This just in: MMO's cost money!

Over the last few years, ever since these mostly-crappy free-to-play Korean MMORPGs have started crossing over into International and Western territories, I've witnessed a huge influx in the amount of people that expect new massively multiplayer titles to be devoid of monthly subscription charges.

This article is what essentially got me worked up over this fact, or the comments on that article more specifically.  The Lord of the Rings Online has been out for just over two years on the PC, and at the prospect of a possible console release, everyone seems to be up in arms over the extreme likelihood that the game will require 360 owners to pay a monthly fee, as the PC crowd has been doing since the game's inception.  Do console gamers just believe themselves to be above such things?  I don't know, but some of the reactions really annoyed me and only seemed to provoke the notion that gamers have garnered this morbid sense of righteous self-entitlement.

I understand not wanting to pay a monthly fee to play a game.  That's fine.  Just don't do it.  But the people that lash out against the game for requiring such a thing just disgust me.  It's like they don't expect MMO's to have a monthly fee.  I still honestly believe that many, many people don't understand what goes into running a game like this.  Running servers 24/7, keeping a significantly large support staff, a development team for patches...all of it adds up very quicky.

I guess this is just a rant, but I guess I'm hoping to get some rational discussion on the topic going.

most console gamers don't want to pay a MMO fee.

I would say that the main factor that comes into the mind of XBL users when it comes to paying a monthly fee, is that they argue they are already paying a monthly fee for XBL and therefore don't want to "pay another monthly fee" for a specific MMO.

Though there have always been people who just get pissed off with the monthly fee. They don't understand why there actually is the fee. But I would also say that I don't think these "free-to-play" MMOs are making people expect MMOs to be free. People will always want them to be free and most really do just accept the fact that they cost monthly.

If you're looking to play an MMO on a console, you're in the wrong neighborhood.

therre are good free to play korean mmos, also very good private servers of pay-to-play korean mmos such as ragnarok online in which whoever runs th server tweaks the game such as level limit, exp rate, etc and put into place updates that exist for the game that the developer is too lazy to put in the real game which includes classes, items, monsters, etc

also i am in the school of thought that an mmo on a console should not have a monthly fee.  it's just weird.

A good 20% of my friends on XBL play FF11 Online. I'll stick with Guild wars thank you very much.

Two things make me believe why Xbox users would complain about a monthly fee

A) like Mazszy said Xbox users are already paying a monthly fee to play games online

B) More then 40% of Xbox 360 owners are under the age of 19, and don't know much about MMOs, and the fact that MMO's have had a monthly fee for 10 years.  Its only in the last few years have there been a large influx of free to play MMOs (ei. guild wars)

I guess the real question is this: if you were going to play this MMO online on your XBox, and no other online games, would you also have to pay for a Xbox live account? If so, that's bullshit. If you don't require a gold account to play the MMO, that would be acceptable.

It's not only Xbox 360 owners who complain about MMO monthly fees, I know plenty of people who aren't willing to fork over money monthly to play games like WoW and they aren't even willing to pay $60 a year for Xbox Live if given the option. This trend is usually with youngsters, teenagers and a few people in their 20's going to college/university, after that whining isn't all that relevant since most would have jobs by then.

Makes sense to have MMOs have a fee, but I don't understand why anyone would want to make one on a console. I still wonder how the hell do free to play MMOs survive. I doubt spending real cash on virtual (special or not) cash is a sustainable revenue for them.

When you have a job it really doesn't matter.

Yea I saw that up on Joystiq and thought it was dumb too.  Why should console gamers feel so privileged to not have to pay for something PC gamers have to pay for?  NO with current 360 MMOs you DON'T NEED LIVE GOLD.  You're not paying enough for Gold to get MS to pay off your MMO subscriptions too!  Live Gold can be as little as $30 a year, while no pay MMO that I know of charges that little.  The MMO maker needs their moeny too!

Personally I'd love to play more MMOs on consoles, or at least newer ones that my PC couldn't run well.  Why shouldn't I?

xxNBxx said:

More then 40% of Xbox 360 owners are under the age of 19

I would have no problem with paying a subscription fee for playing MMO's if the prices were set to just cover server costs. I completely understand that MMO servers are expensive, but companies don't just pay for the servers with the fees, but they make a lot of profit too.

Do console gamers just believe themselves to be above such things?

