by Jeff Woleslagle on Oct 26, 2009
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Ten to twelve years ago, players got nothing more than the ability to play an MMO and an occasional minor patch for the price of the monthly subscription. The rise of subscription-free gaming led to "content updates," free expansions, and other attempt to periodically add value to subscription games, but is there a simpler, simpler approach? Our thoughts in today's Loading... The Sinking Sub.
You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What
is The Pulse?).
Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:
World of Warcraft DungeonsBiggest movers this week:
DC Universe Online (UP 5 to #16) Torchlight (UP 2 to #17) EVE Online (UP 1 to #7) RecentSubscription MMO games suffer from a paradox that explains, at least in part, why most typically get undeservedly low review scores. If you shell out $50-$60 for an offline or hosted multiplayer game, you're looking for reasons to enjoy the game you bought. As soon as you introduce a monthly subscription, especially in a tight economy, a certain percentage starts looking for reasons to dislike the game, so they can save some money and dole out a mostly contrived or secondhand stankbot opinion to look smart to their gaming friends.
If you're like me, you tend to prefer subscription MMOs for the same reason that there's typically little crime inside airports - it's not that the security's absolutely airtight, it's that it's not worth the price of a ticket for a vast majority of the potential troublemakers to get in. It's no surprise that a vast amount of a game's illicit RMT trade flows through trial accounts, and kudos to the games that lock down these accounts as soon as they take receipt of large amounts of goods and currency. It's not just the my asshatted concept of exclusivity, I'm willing to pay my share for the service, support, performance, and overall quality of community I get from most subscription MMOs. And with apologies to Champions Online, Star Trek Online, EQ, EQ2, and even WoW, combining revenue models and opening revenue hurts the subscriber base in the long run. Even if players are only buying optional or cosmetic items a la carte, the more complicated the pricing scheme is on top of the subscription, the more suspicious players naturally become and the more desperate developers look..
At the live preview of LEGO Universe last week, I caught myself thanking Mark Hansen and the team for deciding to make the game subscription-only, no microtransactions. If there ever was a game that could make a bundle on selling individual pieces, it's LEGO Universe. Visit the LEGO Store at the mall and you'll pay $8 for about 1/4 lb. of bricks. Order on the official store and you'll pay $.10 or more per piece plus shipping. Since loot in LEGO Universe consists entirely of LEGO pieces, I could envision parents going slowly bankrupt buying virtual blocks for their kids.
But going sub-only means that a game has to keep an increasingly skeptical market on-board for another month and another month. It goes without saying that players expect ongoing content for additional gaming dollars, but more endgame content has increasingly limited retention value nowadays. So how can subscription-driven games keep their customers?
SOE was the first to change-up the pricing model with the Station Pass program, which began in 2003. Sadly it's an idea that hasn't caught on - had NCSoft had a similar plan, perhaps Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa would have enjoyed greater success or at least hung on for longer, Planetside-style.
Aside from these all-you-can-eat buffets of gaming, last week Hi-Rez presented a fairly creative pricing plan for Global Agenda when it's released next year. In case you missed the news, everyone buys the box and gets a free month's subscription, afterwards you can let the sub lapse and play it as a multiplayer online shooter for free or keep up your sub at the sub-par price of $12.99 to enjoy the more MMOish overworld "Conquest" side of the game. I think it's brilliant - how much more likely are you to subscribe if you're already playing the game for free? It's just a matter of finding the right group of players and wanting to take the game to the next level.
Innovative pricing plans are one way of overcoming the subscription gap, but this is probably even simpler than all of the pricey marketing teams make it out to be. I like to eavesdrop on Sean Stalzer's quarterly newsletter to his highly respected guild, The Syndicate, and in last month's broadsheet he asked this question: "If the technology exists to let a player order pizza through a Playxpert widget, why can't a game allow a Guildmaster to update the message of the day, maintain the guild roster, and see the guild bank from a secure browser page?" He went on to push for other community tools like a web-based calendar, out-of-game instant messaging, an MOTD feed, and other tools for easily keeping players connected without running officers and guildmasters ragged. It makes sense that stronger in-game communities make for stronger MMOs, or at least it did before World of Warcraft. Maybe it's time to get back to our gaming roots.
Will subscription MMOs exist in 10 or 20 years, or is free-to-play is the future? Can better tools, microtransaction options, or more pricing options help preserve the subscription model? Share your thoughts in the Loading... forum.
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of STO or Jumpgate Evolution?
When
it comes to upcoming space games, which one's got your attention: Star
Trek Online or Jumpgate Evolution? Maybe you have room in your gaming
roster for both. Or perhaps you think comparing these two games is like
comparing apples to oranges. Whatever the case may be, have your say.
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Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"The two games really will be
vastly different - I don't doubt that some
people will end up playing both (I'm pretty certain I will at any
rate), but otherwise it might just come down to which type of core
gameplay you like best."
- Sardu
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4 new Ten Ton Hammer MMOG features today! 107
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Ten Ton Hammer's First In-Depth Preview of LEGO Universe Star Trek Online VIP Q&A with Craig Zinkievich 15-day Trial Key Giveaway for Fallen Earth 'Days of the Dead' Event- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer
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