Will MMO's Drop the Sub?

Kosmiche

Kosmiche

Kosmiche

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I was thinking, with these mmo's coming out adopting a payment system where you buy the base game and don't have to pay a monthly subscription...will all mmo's follow this system?

The days when a sub meant regular content updates are over now if you ask me. Now all a sub represents is the entrance fee, major content updates are infrequent and expansions are popular.

Imo, one of the only mmo's where subbing is worth it is eve online, frequent content updates and free expansions make it good value.

I think all mmo's should adopt the guild wars model where you buy the base game and only have to pay additional sums of money for unessential things like extra character slots and vanity items.

Anyone agree and is this likely to happen?

Thanks
 
In my opinion the current generation of MMOs are of quite poor standard and don't have much long-time playability compared to those released 4-5yrs ago.

Seems to me that most are released as monthly sub, the player count plummets as they realise the game is a load of crap and not ready for release - causing the devs to make it free to play with micro transactions and suck up their loss. (To name a few; APB, SWTOR, RIFT - sort of)

I'd much more prefer to pay monthly and have access to all content, rather than f2p and pay to complete quests/use a mount/use an item/etc etc.
 
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I think for most developers the Pay to Play model isn't going to work any more. Previously even new dev teams could release a game no one knew about and still make some money on monthly fees, where as now I think outside of the Asian market there is only Blizzard and maybe 1 or 2 other companies that could successfully pull off Pay 2 Play, and most other companies are going to have to switch to buy to play or free to play models with micro-transactions.
 
Paying subs for things now just irritates me. Much better to pay flat price for the base game and then micro's for extra shinies. If they're good enough people will want them.

Agree with the OP though, the only MMO I'd still consider paying a sub for now is EvE. Once you're subbed there's no extra money required for the expansions / updates. Although the last time I played EvE they were getting silly with some of the vanity items. I think there was a monocle up for £60 or something like that.
 
eve might as well be considered free 2 play with how easy it starts to get to make money to buy plex from other players.
It's a good system but I guess it only works in pvp games with real losses or no one would be buying plex to sell.
I'd love to see world of tanks done as a proper mmo eve style and I bet there would be a large enough player base for it.

Most mmo's fail because they are rushed out though and still nowhere near ready for release which is suicide but I guess the pressure comes from investors who have no clue at all.

Modern mmos tend to be to steam lined and theme park like which leads them to be shallow and boring quick, all the old mmos were fairly deep and required real effort, even WOW did at one time before they started marketing it to the masses which ruined the game imo
 
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Basically, yes the sub is history. And I disagree about low quality MMOs now, Planetside, Secret World, Guild Wars 2, Rift, Aion etc are all quality and we have Age of Wulin, Archeage, Dragon's Prophet (although verdict out), the two space sims in the pipeline and a host of quirky MMOs coming out, all with just an original purchase and then free to play. The simple fact is that it has been proven you can make a lot more money with vanity / XP / storage / housing / mounts and the like than by limiting your playerbase with a monthly charge.

Games like WoW and Eve have the playerbase, games like Daggerfall hope to have it, but I have yet to see anything which can make someone pay over whats out there for 'free'. The sub is dead, SWTOR proved that.
 
I agree, because no matter what the benefits of a subscription based model, you are always committed to playing a certain number of hours in the month/week to make the most of your money.
It affects the freedom of the player, to play when they want to and not because they are bound to by a sub. What if someone had a week to play and then couldn't for the next three weeks in a month? Subs do not allow that flexibility, whereas with BTP you can play how much you like whenever you like, without feeling tied down to the game.

I really hope the upcoming ESO is not subscription based, otherwise it may be a no go.
 
A lot of people also have the mind set that paying a monthly sub for a game = it is going to be good, all the guys i play MMO's with wont touch F2P games and prefer paying monthly.

I don't mind paying a sub for game that is worth it, but i have not came across any MMO that has been worth the sub since Lineage 2, WOW was ok but they just milked you, buy game / pay sub / buy expansion this is just taking the **** if you ask me.
 
I don't forsee subscription fees going anywhere for a while.
Yes it is true that many games now are dropping to the F2P model though let's not kid ourselves the games doing so are shadows of what was envisioned for them. All they tend to prove is that the gaming community is looking for something new and are not willing to put up with a lot of crap for long (not when there is so much choice available!), and that when companies believe the well is drying up that it's worth trying something else to get more return if possible.

Though I do agree 'F2P' has nothing to do with providing entertainment to a wider audience, it is a more effecient model for monetising the playerbase, moreso for games designed with the payment model in mind.

