Originally posted by Harabeck

Anyone who whines about 15 bucks a month for unlimited MMO game time must be a kid begging money from his mom. You can't take two people to the moves for 15 bucks. Most single player games these days can be as few as 20 hours long for $50! And you complain about mmo's costing 15 bucks a month?

Or, maybe one of the almost 17% percent of the people unemployed in the US? (That's the "real" rate). And that's not counting people working less.

Originally posted by trancejeremy

Personally, I would rather not feel the pressure to play and have something like 100 hours for $10. That would probably last me 3 months in some games.

 

Yeah, me too.  I would also like to buy a Lamborghini for five dollars.

My point is, you have no idea if the companies would agree to 100 hours for $10.  It could just as well be $1 an hour which would be much worse.

Also, your baseball game and movies cost more than $70 a month.  They are subsidized with advertisements.  So the next time you buy a pepsi, you are paying more for it due to Pepsi spending money on advertising.  That goes for most things that you buy (that advertise).

At least with MMOs, I don't need to watch commercials.

Originally posted by trancejeremy

Originally posted by Harabeck

Anyone who whines about 15 bucks a month for unlimited MMO game time must be a kid begging money from his mom. You can't take two people to the moves for 15 bucks. Most single player games these days can be as few as 20 hours long for $50! And you complain about mmo's costing 15 bucks a month?

 

Or, maybe one of the almost 17% percent of the people unemployed in the US? (That's the "real" rate). And that's not counting people working less.

 

I don't mean any disrespect... but the last thing anyone unemployed should be doing is playing an MMO.  I can understand the "healthcare for unemployed" argument but "MMOs for unemployed"? LMAO

Not going to happend in North America or Europe. The game population for most game is not high enough. The server you playing on still need to pay themselves even if your not playing.

Game company buys bandwith based on how many people they have and the average # of hours played per month for x amount + buffer - a certain % based on people like the OP that don't play a lot each month as they know there's a percentage like that out there. It's a sad fact if there wasn't people like the OP the 15$ per month price would more then likely be 19.95$. So If they can't estimate how much you going to play in a month because like you said you could use those 100 hours over 3 months they can't realistically calculare those requirements

Also, you have to take into consideration the space your so called digital caharacter takes on their database. So if you hardly play it's wasted disk space on their LIVE server, space they could use for other things or not have to pay for. Sure Hard Disk is cheap, but the time of the people that need to be there to do the backup and monitor all this is not.

Now for F2p the business model is different, and generally the actuall bandwith requirement is MUCH MUCH smaller then your crapiest p2p mmo out there because well quite frankly with a few exception most have 1/10th the content of p2p game and because of this also have 1/10th the staff of any of those games. It's even worse in NA as they don't really do any developement it's all done in Asia, all they have to do is translate the game, so their monthly cost to operate the game is really really low.

Originally posted by drbaltazar

Originally posted by Calintz333

 So Free 2 play mmorpgs, Why do they all have to be about grinding a insane number of levels? When you look at a Free 2 play game, and compare it with a pay 2 play game, usually more often than not the free 2 play game has a much higher level cap, or a slower rate of progression. I believe this is deliberately done in order to extend game time while providing the least possible amount of content.  

 

Many MMO gamers are hungry for a free 2 play game that does not force us to choose between a Solid game, with horrible cash shop balance, or a Crappy game with decent cash shop balance.

 

It seems when it comes to mmorpg  games  you really do have 3 options. 

 

#1 You play a good game, like Atlantica online, Runes of Magic, but these games are set up so that once you reach the mid-high levels you are basically forced to use the cash shop, or spend an insane amount of time to obtain items that are required of you to progress. Most of what it comes down to is, Ether you pay up an outrageous sum of money much higher than a 15/mo standard fee, or you spend all day playng to make up for it.

Then you have scenario #2 You play a mediocre game like Requiem bloodymare, or Sword of the new world, That has decent cash shop balance in both PvE and PvP, However the game is a 100% Typical uninspired Korean grind fest. You grind, and grind and grind some more. Graphics look Generic 2004 Korean, and in some cases even the text is not yet properly translated to English. So you get a ok cash shop, with a poor game.

