Since I never sub to more than one game at a time the cost has never been an issue.  I play the game I am subscribed to until it runs it's course and then I stop paying for it and go elsewhere...or nowhere like right now.  I never saw a reason to sub to more than one game because if I am subscribed to a game I plan on playing it when I have time as often as I can.  If I don't have time or want to play something else I don't want to keep paying for something I'm not using.

it's one of the reasons I was hoping a pay by the hour payment model would have come up by now.  I play for a couple hours, pay them the money and log off.  If I want to come back I play and pay as long as I want and can stop at any point and go play a single player game or any other game for that matter without feeling like I am wasting money.

Originally posted by Zalmon

Originally posted by Rydeson

Originally posted by Castillle
Dude its $15 a month.  Thats pretty friggin cheap.  The only time I had trouble with paying that was when I was in the middle east and some *cough CoXEvE cough* wouldnt accept my credit card sometimes.

So if you want to play EQ2, WoW, Rift, SWTOR, EVE, Vanguard, LoTRO all at the same time throught the month.. it's only $105 a month right..... Still chump change for everyone?  hmmmmmmm

What? all at same time? is that even a serious question?

Really dude?  You play one game at a time?  If I could, I would play all of the above games monthly , if the subscription wasn't an issue.. I would love to see all games go B2P like GW2, and the cash shop would be for bells and whistles..  I miss all my accounts from time to time, but I'm never going to pay their subs for what time I spend playing them monthly..

Originally posted by Larsa

Likewise, to me, subscription price doesn't matter at all. 

Same, if i like the game then i don't really care about the sub, ill pay it.

Originally posted by Tindale111
The reason i ask this is because i pick and choose which games to play but would like to have tried more i believe that mmo players prob pay subscription for a couple of mmos adding up to around £20 a month games such as wow and rift so when we had subscriptions on swotor and tsw (yes i know you still can) it all adds up .I just think that these games that jump to ptp so quickly could have thought about cutting their subs would swotor have doubled its numbers if it was say £5 a month i certainly would have stuck with it .i really dont like cash shops unless they truely only have fluff items in and the complaints i have heard about swotor where you buy extra bars and ptp pvp will def stop me going back ,anyway the long and the short of it is if subs were less the more games i would try these are just my views interested to hear yours :)

No. 

Actually if the theoretical "well balanced" and designed MMO came out, I'd pay more per month to play that. 

In the early 2k period, I played EQ - it came out with a "premium" server that was $45 a month (iirc) -- It offered 7x24 GM's online, special "premium" areas to explore and adventure in, GM events daily, etc.  I paid for that without blinking.

Then the GM services were cut, the special zones were removed and it became a transfer point to move chars & stuff between servers.  I dumped it.

A "well balanced & designed" MMO just doesn't exist.

So, in truth, a well balanced & supported game could easily ask for a subscription of $50 a month and I'd pay it - I've *DONE* this for what I saw as "of value" back then. 

I have no problems paying for what I like but what I see these days -- F2P is the fitting path for them -- along with the P2Win model some go with.  They really aren't worth a subscription fee.

Like some others, it's not about the cost in absolute terms; it's cost for value/time played.

I play computer games a lot, less than I used to but still upwards of 20hrs a week most weeks. For the most part, these are stand alone games that I have paid $50 or more for...and if I get a month of solid play out of them I am happy.

So would I pay $20, $30 or more a month for an MMO that actually delivered what I wanted in a game? Heck yeah. Will I pay that much (or micro transactions to add up to it) for the garbage that is on the market now...not a chance.

So yes, I think there are a lot of games that price themselves out of the subscription market. I'd be a lot more willing to pay $5, 8 or 10  a month for a game I wasn't thrilled about but still played for a couple hours a week without any problem at all. (I won't do it through micro transactions and cash shops though, but that is a personal shopping preference...feels too much like going to a burger joint and buying one fry at a time to me!)

No - it may become a future issue but atm i dont play mmorpgs bcs they bore me all.

Originally posted by Rydeson

Originally posted by Zalmon

Originally posted by Rydeson

Originally posted by Castillle
Dude its $15 a month.  Thats pretty friggin cheap.  The only time I had trouble with paying that was when I was in the middle east and some *cough CoXEvE cough* wouldnt accept my credit card sometimes.

So if you want to play EQ2, WoW, Rift, SWTOR, EVE, Vanguard, LoTRO all at the same time throught the month.. it's only $105 a month right..... Still chump change for everyone?  hmmmmmmm

What? all at same time? is that even a serious question?

