you shouldnt be billed for content updates in sub games, that is what paying a sub is for. perhaps some companies think, 15 dollars is just the fee for using the servers....
just my opinion, and i am someone who would even pay 30 dollars for a really good (sandbox) game per month. i prefer paying for a game for gamers than a game for milking money
Bollocks. Aslong as the price is justified charging for a content update is fine(for example if its a very large amount of content, artwork, voice actors etc).
The problem i see is that often there is no direct relation between price and amount/quality of content. For example Trion charging 30$ for their last rift expansion? Thats fine even for a subgame, they did alot of free content during the year and the expansion clearly went above and beyond. GW2 and TSWs B2P box price? One can see thats very good value even if you personally don't like the games, its the price of a single player game with weeks if not months worth of content, compared to your average 10hour playthrough single player game that costs the same if not more.
But some of the other xpacs, or shop prices in F2P shops? Ebenezer scrooge would be ashamed. For example charging people 20$ for a package of christmasy items in your store while doing zilch ingame eventwise. No matter how you look at it, thats not exactly nice, especially considering the season. I mean it would be nice to atleast keep up appearances and pretend your a nice chrsistmasy fellow(company).
sorry but you are wrong. you pay a sub for having an evolving game (they always use that word as an excuse for an unfinished game though) that means new content every about 2 months. they didnt deliver anything in swtor and sell their first real update as an expansion? and its a rather small update too....
i shouldnt care, because i neither hate or love that game, but those politics will not be good for future games. now its a sub game with no updates in this sub, a cash shop, a pay for ui-elements, and selling updates as expansions. and you think thats right? ok...
i am waiting for a game by gamers for gamers. and not for JUST the profit
I don't normaly post in this loonybin and I'm not exactly thrilled that this "digital expansion" is being montized to subscribers but I feel I gottta chime in at this stage and point out that you're being a bit disingenious whe you say BW hasn't delivered anything and is charging for the first real update.
Since the restructuring the content updates have stuck to the prommised 6 week schedual and the game has seen a new operation with a new PvE tier of gear, a new daily area with a new companion and now a new warzone with a new PvP tier. I as a subscriber that enjoys all aspects of an MMO certainly don't feel shortchanged for my 15$ in the last 12-18 weeks and that's what matters to me. I'll complain whne there's no new content added when we again have a content drought, not now due to the fact content was teased 6months ago, that's a bit ridicolous in my book.
As far as Makeb value for the 10$, I don't feel I can say yet. It's certainly gonna be more than just say Hoth monetized, with the lvl cap raise and all but... 10$ I feel I'm fine with, 20$ for f2p? Possibly a bit much given what we know so far. Tho I admit I don't know the usual price points for "adventure packs" in other f2p titles.
IMO they shouldnt have subs at all. either f2p cash shop DLC or sub not both. you are blind when you dont see that its just to milk out the rest. perhaps there were great plans in the beginning but now its just a money thing.
Those who say "it's just $10" miss the point. It would be easy enough to suggest tto them that they pay $300 a month - only one cup of coffee a day for the $10 a cup poster above! And if $300 is OK what about $1000 every month .......
It is about value for money - a concept that drives economies and innovation.
Before the game launched I and others suggested that EA would have been better selling the game without a subscription and adopted paid for DLC. The suggestion was that the content offered by SWTOR did not justify a monthly sub. Needless to say the army of "it's only $15 a month" came out to bash the suggestion. Again totally missing the point.
Now it is hard to know how much revenue EA made from subscriptions in the last year. 30 days included and 30 days free so someone who has subbed since day 1 will have spent $150. Average number of subscribers .... as in people who paid beyond the 30 days .... 500k? That would be $75M from subs.
Back when the game launched analysts suggested that 2M sales would have brought in $60M (remember EA do not get 100% etc.). So EA would have had to have sold another 2.5M. I reckon they could have done that. No subscription, marketed as KotR3 essentially. It would have only been 5M total - Skyrim and Battlefield each sold over 10M. And the game would have continued to sell. And all the content released so far - potentially - could have been $5 DLC packs.
And that is the point. Is what they are doing value for money or simply a cash grab? Is what they are doing the best way to make money. Will it keep the subscribers they have happy? If a subscriber decides that if they are having to pay for content as well as paying a sub so they may as welll go F2P - then EA may gain $10 but lose $15 a month. If enough subscribers decide they may as well be F2P ....
Now the expansion may be huge ... it probably isn't going to be but until we know we can't say for sure that this represents "value for money" - value as in what is best for the game.
It is on the official SWTOR site so it should be legitamate.
Looks pretty good so I'm happy with that. Gives me time to level my BH to 50 as well.
