. Promising regular updates is a fairly new strategy with companies that started, like most things MMO, with World of Warcraft. Previously, content updates came in the form of an official expansion, usually ever 12 to 18 months. The only updates that happened in the mean time were related to bug fixes, and even then only if they *really* impacted the game.
Not true. Hate, Fear and Sky were all in between EQ Vanilla and Kunark. Jaggedpine forest is another example of a free update zone.
The major difference is that generally EQ didnt have to put out content between expansions, because there was no need for it. More people complained that new content came too fast than too slow.
Great points. But Sony didn't have to cater to todays ADD afflicted, instant gratification demanding, everyone gets a trophy, I deserve to be max level in a month crybabies.
Please Sony, re-skin everquest, stop twinking, and start another progression server and I'll sub for $30.00 a month paid annualy in advance TYVM.
Oh one other condition, friendly fire must be left ON.
I think its pretty safe to assume that the OP is a younger, perhaps grade school person which has not even taken an introductory economics course or, perhaps just another troll. Heck just keeping a decent security staff sufficient to deal with hackers/botters and gold farmers is likely a significant expenditure. The actual cost of hardware is probably quite trivial to the recurring costs of server maintenance and hydro.
Anyway, companies are EXPECTED to make a profit. Frequently a company appears to be making a huge amount of money and sometimes they actually ARE. GOOD FOR THEM! It tell us the consumer that they are likely commited to keeping the product current and "valuable" to their customers. This contrary to the B2P model where it is probably in the companies best interest to have huge initial box sales and have MANY of the customers QUIT playing, less so with micro tranaction revenue based games but I wouldn't play one of those regardless of how few pennies per transaction they were.
Originally posted by Ryukan Sub fees for MMO's should not be more than $5 or $6. The idea of paying 25% of the retail cost of the game per month to keep playing it when much of the content becomes grinding the same crap repeatedly between occasional content upgrades is ridiculous and one major reason why I have stopped playing most MMO's.
After factoring in the costs of licensing an IP and engine tech, hiring a company to handle online payments (or building your own setup), paying support and development staff, leasing a datacenter or two, purchasing and upgrading hardware as needed, paying for high-availability/high-bandwidth network access, paying back stakeholders and other financial backers, and marketing the game at least a little, you wouldn't even break even on 5-6 dollars a month in sub fees.
People seriously underestimate just how expensive it is to build and operate an MMO.
Fine...$10 a month maybe, but lately I haven't felt like paying even that much to keep playing the current MMO's.
I think GW2 kind of proves you wrong though; they seem to be making enough money off the largely cosmetic game store. I have paid the box cost of GW2 so far and feel no need to pay any more money right now through the ingame store. Also, I guess I ripped off Funcom by buying a lifetime sub for The Secret World as well because that is all the money they will get from me as far as sub fees is that $200 (well maybe some would feel they ripped me off hehe, but I'll play it for years on and off...most likely). Of course Funcom could go F2P with TSW at some point aand end up screwing over those who bought lifetime subs, could happen.
There is a $50-$60 box fee for any major MMO these days and you get a month of play for free which is fine; most single player games cost the same and one is lucky to get a month's worth of play out of many of them. I play pretty hard for the first month and after that the sub fee kicks ini. $15 a month is 25% of the cost of the original game. By 4 months I have paid for the cost of the game again and maybe there have been steady content updates in those 4 months and maybe not. If the freshness of the content lasts for a week or more I would call that about worth the money I paid them for the month; this would take into account that there were steady monthly content updates like this. This does not seem to be the case with many MMO's lately for me at least and there is a great content grind for months at a time which gets boring fast; so regardless of how much it costs them to keep the game running I end up feeling that the monthly cost is not worth it thus I cancel my sub and now they have lost that monthly money from me totally. Some games have parts of the game content I really dislike and thus don't bother with such as the PvP in SWTOR; I lose interest in continuing to pay full price when there is content that I can do without.
I guess I would like to see more sub fee options between the full $15 a month fee and the F2P option which can get nickle and dime-ish and end up costing a crapload. It would be nice to see some options with lower sub costs and less restrictions than F2P but say not as many options as a full sub.
Well along these lines, before "easy mode" WoW came out, getting a character to max level in any of the prior MMOs was NOT a trivial task, taking 6 to 8 months on heavy grinds to get there would not be uncommon. Then you'd roll an alt for a bit(and I don't mean two days here) and soon enough the next expansion would be out.
Anyway, as the B2P model goes The most ripped off on a game I have EVER felt is GW2, I paid 60 bucks and I'm pretty much done with it after 4 weeks of play. THATS A STEEP MONTHLY FEE! Consider if I paid 60 bucks for a game, then subsequently paid 15/month for 6 months, I'd be at 25 dollars a month instead of 60 a month for GW2, or more to the old way of content lasting a year you'd have, (60/12) or (5 +15) = 20 dollars a month this is one third the cost of GW2(free to play? I think NOT).
I think many people are more tolerant of the CRAP when they don't have to pay a monthly fee. For free you can get people to take almost anything LITERALLY PEOPLE PICK THROUGH OUR GARBAGE BECAUSE ITS FREE! And because these garbage MMOs are FREE, people defend them as good value. Well just because something is cheap or even free doesn't make it good value, trust me I got herpes 15 years ago for free and I don't think it was a good thing.
since when do costs need to be justified? They aren't not for profit organizations. You pay to play, they charge you money! If you stop paying, they stop charging. Its the world.
Why does the cable company need to charge $300 a month for a !@#$ty box and all the channels?
If it's story-based, aka "themepark" then subscription is not warranted. Stories end, by definition, and there is no reason to keep paying a monthly sub beyond the end of the story. It is like paying a rent for a book you read once and now you have on your bookshelf and maybe thumb through every week or so. Imo this is one of the prime reasons for all those themepark failures since WoW.
If it is not a story-based entertainment but a "service", "a persistent world that you can visit" then a subscription may be warranted. Sandbox games are more akin to a membership to a club or a gym than going out to cinema. In addition, the problems with balance are much more amplified in sandboxes so cash shops are not really working for them. SInce I haven't seen other internet services charge initial "purchase price" but only the subscription, imo the same should apply here.
