I will NOT buy this game

[MrVicchio]

Author Topic: I will NOT buy this game
Nglan
Station Member
Registered: Apr 2003 posted 04-25-2003 10:50 AM user search report post
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi,
I have been following Planetside for some time now, and the game looks interesting. I was planning on buying the game when it comes out in a few weeks, but will now NOT be doing that.
Why ? because I WILL NOT pay a monthly fee to play a game I have already spent money on purchasing.

I am a big player of BF 1942. They never ask for monthly fees ? Thats why I always buy their add on packs, and will continue to do so. Planetside with monthly payments - NO WAY !

Nglan

Spork is too nice, I would have said, fine, we don't need oyur money... but then.. I probably would lose my job...

SporkfirePS
Station Admin
Registered: Jan 2003 posted 04-25-2003 04:05 PM user search report post
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Everyone will decide for themselves whether the game justifies their monthly subscription fee. That's the nature of business. It's our job to ensure that you feel like you have received a fair value for your fee.
I don't have to deny that there are great games out there, even similar games, that do not require monthly fees. But few (if any?) are massively multiplayer games and most of their developers do not assume the responsibility of hosting the multiplayer games. We do, and by doing that we can offer a consistently high level of service and content.

The server and bandwidth requirements are one of the primary reasons for the fee, but not the only one and probably not the most important one. The Dev folks at SOE have been doing this for a long time and know that people churn through most games after a couple of months. The monthly fee will allow us to keep a Dev team continually updating and enhancing the game throughout its life to keep it fresh and interesting. Ask anyone who has spent at least a year in almost any MMO how much their game has evolved and how long they expect to continue playing. You'll find that this is one of the chief draws - new challenges and additions to the gameplay that don't allow it to become a repetitive experience, even after months or years.

Victor Wachter
Community Relations Representative
Many questions can be answered by reading the PlanetSide Game Info and FAQ

http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/planetside/Forum2/HTML/007055.html

[BUGGER]

That es me think........


What if a guy comes up to a shelf and buys the game. will there be like a month free of playing or are ya gona have to chip in money right from the start?

Lets say he's gota chip it in righ now. He plays, and doesn't like it, so he returns the game. Now what becomes of the money fee put in for the monthly fee? He has to pay it anyways? I mean the guy's gona be asking for his money back both ways, whats gona happen with this?



Really, I think there should be a month free for users taht haven't been in beta so they could get the feel wether they want to play or not. As for beta peeps will have to pay right off retail. if they play for a day and return the game, screw them, they had the chance to make that dessision when beta was called over, they choose to play it right there and then.

So to say this all in a mere 2 sentences.

nonbeta-1 month free.
beta-pay on first day.

[Destroyeron]

My Reply to the guy who won't buy it: GOOD! We dson't want assholes like you anyways! You cheap bastards!

[simba]

Originally posted by Destroyeron
My Reply to the guy who won't buy it: GOOD! We dson't want assholes like you anyways! You cheap bastards!
:confused: why? He might just not have enough money 2 pay 12 bux a month.

[BUGGER]

Then he is offically a hobo.

[HawkEye]

:rofl:

[Flameseeker]

You dissin' Hoboes?

[Masurao]

If your going to ahve to pay monthly then I think the inital cost of the game should be less. The $50 is the price of a regular FPS that you can play for free. if PS is $50 then it should cover maybe the frist 2 months. I mean 1 month is nothing, and then $12 after that? in 1 year you have spent $200 on a game, and that is alot to spend on a game when you can get similar games for just the initial cost of the game, which are normaly under $50.

I am crazy about planetside....but am I really so desperate to pay 200 for a game that, in its current state, will get repetative just like anyother FPS...Even with all the people playing its just a FPS...

Lets face it. Your MMOFPS is not much more then tribes with a giant map and a little char develpoment system, wich is somthing that you got in Diablo for free. I think many can relate...this game is awsome....but its nothing special.

Agian I love Planetside...

And for all those who are just going to call me an idiot I just got this to say to you: I got my opinions about all of this and you got yours, so don't freak out its just a game :D For Destroyeron who called Nglan an asshole..ur the asshole dude, Nglan was just voicing his opinion, you got no right to say he's the asshole :lol:

The ever irritating,
Masurao

And I know I can't spell thats one of the reasons I am irritating :D

[ShinyMind]

Seriously, most games worth playing these days require monthly fees. More specifically, I can't imagine a persistent world type game NOT charging a monthly fee. Those server costs are ...costly...

