Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

How Many Playing MMOs Today Would Still Play Them If They HAD To Pay?

1356

Answers

  • H0urg1assH0urg1ass Member EpicPosts: 2,380
    No only would I still play, but I would prefer to still pay.

    I prefer my games to be all-inclusive under the umbrella of a monthly subscription.  I want every single thing in the game to be earnable within the construct of the game itself.  

    Is this a realistic view?  Hell no.  Companies have realized that a handful of whales can pay far more for the game every month than a thousand subscribers.  I'm not even joking about that.  I know people who spend thousands per month on the random lockboxes in SWTOR.  Almost their entire paychecks.
  • VestigeGamerVestigeGamer Member UncommonPosts: 518
    Well if its not much then give each of us 50 cents a day and see how that adds up.....You can break it down to seconds and it will be even cheaper......Then after a couple of years it hits you that youve spent 400-500 dollars on something that wasnt all that great and there are just as good free alternatives, especially if youre patient.
    If it takes you four or five years to figure out that it was not all that great, do you deserve to keep that money?

    The free alternatives I have no answer for.  As long as something is "free", people will grab it up.

    VG

  • VestigeGamerVestigeGamer Member UncommonPosts: 518
    Hatefull said:
    It depends on the game.  I am playing some right now that I would not even consider playing if they charged a fee.  If it was something that caught my attention the way SWG did, then sure I would play.
    This baffles me.  Why is a game "playable" but not "worth money to play?"  I take it you have fun playing the games you would not spend money on, but... why?

    VG

  • VestigeGamerVestigeGamer Member UncommonPosts: 518
    Kilmaul said:
    Haven't subbed to anything at all in 4 or 5 years.  Plenty of b2p or f2p games out there that are just as fun and entertaining to play as any sub game.  Just my opinion of coarse.  :)
    But if those games you don't sub to now asked/required for subs, would you still play them, or go looking for more free games?  In other words, are the games you play worth your money?

    VG

  • VestigeGamerVestigeGamer Member UncommonPosts: 518
    Well if its not much then give each of us 50 cents a day and see how that adds up.....You can break it down to seconds and it will be even cheaper......Then after a couple of years it hits you that youve spent 400-500 dollars on something that wasnt all that great and there are just as good free alternatives, especially if youre patient.
    If you're going to comment and be taken seriously... you have to start offering up something... serious. Stop projecting your particular bias based on your economic point of view. Use likely situations to illustrate your "point" as opposed to knee-jerk fantasy quips like "give us each 50 cents a day." That makes no sense at all.
    If I may add to this thought...  I give a game developer money for the product they produce.  What do you (Theocritus) offer me for this 50 cents a day?

    VG

  • RenfailRenfail Member EpicPosts: 1,638
    if the fee wasn't unreasonable and i was enjoying the game sure i'd have no problem paying.
    Looking at MMOs you play right now (hopefully enjoying them), how would you answer?  For example, would you pay a $15 monthly fee?  Nothing expensive.
    15 dollars a month +  is NOTHING.

    The only people bitching about having to pay money for something are entitlement brats. 

    A single movie ticket costs damn near 15 bucks these days and you only get 2 hours of enjoyment. You can get a nearly UNLIMITED amount of enjoyment from an MMORPG during a month. 

    A simple meal out can cost you 15 bucks, and you'll only enjoy that for the 30 minutes to an hour that you sit downt to eat it.

    A bottle of wine? 15 bucks, and you'll only get an hour of sipping that with a friend (or by yourself. I'm a writer. We're excused from the bottle-of-wine-a-night critiques). 

    Want the nice things in life? Pay for them. That's how you support the people making them. Can't afford them? Get a better job, or learn how to prioritize your budget. Stop being a drain on society and actually strive for a net worth that can provide you with enough cash to pay your own way. 
    Tim "Renfail" Anderson | Wandering Hermits Patreon
  • BoneserinoBoneserino Member UncommonPosts: 1,768
    Kilmaul said:
    Haven't subbed to anything at all in 4 or 5 years.  Plenty of b2p or f2p games out there that are just as fun and entertaining to play as any sub game.  Just my opinion of coarse.  :)
    But if those games you don't sub to now asked/required for subs, would you still play them, or go looking for more free games?  In other words, are the games you play worth your money?
    What point are you trying to make here Vestige?

