MMOs:Like em' or not?

[Encore]

MMOs. They can be great and all, with good reviews and stuff like that, but then theres one thing people like me don't like about them.

Monthly Pay.

Some may disagree, but when you buy a 50 dollar game, and then you have to pay for it every month, kind of bites. Also they tend to make the experience low so you have to play longer to level, and basically pay more. What do you think, are MMOs a thing to behold or a waste of time and money?

[Archon_Wing]

Well, if they constantly make new additions to the game, that would be worth it to me. But I usually don't like MMOs; they seem too tedious.

[Dozer]

I can think of so many better things to spend $12/month on.

[Yrrek]

Dozer,

I dig your boDacious member description. =)

[roguebanshee]

I can think of so many better things to spend $12/month on.
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Two beers at a bar? That's like 15 minutes of pleasure (unless you use one of them to get a guy/girl as per your preference :P ).

A premiere movie? Usually 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

A MMO? As many hours/month as you can/want to find time for.

[Jeunemaitre]

Two beers at a bar? That's like 15 minutes of pleasure (unless you use one of them to get a guy/girl as per your preference :P ).

A premiere movie? Usually 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

A MMO? As many hours/month as you can/want to find time for.
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True, you can take that $12 and figure out the amount per hour played and compare that to other sources of entertainment, but that measure will vary each month as your playing time waxes and wains. My problem is that I never have consistant amount of time to play. Most days I don't have time at all, while other days (lately its been week-end days when my wife is helping her sister with wedding preparation stuff) I have 3-4 hours to spend. This is the same reason I've been a fan of console games more than PC. Console titles have always seemed to be better equipped for starting up and playing for 15-20 minutes then turning off again. Sure, titles have gotten more cinematic and more involved of late, but most still have a few scenes that you can turn onto and whip up on somebody (best example is the ending sequence of MG:Solid, sometimes I'm just in the mood to pull out my stinger launcher and take on a 3 story walking battle-tank).

Paying a set fee for monthly play has never been something that remotely interests me because I can't predict how much play I'll get in. That's why MMOGs have never made sense to me: the publisher is looking to attrack avid gamers with lots of free time and a steady income. It seems that their target population is squeezed in terms of age: younger gamers aren't going to be able to cough up the fee regularly, and older gamers aren't going to be able to spend as much time playing. Although, that may be the whole idea: get as many people as possible who will pay their fee and then not take up server space. It all just seems like too much of a racket to me.

[roguebanshee]

Paying a set fee for monthly play has never been something that remotely interests me because I can't predict how much play I'll get in.  That's why MMOGs have never made sense to me: the publisher is looking to attrack avid gamers with lots of free time and a steady income.  It seems that their target population is squeezed in terms of age: younger gamers aren't going to be able to cough up the fee regularly, and older gamers aren't going to be able to spend as much time playing.  Although, that may be the whole idea: get as many people as possible who will pay their fee and then not take up server space.  It all just seems like too much of a racket to me.
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You sound as if you feel you have to spend as much time on subscribtion based entertainment as possible to be able to justify it to yourself. I may be wrong, but that's how your post reads to me. Do you have to stay online as much as possible just because you pay for your internet connection?

Some of the newer MMOs do allow you to hop on for 15-20 mins and still make progress, even at the highest levels. Not every MMO is a clone of EQ where you need to spend an hour or two looking for 4-5 specific classes to do anything beyond standing around or RPing.

Of course, if you want to be "the bestest with the mostest" then you have to have no life, a willingness to stay glued to a screen and preferably someone else who can pay the bills and/or make sure there's food/snacks/caffeine available at all times. Not something that I'd call an enviable existence.

Luckily it's possible to play a MMO without doing that. You just have to accept that others will surpass you, but as long as you have fun what else do you need?

[Encore]

But aren't the MMOs out there have low experience gain, so it takes more time to level, and then your SPENDING more time to play? And I hate slow pased games.