[Rang3r]

:mad: Do you realize that Planetside needs a massive amount of bandwidth to hold as many people as it does? The highest i saw it at was 7000, it could hold more though. it is a very expensive server. Normal servers for a game like bf1942 probably use something above a T1 that runs out of an office or a company like homelan, which is either free or you pay something like 100 dollars a month. But those only hold comforatably 64 people, these hold more than 7000. These servers are completly for planetside and im sure and need probably more than a couple thousand a month, and you also need to pay the other guys, like the tech support, etc.

running servers like this isn't free:eek:

[Masurao]

yes and so do a ton of other MMO games that are not $50 to buy and not $12..which it looks like will become $15 a month.

[ShinyMind]

Originally posted by Masurao
yes and so do a ton of other MMO games that are not $50 to buy and not $12..which it looks like will become $15 a month.

Name one, besides America's Army, which is paid for with tax dollars.

[Rang3r]

i rettract what i said abotu the server, you guys are greedy...



i think 30000+ people paying 12 bucks a month is waay more than enough to pay for a dev team and the server

lets see here 12 bucks * 12 months = 144 dollars a year

144 dollars a year * 30000+ people paying = 4320000 dollars a year

then the 50 bucks down payment the 30000+ people will be paying

4320000+(50 * 30000) = 5820000+

thats 5820000+ dollars a year the first year
and 4320000+ each year after that

and a dev team is maybe 20 people or less? which will be making
which is about 290000+ dollars for each dev member which probably wont be doing jack for half the time he should be:eek: :mad: :confused: :cool:

[LeTronk]

Although I do have to agree with you that ~6000000 is a bit much for upkeep on the servers. You have to realize how much SOE has invested in this game.

First, they had to develop the game. No small or cheap task. They had to pay large teams tons of money to make this game. There's the art team, the sound team, the programming team, administrators, clerical, etc.

After the initial development is complete, they had to secure all of the servers for beta, plus a building to keep them in. Then they had to buy packaging and cds to send to the beta testers, and someone to pack and send them. Now they have a hardware support team to make sure the servers stay up and running.

Once beta is done, they have to buy packaging and cds for the retail version. Then they pay to ship it to their customers (who only pay SOE about $30 wholesale). In addition they must have all servers running and able to support those 30000+ people.

THEN comes the real killer, advertising. Throughout this entire process, they paid a firm to make sure every single gamer in the US that heard the word "Planetside" to think of this game. That can easily total in the millions.

To top it off, there may be only 20 developers that run upkeep on the game, but for a professional software engineer (which I am) in San Diego CA (where SOE is) runs 70000-100000 a year. That's approx. 1.5 million.

Overall, using the numbers provided, I think that SOE won't actually make a profit on this game until late in the second year of its release if not longer. The potential is there to make alot of money, but it will take awhile to accomplish it. This is a common theme in big business that noone thinks about when complaining about how much something costs. It may not make sense to do it that way, but as the old addage goes, "You have to spend money to make money."

[mikkyT]

lets see here 12 bucks * 12 months = 144 dollars a year

144 dollars a year * 30000+ people paying = 4320000 dollars a year

then the 50 bucks down payment the 30000+ people will be paying

So when are you going to go to business school?

You think all that is profit?

Lets take the $49.99 cost of the game. Take away 30% immediately as this is the cut a high street store will take for selling the game in their store. Then take away packaging and printing costs, publishers costs (probably nothing for the US releaseas SOE is publishing the game themselves in the USA but UbiSoft is handling international publishing and will take a cut of sales there). Plus advertising costs. People don't print them big planetside posters and stands for free. And people don't put them in their shops for free either.

Now theres not a lot of profit left. Hell, they probably won't recover ANY development costs with unit sales alone! MMO is a niche market, unlike the massive chart topping releases, MMOs only appeal to a small minority of gamers (so far) and publishers are unlikely to recover their expenditure on unit sales alone.

Now lets look at the hosting costs:
144 dollars a year * 30000+ people paying = 4320000 dollars a year


You get a first month free. Lets assume that many folk will not play after that first month. Lets say 1 third. So, your down to 20000 in the year. Thats assuming 20000 units are actually sold! EverQuest didnt have that many people in its first year, BUT MMOs are not the "new thing" now so hopefully the advertising will have been right.

