Honestly how could I complain if they adopted your idea? So as a consumer I'm totally for it. I can't speak about the business end of things cause I have no idea what that looks like from their perspective. My understanding is there's pretty low margins on video games historically however the advent of digital sales probably increased their margins quite a bit.
Perhaps if you bought a physical box you get one month while digital you get 2 months. I think you should get a bonus for buying digital in the first place because the company actually has infinite supply and does not have to provide any physical product thus saving them money. The bonus could possibly only apply when buying directly from the game publisher/developer. This would also incentivize digital sales direct from the company which I'm sure most of said entities would probably prefer.
Ot costs a few pence an hour to play a sub mmorg, less than it costs a few years ago. For those that this applies to, stop being ridiculous and either pay or not and realise how lucky you are that yoh can afford to moan about such things while babies die of starvation in other parts of the world every second.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Originally posted by nomotag If you wanted to be fair, then you would get the full price in game time. If you pay $60 for the box and it;s $15 a month, then that box should give you 4 months. The way it works now is just odd if you brake down the price into it's components. It cost 15 for the first month card, so what is that other 45 you pay for? The privilege of installing it on your computer?
You pay those 45$ for the other created content. The whole gameworld, skills etc. You don't purchase that with 15$. Those 15$ are just for net access and future content.
I'd love to hear what Pachter thinks about this. If Pach attack was still on, I'd so send him a question.
That sounds more like how a game with DLC works. You spend 60 for all the content on the disk and then maybe thrown down 30 on the season pass for future updates. The difference is that you can actually play the game with that original 60. A mmo can't be played without that 15 sub. That makes that 45 box worthless till you spend that extra. Or maybe your paying that 45 for the privilege of being able to pay the 15... It's just kind of odd when you think about it.
Honestly how could I complain if they adopted your idea? So as a consumer I'm totally for it.
Any consumer would be for it, especially if the gametime can be applied to existing accounts. Wait six months, and then buy up the boxes for the game time when the price drops below the sub fee.
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
Next we can ask car dealerships to let us drive for a month before paying. You know, just in case we don't like it. Or grocery stores can let us pay after we've eaten the food. MMOs and video games in general are extremely cheap form of entertainment, considering how much time/entertainment ratio we get out of it. If you can't afford a little risk for purchase, guest passes, youtube videos/research, betas, etc exist for you. You realize you are asking these dev companies to willingly make less money for their efforts? Who would do that. They know in gamers they have big, fat cash cows on the hook. We are notorious for paying whatever they ask (150 for alpha trial), so we should actually be grateful they aren't milking us more. Box price and sub hasn't raised much over 15 yrs. I've just learned to be more discriminate with games I'll pay for. I can pretty much tell through research if it's my kind of game. Not much recently has interested me, so I do more of my other hobbies. As long as people keep dumping money into substandard games, nothing will change. Not quality or cost.
Originally posted by NephaeriusHonestly how could I complain if they adopted your idea? So as a consumer I'm totally for it. [br]
Any consumer would be for it, especially if the gametime can be applied to existing accounts. Wait six months, and then buy up the boxes for the game time when the price drops below the sub fee. [br]
The way to do it is to make the game cost $45, and then package it with a 3 month timecard ($45). This would make the game cost $90 initially, and then they could mark down the game in the future, while keeping the cost of the timecard static.
This would also help them with retention numbers, as players would have 3 months to go through the content.
Originally posted by DamonVile I'd rather not pay the $60 and not get a free month. I'd be far more interested in some of these games if they where "free" to down load but had to pay the sub price to start playing. But considering most of them can't seem to keep enough people past that "free" month it's probably better for them that they get the $60
are people really this dense? look at a game, decide how much you are prepared to pay on avg per month, and then either play or not. Wether you pay by monthly direct debit, or through cash shop etc etc = all meaningless. How many hours pleasure per $1 is all that matters.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Originally posted by NephaeriusHonestly how could I complain if they adopted your idea? So as a consumer I'm totally for it. [br]
Any consumer would be for it, especially if the gametime can be applied to existing accounts. Wait six months, and then buy up the boxes for the game time when the price drops below the sub fee. [br]
The way to do it is to make the game cost $45, and then package it with a 3 month timecard ($45). This would make the game cost $90 initially, and then they could mark down the game in the future, while keeping the cost of the timecard static.
This would also help them with retention numbers, as players would have 3 months to go through the content.
