Curse

xxreaper008 · Nov 11, 2005, 02:22 AM // 02:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by RTSFirebat

Steam is a good system, streaming updates are use in this game all the time, a lot of people don't take note... you know that little yellow lighting bolt you see on the top right corner... that's a incoming update.

Major changes are made via patches...

STEAM has a bad rep due to it being very buggy in the early days and having poor bandwidth management. Making patching really annoying for some people.

Me... I used it for Half Life 2 and it worked wonders... never had any problems with Steam so I feel it works great, if a little slow sometimes, but bandwidth is limited.

If it wasn't for the Guild information, character storage and the towns the game could be full client based... but that is not the case.

Now others like World of Warcraft cost money since they are massive worlds with loads of people running about contantly, so bandwidth costs more money.

I dont like steam, its too hard to crack. I've done it once, then they fixed the "exploit"

neoteo · Nov 11, 2005, 02:31 AM // 02:31

im predicting a lot mmorpg kind of games will come out with no monthly fee ... i can imagine already . games like counter strike with a GW kind of play , same way to meet people , and then go team death match , or capture the flag .. and even pve , like Invasion and other cooperative games.its as not been done before cose internet speed changes a lot a FPS game ... but with time they will come out .... MMOCFPS.

Omg Kthxbye · Nov 11, 2005, 03:44 AM // 03:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by xxreaper008

I dont like steam, its too hard to crack. I've done it once, then they fixed the "exploit"

Meh, it's not that hard. I've played almost every game from Valve that requires Steam without paying for it, including Half-Life 2. ANY system has exploits, Steam included. Some are just harder than others to work around.

xxreaper008 · Feb 08, 2006, 12:20 PM // 12:20

Now that I notice it, I want to see a GW tv commercial!

torquemada · Feb 08, 2006, 02:46 PM // 14:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by neoteo

im predicting a lot mmorpg kind of games will come out with no monthly fee ... i can imagine already . games like counter strike with a GW kind of play , same way to meet people , and then go team death match , or capture the flag .. and even pve , like Invasion and other cooperative games.its as not been done before cose internet speed changes a lot a FPS game ... but with time they will come out .... MMOCFPS.

Actually, it already exists. Take a look at Planetside (I played it before, not sure if it's still alive though). It was first persistant world FPS!
And it was a great fun for awhile....before kids started conquering bases at 4am in the morning while older and experienced players were sleeping...

Sectus · Feb 08, 2006, 04:42 PM // 16:42

The reason why Guild Wars has no monthly fee has nothing to do with the game itself. While the game is instanced, it still runs completely from anet's servers, and those costs money to maintain. Comparing it to other MMORPGs isn't gonna help to solve the mystery of why this game has no monthly fee... the reason is as simple that it's just another business model.

Anet still needs money to be able to pay their development team to keep updating the game and making new expansions, they need money to maintain all those servers, and other misc stuff. Instead of having a monthly fee they're planning to release two campaigns each year. If all goes well, and those campaigns sell well, they can continue to develop the Guild Wars series. If the new campaigns doesn't sell at all, then anet will be closed down rather quickly.

Esprit · Feb 08, 2006, 06:03 PM // 18:03

Because ANET chose to make Guild Wars free, it will eventually attract more players than a MMORPG that has a subscription fee (WoW).

To me, it seems the potential of having more people buy Guild Wars, because it is a pay-once-and-free-for-life game, will offset the cost of server and staff costs.

As Guild Wars becomes more popular and well known, as well as developing a larger and larger fan base, if a gamer who is considering buying an MMORPG is given the choice to buy Guild Wars (no monthly fee) or WoW (or Everquest or etc...) the gamer is more likely to buy Guild Wars, because the game will only hit his wallet once.

Even if Guild Wars releases an expansion pack once a year, for $50, the online gamer would still be ahead, monetary wise.

And a note on STEAM - Even if you play Half Life 2 Single Player mode, STEAM requires an internet connection still. Which is silly if you want to play some HL2 while you are on vacation or somewhere with no net connection.

Age · Feb 08, 2006, 06:32 PM // 18:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pevil Lihatuh

generally the pay to play ones have a bigger community than GW. The thing is, pay to play makes you play more often so you don't feel like you're wasting money. This means more players online more often, meaning they need to run more servers and have higher bandwidth. This is all expensive. They also tend to release fewer expansions than GW is hoping to do, because they don't need the money from it to be honest.

GW can get away with it because as you're not constantly paying, you won't constantly play, so their server loads will be less, plus IF they can bring out 2 expansion packs a year like they originally planned, there will be a lot of revenue from those to pay for the servers.

And they have lots of other pay to play games which will supplement it of course

Really its just a slightly more involved version of battle.net, Sacreds multiplayer, Counterstrike online... all these you don't have to pay for, and all these aren't constantly used by billions of players. Difference with those ones are they're singleplayer games as well, so if the company gets fed up they can take the servers down. GW can't until GW dies.

When that happens maybe they can make a single player version of the game as well as for those who want a online version very similiar to RTS types of games.You could have a single player version now but it is better to play it online.I am not usre if MMOs will beome free to play online as I am a Suoer Moderator on a Star Trek gaming site and there is a Sta Trek MMO coming out in 2007 or 08 and it will be a pay 2 play.

Unkemptwolf · Feb 08, 2006, 10:11 PM // 22:11

Now someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Anet doesnt maintain the GW servers. The servers are maintained by NCsoft (who owns Anet), along with the servers for City of Heros, City of Villans, Lineage, Lineage II, etc. NCsoft is also the publisher/distributor, so they eleminate steps between the developer (Anet) and the consumer (you). If NCsoft is the publisher/developer, that means there is only one company taking money off the top of the $50 you paid for the game, and thats the retailer you bought it from. So the retailer takes their part ($5-10 at most, if I remember right), and then NCsoft/Anet (which is really the same), get the rest. Right?