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mmorpgs are complete rip offs
John.A.Zoid
Member Posts: 1,531
$15 a month = $180 a year + retail cost and yet you're expected to pay for expansions even though people like Valve can keep updating their games without a monthly fee. Then on top of all that there are the micro transactions like the whole TCG type thing in mmorpgs such as SWG where if you want certain in game items the only way you're able to get them is by paying until you're lucky enough to get it.
Not only that but you're paying for features that should come as standard with your monthly fee like what WOW charges you for like changing your character name or transfering your character to another server. I mean to me that is something that you expect as part of the service you want under you montly fee and a standard feature you would want in mmorpgs. Most the time you meet people who play the same game as you but you're normally on different servers and yet your subscription fee doesn't cover that : People say oh but that $15 goes towards server charges..... WOW makes over $1 billion a year so really they probbaly could charge everyone $5 a month and still be making more than enough.
Yet soon we're going to enter in the territory where these companies start charging you $15 a month + retail + expansions + in game advertising + micro transactions + anything else they can think of and when are people going to say I've had enough of being taken a fool of? Guild Wars can survive without subscripton fee's so why don#t everyone else frop them if they expect us to pay for all this other crap? They still host every single server and still have to host every instance.
Comments
So, you're saying it costs me like $230 per year to play MMORPG's for an unlimited amount of time? Yep, sounds like a pretty bad deal to me.
When will you learn that there isn't an amount of money that Blizzard 'deserves' to earn. (or not earn). They deserve to earn as much as they can milk out of their customer base. If they could double the rates tomorrow and have everyone still pay for it, they would deserve it.
Its called free market capitalism and its how our economy works.
Now, my game, EVE does not charge me for expansions, so I guess I get a better deal? But that's not why I play, nor would I care if they did charge, its just a nice perc.
In fact, if I was so motivated, I could go out and sell time cards for ISK , and spend even more money on this game. Doesn't bother me a bit.
MMO's are the best entertainment value out there today, (cost me more to take my wife and son to the movies (40 bucks) last night than almost all 3 of my EVE subs for the month.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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Agree with OP.
Its way cheaper than my subscription to satelite TV, thats for sure....
MMO's honestly are dirt cheap to play compared to other forms of entertainment. The most recent game I bought was gears of war 2 and that cost roughly 60$ and that lasted me about 2 days tops. So right there I payed about 30 dollars a day on that game. While an MMO I will roughly spend 80-160 hours a month depending on how motivated or how much free time I have. The initial box price is fine, hell I think i got my moneys worth for AoC and I didn't go past the free month. I did play about 40-70 hours of it and that covered the 50$ IMO.
hmm lets see,, I can spend about 30 US dollars on a craptastic over rated Hollywood movie full of pretty people who cant act, or I can spend my 15 US dollars on 30 days of entertaining gaming.
With todays Global economy in the crapper.... you can guess where my money is at...
simple solution, if you feel "ripped off" by them dont play them.
There see thats not so hard now is it?
This message was edited on 8/16/15 at 5:30:00 AM
edit- undecided to be frank. But I agree with many points from the OP and also some counterviews. So not sure make a poll next time
This really depends on the game, and since we are all on PC we know methods to get these games for free discount, that being said, Lets say you do spend 50 dollars a month on a new game, Well if its a game like FFXII or Fallout 3 and you can only get a month of game play out of them and finish everything..then damn you have way to much free time. If its a game like.. Sonic or something, yeah I can see your point being valid.
Including the mods and stuff, I managed to get 3 months of playtime out of oblivion before I grew tired of it. I actually got the real copy of that game, because it was that good and enjoyable, worth my money.
Also you got to think of the fun factor, In most mmorpgs you don't have fun the entire time you are playing, Farming is not fun, grinding is not very fun, but you do it a lot anyways. In a lot of single player games the adventure is enjoyabl story driven and fun much more so than in MMORPGs, so sometimes the game is shorter but you had way more fun in that time than you would with an mmorpg in a year. mmorpgs keep you entertained, but a lot are not really fun. (Points at the Korean Free 2 play cash shop games)
You just got ripped off. Don't pay for short 10 hour games like that. Rent them like I do unless you plan to play online. I've gotten over 3-4 days (100 hours) of playtime out of Battlefield 2142 for example
Of course you can always trade/sell the game for what $40 bucks.
Now you have a good point, an extreme hardcore console player will go through 2 games a month average. However, they often trade the titles to reduce their costs.