Barely can wait to start playing it. My 8 lv. 50 are awaiting. :-)) another 8 are on the road to lv. 50. :-)
The only thing I'm only sorry if info is true, that there will not be class questing continuation. But they will have full voiced quests that are one of the best and strongest points of swtor. Imo of course. Have however friend or two that loves only pvp, jumping on people throath :-) whenever possible and he does not care at all nor for voiced nor for texted quests. He would skip anyway.
Originally posted by hikaru77 is just 10$, and it will help them to make more content, what the big deal?. PLus, still we will get more content updates every six weeks till the xpac and after that.
But.. But.. But... For the past year, people have been saying, "oh the subscrption pays for added content, yada yada yada".... Well, here comes the added content Makeb and it's NOT free...... WTF? Makeb is not a stand alone expansion, and to beleive so is just lying to yourself.. What are you paying for each month if content patches like Makeb aren't free? Just saying!!!
A problem I have with the new DLC is how EA is marketing it as an expansion, along with their new approach to how new content will be paid for. It's not that content costs money, but all in the presentation.
Even though the DLC content in SWTOR may be 1/4 of a $40 expansion for other games, with SWTOR being 1/4 of the cost, it just doesn't have the same feeling of an expansion. I love the sensation of getting a full blown expansion in other games and being overwhelmed with new material, just as though the game suddenly relaunched. Then there is the feature of how when other games do launch a full-out expansion, they continue to release smaller content every month or 2, free of charge, to stack on top of what was already paid for.
It's all about the perception of getting what you pay for. Even though SWTOR may release 4 chunks of DLC ($10 each for $40 total) with the same overall content of another games $40 expansion, each small DLC in SWTOR feels really shrimpy. I'll never be even temporarily overwhelmed. Plus, if EA continues this trend, then they will have less overall new stuff, since they would not be releasing free patches later (ie 2.11, 2.21, etc). I'm not personally convinced that nickle and diming DLC is a good way to go, but there would be conter arguments to this. I just can't get away from feeling, "meh".
Now if SWTOR would release a well done freeroam space, with LOTS of stuff to do, many features, all new ways to play .. well hey that's pretty major - that would be worth $40. Provided of course that it's not just some small area of space with invisible walls, or an instance (think WoW's freeroam flight dungeon "Oculus" in WotLK), or just some minor instanced PVP map where you fly around a small zone.
Quality with SWTOR seems to be decreasing, and EA doesn't seem willing to invest adequate money into the project. I could throw in this analogy - SWTOR is like a cafe that was losing business because of poor treatment of customers while they stopped by for coffee and a meal. Instead of working hard to make everyones experience awesome everytime they came, the cafe decided to cut funding and stop making their sandwhiches with fresh carved ham and turkey. They now use flavorless turkey loaf and rubbery ham loaf. Water is free if you go into the bathroom and cup your hands, but a cup costs money. You get a soda with the price of a meal, but if you want a cold soda that costs extra, and additionally, ice will cost extra too. Word got out and now even less people go there than before. Now, not only does the cafe still have bad customer service, they also don't give customers very much inspiration to spend money there. Because of bad decisions, the future of the cafe is in jeopardy.
TLDR:
Nickle and diming is going to have a rocky future, especially if the quality is perceived as less.
Originally posted by Senden Was this "expansion" always supposed to be something everyone paid for? I was always under the impresison that it was just a big much needed content update for the game. I'd ask on the official forums but that would just end up baiting the self righteous "how dare you act entitled" drones that seem to plague those forums.
Don't know about you but I alway's consider "expansions" to be "much needed content update's"
The game is about a year old now so I don't see the issue of it being a paid expansion. While I'll personaly don't see much of intrest in the expansion is mostly cause I am still mid level 30, but I am sure those at cap level will appriciatte the expansion. To be honost not even looked that much into the exp.
Comments
IMO they shouldnt have subs at all. either f2p cash shop DLC or sub not both. you are blind when you dont see that its just to milk out the rest. perhaps there were great plans in the beginning but now its just a money thing.
Those who say "it's just $10" miss the point. It would be easy enough to suggest tto them that they pay $300 a month - only one cup of coffee a day for the $10 a cup poster above! And if $300 is OK what about $1000 every month .......
It is about value for money - a concept that drives economies and innovation.
Before the game launched I and others suggested that EA would have been better selling the game without a subscription and adopted paid for DLC. The suggestion was that the content offered by SWTOR did not justify a monthly sub. Needless to say the army of "it's only $15 a month" came out to bash the suggestion. Again totally missing the point.
Now it is hard to know how much revenue EA made from subscriptions in the last year. 30 days included and 30 days free so someone who has subbed since day 1 will have spent $150. Average number of subscribers .... as in people who paid beyond the 30 days .... 500k? That would be $75M from subs.
