Why is monthly pay a thing?

[lopus]

The monthly subscription was a way to cover hardware and software upkeep cost,(servers, content, fix bugs, CS)at the time before wow number for subscribers was expected to be a lot smaller so the free to play model was inconceivable, and unsustainable, Example is Everquest show more than 225,000 subscriptions on 1 November 1999,with an increase to more than 450,000 subscriptions by 25 September 2003, that's less than half a million.

[chazus]

No, saying it's common knowledge means, it's common knowledge. Common knowledge is knowledge that is commonly known amongst people that have an IQ over 75. Or people who read. Things like that.

If it is common knowledge, then you'd think most people would know it.

Example:

Someone who doesn't read: Subs pay for content, brah!

Me: No, the price of the expansion pays for the content. The sub is for support costs.

So you're basically saying, if YOU know it, it's common knowledge.

That's not how pricing and costs works for wow. It's A) Not common knowledge largely because B) It's not true.

It might SEEM like that, but that's not how it works. It's a fair bit more complicated than that, but it might be an easy explanation on the outset.

[Keyboardjenkins]

Its sad how this generation is expecting this F2P nonsense that is killing the gaming industry in regards to content and actual good games. it's like let me create a something cool let you taste it but make you spend a dollar here or five dollars there to actually do something in the game. and then when enough people stop buying shit just cancel the game altogether and some new F2P game springs up because thats what people are expecting now. atop that all that money you spend keeps adding up for nothing and there okay with expecting the targeted crowd to just keep asking mommy and daddy for their credit card... Shame on you F2P developers...

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Yay for MMO-C where pseudo intellectuals argue points that can't be argued.

Thanks.

Let me try to dumb it down the best I can. In 2015 (the current year we are in), we pay less for things related to the internet, than we did in 1995 (20 years ago).

20 years ago, it was perfectly normal to be charged for everything online. Nowadays, I can understand why people don't understand why they have to pay for something.

Make sense now?

I've never heard anyone say that they don't understand why they have to pay for Netflix.

[tratra]

Well I guess at start it was about the services you get?

I still remember vanilla times the ticket responses etc were amazingly fast. Development was ongoing, bugfixes all over the place, content and nice content etc.

Nowadays I remember when I started WoD I made a ticket and had a 6 days waiting time.... Now thats BAD. I get how they have way more customers than before, but since you are paying for a service you should be getting what your paying for.
Same goes for content can't believe they let that stupid raid at the end of mop going for a year or so...

Nowadays I guess from their research they found out that no matter how shitty their services are, people will still pay for them cause there is no alternative out there.
So thats why thats a thing.

If subs were to drop tremendously in ridiculous amounts that wouldn't make the product profitable anymore then they would switch to some sort of pay2win microtransaction crap which are already trying to convert to.

[Deleted]

It goes back well before Blizzard. I don't know if there was any before Ultima Online doing it but it goes back at least that far and probably farther.

Goes all the way back to MUDs in the early 90s. Started off as MUDs asking for 'donations'
There were plenty of flamewars on rec.games.muds.diku back in the day.

By the time EQ1 rolled out, it was fairly accepted method.

[Deleted]

Nowadays, it seems ridiculous to pay for an online service. But 20 years ago (or so), it was normal. As time went on, fewer games do this, but WoW doesn't need to stop charging.

Not really - many, many places - like newspapers are moving their stuff behind paywalls these days.
Netflix, HBO, Spotify.. all streaming services are subsrciption based..
Free online services are endangered species - everyone is looking to monetize them.

In MMO space, everyone and their mother *want* to charge subs, but very few have been successful (WoW and Eve Online basically).
Wildstar went to f2p model as well - they do it out of necessity, not because they wanted to

[Biggles Worth]

Just out curiousity?

Why would people ever would think of paying for a game (50 dollars or euro's for a box) and then further more, even have to pay monthly to acces the content. Like who invented this? It's not like a game is that special to be worth to pay each month for.

So why does this thing excist?

is the genre MMORPG just such a expensive cost?

Good question, after reading some of these comments, good luck finding an answer.

[Kevyne-Shandris]

Subscription gaming was the norm. A free-to-play model didn't exist in any mass-market form. Also, Blizzard's quality of game is leagues above most free-to-play but really pay-to-play gaming.

Not by much anymore. Plus, their business antics and cheesiness rubs out the shine of their products in the end.

SELFIE cams and literal hot steaming turd piles in game? It doesn't speak content and especially quality, it speaks of 12 year-olds playing game directors (especially those still in potty training [and maybe just discovered a penis too]). -_-

At these AAA prices, players want actual quality for that much money and time investment. When YouTube can offer endless entertainment without a single fee, the arrogance of these companies who long took it's player base not only for granted -- view it even in contempt -- maybe they need more lessons in failure to learn from their mistakes (that Burn Jita moment).

Blizzard's gotten way too many free rides in the industry (which in turn drowns out perhaps better titles from indie producers, who are still hungry and thus want to work with their player base, not sit back like Nero fat on their arrogance and madness); and a lot of luck (more luck than they offer players with these RNG hogwash values in game).

They also come across as being too greedy at times. The latest example is selling a FLYING mount even after announcing of no more flying in new content.

Whoever are their PR representatives -- FIRE THEM. At this rate, Blizzard will be competing with EA on customer service, too. -_-

[Nurvus]

Back in the day, running costs of server infrastructure etc probably was so expensive that a subscription was actually warranted.
I mean this isn't a single player that doesn't cause permanent operating costs.

Nowadays though, most MMOs can easily stay afloat via microtransactions.

Blizzard is the only one greedy/bold enough to employ both methods at the same time for maximum ka-ching!

Actually that's a really distorted perspective.

