Free subscription - Guild Wars Forums

Peely · Feb 13, 2005, 02:23 PM // 14:23

Hi guys,

The fact that Guild Wars will be monthly sub free will this be for just the first year of registration or until eternity? and do you think other games like Lineage and warcraft will follow this move?

Keelan Trement · Feb 13, 2005, 02:39 PM // 14:39

Nope, as long as the servers are up and running, it will be free. Every 6 - 9 months though Arena.net will release an expansion pack, and you can either buy it or not. It is not needed to continue playing. So instead of going subscription fee, this is the route they took.

As for other games following it? Its quite the idea, but I think it will take a while to catch on. Im guessing in one or two years we will start to see more games going this route.

Spooky · Feb 13, 2005, 02:40 PM // 14:40

The no subscription fee means no subscription fee ever, not just for the first year. Maintenance costs come from the optional expansions that will be coming out.
As for other MMOs following this lead, I don't see it being feasible in their case because of the differing architectures that the games are built on. Since Guild Wars uses instancing so heavily, considerably less bandwith is used than it would be in a game like DAoC or EQ, where the entire world needs to remain persistent. About the closest I could see any other current MMO coming to this would be similar to what Anarchy Online has done, offering the game free for a year minus the expansions (which one would have to buy, and then start paying the subscription fee thereafter.)

Peely · Feb 13, 2005, 02:41 PM // 14:41

Thanx for your reply.......

Keramon · Feb 13, 2005, 03:10 PM // 15:10

It seems however instancing is becomming a more popular concept. I was reading some reviews of other games that are in development... and others seemed to mention that they will be doing this as a way to alleviate problems regarding "camping" (amongst other benefits) which was so problematic in the earlier MMORPGs.

Xapti · Feb 14, 2005, 05:20 AM // 05:20

I tend to highly agree exactly with what spooky said.
I do think there will be some more MMORP games without subscription fees comming out though, just perhaps not entirey persistant, or at least would probably have something different.

Really, Diablo 2 isn't very different from Guild Wars when it comes to the amount of persistance and massively multiplayerness. The two main differences are just that towns and outposts replace battle.net chat, and that games are private and cannot be joined once started (which has been reccomended to change slightly due to players leaving/dropping).
And of course we know D2 has no sub fee.

There is one truely 3d, no sub-fee MMORPG I know of thats been around for a while though. It has ??ber loads of problems though, such as lack of stuff to do and huge lag problems (open-source can also be considered a problem). Planeshift.

Feb 13, 2005, 02:23 PM // 14:23	#1
Peely Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Sheffield,UK	Free subscription Hi guys, The fact that Guild Wars will be monthly sub free will this be for just the first year of registration or until eternity? and do you think other games like Lineage and warcraft will follow this move?

Feb 13, 2005, 03:10 PM // 15:10	#5
Keramon Rogue Agent Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Surfers Paradise	It seems however instancing is becomming a more popular concept. I was reading some reviews of other games that are in development... and others seemed to mention that they will be doing this as a way to alleviate problems regarding "camping" (amongst other benefits) which was so problematic in the earlier MMORPGs. __________________ Keramon :cool:

Feb 14, 2005, 05:20 AM // 05:20	#6
Xapti Frost Gate Guardian Join Date: Feb 2005 Profession: Mo/	I tend to highly agree exactly with what spooky said. I do think there will be some more MMORP games without subscription fees comming out though, just perhaps not entirey persistant, or at least would probably have something different. Really, Diablo 2 isn't very different from Guild Wars when it comes to the amount of persistance and massively multiplayerness. The two main differences are just that towns and outposts replace battle.net chat, and that games are private and cannot be joined once started (which has been reccomended to change slightly due to players leaving/dropping). And of course we know D2 has no sub fee. There is one truely 3d, no sub-fee MMORPG I know of thats been around for a while though. It has ??ber loads of problems though, such as lack of stuff to do and huge lag problems (open-source can also be considered a problem). Planeshift. Last edited by Xapti; Feb 14, 2005 at 05:23 AM // 05:23..

Feb 13, 2005, 02:39 PM // 14:39	#2
Keelan Trement Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Feb 2005	Nope, as long as the servers are up and running, it will be free. Every 6 - 9 months though Arena.net will release an expansion pack, and you can either buy it or not. It is not needed to continue playing. So instead of going subscription fee, this is the route they took. As for other games following it? Its quite the idea, but I think it will take a while to catch on. Im guessing in one or two years we will start to see more games going this route.

Feb 13, 2005, 02:40 PM // 14:40	#3
Spooky Bokusatsu Tenshi Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Bellevue, WA Guild: KEA Profession: E/Mo	The no subscription fee means no subscription fee ever, not just for the first year. Maintenance costs come from the optional expansions that will be coming out. As for other MMOs following this lead, I don't see it being feasible in their case because of the differing architectures that the games are built on. Since Guild Wars uses instancing so heavily, considerably less bandwith is used than it would be in a game like DAoC or EQ, where the entire world needs to remain persistent. About the closest I could see any other current MMO coming to this would be similar to what Anarchy Online has done, offering the game free for a year minus the expansions (which one would have to buy, and then start paying the subscription fee thereafter.)

Feb 13, 2005, 02:41 PM // 14:41	#4
Peely Ascalonian Squire Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Sheffield,UK	Thanx for your reply.......