IMO, there are two ideal revenue models for the two types of mmos:
Themeparks: B2P + cash shop + DLC
Sandbox: free box + monthly subscription, just like any other internet service
(a note: plz no argument over "themepark" and "sandbox" definitions... i use these terms to very broadly denote two main approaches to games.. one is time-limited and sees a game as a means of delivering a pre-written story (like any traditional entertainment product) and the other primarily gives players access to a shared virtual universe where they are free to interact)
The idea behind a themepark MMO just kind of blows my mind to begin with. I thought MMOs were supposed to be like a home away from home. At least that is what I grew up playing. I would get off work and go play UO for the rest of the night and not even realize how much time had gone by because there were so many things to do. Now I did play vanilla WoW and I enjoyed it. I think it was mostly because of how much I really enjoyed the Warcraft games in the past. Plus they did a really great job on the game. Unfortunately they did it too well. So well that everyone else had to try and copy them just to make a few bucks. It's probably the most disgusting thing i've ever seen from so called 'developers'. For the last 8 years we have been given nothing but crap on top of crap from these teams that claim they are doing something new and refreshing. There are a few exceptions and most people know what they are.
So do I think we should have to pay a subscription? For this crap we've been getting? No. In fact We shouldn't have to pay a dime. Games that were being developed pre-WoW - absolutely.
DaoC - Would Pay
UO - Would Pay
AC - Would Pay
SWG - Would Pay
WoW - Would Pay
EvE - Would Pay
Archeage - I think I would pay if it works out well.
Everything else - Pretty much trash in my book.
I'm sure i've left a few worthy games out. But those are the ones that made an impact to this genre as far as my experience goes..
I work in internet company - we have around 180 million users log in daily. Yet we have moved all our servers to Amazon cloud.
Plus we have a inhouse server cluster for content updates and main system (hardened)
This costs around 16 thousand dollars a month.
... more irrelevant stuff ...
You're spinning wheels and getting no traction, Lobomist.
In both your OP and this one, your entire "case" is one big argument from incredulity, drowning in conjecture, cherry-picked details and assumptions crafted specifically to suit your pre-determined narrative.
For starters, how much your company allegedly pays a month on server costs (we have only your word to go on, after all) is completely irrelevant. You don't know what the requirements or demands are for running and maintaining a MMORPG and, hence, have no idea what the costs are. That's not even accounting for how large the MMO is, how many concurrent players across how many "shards", and so on. Server/Network setups aren't cookie-cutter, "one size fits all" ordeals. You simply don't know what the costs are, you have nothing to compare against and hence, your $16,000 figure means absolutely nothing.
But let's play along, just for the heck of it. Let's say your $16,000/mth figure accurately represents the server costs alone for a MMORPG to run. If that MMORPG has a $15/mth sub fee, that means you need 1066 recurring subscribers every month, just to cover server costs.
But here's where it gets interesting,and your entire argument falls flat on its short-sighted face.
Not even counting expenses during development, post launch, to maintain a MMORPG requirest any, all, or even more than the following:
1) Ongoing salaries for:
Game Programmers, Tools Programmers, Artists (2d and 3D), Designers, Writers, Internal QA, Management, Secretarial staff, Marketing/PR staff, Musicians, Sound effects staff, Producer(s), Game/Creative Director, Off-line Customer Support Staff, Database programmers, In-Game GMs/support, Networking people, General IT, Accountants, Office maintenance staff, Custodial staff, Legal staff. In some cases, the company will have hired cooks to prepare breakfast and/or lunch for the office staff. And I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting.
That's just the warm bodies of which a development company can employ well over a hundred.
2) Ongoing Costs of Business:
Office rent, Electric Bill, Bandwidth Bill (for both company use and the MMO service), Server Bill, Phone Bills, Health/Medical Coverage, Software Purchasing/Licensing, Hardware Purchasing/Upgrading, Office Supplies, Food and Beverage services (vending machines, water coolers, etc), Advertising fees, miscellaneous business expenses like traveling, etc.
Let's not forget that in a typical situation, a portion of the revenue earned has to go back to the investors who made the development of the game possible in the first place.
Let's not forget that there are taxes to be filed every year, so a portion of the revenue has to be kept aside and not used for business purposes.
Certainly more things I'm not even aware of that are integral to running any business, MMORPG or otherwise.
So as you can see, if you're willing to, that $15 a month is going toward a whole lot more than server and bandwidth fees.
Your alleged $16,000 is just one of many expenses a MMORPG development company has to cover. Many of the on-going expenses are just to keep the business afloat - nevermind keeping a MMORPG up and running.
As for Subscriptions themselves...
You pay a sub fee because MMORPGs are a service; not just a game. You are paying $15 to be provided a service that allows you to log in and play any time you want, 24/7, day or night - excluding down-times, for up to 30 days at a time.
As has been mentioned by others elsewhere in this thread, subscriptions are just a long-standing, proven and perfectly effective model for providing an ongoing paid service. Just like cell phone service, magazine subscriptions, gym memberships, online music services, cable service and so many other things you could name, you pay them to provide you a service that - presumably - has a value that you find worth the recurring cost.
Just like any other on-going, fee-based service, when you feel that service is no longer worth what you're paying, you cancel your service and move on - assuming you're not locked into a contract.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with subscriptions. They're a perfectly legitimate, valid, time and road tested revenue model that are as relevant today as they've ever been - the claims of F2P/B2P proponents notwithstanding.
If you're interested in learning more about what actually goes into creating and maintaining a MMORPG, I suggest reading this book. I own it, have read through it a few times now and find it to be very informative and insightful on the topic, covering a lot of things people wouldn't even necessarily realize go into it.
Or, of course, you can continue talking nonsense and pulling things out of thin air.
AND WE HAVE A WINNER!
Playing: FFXIV, DnL, and World of Warships Waiting on: Ashes of Creation
I work in internet company - we have around 180 million users log in daily. Yet we have moved all our servers to Amazon cloud.
Plus we have a inhouse server cluster for content updates and main system (hardened)
This costs around 16 thousand dollars a month.
... more irrelevant stuff ...
You're spinning wheels and getting no traction, Lobomist.
In both your OP and this one, your entire "case" is one big argument from incredulity, drowning in conjecture, cherry-picked details and assumptions crafted specifically to suit your pre-determined narrative.