Really dude?  You play one game at a time?  If I could, I would play all of the above games monthly , if the subscription wasn't an issue.. I would love to see all games go B2P like GW2, and the cash shop would be for bells and whistles..  I miss all my accounts from time to time, but I'm never going to pay their subs for what time I spend playing them monthly..

And so you get players angry that there is nothing to do while at the same time angry that everything takes too long :)

Anyways, i think we are approaching the area that is cut off statistically, a extreme.

Flame on!

:)

For me, sure, there is a tradeoff between price and interest whenever I'm considering buying something, but the moment I start seeing innovation in the buisness model, I get spooked and become a very skittish consumer.

Originally posted by COOKERpl
I was born in a country, where average vages are around 390 euro a MONTH. As Computer Network Administrator, I was getting around 450 eur a month, while I lived there. That's why I left the country. Now I make more money in a week, but I still understand millions of gamers from poorer countries. When your monthly Internet bill is 5eur, but game sub is 15... Plus insane petrol prices, other bills and food... Can of cheap beer is like 0.20eur, so ppl

Yowzers, I'm a web developer and network people are supposed to make more than me. I'm closer to 3200USD monthly after taxes. I'd have to eat a ton of ramen with that conversion. Working from home I don't have to commute.

http://www.bing.com/search?form=CURCNV&q=450%20Euro%20to%20US%20Dollar

450 Euro = 593.509381 US Dollar

1 EUR = 1.31890973 USD · 1 USD = 0.758202 EUR

My monthly bills are 300 rent, 160 elec, 70 gas, 40 water, 50 cable, 400 student loan, 60 pets before extras or food.

I couldn't live on those wages  and I think I live tightly and don't get paid enough because I'm in the midwest instead of Silicon Valley so we have a lower cost of living. Only time I blow money is on expensive electronics, leather bound books and journals and liquid ink .5mm pens by the gobs because I love them and write tiny plus games I suppose but I don't even consider it blowing money there because I could spend more going to my favorite Greek restaurant that is $30 a plate. Even if I order in pizza for a few days it's $20 for pizza and $10 for a tip. Gaming with a sub it takes two or three months to use up one food outing. Maybe people eat out a lot that can't afford subs if they make decent wages, either that or they get a little overboard with credit cards. It could help not having kids too, I've been adamant about never getting pregnant unless I were married and legally bound it lol Most of the people I know have 1-4 kids.

Originally posted by Rydeson

Originally posted by Zalmon

Originally posted by Rydeson

Originally posted by Castillle
Dude its $15 a month.  Thats pretty friggin cheap.  The only time I had trouble with paying that was when I was in the middle east and some *cough CoXEvE cough* wouldnt accept my credit card sometimes.

So if you want to play EQ2, WoW, Rift, SWTOR, EVE, Vanguard, LoTRO all at the same time throught the month.. it's only $105 a month right..... Still chump change for everyone?  hmmmmmmm

What? all at same time? is that even a serious question?

Really dude?  You play one game at a time?  If I could, I would play all of the above games monthly , if the subscription wasn't an issue.. I would love to see all games go B2P like GW2, and the cash shop would be for bells and whistles..  I miss all my accounts from time to time, but I'm never going to pay their subs for what time I spend playing them monthly..

With a 9 hour job and family yes i play one MMO at a time and maybe another one if i am lucky to have all the time in the world on weekends. Still 30 bucks very cheap for whole month of entertainment. I am pretty sure people who have time to play ALL the MMOS at one time are in minority.

Originally posted by greenreen

Originally posted by COOKERpl
I was born in a country, where average vages are around 390 euro a MONTH. As Computer Network Administrator, I was getting around 450 eur a month, while I lived there. That's why I left the country. Now I make more money in a week, but I still understand millions of gamers from poorer countries. When your monthly Internet bill is 5eur, but game sub is 15... Plus insane petrol prices, other bills and food... Can of cheap beer is like 0.20eur, so ppl

Yowzers, I'm a web developer and network people are supposed to make more than me. I'm closer to 3200USD monthly after taxes. I'd have to eat a ton of ramen with that conversion. Working from home I don't have to commute.

http://www.bing.com/search?form=CURCNV&q=450%20Euro%20to%20US%20Dollar

450 Euro = 593.509381 US Dollar

1 EUR = 1.31890973 USD · 1 USD = 0.758202 EUR

My monthly bills are 300 rent, 160 elec, 70 gas, 40 water, 50 cable, 400 student loan, 60 pets before extras or food.

