Massively Multiplayer Online Games

[nobbie]

Heh, I liked this part:

When it comes to subscription fees, price is only one of many concerns. Analysts worry that mass-market consumers do not understand why they should pay a retail price for a game then pay a subscription fee to play it.

I understand it allright, it's because it's a ripoff. Either the client is free and I then pay monthly for the server usage, or the game offers the possibility of playing also offline. But paying for something that cannot be used unless I continue paying? I'll go for the alternatives that can be played offline :)

Yes, I too think that the prices and fees for current MMO(RP)G's are luxury. I've been staring at all those screenshots, gameplay trailers and infos of the upcoming big games in this genre (WOW, Ultima X, Lineage II, EverQuest II, etc) and thought this is all really cool, but when I was off the PC for a while and thought again about the fees and profits, I came back to my senses. What's also still stuck in my mind is the controversial Vivendi/Blizzard vs. the free Bnetd project case. Of course, this free Battle.net-clone project was canceled via cease-and-desist letter with an eye on the sales of WOW, which had an announced release date for Q4/2003. Diablo II/LOD - albeit far from being a perfect (online) game - still keeps me playing because it's FREE. That's the main incentive, and I cannot deny that. The current fees for MMO(RP)G's are too high in my opinion, and I believe the producers are not quite honest about the costs involved vs. profits made ratio. At the current prices (about 10$ to 15$ per month in addition to the costs for the base game client and expansions), there is a 50% (likely a lower) chance that I will get hooked and ever play one of these costly games in the near future. I hope that the strong competition in this sector will lead to much lower playing fees in the range of 50$ per annum (and low-cost client software), but until then, it is very likely that I'll stick with single-player or cost-free online games. I still haven't play Diablo I and Baldur's Gate II, so the time might have come now :)