[Munkay]

Dozer,

I dig your boDacious member description. =)

:) I think that was something I came up with? I forget, can you confirm Dozer?

I'm also the secret author of Deebye's haiku signature. I guess its not a secret anymore :whistling:

Oh, and to add to this post: I've yet to ever play a game that requires a monthly fee. But I don't feel there is anything bad about paying for them, it is a much cheaper outlet for fun than a lot of other things I can think of. I just have never been in a position where I can spend money monthly on a game.

Cheers,

Munk

[jahcs]

I don't object too much to the regular monthly fee, or the $40-$55 price tag for start up. It's when they both come together I have a problem. And the absolute worst thing is when there is an expansion pack sold on top of these fees for $15-$40.

I can understand charging a small fee for an initial download or to cover the cost of distribution of cd/dvd roms and a manual but for some reason I feel much over $25-$35 for a monthly fee game is a bit silly.

With a monthly fee charged to play a game I would want:
Regular patches
New content every so often
Sysops/moderators that are actually seen in game
tech support where real people are available at convenient hours
Servers that recieve regular maintenance and have minimal downtime
High quality internet connection for the company servers
No/minimal waiting periods to log in
Official websites and forums online would be nice too
Aggressive anti cheat policy, cheat detection, and banning!!!!!

I know the hardware, development, maintenance, and continued support of MMOs is not cheap. The latest issue of Maximum PC says it is rumored that some of the latest MMOs cost $40 million to develop.

As more MMOs come out and each manufacturer's slice of the pie becomes smaller, competition will force companies to provide better customer service, enticing content, continued support, and all for a reasonable price.

[Rinnhart]

MMOs. They can be great and all, with good reviews and stuff like that, but then theres one thing people like me don't like about them.

Monthly Pay.

Some may disagree, but when you buy a 50 dollar game, and then you have to pay for it every month, kind of bites. Also they tend to make the experience low so you have to play longer to level, and basically pay more. What do you think, are MMOs a thing to behold or a waste of time and money?
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No.

[Tal]

But aren't the MMOs out there have low experience gain, so it takes more time to level, and then your SPENDING more time to play? And I hate slow pased games.
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World of Warcraft does not take a large amount of time to get to level 60.

[Baajikiil]

What do you think, are MMOs a thing to behold or a waste of time and money?

I actually like the idea of playing some MMOs, such as WoW, but I think I'll never do it. I have so many games I want to play, so many books I want to read, ect, that I can't even keep up with my backlog as it is. There are even still some things in D2 I want to try out, but I haven't found the time lately.

If I start in on a MMO, I know all the other things may fall to the wayside. The money isn't really an issue to me, but I do sometimes think of the fact that I can buy 1 used console or PC game(I play rpg and strat games, and I wait till they are cheap before buying) on ebay for ~$10 and spend usually around 100 hours playing it before I tire of it. And, if I do tire of it, I have it on my shelf next year if I feel like picking it up again.

To me, MMOs are not worth it considering that I can find plenty of things that I enjoy just as much, while not paying a monthly fee. And yes, I have played several MMOs, but usually only until my friends stopped playing them.

EDIT: Preview should be my friend, unfortunately I don't spend enough time with her :(

[Swiss Mercenary]

The entire fee thing is not what turns me away from MMORPGS.

None of them meeting my "Good enough" standard, on the other hand, does.

Considering that the fees they charge over 4 months are equivalent to buying a whole new game, they better be on an equal level. Because I can think right off the top of my head a list of games that I'd buy, if I ever got around to it, a MMORPG that I'd play would have to be pretty good. For me, WoW does not qualify.

[Guest]

Opinons probably depend on your age.

The monthly fee can really bite when your young. As an adult though with a job etc I have a different perspective.

Playing a MMORP is the cheapest leisure activeity I have. Hanging out in bars, motorcycling, archery and watching DvDs are all more exspensive(bars are way way more exspensive) if I compare leisure time to money spent.


