A solution to negativity: Charge a monthly fee

/dodges missiles and flaming objects

I know, I know! ANet said the game is "free" once you purchase it and will only charge for future expansions and such.

Here's why they should charge a modest monthly fee to play:

1.) It immediately removes 99.9% of the complete morons currently polluting the game. Don't even get me started; there's been enough threads on the average IQ of the atypical GW player, and its in the single digits.
(No, your normal or high IQ doesn't compensate for the other 99%)

2.) It adds positive reinforcement to naming policy and bannable offenses.
Who cares how they act once they've steamrolled through the game once with their Warrior/Monk already? This is the consensus I get from GW idiots everywhere. Add a monthly fee - something to lose - and they will be better behaved.

3.) It provides ANet with the operating capital to ramp up operations if desired.How many posts here are asking for more expansions?
Look, EQ2 charges $15.00 a month PLUS incidentals for what is by all accounts a broken, unbalanced, worthless slug of a game. They still have players in the 10's of thousands who just can't part with their cash quick enough.
If ANet charged even a modest $7.00 per month it would still be the online deal of the 21st century. If you can cough up $50 for the game, $7 is skipping one lunch at McDonalds - come on, its not unreasonable.

4.) A monthly fee adds a "legitimacy" to Guild Wars that non-players assume does not exist.
My dork friends are all still playing EQ2.
Why?
First of all, they spout "Guild Wars only has 20 levels - how could it possibly be any good." (I send screenshots and they tell me they are doctored lol...)
Secondly, their logic follows, "And they don't even charge a fee to play it, so we know it's not any good."

Charge a fee, and these players will suddenly raise their eyebrows and say collectively, "hmm...maybe I will check that out."
Simple human psychology 101.

In closing, flame at will if you must, but the possibility of ANet adding a modest monthly fee would actually improve the gaming community as well as provide them with the resources to do bigger and better things.

/dons firesuit

Talesin

the day they start charging, I will leave GW forever

1] I don't know. America lacks a form of alternate payment for online games like this. We'd still have the dumb ones, and, since the parents are now paying, maybe even dumber. Our average IQ may drop to that of the British royal family.

2] True. One of the reasons we have such a collection of brats in Guild Wars is the fact that there is nothing to lose. I'd be crying if I lost an account I'd been paying a monthly fee for.

3] Again, America lacks an alternative form of easy payment. Most of the online gaming fees in this country are paid by credit card, most of which are by parents.
This could work in Korea, though. There, phone companies will pick up the monthly fee and simply add it to your bill every month for convenience [and business]. It allows those with even just a cell phone [which everyone there has] to pay for any game they wish to play.

4] But, who wants those guys? I recall someone posting somewhere on this forum "the point of an rpg is to show off your gear and level." He could've used a suit like yours.

"There are two thing that are infinite-human stupidity and the universe,and i am not even sure of the latter."
---Albert Einstein

im going to agree/disagree

yes it will remove the lame ppl, but i have to disagree because i'm already paying for 1 monthly fee, i can't afford 2. but all in all if i could id be 110% for it, id probably switch to GW even if they did now that i think about it...

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
~Albert Einstein

I somehow doubt that adding a monthly fee will somehow reduce the amount of complaints.

If people pay a monthly fee they'll expect to get things their way even more.

I was in a "paying" MMO for two years. If anything, the whining/complaing/etc was even worse. Much worse. If people pay for something, they feel they have the right to 'demand' anything and everything.

I had completely forgot about that too, guess i tuned it out over the course of 2 years, well another reason to disagree

Means the same thing.......

One is an accurate quote, the other one isn't.

Please feel free to be specific.
This topic does not seek to address the fact that some people complain period.

Yeah,though the msg conveyed is there.

A fee does not remove idiots per se. It might remove them. Lineage 2 had a monthly fee... it was littered with idiots nonetheless...

Well,dont think it would work,dont forget the motto of the game at the start is "No Monthly Fees".

With regards to raising money...
Why dont they add some generally useless but fluffy services, and make them cheap, so people can use them as "donations" to GW? (like how charities sell pens, stickers, badges, etc.)

I'd pay $5 to be able to send one "suggestion" email to the devs and get a real reply, for instance. Or get access to more hairstyles, more faces, more skin/hair colors.

As for the "making them pay a price to keep jerks out"... well, I'm not really in favour, but why not have "Elitist Bastard Districts", which you have to pay $10 every 4 months or so to be able to access?
I had some trouble figuring out a name for the district - it needs to be derogatory, making it totally clear that these people have paid SOLELY for the privilege of seperating themselves from the unwashed masses :P
"Premium" or "Paid" districts make it seem like those districts are something good that you need to buy. :P

Then again, they're not even adding the RP districts despite the long petition, so who cares?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOoooooooooooooo

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!

Monthly fees are just gonna pile up the complaints even more. Now people actually have a reason to complain that PvP isn't fair, or farming is too hard or what not. When your not spending money on something, you don't really lose anything except time spent. Once you have to pay, people are gonna demand more and more, and if GW doesn't meet the demands, they're gonna lose more and more players.

Yes,you cant please everyone,and that goes for the game system itself.......
However,enacting a monthly fees would surely please no one,and piss almost everyone.