    Because the Devs or companies that run F2P games are getting paid.   So how does someone getting to play for free affect their income?

    So this is just another attempt to promote all games going back to a sub model. 

    Good luck with that.

    FFA Nonconsentual Full Loot PvP ...You know you want it!!

  • VestigeGamerVestigeGamer Member UncommonPosts: 518
    Kilmaul said:
    Haven't subbed to anything at all in 4 or 5 years.  Plenty of b2p or f2p games out there that are just as fun and entertaining to play as any sub game.  Just my opinion of coarse.  :)
    But if those games you don't sub to now asked/required for subs, would you still play them, or go looking for more free games?  In other words, are the games you play worth your money?
    What point are you trying to make here Vestige?

    Because the Devs or companies that run F2P games are getting paid.   So how does someone getting to play for free affect their income?

    So this is just another attempt to promote all games going back to a sub model. 

    Good luck with that.
    Not really my point, but if you read it that way, ok.  My point is players talking about all these great, stupendous, over-the-top fun games they play... for free.  I'm curious if these same players would pay money for the same games if they had to.  That tells more about the game they play then empty "free" praise.

    VG

  • GaendricGaendric Member UncommonPosts: 624
    edited September 2015
    The question is, if someone is really enjoying a game, why wouldn't he pay for it?
    The phrase "sawing off the branch you're sitting on" comes to mind. 
    In the end, you always pay. If you are not paying with your wallet, you are paying with the quality of future products. Less money going into the system = smaller budgets.

  • Vermillion_RaventhalVermillion_Raventhal Member EpicPosts: 4,198
    There are some games I would only play if it was sub only because of Pay2Win mechanics.  A lot of games I would never pay to play. If people were forced to spend money on MMORPG's the genre might collapse or at least have corrected itself from trying to reach WoW numbers a long time ago.  F2P lowers the threshhold and allows those to spend crazy amounts to spend crazy amounts.  
  • LoktofeitLoktofeit Member RarePosts: 14,247
    H0urg1ass said:
    No only would I still play, but I would prefer to still pay.

    I prefer my games to be all-inclusive under the umbrella of a monthly subscription.  I want every single thing in the game to be earnable within the construct of the game itself.  

    Is this a realistic view?  Hell no.  Companies have realized that a handful of whales can pay far more for the game every month than a thousand subscribers.  I'm not even joking about that.  I know people who spend thousands per month on the random lockboxes in SWTOR.  Almost their entire paychecks.
    You say that as if it at some point became an unrealistic view, as opposed to never having been an unrealistic view. 

    There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
    "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre

  • VelocinoxVelocinox Member UncommonPosts: 1,010
    edited September 2015
    It's funny, I see a number of these posts claiming that subscription games automatically result in better quality games and yet both of our most recent examples of subscription-only game releases as reflected in these poster's thread history are the result of 'poor game design' by their own words. And yet, they continue to post that poor game design simply cannot occur with subscription only games. it's quite a contradiction.

    I also see people who are adamant about paying for a game regard those that choose the F2P route (either insinuated or outright said) to be freeloaders. While what I actually see when I have subscription only proponents join me in F2P games is that they constantly bemoan the fact that other players have cool things, even if just cosmetic, that they don't have. So while it seems the subscription only players say they want to keep the 'riff-raff' out, what actually seems to be the case is when they play F2P games they see all the whales running around with items they would have to pay for (even just $15 a month worth) and feel that in F2P games they are the riff-raff because paying is a choice that they do not wish to make.

    In the end it's the choice of paying that annoys them, rather than the cost, item malls, or game quality more than anything else. And I find that distinction extremely interesting.

    I've watched it go so far as to have subscription only players leave the same game they were happy to have deduct $15 from their account every month, just because the $15 coming from their account suddenly became a choice.