Those $90 boxes will be sitting on the shelf for a loooong time. At that price, the best bet would be digital delivery and a heap of in-game items/perks.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Maybe it's just me. I just think when i buy a 60$ MMO it should include more than 1 month subscription. To me 60$ is quite a sum, and there's no garantie that i will like the game. Either lower the price of the game to get more players to try out this new MMO or include subscription time worth most of the box price. For a 60$ MMO with a 15$ sub i think 3 month subscription included would be fair. It would hugely increase the chance that i would try out their new game and if i like it they will keep getting thoose 15$ pr. month after i've spend the included box subscriptiontime.
....
I'm fine with that and Wow, Swtor, Wildstar are all well WORTH price and sub. But at the same time I could agree with you for more mediocre sub games. I have more problems with some games that are (of course for me, beauty is in eyes of beholder :-)) way below Wow and some others but they would like to charge same ammount. This can not work and very soon such games switch to F2P plague. I prospect Wildstar will be able to keep up with subs and for ammount they charge. I love game, it is great. And for sure will sub after expire of free time. Only thing that worries me is that terrible limit for active skills. Oh, and very low number of spells available at all. If I will stop to play will be for sure for this sole reason. And I'm already feeling sick of using at all times only few keys.
Originally posted by NephaeriusHonestly how could I complain if they adopted your idea? So as a consumer I'm totally for it. [br]
Any consumer would be for it, especially if the gametime can be applied to existing accounts. Wait six months, and then buy up the boxes for the game time when the price drops below the sub fee. [br]
The way to do it is to make the game cost $45, and then package it with a 3 month timecard ($45). This would make the game cost $90 initially, and then they could mark down the game in the future, while keeping the cost of the timecard static.
This would also help them with retention numbers, as players would have 3 months to go through the content.
Those $90 boxes will be sitting on the shelf for a loooong time. At that price, the best bet would be digital delivery and a heap of in-game items/perks.
Surely all the fanbois, who are clamoring about how great this game is, will line up to buy this. In fact, they might find that by doing this, they make more money. They can always come out with game + 30 day timecard at the end of 3 months. This will get the less rabid fans in the game a few months later, when it is starting to work.
Comments
Honestly how could I complain if they adopted your idea? So as a consumer I'm totally for it. I can't speak about the business end of things cause I have no idea what that looks like from their perspective. My understanding is there's pretty low margins on video games historically however the advent of digital sales probably increased their margins quite a bit.
Perhaps if you bought a physical box you get one month while digital you get 2 months. I think you should get a bonus for buying digital in the first place because the company actually has infinite supply and does not have to provide any physical product thus saving them money. The bonus could possibly only apply when buying directly from the game publisher/developer. This would also incentivize digital sales direct from the company which I'm sure most of said entities would probably prefer.
Steam: Neph
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
That sounds more like how a game with DLC works. You spend 60 for all the content on the disk and then maybe thrown down 30 on the season pass for future updates. The difference is that you can actually play the game with that original 60. A mmo can't be played without that 15 sub. That makes that 45 box worthless till you spend that extra. Or maybe your paying that 45 for the privilege of being able to pay the 15... It's just kind of odd when you think about it.
Any consumer would be for it, especially if the gametime can be applied to existing accounts. Wait six months, and then buy up the boxes for the game time when the price drops below the sub fee.
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
The way to do it is to make the game cost $45, and then package it with a 3 month timecard ($45). This would make the game cost $90 initially, and then they could mark down the game in the future, while keeping the cost of the timecard static.
This would also help them with retention numbers, as players would have 3 months to go through the content.
+1. Couldn't agree with you more.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
Those $90 boxes will be sitting on the shelf for a loooong time.
At that price, the best bet would be digital delivery and a heap of in-game items/perks.
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
I'm fine with that and Wow, Swtor, Wildstar are all well WORTH price and sub. But at the same time I could agree with you for more mediocre sub games. I have more problems with some games that are (of course for me, beauty is in eyes of beholder :-)) way below Wow and some others but they would like to charge same ammount. This can not work and very soon such games switch to F2P plague. I prospect Wildstar will be able to keep up with subs and for ammount they charge. I love game, it is great. And for sure will sub after expire of free time. Only thing that worries me is that terrible limit for active skills. Oh, and very low number of spells available at all. If I will stop to play will be for sure for this sole reason. And I'm already feeling sick of using at all times only few keys.
Surely all the fanbois, who are clamoring about how great this game is, will line up to buy this. In fact, they might find that by doing this, they make more money. They can always come out with game + 30 day timecard at the end of 3 months. This will get the less rabid fans in the game a few months later, when it is starting to work.