Pay-As-You-Play MMORPGs? 158
grubber33 wonders: "With exciting MMO games like World of Warcraft and others existing, the current monthly fee plans that all MMO games that I'm aware of aren't necessarily worth it for people that don't have as much time to play games as others. For instance, I have about 3-5 hours to play games per week, if I'm lucky. On top of that, I like more than one game but I'm still interested in MMO games. I was wondering what Slashdot thinks about newer MMO games implementing some sort of pay-as-you-play system or at least having that option alongside the current monthly fees."
Free is the only way to go. (Score:3, Interesting)
If it wasn't for their BitTorrent download, and a free year of playing I wouldn't even consider it.
But now, I might not hesitate to pay the full price for an expansion pack, if that need comes up a few months from now, a few months after playing it for free.
Re:Free is the only way to go. (Score:4, Informative)
The first hit is always free.
Re:Ain't no such thing as a free lunch (Score:2)
Actually, I'm surprised I've never heard of anyone trying this. Did I just miss it, or did it really never happen?
--Ender
Re:Ain't no such thing as a free lunch (Score:2)
Re:Free is the only way to go. (Score:2)
So if someone isn't prepared to work at a game like it was a part-time job they shouldn't play it? There's no room for someone who plays a game for fun?
My situation is that my friends play City of Heroes. I would like to be able to play it with them. (It's the only MMOG that's been able to attract and hold my attention for even a few hours at a time. Most of them bore me to tears.) However, because
ibgames's Federation... (Score:4, Interesting)
my $0.02 (Score:1)
the game's still in beta, but there are release versions in korean and japanese that are still free. the english is still being made.
the site is here [maplestory.com]
maybe check it out. you got nothing to lose, it's free!
Re:my $0.02 (Score:2)
This game is addicting... "just one more level..." "just one more hour trying to find this damn rare object from a random drop"
Moreover, playing without someone or something to guide you can prove frustrating from various reasons:
different classes (called jobs here) need different stats, while the other stats are useless for them (int and luck needed for mage, str and dex are useless)
different skills are sometimes either very strong or seemigly strong, but th
Re:my $0.02 (Score:1)
i got 3 charecters. warrior, archer, thief. i've had to help my little sister with her mage far too often to have the paitence to have one myself.
just a quick question for you : what is the "exchange rate" of real money to game "cash"?
Don't see it happening (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Don't see it happening (Score:3, Insightful)
I agree (Score:2)
I agree here. The monthly fee is what pays for the upkeep of MMORPGs. If you think about it, even for a small game, there's cost involved in running it. You need servers, you need developers, you need a marketing department (even if it's just one person), you need to create boxed games if you want to show up in stores, etc.
I look at from the "risk vs reward" paradigm upon whi
Just how little do you value your leisure time? (Score:3, Insightful)
My question is, where are you working that $1/hour spend on leisure time is too much? (Or did you mean to post this under "Troll Slashdot" rather than "Ask Slashdot"?
Re:Just how little do you value your leisure time? (Score:2)
Re:Just how little do you value your leisure time? (Score:1)
The problem was that he only has 3-5 hours a week to play all of the games that he wants to play. So no, he isnt' spending $1 an hour on a single MMO. Assuming that he plays 3 other games (perhaps one on PC two on console or some such) he would be paying $3-$5 dollars an hour on the MMO. That isn't all that cheap. Further, the real problem is that he has gotten the sense that it isn't worth
Re:Just how little do you value your leisure time? (Score:2)
WoW is the most casual play friendly of the lot, very easy to have an hour or two session in it - things like EQ you wouldn't achieve a single thing during the time.
Re:Just how little do you value your leisure time? (Score:1)
I'm the kind of gamer who one week will spend 10hrs playing a game and following week may not even touch it... just depends on what's going on in my life.
While WoW sounds like something I could play and enjoy, I'm not willing either to spend $20/month (or whatever the fee is). What I would suggest instead, is not a dollar/hour type fee, but instead a $ for x number of hours fee. Buy 10 hours for $7, 20 hours for $10 or similar.
