How do you justify...

[klaus]

...Paying a monthly fee to play a game?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you're wasting your money. I used to spend roughly 12 hours a day playing Diablo I and Diablo II. I love Blizzard and the fact that playing on Blizzard.Net was free.

I just can't find a legitimate reason for myself to spend actual cash to play a game. Isn't it enough (in most cases) that you shell out your hard-earned cash on buying the software to begin with?

I'm truly curious about this. Seeing all of you playing together in WoW really makes me feel like I'm missing out. I'd like nothing more than get together with you guys/gals and play something different than a FPS...I'm just poor. LOL

It's mainly because of the monthly fee crap that I haven't picked up WoW, and have been looking forward to Guild Wars (which I got to play during E3 last year). Fahey, the LoC guys (Casca, Ratpack and Co.), and I got together for that 4 day Alpha and we had the time of our lives. I could just imagine if all of us played a game like that!

My only gripe with Guild Wars (at the time) was that your group (Guild) could only consist of 4 players. How does WoW handle this? Is there a limit to how many people can join in on a quest (for instance), or be in the same guild?

I would appreciate serious responses to this thread, so save busting my chops for another day.

Thanks in advance,

Howie

[SauerKraut]

ROFLMFAO!!!!!


Howie, you sweet *******!


This post is magnanimous! Beautiful! It's like logging on to a <insert any website about something of interest to someone> and saying, "why are you so whacked? your <something> sucks!. bye."


hahahahaha


I love ya *****.

[Chairman_Kaga]

Well, I had the same beef with MMORPGs. I could see no reason to pay $$ / month to play for something I already paid for. However, I started playing Anarchy Online (which is still free and doesn't require a credit card to join right now) to cover the time between when I got kind of bored with BF and when BF:2 was going to be released. I was hooked. And, like you, I saw a bunch of VSF'ers playing WoW so I decided to try it.

I am not going to show the math but it comes out to pennies / hour of play. What you are paying for is the persistent world/realms, support, content expansions, patches, etc... It really comes down to personal choice. If you enjoy it enough, it's worth it. If not, there are a lot of "free to play" games out there.

Guilds in WoW can be huge. VSF is ~12 members now. Dragon Blood is 40+ and there are guilds that are 200+ members. I do not believe there is a cap on that. Your normal questing party can be up to 5 players. However, for raids, you can have tons. I do not know if there is a cap but you frequently see 20+ raid parties attacking towns. Of which I'm going to miss my first Dragon Blood raid b/c I'm out of town. :(

There is a 10 day guest pass to WoW if you can get someone to get you the installation. I just threw out my key b/c I didn't know anyone interested but I'd bet someone around here still has it. It may require a credit card to sign up though. I am not sure about that.

And if they closed the free enrollment to AO and you're still interested, I have one free account on there still. PM me and we can work something out.

Also, I played Guild Wars on two of the beta weekends and I can say that WoW is a much better implementation of an MMORPG. That said, GW is slightly different in that it is mostly geared towards PvP or Guild v Guild really.

[ignus]

i still have my guest pass key, but you have to install it to use it...

i couldn't fathom paying to play games until i picked up WoW, its so fun and addictive. and there will be a point when i stop playing it im sure and then i wont pay anymore either

[cowboy]

from WoW to WQII i pay for both and will for a while it comes down to personal choice as Kaga stated

how well you like the game will determin if it is worth the monthly fee.I like you am tiered of FPS as there really has not been anything new done with them in a while IMO (other than graphics and Physics maybe) the war fps is overdone and halflife just looks good UT the same DOOM letdown

also im board of the games that have know depth to them while WoW is a great and fun game and i will continue to play i do like EQII as it is alot more indepth in certin areas crafting for instance is alot more comlicated than in WoW. How ever in WoW you can leval faster (not Much) but it is quicker, they have taken out some of the grind to get things.I play WoW becuse of the fact that more here play that and it is in the game format thea i curantly enjoy. who knows i may go back to BF when BF2 comes out as BF is the only other game that peaks my interest.

Howie PM me with your address and we can set up some arangments to get you on WoW with the 10 day trail and let you decide from there it would be great to see you online with us again. and it is good to hear from you.

gabe

[klaus]

Thank you all for taking the time to answer my post. :)

Like Kaga said, if I look at it mathematically, then it really isn't that expensive at all.

I know if I got into a MMORPG, that I would be play at least a few hours (okay, maybe 8 hours) a day, so... I'd probably get my money's worth and then some.

I think I'll take you up on your offer, Gabe. :) I suppose it wouldn't hurt to test it out for 10 days. I have one question though:

Do I really have to buy the retail CD first, even before trying WoW out on the 10 day pass?

If so, that kinda pisses me off. Shelling out $50 on a chance that I might like the game enough to want to spend $15 a month on....

Oh well, guess I'll find out. ;)


Thanks again, Steve, Jordan, and Gabe!

[Chalybos]

You could always try this out, to see if you're interested in this sort of game. http://everquest2.station.sony.com/
Not quite the same game, but pretty damned close. For what it's worth, I railed against paying to play a game I'd already purchased. Then I tried EQ at the behest of one of my oldest friends, and got hooked. Now, I'm playing EQ2 when I'm not playing BF. Does paying to play a game suck? Every time you get the bill. But I'd say it's well worth it for the enjoyability of it. Sure, some people take it waaaaay to seriously, and there are some smacktards out there, but the majority of people out there are decent players who realize that 'hey, this ain't free, so I'll not be an ass'. The EQ2 trial is free, and you can level up to 6th level as a player, and 9th level as an artisan (getting tradeskills and making stuff, then selling it or using it.) Try the demo, run through the tutorial (boat ride), and see if you like it. Then you can make your decision as to what to play, although the vast majority of guys here are doing WoW, so I'd imagine that's what will catch your fancy.

