Guild Wars 2 - No monthly fee

I actually agree with a lot of this. Not flame bait at all, but I don't see how someone already took it as such.

I'm really hoping that they'll have PvP versions of the PvE skills, and vice versa.

Did you happen to miss his sig?

I sure did, CS fer deh win. Steering a little off-topic here...

And Herald: I'm gonna have to challenge your WoW statement...Have you ever checked out this thread?

Although this is a tad offtopic based on the title of this thread, I was pondering this.


WoW'ers, because I know so many, are really into RL sorta stuff, like you know...fishing...hunting, killing boars in the forest (southpark there). But I'm honestly wondering if Guild Wars 2 is going to include all the greatness of the original + a few RL things to do when you get bored. Because Guild Wars would have this RL feature, it would draw more people in, and truly be a more deciding factor for future customers, especially those who had to choose between WoW 2 and Guild Wars 2. Plus GW2 would have no monthy fee, so that would be an even BIGGER bonus.

Most would say it would be a A TERRIBLE thing if it was included...but c'mon...bored on a saturday no guildies online, I'd find it fun to fish myself, and I'm a longtime Guild Wars fanatic. It be alot better than redoing any missions, especially because missions aren't as relaxing, and I don't play games to get stressed out.... (Cough thunderhead keep).

I think A-Net would be unwise to not include RL stuff. Even if it was just 1 little pond in Lions Arch, check out how many people loved Roller Beetle Racing...it wasn't fighting.

Chop trees down for wood, fish for scales...blah blah. Sounds like a funner way to get materials then to go kill things to salvage them into wood.

And for those who want me to join the WoW croud (heaven forbid) , I really do believe adding such a thing would be great, and I'm sure Anet would make it totally unique, unlike any other typical MMO's.

It could work in GW2, and the community would accept it, and Anet would make it unique.

Yep.

April 1st is in 2 days...almost guarantee that Anet will have some sort of "we just decided that we're gunna have to have a monthly fee!" sort of article on their website.

Lol Al...not only is GW2 over 1 and 1/2 years away at least... I could care less even if they did say it, which they won't because Gaile, PC Gamer, and all interviews stressed to a ball-breaking point that there will be no monthly fee.

But yeah, it would be actually sorta ironic and hilarious if they did.

The point is that WoW is huge, hence "WoW Crowd". It wouldn't make sense to quote an unpopular MMO would it? Use a bit of logic and you'll find you won't post such ridiculously stupid flame bait posts.

Also I do like the picture, because of what it SAYS not because it's made from a screeen from that game. Think about it. Jeez.

I read somwhere that fishing, hunting, crafting, etc. are not out of bounds in the future of Guild Wars. (This was way before the Guild Wars 2 announcement).

So, no, I don't think such things are off limits. Even if they aren't included in the release of GW2, they still could be added later. (although I'm still convinced that Crafting will be introduced in GW2!)

You'd be surprised actually. Server maintenance occurs frequently for all our servers. It's just that because of the way GW's technology is built you don't see that maintenance.

All hail superior technology! Prime example of just because you don't see it doesn't mean it's not happening.

Congrat on putting no monthly fee on GW2. I will buy the game for sure!

That has nothing to do with having a bigger budget. That is called bad management. I'm not saying that ever game that is monthly fee is going to be good. There are tons of bad ones. I would like to see a poll of players that would be willing to pay a monthly fee. I can already guess the results remembering back when character slots were being suggested by players and players offering to pay for them. Players are willing to throw more money at GW because they believe it will help improve the game. As with anything you buy you pay for what you get. Sure you can get that cheap low insurance plan but when you need it are they really going to help you. Same can be said with just about everything. You cannot beat a quality product at a good price even if is a little expensive. Since Anet has already announced they can do GW2 with no monthly fee they can easily beat any competition for a monthly fee and at the same increase their own budget to do more on the game.

The dev teams do dictate a game's success but if they are under funded by management then they will be severely hindered. This is a business. The bottom line will always be "does this make money?" If it does then explain how. If you cannot explain how it will make money to management then its not going to get approval.

Alex thanx for the response. I know GW is using great technology. Its proven by the competition basically copying the streaming system from you guys.

I left GW because of several reasons but one overwhelming reason was my ping. My ping continued to grow as GW go older. It is now to a point where I cannot play the game at all. I only play pvp and at a 500+ ping at all times makes it impossible. I live on the east coast and I understand your servers are on the west coast but it still should not be this high. I have done all the test possible to determine its is not my isp or system. I play other games that have servers on the west coast and I have <100 ping at all times. I've seen several players saying the same thing on different forums and in game.