Paying per hours is tedious, but paying for a number of hours would fit a lot
Re:Just how little do you value your leisure time? (Score:1)
Re:Just how little do you value your leisure time? (Score:1)
Re:Just how little do you value your leisure time? (Score:2)
I would guess that pay-as-you-go would create a lot of billing overhead for companies, and prepaid per-hour payments only end up making gamers mad because their time ran out right when they were having fun. All in all, monthly is best.
Re:Just how little do you value your leisure time? (Score:4, Interesting)
Tack on at least $13/month for a subscription if one of those games is an MMORPG. That brings the min total up to $314/year. And again, that is a bit low compared to reality from what I see.
Now let's assume a power gamer
Don't forget around 25% of the cost of your PC/year to keep up with games (meaning that at a minimum games require a new PC every 4 years, again, conservative) and easily 100% for the power gamer. Assume a base cost of $400 for a PC capable of playing a modern game and $2000 for a gaming rig.
That doesn't count feeling the burning need to optimize your bandwidth/throughput so that you enjoy those games more which will likely increase network costs by 25-50% (in some cases easily 100% more for that fine sDSL connection) so we're somewhere between $414 for the minimal gamer to over $3000 for a power gamer.
Now if you want to make the power gamer into a social power gamer (either by going out with the "gents" once in awhile or by helping host LAN parties
* Makes consoles alot more attractive
* Means that the Power Gamer likely never leave the house
* Definitely shows the attraction of something like Anarchy Online
Now
I personally do believe that having to pay for the MMORPG box is a bit nuts
1) the people who have the bandwidth to play an MMORPG often will have bandwidth to download a DVD of material and get an online key to play.
2) any MMORPG worth buying will make FAR more back on subscriptions. Charge me a minimal download fee and then let me play for a couple of hours free to see if I like it. No cost to you if I stop playing and I don't feel ripped off (in other words, more likely to try a future product from you).
3) any MMORPG that is GREAT enough to suck me in for hours and hours can make a lot more money off the power gamers by charging by the hour.
Make the subscription fee tiny, perhaps $2.50/month
No, those hourly figures aren't low
1) basic player is between 4 and 20 hours/month (and the parent to your post fits this nicely at between 9 and 20 hours/month). He pays $2.50 for his monthly upkeep and 1 hour fee. He pays between $3 ($1/hour for hours 2-4) and $15 ($9 for hours 2-10 and $6.00 for hours 11-20). That's a total of $5.50 to $17.50 for the average player.
Face it
Re:Just how little do you value your leisure time? (Score:2)
Re:Just how little do you value your leisure time? (Score:2)
Not that expensive (Score:2)
Re:Not that expensive (Score:1)
reading
Re:Not that expensive (Score:2)
$2.5/hour is more expensive.
Re:Not that expensive (Score:2)
Also, I don't know where you're living that it costs $50 for a hardcover book. In the US, most books retail for about $22, in Canada, about $35. If you get them the day they come out, generally there are fairly significant discounts (around here, at least) and there's always used book stores and paperback books, both of which are significantly cheaper than your new ha
Re:Not that expensive (Score:2)
Re:Not that expensive (Score:2)
Re:Not that expensive (Score:2)
Re:Not that expensive (Score:2)
Re:Not that expensive (Score:2)
I think the administrative costs in moving to an hourly model would outstrip the benefits for the lightweight users. If we were talking about an average $29.95 subscription, I could see them
Re:Not that expensive (Score:2)
Re:Not that expensive (Score:2)
Mmmm. Good old Sex.
Free. Fun. Oh, wait, this is slashdot. Nerds don't know what *girls are.
*sigh*
-------
*More appropriately, a sexual partner. Chicks, dudes, whatever makes you go.
Re:Not that expensive (Score:2)
>you're looking at a cost of $1.25-$0.75/hr. Find
>me another form of entertainment that's that
>cheap.
Buying new games every second month instead of paying it as subscription. That way one get completely new experience and content and so on for each game. That is one reason why I rather go for new games every now and then instead of playing subscription based games. I get far more for my money buying new!
pay again? (Score:4, Insightful)
Also, like the writer said, I don't get much online play time. If I had to pay my the month to play online, I'd be paying more per game hour than someone with a lot more time on their hands.
