Hmmmm Let me think for a nano second NO WAY!! Pledged more than enough.
Would you pay a subscription?
- Thread starter honoursword
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Yes. If this game turns out to be as good as it promises to be I'd like to make sure it keeps developing. I know the subscription model has already been dismissed and I hope it can stay that way, but if it came to the crunch I think some additional revenue generation wouldn't be unreasonable. Sponsored space stations anyone? Or would you prefer to buy this only slightly-used moon?
big as in megabytes or big in sales? all i can say for sales is that i know of at least three other people who are buying it, one being my brother who pledged for a digital copy and a friend who is saving the money so i can gift him a beta place via paypal, the other intends to wait for retail release
MB! I mean if we are going to have threads and polls about something that really doesn't matter why not about this?
Knowing the size of the client is probably of more use to us than going over this same topic.
Much like the spoon, there is no subscription!
Absolutely
I would have no problem paying a subscription for a game if it meant regular updates and good servers. I find that games I pay for once get boring after a while because the developers move on to the next project but games with a regular fee structure of some sort have a responsibility to keep things interesting so they are always working to improve and grow.
I would have no problem paying a subscription for a game if it meant regular updates and good servers. I find that games I pay for once get boring after a while because the developers move on to the next project but games with a regular fee structure of some sort have a responsibility to keep things interesting so they are always working to improve and grow.
Providing there is always the fallback to single player without the servers and whilst paying the game was continuously updated, then sure I would pay. After all, the money for development has to come from somewhere.
It's is simply a question of whether I feel I am getting value for money.
It's is simply a question of whether I feel I am getting value for money.
True, but if you spend your life submerged in the matrix that is the internet no matter how convinced you are that there is no spoon you can still see them all around you.
to paraphrase a great film 'my god it's full of spoons!'
Ummm what???? How can you say the biggest MMORPG in history, a game that has over 9 and half million subscribers, a game that makes Blizzard Entertainment hundred of millions of pounds a year is dying???? Even if they lost half of their subscribers they would still be the biggest money making MMORPG on the market.
Also, what evidence do you have that GW2 has more gaming activity than WOW? I can find no evidence of this. Also, you mentioned that Star Wars and Secret World have been repackaged. Well that was kind of my point. SW started with a subscription based model as it would make the company the most money, when the game started to fail there numbers dwindled and they then went to free-to-play.
With the exception of GW2 and perhaps a few others free-to-play gives the impressions of either a small developed game or a large developed game that is failing in my opinion. Only the truly well developed games that grab the players seem to last, look at WOW, look at EVE, been around for years, massive money making MMO's and of course subscription based.
I can understand why Frontier started Kickstarter to raise the capital to get the game out there. But once out I have to be honest I would rather pay a small subscription than the game having to rely on kickstart donations to keep new things being developed. What if they don't raise the money? Does that mean new and cool things don't happen? I think I would like these kind of questions answered before the whole subscription plan is dismissed.
Not relying on Kickstarter where some people may or may not contribute to something.
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There is a long established MMOG, Lord of the Rings Online, that started with a subscription model and then moved to a 'free to play' model. It's still alive and kicking after nearly 6 years.
Ok to be more accurate Wow can never actually die because its too big. Even if 'everyone' left to play the next big thing there would be enough so Wow can never 'die'. But... the game is 100% in decline and has been wince WotLK where it hit its peak of 12.5mill subs. The latest Blizzard report showed 9.6mill. The games old and it is losing players at an alarming rate.
I agree 9.6mill is a successful figure for a company to make money, but anyone still playing this game can see just how dead the vast majority of realms are. People simply dont login very much, which is why the game activity is low.
Its very arghuable how accurate the 9.6mill figure is anyway and anyone with business sense knows this figure is almost certainly manipulated. This is because Blizzard do not ever want to release how many real subs they have but they must release a figure for their quarterly financial report for the shareholders by law.
Here is what the report actually said :-
As of December 31, 2012, Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft remains the #1 subscription-based MMORPG, with more than 9.6 million subscribers. 2
http://files.shareholder.com/downlo...a-bde335918118/Q4_2012_atvi_press_release.pdf
Now go and checkout what that little number 2 at the end means in the key...
²According to Activision Blizzard internal estimates
Yep they have to legally admit their own figures are a complete guess. Ill even let u know one reason why its an estimate... thats cos Asia dont use subscriptions for their gaming culture. They use 'timecards' which is buying game time over the counter. This has always been a sweet bonus for all MMO games to 'cook the books' and invent subs which dont even exist.
My point is dont trust what Blizzard or Activision say about their own subs. The few independant sources out there all show that gaming activity in Wow is very low in both EU and US and every report ive found shows that GW2 has much higher active players than Wow right now.
Like it or not GW2s innovative 'no subs' model is a resounding success and i think Frontier would be crazy not to look at why this is working so well and to learn from it.
Having to change a game shortly after release is massively bad press for the game. A successful game should be released with the correct financial model.