With your business model you have to keep releasing titles to keep the money coming to support the game. Compared to WoW that just adds content and you pay a monthly fee. They are really both the same and GW comes to be a few bucks cheaper per year. Even though I don't pay a monthly fee I can break down all the chapters I've bought over a monthly basis and comes up just short of WoW for 1 year. Most consumers will not see it this way and that is the target market. As a business I understand the marketing strategy in that since.

Anet does give me the choice of buying the new chapter or not but honestly its not much of a choice. There is always going to be power creep with every new expansion. If there wasn't there would be very little incentive to buy the new chapter. So its either upgrade or get left behind. Previous chapters become ghost towns and makes it harder to get groups because you don't have the better skills. You might as well forget about PvP if you don't have all the chapters. How many all prophecies skill bars are there around in PvP?

I never understood this "pressure to play" because I pay a monthly fee. If I know I won't be playing much that month I turn it off. Simple as that.

I myself am willing to pay a monthly fee because I know that in the end it will help the game a lot. I'm sure I'm not alone in this but I'm not going to speak for other people. $5 a month is nothing even to kid with no job and has to ask mommy and daddy. If $5 a month is going to make or break you, you have much bigger problems you should be dealing with than a video game.

Twicky, you make some great arguments, but the bottom line is Anet promised No Monthly Fees.

As you can tell by the huge post about Guild Wars 2, people will debate playable races, level caps, solo vs group play, etc.

But one thing they will not debate is monthly fees. Guild Wars 2 can't have monthly fees, it's the one thing that is not negotiable.

I don't think they could even offer "premium service" (guaranteeing low ping, for example) for a monthly fee without the majority of players calling "foul."

But, let's put a poll up. My guess: 80% against monthly fees will be the lowest that question would poll. More likely would be a 90%+ result against monthly fees.

Even if it were only 75%, that would spell doom for Guild Wars.

And then they can kiss the majority of its userbase goodbye.

WoW has, what? 6-7 million players or more? By the time GW2 comes out, don't you think WoW2 or World of Starcraft will be out?

Not only that but games like vanguard are giving wow some major competition as it is. The main thing holding that game back is the system requirements are so much higher than WoW and GW (and GW has some decently high system req for an avg computer owner) making it available to a small customer base. With the new duo cpus and their price expecting to go down by mid-late this year you might see that change.

More than likely you will see something major happen to WoW in the next few years to respond to the competition.

GW has cornered the no monthly fee market while still just a few less dollars than WoW with the monthly fees over 1 year.

Marketing is everything for GW. They don't have to keep you playing they just need you to buy the game. WoW has to keep its customers happy otherwise they will go elsewhere with their money which is why you see more events, changes, and GMs to help players in game to ensure their playing experience is a positive experience.

To me it seems that GW has to work with the bare minimum due to its business model. Its very risky for GW to invest a lot of money into adding content or any other business expenses because it can only make money from the chapter releases which is 1 time from each player. Instead of WoW (I'm only using wow in the example becauses its the biggest monthly subscription game) that has a steady income knows it can invest plenty of money into something and it be replenished the next month. Also keep in mind that fewer of the new chapters are sold with each expansion release. So as time goes on that's less of a budget to work with and still supporting players from previous chapters. Just something to think about before the game comes out.

I am excited to see the beta and be apart of it again as I was for GW1.

April fools, anyone?

Well I for one have been very pleased with the support I have got we I needed it from GW. I also still have a cold bitter taste from all the broken promises from Blizzard in the past on Star Craft Ghost and a few other titles that they promised.
Two main reasons I bought GW one price of game 50 bucks for an MMO is a fair price considering the when WOW came out it was 69 bucks here where I am. and second no monthly fee. I for one can not see spending that much money for a game to have to keep paying to play it. Plus I have a friend that use to play WOW but after coming over to my house one day while I was playing GW, He went and stopped on his why home and bought a copy and has yet been back on WOW. He likes the game due to you have to think more when playing . It is easy to take a level 80 into a place where only level 30 are but to take a level 20 in a place where the AI's are level 24 to 28 and come out alive is more of a challenge.

