Saturday, March 18, 2006

A short Discourse on World of Warcraft, subcription fees, and the MMORPG industry

Basically, building on their hard earned, and well deserved history of making great games without exception (I didn't like Diablo but had to concede it was very well made, spawned a franchise, and sold a million copies), Blizzard made an MMORPG that even subscription adverse gamers would give a go, and ultimately strugle to give up!

Now that I've long left the fold and won't return to WoW, I've remained a part of the subscription paying gaming population (inactive), and paying an on going fee no longer restricts my purchases. Indeed, I demand and expect more from paying a sub, namely a continuously improving and dynamic playing experience.

What I would like to see next though, is the next step in the MMORPG business model that it at it's most advanced stage in Asian countries, namely South Korea and China. Instead of a hefty monthly fee subs are reduced to very small time hourly payments. I want this option available as an alternative fee structure, so that I can pay as I play and not feel like I'm losing value from not playing avidly, more so in a game that like CoH & CoV which according to the reviews doesn't benefit from long play sessions many other MMORPGs demand. And it's good for the industry as a whole, because although I don't mind paying a sub, I DO mind paying several.

If I had many, many hours available to me (say 35hrs in each day), and could pay as I play, I would have CoH & CoV, a space flight sim MMORPG with some kind of extra interactivity (no such game exists yet), and WoW to join in with my friends who still play.

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