How do you feel about paid subscriptions?

[gbullock32]

So there are many games with online play, and to cover server costs they either have a monthly/yearly subscription or offer an in-game shop which you can buy items or boosts for money. Both have ups and downs; the monthly subscription (usually) means that there is no real pay to win elements and the company does not have to keep pushing the pay content. Cash shops mean you can play for free if you choose, even if it is detrimental to progress, and if you choose to support the game you can and be rewarded for it.

Personally I prefer a monthly or flat rate pay option that means there is no shop; I'd rather pay a set amount and have the game be equal for all who play. Too many times games start with small things in the shops, skins, pets, or other cosmetic things but soon enough you can buy experience boosts, items that give you a huge step over normal players, in game money, inventory space.... things that actually give those who drop more cash a benefit. That's fair enough in terms of they are paying more for the service, but it leads to some scummy cash grabs by many developers.

So what are your thoughts and preferences between the two? Assuming for the sake of this that one is needed to keep a game online.

[aileron]

I've never paid for a subscription to any game, or paid for any ingame items with real money. I'm just personally against that sort of thing for myself.

Generally though my thoughts are that paying full AAA price for a game and then paying monthly is a bit of a scam. You can argue the upfront price was for development and the ongoing price is for servers and service. But if a company has put out several of these MMO pay to play games, then probably their server usage and costs aren't going to vary that much: I'd expect people will play the older games less as the new ones come out. Also they could allow players to host their own servers as one person suggested above.

Now about ingame purchases, they should be purely cosmetic and not effect play. Otherwise the players that can afford the most stuff will have the greatest advantage ingame. That doesn't seem fair.

[Trippy Logic]

Yeah RuneScape is nothing like that anymore, this store sells beneficial items now not to mention spin2win "lootboxes" whilst still keeping the subscription model.

[Trippy Logic]

I prefer subscription based online games because it's the best way to provide service and have everything available to everyone.
If a game does need microtransactions for whatever reason it would have to be 100% purely cosmetic and untradable so it doesn't drive the economy.

[isturbo1984]

very true. yeah Ep2 was the last episode from telltale's TWD 4. but looks like the parent company Skybound is picking the rest of the series up and will finish it, thankfully.

[Animusisters]

Subscription models are a good way to cover ongoing expenses. Selling additional services and items which don't turn a game into pay to win is also fine for me. Also there is something that many people don't know or like to forget, quality costs money.

When it comes to people who play games that are availble f2p I made the experience that quiet a lot of them have a horrible "give me that for free and for zero effort" mentality. So I avoid that kind of persons as good as possoble.

[Whiskycat]

I support them. The amount is insignificant but it's already a big filter for some part of the bad apples. Plus usually this means 100% absence of custom shop or it's limited strictly to cosmetic items. However, SWTOR and GW2 have a good plan as well that I can get behind. Subscriptions are a good way to have a sustained income to support the game but only if the playerbase is huge. Otherwise custom shops seems to be more profitable.

[PriestTroit]

I liked how Runescape did it. You could, and I did for a long time, have a great time playing the F2P version, but for five bucks you could get membership. The price went up over time, but if you kept a concurrent membership your price was grandfathered in. They had some other stuff like a costume/emote store or something like that, but I never bothered or cared.

[PriestTroit]

Yeah, I never got why they don't just sell the game when it's actually finished. Otherwise you run the risk of buying an I.O.U. that never gets realized. Didn't Telltale have to cancel Walking Dead episode 3 or something?

[Dub-Z]

I don't even like 99% of cosmetic and emote/dance economies, because I want to play a tasteful aesthetic carefully curated by artists, rather than be in a sloppy flea market of player self-expression and personal flair. Even in 1v1 fighting games I don't like when character recognizability and move readability is diluted by a silhouette breaking, 7 Layer burrito of a costume. You could even get into the science of readability and recognizability in competitive FPS games, and the way color affects psychology ie: red aggression, blue passivity etc. It's just sloppy greed and foolish concessions.

Subscriptions for something viable, ongoing and legitimately in need of upkeep and content development is fine. That's why it worked for MMO's and would work for franchise sports games. Just make a game people want to play and if someone doesn't want to intentionally spend money, they're not what can be considered a customer.

[Odyssey]

OMG. E. T. did well. It was sold in millions (the production price for a cartridge back then was just a few dollar. So the sold copies of E. T. made sure that E. T. made a profit. Doesnt matter how much werent sold). The home computer price war sourced the video game crash in the US in 1983. And it stopped in 1985. Way before the release of the NES. And about the chinese market: Blizzards game are already banned there, cause China has way more limits to video games then most other countries. There is even a video about how Blizzards games are banned in China. They dont allow gambling in China (so wave goodbye to lootcrates) and showing sexy women (and yes, this includes the nice presentation of women in Overwatch). So the chinese market is a closed market which is only allowed for chinese companies. Thats a lesson all western software companies have to learn. But by then they have lost most of the western customers and will most likely crash.

[fenrif]

I've only played 2 MMO's where I've paid a subscription. Eve Online and Elder Scrolls Online. Eve Online was subscription only and ESO was F2P with subbing giving you premium. Remember a subscription doesn't remove a cash shop as generally this is a way to handle rising costs even during lagging subscription times. I believe both are F2P now with the subscription being a premium version at this point. Now I don't have time for MMO's anymore but I believe that either style is fine. Whether you have to subscribe or subscription is premium.

A subscription should remove a cash shop, but MMO devs are greedy and modern gamers are ignorant. If your subscribers start lagging then nickle and diming your remaining playerbase is a really scummy move.

Subscription being as a premium I am against for the same reason I don't like cash shops. The players should all be on the same level. Outside factors should not intrude on the gameplay or gameworld. Especially in MMOs.

[The_Dirk_Diggler]

I've only played 2 MMO's where I've paid a subscription. Eve Online and Elder Scrolls Online. Eve Online was subscription only and ESO was F2P with subbing giving you premium. Remember a subscription doesn't remove a cash shop as generally this is a way to handle rising costs even during lagging subscription times. I believe both are F2P now with the subscription being a premium version at this point. Now I don't have time for MMO's anymore but I believe that either style is fine. Whether you have to subscribe or subscription is premium.

[Commissar Alexer]

Eh, not sure about it. I dont really have that much time and lust to focus on one game.

[gbullock32]

A lot of interesting opinions from both sides; seems the end answer is 'It depends.'

I think my reason for the monthly or flat rate is that it is predictable and I can better decide if the cost is worth what I get in return. I pay the same each time, rather than having to put a few dollars here and there for different things, which can easily add up more, and it is common to have the mind set of "It's only a few dollars" and then you see just how much it adds up at the end. It reminds me of the people who spend thousands on the Fifa packs; individually they are not much, but over time it adds up to be a lot more without people really noticing it.