Then there is choice #3 play only P2P games. You pay a monthly fee 15/mo and you get to be on an equal playing field with everyone else. No cash shop, no unfair advantages, you get what you earn. This is the most balance of the 3 imo, but why not try a 4rth option..

 

Option #4 Why not make a game pay as you go. For Example, if you only plan to play about 10 hours that week, you pay for 10 hours fo time. Lets say $3,99 for 10 hours.  I personally would be taking advantage of that a lot. As a Full time college student and a part time worker, Its rare when I have more than 10 hours a week to play an mmorpg, heck I think those 10 hours would probably last me even 2 weeks. 

IT does not have to stop there though. $3,99 for 10 hours, or perhaps $4,99 for 18 hours, $9,99 for 35 hours,  $14,99 for 65 hours. They could even add an unlimited amount of time for like $19,99 a month. To me this payment feature, assuming that companies use realistic prices, (No $9,99 for 10 hour pricing). Could work very well and entice many different kinds of casual players to mmorpg games. Its not a cash shop, but its not a full subscription fee, its a low commitment pay as you go plan. I hope some day it gets implemented into mmorpgs. 

 

Why has a Sandbox Free 2 play mmorpg never been made?

 

Is there any company working on a Sandbox non level grind based Free 2 play mmorpg game? 

you forgot the 4:gw way yhou buy the game ,buy the pvp kit then go to war .free as long as you own the game

by the way did you know lord of the ring online is 9.99/month

you cant beat that lol

That's right! Guildwars is certainly the 4th choice and that is currently my choice ^_^
 

        If a $4.99/month subscription fee is a standardized payment feature for all MMOs .. I'll be more than happy to pay to play them over free to play-boring-grind fest-item shop MMOs.  I just think the current fees on those pay to play MMOs are too high and ppl like me just can't afford to add that extra bill! :p

 Aion in Korea(Idk if it's all of NCSOFT) does the pay by hour option. Its 18 bucks for 205 hours and 35 bucks for 410 hours. Btw, If 65 hours was 35 bucks... holy shit that'd be expensive. At one point, I was up to 45 hours a week on WoW and there are people who are on much longer. I know people from when I played in my guild that they would sleep and play WoW. I'm not trying to make the topic about WoW, I'm just saying with that specific price model(that you presented) it could get expensive. If we do it the Korean way, hellz yeah, it'd be win.

Please don't give them any ideas . Think about it to go to a 2 hour movie is around 10 dollars and i prefer video games to movies . If they start charging by the hour we will all be in the dumps LOL 

I don't think it should be cheaper than 15 bucks a month in N.A. to support the servers, customer service, expansion development, etc.

So sure, you can pay by the hour, but a minimum of 15 bucks per month to keep the servers open, keep customer service staffed, keep expansion development going, bug fixes, etc, which don't stop just because you are not playing.

The only thing you will get is an overage fee, in other words MORE than 15 bucks if you play a lot of hours.

So, why not $ per hour for MMO playtime?  It's not the hour that is expensive.  Its the cost of building and maintaining the game.  Bandwidth is cheap in comparison.  Also, MMO popularity is based on number of people playing.  The free people get to play because they (in real life) are walking advertisements for the game.  Force them to pay, and no more free advertising.

On the other hand, I feel the OP is quite correct.  Its time for some fresh meat regarding MMO payment options.

Ken

Originally posted by Cephus404

Originally posted by Comnitus

If you can pony up $200+ for a hardware upgrade, a Lifetime Sub really seems like a great deal.

How is it a great deal?  No games are forever, no one expects to be playing the same game in 20 years, if these games were even in operation then.  That's why the MMOs want to sell you the lifetime sub, they know you're going to get bored and move on and they're going to have more money than you would have paid over time anyhow.

It's a scam and it's sad how many people fall for it.

How much of a deal it is depends on the cost of the lifetime sub.

I bought the LOTRO lifetime sub at launch for $200USD.  I only did so after beta testing it and playing in the public open beta. I would not have purchased the lifetime sub otherwise because it would've been too much of a gamble.