Out of that fee comes a hefty whack of bandwidth costs and server hosting costs (your not hosting a server on a POS Pentium2 on a cable connection here) - multi-server farms, probably 2 or 3 machines per continent, thats 20-30 machines per "server". Theres 3 servers for release (US, UbiSoft will be hosting the international servers, so they will take their cut out of international monthly fees, infact they will probably take the monthly fee directly and pay SOE a percentage of it as they do with EQ).

But, whose going to look after your servers after release? Hmm they can run themselves, reboot themselves on crashes, hotswap their own disks when they fail, back themselves up, change their backup tapes. This takes man power. And therefore a cut.

Then you have got additional man power costs for acutally supporting the game, GM costs (admittedly nothing compared to EQ as that had more in-game support). You have development team costs who will be busily developing new content that you WONT have to pay for (included in routine patches) plus content for the next add on pack which you will pay for (just a one off purchase cost).

Then you have another development team who will be working on bugs as they will always exist.

Etc
etc

now you notice that the profit isnt all that great and in fact they probably wont make much at all. Probably a 10% mark up. Still nice, but not mega bucks.

[BigDickMccoy]

I don't know one dude at SOE the works for peanuts, profit is the name of the game. If they don't profit.....they don't make/improve games. Besides you don't buy a game for price (unless your a hippie), you buy for content. You don't like the content, don't buy the game. If your to cheap to spend the going rate, quit gaming cause it ain't a cheap hobby

[BUGGER]

I dont care bout it.......its like tv......ya can go to a bar and watch tv all day.....but at home ya gota pay $200 for a tv +plus good channels......so dop the tv and play planetside.





BUT waht i dont like about PS is how its making everybody wastes 1000s of bucks just to upgrade their computers just to play planetside..........yea upgrade, then play really fast and sleek, but thats just 1500 bucks into the computer +the game and monthly fee's...... which equal around 2000 bucks. now thats just like insaine.......


But i'll still play ps anyways......screw high settings.....

[LeTronk]

wow... I don't know where you get your systems. $1500?? I build my own systems... I'll buid a good system now. NForce2 mobo (w/5.1 sound & lan) ~$100, Athlon 2100+ ~$70, 512MB PC2700 RAM Name-brand ~$70, GeForce4 Ti4600 128MB RAM w/MyVIVO ~$150, Name-brand CDRW ~$40, case ~$30, 19" monitor ~$150. There, a good system for ~$650 (this price includes shipping costs). This is essentially my system, except I have a $150 case and a 21" monitor. I play Morrowind (a VERY graphically intensive game) at 1600x1200 resolution and get ~60 fps. If you're spending $1500 on a computer, you're getting ripped off.

(all prices found at pricewatch.com and newegg.com)

edit: the GeForce4 is redundant hardware... The NForce2 Graphics are spectacular, but I had my GeForce b4 the mobo and it has VIVO where the NForce doesn't.... I like playing my PS2 on my puter. :)

edit2: oops, forgot the cpu fan... that's another whopping $20-40 depending on quality of fan that you want.

[d0rian]

hmmm.. .they need the money to maintain the servers and keep up with bandwidth issues?

lets take a look at the numbers.
this open beta was for 20k people. lets take that number alone.
i see this number as thier theoretical numbers to test server loads. so i guess they expect at least 20k accounts.

20000 x 10 dollars x 12 months = 2.4 million dollars a year.

2.4 million to maintain servers? i would guess maybe 6 IT specialists MAX to maintain those servers?
hmm 6 IT lan support level 2? goes for about
60000 dollars a year x 6 engineers is 360000


2400000 - 360000 = 2,040,000 dollars left over.

of course there is the cost of leasing the site (thats if you are leasing) and the very high bandwith lines to the internet.

but i think there is a considerable amount of money left over.

can anyone add more figures to this ?

i would say that 5 dollars a month would be a fair price considering that the user has to choke up 50 dollars immediatly.

perhaps the the monthly fee would not be so bad if the users could freely download the game! i would definitely play for 6 months if i did not have to buy the game from EB.

[d0rian]

i should have read the rest of the thread.

i am pretty much saying the same thing.

i just hope they add more to the replayability of the game.
i can play "capture the base in a chaotic battle" for so long.
i dont see it being more than a month.

if there were a grand campaign or battles that you can get xp for that are fought over special creative objectives.

battles that last days or week with a yummy xp bonus to the winner. new equiment every month and such.

that would keep me playing. but the goodies need to come up monthly.