[Dawg]

The 10-day trial is 'free' but you still have to give them a credit card number. If you like the game, you have to purchase the full version and then your character(s) is transfered to the real account. You then get prompted for payment options and so forth. This is how my GF and I got into the game. We had a couple of friends with the trial copies. She got it first and listening to how much fun she was having intrigued me into trying it myself. One night and I was hooked.. (reminded me of the first time I played RtCW actually). As for the account transfer facility, it was pretty intuitive so you should not have any problems if you decide to keep playing.

I avoided subscription games in the past. I felt that I would play too much in order to justify my payment. As it turns out, I play too much but its because its so damned fun. *shrug*

As for justifying the cost... the amount of money I have saved in other entertainment expenses more than makes up for the monthly fee. In fact, I think I've come out ahead in this respect! No more going out for dinner...(skillet meals, nuke pizza, pasta are our new staples)... No more going to movies or renting DVDs.. Heck, we can't even keep up with our Tivo anymore.. We've found that there are a large number of couples playing this game too...

Dawg

[ignus]

As for justifying the cost... the amount of money I have saved in other entertainment expenses more than makes up for the monthly fee. In fact, I think I've come out ahead in this respect! No more going out for dinner...(skillet meals, nuke pizza, pasta are our new staples)... No more going to movies or renting DVDs.. Heck, we can't even keep up with our Tivo anymore.. We've found that there are a large number of couples playing this game too...

Dawg

sounds like a romantic relationship :roll: :swg:

[MadSci]

I think Kaga summed it up best, the amount of time you invest in MMOs more than makes up for the cost. My only experience prior to CoH in terms of paying a monthly fee was Phantasy Star Online when it was back on the dreamcast console system. With that said, I've been playing CoH since it came out about a year ago. They've since had 2 major expansions that easily could've been sold seperately and they are about to give us the first instance of PvP in the near future. (not that i'm really looking forward to that).

The reason why I got into MMOs. Mostly because I got sick of ET and all the other FPS out there. My Xbox didn't have many games to play and wanted to try something different (even if many VSFers didn't play it, from what i remember, bokchoi, naz and hsnopi were the others to try it out). Plus, my brother stopped playing DaOC and started playing CoH so I decided to start with him.

And just as a FYI to you WoW guys out there....i'm starting to get bored with CoH (after a year or so). I have to see what this new PvP expansion offers, then i'll decide to quit and join WoW til City of Villians comes out. I'm undecided as of right now. I may want to do the 10 day trial just to make sure it's my cup of tea as i'm not into PvP. I've seen my brother play DaOC and it seems that crafting and farming for particular loot can get tedious.

[Chairman_Kaga]

You do not need to buy the game for the free trial. However, you do need the CD ISO images to install the game for the trial. Kind of a catch 22 if you're not physically close to someone who owns the game.

I'd gladly burn them and upload them to my site but it would take the better part of a weekend to upload them.

[ignus]

My only experience prior to CoH in terms of paying a monthly fee was Phantasy Star Online when it was back on the dreamcast console system.

i never had to pay for PSO... are you sure? i know they charged on the GC version, but not the DC. you just had to have an online adapter and connection.

[Helix(LoC)]

This is how I rationalize it. I spend 15 bux a month on something that keeps me out of the bar/clubs 3-4 times a week and therefore saving me lots of money I would otherwise throw at bimbos.

...or that if I find one game and like it(WoW in this case), I play it it for 6-12 months instead of buying a new game or two every month which could be up to 100 bux easily.

[MadSci]

My only experience prior to CoH in terms of paying a monthly fee was Phantasy Star Online when it was back on the dreamcast console system.

i never had to pay for PSO... are you sure? i know they charged on the GC version, but not the DC. you just had to have an online adapter and connection.

The original PSO for the dreamcast had no cost to it. Yes, I still bought the adapter (using a telephone was horrid) and got 3 characters to max level :roll:

But you did have to pay for PSO Version 2 which basically was an extension to the 1st game with battle mode, different rares and the such. Oh how that game sucked away my life for long time. The game was so simple yet so addicting at the same time, even with the same ole dungeons to solve.

[Roc_ketboy]

This is how I rationalize it. I spend 15 bux a month on something that keeps me out of the bar/clubs 3-4 times a week and therefore saving me lots of money I would otherwise throw at bimbos.

...or that if I find one game and like it(WoW in this case), I play it it for 6-12 months instead of buying a new game or two every month which could be up to 100 bux easily.
What he said

You know you can easily throw down $20+ at a bar. So what's 15 dollas for something that you would spend alot of your time on.

[ignus]

My only experience prior to CoH in terms of paying a monthly fee was Phantasy Star Online when it was back on the dreamcast console system.

i never had to pay for PSO... are you sure? i know they charged on the GC version, but not the DC. you just had to have an online adapter and connection.

The original PSO for the dreamcast had no cost to it. Yes, I still bought the adapter (using a telephone was horrid) and got 3 characters to max level :roll:

But you did have to pay for PSO Version 2 which basically was an extension to the 1st game with battle mode, different rares and the such. Oh how that game sucked away my life for long time. The game was so simple yet so addicting at the same time, even with the same ole dungeons to solve.

ok i just had Version 1.

i personally hated the game, but of course my first real RPG experience was Phantasy Star IV, and this game was nothing like it :(