MMOSite writes: "MMOs are different than any other type of game in several ways, so much so that they often require entirely different business models. Most games, once purchased, are yours to play as much as you want, whenever you want. With the boom of MMOs though, came around a new business model that required people to not only buy the game, but continue to pay a “subscription fee” on top of that for continued access. This is what is known as a “pay-t-play” game and while the stereotypes of games discussed here aren’t necessarily the rule, more often than not, they hold true."
Wccftech talked to Guild Wars 2 Game Director Josh Davis about the learnings from the Secrets of the Obscure expansion and what's coming to the MMORPG.
The "slippery slope" debate has started, now we wait to see what ArenaNet does.
"ArenaNet and NCSOFT are today very happy and excited to announce that they have just released the "Secrets of the Obscure" expansion for their award-winning and critically acclaimed MMORPG "Guild Wars 2"." - Jonas Ek, TGG.
Anet also announced the 5th expansion. "We’ve already started applying lessons from the development of Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure to our fifth expansion, which we expect to be released next year." From their site, been with this game since 1st beta, and announcing the 5th expansion so soon, the game is doing very well, plus the graphics are improved a bit now that it's on DX11🙃
There's nothing wrong with treating your readers as fairly uninformed, but I think you waste time by discussing the history of MMOs and subscription fees. It stands to reason that anyone who reads this article will know what's going on, there.
I prefer the buy to play model. But what scares me is the game might shutdown in a year.
I'm almost to the point of just refusing to even install any free to play games. The quality is typically a lot lower, and, as of late, the prices are absolutely ridiculous. Look at Neverwinter, some of the mounts are $40, if you want a bag to carry all your loot I think it was $10. Bank slots I think were $10 as well. Marvel Heroe's charges up to $20 per character. I mean when a free to play game sells a special starter pack that costs $200+, it's a sign to keep away.
Not to mention, I have always felt having something actually in the game asking for money completely ruins the experience and makes it feel like a cheap video lottery cash grab. I really wish they would move on from microtransactions. I'd rather just initially pay more for a game. They've been charging $60 for games for years now, development costs are a lot higher now, I would understand if they would charge more. I'd rather pay lets say $80 or $100 for a game I know I'm going to get a lot of time out of then having them nickle and dime (actually ten dollar and twenty dollar) me around every corner. Just make sure the game is worth it.
Oh and I don't think DLC is too bad. To me as long as they're offering some solid content for the price and keep the transaction out of the game it's all good. Depends on the game though. Call of Duty typically just takes maps from their single player and converts them to DLC. So little production costs, but they charge $15. Battlefield 3 on the other hand seems to me like a really good deal paying $60 for premium (initially) seeing as you got quite a bit of content out of it, and the maps felt like they actually had some time put into them.