MMORPGs: How much are you willing to pay?

[Razola]

The monthly fees of MMORPGs is hotly debated issue. Well, as hotly debated as video games go.

The question: How much are you willing to pay per month for a MMORPG? Does it depend on the game's content? Do you take the risk of games that promise a lot of cooler content later on? (Like Star Wars Galaxies, which I'll admit has been delivering on their promises.)

Fifteen bucks is as high I'll go. I would like a 10 dollar discount off the intial price of the game if it's fifteen (I'll pay fifty for a 10 dollar/month fee), but I'll tolerate 15/mo and fifty intial if the game is good and looks like it's being handled by a caring staff.

Twenty and above is a no-no. I will only pay half of the game's initial price per month if it involves segments in Heaven. Otherwise, hell no.

[Pichu]

None for me. It's just a game... I can survive without it. =P

And it doesn't depend on game content... there must be some games out there that are free. =P

And if its free before, and just changed to P2P, no matter how good I'm at it, I will just leave it and forget it.

[Lezta]

At the end of the day, I don't pay monthly for my other games, that are just as good, so why should I be willing to splash out MONTHLY?

Server costs my ass: they do not cost £10/15xhowevermanythousandpaying a month.

I might pay a pound a month; that would cover server costs and new content with the amount of people on your usual MMORPG.

I don't pay for my other games per month; so why should I any other? I don't pay for patches for other games either; which also add new content.

[classy_cat18]

None: I'm stingy. The only MMORPG that I've seen that I would be willing to pay for would be City of Heroes, so I'll be waiting for that.

[Heald]

I wouldn't like to pay more than £10 a month.

[PNT510]

I wouldn't like to pay more than $10 per month, but I would spend up to $15 anything beyond that is unreasonable. I personlly don't mind paying monthly for a MMORPG seeing how server cost and upgrading the game costs more than it does for other games, it also keeps the company making money after the game no longer sells.

[Craig]

I based my response on american funds. If you think about it 15 dollars isnt very much especially since a lot of the time mmorpgs can be a lot more fun than a normal game

The next MMORPG that will be "worth it" will definitely be World of Warcraft.

World of Warcraft > CoH

[Sarcastic Assassin]

By MMORPG, I assume you mean online-only games. That would exclude games like Warcraft III, Q3A, Conter-Strike, etc., along with some PS2 games (SOCOM being the most notable). I actually don't pay for MMORPGs. In all honesty, that is one particular genre that I haven't really tried out, but based on experience with Diablo II, I don't really like it. I realize Diablo II isn't exactly the quintessence of an MMORPG, but I just couldn't stand endlessly fighting to level up.

[Red Angel]

Sarcastic Assasin, MMORPG stands for Massively Multiplayer Online RPG. So obviously that's not counter-strike, WIII, Q3A, etc.

Personally, I wouldn't pay more than $10 a month, and that's only if it was awesome beyond belief. Otherwise, why pay when I can play awesome stuff like WCIII for free?

[en0miz]

I would like to pay nothing, but since all mmorpgs have a fee anyway, I would spend 5-7 dollars, and that's only if this game happens to be one of the best damn games ever, since I think paying more for a game after you put down the initial 50 dollars down is ridiculous.

As for the poll, I chose the humor option.

[Ali]

Personally, I like MMORPGs. Unfortunetely, I can't exactly pay for them. Plus sometimes there are free private servers. So I guess 'none'.

[Leon-IH]

Meh, you wouldnt pay for war3 anyway (****IN MORONIC PATCHING) however, i am considering paying for wow and hoping blizzard don't ****in **** up the ****in ****ed up ****in patches (sorry kids, remember don't buy drugs, become a popstar and get em for free) yeah, id pay seeing as the companies gotta pay staff to do the patching.. $15 US would be my max tho.. stupid **** ^^

[Heald]

Money goes to server costs, bandwidth, moderator staffing e.t.c., not just patching. All patches are free. Frankly, I'd rather have the occasional half hour patch than paying monthly for a really buggy game.

Beta can only do so much.

[Razola]

MMORPGs are constanly patched, so what you're really saying is that you'd rather have a non-Massively Multiplayer game for free.

