costs the same price as a monthly subscription this really is a none issue for anyone who can earn or has more than a £1 a day. |
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| A subscription fee is only worth it if there are no additional costs to unlock content with. That means no paying for expansions, no paying for updates, no paying for extra stuff that gets added. Every player who pays the subscription fee should be treated equal, and should have equal access to all content in the game. The problem is that MMOs with subscription fees do have these additional payment methods (micro-transactions). I used to play RuneScape, which was purely subscription fee-based - nothing more, but they might as well have gotten wiped off the face of the earth as soon as they introduced micro-transactions. There's no way I'm paying for a company that does double-dipping. Guild Wars 2 isn't that great either. They advertise themselves as a buy to play, but in order to have somewhat comfortable inventory and bank space, you'll have to pay up for it (especially bad if you like to play more than 1 character). Not to mention that pretty much everything else that gets added is locked behind pay walls (including the main story if you happen to take a break from the game, LOL). I remember when Guild Wars 1 expansions added a complete new continent and hours long campaign mode, dungeons, dozens of new skills, items, gear, updates etc. Basically everything you'd expect to get from an expansion. The latest GW2 expansion gives us a few new zones, a couple of new gear sets and a raid boss. Woopdeedoo. What a waste. |
MilenninDec 30, 2015 3:27 AM
| 15$ a month, you've been playing for years but we want you to buy our 45$ expansion now too. You're monthly subscription funded this expansion, but we want you to buy it anyway! MMORPG logic 101 15$ a month with 2 million active subs... You do the math. 90% of what they make is profit. The other 10% gets put back in the game. |
SolidusSmokeDec 30, 2015 6:38 AM
| I paid nothing extra on FFXIV and I've gotten to know how much I like the game for a fraction of the price. Monthly subs lock out the bratty kids and most of the trolls too because usually if you pay for something you're going to care a lot about what you do with that money. You don't shit where you eat. (there are exceptions to this rule, but for that reason the report system exists) Monthly subs also give a steady stream of income to the developers to release new content. If that ever ends the content will A) become shittier over time or B) end and the game will be done production. I think monthly subs are fine as long as you're not paying the same amount monthly that you paid for the game in the first place. $60 for example is just something I will never pay. |
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| Keeping servers running, having GMs and forum moderators constantly working and having staff always working on new updates for the same game that's already released isn't free. Do you think an initial purchase of $40-70 is enough to motivate a developer to support a game like that for 10 years straight when they could make 5-6 new games in that time and sell them all for another $60? "Free" MMOs exist because of cash shops and most of the time those cash shops give a very direct benefit to those that use them compared to those that don't. Like guaranteeing something doesn't fail and break when upgrading, or being able to sell what you buy for in game gold to get better gear faster. Sometimes even literally buying stats for cash shop exclusive equipment slots. No MMO is truly "free", you can avoid paying in some of them, and sometimes this doesn't even really set you back, but usually it does and requires you to play a lot more to keep up with those that pay. As for whether or not it's a ripoff at $10-15/month, that depends how often you play. When I was in high school I was big into FFXI and so were my friends. I played that game for about 7 years and over the course of those 7 years my playtime reached about 19,000 hours and the total subscription cost was probably about $1000. Is $1000 worth 19,000 hours of entertainment? I'd say yes. The highest playtime I have in a singleplayer game is probably only about 400 hours roughly. I don't play subscription MMOs anymore but it's not because I find them a ripoff. It's because I would feel obligated to pay to get value out of my purchase and I don't really want that kind of feeling of obligation when I have a more busy lifestyle now. It all depends on what your life is like, how much income you have and what kind of person you are. |
| You can keep a good game running and profitable with a cash shop and it doesn't need to be pay to win. People pay a lot of money for cosmetics, mounts, etc. At release you're initially paying 60$ for 30 days worth of game time. After the 30 days, you need to pay an additional 15$ or you can't play the game anymore. There should be a free to play option. Something like a token system. Players can buy gold from other players in exchange for tokens that grant more subscription time. Real money trading will be in the game either way, but at least people now have a legal way to do it. But then what will a sub get you? Game time and special currency to be used in the cosmetic shop, special mounts only available for people that remained subbed for over a year, exclusive content, etc. |
