Bill Gates vs Scrouge

bloodline76 · 8 Mar 2009 at 10:31

I am having a rather interesting debate about the value for money for MMO's and would like to know your general opinion.

I on one hand think that the price of MMO's are overpriced but would happily pay £5 per month instead of the £8-£11 that most charge.

So my question is, would it encourage you to actually play these games if they were only £5 per month instead of the current price?

It would also be interesting to know which if any games you currently subscribe to.

PS: This is not an attack on MMO's and I do not wish to cause any offence to those that currently pay for games.

Thanks

Tombstone · 8 Mar 2009 at 10:36

Slightly loaded question the way its worded, as obviously everyone is going to say they would be more likely to play if it was £5 instead of £11. Just as they would all say they would be more likely to play if it was £9 instead of £11. Its a bit like asking would you be more likely to buy a PC game if it was £3 instead of £35.

A better question would be a rigid blanket question like "Would you pay £11 a month for an MMO?".

For the record, my answer is yes. Been playing MMOs since 1997, played about a dozen of them and the prices have been fairly consistent over those 12 years. I havent refused to play any of the ones I chose to play because of its cost.

neverender · 8 Mar 2009 at 10:41

I've played WoW now for over 3 years and, bar the slight lull a lot of people are experiencing with it now, I've always considered it excellent value for money. I pay quarterly, which ends up costing around £7 a month, and this saves me a good £25+ a month on new game to play through (not that I don't fork out for some new releases as well, but that's my discretion).

What people tend to forget when slating the cost of MMOs is that they are very different from a FPS or RPG that you could happily go and pay £25 for right now. They constantly evolve; things are added, tweaked, taken away, and their feux-sandbox nature means there's effectively always something more to work towards - whether it be for your character or for your guild, PvE or PvP. The other factor is the huge social aspect MMOs bring to the table, something that no single player or indeed online FPS can really match.

bloodline76 · 8 Mar 2009 at 10:41

Tombstone said:
Slightly loaded question the way its worded, as obviously everyone is going to say they would be more likely to play if it was £5 instead of £11. Just as they would all say they would be more likely to play if it was £9 instead of £11. Its a bit like asking would you be more likely to buy a PC game if it was £3 instead of £35.

A better question would be a rigid blanket question like "Would you pay £11 a month for an MMO?".

For the record, my answer is yes. Been playing MMOs since 1997, played about a dozen of them and the prices have been fairly consistent over those 12 years. I havent refused to play any of the ones I chose to play because of its cost.

Yeah but if I asked are you willing to pay £11 for an MMO then I would only get an understanding of who plays them and who doesnt.

Where as the question is, would you play if they were cheaper as I think it would attract a bigger market. I am sure that lots of people out there would like to play them but the price is off putting. And also if it were cheaper you could try more than one type out.

Not all of us have your money Bill, some of us watch our pennies and only put one piece of coal on the fire at Christmas

neverender · 8 Mar 2009 at 10:46

It's an aimless question. Of course more people would delve into MMOs if they were cheaper, that's just how it works. You only need to look at how people swarm over so-called bargains in the January sales to see how easily people are swayed by a minimal price cut. Whether doing so would then effect the quality of content and support the game receieves, thus deminishing their experience, is another matter.

Tombstone · 8 Mar 2009 at 10:46

bloodline76 said:
Yeah but if I asked are you willing to pay £11 for an MMO then I would only get an understanding of who plays them and who doesnt.

Where as the question is, would you play if they were cheaper as I think it would attract a bigger market. I am sure that lots of people out there would like to play them but the price is off putting. And also if it were cheaper you could try more than one type out.

Not all of us have your money Bill, some of us watch our pennies and only put one piece of coal on the fire at Christmas

But its a rather pointless question. Obviously everyone would do anything if it was cheaper. More people would go to the cinema if it was cheaper, more would watch the football if it was cheaper, more would have better broadband if it was cheaper, more would have a new car if it was cheaper.

Sure, its good if you want to get a specific one-way answer, but its a bit of a pointless question as everyone would do stuff if it was cheaper.