[PhatZapdos]

i wouldnt pay jack to be honest, nothing to do with the game, im just cheap. if the game turns out to be a MUST-HAVE, or IF-U-DONT-GET-THIS-UR-NOT-COOL-ANY-MORE!!~ i think $5 a month seems like a price i can deal with. combined for year, thats not much mroe than i pay for xbox live yearly, and its actually quite easy to make $5, especially for a great game. dont think i'd pay 10 tho.....seems pretty high to me.

[Tainted]

I'm disgustingly wealthy, therefore I would pay more than thirty dollars for a MMORPG... but only if it was worthwhile playing, none of this Galaxies bullshit that I dump off after a couple months of playing, I'm talking WoW... I'd pay $50 monthly for that... Maybe because material items I don't really care for, but *shrug*
I'm buying CoH, but I think it'll get boring fast because there's nothing to do aside from fighting... Like, you can't relax after a battle by... crafting some weapons. Plus, no kewl 1337 lewt=nothing to go for, other than completing all of the missions and ****. And when you've done that-- what do you do? Wait for the next patch...

Adieu,
Zak Hunter

[Razola]

Where is the fun in crafting? Sitting in a corner doing jack crap for several minutes is a retarded waste of money.

And I'm also tired of constant quests for the items like the Helm of This-Would've-Been-Useful-When-You-Were-Doing-The-Quest-To-Get-Me +5.

[Tainted]

Crafting is just an escape from fighting-- as I personally find that fighting tends to get a tad too repetitive if you do it all of the time, nonstop. But then again, that's why I RP in most MMORPG's, an escape from leveling.

I don't want amazing items either, I just want maybe a few additives towards weaponry in City of Heroes. I know that if you choose Technology you can have guns and such but-- Ahh, hell, I don't know what I want.

I just think CoH would be a damned perfect game if it weren't 100% focused on fighting. Oh... capes too... Heh...

Adieu,
Zak Hunter

[Heald]

CoH should take a leaf from super hero comic books (no pun intended). Basically, when Spiderman couldn't beat Venom, he found out its weakness and then exploited it.

Basically, there should be missions where you have to infilitrate facilities where super-villains were made or have information stored and try and discover a weakness, and then in battle you can exploit this weakness against the super-villain.

There should also be gadgets which negate some effects i.e. if you are fighting a super-villain with ice-powers, you could activate a personal heater to weaken the attacks.

I'm sorry if these are already in the game since I have not played it.

[SWAMPERT1]

Raz I am willing to pay no money for a MMORPG. think about it, PSO players by PSO for say $60. To play online it will take about $10 a week and in half a year you have paid for the games price TWICE And in a year you have paid for it twice and so on an so forth. TO me its not worth it. Thats my 2 Cents, thank you and goodnight.

[Razola]

So Swampert, you will not be getting cable, correct? Or any internet service? Or a house, for that matter? These are things that are going to build up costs from monthly fees or just interest.

Heald, some of things you mention are being incorporated, such as more involved missions. Some missions will have you set to the villain's prison rather than the hospital if you die. You and any other prisoners will have to team up to bust your way out.

Skullfire, in the end crafting seems to me like a veil to keep you playing even though you are tired of playing. One of the biggest turnoffs for me in Star Wars Galaxies was that the musician/dancer jobs required you to just sit and press a button over and over again, with little variation or thought required. I guess I can see the purpose in it, it gives players a reason to just chill and talk, but I'm not paying a monthly fee to sit and make my own stuff. City of Heroes is just a more straight to the point game for me. Different tastes, I supposed. CoH DOES have a few items, just not nearly as many as others in its genre.

EDIT: Holy crap is City of Heroes fun. Only been out for about two days, and I'm already level 11. Woo-hoo!

[Ultimate Charizard]

I think its frankly disgusting. I have a decent enough Job (over $1000 a month) and no real bills apart from Rent to my Parents, commuting costs and my Internet connection but i still wouldnt Pay for any online game.
You spend £40 - £50 to buy the game which you cant play offline, anywhere from £15 to £60 per month for your broadband connection (not sure of X-Box Live costs), and then they want another £10 a month just to actually play the game....i dont think so.

