i have been watching the gametrailers retropective, the most recent part was on FFXI, and the comments had idiotic things like "it sucks cause i have to pay to play it".

Dont the realize that there are things such as; server costs, staff wages, development costs (as the game is constantly getting updates and new content all the time). I dont think that the purchases of the game alone would be enough to fund all that.

just a random vent.

If anyone could explain why people think that a big game like ffXI could possibly be free, i would greatly appreciate it.

Well, it does suck that you have to pay monthly to play it. That is not a false statement by any means. It sucks that I have to pay for anything.

I only like to pay for a game once and that's it. ... unless it's about 7 copies of Deus Ex like I have but anyhow.

So I wouldn't say "it sucks cause i have to pay to play it" but "it sucks that I'd have to pay to play it" instead. And don't you know that reading just about any comments sections anywhere ever is not really an enlightening thing to do?

it shouldnt exist at all

I think the problem is value for money, rather then the fee itself. People want to get the best out of their money and thus paying a set fee for a month and only getting 2-3 hours of play in for that month doesn't seem worth the price of the fee. On the other hand, you have your five-finger zealots who believe everything should be free, ... I was going to come up with some witty analogy but unfortunately I can't be stuffed.

I completely agreed with the first 4 words of your post.
I have no problem paying for mmos just not FFXI.

Remember when games shipped with both multiplayer and single player? That was nice.

[That's why I think people complain, anyway. If I just dropped 50 bucks on a game, I should be able to run/mess around with it by myself]

Ahh ye olden times

The problem is that by paying money in advance to play a game you are basically committing yourself to playing that game a certain amount in that month in order to get your money's worth.

It's a step most people will feel uncomfortable taking.

seriously you god damn weirdos, i played wow for a while and its just numbers increasing in a table while someone calls you a ***.

FFXI isn't WoW. The Man In The Street can't pick it up, bust out some time, have some fun on a prepaid game card and then leave six months later.

Plus, you kind of need to have to be an obsessive SE fanboy to play FFXI.

what makes it different from WoW? the super intelligent fanbase or the complete lack of grinding and cookie cutter shopping list quests?

So I guess you never actually played then....

Well it makes sense that people don't want to pay to throw their lives away...they would rather do it for free

Well that's not completely fair, as I've never played it but I know what it does to certain people (my ex-dormmates)

personally i think it should either be buy the game and play for free or free (or extremely cheap) game and pay the fee...

Mostly the fact it's about twenty times the timesink.

The issue (at least when I played), was that we're paying $10 a month, and the economy was just being raped by gil sellers. SE was doing nothing, and attempting to play ranger and ninja without buying gil was an exercise in futility.

I'm sad that I just took the time to read the stock rant on why you have to pay for MMOs. :saddowns:

The overwhelming lack of quality to MMO Gameplay.
The fact that the successful MMOs aren't "scraping by" and could charge little to nothing a month and do just fine.

Paying for an MMO monthly sucks because you're always trying to make sure you get a proper pay-to-play ratio. And you can never REALLY justify the money.

ffxi is virtually impossible to play. you have to group with japanese people just to kill rats. the controls are also horrible.

.

See WoW where you can buy the game for $2 on a DVD, or EVE Online where it's free to download and play for 2 weeks.

And I think spe was being sarcastic and saying that since FFXI is different from WoW, it MUST have an intelligent fanbase instead of retarded 11 year olds, or fun instead of just mindless grind, or maybe non-boring quests, since WoW is chock full of all 3, along with virtually ever other MMO.

You still have to pay to activate the account.

I might be willing to pay to play if the game was free and the fee was hourly.
And you only payed after you played.
They'd probably end up charging more that way but it'd go quite a bit farther in feeling like you get your money's worth since it wouldn't be paying for an entire month and only playing a few hours during the month.

If it was a reasonable fee I would be interested in pay by hour.

On a tangent, what with the whole Xbox live deal (that they seem to be trying to integrate on the PC)? What exactly are they providing (that wasn't provided before for free in some shape or form on the PC) that you need to pay for?

