I think the answer is only a handful . We are starting to see companys acknowledge this by implimenting alternative payment models such as ddo or offering lifetime subscriptions ( the value of which are debateable but lotro did have a very decent half price model recently ) . The other viable option for older games maybe to offer lower monthly subscriptions (which may actually lead to such games becoming popular again and increace thier revenue ) lets face it when single players games get older thier prices tend to drop why should nt that also apply to mmos ? I sure some will try and argue against it here but in truth thier is very little in the way of logical arguement for thier not being lower subs for games like city of heroes and warhammer . It really common sence ( although i m well aware its not quality everyone has ) .Personally speaking i think theres only three mmos i ve tried that really are presently worth the 15 dollars a month  sub .those being eve online , world of warcraft ( which i no longer enjoy ) and lord of the rings . although i would like to mention i recently played age of conan on couple of 60 day time cards that i got for a bargain price on ebay and its much improved now but i still dont think its quite worth the price of the current monthly subscription .

I wouldn't mind paying even €50 per month for a captivating MMO.

A more down to earth answer would be that all active MMOs that have subscribers for $15 really justify their subscriptions for those who play them.

Originally posted by Xasapis

A more down to earth answer would be that all active MMOs that have subscribers for $15 really justify their subscriptions for those who play them.

I think the real arguement has gone over your head . One of my points being that an mmorpg can be active and charging 15 dollars a month but it could be more of a success charging less . DDO and spellborn were both active mmos by you estimation but rather than go to the wall they very wisely made the choice to change thier subscription model . Games such as tabula rasa may have been turned around had they also done so . Your point really is over simplified what if that mmo only has 30 thousand subs at its current price where it may end up having 120 thousand by cutting its fee by half . I know it may now work like that but no one has tried it as yet so how do we know it would nt . What we are about to see is how the likes of DDO and Spellborn fair with thier mircopayment models . i would think a lot of developers are watching them with a very keen eye .

I would nt be supprised if we will see a lot more games like this in future.

my moneys on warhammer .

To OP: 

So you're basically asking which game will turn RMT item mall next?

To Zorndorf: 

I agree with your assessment. It's all in the balance between operating & development costs and profit.

Originally posted by arthen999

Originally posted by Xasapis

A more down to earth answer would be that all active MMOs that have subscribers for $15 really justify their subscriptions for those who play them.

 

I think the real arguement has gone over your head . One of my points being that an mmorpg can be active and charging 15 dollars a month but it could be more of a success charging less . DDO and spellborn were both active mmos by you estimation but rather than go to the wall they very wisely made the choice to change thier subscription model . Games such as tabula rasa may have been turned around had they also done so . Your point really is over simplified what if that mmo only has 30 thousand subs at its current price where it may end up having 120 thousand by cutting its fee by half . I know it may now work like that but no one has tried it as yet so how do we know it would nt . What we are about to see is how the likes of DDO and Spellborn fair with thier mircopayment models . i would think a lot of developers are watching them with a very keen eye .

I would nt be supprised if we will see a lot more games like this in future.

my moneys on warhammer .

Tabula Rasa had a 100 million dollar budget. With that sort of budget they either had to get WoW like numbers or crash and burn. An Item mall would not have saved them, and they did go f2p for a while:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_Rasa_%28video_game%29

Yes, you would get less players at a higher sub rate, higher than 14.95, but I too would pay more for a good game and less sub numbers might be a good thing for the community. Free is always going to equal more asshats.

15 x 12= 180

divided by 60, the cost of a brand new console game.

If I took an estimate, Id say the average gamer buys 5 console games a year. Thats already more than a yearly mmo subscription since 3 console games cover the 180$ Stop buying console games and pay for a quality mmo subscription.

 About the lifetime subscription...

I wouldn't go for it... if you get enough people buying it the developers aren't going to feel obligated to update the game frequently, or atleast stay busy with updates... they already have your money why would they care how long you are waiting to get an update.

I say just stick with a monthly fee, keeps developers working on the game because they lose money if people quit if they aren't updating 'properly' than just making 5 minute changes every month.

But yeah I don't see why some games can justify their fee, my pride and joy of MMOs (FFXI) has one and I don't see how SE can justify it since they hardly ever do an update and I am still waiting for their last expansion to show its content I paid for =/

Originally posted by Nixish

...and pay for a quality mmo subscription.

 

 I would, too bad there's just none available currently.

I prefer subscription based games, It eliminates undesirable elements from the games that FTPs are chock full of.

How many mmorpg a can really justify a 15 dollar monthly fee ?

Only as many that can get enough subs to=costs+profit....at the end of the day that is all that is needed. It's all still just business on their end and as long as they pay the staff and themselves then they can exist.

