Do you feel $15/mo is a resonable cost for an MMORPG?

This came up in a another thread, and I still find it difficult to get my hands around the costs of MMORPG's. $50 + $15/mo. That's $230 for the first year for a single game. Would you buy the game for $200 if you got the first year "free"? This wouldn't be acceptable by anyone, I don't think, so why is it acceptable to pay the monthly fee?

I'm not ragging on MMORPG's, I just feel that the cost is too high. I'm all for companies making profit, but like WoW, they made billions on it. That's fine, but it also shows me it may be a bit overpriced.

What if every game that was online charged $15/mo. Plus why charge an initial cost ($50 usually) if they require $15/mo, just charge $15/mo and be done with it. Or better yet $5/mo.

So bottom line, is $15/mo justifiable for an MMO RPG, or should it be less? Or (god forbid) more?

 

Just play one of the many free versions.

When lots of people start doing it, all MMORPG's will be free.

 

I agree. I think free mmorpgs are just as good as pay 2 play ones.

 

For MMORPGs like UO, WOW, or DAoC yes it's worth it.

For games like BF2, or Starcraft that are just servers you connect to to play a match against a handful of other people then no.

It doesn't bother me how much total that adds up to for the game producers it's only my personal investment that matters and for the amount of hours a day I've put into some MMORPGs that's nothing.

$15/month = $180/year = less than .50¢ a day = pennies an hour.


It's also not just the game producers making money on the deal:

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/17146/1/

http://scifiwire.com/2010/01/virtual-space-station-sel.php

 

The problem I find is that I don't play games for any extended amount of time these days. It may be less than $0.50/day, but if I only play 15 hours/month, that's $1/hr. I never understood why they never had a tiered system either. $10/mo for up to 20 hours and $15/mo anything above that.

Even though these other games are just servers you play on, you don't get any less time playing, which is what I'm getting at. And many offer game updates with new units and/or gear, like TF2.

 

MMORPGs aren't casual games like TF2 or even Guild Wars...and I don't say that as an elitist but as a matter of fact. The games aren't designed to be just pick up and play for a couple of hours a week.


There's a significant difference in a persistent game server where every players' progression is saved whether you're playing or not and a server that is only used and resets to zero when you join a game.

 

Right. Ok. I understand that now. But again, I think $15/mo is a bit steep. Like I said, I'm all for companies making money, but when they make it hand over fist, something tells me they could give back to the customer a little bit. Or at a minimum, why charge for the game then? Just offer it for free, with first couple weeks free and then $15/mo after that.

I'm a huge Star Trek fan. Growing up with the Original Series (ok, was born after, but reruns all the time) and then on to TNG which I loved, not to mention all the movies. I struggle with whether the game is worth it at all though.

 

Because most MMORPGs aren't making billions of $$ hand over fist like WoW....most MMORPGs fail. Age of Conan, Shadowbane, Darkfall, Asheron's Call 2, Warhammer Online, Star Wars Galaxy, Matrix Online, Tabula Rasa, WWIIO, Anarchy Online, and countless others I can't remember anymore.

WoW is the success story that gets everyone running to get their real estate license so they can start flipping foreclosure houses. Not even the MMORPGs that were successful in the past (UO, Everquest, DAoC, etc.) had the population to generate a fraction of the revenue that WoW does. They made money yes but not sick Oprah money.


But even though WoW has produced a boom in the development of MMORPGs it still wouldn't have happened if developers didn't think they could recoup some or all of their development costs even if their game failed. You don't get development of Star Wars:TOR after SWG failed if Bioware thinks there's any chance they'll lose their shirts on it.

 

Well a large part of WoW's success was that Warcraft was a franchise prior to it become an MMO; it had skills, classes, a story and everything before the MMO even launched. People basically were already into the Warcraft universe unlike other MMOs where the developers basically have to draw you in. I'm sure if a Starcraft MMO came out tomorrow that it'd work simply because SC is also an established and winning franchise . SC2's coming is a simple proof of how easy it is to build upon a franchise.

But back to the point, a large part of the MMO world is dynamic content. The reason you pay is because the content is shifting. I mean, you pay for expansions to games don't you? Well think of an MMO like a constantly expanding game(figuratively speaking). Things like "Pirate Day", "Double gold drop day", "New Quest Week"(I'm making half of these up btw ) are common in MMOs and adding in new content every 2-4 weeks is part of the MMO world.

