Why do you people play MMORPGs like WoW?

[DoTheFandango]

Though I won't pay for games like WoW or EQ, I can see why it is logical.

If I had the money, I would do it too.

[RATTY...]

Exalt making himself look like a stupid nerd as usual.
Were you tired doing it in game, and had to do it on the forums too?
Crying since you can't afford a fucking game, how sad.

[Theif of Time]

GIVE KONTROLZ BACK HIS AVATAR!!!!!!

[SpiderMage]

There's actually an easy comparison for this:

Take Cable and DSL modems, you pay for the modem(usually) and installation(usually), plus you pay the monthly fee.

So some MMORPGs follow the same principle, you buy/install the game, then pay for the online monthly service.

Simple as that.

And... sometimes people on SS remind me of this guy:
Angry Internet Player

If there was ever anyone who took an online game too seriously, this would be the person.

[Exalt]

before certain forum kids that only talk shit about others peoples posts before even reading what the original post has to say, the question was legitament... btw all that shit talk was last night, no sleep + newbie shit talking = exalt verbally owning him

but my original point was what tahkis said so much better than me (damn Fin), was that they already made millions of dollars on the original boxed cd sale... and although there are other expenses by mainting the game servers, paying saleries, etc, the original box copy sold so much that those are trivial at best...

paying for saleries? ar eyou serious? So i guess every company should make you pay installments for their products to "pay for their employee's saleries"

15 servers with thousands of users is a lot of bandwidth...but are those all officially owned servers? and if they are, do you realize that blizzard owns them? This company has more money than you could ever imagine having.. the cost of maintaining these servers is chump change to them

In the end im just pointing out that companys that make these games are making a hell of a lot of money...maybe too much for what the product "should" be really worth...i see in the forum other posts about how the expansions all suck and really should be patches...well if thats the case, blizzard is once again exploiting you to get more of your money for a shitty product?

My thoughts are that besides the few hardcore WoW players, is there anyone out there that has a valid point to why they pay so much money to play a game that they ALREADY bought? You guys just go with the flow the company's start because thats what your told to believe. And no im not doing some shitty "conspiracy theory" rip off ahhahaha

oh and izor, your joining the AIR FORCE! AHAHAHA FLYBOY talking about the navy! loser! Go fly me to hawaii biiaaaaatch...and wait for me till i get back from the beach. Maybe ill buy you some cheap trick so you can get laid ahahaha B)

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

Okay genius, let me break it down in terms that even you should be able to understand:

The best comparison (as someone has already pointed out, I believe) is to cellular phone service. You buy a phone, then pay a monthly fee for use of that phone on a cellular network. I suppose you think that this is dumb too, but think for a minute and realize that you're completely incorrect. Beyond the nominal price you pay for your phone, your monthly fee is going towards constant repair, maintenance, and upgrading of the cellular network's infrastructure. If you simply paid for the phone, the network would go broke just trying to maintain itself, and you'd be left with an expensive paperweight.

What you buy when you buy the game is just that--the game itself. It's no different than 10 years ago when someone would purchase a copy of King's Quest (am I dating myself here? I think I might be). The thing that you buy resides on your computer, and your computer alone. 10 years ago, there wasn't any "network gaming" to speak of outside of MUDs and other simple network gaming, so you bought the standalone game. When you pay the monthly fee for WoW, essentially what you're paying for is the access to Blizzard's servers, where the game takes place. Now I know you think you've got some sort of "grand understanding" of how Blizzard's server infrastructure works, but the truth is that you're failing to grasp the simple idea that the game is constantly evolving, and is under constant tweaking and development by hundreds (possibly thousands) of people. These people that do said tweaking and development are people just like you and me: they require a salary in order to pay for their daily needs. This is essentially, in part, what you're paying $15 a month for--to make sure that the hardware and software don't fall into disarray. And trust me, it wouldn't take long if they weren't there.

The difference is this: when you buy a standalone game, there's hardly any development and definitely no infrastructure to maintain. What you bought is the final product, and outside of occasional software patches (which can be done by just a handful of people), there's no cost involved in the lifecycle of the software. When you play an online game like WoW, there's lots of salaries that still need to be paid, not to mention hardware upgrades and replacements (and yes, there are lots of them).

If you truly are an economics major (and I believe this just about as much as Ruby's Cisco networking degree), then you have a lot to learn about software lifecycles and development. Software has reached a point where in the near future, most entertainment and productivity software may not reside on your local computer--you may just "lease" it as long as you need, paying small amounts along the way.

So go ahead and "verbally own" me. I'm sure that despite all the spelling errors and grammatical mistakes that I'll be able to get a good laugh.

PS: Even if Blizzard is making a fair amount of cash, what's the problem with that? Capitalism at it's best: if you make a product/service that people are willing to buy, what's wrong in making money doing it (as long as you're not exploiting anyone)? Companies exist partially to sustain themselves--they don't do it specifically to make your daily routine "super kickass."

[Verthanthi]

am I dating myself here? I think I might be

lolz u nerd, u cant even get a bf. have to date urself, fag

[Troll King]

I bought myself a set of golf clubs, but I still need to pay greens fees every time I want to play.

[Liquid Blue]

Poor Exalt just wanted a reason to make fun of people he doesn't know via the internet - Did your boyfriend dump you or did you just get your lunch stolen again? It's ok Exalt, there's someone for everybody! Let's just hope your sunny disposition didn't turn away your one and only already ^-^

[Fair]

hit level 50 last night and respecced now my rogue uber owns

[Izor]

ok obviously there needs to be a monthly fee of some sort, but 15$ is waaaaaay above that (12 or 13 if you buy 6 months at once). I sorta lost interest with wow not because of the fee but because of how my friend got banned. He made a racist joke in a party with only me and some GM found it for some reason and closed the account.

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

1) Then that's not a problem with charging a monthly fee--that's a problem with you not liking how much they charge. That's called "free will". If you don't want to pay that much, you don't have to. The original question was "why a monthly fee?"

2) You'll find that racism goes about as far in WoW as it does here. Huge surprise: most online games won't tolerate it. Seems it's not just the "nazi, facist TW game/forum regime."

[Liquid Blue]

This is what happens when I'm still getting over my pneumonia and you present me with a photoshop challenge while I'm unable to sleep.

Heh I read through this page of the topic at school, her pic didn't load but yours did- I thought that's how her chin actually looked, rofl. Gj sarien

[PH]

Yeah, nice chin-butchering. :up:

[Facetious]

15 dollars a month isnt really that much given the amount of time wowers seem to play the game. sure, xbox live costs only 20 dollars a year, but how many xbox games a month do you buy? if you only buy 4 xbox games a year thats the same cost as wow for a year. going out to a bar one night for most people costs about twice as much as wow for a month. i dont really think the cost argument stands up very well.

i personally think wow and the like look excruciatingly boring, dont get me wrong, but calling people nerds because they spend 15 dollars a month on something seems a bit exaggerated. i do agree that most people that play wow are nerds, but most people that play any online games are nerds. most people that visit forums are nerds. most people that spend a lot of time on the internet are nerds. most people that play xbox live are nerds. in fact, the only people that arent somewhat nerdy are complete rednecks that dont know what computers are and just get drunk and shoot guns all the time.