Access to the servers should remain free. Either that, or the game should be a lot cheaper (free even), and a cost per hour or cost per day model setup for online play.
But they can't have it both ways.
T.
Re:pay again? (Score:2)
They aren't doing it just to be nice, they're doing it to make money. Building a MMORPG is a huge endeavor, costwise. The money you pay up-front to play the game goes to that initial development cost. The monthly fees go towards building new content, server maintenance, bandwidth, etc etc. It's a part of the model, and it's not a bad one. It makes good business sense -- $ upfront for up front costs, sub
Re:pay again? (Score:3, Insightful)
I guess I could understand this if there was a hardware component, like buying a cellphone to get service. But cellphone companies consider the phone a loss leader meaning they pay for some of it so you will sign up for the service. It would seem t
Re:pay again? (Score:2)
Re:pay again? (Score:2)
As for AO, their launch was atrocious and they may never recover. This free year offer of theirs is a gimmick -- the game is only so good without the expansion packs. Once you order the expansions, you start paying the monthly fee. If you're happy not accessing all of the current game, then its no problem -- but most people won't be.
Re:pay again? (Score:3, Insightful)
They have made a conscience decision to do without your business. My point is, that although it would be nice for the casual gamer to get or feel they get more value out of their gaming dollars as compared to more dedicated players, having a tiered payment structure along side the standard monthly subscription plan isn't likely to happen.
Frankly, from the developers point of view, I just don't think it's worth the ha
Predictable and reasonable (Score:2)
But what if these 40 quids covered the game and a couple of months of a game play ?
I think it's a fair and pretty decent deal. You are getting a chance to play the game for a while and if you like it, you start paying for a gameplay. And the money go to compensate the provider for support, bandwidth and hardware expenses.
In fact, World of
Re:Predictable and reasonable (Score:2)
You would probably find that, in the long run, they would make more money, as more people would become addicted to the online game and would then shell out the extra money to play online.
I still think a charge per day, as opposed to per month, would be better too.
T.
Re:pay again? (Score:2)
If you're too miserly to pay for a current MMO and the subscription, why not try something like AO, or UO, or AC, which are cheap as hell.
All very well... (Score:1, Interesting)
Developing a MMORPG (I'm only talking about full-fledged, full-scale, commercial MMORPGs here, such as WoW, EQ2, FFXI and Galaxies) is an expensive business. The amount of game-content you need to put into one of these games is vast and completely dwarfs the work you need to do for a single-player
Re:All very well... (Score:2)
Tit and tat (Score:2)
Project Entropia is pay-per-play (Score:4, Informative)
The way it works is that playing is completely free. However, equipment in the game costs game money, and the easiest way to get game money is to spend real money on it.
It is possible to play without spending anything, but you'll end up having to do a lot of grinding in order to make enough money to buy a piece of equipment that will let you make some more money, etc. Spending will let you shortcut this to a fair extent.
(Currently I've sunk $10 into it. This bought me some decent armour, a low-level newbie gun, and some ammo for the gun. So far, I haven't managed to break even when hunting, but that's because I'm crap at it. I'm also practicing sweat gathering, which is sort of like milking except they tend to maul you at the same time. You end up with lots of little bottles that you can sell.)
One interesting side effect of all this, plus the fact that equipment wears out and needs to be repaired, is that everyone is obsessed with money. Poke around on the 'net and you'll find detailed analyses of how much a weapon costs to use: per hit, per unit damage, per swing, etc. Newbies are better off with weapons with low cost per swing/shot; experts are better off with low cost per unit damage. All equipment wears out and needs to be repaired.
The first time I killed an animal I got 0.78 ped loot from it (== 7.8 US cents). The record is apparently 29000 ped (== just under three thousand dollars)...
There are other ways you can make money in-game: hunting and sweat gathering are the main ones open to newbies, but there's also crafting, shopkeeping, mining, plus all the various service industries like guides, distracting animals while other people shoot at them, trading, etc. PE has a thriving economy.
If you're interested, give it a try --- just download and run. It is, after all, free.
Re:Project Entropia is pay-per-play (Score:2)
And this is PRECISELY why I no longer play such once cool games as Kingdom of Loathing, and any other MMORPG that gets whittled down to a pure numbers game by players.
