At last!

A developer that breaks the pricing plan mould and gives players something new: a decent f2p option without some bullsh*t cash shop and a decent subscription option for the hardcore players.

The casual players get a free game that's a heck of a lot of fun.

The hardcore players get lots of f2p cannon fodder, more conflict options and a load of advanced features.

WIN-WIN

This is a damn good game from a damn good developer that has impressed me from the start. I'm glad this game is different because the standard MMO format has been exhausted. Most devs have just tied ribbons to a corpse with their recent releases. I'm also glad some people don't consider this to be an MMO. That's it's because it's very different to the worn-out dross that's gone before and a more exciting product for it.

I was sold on this game months ago and I'm glad to say I'm even more sold on it now.

Aryas

Finally a company that has gotten this right with offering a F2P and P2P game with content to keep players playing for months if not years.

Very nice, and considering my time in beta, it definatlly has a lot to offer the f2p players. I'll definatlly be going for a sub though.

Truly one of the most interesting games on the horizon. Extremely smart way of doing the pricing structure. Keep up the good work Hi-Rez

 All I can say is this is freaking awesome.

I can play the game for free.  If I want more I can pay a few months for a Sub.  When i play that content I can cancel the sub but still play the free game.

AMAZING AWESOMENESS.  Hurray and Kudos to the devs.  This is pure genious and is exactly what was needed for me to buy this game.

I'm looking forward for a chance to try this game out.  Looks great and I think it has a lot of potential.  I actually really like the payment options that they've outlined.  Sometimes I know I'm going to have a busy month or two with work and/or school and it's not always worth subscribing to a game, but I'd still like to be able to play a little bit every now and then when my schedule opens up.

This is going to take over tf2!

I am pleasantly surprised that they are using this pricing model.

like other mmo, is first month of subscription free, so people can see what the subscription  agency vs agency  thing is?

either way very happy, that people who don't subscribe can play or if you cancel it you can still play the core of the game.

Originally posted by epsilon426

like other mmo, is first month of subscription free, so people can see what the subscription  agency vs agency  thing is?

Yup, the first month will be free or included in the $49.99 box price.  You will be able to try out AvA in that first month!

That is great news!

Ive been preaching about thise kind of buisness model alot lately so Im happy to see that a promising game is going to have it.

I will be buying this at release!

The Best way to take advantage of this would be. Play 1 or 2 of your favorite classes to level 30, Get a good agency. with NO SUBSCRIPTION. Then when you accomplish those things, then your ready to subscribe for all the good agency and end time content, Which you will get 1 month to experience for free. Then Subscribe, and enjoy the rest of the good content.

Also,  might of not included it, but i thought the real max is level 40. So Subscribing will prob allow that 10 extra levels.

To Blizzard, EA, Cryptic, and anyone else who calls them a MMO developer:

Take note of how Hi-Rez does pricing models. This is how it should be done and NEEDS to be done! Your core game is there whenever you want to play it. It never expires and doesn't have to be renewed. Whenever you feel like you could enjoy this game even more, simply pay a few bucks and get a ton of extras to what the Big man devs call "Normal pricing models".

I highly praise Hi-Rez for going through with this and not be stingy and asking for the full 15$/month. Even their Monthly plan is cheaper than most! (13$ per month on basic sub)

......Now let's talk about that beta key ^_^

Originally posted by gorillaz951

To Blizzard, EA, Cryptic, and anyone else who calls them a MMO developer:

Take note of how Hi-Rez does pricing models. This is how it should be done and NEEDS to be done! Your core game is there whenever you want to play it. It never expires and doesn't have to be renewed. Whenever you feel like you could enjoy this game even more, simply pay a few bucks and get a ton of extras to what the Big man devs call "Normal pricing models".