Whether or not it is worth it is a subjective matter. As said above, content is being added regularly in small packages rather than on a slower interval in larger packages(ex: Expansion packs) so there is work being done on the developers' part prior to game release. WoW even does both i.e. it releases smaller content(ex: new dungeon) and larger ones(ex: Expansions like WotLK). So you could say the initial game fee is the pay for making the world and the monthly fee is for sustaining it as well as expanding it.

Personally, I don't think that it's worth it to charge monthly simply because it promotes the addiction thing. I mean, MMOs are based on it so I can't exactly go against the whole thing, but adding in a paid factor makes it more compelling. If you're paying for it, you'll keep thinking "have I got my money's worth this month?" and you'll be compelled to get your "investment". Basically, you wouldn't be playing for 15h/month if you were paying 15$/month for WoW. In a sense, while it's not "forcing" you to get 'addicted' to a game, it's darn well pretty close to it.

I prefer the free-to-play type MMOs where those who really do want to get into it can if they want. But of course, lack of funds mean lack of content normally. Very few free MMOs can match paid ones(let's not even talk about WoW).

 

For some it may be ok because of the internet pipe required to host such a game are so expensive. I used to run game servers on T3 connections and you don't even want to know how much those cost per month. I used to play eve and finally quit because I'm on the west coast USA and the servers were overseas. I always had lag and it just wasnt worth playing the high end content with lag. If they are going to charge a monthly fee they should have servers that are geographically located for users so they can actually play the game with a reasonable connection rate. Otherwise no the cost isnt worth it. Just my .02 cents....

 

Wow, did I just read that MMOs are not for casual players?

I think there are more casual players than comp players in MMO in most of them...

 

Depends on how you define "casual" . I define "casual" by time and intensity i.e. a casual player picks up a game for entertainment every now and then.

Also, we're talking about paid MMOs, not free ones. If you're willing to pay to play something, you're already past the casual point IMO since you're willing to shell out money regularly to play as opposed to once. Ex: I would consider someone to be "into" a sport if they're paying to attend a club or buy equipment for said sport rather than play casually or rent equipment.

While I agree that there are lots of casual players in MMOs; for example WoW probably gains and loses hundreds if not thousands of players each day, but there is also a large proportion of players who stay for extended periods(past a few months) so those guys are past the "casual" point and those are usually the ones MMOs can rake the most money on.

 

There is no such thing, they either require a monthly fee to play (i.e. WoW), either are free to access the game, your account and all that, but there are certain items wich can be bought by real money, and usually, you can't progress more if you can't buy them, it either takes months to aquire a decent level or get some nice gear, either impsobille. Also, those who do not buy items from their so called "item mall", usually don't recieve any technical support if nedded. A perfect example is Silkroad Online, the game is stunning and unique, free to play, but if u don't buy their "experience stones" or w/e are they called, you basiclly have no chance of getting a decent level, or you either get it but its an epic fail character, since you have to farm a lot for skill points (wich takes more then a year to complete). So the game transformed to a bot fest. Those who bought things from item mall were not banned, and those who did not got banned once 1-2 months (the so called bot inspection). They were that corrupt. All "free to play" mmorpgs are like that.

 

I agree that the 'free MMORPGs' are not at all, but just different recipes for making money, to which I agree are interesting scenarios but not necessarily justified.

I would say an initial cost of $10 would be fair since you are paying the retail 'fee' (a.k.a. you buy the game). Something interesting would be what would happen if some MMORPG can reach a 'critical mass' like WoW and then make it free for the game purchase and keep the monthly fee (the people who paid for the game could get like the equivalent of free months [2 or 3]). Even if it sounds risky I think this model could attract many more people, even some of us that consider MMORPGs fee to be excesive.

 

well, i feel there should be a pricing method, perhaps 50 cents per day is ok, but you are only charged based upon usage. if you play for a day, then you're charged for that day.

 

Well I think eventually it might become like that. Remember cell phones? Nowadays we have cell phone plans which charge to the second so I think the trend of "paying what you're using" is becoming more popular. The question is if and when it would happen in the MMO gaming industry. I mean, the constant connection to the internet would indeed allow companies to monitor use, but then again, lots of people leave their games on for prolonged periods without being there.

 

And $0.50 per day would make sense. And for those that do leave their PC's on for extended periods anyways, they probably play pretty much every day anyhow, and are used to the $15/mo cost, so it really wouldn't matter. I'd be much more inclined to pay for an "as-used" basis than a flat fee for everyone. I might play 5 or 6 nights a month and will only cost me a few bucks.