Almost all F2P MMOs boast P2W benefits in their cash shop.
Take Tera Online, for example - teleports, boosts, etc.
Even Guild Wars 2 which is a B2P with cash shop has some stuff you can buy from shop that gives you in-game benefits.

So I think you should rephrase your sentence to "Blizzard is the only one honest enough to have a purely cosmetic Cash Shop".

And with the money you pay, Blizzard is the only one that actually shows you something for it...
Other MMOs merely release content and fixes bugs.
Blizzard releases content, fixes bugs, revamps mechanics, adds new mechanics, and keeps at it even during an expansion.

[SpikeySquad]

As someone who plays WoW for many many hours every week then actually it is that special to me (sad but true). As already mentioned you will be hard pressed to get anywhere near the amount of hours enjoyment out of how much a subscription costs. However, saying all this I will not pay for WoW any more since the introduction of tokens (unless the prices get seriously out of control).

[Arbs]

It's not ridiculous at all.

I would say it was more weird to pay for something online back in the day than it is now.

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There was a time when content was infinite in this game but that is not the case anymore.

Also that was when things were about time investment & not instant gratification / quick gameplay, Sadly those days are over .

[Kevyne-Shandris]

So I think you should rephrase your sentence to "Blizzard is the only one honest enough to have a purely cosmetic Cash Shop".

That image is now gone with selling a flying mount to players RIGHT AFTER telling them -- in an interview off their own property even -- of no more flying in new content.

Who in the hell wants to show off a $25 mount to 1 or 2 people in Deadlands, again?

Good God, Blizzard needs to either fire their PR department or simply grow up and run a company as a company, not some cash shop that hates it's own players. -_-

[Keyboardjenkins]

you paid for your modem
why is it a thing that you need to also pay every month for internet access / support

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paying for early access is killing it even faster then F2P

I could not agree more with that. Lets allow you to pay for early access to a game thats probably never going to hit the markets like wtf...

[Deleted]

Good God, Blizzard needs to either fire their PR department or simply grow up and run a company as a company, not some cash shop that hates it's own players. -_-

Did you check out their last SEC filing? (here http://investor.activision.com/secfi...878&CIK=718877)
They are actually running the company as a company pretty successfully..

But - before we get to flamewars - the sub is there because it's the most cost effective way for Blizzard to make revenue.
F2P model is problematic when you have (potentially) as large scale customer base as Blizzard has. In 3-4 years I think we might be seeing "episodic" F2P or some B2P variants, but right now, the sub is still their best option.

[Kaldriss]

even with the declining quality of the game, 15 dollars a month for what amounts to basically endless possibilities for entertainment isnt really that much

[Hayro1]

What I find ridiculous is people think it's ridiculous to pay 15 bucks a month (seriously...come on people....) to get a full month of access to a game. You can RP, raid, solo, make gold, level, achievements, other crap I probably never heard of. Not to mention now, since gold is easy to get, you can make enough gold to pay for the sub, thus 15 bucks is saved. I made ~5-15k (not sure exactly) between 2 toons from treasure missions and the bags from missions, might even be more. That was in about a week, give or take.

[BloodSense]

So, the publisher provides the developer with X amount of money to develop a game. That money covers cost of equipment, salary, off space, licensing fees and other development costs. At the end of development when the "box" is released, Total sales from the box go back first to covering the cost to the publisher for funding development. The remainder is split between the developer and publisher depending on how their contract is structured.

If the game is a one off, or a potentially new IP with new immediate plans for a sequel, developers and publisher can part ways here or continue their relationship to work on something else.

In the case of an MMO, several other things can happen.

In a subscription based MMO, often times the Original development team with begin work on an expansion, or, a new team may be hired to work on an expansion. Either way , one team works on developing on going content for the current game, while the other team works on a future expansion once again using money provided by the publisher.

So subscription costs provide for on going development of content, customer service, server space and bandwidth and other things having to do with the immediate needs of the game, while "box" price puts cover the publisher's cost of development of the base game and expansions.

In the case of WoW, Activision/Blizzard self publishes but everything else basically holds true.

F2P on the other hand is a whole other beast. In a F2P model server costs and on going development costs are covered by profits made in the in game store, which is why A game like SWTOR which is notorious expensive to develop for, due to its extensive use of voice acting and cutscenes, puts nearly every aspect of the game behind some kind of pay wall. In contrast GW2, which uses very little voice acting, very little quest text, requires very little PVE balancing and where the majority of new PVE content is world based, most of the things behind the pay wall are cosmetic because development costs are lower. Thought needless to say most F2PMMO still charge a premium "box" price for expansions to cover their development costs.

One of the reasons WoW, FFXI and FFXIV have been able to remain subscription based in a market which is moving every more quickly towards the free to play model is that players perceive their $15 a month as providing a value. Say what you will about the long stretchs of new content in WoW, but during their expansion development cycle, they do generally roll out several new raids, new zones, new quests chains and often times new dungeons. FFXIV has a 3-4 month content cycle resulting in 3 new dungeons, a new raid, a new crafting tier and new story content every 90-120 days. Hell they even through a new class in for good measure.

Compare that with games using a free to play model(gw2 excluded) which can often sit stagnant for a year without every adding any significant new content (especially outside of the paywall) and its not hard to see where subscription costs end up going.

[Kevyne-Shandris]

What I find ridiculous is people think it's ridiculous to pay 15 bucks a month (seriously...come on people....) to get a full month of access to a game.

Try $75/mon and get treated worse than trash even -- see any Holy Paladin INT plate BoAs, again? Blizzard wants Holy Paladins to goto level 100 in Shaman chain. -_-

That's what a subscription buys as "quality"?

Get real.

[Jimusmc]

Because the cost of maintaining servers isn't cheap.

Now it is.. it costs about nothing for a big company like blizzard