I too will be buying GW2 and hope I get to beta test it as I did not find out about GW until it had been out a month or so.
The Dev's have a good plan on what players want and they have shown that by making a online game with no monthly fees that is fun too play. I say this after finishing my first year with GW and have over 2200 hours of play time and that is with working 2 jobs to boot.
Keep up the great work

While I agree with your complete and overall post, I felt the urge to reply this. So: QFT.

I do not bother about a monthly fee or not.

I want a good game, and if I like a game, then it does not matter to me if it has a fee or not. I can pay the usual fee charged by MMORPGs without problems.

I play(ed) GW1 because I liked the approach, away from itemization and level grind, not because it was free.

While I technically also could afford to pay such games, it would keep me asking myself "Is it worthwhile?" - I would feel the "need" to play, to make it "pay out".

So, while I don't see "no fees" as a reason to play a game, I see "fees" as a reason to not play it. I usually take the radical stance of not even considering, but even if a game was so good that I had to consider, a fee would still count against the pros of the game.

I agree with you on your last part, though. I liked the approach as well. It wasn't the cheaper game to me, but actually the better one.

Here is my take on this…. monthly fee = less lag. I have played both WoW and GW. The lag in WoW is almost no existent. No rubber banding, its great. The servers are maintained every week. Thankfully I have a very good job and can afford the $15 monthly fee. (I mean really $15 is not a lot). I played GW for a very long time, I have 2 accounts, both with all 3 campaigns, extra character slots. So far WoW has been a lot cheaper for me even thou it has a monthly fee. I mean come on 50 character slots that going to be hard to beat. The whole topic is quite pointless really GW is for the casual gamer and WoW is not. If you want to play something intense play WoW, if you want to play something on the weekend play GW. There is a perfect crowd for each and they should be able to live side by side.

Just to clarify, are you somehow comparing WoW's $180 a year in monthly fees (not even counting Burning Crusades) to the MAX $100* you've spent on Guild Wars in one year? (not to mention, you don't need to buy any more Chapters for Guild Wars.)


*Prophecy 2005; Factions + Nightfall 2006; Eye of the North 2007 (expansion, not Chapter).

Oh $180 dollars you must not have purchase the 6 month subscription. That brings it to $136 a year. It not really about money all the time. I would much rather pay a more for a steak than $1 for a fast food burger. WoW is constantly adding stuff for your monthly fee. So one expansion in a couple of years is not that bad. Another thing that great about WoW is no favor.

PS I spent way more than $100 max in one year. I came in on the ground floor before extra character slots were available. That feature was added much later on after factions, so the only way to play all classes was to purchase an additional account. That comes to $200 plus a year. To keep both accounts current.

Yea, thats why they call it "world of lagg-craft"...

I also want to add that i have played GW for 15 months now, and it has cost me 120€, and for the same time in WoW i wouldve had to pay 235€ (without BC) or 275€ (with BC)...

Hmmm err 7 FTL

I don't, and never would, spend a monthly fee on a video game. IMO, once you buy a game, you should be able to play it. Period.

My point is, that's your choice. If you think WoW is a better value, that's fine.

But you could have been playing Guild Wars Prophecy for over 2 years now for $50. That's a fact.

You can't do that with any other MMORPG.

Eventually, maybe Guild Wars could offer a premium service for those willing to play a monthly fee. But I don't think the majority of players would go for that. In any case, let's put up a poll to settle this.

I cleared up my Err 7 problems by cleaning out my cache. Hasn't been a problem since.

Say, how long did it take for WoW to fix their "waiting in que" problems? Must have been annoying not to be able to play a game you're paying monthly for.

Never had that waiting in a que problem. To each his own. BTW when you purchase GW you are not purchasing a game you are purchasing the right to play on the GW servers.... not the game. If you were in fact purchasing just "a game" you wont need to log into their servers. You can't play GW without logging into thous servers. People get confused about what they are actually purchasing. You can play GW for free as long as the servers are up.

QFT!


Actually, Archlord is a free MMO too

Seriously, what was the point of that? Have GWs servers been down and I haven't noticed?

Yes, GW is a MMORPG and requires servers.... so does every other MMORPG. The difference is, I don't have to pay any extra fees to play on Guild Wars servers (besides my normal internet fees... duh).

Lonesamurai: Archlord is free? Cool, didn't know that. Heard it sucked though.