Plus, they are seeing new content every month versus an MMO player thats staring at the same dungeon for months straight. Any console player can do that right, just kill the same mobs over and over to be fair
Movies cost $8-$10 for about 2 hours worth of enjoyment. (not counting those that only go to matinees)
So that breaks down to $4 an hour (being on the stingy side here)
Pretty much anytime you get an hours entertainment for $4 you are breaking even. No matter how YOU classify fun that is pretty much the cost enjoyment breakdown that is a pretty good standard. So yes MMOs have non fun aspects, grinding/harvesting/travel/etc. You are getting your 4 hours of fun a month. (go with 5 hours to make up for the cost of the box & expansions.
I currently am not playing any, but Fallout 3 & Valkyria Chronicles are providing enough enjoyment for me currently. No sub fees when I don't really feel like MMOing but I can resub anytime and go back to the world of XXXX. (not necessary WoW, but all games take place on a world.)
Free markets are based on a simple premise. If you don't want their service or think it is unfair or to expensive, you have the choice of not playing it. Complaining about it in forums will not persuade people to quit a game or to skip over it unless you have a well thought out review that is substantiated somehow. Vote with your wallet and leave all the catterwalling out of the process and we all will feel better.
/soapbox off
I think developers are forgeting thats why a whole lot of people come to mmorpg's in the first place.
Yep. 1 months subscription isnt even equivalent to a night out to the pub in terms of cost. You get 30 days of play time, get to socialise with friends and have fun. I'd say thats a bargain regardless of anyone's standards.
Right...........
However if you're a "gamer" then youw ill be buying all the other games so the whole it saves you money argument doesn't hold up. If I'm going to be paying a monthly sub then I expect that to include services like character transfers and expansions/content for free. What pisses me off again is when they feel the need to add in micro transactions and in game advertising even though we're paying for all the other stuff.
So really;
- One paid subscription where everythign else is free
Or
- Subscription free but make us pay for all the other stuff.
Currently everyones being ripped off because they do all of them at the same time.
I also find the argument of having 30 days of entertainment funny because really you don't play each and every day cause not only does that make for a sad life but it's impossible. Also I could play Left 4 Dead for the same amount of time as an mmorpg and I'm not being charged anything and when new content comes out I wont be charged for that too. Yet oh look L4D has given me more value for money than any movie or whatever so :S I think that argument is abit dumb.
I could play The Helicopter game for 30 days and thats free.
I've played Guild Wars (still do for some pvp), LotRO, CoH, CoV and AoC (first month only). A lot of my GW friends ask how I can pay monthly fees for other games. I compare it to cable television. You get basic cable, and if you want premium service (e.g. HBO, Showtime) you pay extra for it. I view MMOs as a premium entertainment source, and, therefore, I find the $15 per month fee as a worthwhile entertainment expense.
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Pretty much sums it up. I pay 50 bucks on a single player game, and I'm done in a month. I pay 14.95 for unlimited game play with a good MMORPG. It's a bargain.
Without having much idea of the costs on mantaining an MMO, I tend to agree with OP. That is. with succesful MMOs. But starting ones have to charge that amount, we have seen many failing and closing down, so the start has to be pretty hard.
With great reward, comes great risk.
Imagine the investors in some of these MMORPGs. They put up literally millions of dollars. If the game is a hit, they could make millions. If the game sucks, they lose it all.
Look at Tabula Rasa. They spent over 100 million dollars to make the game, and it only brought in 5 million in subscription fees, and is now being closed down.
Investors lost 100 million dollars.
To entice people to put up that kind of cash, you're going to have to offer them the chance to make a serious return on their investment.
Funny, I bet you weren't quite so "free market" when gas prices were sky high.
Free market only works if people are honest and fair (which is to say, almost never). Truth is, as soon as these companies figure out how dumb people are, they will have us paying for every dumb little thing, and that will be the day that I drop MMOs all together. Like the OP said, it's already begun with the TCGs and microtransactions in some games, and it will continue to spread as long as people pay for it.
Just makes me laugh when some people BLEET on about 15 dollars or pounds or whatever a month.
50 cents or 50 pence a day for a company to allow you to play with thousands of other players in an ever changing universe... where the Foijfgjgg else can you have a day of fun for 50 pence..
get real and stop with stupid posts
Valve has an mmo? Please provide the link.
Thread failure in 3...2...1...
With great reward, comes great risk.
Imagine the investors in some of these MMORPGs. They put up literally millions of dollars. If the game is a hit, they could make millions. If the game sucks, they lose it all.
Look at Tabula Rasa. They spent over 100 million dollars to make the game, and it only brought in 5 million in subscription fees, and is now being closed down.