Back when the game launched analysts suggested that 2M sales would have brought in $60M (remember EA do not get 100% etc.). So EA would have had to have sold another 2.5M. I reckon they could have done that. No subscription, marketed as KotR3 essentially. It would have only been 5M total - Skyrim and Battlefield each sold over 10M. And the game would have continued to sell. And all the content released so far - potentially - could have been $5 DLC packs.
And that is the point. Is what they are doing value for money or simply a cash grab? Is what they are doing the best way to make money. Will it keep the subscribers they have happy? If a subscriber decides that if they are having to pay for content as well as paying a sub so they may as welll go F2P - then EA may gain $10 but lose $15 a month. If enough subscribers decide they may as well be F2P ....
Now the expansion may be huge ... it probably isn't going to be but until we know we can't say for sure that this represents "value for money" - value as in what is best for the game.
doesnt matter if they add 5 or 50.
The usual powergrinder does them all in a day or 2 anyway to be the 'server's first'.
The player that plays for fun will be busy for a while anyway.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
Barely can wait to start playing it. My 8 lv. 50 are awaiting. :-)) another 8 are on the road to lv. 50. :-)
The only thing I'm only sorry if info is true, that there will not be class questing continuation. But they will have full voiced quests that are one of the best and strongest points of swtor. Imo of course. Have however friend or two that loves only pvp, jumping on people throath :-) whenever possible and he does not care at all nor for voiced nor for texted quests. He would skip anyway.
But.. But.. But... For the past year, people have been saying, "oh the subscrption pays for added content, yada yada yada".... Well, here comes the added content Makeb and it's NOT free...... WTF? Makeb is not a stand alone expansion, and to beleive so is just lying to yourself.. What are you paying for each month if content patches like Makeb aren't free? Just saying!!!
A problem I have with the new DLC is how EA is marketing it as an expansion, along with their new approach to how new content will be paid for. It's not that content costs money, but all in the presentation.
Even though the DLC content in SWTOR may be 1/4 of a $40 expansion for other games, with SWTOR being 1/4 of the cost, it just doesn't have the same feeling of an expansion. I love the sensation of getting a full blown expansion in other games and being overwhelmed with new material, just as though the game suddenly relaunched. Then there is the feature of how when other games do launch a full-out expansion, they continue to release smaller content every month or 2, free of charge, to stack on top of what was already paid for.
It's all about the perception of getting what you pay for. Even though SWTOR may release 4 chunks of DLC ($10 each for $40 total) with the same overall content of another games $40 expansion, each small DLC in SWTOR feels really shrimpy. I'll never be even temporarily overwhelmed. Plus, if EA continues this trend, then they will have less overall new stuff, since they would not be releasing free patches later (ie 2.11, 2.21, etc). I'm not personally convinced that nickle and diming DLC is a good way to go, but there would be conter arguments to this. I just can't get away from feeling, "meh".
Now if SWTOR would release a well done freeroam space, with LOTS of stuff to do, many features, all new ways to play .. well hey that's pretty major - that would be worth $40. Provided of course that it's not just some small area of space with invisible walls, or an instance (think WoW's freeroam flight dungeon "Oculus" in WotLK), or just some minor instanced PVP map where you fly around a small zone.
Quality with SWTOR seems to be decreasing, and EA doesn't seem willing to invest adequate money into the project. I could throw in this analogy - SWTOR is like a cafe that was losing business because of poor treatment of customers while they stopped by for coffee and a meal. Instead of working hard to make everyones experience awesome everytime they came, the cafe decided to cut funding and stop making their sandwhiches with fresh carved ham and turkey. They now use flavorless turkey loaf and rubbery ham loaf. Water is free if you go into the bathroom and cup your hands, but a cup costs money. You get a soda with the price of a meal, but if you want a cold soda that costs extra, and additionally, ice will cost extra too. Word got out and now even less people go there than before. Now, not only does the cafe still have bad customer service, they also don't give customers very much inspiration to spend money there. Because of bad decisions, the future of the cafe is in jeopardy.
TLDR:
Nickle and diming is going to have a rocky future, especially if the quality is perceived as less.
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
When I saw it in my mailbox I thought for sure that it was some sort of phishing scam.
A paid expansion for SWtor? That must be a phishing scam!
I moved my mouse over each of the links and couldn't find any that wasn't swtor...
Then I came here and, my goodness, there really is a paid expansion for SWTOR!
It wasn't a phishing scam after all.
Don't know about you but I alway's consider "expansions" to be "much needed content update's"
The game is about a year old now so I don't see the issue of it being a paid expansion. While I'll personaly don't see much of intrest in the expansion is mostly cause I am still mid level 30, but I am sure those at cap level will appriciatte the expansion. To be honost not even looked that much into the exp.
still not gonna play it =3=
dunno why but swtor bored the hell out of me hahaha
There are people who play games and then there are gamers.
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