Ill try to find reports that ive seen recently, admittedly i cant locate anything right now... (although i will say that the recent report i saw showed was showing in EU that GW2 is currently more popular measured by logins)
My point is that there arent simply these 2 options. There are several other free-to-play models which generate healthy income to keep their games running (GW2 being the best example).
EDIT: my overall point is that subsciption gaming is dying out and coming to an end so i would advise against using this model if they want ED to grow and become a large global game.
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Actually i dont think u do dude...
The main reason Frontier (and all the other games on Kickstarter) are using Kickstarter is to bypass the need for a publisher. Publishers in the gaming industry right now are whats mainly to blame for the current 'type' of game which is out there and therefore software houses with great ideas dont want to be controlled by these publishers so they self-fund their projects so they keep full control over the games they make.
Frontier has very clearly said this.
Its much easier to get a publisher to fund game development than to try to selffund your gaming project.
I am not saying GW2 is not an innovative 'no subs' model the point I was making is that how can you say a game is dying when it is still making hundreds of millions of pounds and is still far bigger in terms of subs than GW2 is. True, Blizz maybe skewing the numbers a bit but noway could they skew the numbers that much, it would be evident in the financial reports which still see Blizz making an absolute mint from WoW.
Plus the game is still being developed, they are still making expansions how is that 100% decline. True there numbers have dipped a bit, they did around Cataclysm too but then went up when MoP was released and have again dropped a little. Hardly an MMO in decline. Just shows fluctuations in numbers. I am sure they will pop back up again when the next expansion comes out.
Having to change a game shortly after release is massively bad press for the game. A successful game should be released with the correct financial model.
Ill try to find reports that ive seen recently, admittedly i cant locate anything right now... (although i will say that the recent report i saw showed was showing in EU that GW2 is currently more popular measured by logins)
Absolutely but is it because the game was wrong or the payment model? Let's be honest if the game lived up to the hype people wouldn't have left it in droves, the payment model wouldn't have changed and it would be milking the cash.
It was the game that was wrong, not the payment model.
I agree that they are not the two only options. I just disagree that the subscription model is dying out. If the game is good enough, people will pay it really is that simple.
Yes but do you think the game would have happened if they hadn't used Kickstarter? Probably not considering Braben has spent years trying to get this to happen and publishers have probably been the stumbling blocks.
Braben himself has said that if they reached a set figure they would release a Mac version and 10 new ships. Well, why not just do that anyway? It suggests that they a relying on kickstarter to fund the ongoing development of the game.
For me I personally think subscriptions would be a better option. It means they could get a more stable income and the cost is evenly distributed among the actual players of the game.
Actually it was more the payment model. The game wasnt worth paying a monthly sub for.
Name me one successful game thats been released in the past 2 years which is subscription based?
The truth is that its nothing to do with whether paid subs is right or wrong its all about the current gaming CULTURE. And right now the culture within gaming is t have free-to-play. Any company releasing a subs based game right now is obvoiusly behind the times and clueless about the current market.
Of course it wasn't. By that logic people would have stopped playing WOW and Eve a long time ago. The game was pants and that is why people stopped paying for it.
Name one game in the past two years that is any good and worth a subscription? I cannot think of any.
Darkfall Unholy Wars is going to be subscription based and that is because Darkfall was successful. It was a budget MMO that had a dedicated following and they paid the money.
It is likely (and this is just my opinion, nothing is confirmed) that Elder Scrolls Online will also be subscription based.
The only time it becomes unprofitable is when the game fails and people don't want to pay for rubbish.
In a sense a lot of people have already paid a subscription by donating to this game.
Wow is a totally different animal than any other game in as much as its playerbase r generally not gamers. By this i mean a massive section of the Wow playerbase have never played anything else... Wow is the only game theyve played.
Look at it this way... how many new players has Wow grabbed in the past 2 years?
Im confident that the numbers tiny.
Most Wow players started playing Wow when subs were the norm and therefore theyll happily continue to pay those subs. Currrent gaming culture is that gamers r unlikely to play games with paid subs. Thats just the current climate we are gaming in right now.
Imo Wow is a massive online community and the main reason people continue to play is out of habit and fear of losing all their online mates. Basically speaking, theyre addicted into the Wow universe. And Blizzard could throw any garbage expansion at them (cataclysm anyone?) and the vast majority will continue to play.
My point is that its arguable that the Wow players r still there cos the game is so awesome or whether its out of habit and the fear of change. I consider myself a solid and experienced gamer of all games ever made in the past 30 years and imo Wow is a meh game in the present days standard of games. (dont get me wrong i loved wow for 5 years and still regard it as groundbreaking)
Dont forget that Justin Beiber sells more albums than Metallica but does that mean that Beiber is a better musician?
Large sub numbers dont mean the game itself is good, they just mean the games successful commercially.
Eve on the other hand has been growing steadily since release which bodes well for ED as it shows popularity in the same genre
Darkfall is the most hardcore PvP online MMO ever made so its a very unique animal. The game has clearly built from the ground up a loyal fanbase/playerbase who r all happy to pay subs to take the game to the next level.
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