Investors lost 100 million dollars.
To entice people to put up that kind of cash, you're going to have to offer them the chance to make a serious return on their investment.
This really is a true shame. This whole disaster is going to stifle the MMO market and leave a lot of budding game developers left out in the cold. Investors typically don't know squat about games or the who's who in gaming. However, they know who Richard Garriot was and look what he managed to do with all their money. Shame.
Bleak future for originality. It's up to the big companies to squeeze out whatever creativity they have left for the MMO market, if they even care to do so.
If everyone keeps complaining that new MMOs are released before they are finished then surely that would make them 'Incomplete Rip Offs".
Seriously though, compared to most other forms of adult entertainment they are ridiculously good value for money & the monthly subscription of most MMOs would barely last half an hour in a London Pub!
Micro-transaction MMOs are another matter entirely though & I avoid those on principle as they seem too much like playing 'One Armed Bandit Gambling Machines'.
If you can't "Have your cake & eat it too", then how can "The proof of the pudding be in the eating"?
Take the Hecatomb? TCG What Is Your Doom? quiz.
Some people pay 600-1200 + a year just to watch tv. I spend 180 bucks to keep myself entertained for the same amount of time , seems fair to me ............
OP...
It is only a rip off if the person paying for it doesn't find value in it.
As far as the monetary amount? lol... I had a date yesterday, paid 50.00 for museum tickets including the special exhibit and a little more than that on lunch.
The date only lasted about 4.5 hours or so. Now, to me that was money well spent even if we never go to go see the special exhibt and instead talked at lunch. But others would freak over such an amount for such a small amount of time.
I would gladly pay double what I pay for an mmo as long as the quality is good. I have no problem paying for an expansion. Lineage 2 didn't have paid expansions and they ranged from good to blah at best. I would gladly pay if the expansions promised and delivered good additons to the game.
Also, people have to stop saying "Guild Wars didn't have a monthly fee"/"My game doesn't charge for expansions" therefore all games should be like this.
You have no idea the business model that the game company is running. It is more than feasible that many game companies need that influx of cash. And remember, businesses are in business to make money. I'm sure you're company is as well. Do businesses make horrible decisions? Sure. Do they sometimes treat their employees like cogs? Sure. But in the end if they can't make and sustain a profit then you could be out of a job.
As far as ingame advertising. That is something I agree with you about but I have yet to play a game that has actual in-game advertising short of the splash screen. That would be the point that I would say "no".
However if the game was an Urban landscape I might agree to it. don't realy know. I tend to ignore a good deal of advertising anyways.
Also, if a game has micro-transactions and you dont' like that then don't play it. I have no problems with microtransactions as long as it doesn't alter gameplay.
I'm sure if I looked into your life I would see you spend your money on things that I would find a vast waste. Same goes if it was reverse. As long as you can find value then it is a good deal. As soon as you realize there is no value then it is time to stop spending your money on these things.
As you think it is a rip-off I expect that you will soon quit mmo's and move on which would be the logical choice.
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A minimum wage job will pay you $8 an hour so really I look at it as you can work at McDonalds for 2 hours a month and be able to afford to play a game that gives you hours upon hours of enjoyment.
As for new content not being free, I have to say there is still quite a bit released for free. Sure they charge for major updates that add considerable amounts of area and content but for the most part games add things for free. LOTRO is a good example of a company who added a lot for free until they came out with a large expansion.
Methinks that many of you are missing the point. Yes, MMOs are cheaper than movies, cable TV, beer, whores, etc.... And yes, the cost of one, and exactly one, MMO isn't going to drive anyone to bankruptcy.... BUT how much value do MMOs deliver in comparison to OTHER GAMES?
It's not an unreasonable question. Consider the fact that I bought The Orange Box almost a year ago, haven't paid anything since and I still play TF2. CoD4 has been out for over a year and there are still people playing the hell out of it. You can buy Battlefield 2 and all of its expansions for $30 and there are still tons of people playing the game regularly. Hell, Madden players drop $50 a year for an entire year of playing.
BTW, there are still people playing the original Neverwinter Nights. There are still people playing Quake 3. There are still people playing Dawn of War. None of those games have a monthly fee. Pay once, play forever.
Since I normally only play games online and don't bother with single player games, I only buy about three or four games a year. To make it even cheaper, I buy used and rent games. You can't do either with an MMO.
From the pure numbers, MMOs are a giant waste of cash when compared to other genres of games.
I go out to dinner with the family and spend easily that much for one meal.
You do the math.
If MMOs too expensive get a job. If you're in school study harder to get a better job later.