Internet Games

[Null]

should be yes, and i refuse to pay montly to play a game.

however the reason behind it for MMORPG like FFXI is a understandable one.


most online games, we'll say like Quake, Unreal, Half Life, are free to play online. this is because, (while the companties may setup a couple of official servers) the players are what setup servers for people to join.

with a MMORPG, individuals cant really do that (some do). the company has to put forth a HUGE server, that stores EVERYONES data, and remembers it and runs solid, needing to be on a FAST computer on a FAST connection. because of the hundreds of people on it at all times.

so the money you pay is to maintain that. So paying is understandable in that sence.
However, i dont know the cost of what it is to maintain that server vs the price they're getting the game for. if they're already making enough profit on the game itself then yes by all means i think online should be free.

but even if its not covering it and they do need the extra fee, the current prices are too much. i think a bit more like $25 a year is much more reasonable, the cost of a magazine subscription per year.

by the number of people they should be making plenty off that to keep things running and its a price i might consider paying.

[Acebot44]

This is from an interview about the game Citizen Zero and I think it applies here:

Lastly, will there be any subscription fees, outside the Xbox Live annual fee, to join and play on the BigWorld shards?

MMOGs are expensive projects to maintain, with customer support, bandwidth, server maintenance and ongoing content creation costing more than any return from box sales. Yes there will almost certainly be an additional fee to cover these costs and allow for the future expansion of the game.

[GameMaster]

All online games should be free. Like two days ago, I was looking at City of Heroes at my local Target retailer, then I read in fine print that there is an addtional playing fee. So I say, "Forget that." I'm just a kid, I can't afford monthly fees and no one is going to pay it for me. Even if I was in a position where I could easily pay the monthly fee, I probably still wouldn't. Now WarCraft 3, there's a great online game that's free, same with their StarCraft game. Thousands of people are always online playing them and Blizzard seems to have no trouble handling the cost. I'm only going to pay for the game, nothing more. Having fun should never have a price tag.

[Dylflon]

Yeah, although I understand why monthly fees can be necessary, I hate them so much.

I really want to get City of Heroes or the soon to be released City of Villains. I really just don't have the money to pay for it every month though.

I feel they should make us pay $20-30 extra for online games and then not charge monthly.

I never play an online game for more than 3 months anyways.

[Jonbo298]

I've had City of Heroes since launch and I pay the $15 a month but I know that money is guaranteeing they do their best to keep their servers up and running. Glitches/hiccups occur here and there which is understandable as technology is not perfect.

But I feel charges should only really pertain to MMORPG's because they have HUGE, and I mean HUGE servers to maintain and insanely fast connections to maintain. They can't just let you use them free of charge every month otherwise MMORPG's would die out.

And with CoH, the devs promise a new content update every few months (preferably 2 months or so) to keep the game fresh and make sure people get what they pay for. The firs tone just came out recently and I'm already enjoying it with the $15 I pay them.

Games like UT or any FPS's are more maintained by servers people make. Companies can put up servers to use but they dont cost nearly as much to maintain as MMORPG servers do.

And games like Starcraft don't need insane connections and servers to run. They are older and don't send/receive data nearly as much as other games would

*edit*
and btw..if anyone picks up CoH, Put your char. on Pinnacle server (thats what I'm on)

[Crono]

For those of you who complain about online fees, let's just take a look at what a typical set up for an MMORPG looks like:

In FFXI there are 28 game play servers, 1 beta server, servers for tetra master, servers that manage in-game auctions, servers for public profiles, servers for ranking system, and several other servers handling different FFXI functions.

In total there are 1500 servers, all running Solaris 8. In addition to that there are 2 SunFire6800 iUltraSparcIII/8CPU memory unts, and a Sunstoredge (73GB triple mirror system) unit to handle the data base (running oracle 9), and 8 NFS.

FFXI is a huge game, VERY huge. I can't even explain how big the game is because you have to play it yourself (and no, watching your friend play while he levels in a party won't explain it either). If you think games like this will ever be free, I'm sorry to say, but you're an idiot. Don't buy them, don't complain about them. Like previously said, games like these are extremely expensive to operate. When you have over 1 million characters spread over 30 game play servers, and at any time those servers can crash, or they will need maintenance, you can be sure that SE will need that money to pay people to be there.

[Null]

as i said. i dont expect them to be free, However, the current monthly fee for them is over priced.

they need some money income to operate thoes servers for MMORPGs, but they're getting more than they need.