For starters, how much your company allegedly pays a month on server costs (we have only your word to go on, after all) is completely irrelevant. You don't know what the requirements or demands are for running and maintaining a MMORPG and, hence, have no idea what the costs are. That's not even accounting for how large the MMO is, how many concurrent players across how many "shards", and so on. Server/Network setups aren't cookie-cutter, "one size fits all" ordeals. You simply don't know what the costs are, you have nothing to compare against and hence, your $16,000 figure means absolutely nothing.
But let's play along, just for the heck of it. Let's say your $16,000/mth figure accurately represents the server costs alone for a MMORPG to run. If that MMORPG has a $15/mth sub fee, that means you need 1066 recurring subscribers every month, just to cover server costs.
But here's where it gets interesting,and your entire argument falls flat on its short-sighted face.
Not even counting expenses during development, post launch, to maintain a MMORPG requirest any, all, or even more than the following:
1) Ongoing salaries for:
Game Programmers, Tools Programmers, Artists (2d and 3D), Designers, Writers, Internal QA, Management, Secretarial staff, Marketing/PR staff, Musicians, Sound effects staff, Producer(s), Game/Creative Director, Off-line Customer Support Staff, Database programmers, In-Game GMs/support, Networking people, General IT, Accountants, Office maintenance staff, Custodial staff, Legal staff. In some cases, the company will have hired cooks to prepare breakfast and/or lunch for the office staff. And I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting.
That's just the warm bodies of which a development company can employ well over a hundred.
2) Ongoing Costs of Business:
Office rent, Electric Bill, Bandwidth Bill (for both company use and the MMO service), Server Bill, Phone Bills, Health/Medical Coverage, Software Purchasing/Licensing, Hardware Purchasing/Upgrading, Office Supplies, Food and Beverage services (vending machines, water coolers, etc), Advertising fees, miscellaneous business expenses like traveling, etc.
Let's not forget that in a typical situation, a portion of the revenue earned has to go back to the investors who made the development of the game possible in the first place.
Let's not forget that there are taxes to be filed every year, so a portion of the revenue has to be kept aside and not used for business purposes.
Certainly more things I'm not even aware of that are integral to running any business, MMORPG or otherwise.
So as you can see, if you're willing to, that $15 a month is going toward a whole lot more than server and bandwidth fees.
Your alleged $16,000 is just one of many expenses a MMORPG development company has to cover. Many of the on-going expenses are just to keep the business afloat - nevermind keeping a MMORPG up and running.
As for Subscriptions themselves...
You pay a sub fee because MMORPGs are a service; not just a game. You are paying $15 to be provided a service that allows you to log in and play any time you want, 24/7, day or night - excluding down-times, for up to 30 days at a time.
As has been mentioned by others elsewhere in this thread, subscriptions are just a long-standing, proven and perfectly effective model for providing an ongoing paid service. Just like cell phone service, magazine subscriptions, gym memberships, online music services, cable service and so many other things you could name, you pay them to provide you a service that - presumably - has a value that you find worth the recurring cost.
Just like any other on-going, fee-based service, when you feel that service is no longer worth what you're paying, you cancel your service and move on - assuming you're not locked into a contract.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with subscriptions. They're a perfectly legitimate, valid, time and road tested revenue model that are as relevant today as they've ever been - the claims of F2P/B2P proponents notwithstanding.
If you're interested in learning more about what actually goes into creating and maintaining a MMORPG, I suggest reading this book. I own it, have read through it a few times now and find it to be very informative and insightful on the topic, covering a lot of things people wouldn't even necessarily realize go into it.
Or, of course, you can continue talking nonsense and pulling things out of thin air.
The better question is why people pay a subscription for mmorpg's instead of playing the huge amount of f2p games that are out.
I play games that I enjoy playing and have payment methods that I find acceptable. If I would find a non-p2w game without a subscription I would play it, but so far I haven't found an mmorpg without subscription that I had fun playing more than a few weeks. With subscription games, as long as I have fun playing them I pay, the moment I don't have fun, i stop paying.
I do play some of the indie games that are coming out, graphics aint as good, they usually are a bit short, but the game idea is fun so its well worth the 10-20 dollars they cost. For me to pay full price for a game it has to be something I expect to enjoy for quite a while
They don't need to justify it. It is the model they started with and a good deal of the customers are used to the model. I would really enjoy having a product where not only is the customer base used to the model they emotionally defend it as the only way it can be done right.
How can a modern themepark MMO justify box price + ongoing 15$ subscription ?
Are we being ripped of ?
Lets analyse here :
1. Server cost : Today cloud servers are dime and dozen , its actually much much cheaper than even couple years ago. Asking players to chip in for server cost - false
2. Engine development cost : Let assume that MMO engines are more complicated than your regular game engines. And so they cost more to develop. But today there are several licenced engines that are so good even the biggest companies use them - Players chipping in for engine cost - false
3. Game development cost : What makes MMO more expensive than single player RPG ? Amount of content ? Judging from todays trends I seen single player RPGs with same or more content than many MMO games at release. Yet they dont ask for subscription. And even if amount of content is a question. Why not make less content , and than charge for aditional content as DLC ? - Platyers chipping in for content - false
4. Constant updates : Yea. I heared that myth. Most of MMOs fire 80% of work force month after release. And all those "Monthly new content!" turns out to be just PR bull.. Even if new content comes after all , it happens once or twice - than it turns into payed mini expansions. So paying for developers developing something that we get to pay for again. - Players paying for constant updates - false
So what we are paying 15$ for ? 180$ yearly ? Plus 60$ on box price ... thats 240$ a year from each player.
Not bad. No wonder the market is full with MMO wannabies that planned to cash in on this golden goose !
I give credit to games like EVE that are sandbox , and PVP based. With amazing "all players on same server" technology and actual free updates all the time. Even they could live with B2P+F2P model - if there was no PVP balance to keep in mind.
But themepark PVE games ?
No excuse !
Discuss
What does "PVP" have to do with EVE's cost base or subscriptions? I agree that CCP are one of the few that actually earn a monthly sub, but they don't deserve it just because EVE has FFS PvP. Why is that inherently more expensive than PvE?
Providing all game expansions for free, continuing to provide further free expansions, providing a lengthy free trial, free client download, and continual improvement of the software and hardware are what earn them the right to charge a sub. Putting out a game that people want to play for a long time is what gives us the incentive to pay it.