"I would have no problem with paying a subscription fee for playing MMO's if the prices were set to just cover server costs. I completely understand that MMO servers are expensive, but companies don't just pay for the servers with the fees, but they make a lot of profit too. "

"MattyFTM said:

"I would have no problem with paying a subscription fee for playing MMO's if the prices were set to just cover server costs. I completely understand that MMO servers are expensive, but companies don't just pay for the servers with the fees, but they make a lot of profit too. "

Well of course they're making a profit.  By pushing out new content, constantly supporting the playerbase and all things in that manner, they're still providing a service.  They deserve to make a profit."

"Kombat said:

"MattyFTM said:

"I would have no problem with paying a subscription fee for playing MMO's if the prices were set to just cover server costs. I completely understand that MMO servers are expensive, but companies don't just pay for the servers with the fees, but they make a lot of profit too. "

Well of course they're making a profit.  By pushing out new content, constantly supporting the playerbase and all things in that manner, they're still providing a service.  They deserve to make a profit."

Sure, they deserve to make a little bit of profit from it, but right now they are making a fortune and trying to pass these huge charges off as server costs, when the servers cost a fraction of that to maintain."

The simple fact of the matter is this.

If you own a 360 then don't complain about having to pay a monthly fee for an MMO. If you want to play an MMO then do so on the PC where the overall cost is cheaper.

"The simple fact of the matter is this.If you own a 360 then don't complain about having to pay a monthly fee for an MMO. If you want to play an MMO then do so on the PC where the overall cost is cheaper."

"The simple fact of the matter is this.If you own a 360 then don't complain about having to pay a monthly fee for an MMO. If you want to play an MMO then do so on the PC where the overall cost is cheaper."

"Kombat said:

"MattyFTM said:

"I would have no problem with paying a subscription fee for playing MMO's if the prices were set to just cover server costs. I completely understand that MMO servers are expensive, but companies don't just pay for the servers with the fees, but they make a lot of profit too. "

Well of course they're making a profit.  By pushing out new content, constantly supporting the playerbase and all things in that manner, they're still providing a service.  They deserve to make a profit."

Sure, they deserve to make a little bit of profit from it, but right now they are making a fortune and trying to pass these huge charges off as server costs, when the servers cost a fraction of that to maintain."

"Hamz said:

"The simple fact of the matter is this.If you own a 360 then don't complain about having to pay a monthly fee for an MMO. If you want to play an MMO then do so on the PC where the overall cost is cheaper."

I'm sorry, I thought this was a discussion about real-world economics, not the bizarro-world pie in the sky economics PC fanboys apply. Apparently I was mistaken. I'll let myself out."

"Jensonb said:

"Hamz said:

"The simple fact of the matter is this.If you own a 360 then don't complain about having to pay a monthly fee for an MMO. If you want to play an MMO then do so on the PC where the overall cost is cheaper."

I'm sorry, I thought this was a discussion about real-world economics, not the bizarro-world pie in the sky economics PC fanboys apply. Apparently I was mistaken. I'll let myself out."

Pwned.Seriously though, 360 MMO subscription costs being higher never factored into this discussion.  Hell, the price they're quoting for LOTRO is actually cheaper than what PC gamers pay, yet Joystiq picked up the quote and made a big deal about 360 owners having to pay ANYTHING (which is just insane).Imagine if they put out a MMO free on 360 that cost money on PC, that would ruin their own economics."

I pay for Xbox live membership so i dont wanna have to pay yet another fee

Um, a yearly fee of $whatever doesn't amount to the usual subscription of a MMORPG or anywhere close to that... And if you don't wanna pay fees, well, don't play MMORPGs as others said... Expecting them to be free is a little over the top... And besides, Microsoft get that fee off of you anyway, why would they offer you a game for free on top of that? You pay them anyways. As for third parties, they don't get any $ from that fee you pay so why would they offer their product for free, or a one time fee that doesn't cover the ongoing costs of running the servers for years on.

Anyway, I really do think MMOs should start looking at alternative money sources to power their MMOs.

This game in particular must not carrya  fee.  If it does, it'll kill the game.   If it doesn't, it'll be a hit.  Got an idea how they can make money in game?  How about in game advertising?  It takes place in an open world city damn it, there should be ads.

This is the "GTA killer" imo.