I know my opinion may not be shared, but I want a game that d
Re:Project Entropia is pay-per-play (Score:2)
I'd still play it today, except I don't (1) make enough to justify the monthly and (2) I don't play any games at all, for the most part.
It was a ton of fun, though.
Re:Project Entropia is pay-per-play (Score:2)
Re:Project Entropia is pay-per-play (Score:2)
Yup, that's the one.
The guy actually stands to make a decent amount of money if he can develop it properly: not only does it have not insignificant 'natural' resources (which he can either exploit himself or subcontract), he can sell off land himself. If he's smart and can turn it into a desireable trading centre, he ought to do quite well. PE is planning to allow real-wor
Guild Wars (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Guild Wars (Score:2)
Re:Guild Wars (Score:2)
My play time varies (Score:1)
During school or other busy times I find that I can only play an hour or so a week, if at all, but during free times I've been known to pull 16 hour play sessions.
If I were charged hourly for the long play sessions I wouldn't fee
You're Fine With The Normal MMORPGs (Score:1)
Re:You're Fine With The Normal MMORPGs (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure that I'm not the only slashdotter who takes offense at that remark.
I like video games AND books. Probably most people here do.
Not going to happen, not even a good idea (Score:2)
Re:Not going to happen, not even a good idea (Score:2)
Sierra Online (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Sierra Online (Score:2)
Death darts!
Neverwinter Nights (Score:3, Insightful)
It wouldn't save you any money. (Score:2)
In the end, it
Same as prepay mobile phones (Score:1)
Re:Same as prepay mobile phones (Score:2)
Not necessarily. I have an AT&T phone that I use quite rarely (maybe 15 minutes/month). On a standard $40/month plan, I'd be paying $2.66 per minute. With AT&T's prepaid plan, I pay $0.25 per minute, which is a much better deal.
Guild Wars (Score:1)
Why Pay? (Score:1)
http://www.planeshift.it/ [planeshift.it]
There's even a Mac client in alpha!
Re:Why Pay? (Score:2)
Anyone can make a fancy Flash intro promising you the world.
I like that idea (Score:1)
The 90's called, appearently the bubble burst... (Score:2)
Realize that you are paying for a service and that if you compared the money you were spending on a subscription to the other things you could buy with it, it's not that bad a deal.
And to those people out there who want
Re:The 90's called, appearently the bubble burst.. (Score:1)
It would be great, really really really really great, if a single entity came along and provided hosting. I'm thinking something like what SourceForge does for OSS, only with some money changing hands.
Let's set they charge five bucks a month for developers to host their games. It's more of a commitment thing, than anything else; to keep the cheapwards off.
Now, let's
Re:The 90's called, appearently the bubble burst.. (Score:2)
A "Server" for a game is more than likely not going to be one server, it's going to be a farm of 8-10 servers + a master server and maybe a database server. A game like WoW has maybe 20? "Servers" for their game. That comes down to somewhere in the area of 200 servers to run just for one game.
Lets say that you host 50 games, with the same ball-park figures. That's close to 10,000 s
Re:The 90's called, appearently the bubble burst.. (Score:2)
That's rich. Let's see, single player RPGs cost 60 USD on the high end. For that you can get 40 hours or more of play time. Now, for normal folk, 4-5 hours a week is pretty much all the time they will spend on a video game. This equates to two moths of pl
Re:The 90's called, appearently the bubble burst.. (Score:2)
I beat Dues Ex 2 in the course of a week. It would have been even less if I hadn't been telling myself "this can't be all there is, maybe they hid something over here".
I beat most single player FPS games in far less than a month. I beat most RTS games in far less than a month. The only games out there that can even CLAIM to hold me longer than a mont
Ragnarok Online Payments (Score:1)
Perhaps a tiered pricing structure? (Score:1)
Re:Perhaps a tiered pricing structure? (Score:2)
What you describe would be perfect. Just set a cap where you pay per hour, until you reach the cap, you pay the full fee for unlimited hours. That way you could keep your account alive, or just play a few hours, and not worry about be
Consideration: Time cards (Score:3, Interesting)
Pay to Play Bullshit! (Score:1)
$50 a month for the internet
$20 bucks a month for Xbox Live
$20 bucks a month for little Johnny to play WOW
MMORPGs became POPULAR becasue they were FREE to play online. Sure you buy the game but the online gaming was free. Start to charge a monthly fee and gamers and parents will begin to EXPECT A LOT MORE for their gaming dollar.