I highly praise Hi-Rez for going through with this and not be stingy and asking for the full 15$/month. Even their Monthly plan is cheaper than most! (13$ per month on basic sub)

......Now let's talk about that beta key ^_^

i can see EA, but have you played GA yourself yet?,  real i think yes its worth what they suggest. But WoW making 15 a month, well they earned that, IMO, made there own engine from scratch having to pay people for that. Having a NoN instanced world, not including INSTANCES (LOL @ TAT); NON-Instanced worlds take very good servers to maintain, not to mention how many servers they have.

And by cryptic, eh... ?

not sure you mean cryptic as in the creators of CryTek Engine. Which i don't recall have made a mmo, If were talking about Aion, Try "NC"

 For this type of MMO which on the surface appears somewhat shallow then this is a great pricing scheme and I applaud  the company for not trying to rip people off. 

 I have been half watching GA, but this has piqued my interest.

As a MMO I have been worried about it lacking in various areas, but as a online shooter with a one time fee it looks very interesting (even with the non-sub limitations). Also, pitching in $50 when you know that you will still have a game to play when your in the mood is a lot easier to swallow than the box and mandatory sub.

guys this pricing system is a rip off compared to guildwars, some of the above comments are pretty ignorant.

this game is as much (or less) a mmo as guildwars. basically the same type of game but with fun shooter combat, but much worse/little PvE.

and while its great you can play without subscription its still a joke they are asking for subscription for other features. AvA is same as GvG in guildwars (guilds are called agency's, only difference). when it says 60 vs 60 notice thats in 6 squads so its really 6 concurrent games of 10 vs 10. I think 10 vs 10 is largest game size, not complaining thats what they went for. but its no way massive, even guildwars had larger pvp battles.

the game is fun. but if areanet/NC soft managed to have no sub at all with guildwars, gobal agenda should definately be able to manage it. well anyway fair play they are indy company and I wish them luck, don't think i'll be buying though.

edit: although I've talked to alot of the dev team and played with them and they are really nice guys maybe I will buy, but no way am I subbing ;)

Originally posted by leumasx7

Originally posted by gorillaz951

To Blizzard, EA, Cryptic, and anyone else who calls them a MMO developer:

Take note of how Hi-Rez does pricing models. This is how it should be done and NEEDS to be done! Your core game is there whenever you want to play it. It never expires and doesn't have to be renewed. Whenever you feel like you could enjoy this game even more, simply pay a few bucks and get a ton of extras to what the Big man devs call "Normal pricing models".

I highly praise Hi-Rez for going through with this and not be stingy and asking for the full 15$/month. Even their Monthly plan is cheaper than most! (13$ per month on basic sub)

......Now let's talk about that beta key ^_^

 

i can see EA, but have you played GA yourself yet?,  real i think yes its worth what they suggest. But WoW making 15 a month, well they earned that, IMO, made there own engine from scratch having to pay people for that. Having a NoN instanced world, not including INSTANCES (LOL @ TAT); NON-Instanced worlds take very good servers to maintain, not to mention how many servers they have.

And by cryptic, eh... ?

not sure you mean cryptic as in the creators of CryTek Engine. Which i don't recall have made a mmo, If were talking about Aion, Try "NC"

By Cryptic I mean Cryptic Studios. They were the original creators for City of Heroes/City of Villians, Hellgate London (It wasn't techically an MMO, but it was almost the same except for instancing), their present IP Champions Online, and the upcoming Star Trek Online.
 

All of the above, except for Hellgate, will have/has a standard subscription model. Just clarifying that case :)

On the topic about WoW, I understand they indeed have worked for their game. It came out at a time when a new MMO was needed and it boomed. Noone really cared about the sub model because it was a new thing. It's been a few years since then, but what a few short years it has been. The MMO industry revenue increased exponentially after WoW. Now we are on the brink of a new generation of MMOs (Might sound a little over the top, but you get the picture) Change is needed from the standard "Keep giving me your money or no game for you" scam. 

