subscription pricing in recent mmos

[grombrinda]

Problem with that argument is that the MMO community today is MUCH more demanding. We constantly want WoW and Rift type of updates and content added, but want them to be free because we pay a monthly fee. We also want all of our bugs, game balance, hackers, botters and issues fixed instantaneously by patches, a GM or Customer Service.

 

While EA/BW's SWTOR does not provide the support we desire, companies like TRION and Funcom (TSW) have knocked it out of the park with their great Customer Service and attention to community. The MMO community does not deserve a price break when they have become much more needy and instant gratification seeking.

 

Ok...well this is not the 80's or 90's anymore. We can't go back to those good old hey days. We, as consumers, have a right to demand a better product. When was the last time you have seen a tube tv at your local electronics store or walmart or what ever ? How expensive are lcd and plasma tv compared to when they first came out on the market? What the guy was trying to suggest is that the innovation not only has to come from inside the game ,but also the business aspect of it. Holding on to an outdated model, solves nothing. Remember how many people would post" This game will never go free to play,it's a top tier game.Nothing to see here ,move along."..? Well..where are we now? And no i'm not bashing f2p or p2p, just an observation. In my opinion, i think this game would have made it ok with a 9-11 dollar monthly fee.But I also feel that this game would have been solid gold on the console market, seeing as to how it attracted so many new first time mmo people.

And as for the whining....well , you got to remember most games are aimed at a younger crowd, so your are not going to get much mature attitudes running around.

[Wayshuba]

Problem with that argument is that the MMO community today is MUCH more demanding.

 

You bring up a good point which lends further to my earlier post. I don't think many have a problem with the sub fee at all. Heck, 2.4M people bought this game knowing there was a sub fee. Where I think the problem is (and this is only my opinion) is what customers expect for that $15/month, which is much different than it was years ago.

 

An earlier poster talked about falling prices for increasingly better services (and used an ISP as an example). Most MMO companies are falling on sub fees because they charge this fee for little in return, as SWTOR has become the shining example of. And the excuse of server costs is total BS now a days (which is why most companies don't say it, only gamers keep that rumor floating), as it costs a grand total of $3/per player/per year to support them on servers. (As a disclaimer, I own an internet company so I am well aware of the actual costs associated with this.) In other words, they should be providing more than what came 10 years ago for the same fee. But many fail to do so and that is why the model is failing. The F2P model is just the easy route as it probably cost a grand total of $5 to make an outfit that you sell thousands of times over for $7 in a cash shop.

[Styxx]

Remember how many people would post" This game will never go free to play,it's a top tier game.Nothing to see here ,move along."..? Well..where are we now? And no i'm not bashing f2p or p2p, just an observation. In my opinion, i think this game would have made it ok with a 9-11 dollar monthly fee.But I also feel that this game would have been solid gold on the console market, seeing as to how it attracted so many new first time mmo people.

 

I am one that said it is too big to go F2P. At that time, I was banking on EA`s self esteem in its fight with Activision and BF3 being pitted against CoD. I was wrong, because EA has no self-esteem to speak of. I also said that EA will instantly turn into the laughing stock of pretty much everyone, going from "we aim to get a big share of WOW`s market" to F2P in less than a year. At least Sony had some respect for its name and didn`t go F2P, even with 50k subs.

 

I was a 100% sure sub until then. I am still undecided right now and waiting for the F2P and Makeb plans. 3 more months won`t bankrupt me and won`t make EA rich either.

Edited August 24, 2012 by Styxx

[Wayshuba]

If they dropped cost of subscription from 15 to 8, then that would double there break even number of subscribers from 500k to 1 mil. The game currently has under 1 million. If the price drop didn't bring enough people to put the game over 1 mil, then they are below break even. Very risky idea, when all trends show most gamers don't want pay subscription and even WoW's subs are dropping.

 

That's assuming price was the issue to begin with, which we all know it wasn't. The fact is, BioWare wasn't providing the regular content and updates that warrant a sub fee - regardless of what that sub fee was. I think if they had actually delivered new content monthly and added more horizontal sandbox elements (pazaak, sabacc, pod racing, swoop racing, gambling on Nar Shadda, ship customization, etc.) many would have stayed and given them a chance to get things worked out. But 1.2 was a mess (they screwed up legacy big time), 1.3 was a joke and precious little has been done otherwise. So it becomes a question of what are people getting for their money (or more where is all that money been going), and they don't feel value in paying for nothing so they move on.

[Arlon_Nabarlly]

That's assuming price was the issue to begin with, which we all know it wasn't. The fact is, BioWare wasn't providing the regular content and updates that warrant a sub fee - regardless of what that sub fee was. I think if they had actually delivered new content monthly and added more horizontal sandbox elements (pazaak, sabacc, pod racing, swoop racing, gambling on Nar Shadda, ship customization, etc.) many would have stayed and given them a chance to get things worked out. But 1.2 was a mess (they screwed up legacy big time), 1.3 was a joke and precious little has been done otherwise. So it becomes a question of what are people getting for their money (or more where is all that money been going), and they don't feel value in paying for nothing so they move on.

 

You completely missed my point (which ironically was your point). My point was that just dropping the price likely wouldn't bring that many people back. So they'd still have the same people and also not be making enough money to break even.

Edited August 24, 2012 by Arlon_Nabarlly

[Kahldor]

Ok...well this is not the 80's or 90's anymore. We can't go back to those good old hey days. We, as consumers, have a right to demand a better product. When was the last time you have seen a tube tv at your local electronics store or walmart or what ever ? How expensive are lcd and plasma tv compared to when they first came out on the market? What the guy was trying to suggest is that the innovation not only has to come from inside the game ,but also the business aspect of it. Holding on to an outdated model, solves nothing. Remember how many people would post" This game will never go free to play,it's a top tier game.Nothing to see here ,move along."..? Well..where are we now? And no i'm not bashing f2p or p2p, just an observation. In my opinion, i think this game would have made it ok with a 9-11 dollar monthly fee.But I also feel that this game would have been solid gold on the console market, seeing as to how it attracted so many new first time mmo people.

And as for the whining....well , you got to remember most games are aimed at a younger crowd, so your are not going to get much mature attitudes running around.

 

Yes. I understand Technology drops in price... But Customer Service will always increase in price due to the employee's demand of pay increases and insurance as time goes by. the fewer people you can employ, the less it can cost. That is why certain goods will always go up while others will go down as technology grows. A fully functioning MMO requires a lot of service (EA/BW are not realizing this).

 

Technology does not develop content people do. Technology does not fix bugs and service complaints, people do. That is the factor that causes good MMOs to cost $15. The problem is that as the community grows, the service drops (Except for 2 good companies out there). SWTOR's service is not worth $15. They are basically trying to pay off their development costs and string us along until they can break even. They make a lot of promises and sell us "futures" when the future is uncertain.

 

EDIT: A premium MMO is well worth $15 a month. Right now, the industry is in a strange transitional phase. Gaming companies still haven't figured out what made WoW successful. It was the fact that it was "new and different" because it combined everyone else's good ideas into ONE game that had a popular title (Warcraft). Nowadays, MMOs are a copy and paste with new skins, but missing parts. WoW built a good base and then they marketed it to the world heavily AS they built upon it. Companies saw WoW's success and started putting the cart before the horse by marketing heavily with no base to grow.

Edited August 24, 2012 by Kahldor