"Fair deal" subscriptions like EVE's shouldn't be lumped in with the abusive SWTOR-style cash grabs, any more than insanely greedy cash shops like Allods should be allowed to discredit the F2P concept.
Going to the movies: 2 people x 10$ per ticket, plus soda and popcorn = 30$
Going out to eat: 2 people x 12$ average per plate and drink, plus a desert 3$ each, plus tip = 35$ average
Going fishing: gas for boat, minnows, worms, food, and drink = easily 100$
Going to the park: food/drink, gas to drive there, pay to get in = 20+$
Going to the amusement park: 2x 35$ tickets, food, drink, rides, parking fee, and gas to get there = 150$ easy
Going to a sports game, museum, club, bar, fast food place, and/or anything else = 15$+
Paying .50 cents per day (.30 cents for 6 month+ sub) = cheap entertainment.
Not having to worry about cash shops milking me = priceless.
Even B2P games like "gw2" costs you an arm and leg for the extras. F2P games you can easily spend more than 15$ a month on cash shops.
Only reason i can see people not comfortable spending .50 cents a day is they are cheap or jobless. Because 15$ a month is a bargain for 24/7 entertainment with free updates, items, content (unless you pay for expansion).
Find me something to do for an entire month that will not cost me more than 15$!
Originally posted by Muntz They don't need to justify it. It is the model they started with and a good deal of the customers are used to the model. I would really enjoy having a product where not only is the customer base used to the model they emotionally defend it as the only way it can be done right.
You forgot to mention a very key factor here: what are those users doing with the bandwidth? Browsing a few webpages, discussion forums or transferring the odd datafile or two is extremely different than playing a modern MMO with 3D graphics, physics engines and perhaps twitch mechanics. If all your company is providing is a host for webpages and forums that statement of its cost and that it had more users than WoW is 100% invalid for a cost discussion on MMO server clusters.
Except we know that in game bandwidth usage is minimal. I have a little 10Mbps DSL connection and can stream Netflix while my wife, son, daughter, and myself are gaming online in one form or another.
The major bandwidth costs are more likely associated with the client and asset downloads. Some mmos use download services or some form of peer to peer.
It is very likely that a media heavy website could have a heavier bandwidth cost compared to the trickle that most mmos use.
I think you may be confusing something here. I am not talking about the Internet connection which communicates between the server cluster and a user's home computer. MMO hosting companies design their software so that the amount of data that has to travel over an internet connection is minimal. That's why for the vast majority of MMOs you have to download a client software; the client and the server communicate to each other through highly compressed and simple data packets being sent back and forth over the network. It's all the calculations that the server or client has to do in order to interpret one of those data packets and transform it into a 3D visual representation of where a character is and what they are doing which is where the hard work comes in. The server cluster has to process the data packets from all of the users on at one time, checking their coordinates and directional vectors and comparing it to its 3D terrain map, so that for example it can feed back to a client's file "Your character just bonked into a tree, stop his movement in that direction" etc, create that compressed data packet and send it to the client.
It's all the behind-the-scenes math that is the slow part. A server that's just hosting basic chatrooms and the odd file upload doesn't need to do even a fraction of the calculations that an MMO one does.
This post is an entirely different issue than your last post.
The last post is about the cost of bandwidth. MMOs have a very low bandwidth requirement, outside of the client download, compared to some common internet activities like streaming videos, movies, music, and surfing media rich websites. Compared to the costs associated with download terabytes of client files to your customers, operational bandwidth is cheap. That is why some companies contract with a download service to provide the client download.
While your second post has some truth in it (linear algebra and physics calculations are complicated) the bandwidth costs to send that data is not costly.
The engine and third party tool licensing don't cost more for doing what they do. That's a static cost that seems to be one of the things covered in the box fee. By and far the most expensive cost are paying people to develop the game not bandwidth overhead.
Okay, so the use of the word "bandwidth" was the wrong one. Replace bandwidth with server processor use. That's what I meant.
How can a modern themepark MMO justify box price + ongoing 15$ subscription ?
Are we being ripped of ?
Lets analyse here :
1. Server cost : Today cloud servers are dime and dozen , its actually much much cheaper than even couple years ago. Asking players to chip in for server cost - false
2. Engine development cost : Let assume that MMO engines are more complicated than your regular game engines. And so they cost more to develop. But today there are several licenced engines that are so good even the biggest companies use them - Players chipping in for engine cost - false
3. Game development cost : What makes MMO more expensive than single player RPG ? Amount of content ? Judging from todays trends I seen single player RPGs with same or more content than many MMO games at release. Yet they dont ask for subscription. And even if amount of content is a question. Why not make less content , and than charge for aditional content as DLC ? - Platyers chipping in for content - false
4. Constant updates : Yea. I heared that myth. Most of MMOs fire 80% of work force month after release. And all those "Monthly new content!" turns out to be just PR bull.. Even if new content comes after all , it happens once or twice - than it turns into payed mini expansions. So paying for developers developing something that we get to pay for again. - Players paying for constant updates - false
So what we are paying 15$ for ? 180$ yearly ? Plus 60$ on box price ... thats 240$ a year from each player.
Not bad. No wonder the market is full with MMO wannabies that planned to cash in on this golden goose !
I give credit to games like EVE that are sandbox , and PVP based. With amazing "all players on same server" technology and actual free updates all the time. Even they could live with B2P+F2P model - if there was no PVP balance to keep in mind.
But themepark PVE games ?
No excuse !
Discuss
What does "PVP" have to do with EVE's cost base or subscriptions? I agree that CCP are one of the few that actually earn a monthly sub, but they don't deserve it just because EVE has FFS PvP. Why is that inherently more expensive than PvE?
Providing all game expansions for free, continuing to provide further free expansions, providing a lengthy free trial, free client download, and continual improvement of the software and hardware are what earn them the right to charge a sub. Putting out a game that people want to play for a long time is what gives us the incentive to pay it.
"Fair deal" subscriptions like EVE's shouldn't be lumped in with the abusive SWTOR-style cash grabs, any more than insanely greedy cash shops like Allods should be allowed to discredit the F2P concept.
I think he means that because of Eve's extensive PvP a B2P+P2P system would introduce pay to win, which would shatter the whole system's balance. Eve MUST use a sub model to keep pay to win out of it.