| Although the F2P model isn't too bad if done correctly, I mostly agree with Naoki Yoshida's sentiments: Yoshida has repeatedly emphasized that the robust success of A Realm Reborn was due to its traditional monthly subscription model. He sees the free-to-play model as an unreliable source of income predicated on devoting a lot of development resources to monthly consumable or cosmetic items in order to maintain profitability, leaving little time left for higher quality story and battle content. He also disclosed that over 80% of players are satisfied with the subscription model and theorized that this is due to players' confidence in a steady stream of quality content because of their subscription. With the traditional model, the player base grows over time as people see the game expand, unlike a free-to-play game which can boast a huge initial player base which changes dramatically in size and revenue from month to month. |
| Those bastards should add in some voice overs for that monthly sub cost. =/ |
SolidusSmoke said: in FFXIV? There are some, you're just not past the 1.0 contentThose bastards should add in some voice overs for that monthly sub cost. =/ People seem to think voice acting is cheap, too. It's not. |
Syrup-Dec 30, 2015 10:25 AM
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| I hate monthly subscriptions but F2P as well because of its low entry barrier. B2P with a cosmetic cash shop for post launch revenue is my favorite model. |
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| I never liked the idea of a monthly fee but if they're constantly adding a lot of content it makes sense. |
| Yes I think it's fair to charge monthly fees. When they deserve it through constant updates/upgrades/expansions, that is. Charging a fee just to charge like The Elder Scrolls Online during its 1st year is just stupid and never going to work. |
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| Should it be a by month payment? Yes. It helps pay for massive servers and additional content for other players. Should anyone be willing to pay per month? No. I believe outside of F2P MMOs that paying up-front should be a complete experience. Games are not only expensive to produce but it's expensive to catch up on the latest games, subscriptions hurt player bases (new and old) if people can't afford the extra dough per month. |
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| Just do what Lol does, free to play and money is not required to be good at the game. It can make more stuff like champions/rune pages faster to get but nothing that effects skill. With cosmetics being the only thing you will have to pay for. |
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| I love it when MMORPGs have subs. I don't have to deal with bullshit pay to win cash shop features, casuals/plebs, bots, gold spammers and such. Honestly would have liked BnS to be a sub game like Korea as well. But the Cash Shop for the NA server doesn't seem pay2win so far so it's looking good (unlike BDO and ToS, oh man the ToS outrage in Korea is hilarious). |
| Yeah especially if they're also gonna have a cash shop, and make me buy the game itself. |
| I prefer no subscription fee, and like some cosmetic skin shop. I never really got my moneys worth out of MMOs. And I know people who have dropped plenty of cash into some MMOs consmetic shops, so it's a perfectly viable business model. So buy to play with no subscription fee, is great in my opinion. |
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| Over the years I must have spent 10 times what WOW costs in sub fees, at £9.99 month. I don't mind paying the fee since it tends to warn off pay to win situations like in many F2P models now... |
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| I think it is alright because it will be easier to quit. fake EDIT: unless the monthly fee gets raised every year while you get bored and don't want to play the same game anymore... |
jesujejJan 3, 2016 6:46 PM
| キターーーー(・∀・)ーーー！！ |
| Been playing WoW since 2005. The fee is not a real issue for me, if i can get a proper gameplay that is not PayToWin, i'm willing to spend some coins monthly. |
KD7BWB said: hahI know. Shocking right? hah ha hahaha who wants to make a living off a game who wants to actually get money for something you spend tens of thousands of hours on per year crazy huh |
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| I understand why they have monthly fees, but it really sucks for those of us with busier lifestyles who would still like to enjoy the game. I'd love to be able to play FFXIV more, it's a lot of fun, but I just never know when I'm gonna have the time to sit down and play :/ |
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| I see where some games should be F2P, but FFXIV is not one of them and I would quit the game entirely if it did so. |
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