But then they'd probably jack the price up because I'm sure their cost is based on averages, so it'd probably end up being $1/day. Or still offer a flat up front fee if you want of $15, or pay $1/day of use.

 

No, you should just have a one time game cost and that's it!

 

i definatly agree with the second option of it being fair if the client is free. but also the 6th option ie. games like guildwars and diablo are games i always find myself pulling off of the shelf for a reinstall somewhere down the road.

 

Dragonica Online is a pretty good free to play MMORPG so far but only a matter of time before THQ goes cash shop happy like *cough*maplestory*cough*.

For a game like WoW, that $15 a month from millions of subscribers goes to content development, server costs, etc. Also, an MMORPG is only worth $15/month because many players spend hundreds and hundreds of hours a month, getting the most VALUE for their money. I used to play WoW for 2 years, so that was about $400 but I spent just as much time playing as many others. Was it worth it in the end? I certainly think so.

 

I find it fascinating that no one blinks an eye at $10-$12 for one movie ticket, for 2 hours of entertainment, yet think that same price (I generally pay $12.99 or so a month since I do the 3 month or more subscription plans), isn't worth it for potentially 720 hours of entertainment - 30 days x 24 hours.

Personally, if I knew for sure a game would meet my expectations for a full year, I would pay for a full year. Most people expect the first month free to check it out...for example, I never gave Age of Conan another dime past the initial game cost. Played EQ1 for 5 years, EQ2 for 2-3 years, SWG for a year or so, Vanguard for 2+ years, and WoW off and on for 5 years. I have never once felt I was not getting my entertainment value in any of those games.

 

Valid points.

Except nobody but the mentally insane would get 720 hours per month of the game (I hope not), that's not realistic. Plus it's the point that whether you play 10 hours or 100 hours everyone pays the same monthly rate. If you go to a movie, everyone gets the same time with the movie. Movies are another subject entirely though, but I never pay more than $6 or $7 for a movie, and only go a few times a year.

If you play a lot then sure you feel like you're getting your value. But if you can't play a lot then you feel a little cheated. It's not worth it to you.

I'm even fine if the game costs $50 if it includes 2 or 3 months of play time. But usually you're lucky to get a month.

 

When I spent $11 to watch District 9 I enjoyed it, still felt like movie theaters are ripoffs but nevertheless still thought it was worth it.

The majority of WoW players are referred to as "casuals" who may spend about at 10-20 hours online a week, mainly to escape from the real world, socialize with friends, etc. but you don't see them questioning their monthly costs. It's all subjective to the player them self if the money they pay is worth it or not.

 

If you actually consider what you are playing for I consider excellent value for money. (I'm from UK so my prices are a bit different). Take a modern console game for example. You pay £40 ($50 or $60 dollars I would imagine) and unless its an excellent game with a high replayabilty you're looking at what 40, 50 hours max? And thats a rare percentage of games. Cod mw2 can be played through single player story mode in 4-5 hours and yes it has multiplayer but with a static amount of maps that players can learn very quickly. And even if you do get 40+ hours out of it, it is highly repetative.
I talk about wow because it is the mmorpg I have played the most. Levelling to lv80 takes at least 10 days (with focus on levelling alone), not 10 days played in a row but 240 hours. And throughout those 240 hours you are playing through a massive world, which a high number of quests and possible paths. With instances and raids added on to those quests that is an amazing amount of content which would take hundreds of hours to fully explore. And blizzard has stated that they do believe the game begins at 80 and there is a high amount of content aimed purely at level 80. Not too mention the high rate at which Blizzard releases new content and patches to fix common niggles and problems (what other type of game gets such regular bug fixes).
With one wow account you get 10 character slots, which means you can play as multiple races and types of characters easily, allowing further expansion of the gameplay experience.
So yes, I do believe mmorpgs offer excellent value for money(at least in terms of wow). No other genre of game gives you the scope of content as well as almost regular content updates. And if casual gamers have a problem with paying that amount I suggest they go pick up an rpg for $60 and get their 50-100 hours of gameplay that they can play at their leisure. But for fans of the rpg genre (and who do put in multiple hours in gaming a week) I don't think mmorpgs can be beaten

 

Id prefer something like free to play MMOs ... with cash shop ... it becomes a choice when a player decides he is serious with the game he can start purchasing the not so-uber stuff ingame ...
for those paid game ... its only worthy when you dedicate quite a time for it otherwise it would be a waste of money that you can actually allocate them for better use...

i remember theres some MMO that have per hour basis...basically you pay for the duration you are ingame...that it more worthy than per month i think

 

I played WoW for like 4 months and called it quits. I loved it but couldn't justify paying the $15. especially after the great steam deals over thanksgiving and Christmas, I have a ton of games for just $30 for those two months to last me for a long, long time.