Granted I am in a somewhat more financially secure situation than many, so I dont have to watch my pennies, but hell if you asked me "Would I buy a 120ft yacht if it was cheaper"...obviously my answer would be yes. The question would you pay £11 a month for an MMO seems to be a more useful question in determining whether or not people think £11 a month for a game is a yes or a no.

Schnippzle · 8 Mar 2009 at 10:47

Tombstone said:
For the record, my answer is yes. Been playing MMOs since 1997, played about a dozen of them and the prices have been fairly consistent over those 12 years. I havent refused to play any of the ones I chose to play because of its cost.

Surely if the price of the monthly subscription has stayed the same, with inflation only going upwards the price of a monthly subscription has actually decreased?

I think that the monthly fee should reflect the substance and "volume" of the game. For instance; I'd quite happily pay £8 a month for WoW, but thats because of its fairly extensive content. If they were to whack that up to £15 a month, I would certianly reconsider.

Tombstone · 8 Mar 2009 at 10:51

Schnippzle said:
Surely if the price of the monthly subscription has stayed the same, with inflation only going upwards the price of a monthly subscription has actually decreased?

I think that the monthly fee should reflect the substance and "volume" of the game. For instance; I'd quite happily pay £8 a month for WoW, but thats because of its fairly extensive content. If they were to whack that up to £15 a month, I would certianly reconsider.

Now thats a fair comment, certainly content reflected pricing would be reasonable. Some MMOs for instance I definately would not pay £11 a month for, other MMOs however I consider £11 a month to be a good deal for (either due to its content or gameplay etc). That would pose the question would you pay that increased £15 a month if it included the additional £7 a months worth of content? (in essence giving you £15 a months worth of "extensive content" rather than £8 a months worth of extensive content, or is £15 a month a no-no regardless of how much content is in a game)

bloodline76 · 8 Mar 2009 at 10:57

Tombstone said:
But its a rather pointless question. Obviously everyone would do anything if it was cheaper. More people would go to the cinema if it was cheaper, more would watch the football if it was cheaper, more would have better broadband if it was cheaper, more would have a new car if it was cheaper.

Sure, its good if you want to get a specific one-way answer, but its a bit of a pointless question as everyone would do stuff if it was cheaper.

Granted I am in a somewhat more financially secure situation than many, so I dont have to watch my pennies, but hell if you asked me "Would I buy a 120ft yacht if it was cheaper"...obviously my answer would be yes. The question would you pay £11 a month for an MMO seems to be a more useful question in determining whether or not people think £11 a month for a game is a yes or a no.

Its not pointless as it would interest me to see if others felt the same way. And its certainly not a one sided question as so far the only people to comment are those defending the price and subscribe.

Like I said if you ask if you think £11 is a fair price then I might as well ask who plays MMO's. Because they are the ones that obviously think it is ok. I was also interested in how many people subbed to as well.

bloodline76 · 8 Mar 2009 at 10:59

Schnippzle said:
Surely if the price of the monthly subscription has stayed the same, with inflation only going upwards the price of a monthly subscription has actually decreased?

I think that the monthly fee should reflect the substance and "volume" of the game. For instance; I'd quite happily pay £8 a month for WoW, but thats because of its fairly extensive content. If they were to whack that up to £15 a month, I would certianly reconsider.

Yes and I would happily pay £5 per month instead of £11. We just have a difference of opinion on what you get for your money.

Tombstone · 8 Mar 2009 at 11:00

bloodline76 said:
Its not pointless as it would interest me to see if others felt the same way. And its certainly not a one sided question as so far the only people to comment are those defending the price and subscribe.

Like I said if you ask if you think £11 is a fair price then I might as well ask who plays MMO's. Because they are the ones that obviously think it is ok. I was also interested in how many people subbed to as well.

Fair comment, its not a pointless question to you.

My interest in the thread is greatly diminished though as its obvious that people would be more likely to play an MMO if its cheaper. The same as absolutely anything in life, its an obvious answer.

Hope you find the answers helpful though.

Spike560 · 8 Mar 2009 at 11:03

Have to agree with Tombstone. Its pretty obvious that if the price is lowered people are more likely to play and the market would expand.

A better question might be to try and judge peoples reservation price in that what would be the highest you would pay and along with the question of do you currently play and if so, what do you pay.