MMOs are my favorite past time and I love to try out new releases. The conondrum is when I find two or more games that I really enjoy playing. I have to give up one for the other since I am short on cash most of the time. So hearing news about GA's plans has excited me to an overwhelming extreme. All games should have some form of this is what I am saying. 

Originally posted by kb056

Wow, I see alot of the Devs posting positive responses in this thread....

That's also the vibe I get. Many of these responses does not sound the way a MMORPG.com user would talk.

Originally posted by pingo

Originally posted by kb056

Wow, I see alot of the Devs posting positive responses in this thread....

 

That's also the vibe I get. Many of these responses does not sound the way a MMORPG.com user would talk.

You may want to edit your post, you may get a Warning for it....I did...
 

 yea, this payment method really stands its grounds, makes me give a closer look at global agenda (a game that actually looks great ;o) because the Hi-Rez studios has got people that know what theyre doing, which is one of the biggest PRO's for an MMO. good devs !

I am very happy that they went with this model.  A straight subscription would probally not be warented for this type of game, and i just dislike microtransactions.  I think the price still may be still to high for whats offered in the subscription package, $10 might be better, but i would need to check out the game for myself to really make a call. 

This model will certainly will get alot of people to try out the game, im sure.

Putting mail and auction house on the subscription only plan pretty much tells you the free option is only for those that play very infrequently and don't bother with alts much.

So to anyone who thinks they can play the free version version a lot I have a big ROFL for you.

It's an interesting design. In a heavy PvP game, it's important to have a lot of players on at a time, so having a F2P aspect will probably help quite a lot with that. However, how much of the PvP will be missed by non-paying players? If the campaign isn't available, then you are cutting down on the very resource you need - lots of players.

It might be a good idea to allow freebies to play in a limited amount of campaign (maybe something like 5 hours a week), to bolster the numbers fighting.

Originally posted by leumasx7

The Best way to take advantage of this would be. Play 1 or 2 of your favorite classes to level 30, Get a good agency. with NO SUBSCRIPTION. Then when you accomplish those things, then your ready to subscribe for all the good agency and end time content, Which you will get 1 month to experience for free. Then Subscribe, and enjoy the rest of the good content.

 

Also,  might of not included it, but i thought the real max is level 40. So Subscribing will prob allow that 10 extra levels.

The free month is only available at registration, so you will not be able to hoard a free 30 days until you reach a certain level.

"Ability to sign up for one free month of subscription at registration (credit card required, can be cancelled at any time)"
 

I'm surprised GA's pricing model is getting such praise on these boards, considering the all the negativity Hellgate:London received.

This is possibly one of the most intelligent ideas i have seen from a game company recently. The game plays great as just a jump in and go shooter, but for those who would like further content progression in terms of AvA i would definitely say go with the monthly package for the game.

I can't wait until they release more information on AvA!!

Originally posted by leumasx7

The Best way to take advantage of this would be. Play 1 or 2 of your favorite classes to level 30, Get a good agency. with NO SUBSCRIPTION. Then when you accomplish those things, then your ready to subscribe for all the good agency and end time content, Which you will get 1 month to experience for free. Then Subscribe, and enjoy the rest of the good content.

 

Also,  might of not included it, but i thought the real max is level 40. So Subscribing will prob allow that 10 extra levels.

I think max level is at least 50.

Aryas

Originally posted by Consensus

guys this pricing system is a rip off compared to guildwars, some of the above comments are pretty ignorant.

this game is as much (or less) a mmo as guildwars. basically the same type of game but with fun shooter combat, but much worse/little PvE.

and while its great you can play without subscription its still a joke they are asking for subscription for other features. AvA is same as GvG in guildwars (guilds are called agency's, only difference). when it says 60 vs 60 notice thats in 6 squads so its really 6 concurrent games of 10 vs 10. I think 10 vs 10 is largest game size, not complaining thats what they went for. but its no way massive, even guildwars had larger pvp battles.

the game is fun. but if areanet/NC soft managed to have no sub at all with guildwars, gobal agenda should definately be able to manage it. well anyway fair play they are indy company and I wish them luck, don't think i'll be buying though.

edit: although I've talked to alot of the dev team and played with them and they are really nice guys maybe I will buy, but no way am I subbing ;)

Man, every time I see your creepy little avatar I know I'm about to read a post I totally disagree with.