[mikkyT]

d0rian,

2.4 million to maintain servers? i would guess maybe 6 IT specialists MAX to maintain those servers?
hmm 6 IT lan support level 2? goes for about
60000 dollars a year x 6 engineers is 360000


2400000 - 360000 = 2,040,000 dollars left over.

of course there is the cost of leasing the site (thats if you are leasing) and the very high bandwith lines to the internet.

These "servers" are server farms of probably around 20-30 machines PER SITE.
Remeber theres east coast, west coast and central. Plus theres at least 3 international server sites that I know of (UK, Amsterdam and somewhere in Asia)

Thats site leasing/owning overheads for 6 locations, plus maintainance of at least 180 machines, plus bandwidth supply to all 6 locations.

Thats a lot more than the shitty figure you quoted.

It will be at least a year before they break even. Trust me.

[tyknee]

There is a complete difference between playing PlanetSide and playing Quake/Tribes/Diablo.

Those games are not hosted by REAL dedicated server. Yeah, you can set up a Quake server for people to play on, but is that server constantly maintained and operated by a professional staff? And Diablo doesn't even have that, Diablo is just a matching service.

Unfortunately, the way Sony has set this game up, it's impossible for anyone else to run a PlanetSide server except for them. But think about it, who out there really has the ability to let 1000s of people connect and play the same game? And how fun would PS be if only 50 people were playing at once?

[Duritz]

It's not very fun, but it's cool. I got into the saging server a couple days ago, I guess they just forgot to lock it. There were only 35 people in game. It's creepy with NO ONE in the game.

[Kintas]

Originally posted by d0rian
20000 x 10 dollars x 12 months = 2.4 million dollars a year.

2.4 million to maintain servers? i would guess maybe 6 IT specialists MAX to maintain those servers?
hmm 6 IT lan support level 2? goes for about
60000 dollars a year x 6 engineers is 360000


2400000 - 360000 = 2,040,000 dollars left over.
i would say that 5 dollars a month would be a fair price

MMO games are updated and maintained with in-game content on a regular basis. say you give a team of developers minimum wage, and the 20 guys are making only... 20 grand a year. (I'm being horribly, excessively lenient, they normally make 5x this amount), There's a squad of technicians keeping the servers alive. They're earning 20k a year, and we have 10 of them on the payroll. Say it costs 100 a month to maintain each of the ~super-servers~ it takes to run games like Everquest and Planetside, servers that can handle 500 connections at a time, and keep track of them within milliseconds of someone moving their mouse, and pushing a button. The server costs 150, and let's just be goofy and say the connection only costs 50 bucks a month per server. And pretend we only have 100 servers going here. Just because, if you haven't caught on yet, I'm being horribly sarcastic in how cheap I'm placing these amounts. Let's say, that's all it takes to keep this game up and running smoothly.

The developers are taking 400k a year in the game's revenue.
The technicians are taking 200k a year in the game's revenue.
The Servers are taking $200 each per month, over a year that's $2400, by 100 servers, this amounts to $240,000 per year.

That's $840,000 per year.

Ask anyone that knows salt from shampoo, and they know everything I listed costs about 5x as much. A good developer earns about 100k a year, same with a professional technician, and the servers bare minimum run 250 each month in connections alone, probably another 300-500 for maintenance and replacements/upgrades when/if they're needed

20 Developers, 10 techs, 100 servers, covering a 30k playerbase. Still sounds light, doesn't it? Because we haven't even covered the buildings these guys will work in, or the advertising costs. You guys complain about them making Revenue, on a groundbreaking, revolutionary, and pioneering concept, then go build your own version of Planetside, and see if YOU can get a game that will support 5000 people at a time for less.

[Harps]

guys the main thing that u got to remember .. SOE doesnt make games just so they make no profit .. its a buisness they're there to make money its easy as that and if they didnt charge monthly fees.... they wouldnt be making money. I know if i spent years making a game and having to keep it up once the game is out i would want some profit

[NERVACE]

The last pay to play MMO game that I played had a neat idea for people that wanted the cd's and a months online time it was available to buy in the stores for the cost of a month online time plus cost for cd's etc etc and they had the game as a free download from thier site that you had to subscribe to before playing that way you do not have a hard copy so you have to pay to play. I mean the box might look all pretty but I would rather spend the $50 on online play time than have a cd that will be useless to me once the game is installed....

