Pay-To-Play MMORPG's

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Xardon

Dalayan Beginner
I'm curious about everyone elses opinion on this subject. Most of my friends/family feel that Pay-To-Play monthly fee games are just not worth the money anymore. I've been more than happy with stuff like Neverwinter Night's, Guild Wars, and now SoD. Any new game that comes out now, if it is a monthly fee game, I am instantly turned off by it. I'm not sure if the whole Everquest experience and the years of monthly fee after monthly fee has caused me to feel this way ... (or was it the purchase of my house, and increased bills instead) ... but I have no desire to ever pay monthly fee up front ever again. I've found too many games where I felt I wasted my money because I wasn't satisfied with the concept or design of the game (Lords of the Realm 3, Final Fantasy XI).

So what does everyone else feel about this topic??

Xardon
 
I don't mind. I don't think there's an MMOG out there right now worth my money, though I'll be giving EVE Online a try in the near future, but the concept itself is fine. EQ was surely worth my :10bux: a month back in the day, and it's just a matter of time until the next EQ comes along.
 
Definitely. There's gotta be a game out there at some point in time with as much allure and as much staying power. I've tried many MMORPG's at this point in my life and I've gotta say, none of them have kept my attention for as long as EverQuest did. I still enjoy the game to this day, just because of what it was. Sure, it was my first, but that really doesn't have any bearing on the situation past the fact that ... I'm rambling.
 
I was a ney sayer before I started playing EQ - how much a waste it is to pay a monthly fee for a game. Then I started playing EQ and it seemed like the best bang for the buck in terms of enjoyment - and then I started putting the ney sayers in their place. I almost started playing EQ again (friend at work still plays) but I came back to SoD instead. But I think I do find it harder to account for paying a monthly fee for a game for some of the same reasons: got married, bought a house, baby on the way, and less time to play in general (wife sees to that :p ). I was very close though to returning to EQ but opted not to because of my feelings towards the game being much to top heavy now (2+ years since I left).

In between I played Anarchy Online for a bit and have to say that after taking a month to adapt to the changes I was enjoying the game quite a bit (though it was very time consuming trying to build a well equipped solo'r). I did end up paying monthly for it beacuse the free trial blocked off some content and features that had a pretty noticable effect on game play. Only stopped playing upon my return to SoD. And now I find myself debating on if I should pay for DAoC. Brother in law bought it for me for Christmas and I believe he is going to start up playing it again. I already looked for free servers but nothing that looked at all promising so once he gets his system back I might start up the 30 day trial to see how it is - never really did much PvP/RvR so not sure how I will enjoy it. If I do, I might see if I can find a way to foot the $15/mo bill.
 
When i first started playing eq i thought it was definately worth the money. For the price of going to see 2 movies i could have 24/7 entertainment. Since EQ2 and WoW came out the population of my live server went downhill and my friends list is basically nil besides my guild because of people trying new games, cant afford it, or dont like what the game became. I love to raid and my guild raids 2-3 times a week but besides that im doing tradeskills while waiting for people to group with. I then realized it wasnt worth the money for a couple of raids a week and not much more.

I love what SoD is and it is what I've been looking for the past 2 years. I love old world content and the fact that it is the same game yet completely different so im not a total noob starting here. :)
 
I am fine with paying a monthly fee for an online game, at least as long as I feel it it worth it. Cheap entertainment for the time invested, as discussed above.

I played EQ many years ago, and loved the game until it got to the point that I spent 80% of my time waiting for action (raids startups & wipes), LFG, corpse dragging, regaining lost exp, etc.). Played other on-line RPGs games since, but none had the magic of my first MMORPG experience (somehow I never got into UO).

Thus far, SoD has removed most of the impediments that made me dislike the original game, and I am perfectly happy to support SoD to the best of my abilities to keep the server going. I only wish that I had found out about this server sooner. Looking forward to many more months, hopefully years, of continued play!
 
Theres nothing available at the moment i would want to pay to play. But when Vanguard:SOH is released...... that will change.
 
Vanguard is the 2006 (or 2007... or 2008) Coaster of the Year.