I know the op and others wanted this to stay a conversation steeped in misinformation but let me tell you as a former video game student who acutally knows about this stuff what is really false:
Server cost : yes if you want to host a website a regular server is fine to host an mmorpg needs unrestricted access to mess with the server. 90% of the companies you get servers from don't provide them except at crazy prices. This requires hardware to do and having people proficient enough to set up he servers. All of that costs alot of money the $15 usually goes to server costs and doesn't come close to covering all the other expenses.
Engine development cost : You need server backend to run an mmorpg that is not available in 90% of commercial game engines. As an example the unreal engine needs to be heavily modified to play mmorpgs. This is why games like dc universe is menu and instance heavy. The only commercial engine used for mmorpgs is the hero engine which I've heard from people who ya know acutally use it that it is not very user firendly and unlike commercial engines for regular video games does not come with the normal genre features prebuilt in.
Game development cost: A mmorpg needs twice the staff of a regular video game for a bunch of reasons. Even after development finishes they need to keep alot of server techs available for any problems. In a regular video games multiplayer which is not as expansive these costs are not nesscary because of thnigs like instances.
Constant updates : So in regular video games I release my game and then move on to dlc. So like mmorpgs they need to keep staff for that and I release it. Most dlc run 10 to 15 dollars for a quarter of the content of a content update. They don't need to test the dlc at all because theres not so many rotating gears and associated problems with the acutal game.
Also for the GW2 fan boys GW2 might as well just be a single player rpg with co-op the heavily instanced nature, combined with the lack of features leaves gw2 as hardly a mmorpg. So we can stop comaring the two when you see a game like say everquest 2 or WoW they are ten times the work to do just on the basis of not being as heavily instanced alone. Lets start comparing apples to apples shall we?
Hey guys, didn't you know developing an MMO is totally free?
I mean, you don't have to purchase and host multiple servers to store player data and process interactions with the video game. And even if you did, they're cheap, right? Must be ten cents for 12 of them or something like that! And putting them on the web is free, all we need is to hook up some wires and let the magical series of tubes do their work. Web space? Pfft, we can just put it all on dropbox! Yeah! And hiring a team of pressionals to monitor the servers and be on call in case shit breaks? I'll just invite my mom into the datacenter, she'll take care of it.
Game engine licenses for businesses are real cheap too. Practically nothing to get to use some of the quality engines. They must hand them out at walmart or something. Royalties? Pfft, we're not a monarchy, I don't even know what that means! It's also great that the game engine will ship with exactly everything we will ever need to make our game. This way, we don't have to pay salaries for people to modify the engine to fit our needs. Even if we did, all they need are some hot pockets, right?
MMOs totally don't need as much code as other games. I mean, netcode? That's just a word players swing around when they get some sort of network error. There's no such thing as having to write code to make the communication between game and player work - the magical internet tubes take care of that for us, and all players type in binary, will never flood our servers, and we are immune to DDoS because we are behind seven proxies.
Not to mention art assets. Please! I can just Google that shit. No need to pay anyone to colour on a computer. Seems strange that everything in my game has jagged edges or the remains of DeviantArt watermarks, but I don't care because I'm printing money off these internet sheeple! Level and world design? I'll just make a bunch of flat grass, some mountain ranges at the end of the border and call it the open world. Hey, managed to get a buzzword in there too! Since the world is on such a larger scale and players have freedom of movement in the world, I'm sure they won't notice so many repeat textures like in the last RPG we made.. right?
Yeah! And after we release the game, we'll have robots man the community team, customer support team, balance team, AND the update team! People love it when they call about account issues and hear Corsica asking them to press 1 for Spanish, and the robots will automagically create content that can be planned, analyzed, designed, implemented, tested, and deployed in one month intervals. It's perfect!
Your forgetting the monthly cost of bandwith (which is huge), cost of CSR, cost of IT & security guys, etc etc.
Also it depends on the studio. Some studio's take that $15 a month and just bank it, while you as a player never see a return for it. Some studio's like Trion actually view their game as a ongoing service, and you get quite a bit for your hard earned money. You can't really generalize all studio's together in this instance.
IT & Security Guys are a dime a dozen. Everyone knows IT/Security are the first to go when layoffs happen. To say their cost which is probaly 1 per 300-500 exmployees...is quite minimal.
Your forgetting the monthly cost of bandwith (which is huge), cost of CSR, cost of IT & security guys, etc etc.
Also it depends on the studio. Some studio's take that $15 a month and just bank it, while you as a player never see a return for it. Some studio's like Trion actually view their game as a ongoing service, and you get quite a bit for your hard earned money. You can't really generalize all studio's together in this instance.
IT & Security Guys are a dime a dozen. Everyone knows IT/Security are the first to go when layoffs happen. To say their cost which is probaly 1 per 300-500 exmployees...is quite minimal.
IT guys are usually the last to go, actually. It's the artists and designers that get canned until they are needed. Of course, if a company has way too many IT staff or interns, then certainly they'd be among the first to go. That's less about skillsets and more about overstaffing.
Unless of course you're lumping GM's and community mods and phone support guys into "IT guys."
I love the people who say that you're looking for a handout because you don't want to pay a subscription to a game that gives you such limited choices.
If I pay for the original game, buy expansions, and maybe even spend some cash in a CS, how am I asking for a handout? How am I leeching the system even if I don't buy anything in the CS? What a ridiculous argument.
And to compare a game, where you have such limited choices relatively speaking, to a service such as Netflix or cable is equally ridiculous. In any particular game you only have so many things you can do and those things are only the choices the dev gives you. Yes, even in a sandbox game you're limited by the choices the devs made in making the game.
With services like Netflix, I can watch anything they have available and there are myriad choices. I can watch tv shows, or documentaries, or sci-fi movies, etc. etc. What can you do in a game? Make a character (based on the options given by the dev), and then run that character around doing things (based on the options given by the dev) so that you can progress that character to a point (chosen by the dev) so you can do some slightly different things (but not really different - killing things is killing things) in perpetuity.
I pay about $17/month to Netflix so I can be entertained according to what I feel like being entertained by. Many of you pay $15/month to be entertained by the same thing over and over again. So Netflix is totally justified charging for their service, MMO's are not justified charging almost the same amount for their limited service.
You want me to pay to play a game I already paid for???
Originally posted by evolver1972 Many of you pay $15/month to be entertained by the same thing over and over again. So Netflix is totally justified charging for their service, MMO's are not justified charging almost the same amount for their limited service.