A better matchmaking service.

As far as I understand, they try to stick you in with people that are at your skill level.

Subscription fees for online games are lame for a few reasons:

1) Most games aren't worth the fee (cough*wow*cough). Paying 15 dollars a month to be some NPC's errand boy and go out and slaughter hordes and hordes of monsters in the name of leveling up and getting "uber gear" isn't a waste of money.

2) Fees forced you into a commitment to play the game as much as possible to justify the fee. Not everyone shares the same gaming habits. If I get bored with a game and I want to take a break, if I just paid a fee for a month that I decided I don't want to play, that fee just went down the gutter. You essentially have to revolve your life around the game because of the fee.

3) Its a misconception that games with fees exist to pay for the servers. Not necessarily true. Games like Guild Wars are proof that game companies can find ways to cover the expense to run servers without having to charge the players. Also, most games that have fees like WoW exist because the fee is used to fund the development for additional content offered in patches.

Guild Wars is basically like paying fees anyways.

They release a new expansion like every 4 months that is basically worth all the fees you would have paid.

Either way, Guild Wars is a horribly boring game, with awkwardly crappy gameplay just like every other MMO.



Tabula Rasa looked pretty promising, but after being in the beta for a while.. sorta meh.

I go to school with a bunch of FFXI nerds. They say that SE really cracked down on all of this. They all play on Bismarck.

Star Wars: Galaxies.




That is all.

Actually, the shortest time was 6 months (between factions and nightfall) with the longest being slightly more than a year. Eye of the North is the only true expansion for the game as Factions and Nightfall were stand alone campaigns that did not require the original Guild Wars game to play. These campaigns are also optional so you're force to buy them although you'll be missing out on some the skills exclusive to those campaigns.

While I agree that Guild Wars can get boring at times, the fact it has no fee means if you get bored, take a break and come back when you're in the mood to play it again, just like another game you might own. I don't agree that the gameplay is bad because the game's skill system is pretty good and makes pvp fun because you just never know what kind of player builds you'll be up against.

Anyway, Guild Wars: Eye of the North is going to be the last release for the original Guild Wars. Arena.net is not working on a sequel that will be closer to a true MMORPG (guild wars is technically not a mmorpg, fyi) by creating a more persistant game world ala like most MMORPGs. Guild Wars 2 will also be subscription fee free as well. I'm looking forward to the sequel and hope it doesn't turn out to be another WoW clone like some people think it'll be.

Most crappily made game I have ever played. You'd think that they wouldn't spawn 50 of the rarest creatures in the galaxy right on top of a town. See also: Being shot through walls and NPCs that move at obscene and reality breaking speeds to engage you.

As an aside, I have found most MMOs to be pretty much the exact same thing but with a different skin (Except EVE). What do the ones asking money have that some of those free MMOs don't?

Having played through the trials/betas of Two Moons, LOTRO, and SWG I have yet to see any gameplay difference between them other then SWG allows space flight.

Pfft, the only decent MMO I've played is CoH/V and even then I don't think it warrants the monthly fees. It gets a bit boring after 3 weeks and you get the first month free anyway.

I love CoH/V

There just isn't alot to do after you've played a character all the way up to about the mid 40's.

Why would I pay a monthly fee for a game when there are 100s of decent online games with less nerds typing rage into them... and don't say it doesn't happen more online RPG is just flooded with nerd rage.

All online games are flooded with 'nerd rage'

I played the Matrix Online for two months, the community and players were 1000 times a lot better than most free to play mmo. The game itself was 1000 times a lot better than any Free to Play mmo that I have played.
So why did I leave? Too expensive for me. I knew I would never be able to play again, but man it was fun jumping from roof to roof!

Would it be possible to have a game online where its free but paid for through advertisements (ie. your character drinks real-life drinks and eats real-life brand food or have flyers and banners posted on buildings in game)? Is this a stupid idea (sounds that way to myself after writing it)