    'Sandbox MMO' is a PTSD trigger word for anyone who has the experience to know that anonymous players invariably use a 'sandbox' in the same manner a housecat does.


    When your head is stuck in the sand, your ass becomes the only recognizable part of you.


    No game is more fun than the one you can't play, and no game is more boring than one which you've become familiar.


    How to become a millionaire:
    Start with a billion dollars and make an MMO.

  • ErdaErda Member UncommonPosts: 211

    I'm a bit of an MMO tourist these days so playing a F2P game is actually rather refreshing.   I can drop in and feel no guilt if I put it aside for several months or so.   I have lifetimes to several games and can pop in whenever I want.   I just dropped my sub again for the third time to WoW and returned to ESO.  I fully plan on giving WildStar another whirl at the end of the month.  If I like what I see, I have no issues paying for a sub if I feel it gives me a benefit.  In fact thinking about getting a sub to ESO when they add the incentive of more bag space for folks with subs.


  • AntiquatedAntiquated Member RarePosts: 1,415
    Loktofeit said:

    Compare and contrast: the cost of any modern mmo vs $6 per hour (Compuserve, GEnie, et. al.)

    Point of comparison is interesting when you bring that into play. By the time most millennials were using the internet, everything was 'free' under their flat $15/month fee. Hourly charges or even charges of any kind for content had faded away. So previous generations have those hourly fees as their point of comparison, whereas the majority of the most recent generation has FREE as their point of comparison. 


    Exactly. I still find fifty cents a day unbelievably cheap. But I didn't grow up with the expectation that entertainment should be free, and entertainment providers shouldn't get paid.
  • SplattrSplattr Member RarePosts: 537
    Hatefull said:
    It depends on the game.  I am playing some right now that I would not even consider playing if they charged a fee.  If it was something that caught my attention the way SWG did, then sure I would play.
    This baffles me.  Why is a game "playable" but not "worth money to play?"  I take it you have fun playing the games you would not spend money on, but... why?
    This isn't really that hard to understand. It's not different than paying to go see a movie at a theater vs. watching it for free at a buddy's house. In that example, I may not feel that the movie is worth my $10-$15 to see at a theater, but is worth my time investment when offered for free. 

    Hell, even simpler than that, O'Charleys (a restaurant) has "Free pie Wednesdays." I have never bought a piece of pie from there, but if I go on Wednesdays, I sure as hell eat a piece since it's free.

    Something being worth my time is not the same as something being worth my money.
  • VelocinoxVelocinox Member UncommonPosts: 1,010
    edited September 2015
    Loktofeit said:

    Compare and contrast: the cost of any modern mmo vs $6 per hour (Compuserve, GEnie, et. al.)

    Point of comparison is interesting when you bring that into play. By the time most millennials were using the internet, everything was 'free' under their flat $15/month fee. Hourly charges or even charges of any kind for content had faded away. So previous generations have those hourly fees as their point of comparison, whereas the majority of the most recent generation has FREE as their point of comparison. 


    Exactly. I still find fifty cents a day unbelievably cheap. But I didn't grow up with the expectation that entertainment should be free, and entertainment providers shouldn't get paid.
    Not exactly at all. What is being left out of this comparison is that bandwidth costs from the old CServe days to AOL to EQ dialup to WoW and then on to today is that bandwidth costs to these companies has dropped from being prohibitively expensive to being their most costly overhead to incidental costs to today when bandwidth isn't a factor at all in the costs of running an MMO.

    So when you compare $6 an hour (or $18 an hour prime time, bet you didn't know that and why was it more for prime-time? BANDWIDTH) to $9.89 a month to $14.99 a month to F2P, you have to include that back then they had MUCH higher costs in bandwidth expenses than they do today.

    The big overhead today isn't bandwidth at all anymore. Its 500 person design teams so that half of them can sit on their ass and play WoW while they get paid. I know, I had offices right next to some.

    'Sandbox MMO' is a PTSD trigger word for anyone who has the experience to know that anonymous players invariably use a 'sandbox' in the same manner a housecat does.


