Is a mmorpg worth $15 a month?   That works out to .50 a day for unlimited entertainment.  You can play it when you want, as long as you want.  Where in contrast these days you can go to the movie theater for about $7 and pay about $3.50 for popcorn, another $2.50 for a drink.  The whole experience only lasts for 2-3 hours.  You do the math.  I looks pretty worth it to me.

it depends on the person i happen to still like gw and alot of it has to do with the free online play my buddy on the other hand would rather actually spend his time playing football yea right i know what is he thinking my cousin on the other hand just wants something new to do he played wow for about 2 months and decided to go back to swat 4 and gw i think it also depends on someones wallet size as well if mommy and daddy are forking it over you bet they can afford it but someone else that barely makes minimum wage is hard pressed to fork over what could well be his lunch money for the week

Originally posted by Xasapis

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

You would pay 50 euro (70 dollars) for a vague discription like that?

Many MMO's are "captivating" and they are a lot less then 50 euro. "captivating" is pretty subjective and open to a huge amount of personal opinion.

The amount of the monthly fee guarantees nothing but a bank draft every month and access to the game.

Originally posted by arthen999

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 .

That all depends on what you expect.

You pay a monthly fee for continued access to the servers. Anything else they can change on a whim. Read the EULA.

What you are trying to say is "value" is actually a service/access fee. You are responsible for researching the game and desiding if it has all the features bells & whistles you want before you pay the access fee.

IMHO, EVE and LotR are not worth the 15 bucks a month, so now what? EVE (or microsoft spreadsheet in space) should just sell ships and skills in a cash shop and be done with it and LotR is about as dull and grindy as any other unfocused PvE game out there.

Now we get into an epeen waving match about who's game should / shouldn't have it?

Originally posted by Arthineas

Is a mmorpg worth $15 a month?   That works out to .50 a day for unlimited entertainment.  You can play it when you want, as long as you want.  Where in contrast these days you can go to the movie theater for about $7 and pay about $3.50 for popcorn, another $2.50 for a drink.  The whole experience only lasts for 2-3 hours.  You do the math.  I looks pretty worth it to me.

An MMORPG is only 50 cents a day if you play it every single day. If you play in moderation, a few times a week and for a only couple of hours in a sitting, it's not much of a bargain anymore.

ok that makes sense they can pretty much take your money and run as long as they maintain a facade of actually doing something in reality those updates you get all the time could be no more then simple trees added or removed and they can close down whenever they feel like it leaving you with jack squat

The amount of time an average MMO player plays a game far outweights what the average console gamer will play for a game they bought.

Most console games have what? 5-10 hours to "finish" the game? Unless you don't go back to do the fluff you spent $60 for 10 hours of play.

Most MMO players will do probably 10 hours a week minimum, 4 weeks a month. That's 40 hours of game play for $15. Or 160 hours for $60.

Justified?

$15 a month is fine for a main MMORPG. There is a market for "Side MMORPG's" such as Guild Wars which has a 1 time cost and numerous expansions. The game is successful not because it is good, but because of it's payment model where someone can buy the game and play it without having to worry about monthly paying.

Originally posted by bonobotheory

Originally posted by Arthineas

Is a mmorpg worth $15 a month?   That works out to .50 a day for unlimited entertainment.  You can play it when you want, as long as you want.  Where in contrast these days you can go to the movie theater for about $7 and pay about $3.50 for popcorn, another $2.50 for a drink.  The whole experience only lasts for 2-3 hours.  You do the math.  I looks pretty worth it to me.

 

An MMORPG is only 50 cents a day if you play it every single day. If you play in moderation, a few times a week and for a only couple of hours in a sitting, it's not much of a bargain anymore.

True, but the point is its cheap entertainment that is there anytime you want.  I myself am a very casual player anymore.  I usually only play on the weekends and maybe a day during the week.  Thats still alot cheaper then going to the movies which only lasts you 2-3 hours. 

 Plus I have been saving money because I do not have to go buy a $30-$50 dollar game that will only last me a month.  I can't remember the last time I bought a regular game. 

A good mmorpg is money well spent in my opinion.  Plus the experience always changes.  You never know how your play session is going to turn out.  Its not static like regular games.

Originally posted by GreenChaos

I have purchased many many many single player game that cost me over $50 and lasted about 3 days. So $15 for a full month is great. How many single player games costing > $50 did you play for a full month?

A few, but not many. So the $15 month is actually a great deal.

I spent the $50 upfront on the MMO games I bought in boxes, and then paid for them again many times over, even when they were getting frustrating and when I was hardly playing at all. And then you can start to tack on what I have paid for expansions.

On the other hand, I do NOT buy many single player games, but almost all the ones I do buy are very replayable, and I play them for years without ever paying for them again. I will get on an Age of Empires 2 kick and play random maps and LAN games for weeks at a time, and then I'll be off playing something in the vein of The Sims or Tropico, or something of the Civilization sort. (I have a love/hate relationship with Civilization... That game makes me lose whole days.) 

And I might add that I just don't have time to play more than one game, so when I go on a single player (or LAN multiplayer) game, I don't play the MMO I'm paying for at all. That's why I am not quick to want to pay for any on a monthly basis at this point.

I think the end conclusion of this thread almost has to be that $15 is an absolute steal for some people, but is a waste for others, in terms of how much entertainment they are getting for their money.

Originally posted by Arthineas

 

True, but the point is its cheap entertainment that is there anytime you want.  I myself am a very casual player anymore.  I usually only play on the weekends and maybe a day during the week.  Thats still alot cheaper then going to the movies which only lasts you 2-3 hours. 

 

I have heard the movie comparison before, and I believe I've used it myself, but I have come to understand that going to the movies is about getting out of the house and doing something with real flesh-and-blood people, maybe even REAL friends or loved ones (unless you're that creepy guy who goes to matinees alone so that there's no one to ruin the viewing experience). That's something no MMO can even pretend to do. The difference in price is well justified for what you're getting. That 2-3 hours at the movies lets you connect to the world around you. The MMO only lets you connect to an imaginary pixel world on the Internet.

Knowing people on the Internet does NOT count as knowing them at all.

If it's a game you really like and play all the time then, as mentioned, $15 is a complete steal and even $30 would be reasonable.

If you're only logging in a couple of hours a week then even $15 is a waste.

edit: Completely off-topic but made me think: in terms of hours of entertainment per penny spent I'd say Civilization II was the best value game i've ever bought, hundreds of hours per penny. EQ is probably second. Morrowind 3rd. Original SWG 4th. Total War series 5th.

Originally posted by tupodawg999

If it's a game you really like and play all the time then, as mentioned, $15 is a complete steal and even $30 would be reasonable.

If you're only logging in a couple of hours a week then even $15 is a waste.

 

edit: Completely off-topic but made me think: in terms of hours of entertainment per penny spent I'd say Civilization II was the best value game i've ever bought, hundreds of hours per penny. EQ is probably second. Morrowind 3rd. Original SWG 4th. Total War series 5th.

i played the first civilisation on the old atari st . its certainly one of the games i ve most enjoyed over the years . morrowind was amazing too . i d definatly pay 15 dollars for an elder scrolls game . its one of the few fantasy franchises i think could really challenge warcraft . given so many people want it i think its going to almost undoubtedly happen .