Soon some asshole is going to suggest that we have a pay as you go internet... 5 for this page an
Re:Pay to Play Bullshit! (Score:1)
$50 a month for the internet
$20 bucks a month for Xbox Live
$20 bucks a month for little Johnny to play WOW:
I think you are even missing a bigger market segment. I'd like to play WOW with my friends but I'd like to also have an account for my wife. So $50 x 2 startup, and $15 x 2 per month (after the first month). $130 for 2 months of play for two people. We won't be power gamers either, probably playing 4-8 hours a we
Re:Pay to Play Bullshit! (Score:1)
Just curious: What MMORPG was there, that was free to play, and made MMORPGs popular?
Re:Pay to Play Bullshit! (Score:2)
Re:Pay to Play Bullshit! (Score:2)
I do pay for my son's City of Heroes account. I enjoy playing with him. It's been a good way to teach him about working together in a team and about how different people have different skills and do different jobs. It may seem weird but a good MMO team is much like a good project team you might find at work.
Considering that we've been playing City of Heroes since June and that as a result we have purchased less other games. The
Not made for MMOs? (Score:1)
Re:Not made for MMOs? (Score:2)
Re:Not made for MMOs? (Score:2)
City of Heroes has a good system for sidekicking low level characters, but it's not perfect and many players don't want to sidekick.
Most of the time when I'm playing it's when everyone else in the family is asleep or the spouse is watching TV (although you have to be
Charging full price for the game is a bit wack.... (Score:1)
If you buy the game and all it does is let you log into a premium paid online service, you should get the game for at most the cost of the media.
I don't have a problem with paying to subscribe to a gaming service, especially if the game world is dynamic and the admins are coming up with quests, new objects, backstory, playing as NPCs, etc....
flawed logic (Score:2)
If you live in a major city, you pay $10-11 to go see one movie (if you buy only the ticket, and you go alone). A fair estimate of average movie length is 2 hours.
If you pay for WoW (for example) one month at a time, it costs $15 per month. If you then play the game 3 hours per week (assuming four weeks in a month), you pla
I understand the poster. (Score:1)
I understand the posters predicament. I have to say that I myself also have a problem with shelling out a monthly payment for play when I would only be able to play it a couple hours a week. The pricing model of monthly payement only really works for those that can play it many hours weekly. Although I really have to say that they have their target market down pat, obsessive geeks with lots of time, their pricing model excludes many who would like to enjoy their service. For example I myself have wanted to
Guild Wars (Score:2)
Joint payment? (Score:2)
It would
The problem with MMO's (Score:2)
My idea... (Score:2)
Let us say that someone plays 2 hours weekdays, 4 hour weekends. That's 18 hours per week. That would be 72 hours per month. We'll use 72 hours per month to figure this out...
Charge like an initial fee for just having the account. Like $5 per month. Then charge like 5 cents per hour. Have roll over plans too, when unused hours will roll over to the next month for up to 12 months.
Eve Online (Score:2)
Online poker? (Score:2)
I've played a ton, and now have a whopping 29 health points. I get into major battles a couple times an hour, a few times to the death, surviving every time. There are elements of both skill and luck, you're free to walk away from any battle with minimal damage.
You can take as many health points from your enemies as you have yourself. So in a battle with many opponents, wisely applying your spells and demonstrating force c
www.hyperiums.com (Score:2)
Less than 1hr/day will get you up and rolling in no time.
Re:Ragnarok (Score:2)
The "cute anime feel" wears off quickly and then it just becomes another level grinding game, and a really bad one at that.
RO has a sloppily thrown together game world, NPCs who speak in "Engrish," extreme lag, the most immature community ever, and GMs who treat their jobs as one big game and ignore the massive botting and "hacking" problems.
Re:Missing the Point (Score:2)