Of course some older folks dont look at it analytically and resent MMos because "when I was a kid games didnt have subscriptions".

[Guest]

PlanetSide meets that standard for me - but then I like the massive scale FPS action with so many options.

WoW met that standard for me during the 4 months I spend leveling. I experienced new content almost everytime i played and enjoyed it. Once I hit 60 and the gane became about instances I became bored and have since caneced(although I still have a month or 2 on my subscription.)

[BrianLeichty35]

Why Blizzard had to use the Warcraft setting for an MMORPG is beyond me. The very idea for MMO games disgusts me, which is why I probably will never play WoW or Everquest or any other MMO game that comes out. If I am going to pay good money to get a new game, it will probably be the Underworld Expansion for the Sacred game, which I am happy to say is not an MMORPG. But for those of you that enjoy MMO's I will say this, you must have money coming out of your ears if you can afford to be playing them and paying for them every month. I'll bet that if you keep track of all the money that you are spending on monthly fees for these games for a year that you'll soon discover that it is quite a bit after all.

[Quark]

Why Blizzard had to use the Warcraft setting for an MMORPG is beyond me.

The Warcraft world is much more fleshed out than their others. Seems like the perfect place for at least an RPG.

The very idea for MMO games disgusts me, which is why I probably will never play WoW or Everquest or any other MMO game that comes out.

Seems to me the idea of MMO is the massive multiplayer. The monthly fee is a consequence of the way the genre evolved. Guild Wars has proved it's not necessary, but what happens when NCSoft decides Guild Wars isn't worth developing for anymore? They'll be paying for servers and not getting any money in, since the money for Guild Wars is in box-sales. How long will Guild Wars last once they stop developing for it? I wouldn't pay for servers if I wasn't going to get anything out of them.

But for those of you that enjoy MMO's I will say this, you must have money coming out of your ears if you can afford to be playing them and paying for them every month.  I'll bet that if you keep track of all the money that you are spending on monthly fees for these games for a year that you'll soon discover that it is quite a bit after all.
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By the way, do you have cable? Digital Cable? Broadband? A cell phone? Magazine subscriptions? All these are cost over time, and anything cost over time adds up. But there's soo many more expensive things I don't do. For one movie in a theater, you could easily outpay one month for an MMORPG. Then again, if I followed the advice you seem to be saying, I'd never go skiing. I put tons of money into skiing, for 7-20 skiing days in one year! So why am I not giving up skiing for more cost-effective things to do? Because I'm having fun. Just like when I'm playing WoW - it is fun, believe it or not. I'm not rich, hell I still don't have a post-college job lined up. Somehow I still manage to get by.

If you don't want to pay a monthly fee, that's fine. But don't make it seem like I'm some rich yuppie - or a poor idiot - for paying myself.

[Mithrandir]

Dude, it's $12 a month. If $12 in a month is breaking the bank for you, perhaps you shouldn't be playing computer games at all and be concentrating on other things in your life.

I played DAoC for two years and do not consider *any* of it to be wasted money. I stopped playing for completely different reasons than money and no MMO to date has really caught my attention.

I'll bet that if you keep track of all the money that you are spending on monthly fees for these games for a year that you'll soon discover that it is quite a bit after all.
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Umm, 12 * $12 = $144. What is there to "keep track of"?

[Guest]

  I'll bet that if you keep track of all the money that you are spending on monthly fees for these games for a year that you'll soon discover that it is quite a bit after all.
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Umm just bad do you think we are at math? I just assumed we had figured it out.

Imagine you played 2 MMOs and paid the full $15 each month.(I would think most people only play 1 and maybe pay a reduced rate.)
Thats only 360 dollars. Add $100 bucks if you bought a copy of each game that year.

For the ammount of hours leisure time, thats not bad. But like I said I suppose a kid would see it different than an adult with a regular job.