The comparison with GuildWars is irrelevant. Value in a game is a matter of perception. Having played both I could equally turn around and say GW was crap and would never have attracted paying subscribers, but that would still only be my opinion.

The thread isn't about the game - which is obviously a matter of personal taste - it's about pricing model, which is clearly something new - fact.

And before some gimp says "It's been done before in a blah blah blah MMO" that no-ones cares about, I'm sure it has but this is a big, fresh release not some 2-bit operation for a target audience of zero so comments like that are equally worthless.

Aryas

What actually makes this game the least bit interesting requires membership, yet the features included for membership isn't interesting enough to pay $13/mo for it. I guess it depends if you can create and design your own bases, hopefully with the ability to create elaborate fortresses. Even with all of what I asked for would only be worth about $9.99/mo for me. As the game stands now, I'd only pay $5/mo for it. Also, a box price of $49? Single-player FPS games charge around that price and also offer multi-player for free. Granted you can't customize and level up anything, but so what.

Originally posted by nate1980

What actually makes this game the least bit interesting requires membership, yet the features included for membership isn't interesting enough to pay $13/mo for it. I guess it depends if you can create and design your own bases, hopefully with the ability to create elaborate fortresses. Even with all of what I asked for would only be worth about $9.99/mo for me. As the game stands now, I'd only pay $5/mo for it. Also, a box price of $49? Single-player FPS games charge around that price and also offer multi-player for free. Granted you can't customize and level up anything, but so what.

I'm not 100% sure if you are saying you like or dislike the pricing plan.  On the one hand you are saying the content isn't worth $13/mo which is fine, thats your opinion (but have you played it to make that assertion?).  Then you said it would only be worth $9.99/mo (which is the price set for a 6mo sub) then you said only $5, so im confused on that bit.

More importantly though, is the $49 price comparison to a single player game.  The non-subbed multiplayer is still free (after initial purchase obviously) with gameplay options on the same level as other f2p shooters with the added bonus of being able to level and customize a character.  You still get PVE, you still get pickup style pvp matches (same as other shooters).

While I am still interested in GA after reading up on the game more I have to say the non-subscription mode only continues to inteerest me because I cannot consider GA a real MMO.

Looking at it as a shooter with no subscription still looks fun, but I don't see this game surviving long term unless they make it f2p only or make the monthly fee on the level of XBL (~$5 a month). People seem willing to pay for XBL just to play the latest shooter, but I don't think the MMO crowd will continue to sub when there are always new subless shooters to play online.

My original enthusiam with the f2p model is waning.

Originally posted by epicor

Originally posted by nate1980

What actually makes this game the least bit interesting requires membership, yet the features included for membership isn't interesting enough to pay $13/mo for it. I guess it depends if you can create and design your own bases, hopefully with the ability to create elaborate fortresses. Even with all of what I asked for would only be worth about $9.99/mo for me. As the game stands now, I'd only pay $5/mo for it. Also, a box price of $49? Single-player FPS games charge around that price and also offer multi-player for free. Granted you can't customize and level up anything, but so what.

 

I'm not 100% sure if you are saying you like or dislike the pricing plan.  On the one hand you are saying the content isn't worth $13/mo which is fine, thats your opinion (but have you played it to make that assertion?).  Then you said it would only be worth $9.99/mo (which is the price set for a 6mo sub) then you said only $5, so im confused on that bit.