    When your head is stuck in the sand, your ass becomes the only recognizable part of you.


    No game is more fun than the one you can't play, and no game is more boring than one which you've become familiar.


    How to become a millionaire:
    Start with a billion dollars and make an MMO.

  • TheocritusTheocritus Member LegendaryPosts: 9,739
    I guess we all see subs differently...many here only see it as 15$....I see it as several hundred as I usually play games for longer than a month or two.....I played EQ from 2000-05....I spent a hell of a lot more than $15....What many of us are saying is it adds up fast, especially when expansions are added into the equation...The way I see it I can play a game like Rift or Aion for free for 5 more years, whereas those playing EVE, WoW ,etc will be paying close to a thousand dollars over that span.....
  • VestigeGamerVestigeGamer Member UncommonPosts: 518
    I guess we all see subs differently...many here only see it as 15$....I see it as several hundred as I usually play games for longer than a month or two.....I played EQ from 2000-05....I spent a hell of a lot more than $15....What many of us are saying is it adds up fast, especially when expansions are added into the equation...The way I see it I can play a game like Rift or Aion for free for 5 more years, whereas those playing EVE, WoW ,etc will be paying close to a thousand dollars over that span.....
    I understand your point, and do agree that that $15 every month adds up quickly!  Now, when I played EQ, WoW, and CoX for the years I did, I rarely bought other (single player) games.  Other players still bought a lot of new games on top of of their MMO subs.

    It may not be the most cost effective, especially when MMOs also charge for expansions, but I think it is in the ballpark of buying multiple single player games in the same time frame, or close to it.  The biggest difference to me is that MMOs expand/change a lot while single players games expand/change a little.

    Never fear, though.  Boneserino was correct in saying subs will never come back.  The player's today will not stand for it.

    VG

  • VestigeGamerVestigeGamer Member UncommonPosts: 518
    Velocinox said:
    It's funny, I see a number of these posts claiming that subscription games automatically result in better quality games and yet both of our most recent examples of subscription-only game releases as reflected in these poster's thread history are the result of 'poor game design' by their own words. And yet, they continue to post that poor game design simply cannot occur with subscription only games. it's quite a contradiction.

    I also see people who are adamant about paying for a game regard those that choose the F2P route (either insinuated or outright said) to be freeloaders. While what I actually see when I have subscription only proponents join me in F2P games is that they constantly bemoan the fact that other players have cool things, even if just cosmetic, that they don't have. So while it seems the subscription only players say they want to keep the 'riff-raff' out, what actually seems to be the case is when they play F2P games they see all the whales running around with items they would have to pay for (even just $15 a month worth) and feel that in F2P games they are the riff-raff because paying is a choice that they do not wish to make.

    In the end it's the choice of paying that annoys them, rather than the cost, item malls, or game quality more than anything else. And I find that distinction extremely interesting.

    I've watched it go so far as to have subscription only players leave the same game they were happy to have deduct $15 from their account every month, just because the $15 coming from their account suddenly became a choice.
    I do not say, and have never said, that subs are automatically better than F2P games.  Both pay models can be good, bad, or mediocre.  One does not infer the other.  I know others have inferred this, but not me.

    Why I like(d) subscriptions was that every aspect of the game was open to me for that $15/month.  I did not have to play with credit card at the desk.  Every time that real world money changes hands, I am taken out of the game world and smacked harshly into the real world.

    When I saw a player with nice looking equipment, I could ask them what they did to acquire it.  Now, I just go browse the cash shop for the item.  Some players like this.  I happen one of a few who do not.  I like separation between my games and my real world.

    PS: I'm not a tablet/smart phone game player, where money grabs are more prevalent.

    VG

  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383
    I have no problem paying for a subscription game that I have fun playing. I have no problem playing a F2P game, or spending in a cash shop for games that I enjoy - but that part comes with a caveat. 

    I won't pay to "accelerate" a game - especially F2P games that rely on timers or lockouts. Those "energy" based games (extremely common on mobile, not so much on PC) drive me up the wall.
Sign In or Register to comment.