Kinda off the subject but none of them are really worth paying for. The closest to actually being worth 15$ would be WoW but its only worth it the first couple months (when your new).

Not saying you should do this but geting a client + free private servers has its appeal. In some cases private servers are even better than the origional. (like shards of dalaya vs EQ)

I think they are all worth it.

$15 a month is peanuts. It's the cost of 1 movie ticket and a bag of popcorn.

A movie for $15 gives you 2 hours of entertainment.  MMO's give you dozens+ of hours of fun each month for $15. 

Any game you have fun in and enjoy is worth $15 a month.

Originally posted by silkakc

I think they are all worth it.

$15 a month is peanuts. It's the cost of 1 movie ticket and a bag of popcorn.

A movie for $15 gives you 2 hours of entertainment.  MMO's give you dozens+ of hours of fun each month for $15. 

Any game you have fun in and enjoy is worth $15 a month.

People pay $40-200+ bucks on TV a month.

MMO's are better overall value, IMO.  More entertainment for your dollar.

Remembering back in the day to Everquest, it's original subscription was 9.95/month.  Now it went from that to 12.85/month not too long after the 2002 lawsuit against SOE for the suicide of a woman's son over the game. (Personally they shouldn't have paid a dime seeing as how he was epileptic, was a manic depressive, and had schizoid personality disorder, not to mention he had also been off his medication for the depression and SPD for a while.)  If I remember correctly SOE had stated that the increase was due to server fees and maintanence costs. (although the community knew it was due to the settlement and court costs.)  Then, not too long after World of Warcraft was released, they increased the price again to 14.99.  Again, they claimed it was due to server costs and maintanence fees.

See, SOE increased to 14.99 because they saw that people would pay that much to play a game (all WoW players are proof of this, I used to be one myself.)  In my opinion no game is worth 14.99 to play, sure they are fun and all, but they aren't worth that much.  Look at FFXI, 12.95/month, sure you only get one character, but you can change your job at your house to be what you want so you really don't need another character unless you just want a different race.  Games should have stayed at 12.99/month, that's not that bad of a price to pay for a subscription fee.  Especially now when money is still tight, over time that extra $2 saved does add up.

If the MMO is really fun, ill pay 15$ a month.  And think about it this way, would you rather have a game where you cant get certain items cause you have to pay money for them (cash shop) or have a game where you have to pay, but everything in the game is a in game item?  Id rather pay the 15$ a month.

MMO have an extremely high playtime to $ ratio. A normal rpg can be completed in a week or 2 for $50 (excluding Oblivion), but a mmo can offer you a months play for just $15 dollars. Also most mmo's nowadays have free trials which extend the playtime. (but most single player games have demos).

Originally posted by Cyborg99

MMO have an extremely high playtime to $ ratio. A normal rpg can be completed in a week or 2 for $50 (excluding Oblivion), but a mmo can offer you a months play for just $15 dollars. Also most mmo's nowadays have free trials which extend the playtime. (but most single player games have demos).

true but you can buy them cheaply on ebay then when you finnished with them sell them on . so single player mmos cost practically nothing if you do it that way . lol . might have been a great point ten years or so ago but not at all now .

Originally posted by arthen999

Originally posted by Cyborg99

MMO have an extremely high playtime to $ ratio. A normal rpg can be completed in a week or 2 for $50 (excluding Oblivion), but a mmo can offer you a months play for just $15 dollars. Also most mmo's nowadays have free trials which extend the playtime. (but most single player games have demos).

 

true but you can buy them cheaply on ebay then when you finnished with them sell them on . so single player mmos cost practically nothing if you do it that way . lol . might have been a great point ten years or so ago but not at all now .

Good point. I've personally never done that but that is a good idea. Sometimes I like to play one of the old games on my shelf so I just keep them all.

Some of these developers have HUGE payrolls.If you want your fave dev to keep rolling out games and to keep updating the game you like,someone has to pay the employees,they don't work for free.Then you have investments and of course the CEO any guy high on the ladder is making huge salaries.

I don't think people realize how costly games were even 20 years ago.Games have not gone up in price really at all ,if anything many big titles have come down and thats after 20+ years.People were paying 60 bucks for 1-3mb games..lmao,not GB ya MB games.

I think 50 cents a day is MORE than fair,i think it is a lot of broke teenagers whining about 50 cents a day.Think about it 50 cents a day ! that is ridiculous to cry about that much for entertainment.Sure i know you paid for the game already,but you are not just paying for the gmae,you are paying for all the thousands of hours of manpower that went into making that game,lawyers,marketing ect ect..Then who is going to pay for the servers?

The ONLY reason it is not more than 50 cents a day is because all developers follow SOE,they are afraid to stand on their own two feet.If SOE raised their prices to 20 bucks the rest would soon to follow,you can bet on it.