[Stusi]

Ok here's how i see it. I would be willing to pay the cost of the game every 6 months. So about 8.50 a month (that's rounding up from .3 mind you). This would mean each person would pay $51 a year. This seems totally sain to me. But anything over $10 a month is overkill. Some one mentioned it will take them a year to break even. Well if this game is popular people will play it for 3 years easy. Look at HL. When did that dinosaur arrive? I have been playing since i was in 6th grade. I think they are charging too much regardless. I thought a very reasonable price would be like $5 a month. But 12? or 15? OUCH!!! And to all you saying "oh your so cheap". I am not exactly rich ok? I realise gaming is expensive and i spend about 1/3 rd of my income on my comp and games but setting me back 200 cuz your money hungry executives want more cash is just stupid. And the fact that they will have at LEAST 30,000 people subscribed. Run your numbers off of that figure. That's basically saying that everyone who has the beta buys the game and one of their friends do. It will be a lot more in reality... i would estimate ~90,000.

[Franchize]

Stusi,

Listen closely kid. First off it's not your money it's your parents money, and I understand that you are probably frustrated because they won't shell out the money for you to play another game. I want you to get the phrase "money hungry executives" out of your vocabulary. Welcome to the U.S of A. Our country runs on a capitalist system in which every one of us has the right to seek out and make our own living as we see fit. You don't like it, when you get old enough, go try to make it in another country.

The price they are charging has been dictated by the current market. They have researched it and found that the amount (aprox. $12.95) is the going monthly rate for this type of game. You have two choices; 1. Buy the game and pay the monthly fees to pay or 2. don't. That's all there is too it. It is the ultimate democracy. If you don't like the price you can vote with your dollars by not spending them. I guarentee you that if not enough people play the game they will lower the price so that they can make a profit. This is what business is all about. That is what capitalism is all about.

As it stands many people like myself who are gainfully employed see no problem with this price and will gladly pay for the privelige to play the game. You must make a decision and ask yourself how much you want to play. If you want to play, save your allowance and subscribe, because you can whine all you want they will not change their initial price because of you.

[Stusi]

Franchize,
Just to let you know i understand why you think it is my parents money. I live in a middle-upper class neighborhood and my family just makes it to fit into this bracket. On the note that it's my parents money... no it is not. I work, i have a job, i have chores too. For these i do not get much because both my parents and i think that a certain amount of responsibility should come with age and not get rewarded with money for just "making your bed". I do the dishes every night and cook dinner once a week. I also do my own laundry and take out the trash and on top of that i do odd jobs all the time for little or no money. There are my RESPONSIBILITIES and i get paid very little ($20 a month) for these. My job is at a bait shop. I work six and a half hours on saturdays and odd hours 3 other days during the week. For this i make $6 an hour. Now you may say "o well he can afford this game easily!" Well this is not true. I have to pay for gas, for recreation, (yes i do have a life outside my computer) and for other hobbies. I also have at least SOME experience in the gaming industry seeing as how i have done models for several MODs and have tested games and hardware as a summer job. I am very interested in becoming a modeler or animator for a gaming or special affects company. To be terse, I personally think the rate they charge is too high. With upwards of 90,000 people subscribed the should have more than enough to run the game and pay the dev's and Sony and overhead with a substantial profit (over 1.3 mil according to my calculations). While planetside is clearly going to be the archetype for MMOFPS's to come, i think they should watch their step when it comes to a monthly fee. I think SOE's malfeasance, when it comes to the price they are charging, is in the fact that they only need half of the money. I am not trying to be acrimonious, but many people agree with my complaint. This price just seems too high. On the other hand i am very happy with the job the dev's have done so far concerning updates and such. Finally i must admit i will buy the game as soon as it comes out but if it is not worth the $13 or so a month i am paying it will quickly be dropped. I hope i am not going to be flamed but these are my opinions. I hope you will understand my position now and that my parents refuse to pay for any thing besides food, clothes, and shelter. I apologize for the extended reply but i am very emotional about this subject.

[LeTronk]

Just for clarification, do you mean middle-upper or upper-middle... because that's a HUGE income difference. Upper-middle is the ~$100000 anual income range. Middle-upper is the ~$500000 anual income range. If you're parents are truly in the Middle-upper range, and you don't have a good car, guarenteed college tuition, and more than $20 a month allowance, they are extremely stingy.

