It would depend on the number of accounts you could have. A good sandbox usually requires more than one account to really enjoy. This causes a problem when you talk about paying more per month. If premium game/price meant you could have more than one account I wouldn't mind paying more, but the company/game would have to find a way to resolve the # of accounts/pay per month issue to make it work. I wouldn't play a sandbox that charged a premium and made you pay it for each account no matter how good it was. Well, I probably wouldn't  : )

Originally posted by whpsh

I took the question to mean, were it the perfect game for me, how much would I be willing to pay, within reason. Infinite is a great concept, save that you've not actually got infinite amounts of money. So how much of my very limited disposable income would I put towards a game that was IT? $25/month tops. But it'd have to be amazing.

It all depends on what online game it is.  If it is a game that comes with physical exercise tools and online competition, so I can sweat and bodybuild while killing a dragon, why not $100 a month.  It is still cheaper than hitting a gym and forcing myself to do those stupid machine routines.

In my dreams, LoL.

15 bucks, sorry devs, I just think that no game deserves more than that, it is standard fee and if someone takes it up and community accepts it then everyone else will raise fees no matter of quality. Standard fee is standard fee, I think games should attract their game player bas by offering something unique and new, not by playing with fees. And Blizz showed that even with standard fee it can make ton of money.

Originally posted by qazyman

It would depend on the number of accounts you could have. A good sandbox usually requires more than one account to really enjoy. This causes a problem when you talk about paying more per month. If premium game/price meant you could have more than one account I wouldn't mind paying more, but the company/game would have to find a way to resolve the # of accounts/pay per month issue to make it work. I wouldn't play a sandbox that charged a premium and made you pay it for each account no matter how good it was. Well, I probably wouldn't  : )

Interesting observation.

Just curious why sandboxes benefit more from multiple accounts?  You have in mind 2boxing?  or ...  ?

Originally posted by DaX.9

15 bucks, sorry devs, I just think that no game deserves more than that, it is standard fee and if someone takes it up and community accepts it then everyone else will raise fees no matter of quality. Standard fee is standard fee, I think games should attract their game player bas by offering something unique and new, not by playing with fees. And Blizz showed that even with standard fee it can make ton of money.

That does not make sense.

Industry standard charges only applies to industry standard products.

Darkfall trying to charge industry standard, and they have a hard time filling a server or 2.

I pay whatever worth the charges.  I won't play Darkfall even if its free.  I am very willing to pay a bit more for a game that keeps me very happy.  Of course, I have to see the product to decide if the extra $5 or whatever is worth it.

AND no.  One company charging $20 does not mean everyone follow suit.  Fact is, the opposite is likely to happen if we have competition.  Lets take a scenario.  Assuming that SW:ToR is good and Bioware charges $5 a month, I am very inclined to think the lesser games will all charge $5 or fold up.  On the other hand, Darkfall raising monthly to $35 a month only means they will fold up tomorrow.

Competition from other suppliers drives price down, demand drives price up.

I would pay more if it was a sandbox/linear hybrid.  I'm of the belief that a sandbox alone cannot capture and retain a solid market.

Originally posted by Khalathwyr

Voted $20/month.

I'd have no problem paying it if it was done by a big company with funds to incorporate a SWG:PNGE type crafting/resource system, a non-instanced but land regulated housing system, the ability to control regions by players, no auction hall (bring back npc merchants), and PvP with a purpose (taking and holding those regions with structures such as guard towers and the like that are crafted by the players. Mobs only drop components.

BINGO - except for the `no AH`. I prefer an AH to vendors.

If it was well done, I`d pay $45 a month for this.

Hell, I`d like to see a completely NPC-free game. Just players and mobs. Start each server as a vast wilderness.

Originally posted by lisubab

It all depends on what online game it is.  If it is a game that comes with physical exercise tools and online competition, so I can sweat and bodybuild while killing a dragon, why not $100 a month.  It is still cheaper than hitting a gym and forcing myself to do those stupid machine routines.

In my dreams, LoL.

It will happen. Look at the new generation of 3D controllers.

There will eventually be games which let you perform in-game actions with similar movements from your controller.

I voted $15 a month because there is no reason for it to cost more.  Companies with large games already make an OBSCENE amount of profit, just from that $15 a month per account.  They make so much that they do not, imo, need to charge box fees for expansions.  If you doubt this, look to EvE Online.  They have put out MULTIPLE expansions at zero cost to the player.  They have also had the extra income to the continue development of EvE and are about to release another free expansion to it.  They have also had enough money begin working on Dust 514.  CCP has shown that you do not need to nickel and dime the customers.  They have proven you do not need to milk the customer for more money every chance you get.  Which, imo, is one of the many reasons their sub numbers never go down.  They always go up.  Why is that?  Because of the model they have chosen, CCP makes customers for life.