Just looking at it though.....That's 20 months up front I paid for at $9.99usd/month, 14 months at $15.00USD a month.  Launch was April of 07, it is now Sept of 09.  Roughly 2 1/2 years after release, or more specifically 30 months.  Under one example I've played for nearly a year for free, under the other nearly a year and a half.

How is that not a good deal? 

Would've loved a lifetime sub for AC1....6 years at $9.99usd/months =  $720.00usd.   $200usd lifetime sub would've saved me $520.00usd!

Oh more on topic.....

Please no by the hour or by the day charges.  Some days/weeks I play hours on end.  Some days/weeks I won't have time to play but a couple hours.  Monthly gives me enough flexibility to do either at my discretion at a cost that won't have much consequence one way or the other.

Monthly is fine.  $15 is less by far than any other form of entertainment.

Originally posted by vladakov

 i think most companies prefer the way it is now, and on one hand i like the 15dollar/13euro a month fee, its not TOO much and its ENOUGH to keep the developers developing :), take the old and aged WoW as an example, lost its glory a bit but still making a shiny new expansion due to the subscriptioning. (to not even mention SC2 and diablo 3..)  ah well, everyone their opinions :o

Off-topic. Vlad I hate your Avatar I've tried to swat my laptop about 5 times now...( -.-);

Originally posted by Calintz333

Why has a Sandbox Free 2 play mmorpg never been made?

Install Eve-Online, pay your account with the ingame currency. then you have your free to play sandbox game + another form of account payment.

Grinding does not take a lot of development, content does. F2P games are made on a shoestring compared to a game like WoW, LotR or AoC. You get what you pay for and in this case you pay nothing so you get…?

The OP’s whole post seems framed with the idea that the construction of F2P games is some kind of mistake. They designed the game to have the grinding, need the cash shop play style you are seeing. That’s how it makes money.

OK here is a radical idea, why not pay a monthly subscription, get all the content and play on a level playing field with everyone else? I must be some sort of genius or something. :)

Originally posted by Calintz333

 Is there any company working on a Sandbox non level grind based Free 2 play mmorpg game? 

Yes its called Enthropia Universe. And they are just about to release new client done in Crysis engine (Cry2 engine). The game looks awesome.

But be warned. Its like money in game is real money $. So you can basically also earn real money. But you more likely to spend.

And the game is real true sandbox. Much more than even EVE. Its like being, and working on sci-fi planet.

I think the big misconception here is the OP's view of playing a game (even a free online one) as a "grind". If you feel like your game experience is a "grind" and more work than play, than why are you playing a game in the first place. Its a time killer and if the game is putting you on tasks that effectively kills time for you (without it being boring), it means that the game is doing its job effectively. If those tasks are boring, then just stop playing that game and play another or do something else. Easy and simple. Not all games (or game companies) are created equally and it is up to you to make the decisions on whether or not you should waste your time on specific games.

I believe WoW has a pay as you go type model only for the Eastern countries (or maybe just China only), I would hope one day it would happen too. For those that think some people are being cheap about 15 a month, you have to take it into perspective of the price of games, not just the 15 as a whole. 15 per month is about 1 new retail game every 3 1/2 months or so. 15 per month would equal nearly 4 retail games per year so I would hope there is a sense of needing to add new content and improvements (adding quality) to the game as time goes on. I can see why people would be concerned about their 15 a month. Its not about affording it, its about making sure its being used effectively as you play within their world.

So, again, if a game is being considered a "grind" then why play the game? A game wasn't mean to be work or a "grind". What do you expect a game to offer you then if they don't give you tasks that do consume time. You are not "forced" to ever buy from most item shops (since you have pointed out you can get an equally awesome item over time), the company is just taking advantage of this sort of impatience with people to make money and it works. I think theres a lack of appreciation for free to play game for even releasing their game for free and allowing it to be playing completely that way in exchange for perks or quicker items.

It is nothing about the payment method but the matter of a F2P.

The subject maybe has a title like this. Thank you.

The Payment Options of F2P