So if it entertains US for 15 bucks a month, why is there a problem? You bring up Netflix as a coutner...well who decides what goes on Netflix? They are extremely limited in movies IMO and really you're just paying to do the same thing over and over, just watch TV.
Played: EQ1 (10 Years), Guild Wars, Rift, TERA Tried: EQ2, Vanguard, Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Runes of Magic and countless others... Currently Playing: GW2
By earning it through creativity and a desire to do what it takes to build a strong community in an mmorpg. So:
1. PvP has to have meaning and cannot be another cut and paste BG with the same races and classes killing each other for gear
2. There must be RP influenced GM events, meeting areas that are built for rp - i.e., taverns and festival zones.
3. Powerful moderation of nasty public commentary
4. Here's a big one: creating an mmorpg in a way to inspire players to invest themselves in the game: building houses, towns, and so forth. Once a player gets to add a bit of themself to an mmorpg, it becomes more connective and immersive, hence, the player sticks around.
5. Let's kill someone that is different than us. Seems crude and harsh, but these games need to stop producing 5 race/class clones that faction out under guilds. THis is pure laziness, marketed under a "we let you choose where and who you want to be with" sign. Let's be creative - each race should from a fantasy standpoint - be loyal to its own. Raise the elven flag of war, the dwarven flag, and so forth. Otherwise, how cool would lord of the rings have been if the hobbits fought it out at the shire. Nothing epic there.
By earning it through creativity and a desire to do what it takes to build a strong community in an mmorpg. So:
1. PvP has to have meaning and cannot be another cut and paste BG with the same races and classes killing each other for gear
2. There must be RP influenced GM events, meeting areas that are built for rp - i.e., taverns and festival zones.
3. Powerful moderation of nasty public commentary
4. Here's a big one: creating an mmorpg in a way to inspire players to invest themselves in the game: building houses, towns, and so forth. Once a player gets to add a bit of themself to an mmorpg, it becomes more connective and immersive, hence, the player sticks around.
5. Let's kill someone that is different than us. Seems crude and harsh, but these games need to stop producing 5 race/class clones that faction out under guilds. THis is pure laziness, marketed under a "we let you choose where and who you want to be with" sign. Let's be creative - each race should from a fantasy standpoint - be loyal to its own. Raise the elven flag of war, the dwarven flag, and so forth. Otherwise, how cool would lord of the rings have been if the hobbits fought it out at the shire. Nothing epic there.
Disagree with every race having to stay with their own. I for one would slay damn near every last human on earth if fantasy became reality because humans are worthless cattle and dead weight.
I love the people who say that you're looking for a handout because you don't want to pay a subscription to a game that gives you such limited choices.
If I pay for the original game, buy expansions, and maybe even spend some cash in a CS, how am I asking for a handout? How am I leeching the system even if I don't buy anything in the CS? What a ridiculous argument.
And to compare a game, where you have such limited choices relatively speaking, to a service such as Netflix or cable is equally ridiculous. In any particular game you only have so many things you can do and those things are only the choices the dev gives you. Yes, even in a sandbox game you're limited by the choices the devs made in making the game.
With services like Netflix, I can watch anything they have available and there are myriad choices. I can watch tv shows, or documentaries, or sci-fi movies, etc. etc. What can you do in a game? Make a character (based on the options given by the dev), and then run that character around doing things (based on the options given by the dev) so that you can progress that character to a point (chosen by the dev) so you can do some slightly different things (but not really different - killing things is killing things) in perpetuity.
I pay about $17/month to Netflix so I can be entertained according to what I feel like being entertained by. Many of you pay $15/month to be entertained by the same thing over and over again. So Netflix is totally justified charging for their service, MMO's are not justified charging almost the same amount for their limited service.
The choices on netflix are alreayd chosen for you. Its the choices the netflix guys decide to have available. They dont have every movie. Your logic is flawed lol. You watch a movie based on the availablity that Netflix has given you.
Comments
Great points. But Sony didn't have to cater to todays ADD afflicted, instant gratification demanding, everyone gets a trophy, I deserve to be max level in a month crybabies.
Please Sony, re-skin everquest, stop twinking, and start another progression server and I'll sub for $30.00 a month paid annualy in advance TYVM.
Oh one other condition, friendly fire must be left ON.
I think its pretty safe to assume that the OP is a younger, perhaps grade school person which has not even taken an introductory economics course or, perhaps just another troll. Heck just keeping a decent security staff sufficient to deal with hackers/botters and gold farmers is likely a significant expenditure. The actual cost of hardware is probably quite trivial to the recurring costs of server maintenance and hydro.
Anyway, companies are EXPECTED to make a profit. Frequently a company appears to be making a huge amount of money and sometimes they actually ARE. GOOD FOR THEM! It tell us the consumer that they are likely commited to keeping the product current and "valuable" to their customers. This contrary to the B2P model where it is probably in the companies best interest to have huge initial box sales and have MANY of the customers QUIT playing, less so with micro tranaction revenue based games but I wouldn't play one of those regardless of how few pennies per transaction they were.
Well along these lines, before "easy mode" WoW came out, getting a character to max level in any of the prior MMOs was NOT a trivial task, taking 6 to 8 months on heavy grinds to get there would not be uncommon. Then you'd roll an alt for a bit(and I don't mean two days here) and soon enough the next expansion would be out.
Anyway, as the B2P model goes The most ripped off on a game I have EVER felt is GW2, I paid 60 bucks and I'm pretty much done with it after 4 weeks of play. THATS A STEEP MONTHLY FEE! Consider if I paid 60 bucks for a game, then subsequently paid 15/month for 6 months, I'd be at 25 dollars a month instead of 60 a month for GW2, or more to the old way of content lasting a year you'd have, (60/12) or (5 +15) = 20 dollars a month this is one third the cost of GW2(free to play? I think NOT).
I think many people are more tolerant of the CRAP when they don't have to pay a monthly fee. For free you can get people to take almost anything LITERALLY PEOPLE PICK THROUGH OUR GARBAGE BECAUSE ITS FREE! And because these garbage MMOs are FREE, people defend them as good value. Well just because something is cheap or even free doesn't make it good value, trust me I got herpes 15 years ago for free and I don't think it was a good thing.
since when do costs need to be justified? They aren't not for profit organizations. You pay to play, they charge you money! If you stop paying, they stop charging. Its the world.