Anyway, $12 a month is really nothing for the true target audience of this game (18-24 and game obsessed) considering that most in this range have full-time jobs or are students who are willing to part with one eat-out meal (that they'd miss anyway because they're playing the game instead of eating-- actually they save money from all the missed meals due to the game :D ). To give a few examples of how little it effects those in this range, I'm a computer engineering student and on co-op right now. My co-op pays $15/hr. This means that one hour of work more than pays for my month of gaming (should I choose to play this). My friend is an assistant manager at Papa John's and makes around $8/hr. He has absolutely no problem paying the monthly fee on his EverCrack account. I have several other friends who are in the same arena as he is: 2 IT supervisors at my university, 3 of my friends from the computer engineering program, 2 friends in the business school, and 1 who works at a novelty shop. We all have bills to pay, only 2 of the students are on scholarship, all but one has to pay car insurance, and and all but one has to pay rent. The money given to SOE is just considered part of the cost of hobbying. This is a relatively cheap cost compared to many other hobbies out there. Watching sports live can cost hundreds to thousands, musical instruments can cost a few hundred a year for upkeep and a few thousand for a new intrument, Magic: the Gathering can cost up to a thousand a year, a reading habit can cost hundreds, and golf can cost thousands a year. All who have these hobbies go into them knowing the costs up front, and have no problem with them. That is why I have no problem paying SOE a measley $12 for upkeep and the American Dream of capitalism.

[Stusi]

The difference from my point of view though, is that this is overpriced. It is a video game, and i am used to not paying anything after i purchase it. I understand the need for the monthly fee and have no problem with it but i just think it's too much. Also a local study was done in my area and people from 13-17 spend the most money, and the most hours, on video games. This would seem like a good statement seeing as how they most likely dont have a full time job or go to college. Also to answer your question, I am in the upper-middle class. My parents make a combined income of about $110,000 a year. Already a monthly fee is scaring away most of my friends because we all agree... games get boring... no matter what. I have several that i rotate through. BF 1942 (and it's mod DC), HL mods, and Planetside. These are just my views and i hope everyone keeps the constructive criticism coming because i find many of your points valid and interesting.

[Franchize]

Well Stusi,

I am glad to hear you earn the money you have. That's fantastic, but you missed my point. You say that SOE is guilty of malfeasance which means fraud. This is a rather serious allegation and yet you still say you are going to buy this game. That makes no sense, not if you honestly believe this. If you can't afford it don't pay. I can, so I will. It's that simple. I have plenty of expenses too, but I budget my income so I can afford to do this, if I couldn't afford this I wouldn't pay either.

If your looking for sympathy, you won't get any from me. Sorry, but nothing in life is free. You said yourself you want to work for a game company, how much money do you expect to make? The high price of computer games is a result of many factors, one being the high cost to employ experienced and skilled technical professionals in programming, technical support and server administration to name just a few.

I am sorry if you took this personally it was not my intention and I apologise. I just feel that you should really take a look at the facts. The game companies do not owe anything to underprivileged gamers. As you stated if there are a lot of people who feel the same way you do and they refuse to pay or stop paying if they do not feel it is worth it, I will gaurentee that SOE will reduce the price, however, I will tell you right now from the feedback I have seen and Verants track record the odds of this happening are rather remote.

It's one thing to point a finger at a large company or corporation and call them the big bad money grubbing machine, it's quite another to put yourself in the place of these people, who are in business to make money, worked hard to get there, have their own families and expenses. Put yourself in the place of an executive at SOE. You have an original idea for a game, put together a team of programmers, and developers to make it happen, and then you want to sell it. Wouldn't you try to get as much out of it as you could? Think about this before you answer, think hard.

[Hamma]

SmokeJumper on the official forums:
Here are two big reasons to charge the monthly fee:
a) Bandwidth isn't free. To run these servers for this many folks actually results in chewing up a good chunk of the money you provide each month with your subscription.

b) We keep a full development team on the project AFTER release. That's a **FULL** development team (30+ folks)...not five guys as a side-project like you get with most retail products. We intend to make this game one of the most vibrant, alive, and constantly evolving games out there. You'll see.

There are a lot more ways that money is spent, but those are the two primary ones. The development team will continue to do the following for you on a regular basis in return for that subscription fee:

a) Ensure that any hacks/cheats found are eliminated.

b) Keep the servers up and on-line, issue-free, for the large majority of the time (excluding a morning here and there to do an upgrade or in case something horrible occurs like a UUNET outage on the 'net).

c) Continue to upgrade and improve the game, either by honing balance or by providing new downloadable content on a regular basis so that the PlanetSide experience gets more varied and more challenging over time.

d) Fix any bugs that are found after release.