For a game that gave me absolutely everything I wanted in a game, I'd go as high as $20, but no higher.  That's all I can logically put into a game  based on the amount of time I have to play.  Of course, since no game gives me even close to what I want right now, I save a lot of money by not paying for or playing any of them.

Originally posted by blakavar

Price is truely meaningless when you enjoy something.

You can always make more money, but time is finite. Tick Tock boys and girls, it slips away while we type.

I agree!  Back when I was enjoying Pre-NGE SWG, I was paying for three accounts on the same server.  $45 per month, and I had exactly zero problems with this.  I haven't played a game since (theme-parks)  that I felt was worth even $15 per month, let alone more.

I voted $30 just to back up my point.  If your game is THAT good, and it's a true sandbox where we can live our own adventures and build a strong player based community and economy, then I would gladly pay $30/month.

I'd pay $200 a month.

If I had $40 million I would build that damn game too!-

First thought: No I would not pay more. Even though Money aint a issue for me.

Second thought: I just don't know, I need to see this perfect game first with my own eye's and play it before I truly could give a honost answer.

I just do not think we can answer this question honostly as we are not confronted with it for real, it's like: What you gonna do with 100million if you win the lottery, lots and lots of speculation, sure plenty of people know for sure excectly what they gonna do, but I am also sure that the majority might do complete different things with it, that even they themself might not have expect that from themselfs.

I would be a bit worried about talking to pay more for premium products, because that usually means that the standard products will probably be going up soon. Just look at the game consoles of the last generation. Devs started selling collectors editions for games and found that people were very willing to spend an extra $10 for a few little extras. So with the next gen they raised the standard price of all games the extra $10, because their experiment with the collectors editions went so well. Now collectors editions are $70 are more, so I have a feeling games will cost that much when the next xbox and ps4 come out.

I'd happily pay $25/mo for a mmorpg I felt was worth it.  I'll also happily pay nothing if I find it's not worth my time. (take into consideration tho that I'm in Canada so the normal $15/mo is more like just under $20/mo as it is).

I agree with Blackthornn. I'll gladly pay whatever I think it's worth. If it were the perfect game I'd pay through the nose for it. There are tons of games that I don't like, so I don't subscribe, or I play a friends account.

Hmm.

• Graphics √
• Gameplay √
• Content √
• PvP √
• Seamless √
• Epic PVE √
• Crafting √
• Minigames √
• Neural interface

Nah, just $14.95

Originally posted by heremypet

Hmm.

• Graphics √
• Gameplay √
• Content √
• PvP √
• Seamless √
• Epic PVE √
• Crafting √
• Minigames √
• Neural interface

Nah, just $14.95

This pretty much sums it up, there is no reason why a developer with a sandbox product would have to charge more for their game, should blizzard have charged more because they invested more money developing it than anyone else (70 odd million if im not mistaken).

If its a premium sandbox game then it will attract people because it will be done right and they will get a return on their investment if its another crap like DFO then its not premium and its not worth more.

This thread is really a paradox since if it is a premium sandbox it would pay for itself on the standard sub it would only need a higher sub if it was crap to make up for the investment.

In order to get me to pay more than standard price, a mmorpg would have to be signigicantly better than what I am currently playing.  I have a good bit of time and effort invested in my current game.

I am not sure I would pay more for a niche game.  If it was a truly unique "sandbox" game that rewarded a lot of different playstyles, I would probably give it a try (up to about $25).  If it was the same ole FFA PVP "sandbox" game, I probably would not.

Cool that my post got people to discuss this, because with some of the games recently released and some about to be released such as SW:ToR and Star Trek Online I can't seem to think why  I Should be paying $15 US a month for such games when I do not believe they will offer half of what many older MMORPG's offer.  

I think a lot of these newer games need a new pricing system that coincides with what they offer.    Does anyone here think that a game like Aion is really worth the $15 a month it charges?   I just don't see it myself.   Same goes for a game like FE or DF.    AoC should not be $15 a month either.   

I think only premium games that offer a vast array of game play options should garner that kind of fee.    Right now none of the current games other than WoW and a couple of others are worthy of $15 a month subscription fees.   I can see a game in the future charging more if it were truly a great game that worked from the start and had lots of game play options and had robust housing, crafting, pve, pvp, large seamless world to explore, dynamic quest, random quest, great MOB AI, dynamic MOBs, lots of armor and weapons choices, and great character customization and development/progression options.   As it stands right now...none of the games currently available nor any that are soon to be released really fit that mold.   But if one did come along I can see them charging upwards of $20 to $25 a month for subscription.