 

when i played Aion China, they way they work out theirs isnt by month, its by actualy time, you literally pay by the second usuing units. needless to say $6 of game time for Aion China lasted me about a month. that system is one i preferred. that way you are literally paying for how much time you actually spend on the game, not as if a casual and hardcore players will play the same "monthly" fee.

 

I would like this. I think they should have it where they figure it out by hour, but maximum charge per month will be $15. So you can play whatever hours up to $15 in fee.. lol so if I play less, I could possibly pay under $15, but if you're hardcore, you just pay the $15/month that is normal.

 

i can understand monthly fee's some one has to pay to keep those massive servers up.

But a 40$ game then the monthly fee?

 

I say $4.99 is the max i would pay. I can get internet at $15 a month and i think thats ridiculous.

 

As Moo said, I can fully understand gaming models like EVE's, where the client is essentially free but if you expect you're going to use the world's most powerful distributed gaming cluster with the most upkept and diverse ecosystem for no monthly cost, well that's just unreasonable.

So a $15 monthly fee is justified there, but for an unknown, untested game (i.e. the Startrek MMO) $50 + monthly fee just sounds like insurance for them in case they tank.

In the end, there's no set appropriate price for an "MMO", like any other service you have to weight what you pay vs. what you receive.

Personally, I have no time to invest in persistent gaming so I see all MMO's pay or not, as non-valuable to me.

 

$15 a month for an MMO is definately worth it to me.

Any MMO I have played for more than a month I usually end up with two or more accounts of my own including, Everquest, DAoC, Everquest II, Age of Conan and WoW. In WoW I had four accounts.

You pay $50 and get one month free. I have paid $50 for games that couldn't keep my interest for a week and then end up getting a new game pretty quickly. Or I beat the game quicker than that. When not playing MMOs I might get 2-4 games a month which is much more costly than even having multiple accounts. If it can keep my interest for another month, I'll gladly pay $15 a month/account to keep playing.

 

The initial cost of the game always includes the first month of play, but more importantly it's there to try and recover a portion of the MMORPG's development cost which is typically MUCH higher than the development costs of other games (even ones like TF2 that have online play).

 

It's worth it for a good game, with an ever changing vast world, fast & stable servers, good support, free content patches and events etc.

I use to think wow was, but in the end there wasn't enough variation, and it became too much of a chore. I have tried many MMOs, but few of them kept me hooked for long. Bioware have been working hard on the longevity of SWTOLR, but I'm hoping STO will keep me enthrawled, without having to rely on the IP too much for that or ending up like EVE.

$15/month for an mmo? Yes, definitely. I'd pay more if it is quality, interests me enough and I don't have to devote my life to it to get a lot out. I would have paid a lot more for ultima online back in the day.

 

$15/month is fine for me.

Honestly, I pay more for my Coke drinks a month then my MMORPG subscriptions. Everything the MMO offers for $15/month? Great deal.

 

I think its only worth it if they continuously release new content via patches. Expansion packs are fine and dandy, but they should be constantly updating the game.

 

Absolutely, considering the amout of new content MMOs like WoW put out.

15 dollars is the cost of a movie ticket, which lasts what 1.5 hours?

 

Everybody keeps comparing the monthly cost to a movie ticket. First of all, not sure what theaters people go to, but I usually only spend $6-$7. Secondly, it's a different form of entertainment. Cost of a season of hockey tickets is $800, that amounts to about $115/mo (for 6 mos), so $15/mo is nothing. How does this relate?

My point at least is:
(1) Everyone pays the same amount, whether they play 10 hours or 100 hours/mo. I should have added a poll option for a tiered pay system, as in per hour or <20 hrs/mo = $8, >20 hrs/mo = $15. Or something similar. I just think it all depends on how much you play.

(2) Total cost of the game. To be honest, I'm all for spending $100 for a game if I know it is awesome and has great support, and frequent updates. But I also think that $180/year + $50 game cost is a little excessive. $100/year, sure. Much more than that, forget it.

 

Yes, provided:
-The game is maintained and consistent patches and new content are released.
-The hardware and connection used for the game servers is consistently upgraded or added to to accomodate their player base.
-LIVE GMs play on it to remove game-breaking players. (as in botting, consistent rule-breaking, cheating, or excessive griefing)

I'd really like to see a game come out where GMs actually roleplay as Heros/Demigods and gather players for events promoting their pantheon. Hopefully this would also include events where two competing GMs fight to gather players to their cause!