Why does the cable company need to charge $300 a month for a !@#$ty box and all the channels?
Imo, it all depends on what type the mmo is...
If it's story-based, aka "themepark" then subscription is not warranted. Stories end, by definition, and there is no reason to keep paying a monthly sub beyond the end of the story. It is like paying a rent for a book you read once and now you have on your bookshelf and maybe thumb through every week or so. Imo this is one of the prime reasons for all those themepark failures since WoW.
If it is not a story-based entertainment but a "service", "a persistent world that you can visit" then a subscription may be warranted. Sandbox games are more akin to a membership to a club or a gym than going out to cinema. In addition, the problems with balance are much more amplified in sandboxes so cash shops are not really working for them. SInce I haven't seen other internet services charge initial "purchase price" but only the subscription, imo the same should apply here.
IMO, there are two ideal revenue models for the two types of mmos:
Themeparks: B2P + cash shop + DLC
Sandbox: free box + monthly subscription, just like any other internet service
(a note: plz no argument over "themepark" and "sandbox" definitions... i use these terms to very broadly denote two main approaches to games.. one is time-limited and sees a game as a means of delivering a pre-written story (like any traditional entertainment product) and the other primarily gives players access to a shared virtual universe where they are free to interact)
The idea behind a themepark MMO just kind of blows my mind to begin with. I thought MMOs were supposed to be like a home away from home. At least that is what I grew up playing. I would get off work and go play UO for the rest of the night and not even realize how much time had gone by because there were so many things to do. Now I did play vanilla WoW and I enjoyed it. I think it was mostly because of how much I really enjoyed the Warcraft games in the past. Plus they did a really great job on the game. Unfortunately they did it too well. So well that everyone else had to try and copy them just to make a few bucks. It's probably the most disgusting thing i've ever seen from so called 'developers'. For the last 8 years we have been given nothing but crap on top of crap from these teams that claim they are doing something new and refreshing. There are a few exceptions and most people know what they are.
So do I think we should have to pay a subscription? For this crap we've been getting? No. In fact We shouldn't have to pay a dime. Games that were being developed pre-WoW - absolutely.
DaoC - Would Pay
UO - Would Pay
AC - Would Pay
SWG - Would Pay
WoW - Would Pay
EvE - Would Pay
Archeage - I think I would pay if it works out well.
Everything else - Pretty much trash in my book.
I'm sure i've left a few worthy games out. But those are the ones that made an impact to this genre as far as my experience goes..
AND WE HAVE A WINNER!
Playing: FFXIV, DnL, and World of Warships
Waiting on: Ashes of Creation
Why can't people understand this?
The better question is why people pay a subscription for mmorpg's instead of playing the huge amount of f2p games that are out.
I play games that I enjoy playing and have payment methods that I find acceptable. If I would find a non-p2w game without a subscription I would play it, but so far I haven't found an mmorpg without subscription that I had fun playing more than a few weeks. With subscription games, as long as I have fun playing them I pay, the moment I don't have fun, i stop paying.
I do play some of the indie games that are coming out, graphics aint as good, they usually are a bit short, but the game idea is fun so its well worth the 10-20 dollars they cost. For me to pay full price for a game it has to be something I expect to enjoy for quite a while
What does "PVP" have to do with EVE's cost base or subscriptions? I agree that CCP are one of the few that actually earn a monthly sub, but they don't deserve it just because EVE has FFS PvP. Why is that inherently more expensive than PvE?
Providing all game expansions for free, continuing to provide further free expansions, providing a lengthy free trial, free client download, and continual improvement of the software and hardware are what earn them the right to charge a sub. Putting out a game that people want to play for a long time is what gives us the incentive to pay it.
"Fair deal" subscriptions like EVE's shouldn't be lumped in with the abusive SWTOR-style cash grabs, any more than insanely greedy cash shops like Allods should be allowed to discredit the F2P concept.
Give me liberty or give me lasers
Going to the movies: 2 people x 10$ per ticket, plus soda and popcorn = 30$
Going out to eat: 2 people x 12$ average per plate and drink, plus a desert 3$ each, plus tip = 35$ average
Going fishing: gas for boat, minnows, worms, food, and drink = easily 100$
Going to the park: food/drink, gas to drive there, pay to get in = 20+$
Going to the amusement park: 2x 35$ tickets, food, drink, rides, parking fee, and gas to get there = 150$ easy
Going to a sports game, museum, club, bar, fast food place, and/or anything else = 15$+
Paying .50 cents per day (.30 cents for 6 month+ sub) = cheap entertainment.
Not having to worry about cash shops milking me = priceless.
Even B2P games like "gw2" costs you an arm and leg for the extras. F2P games you can easily spend more than 15$ a month on cash shops.
Only reason i can see people not comfortable spending .50 cents a day is they are cheap or jobless. Because 15$ a month is a bargain for 24/7 entertainment with free updates, items, content (unless you pay for expansion).
Find me something to do for an entire month that will not cost me more than 15$!
The model they started with was pay by the hour.
You're old enough to know that, hehe.
http://mmohuts.com/editorials/the-first-mmorpg
Okay, so the use of the word "bandwidth" was the wrong one. Replace bandwidth with server processor use. That's what I meant.
Where's the any key?
I think he means that because of Eve's extensive PvP a B2P+P2P system would introduce pay to win, which would shatter the whole system's balance. Eve MUST use a sub model to keep pay to win out of it.
Where's the any key?
I know the op and others wanted this to stay a conversation steeped in misinformation but let me tell you as a former video game student who acutally knows about this stuff what is really false:
Server cost : yes if you want to host a website a regular server is fine to host an mmorpg needs unrestricted access to mess with the server. 90% of the companies you get servers from don't provide them except at crazy prices. This requires hardware to do and having people proficient enough to set up he servers. All of that costs alot of money the $15 usually goes to server costs and doesn't come close to covering all the other expenses.
Engine development cost : You need server backend to run an mmorpg that is not available in 90% of commercial game engines. As an example the unreal engine needs to be heavily modified to play mmorpgs. This is why games like dc universe is menu and instance heavy. The only commercial engine used for mmorpgs is the hero engine which I've heard from people who ya know acutally use it that it is not very user firendly and unlike commercial engines for regular video games does not come with the normal genre features prebuilt in.
