Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Xerin raises a major point for me: games supported by
microtransactions usually are free to download and play. This tends to
bring in some gamers I ordinarily hope to avoid in a subscription-based
game.

To counter the point, though, I'll admit that the jerks seem to show up
in every game anyway, and parents continue to let their 10 year olds
play MMOs despite how much of a colossally bad idea that is.

Boomjack, you nailed my mindset perfectly. I am a flat rate
guy and prefer to pay once per month (or 3 or 6 months) and forget it.
If I find that a game involving microtransactions will end up costing
me roughly $30/month to get the bare essentials to feel I am a
productive member of the online society, I'll likely just uninstall and
move on with life. On the other hand, if a subscription-based game were
to raise the price to $19.99/month, I might hang in there if I loved
the game.

The increased monthly rate is the model players seem to
be facing in Warhammer Online. I will defer to Ten Ton Hammer's
Community Manager for Warhammer Online, Ratboy, as to
whether the game will be worth $20/month.

Just put me down as weary of games funded by microtransactions. I was a
hardcore gamer in college (before marriage and fatherhood), so I would
have rolled with the system more readily. Now my play style is far too
casual (12-20 hours per week counts as casual to me compared to my past
habits) to justify spending $30/month for a game. That's just too large
a jump too quickly in price point. And I feel confident in saying that
smart developers will find ways to make me feel I need to
spend that $30/month to remain competitive.