Although I'm not Lone Samurai, I can confirm that. It started as game with fees, but the fees have been taken out. I think they offer some sort of premium system though. At least when I played in the Betas, I had some points and a possibility to recharge them by paying, if I remember correctly. Points for getting stuff, that is.
I cannot give my opinion on how the game is, though. Only played it for a couple of hours.

There have been other free MMOs, even graphical ones, but Archlord is currently the only other (besides GW) commercially produced, yet fee-free game of that type that I know so far.

I had, by the way, a very mediocre experience while testing WoW. And that was, although I was on one of the recommended (because rather empty) servers. Not to mention the one take on one of the rather old (and full) ones to be able to play with a friend.
I never had greater problems with GW. And even smaller ones are rather rare for me.

Add ads!

http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/2387/gw141xc7.jpg

Problem solved $$$
ka-ching!

I do remember about archlord going free (and seeing stores trying to unload the subscription 30/60 day cards before people knew it was going to change).

I did check out several reviews and game to the following conclusion
Pro - Good Graphics
Cons
Insane Boring "Grinding"
Missions -> Kill or Transport X
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/archlord/review.html

I *wanted* to like try this game.... but after reading multiple reviews..

I do think that GW2 will add paid content in modular format, new zone, new area for new skills but keep the "core" the "core" of the game. Keeps the players in central areas and not spread them to thin.

I'd rather pay a monthly fee! (That's a "no", then )

I don't understand why people think there's a problem with the present system! Anet makes content we like, we'll buy it and support them to make more content we like.

Definite no to the ads. Sorry. Nice work, though.

On Archlord: I found the graphics rather poor compared to the system specs required.

Edit: I support Mordakais opinion on the present system. Optional buyable content FTW!

Hey, I was kidding ~~ I don't like ads either
I think this system we have now (or rather- we had) is great... Leave it as it is

Ahh good! I figured as much (the picture from the link was so obnoxious!)

As for the way "Expansions" (or whatever they're going to call them) will work in GW2 - I don't think even Anet knows the details yet.

It has to be enough content to justify the cost; but they've already said they don't want to "re-invent" the world every 6 months.

They can't really raise the level cap with each expansion, because then they stop being optional and start to be forced upgrades to continue playing (going against the cardinal rule: No hidden fees).

They are not going to have new Professions, apparently (although this could change... I liked seeing the new professions, even if i didn't play them). They might have new Races, but if Races have skills, won't those be like semi-professions anyway?

Honestly, the biggest danger is that Guild Wars 2 is such a perfect game, there would be no reason to buy any more content. True, such an outcome is unlikely, and the more popular GW2, then the more popular its expansions will be as well.

It will be interesting to see how often the "expansions" come, what they cost, and what they contain. Oddly enough, none of that stuff will stop me from buying Guild Wars 2!

Yesterday I reopened my WoW account that was inactive since April 26, 2005 (it was a means to keep me occupied till GW's launch). Immediately I noticed that the game didn't lag like it did back then. I was so happy and then I reserved my entire night for WoW (cancelling appointments and such). I go on, and out of the blue the menu screen tells me they're shutting down all five thousand servers at once for maintenance. So I wait the eight hours they had scheduled. Alas, my server (Gorgonnash PvP) is delayed. :/

Lame. They did this frequently back then and I can only hope this was a rare occasion.

Anyway, one reason I play online games is so I can interact with my real life friends since a good number of them are gamers. The great thing about GW is, you can chat with ANYONE and you can pretty much meet up fairly quick through map travel. In WoW, if you find out your friend has a lvl 68 Blood Elf Paladin and you have a lvl 70 Dwarf Hunter and you'd like to raid together, not only are you not able to communicate (horde vs alliance), but maybe your friends on one of the other hundred servers. And even then, the servers get split to Normal, PvP, RP, and PvP RP. I won't bother with the actual probability, but I like how in GW you know you'll be able to meet up on the fly no matter what. Anet said that in GW2 you'll be able to change servers with ease. That'll be a big selling factor for me, as well as the no monthly fee of course (so your friends get enticed, or b-day gifts to em?).

This - being able to play with everyone at any time without a hassle - has been named multiple times as one of the key concepts. I agree with you heartily, and I, too, have read that they will keep some sort of map-travel and that the different worlds will act more like the different districts in nowadays GW.

totally correct my friend, WoW is over rated and i see too amyn ppl on GW saying how much better WoW is, and i ask them, " then why arent you playing it?"
"Got banned" so i guess all the child molesters get banned from WoW =D