As for me, I think I would not pay more than a few pounds a month to play a game online as I don't really have the time to make it worthwhile

Edit: Beaten....

Schnippzle · 8 Mar 2009 at 11:09

bloodline76 said:
Yes and I would happily pay £5 per month instead of £11. We just have a difference of opinion on what you get for your money.

Think you may have missed my point somewhat. Say two games were released at the same time, one charged £15 a month and the other £5 a month. The difference in gaming would be that that the game costing £15 a month contained three times the amount of world data, had a much better tech support team and guaranteed patched every week. The game costing £5 a month had none of that and was essentially a dead-end game with no real future. Which would you pay for?

bloodline76 · 8 Mar 2009 at 11:13

Tombstone said:
Fair comment, its not a pointless question to you.

My interest in the thread is greatly diminished though as its obvious that people would be more likely to play an MMO if its cheaper. The same as absolutely anything in life, its an obvious answer.

Hope you find the answers helpful though.

How many games do you sub to? And how would you rate them in order?

The only ones I have played are WOW and Eve.

Wow I enjoyed but I got to the point where I had to spend about 4hours on it at a time to get anything else and then after 2hrs people would drop out and have to start again.

Eve just wasnt the type of game for me. It bored me and I dont think I would have played it even if it did not require a sub.

bloodline76 · 8 Mar 2009 at 11:16

Schnippzle said:
Think you may have missed my point somewhat. Say two games were released at the same time, one charged £15 a month and the other £5 a month. The difference in gaming would be that that the game costing £15 a month contained three times the amount of world data, had a much better tech support team and guaranteed patched every week. The game costing £5 a month had none of that and was essentially a dead-end game with no real future. Which would you pay for?

Just because the price is cheaper doesnt mean the game or service would be worse. It could have a higher subscription to it and generate more money, meaning it could match the support.

I dont think any MMO has an endless life. One day it will end.

snowdog · 8 Mar 2009 at 11:19

No, pay to play is not my style, I will never agree to monthly payments just to play a game, I'll just move on to the free competitors.

Schnippzle · 8 Mar 2009 at 11:25

bloodline76 said:
Just because the price is cheaper doesnt mean the game or service would be worse. It could have a higher subscription to it and generate more money, meaning it could match the support.

I dont think any MMO has an endless life. One day it will end.

Ah no dont get me wrong, price does not directly reflect quality. But if you compare (this is an extreme example) WoW with Silk Road, you can definately see the difference in game quality and support. I guess one could also factor in the "cost per player" / "revenue gathered from player" aspect. It obviously costs a certain amount for one player to play on your servers, and the revenue gathered from their subscriptions must at least equal the total cost of maintaining that customers account / support.

I agree with you, all MMO's do come to an end. Their graphics engine become aged, rule sets change somewhat and eventually the majority of players will move on to something new. Certainly, some games do live a lot longer than others whether that be down to their awesome graphics, great gameplay or excellent customer base but they do all close eventually.

smithy83 · 8 Mar 2009 at 11:58

i play wow for about 1 or 2 hours a night so that adds up to about 30/60 hours a month for £8.99 then compare that to buying a new game every month that can cost from £25 to £40 that may only last 8 to 12 hours seems like £8.99 is a bargain to me

Sleepery · 8 Mar 2009 at 12:06

It's very hard to ask the question correctly to be honest. Look at Left 4 Dead. It sold really well on release, obviously, but recently Valve did a weekend price cut on it as part of a pricing experiment.

They saw a 3000% increase in sales for that weekend - clearly a huge amount of people just aren't willing to spend above a certain price point for a game, but will happily shelve out once it goes below a certain point.

Point being, sure, maybe a lot of people are willing to pay £10-12 a month an think it's good value, but are mmo's really limiting themselves by sticking to this price point?

Only way to find out is to do a similar experiment. Halve the price for a month of a popular mmo, and see what happens to the subscription rate.

I'll go ring them all now

smithy83 · 8 Mar 2009 at 12:12

Sleepery said:
Only way to find out is to do a similar experiment. Halve the price for a month of a popular mmo, and see what happens to the subscription rate.

I'll go ring them all now

i dont think it would do that much tbh new players are more likely to try the free 10 day trails that all mmo's seem to offer these days before paying for a months sub at any price