More importantly though, is the $49 price comparison to a single player game.  The non-subbed multiplayer is still free (after initial purchase obviously) with gameplay options on the same level as other f2p shooters with the added bonus of being able to level and customize a character.  You still get PVE, you still get pickup style pvp matches (same as other shooters).

Let me clarify then. I'm talking about value. Having a free + paid membership pricing scheme is fine, it's not that, it's the value. Sure, value is subjective, but value can be quantified to some extent. For example, does a game with more quality features have more value than a game with less quality features? I'd say so.

I've never been one to subscribe for more than 1 month at a time, because a wise person doesn't lock himself into a game that probably won't hold his interest for that period of time. How long to subscribe is also subjective, because some people enjoy things for a longer period of time than others. I'm the type that loves variety, so playing the same thing for months is boring, unless that game is super entertaining.

So what we're really looking at here is a shooter, with a persistent multi-player format, and leveling. In a single-player FPS game, the box costs around $49, and with that price comes a game that's your standard fair FPS game for the most part, with a good story, complete with great cutscenes and dialogue. I don't know for certain, but I doubt this games PvE will match the single player experience of say F.E.A.R. FPS games usually have a multi-player component, where you can play matches.

So far, we have a FPS MMORPG that is likely offering a inferior PvE experience, with the a similar multi-player experience, for the same price as a superior product. The part that makes this game truely unique, aside from leveling, are the features offered in the membership plan, which costs $13/mo. Again, value is subjective here, but if I'm going to pay a subscription, I compare it to other things that require subscriptions that are in the same market, such as MMORPG's. Bottom line is that I don't think this game is worth the subscription fee they are charging based on the features I see offered. I don't need to play the game to come up with these conclusions.

Playing the game will only tell me if those features I read on paper are fun, but fun is subjective and can be found in any game. So if I find a game fun that has more features, what makes Global Agenda worth that subscription fee? So to increase the value of the fun offered in Global Agenda, their company either needs to offer more quality features or lower their subscription price where the value overrides the amount of fun/features found in other games. In my opinion, without playing it, I'd say this game is worth no more than $5/mo, unless you can actually build and customize fortresses, then the game is worth $9.99/mo in my opinion.

I hope that clarifies my post and explains my reasoning.

Well first, im sure the game it self is a great game and seems to me that it would be more fun than most of the other games like wow and gw that ive played.  Now for the priceing of the game is different.  Seeing that I my self and my family all stoped playing wow due to couldnt afford it along with the prices of internet and electricity and other bills, so our wow accounts are now gone.  GW we still have seeing it doesnt coast any extra money a month to play the game unless u want the expansions, wich worked out great for us, but just didnt have the other type of game play that I love which is fps style.  Well now GA has both and I would really like to play the game as does my oldest son.  Problem is the economy here just isnt that great and makes it tougher for families to pay all bills and even have extras unless your 1 of the 20% that are in the upper bracket of the income.  Seeing that I spent the last 1yr and 7months over in Afghanistan which made it hard on my family to have any thing extra like games or any other stuff, I would say paying for this would be next to not happening.  Now that makes this game less appealing because we were looking forward to the AvA aspect of the game and now cannot have that unless we pay a monthly fee.  I will say the pricing is nicer than all the other games, even though if I remember right FFXI had a $12.99 month fee but was $1 per extra char you wanted.  Either way the pricing I will say isnt bad but why not just make it open play, just make it that if you pay a monthly fee you get better benefits.  As in if your a nonpay to play you can create a Agency but cant customize but with a few options.  Now if your a member you get the full benefits of all the different options kinda like in CoV where you could add teleports and even healing spots and other stuff.  Also could make it so if your a nonpayer then when in a AvA you dont get any extras just your basic items and cant recieve any achievements.  Theres others that can be done that will make the game appealing to both sides (p2p and f2p) if they would just ask ppl for opions on different things and aspects.  Bottom line, Id say that the pricing is better then the other mmo games but still its p2p and alot of ppl are going away from p2p games and theres other ways to make their money and still offer a f2p and p2p game that would appeal for both types of ppl.