It's a good deal any way you slice it. Here's my personal opinion, as a gamer...not a Producer:

I buy 2-3 games a month. Most of those, I play for 5-10 hours and then shelve them as "ho hum" or just plain bad. Total cost (at $35 per box) = $105 a month.

On the other hand, when I play an MMO, I tend to get obsessive about the game. I pay the initial $35 (I rarely pay $50 and neither do you...admit it) and then I play for the first free month. If all looks good, I sign on for $12 a month. And y'know what...I don't need those other games.

Besides...who are we kidding? $12 a month is less than you spend on a single movie with popcorn. It's nothing.

And for that $12 a month, I get constant upgrades and improvements to a game that I *already like*? Well...heck...sign me on.

My opinion, of course.
http://boards.station.sony.com/ubb/betapls/Forum1/HTML/011782.html

[Skids]

People need to stop comparing PS to games like Halflife, UT and BF1942... its comparing apples to oranges. Traditional FPS servers are usually maxed out at 32-64 players and most any hack with a spare box can run a server. PS servers support THOUSANDS at once... I've seen several hundred in a single base trying to capture it.

To have a server farm able to handle something this large takes cash. If you aren't willing to pay that cash, stick to a traditional FPS and play for free... your choice.

[Tatter]

I hope the monthly fee is less than the cost for Everquest (EQ). I honestly don't think that Planetside will have the content of EQ, ever.

If they charge the same as EQ, then all future content should be a free download and never have an expansion you have to buy.

I know the games are totally different, but maintaining EQ has to be alot more "involved."

[Xerxes]

Originally posted by Franchize
Stusi,

Listen closely kid. First off it's not your money it's your parents money, and I understand that you are probably frustrated because they won't shell out the money for you to play another game. I want you to get the phrase "money hungry executives" out of your vocabulary. Welcome to the U.S of A. Our country runs on a capitalist system in which every one of us has the right to seek out and make our own living as we see fit. You don't like it, when you get old enough, go try to make it in another country.


You know not every one that plays computer games are kids many number are in there twenties, thirties etc. All the guys in my clan are adults and most are parents. I will most likly be getting Planetside. The problem isn't the price. I think it's being stuck playing a game cos you've payed for that month, so you better use it. Pay to play is new, and becoming more frequent. Just hope the suits don't get greedy.

:cool2:

[Franchize]

Xerxes,

I was specifically addressing Stusi in that post. I know not everyone is a kid. I intend to play the game too. I just get aggravated when I hear somebody who plays these games call the companies that make them greedy! Every time you buy a PC game you are telling these same executives and marketing reps that the price they are charging is fair. If you think they are out of line, or that they are charging too much, vote with your dollars and don't buy the game, it's that simple. You don't need a computer game! It is not essential to maintaining your health or livlihood.

I have a fantastic example of real greed. Go play EQ and see how much people charge for a teleport or a res. That's greedy, yep, I am sure some of the people complaining about the pay to play and cost of this game are the same people who are big time price gougers in Everquest.

[DarkDragon00]

I DONT MIND PAYING AT ALL!!!

All companys need to make their money and after years of development they've been using pron\b money from like eva' quest and the other sony factions to keep this game going. Once launch is ova' they will regain their money in 1-2years and then finally start making a profit. 12bucks a month aint jack. Most peeps without a job can pay for 12 bucks a month, and wit' the prepaid cards u get covered for 3months or something like that.

I have no prob with the cash cuz ive seen what the dev team is able to do, a patch a day is amazing! Of course they are gonna slow down a bit after release but at least u know that if there's a prob it will be fixed!


Shout Outs To The Whole Dev Team! Thnx 4 ur hard work!

Squeeky, stay away from my post!

[Tytharel]

LOL mikkyT Red Dwarf rocks.

Anyway.. My two cents?

Glad you asked. I'm not a tech guy but I think that the reason why 1942 doesn't ask for money is because they don't need to. You host the game on you system right? They don't so anything but facilitate the game right? I'm not a tech guy by any means but that is what I always thought.

In regards to PlanetSide, the game is fun, a lot of fun IMHO. I have paid for games in the past and I would hope that this one wouldn't be two expensive as the game itself is already $50.. But what am i going to do about it? I really like the game so i will pay it, regardless. Games of this size need to have continual funds to maintain. As stated, it is up to the player if they feel that the game is worth supporting or not.