Saying that its just the same as buying a house or anything else that has a subscription cost is just ignorant. Online connection opens up the entire world with information, social opportunities and cheap and easily accessible nudity. A home is obviously a nessecary purchase that most if not all of us will eventually buy.
This is just a game and paying that much, as u said anything from £5 to £30 for each game i want to play is just rediculous.

[Brain]

Where is the "I would only play that crap if they paid me" option?

[PNT510]

A subcription to a game is like a subcription to cable TV. You don't need it, but you want it. For something premium. More TV channels with cable, or different gaming experinces you pay for a MMORPG.

[Razola]

Saying that its just the same as buying a house or anything else that has a subscription cost is just ignorant.

Cable and magazines too? Maybe a hosue was extreme, but the rest of my examples (cable, magazines) hold firm. Stop being ignorant.

Online connection opens up the entire world with information, social opportunities and cheap and easily accessible nudity. A home is obviously a nessecary purchase that most if not all of us will eventually buy.
This is just a game and paying that much, as u said anything from £5 to £30 for each game i want to play is just rediculous.

Do you own a server? They aren't cheap, especially in multiples. Oh, and why did you buy broadband? I think that's a scam. The internet should use less images because there are cheaper ways to social interaction.

And City of Heroes is much fun. Well worth the cash.

[Lezta]

Raz; I'm paying £30 a month anyway. I'm a ****ing student living at home who can barely afford that and still have any kind of life. You add £10/15 to that and I'm ****ing screwed.

If I was a 'grown-up' it might matter a whole-lot less but right now I'm finding it apalling that I'm being asked to pay more than the basic cost for my games.

It's a bit like being told I have to pay monthly for each CD I buy to pay maintanence on the bands instruments at concerts.

Server costs do not cost into the thousands and you're an idiot if you think they do.

[Tainted]

And City of Heroes is much fun. Well worth the cash.

Agreed. Everything I said about it being even remotely bad is abolished. Pwnage. What server you on, Raz?

[Craig]

Wow. I think I might just have to buy City of Heroes.

We should all play on the same server, probably on whoever is already the highest

Server costs do not cost into the thousands and you're an idiot if you think they do.

Lets think of a game like Star Wars Galaxies. Currently there is 32 "Galaxies", each will have atleast 3000 people on them at peak times. Then there is the patch server (new patch woah everyone is getting it.) login server, chat server and master servers/etc. So there is over 35 servers, each would comprise of a few servers seperate so that in a freak accident everyone's stuff doesn't get lost. MMORPG's dont host off you (like battle.net does, you help host a lot) so its ALL on the server. This would easily cost 1000s of dollars, not to mention the cost of actually buying it and paying all the people that have to be on staff 24/7 to monitor it from going down.

( I read something that Everquest has about 127 seperate server machines, and it was before atleast 1/3 of the "newer" severs were added)

[Razola]

Raz; I'm paying £30 a month anyway. I'm a ****ing student living at home who can barely afford that and still have any kind of life. You add £10/15 to that and I'm ****ing screwed.

That's why it's a luxury item, dumbass.

If I was a 'grown-up' it might matter a whole-lot less but right now I'm finding it apalling that I'm being asked to pay more than the basic cost for my games.

Yet you are fine that they charge you 20-30 a month for premimum TV channels? Or up to 40 a month for broadband? Please.

It's a bit like being told I have to pay monthly for each CD I buy to pay maintanence on the bands instruments at concerts.

Very poor comparison, since you don't have the CD fixed and new songs added to it every so often.

Server costs do not cost into the thousands and you're an idiot if you think they do.

Servers that can handle a persistant game, the GMs' paychecks, maintenence, R&D and Q&A handling technical support and working on content.

You know what? Just stop talking.

EDIT: I am on the Freedom server, though my group is pretty picky about who gets in. Especially the scrapper. Bu if I'm not in a party I may do a few missions with anyone.

EDIT2: There's a scrapper running around on Freedom named "Raz." That ain't me.

[RedStarWarrior]

I click the "disgustingly wealthy" thing but I am also a tight ass so I probably wouldn't pay more than $10 unless it was an orgasmic experience each time I played.