Game development cost: A mmorpg needs twice the staff of a regular video game for a bunch of reasons. Even after development finishes they need to keep alot of server techs available for any problems. In a regular video games multiplayer which is not as expansive these costs are not nesscary because of thnigs like instances.
Constant updates : So in regular video games I release my game and then move on to dlc. So like mmorpgs they need to keep staff for that and I release it. Most dlc run 10 to 15 dollars for a quarter of the content of a content update. They don't need to test the dlc at all because theres not so many rotating gears and associated problems with the acutal game.
Also for the GW2 fan boys GW2 might as well just be a single player rpg with co-op the heavily instanced nature, combined with the lack of features leaves gw2 as hardly a mmorpg. So we can stop comaring the two when you see a game like say everquest 2 or WoW they are ten times the work to do just on the basis of not being as heavily instanced alone. Lets start comparing apples to apples shall we?
Hey guys, didn't you know developing an MMO is totally free?
I mean, you don't have to purchase and host multiple servers to store player data and process interactions with the video game. And even if you did, they're cheap, right? Must be ten cents for 12 of them or something like that! And putting them on the web is free, all we need is to hook up some wires and let the magical series of tubes do their work. Web space? Pfft, we can just put it all on dropbox! Yeah! And hiring a team of pressionals to monitor the servers and be on call in case shit breaks? I'll just invite my mom into the datacenter, she'll take care of it.
Game engine licenses for businesses are real cheap too. Practically nothing to get to use some of the quality engines. They must hand them out at walmart or something. Royalties? Pfft, we're not a monarchy, I don't even know what that means! It's also great that the game engine will ship with exactly everything we will ever need to make our game. This way, we don't have to pay salaries for people to modify the engine to fit our needs. Even if we did, all they need are some hot pockets, right?
MMOs totally don't need as much code as other games. I mean, netcode? That's just a word players swing around when they get some sort of network error. There's no such thing as having to write code to make the communication between game and player work - the magical internet tubes take care of that for us, and all players type in binary, will never flood our servers, and we are immune to DDoS because we are behind seven proxies.
Not to mention art assets. Please! I can just Google that shit. No need to pay anyone to colour on a computer. Seems strange that everything in my game has jagged edges or the remains of DeviantArt watermarks, but I don't care because I'm printing money off these internet sheeple! Level and world design? I'll just make a bunch of flat grass, some mountain ranges at the end of the border and call it the open world. Hey, managed to get a buzzword in there too! Since the world is on such a larger scale and players have freedom of movement in the world, I'm sure they won't notice so many repeat textures like in the last RPG we made.. right?
Yeah! And after we release the game, we'll have robots man the community team, customer support team, balance team, AND the update team! People love it when they call about account issues and hear Corsica asking them to press 1 for Spanish, and the robots will automagically create content that can be planned, analyzed, designed, implemented, tested, and deployed in one month intervals. It's perfect!
IT & Security Guys are a dime a dozen. Everyone knows IT/Security are the first to go when layoffs happen. To say their cost which is probaly 1 per 300-500 exmployees...is quite minimal.
IT guys are usually the last to go, actually. It's the artists and designers that get canned until they are needed. Of course, if a company has way too many IT staff or interns, then certainly they'd be among the first to go. That's less about skillsets and more about overstaffing.
Unless of course you're lumping GM's and community mods and phone support guys into "IT guys."
You make me like charity
I love the people who say that you're looking for a handout because you don't want to pay a subscription to a game that gives you such limited choices.
If I pay for the original game, buy expansions, and maybe even spend some cash in a CS, how am I asking for a handout? How am I leeching the system even if I don't buy anything in the CS? What a ridiculous argument.
And to compare a game, where you have such limited choices relatively speaking, to a service such as Netflix or cable is equally ridiculous. In any particular game you only have so many things you can do and those things are only the choices the dev gives you. Yes, even in a sandbox game you're limited by the choices the devs made in making the game.
With services like Netflix, I can watch anything they have available and there are myriad choices. I can watch tv shows, or documentaries, or sci-fi movies, etc. etc. What can you do in a game? Make a character (based on the options given by the dev), and then run that character around doing things (based on the options given by the dev) so that you can progress that character to a point (chosen by the dev) so you can do some slightly different things (but not really different - killing things is killing things) in perpetuity.
I pay about $17/month to Netflix so I can be entertained according to what I feel like being entertained by. Many of you pay $15/month to be entertained by the same thing over and over again. So Netflix is totally justified charging for their service, MMO's are not justified charging almost the same amount for their limited service.
You want me to pay to play a game I already paid for???
Be afraid.....The dragons are HERE!
So if it entertains US for 15 bucks a month, why is there a problem? You bring up Netflix as a coutner...well who decides what goes on Netflix? They are extremely limited in movies IMO and really you're just paying to do the same thing over and over, just watch TV.
Played: EQ1 (10 Years), Guild Wars, Rift, TERA
Tried: EQ2, Vanguard, Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Runes of Magic and countless others...
Currently Playing: GW2
Nytlok Sylas
80 Sylvari Ranger
By earning it through creativity and a desire to do what it takes to build a strong community in an mmorpg. So:
1. PvP has to have meaning and cannot be another cut and paste BG with the same races and classes killing each other for gear
2. There must be RP influenced GM events, meeting areas that are built for rp - i.e., taverns and festival zones.
3. Powerful moderation of nasty public commentary
4. Here's a big one: creating an mmorpg in a way to inspire players to invest themselves in the game: building houses, towns, and so forth. Once a player gets to add a bit of themself to an mmorpg, it becomes more connective and immersive, hence, the player sticks around.
5. Let's kill someone that is different than us. Seems crude and harsh, but these games need to stop producing 5 race/class clones that faction out under guilds. THis is pure laziness, marketed under a "we let you choose where and who you want to be with" sign. Let's be creative - each race should from a fantasy standpoint - be loyal to its own. Raise the elven flag of war, the dwarven flag, and so forth. Otherwise, how cool would lord of the rings have been if the hobbits fought it out at the shire. Nothing epic there.
Disagree with every race having to stay with their own. I for one would slay damn near every last human on earth if fantasy became reality because humans are worthless cattle and dead weight.
The choices on netflix are alreayd chosen for you. Its the choices the netflix guys decide to have available. They dont have every movie. Your logic is flawed lol. You watch a movie based on the availablity that Netflix has given you.