The game is entertainment... it fits under the same category as our cable bill, your movie expenditures and your bar tabs. You can and DO replace a night of castle seiging with 10 home-town buddies and 80 or so out-of-town friends for a night at the pub watching football.

When compared with the bars/club/pubs or movies, or nearly ANYTHING where active social participation is required, MMOs at even $15 are extremely cheap.

Even if you rented ONE DVD/ night that's $150/month or $2/hour if you are lucky.
Lineage2, I get more than 30 hours/month for $7/month ($50 buy in 5 years ago)

 

That is actually an AWESOME idea. A time based system....Hm, intriguing.

 

I see the one time charge is winning.

Hope you all like big lifetime fees or guild wars then.

F2P is not an option.

 

For entertainment, the price is fairly reasonable when people pay the same amount for something like netflix or more for a cable premium package.

 

that's why people like me don't pay for cable. I don't have cable. Are you going to watch those hundreds of channels. No, you are probably going to watch less than 20 channels. Also there's hulu, why pay for cable when you have hulu?
For game: why pay for mmorpg when there are games with one time fee such as guild wars and provide hours of entertainment. I'm all for entertainment, but the cost of $15 per month do not justify the value of entertainment.

Also, proponent of $15 monthly fee say that you get social interaction, such as making real life friends in game, but you can do the same thing in other games and other free MMORPG. They also say the MMORPG update very often and constantly adding new stuff. Free MMORPG do the same thing. They add new stuff often.

In the end: I go by my quote: "Why pay for something when you can get it for free?"
"Why pay for monthly fee when there are games that require one time fee?"

 

$15 a month is a cell phone plan that allows access to a better social life.

 

I wouldn't mind paying $6-$8 a month for an MMORPG if I really enjoyed it but I would definitely like to be able to buy the game at a discounted price.

 

while the 'free' market is great, certain things are hard to come by for free. if you're constantly watching sports, there is a need for more than just hulu. pandora does not replace a real radio, even though it's a great alternative.

free mmorpg's might suite you and many others, and that's great. however, realistically a company cannot support a free mmorpg and bring it to the caliber and as polished as a mmorpg with a monthly fee. the costs to generate a game that can provide servers to 5+ million people, that aren't instanced mind you, is pretty expensive. people pay monthly for the content that excels above the rest. is the pvp content between monthly paid games and one-time-fee games on equal levels? certain people enjoy certain characteristics of a game, and some may not justify the monthly fee's. but in the end the games with monthly fee's will draw larger crowds because the game's developers can add much higher quality mmo content than those developers with one-time-fee games.

the majority of people will spend pointless dollars elsewhere, but can't justify the 15 bucks per month. and while i agree that a fee that calculates time spent rather than a flat rate for the lesser casual players is a better approach, there are people on here who have 2-3 gaming computers, and one being a $3000+ gaming laptop. justification is null at that point.

 

Games with one time fees or no fees are usually like diablo... instanced and very little real consistent online community.

You just make a game and let people join you...

Much like Diablo, they are usually rife with cheaters and there is little to no upkeep done. (nobody cares)

Free MMOs usually have very little real content and are not nearly as engaging.


/shrug, I pay for Lineage2 because NOTHING comes close to 300-player castle sieges.

 

Unfortunately for me, the 20 or so channels are crucial to my life. Four Letters.

E....S.....P....N


Guild Wars is underrated. That is a great MMORG and lots of fun.

Another game that is underrated. Fat Princess. They so need to bring that to the PC.

 

to HTwingnut - i think [recall] you playing FPS oriented games - Global Agenda is debuting next month. it's an fpsmmo, so perhaps wait for the reviews and maybe the game might grab you're attention. so far it has mine; i hope it's not like planetside though. i've been waiting for an fpsmmo that is current to debut.

however, there is a one time fee game you can purchase and have the one time payment account, where you just buy the game, and then there is a month to month account where you opt to pay for the more pvp and what they refer to as 'end game' content. interesting approach for those who want to play the mmo, but do not want to pay for the monthly fee.

 

Thanks for the heads up Levenly. I had briefly looked at that, but not too deeply. Maybe I'll reconsider. However, since I'm a big Star Trek fan, I'd love to get in on STO. I got a beta key so at least I can get my feet wet and see if it's something I'll like. But will definitely give Global Agenda a look as well.