The sub is dead, SWTOR proved that.
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SWToR proved you cannot release a game with little to no end game content and expect people to stick around until it's put in place. They believed it would take players 6 months to reach the level cap. 6 months! That is just ignorance of the market. The game crashed because people got bored, not because it charged monthly.

I can still see subscription fees being used for a long time to come, I would be shocked if TESO launched as B2P or F2P.
 
I think the way SWTOR has it right now is a good one. F2P with microtransactions, or a subscription, the player chooses. We could debate what should/shouldn't be available to free players 'til the end of time but the basic model of that is a good idea.

If it wasn't a Star Wars game, you would probably see a lot more causuals playing and buying the occasional item/pass.
 
Some will, some won't. I personally don't pay subs for MMO's anymore, but i play LotRO with a lifetime subscription, so i'm set.

Edit: Cancelled my SWTOR sub today before anyone calls me up on that.
 
I've played a few different MMOs since 2000. I still haven't found one that can hold a candle to EverQuest.

There is no mystery in today's MMOs. Everything is done for you, almost. But do players want this? Do they want a GPS map with a flashing "go here" arrow? Do they want interaction with NPCs to just be click floating "!", click next, click OK, done?

Do players want to be able to safely go anywhere by themselves and solo all the content?

If they do then we'll never see a game like EverQuest again.
 
I don't have a issue with the sub but the mmo has to be worth the quality to match it sadly none do anymore hopefully elder scroll online will be decent
 
YarwoodUK said:
In my opinion the current generation of MMOs are of quite poor standard and don't have much long-time playability compared to those released 4-5yrs ago.

Seems to me that most are released as monthly sub, the player count plummets as they realise the game is a load of crap and not ready for release - causing the devs to make it free to play with micro transactions and suck up their loss. (To name a few; APB, SWTOR, RIFT - sort of)

I'd much more prefer to pay monthly and have access to all content, rather than f2p and pay to complete quests/use a mount/use an item/etc etc.
Click to expand...

sums it up perfectly.
 
As someone mentioned before all F2P is turn the game into a casual experience, not something i want. I really dont mind paying £10-15 a month on a hobby that is constantly getting updated with new content, expansions.

Most MMO`s now fail as they simply dont have enough content. TSW i am looking at you.
 
Sin_Chase said:
MMOs without subs suck.

End of.

The F2P model lends itself to casual gaming and as such the game takes that direction.
Click to expand...

It's hardly the end of, it's your opinion but nowhere near fact. If Mmo's with subs are so much better they would not all be failing one by one where the likes of GW2 and PS2 are succeeding. (Obviously WoW being the exception in terms of success, though one would argue but when it comes to quality)

Personally I think F2P is the way to go. WoW has monthly subs nailed down and no one can offer as complete a product as that at launch so will never succeed. Until an mmo comes out wit years of content on release they will never challenge wow.

People are a lot more forgiving of f2p failings at launch and additionally people are happy to come back or stick playing even if the game isn't perfect at launch. It allows devs the chance to build a solid product that can complete with a lot less pressure. If the pay perks are perks and not game breakers they work perfectly!

Also as someone above mentioned sub no longer equals good and regular content update. GW2 has bi monthly, without fail, launched content updates some large/some small but they are always adding to and improving the game. The amount of updates they do puts ANY p2p mmo I have ever played to shame.

Final point, whoever dressed the thought of ESO bring sub based, it is :p
 
No1newts said:
It's hardly the end of, it's your opinion but nowhere near fact. If Mmo's with subs are so much better they would not all be failing one by one where the likes of GW2 and PS2 are succeeding. (Obviously WoW being the exception in terms of success, though one would argue but when it comes to quality)

Personally I think F2P is the way to go. WoW has monthly subs nailed down and no one can offer as complete a product as that at launch so will never succeed. Until an mmo comes out wit years of content on release they will never challenge wow.

People are a lot more forgiving of f2p failings at launch and additionally people are happy to come back or stick playing even if the game isn't perfect at launch. It allows devs the chance to build a solid product that can complete with a lot less pressure. If the pay perks are perks and not game breakers they work perfectly!

Also as someone above mentioned sub no longer equals good and regular content update. GW2 has bi monthly, without fail, launched content updates some large/some small but they are always adding to and improving the game. The amount of updates they do puts ANY p2p mmo I have ever played to shame.

Final point, whoever dressed the thought of ESO bring sub based, it is :p
Click to expand...

In terms of content RIFT game WoW a good run for its money on launch.

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