I will NOT buy this game

[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 ). 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.