Of course I don't want to pay for anything but the fact remains that you have to pay to play this one. Okay, where do I sign?

Plus it's SOE, please. Of course you have to pay!
:thumbsup:

[LeTronk]

Stusi:

Just to let you know, you aren't actually "purchasing" the software when you buy it, you are licensing it. This means that you are paying for the right to install it (most likely on only one system, depending on the license agreement) and run it. When you install the software, you are agreeing to the license. Also, some software packages have a disclaimer on a piece of paper inside the box stating that if you remove the plastic on the jewel case, you agree to the license. Remember that little screen that you so quickly agreed to so that you could play the game. Read it some time, you'll be amazed at what you're not allowed to do with the game. First off, there is only one person that can contractually play the game, and only on one system. If you let you're friends try it out, or install it on several computers at once, you are breaking the contract. Most software companies also have a clause stating that they can stop service to the software at any time for any reason.

Okay, my informative rant is done. That's what I get for taking computer ethics and law this past semester. One learns alot of interesting stuff in that class.

[Stusi]

After hearing everyone's views and joining an outfit in the game, i have changed my opinion. I now think this game will be worth the money. The one thing i agree upon most was some one who said you buy new games every month and pay a lot for them and this game will get you addicted so you won't need others. This is what really made me think and agree. Everyone else had good points and i thank you all for not starting up the burner and flaming me to death. I now think it is totally acceptable to charge for this game and understand why they are doing this. Thank you all for your opinions, views, and interesting input on this topic. Long live Planetside

[Feral]

To everyone argueing about the monthly fee, I'll give you an idea how much these games cost to run. These costs are for AC2.

On a per month basis it costs somewher between 450,000 and 515,000 dollars.

On a per year basis that is between 5.439 million 6.216 million dollars.

Massively multiplayer onlinge games are not cheap at all.

[Spartan]

I think that new content weekly, and something like quests in other games would be great. Organized battles, an ACTUAL high command for each faction (GM basically) to give special ops missions/etc. This not only would make the game more fun, but it would make more money for the company by extending playability.

[BoxWine]

BF 1942 Servers arnt free, someone is paying for them so that freeloaders like you can play them.

[SandTrout]

Originally posted by Skids
People need to stop comparing PS to games like Halflife, UT and BF1942... its comparing apples to oranges. More like compareing apples to a 50 lbs. apple that regrows any part of it that you eat...

Just my 2 cents.

[Alaskan_m]

Seriously if u consider how much $$ u spend on the game per hour its an amazingly small amount. At most u pay maybe a $ per hour if u play once every 2-3 days for 1 hour...thats still better then a long distance phone call...movies,gas for car. it reasonably cheap entertainment

[Wildcard]

Really as far as I'm concerned the money doesn't matter. So its $12 a month, big deal. EQ is $12 a month and its not nearly as good as what Planetside is going to be. And no matter how much profit they make, so what, they deserve it for developing such a legendary unique awesome game. So everyone stop complaining about the cost, or how greedy they are, cause they deserve every penny they get. So you say there are somany free FPSs out there, big deal. This is going to be a whole other world for everyone to play in, not just a small map. Also all the add-ons that will come as the game progresses are another reason to pay $12 a month. Most importantly if you don't like it, don't pay it. Go play your free FPSs while the rest of us have WAY more fun paying our $12 a month.

[NCGHellraiser]

As a member of a gaming clan I'd like to clear up the misconception that CS/SoF2/RTCW ect.. ect... servers are free someone is paying to have a server hosted to the tune of about $90 bucks per month per server, if not for people willing to pay for a server to be hosted you'd have about a quarter of the current online servers for any of these games if that. Your 13 bucks a month to planetside gets you a reasonably cheat free enviroment, update, patches, constant developement of game play. CS/SoF2/RTCW servers are full of hacks, cheats the generally gehy, no talent n00bs, wanting to look impressive which ruins it for the players that are decent and even actually l337 in thier gaming.... So don't buy it enjoy the hacked to hell games and leave us to our relatively safe enviroment to play in

[The Apocalypse]

$12 a month aint too bad, $10 would be more reasonable BUT what about the different currencies. $12 US is the equivelent to about $20Aus or something...so suddenly for people like me in Australia have to pay more (relative to $Aus) assuming that the monthly payment is in $US
:huh: