An Alternative To Monthly Fees

[Ki Adi Mundi]

What is your opinion of alternative business models? By alternative, I mean not $15/month plus extra for large expansions. Below, I have listed a few MMOs that use different business models for their games.

Guild Wars Model:

• $50-60 for main game
• $50-60 for major expansions with 100's of hours of content
• Free small updates/expansions
• NO MONTHLY FEE
• Micro transactions for things like 2x XP, difficult to get items, maxed PvP only characters, etc. No MT for unique items though

To me, I like this model. It feels good knowing I will always have access to the game, so I can check in from time to time if I get bored/burned out. Guild Wars 2 is going to be using this model, and I imagine it will be similar in scope and style to SWTOR. I think more people would buy the game, just to try it out. It's obviously worked for Guild Wars. This would also be a nice model for consoles. No extra fees on top of XBox Live, no need for credit cards even.

LOTRO lifetime model

• One time expensive fee for infinite subscription

This is interesting to me, and could be an option on top of the other business models.

Earn your subscription in-game, as seen in EVE online

• Works the same as regular $15/month, except you can also pay for your sub with in-game credits.
• nice credit sink for in game economy
• rewards rich players, while simultaneously taking away their money.

Download or hard copy

• Download may be cheaper
• Hard copy comes with more stuff like instruction manuals

This would be an option on top of the traditional subscription model.

Micro transactions galore

• No monthly subscription
• expansions are free
• many items are only available through MT

I only bring this up because it has worked well for many Korean MMO's.

As for the group I will lovingly call "younglings," they are going to be on this game in droves no matter the business model, so i really wouldn't factor them into your preference.

Generally speaking, most people tend to believe that monthly subscriptions help prevent spammers, eradicate younger gamers, keep the new content coming, and cure cancer. The problem is: there are so many MMO's, including the only star wars MMO out there, that use subscriptions, yet fail to do any of that. We're hoping to move on from the mistakes of past MMO's. Who is to say their business model isn't flawed as well? WoW is "successful," but are all the rest?

So, what would be your preference? Are you open minded to not paying a subscription?

[ArchAngel]

I can see why the subscription is there, and i do understand the necessity of it, so in terms of the game company, i'd say monthly fee's. Though in terms of me playing a game, <3 the Guild Wars style.

[Nemmerle]

I didn't really think Guildwars was up to much snuff. Whether that's just because the devs were crap or due to a resource shortage though. *shrug*

[Mr. Mikey]

Originally Posted by Ki Adi Mundi

Guild Wars Model:

• $50-60 for main game
• $50-60 for major expansions with 100's of hours of content
• Free small updates/expansions
• NO MONTHLY FEE
• Micro transactions for things like 2x XP, difficult to get items, maxed PvP only characters, etc. No MT for unique items though

LOTRO lifetime model

• One time expensive fee for infinite subscription

Earn your subscription in-game, as seen in EVE online

Awesome.


I especially like the lifetime, thing, but how much is it? LOTRO looks amazing, but then, so do most MMOs , just the fees put me off.

[Wasturr]

There's another option and it works the balancing thing.

This structure was implemented on these shores back when korean mmo's were still in it's embryonic stages(Ragnarock and MU comes to mind).

It's like buying off pre-paid cards to play the game kinda like what some cellphone companies in some countries(Ours being one) do.

It' goes like this: You buy a card with varying degrees of gaming hours on it. the cards that has more hours to it gets to be more expensive.
It's just like how some people buy "loads" for their cellphones.

That way it would be better to separate the casual gamer from the hardcore ones.
Since casual gamers would only play at their own leisure with no incentive to playing thru and thru becoz there's no monthly charge in it.

Mom and dad can easily discipline little johnny by cutting off his allowance instead of contacting the local provider to temporarily cut off net access.

And it can be played by leisure by any hardcore gamer who's also busy with RL and cant play 24/7.

And there's also profit in it once it gets localized.

I once made off with a cool 2,000 pesos for selling off my gaming card to a lazy rich kid who wanted a powerful character to start with.

[Ki Adi Mundi]

That's actually not a bad idea.

[Mr. Mikey]

Originally Posted by Wasturr

I once made off with a cool 2,000 pesos for selling off my gaming card to a lazy rich kid who wanted a powerful character to start with.

Good source of revenue

And yeah, the Gaming card Idea is good.

[Flodgy]

Keep in mind however:

Guild Wars is an entirely static world. The only time you ever interact with other players is when you go into the outposts, where they essentially act like lobbies. It isn't a true MMO as the world isn't persistent. You can bring other people out into the world, but it is still rather limiting.

LotRO: The lifetime fee for this game was around $300. Not really worth it in my opinion unless you know you'll be playing it for a long time.

The standard monthly fee works fine for me. As long as developers maintain and provide a steady stream of updates and add-on content I'm happy. LotRO did this quite well, with new 'Books' being released continuing the storyline. WoW does it sort of similar, with new dungeons and quests being added to further various parts of the games lore, though sadly, not as much as I would like.

Many people complain about a monthly fee, but this fee pays for the servers, the patching and updating, new content and so on. Overall, it is worth it in my opinion.

[Digz]

I agree the fee is worth it but I'm sure many peoples opinions are that they've already bought the game so why the extra for monthly fees? And the reason would be what you've just said Danny. It's a fair point and I'd rather have other options which should come out like in LotrO and WoW like 6 month subscriptions which give you a discounted price instead of paying for 1 month at a time.

If this game does go ahead, Guild Wars 2 will also be out and will not be pay per month (I think) so there will be a lot of competition.

[Lanseril]

its GW2 or this, whichever does better.

[Ki Adi Mundi]

This section of TRF is now closed. We have moved all of our SWTOR-related discussions over to FOTOR, a forum dedicated to SWTOR discussion.