MMOs: Charge for time played?

Arnie · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:22

What if MMOs charged per hour played instead of a fixed amount every month, with the max charge not going much above what they charge now. **** idea or decent idea?

Play an hour a week, pay hardly anything, play 10 hours a day, pay full price.

arknor · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:23

most mmos would just close down if that happened

Aeleys · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:24

Doesn't matter pay for models are going out the window as cash shop/micro transactions are showing profit.

plus with micro T's companys cna be as greedy as they like it's a win-win for them

InKursion · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:24

I think that would be pretty disastrous, as MMO designers want to encourage people to play their games more (and much much more), not less.

Monkeymatt · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:25

This is what most MMO's do in asia isn't it? Seems fairly successful there so it could work here..

Kosmiche · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:25

Would love it to be like this as I don't have long gaming sessions anymore, my 30 days would last a year probably.

Nodiggidy123 · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:25

i may be wrong but i heard some mmo's in asia work like this.

EDIT - doh. beaten to it.

MrH · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:26

If it worked out cheaper I'd be game. Right now I'm in the situation where I don't play WoW enough to warrant paying monthly for it, but if I could pay for say 5 hours worth a week I'd be up for that.

QlimaxUK · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:26

I don't want a pay-to-play system on ANY game I play

olivier renault · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:27

Pay as you play with a monthly cap (£8-£10?).

Although of course, I prefer f2p

Kosmiche · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:29

The best thing you can do atm is buy mmo timecards for the mmo's you play, that way you have some control of when you have some time off or something to be able to play.

bhavv · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:29

QlimaxUK said:
I don't want a pay-to-play system on ANY game I play

This.

InKursion · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:32

I don't mind a monthly subscription if it has tangible benefits on a monthly or perhaps quarterly basis (i.e. if I pay £25 over the space of 3-4 months, I want to see the equivalent to a new package of content in that time, also). Paying to play discriminates against players for all the wrong reasons... costing the hardcore players more money to achieve more in-game? It's counter-productive.

sniffy · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:43

Aeleys said:
Doesn't matter pay for models are going out the window as cash shop/micro transactions are showing profit.

I don't think we'll see the end of subscriptions any time soon. There is a large group of people who simply will not pay monthly but there's also a large group who won't pay monthly for two games. WoW pretty much has the subscription-based market locked down which I believe is the biggest reason for other developers being reluctant to adopt this model. When WoW dies the next big MMO after that may well be subscription based.

bhavv · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:50

sniffy said:
I don't think we'll see the end of subscriptions any time soon. There is a large group of people who simply will not pay monthly but there's also a large group who won't pay monthly for two games. WoW pretty much has the subscription-based market locked down which I believe is the biggest reason for other developers being reluctant to adopt this model. When WoW dies the next big MMO after that may well be subscription based.

Only if every single person playing WoW moves onto the same subscription based game.

Approx 10 million players spread over every P2P game, with each player only subscribing to a single game at a time is a set for failure business model.

Arnie · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:51

I hate item shops and "micro transactions" more than fees tbh; they're just greedy and dishonest.

Devlish · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:52

They used to do this when online gaming was in its infancy. Cost of a connection was expensive at the time of course. So i think it would be perceived as a step backwards and in any case, how about paying a monthly fee and playing all you want?

I think the death of the monthly fee is greatly exaggerated. If a game was as successful as wow theyd be charging monthly. SWTOR thought it was going to be, imagine their playerbase if theyd taken the GW2 route. Anyway, given the number of people playing mmos the vast ,ajority pay monthly fees, we at least 10 million anyway...

Aeleys · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:53

sniffy said:
I don't think we'll see the end of subscriptions any time soon. There is a large group of people who simply will not pay monthly but there's also a large group who won't pay monthly for two games. WoW pretty much has the subscription-based market locked down which I believe is the biggest reason for other developers being reluctant to adopt this model. When WoW dies the next big MMO after that may well be subscription based.

It's all down to greed (the whole point of a company) and Blizzard even realized that hence why they don't release every single bit of content for "free" to monthly sub's

simple fact is that f2p micro T games are going to take over, and fast.

Aeleys · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:54

Arnie said:
I hate item shops and "micro transactions" more than fees tbh; they're just greedy and dishonest.

that's the whole point of a company though

and with that model they get to be even more so.

sniffy · 26 Apr 2012 at 17:56

Aeleys said:
simple fact is that f2p micro T games are going to take over, and fast.

Definitely but I think there will always be a place in the MMO market for a big title with a subscription fee attached. If it's better than the competition then people will pay it.