 Definitely has my interest! If it comes up in steam I'll check it out. 

Cool.

This new payment method gets my approval. Not only can people play a great game by just buying the game and not having to worry about a subscription, but if they want to take their gameplay experience to the next level they can opt for a subscription and enjoy all of the content available and with relatively cheap prices ($20 a year if you go with the 6 month subscription). Don't want to pay your subscription anymore? Fine, you don't have to and can enjoy a fun FPS game. This is going to break the mold on subscription games as we know it.

The life span of MMOs is getting longer and as more and more MMOs are released they will be much more overlap between them, so much so that producers may have to consider some sort of free model just to have their worlds populated.

Although there maybe still a long while to go till we have 3 or 4 top notch MMOs vying for our subs to their world, but the day will come when it becomes a buyers market hehe ;-) They pay us to play their games!

This sounds good. Hope the actual game is as innovative as the pricing plan.

Originally posted by SH4D0WZ0MB1E

This new payment method gets my approval. Not only can people play a great game by just buying the game and not having to worry about a subscription, but if they want to take their gameplay experience to the next level they can opt for a subscription and enjoy all of the content available and with relatively cheap prices ($20 a year if you go with the 6 month subscription). Don't want to pay your subscription anymore? Fine, you don't have to and can enjoy a fun FPS game. This is going to break the mold on subscription games as we know it.

Actually, for a year membership it would be $119.88.  They were meaning that if you pay for a 6 month membership it would coast you $9.99 for a month instead of the normal $12.99 but still is better than the normal "even if you pay for 6month you pay full price" type of payments.

I was thinking along the same lines (though I do like the idea in general).  Perhaps they could be worked in as a sort of grunt shock troop who isn't expected to live long.  Above there was a post about the max lvl being 40 so perhaps this would be a natural part of them dieing fast and being used by commanders this way.

Originally posted by MMO_Doubter

It's an interesting design. In a heavy PvP game, it's important to have a lot of players on at a time, so having a F2P aspect will probably help quite a lot with that. However, how much of the PvP will be missed by non-paying players? If the campaign isn't available, then you are cutting down on the very resource you need - lots of players.

It might be a good idea to allow freebies to play in a limited amount of campaign (maybe something like 5 hours a week), to bolster the numbers fighting.

I was thinking along the same lines (though I do like the idea in general). Perhaps they could be worked in as a sort of grunt shock troop who isn't expected to live long. Above there was a post about the max lvl being 40 so perhaps this would be a natural part of them dieing fast and being used by commanders this way.

EPIC FAIL!!!

Last time a company tried this same plan the game went under and the company went under.

And it was called Hellgate London.

But hopefully they aren't making the same mistakes they did cause most of the forum members warned them when going to be F2P and P2P and stuff and how they where doing it wasn't going to work and we told them they are gonna close down and what not.

Interesting to say the least, I think I'll probably be buying the game now. I can't quite tell if the subscription content will be worth it though.

Originally posted by Limbox

Actually, for a year membership it would be $119.88.  They were meaning that if you pay for a 6 month membership it would coast you $9.99 for a month instead of the normal $12.99 but still is better than the normal "even if you pay for 6month you pay full price" type of payments.

Oops my bad. I guess reading a post on 4 hours of sleep within a 48 hour period has it's side effects on some comprehension. But I'll agree that buying a "bulk" subscription at a lower price is a good idea and different from other subscription models I've seen.

And as people have suggest that non-paying players be allowed to play the free content, but for a limited amount of time per week and at weaker state than normal players. While that would be cool, I doubt that they would implement that. It would upset those that are paying for a subscription that people who aren't paying for one get the same content, and if everyone is going to be allowed to play the subscription based content, it might lead to less subscriptions from people who are just paying to see what the other content is about and not that "serious" about it.