D&D Online? Just like Guild Wars, but you gotta :10bux:



I pay to play SoD, BECAUSE it is the best game.
 
dbum said:
I was a ney sayer before I started playing EQ - how much a waste it is to pay a monthly fee for a game. Then I started playing EQ and it seemed like the best bang for the buck in terms of enjoyment
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I'm in the same boat. Absolutely refused to pay a monthly fee for a game. Then I was in a situation where I was very much at loose ends, and decided that $10 bucks a month wasn't bad. It would fill my time for a while anyway. That was 4 years ago. I played on eqlive for over 3 years. Towards the end, though, the game had changed so much and I just didn't enjoy it enough to keep paying money for it. I signed up on SoD just to have something to do while I was recovering from my hysterectomy and discovered the fun I had in EQ when I first started. So, now I'm playing here. When money loosens up when I get back to work, I'll probably become a donator....because I do think it's worth it to pay for something that you really enjoy.
 
Avannir said:
Theres nothing available at the moment i would want to pay to play. But when Vanguard:SOH is released...... that will change.
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Again, I agree here. Assuming I can afford to upgrade the computer to play Vanguard *laughs*
 
I much like using the movie ticket analogy: MMO subscriptions generally cost the same price as a movie ticket, and a movie gives you ~3 hours of entertainment per month, while a MMO gives [much] more than that, even to a very casual player. Sure, you can say movies are overpriced, but you still go and see movies, don't you? Plus, it's like 12-15 bucks; Even at minimum wage, that's only 2-3 hours of work per month.

Like many others, I'm awaiting VG. I expect nearly half of the people who play it will spend more on hardware upgrades than they do on the actual game.
 
zodium said:
I don't mind. I don't think there's an MMOG out there right now worth my money, though I'll be giving EVE Online a try in the near future, but the concept itself is fine. EQ was surely worth my :10bux: a month back in the day, and it's just a matter of time until the next EQ comes along.
Click to expand...

I have been playing DDO for a week or so. It is, for me, the closest thing to the next EQ to have come along so far. But I happened to discover SoD the same week that I discovered DDO, so now I'm having a hard time figuring out where to spend my playtime.
 
I never really played any computer games til I started w EQ. I honestly don't mind paying a monthly fee for a game. Even if the fee were 20$ a month if you played for just 4 hours a month it's an opportunity cost of 5$ p/hr(Most online gamers play vastly more hours than 4 p/month so the actual opportunity costs are often a fraction of a dollar p/hr). Far less than say going to the movies which cost 20$ if you buy a ticket w popcorn/drink for a 2hr film = 10$ p/hr. So you see there is far more pleasure bang for the proverbial buck with pay for play games.
Regards,
Nikki
 
I totally agree. Economically, MMOGs are the most efficient entertainment money you can possibly spend. Except maybe internet porn.
 
The downside for some people is that by paying for it, you feel the need to "get your money's worth" which means you play too damn much.
 
Personally, I haven't seen any MMOs out recently that I feel that I can afford to play. I tried WoW a few times, and never got into it (I always thought it was too easy). I think I'll just stick with SoD and try Dawntide when it finally is completed.
 
I realy like DAOC. But you can find that for free to. And without all the greifers and such. Why do Pay to play games attract so many people like that and the free ones dont for the most part?
 
I played Star Wars Galaxies for about 2 years before SOE farked it. Being a huge SW fan beforehand helped, but the game itself was incredible. Had my brother, 2 roommates, and many r/l friends playing together. Now they seem to be multiplying everywhere with generic copies so I'm looking in to the free ones.
 
If you enjoy SOD, you can clearly see why we would have originally paid the :10bux: a month for Everquest. I used to justify the montly fee with "Hey, look at how much money I will save since I am inside online all day", "A movie costs the same an only lasts 2 hours", "you pay a monthly price for your internet connection". But sometimes I also look back and ;( cry thinking of the $100 of gone due to Evercrack... evil evil evil! <3
 
My big problem with those games is the company control. NWN had it right. Give the players the tools to make their own games and they will. Looking forward to Dragon Age when it's released. Every other MMORPG is built using the same broken game model. Start with a game not meant to be a MMORPG and you'll get something different.

My only beef with Neverwinter Nights however (aside from using shitty DnD rules) was the lack of a first person view, which I prefer. The toolset was awesome however and some of the player run servers I visited were great. That was more bang for my buck than any movies or MMORPG I ever played...

The lack of voices in the EQ game however make the game world seem very "dead" in my opinion. There really should have been some sort of sound work done for the game. They went the cheap route however and made it so they could sell it to any nationality and not have voices. Except that stupid beggar in Freeport back in the day. The ONLY voice they had and he's begging for change. Man they suck...
 
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