I couldn't live on those wages  and I think I live tightly and don't get paid enough because I'm in the midwest instead of Silicon Valley so we have a lower cost of living. Only time I blow money is on expensive electronics, leather bound books and journals and liquid ink .5mm pens by the gobs because I love them and write tiny plus games I suppose but I don't even consider it blowing money there because I could spend more going to my favorite Greek restaurant that is $30 a plate. Even if I order in pizza for a few days it's $20 for pizza and $10 for a tip. Gaming with a sub it takes two or three months to use up one food outing. Maybe people eat out a lot that can't afford subs if they make decent wages, either that or they get a little overboard with credit cards. It could help not having kids too, I've been adamant about never getting pregnant unless I were married and legally bound it lol Most of the people I know have 1-4 kids.

 

 

Different places are different, there are more poor places and more rich ones, as long as we are talking about 4 packets of cigarettes or 10 cans of beer per month it is not excessive, but the game has to show for it, which they rarely do these days.

As for the talk about money, sure 450 is very low, but it is without any student loan, with medical, social, "401k", taxes payed, and in that kind of environment you get a flat/room for 200 euro with all energies.

As for the 3.2k usd being not enough, you can get middle size east european companies to program for 50 bucks a manhour, 100 if you go more to the west, 200 is deemed excessive, so do the math.

I know that because that is what we are paying them.

"Working class" people consider a family income of 1.5-2k usd very good round there (or here, cause its my station atm), but ofc i know my esteemed colleagues who have no problems burning trough 10k a month on food, commute, family dinners and activities.

So, keep that in mind when raging about cheap chinese labor or feeling that you are undervalued :)

Flame on!

:)

Originally posted by COOKERpl
I was born in a country, where average vages are around 390 euro a MONTH. As Computer Network Administrator, I was getting around 450 eur a month, while I lived there. That's why I left the country. Now I make more money in a week, but I still understand millions of gamers from poorer countries. When your monthly Internet bill is 5eur, but game sub is 15... Plus insane petrol prices, other bills and food... Can of cheap beer is like 0.20eur, so ppl

Then these gamers should be playing MMOs that are targeted for their areas and not American servers.  Even WoW does subs differently in Asia and other countries and at lower prices (usually enforced by the local government).  If even that is too much, then maybe they need another hobby.  You don't need money to make up your own games, like I used to when I was a kid.  Computer gaming didn't even rear its head till I was 13 years old.  It was expensive back then and I was even more strapped for money than I am now and guess what, that meant buying a game or two per year.

As far as I'm concerned, the whole F2P movement has dramatically dropped the quality of online gaming and while it might be wonderful to you guys, it's ruining gaming for a lot of people who can afford it and who were there at its inception and now are being milked of our money in order to support you freeloading crybabies.

$15 is not "nothing" everywhere. I can afford to have 1 sub going but anything more than that really hurts...

I would've stuck with Rift longer if it was cheaper, but I just can't pay for 2 MMOs. Still prefer sub based games, they're just better overall.

Originally posted by kb4blu

The subscription price has never been a factor for me.  Either I like a game or not.

 

This.

Originally posted by dimnikar

$15 is not "nothing" everywhere. I can afford to have 1 sub going but anything more than that really hurts...

I would've stuck with Rift longer if it was cheaper, but I just can't pay for 2 MMOs. Still prefer sub based games, they're just better overall.

I can afford to do more than one subscription at a time, but I never do.  I'll play one game till I get bored, cancel it and renew or start up a sub with another game and I may do this on and off for several games throughout the year.  Personally, whether you can afford it or not, I can't see people subbing to multiples and having time to play them, let alone having it infringe on real life.

Sometimes I wonder if a bargain subscription program would be better for games than dropping directly to free to play.  If $15 a month is the sweet spot for full value games, then maybe $5.00 would be justifiable for games that really aren't worth the full price.

Not saying that this is the case.  I guess the Free to Play conversions are adequate.  Still I think I'd personally prefer having a subscription and no cash shop.  I doubt that would ever happen, they make too much money on cash shops to give them up.

Originally posted by Banaghran

Different places are different, there are more poor places and more rich ones, as long as we are talking about 4 packets of cigarettes or 10 cans of beer per month it is not excessive, but the game has to show for it, which they rarely do these days.

As for the talk about money, sure 450 is very low, but it is without any student loan, with medical, social, "401k", taxes payed, and in that kind of environment you get a flat/room for 200 euro with all energies.

(snip)

This is so very true. As someone who lives in the Western EU, prices are really high in general, much higher than what you are posting, particularly with respect to rent. The take-home salaries though are fairly low since much of the salary is paid directly to the government to support health care, public education, etc.

For those people living on the lowest income, I think paying for multiple MMORPGs is just not possible taking everything else into consideration.

I am surprised that there are people who have the TIME to subscribe to many games. I wonder how they do it, but grats to them being able to afford 100 €/month on MMOs and have the luxury of not working to earn their keep. I do really mean that since I wish I could do that!