possible new fee structure?

if new monthly fews came i would just swithc to oblivion. no thinking just doing.

Jeff Strain said that they adopted the no monthly fee structure while looking other MMORPGs and trying to offer an innovative business scheme, not tying up players to a regular payment.

A change of plans might be a warning sign Anet is loosing grip on its so far loyal userbase, and becoming less innovative : )

As mentioned before this game dont warrent a monthly fee based on its content since it is far inferior to other MMOs out there. A comparison would be like DDO from turbine charging monthly fees for it sub standard excuse for a MMO walking the same path of AC2 while killing support for their up comming LoTR online.

Theres already many interesting MMOs comming up that holds great promise: Age of conan, Pirates of the Burning sea, Warhammer online to name a few and charging a monthly for guildwars would just make me and many others leave for good but since they already got my money for GWP and GWF CE they prob dont care, if so just as well since i was looking forward to NWN2 and D3 anyways. GG for screwing over your fans.

Yeah, this is most likely it. I remember this being said, and I'm fairly sure that it was Gaile that said it. And, regardless as to whether or not she's "only a company mouthpiece", she is a good barometer for company plans.

My take on this is what I concider simple economics. One of the main selling points of GW is the "No Monthly Fee". It's a huge advertising point. Many players, including myself, began playing the game for this reason. Now, we appreciate the value the game offers at its low price.

If NCSoft or Arena.Net chose to change its polocy about monthly fees, it would upset a huge portion of their fan-base. If the fans refuse to play the game, then neither company can make any money off of these players. If they can't make money, they go out of buisness.

As it stands now, they have a large number of happy customers, like myself, that tell other players how good the game is, and that gets new players to try the game as well, thus making both companies money. If we were suddenly ticked off, we would tell our friends how bad the game is, others would not buy the game based on those examples, and the companies would not make money from new customers. This is the basic idea behind the company buzz-phrase "One Unhappy customer is worth 5 Happy customers", or, if we tick off one guy, we loose 5 potential happy customers. And, you can see the reaction in this thread. Just look at how many knee-jerk reactions of "I'll quit" there are already. I would quit because I can't afford a monthly, not because I disagree with them. And I'm certain that there's a large number of people that would be in the same boat as me.

I guess what I'm saying here is that people who want to make money do their very best not to make poor decisions. Adding a monthly fee after all their advertising about "No Monthly" would be a poor decision, don't you think?

Although I don't have much legal knowledge I do know that EULA's are generally not worth much in court.The game cover stating GW is 'free online gaming' is legally a lot stronger then the EULA.

My guess is the same one as Hockster: it's because of the different bussiness models in Asian countries.


I don't ever see them changing this btw. Ever...

They can try, and we will all switch to games worthy of monthly fees.

My thoughts exactly

So far Factions hasn't even grabbed me as good enough to even buy yet thanks to all the ridiculous nerfs they've done recently. I wouldn't even hang around if they started with monthly fees.

In a society in which the consumer holds great power, it still makes me sick to my stomach when I hear something like this. Has anyone stopped to appreciate what ANet is doing for us, the fact that they actually deal with issues quickly and stream updates to us constantly?
On a similar note, what is with all this "what if" stuff? You can say it as many times as you wish, but in the end, it will amount to nothing unless it actually happens. Woop dee doo, there is a clause in the EULA that very few people read that says that they could implement a fee system in a game that set itself apart by not having one. Think logically, folks.

It's kind of a pity to return to a forum I cherished after half a year's time to find that people now hold the negative attitudes that were once exclusive to The Guild Hall. It's sort of funny that we're discussing the hypothetical degeneration of a game rather than the present atrophy of the attitudes of its players.

Think positive. ~_^

thank you for saying it better than i could.

if i cant find anything to do in Factions (fat chance of that) i will enjoy presear/monesrary chapter 1 until i get chapter 3.

i may be slow in progress but i do have fun and isnt that the bottom line for playing a game?

After promising no monthly fees and heavily using that aspect as a marketing device, implementing a monthly fee would destroy the game. A lot of people would quit. I, for one, would quit.

Liscence Agreements pretty much entitle game producers to do whatever they want. That doesn't mean they are necessarily going to excercise the rights they set out for themselves in the Agreement, but they just reserve the ability to do so.
I wouldn't worry about it. Frankly, I would be surprised if there WEREN'T something like that in the agreement. It's nothing unexpected.

Only up to a point.

I can only speak for EU law, but im pretty sure if you advertise it as free on the box, you cant then stick a not INSIDE the box saying you "may" have to pay and then enforcing it, It would be misadvertising just for starters.

I could be wrong not being a laywer, but if it happend the first thing i would do would be to report them to trading standards or something.

Just thought i'd correct that.

no monthly fees??
thats true but now they come with a 6 month upgrade (what they call a stand alone game) and it cost allmost 50 euro, thats about 8 euro each month. so we are paying for whats new like every other online game the only thing is we pay every 6 month for now on.
Don't get me wrong, I love the game and I don't mind buying a new chapter each 6 month but to say we don't pay a monthly fee is not compleetly correct.
other Online game (with monthly fee) give a new area every few months, so this gamers pay for the upgrade and the services, we do the same only we do it diffrent. there is no compony that could or would make anything for free.

As long as there is no monthly fee and as long as I'm having fun I'm buying the collectors edition every time (i have the first 2, just to show that I love the game)

Take some Pepto-Bismol. Breath into a bag.

What would happen if they didn't deal with these issues and stream updates? I would say it's necessary. I appreciate you ANET.

It gives consumers a sense of power. It defines it for them. It is the 'go-to' plan in case this situation ever arises. It's fun to discuss? Let them talk about it if they wish.

Okay!

There is no doubt that we owe Arenanet our gratitude for their timely maner in addressing our gripes about the game and paying so much attention to their fanbase. However, I don't quite see how anyone is thinking negatively; it more being aware of what could happen to Guild Wars. Arenet is still a company above all other things, and while they do have the authority to do so, I still find it highly unlikely they will ever implement a monthly fee for obvious reasons. It is because the consumers have such power that anet will not introduce fees, not the kindness of the company. Both Arenanet and their customers are going to try to maximize what they want - respectively profit and quality gaming. Therefre, I think Arenanet and their customers have hit a point where both are content with what they have - the gamers have a quality game without monthly fees, while Arenanet makes money. As long as we continue buying expansions, monthly fees are really not a wise decision for either party. Lets hope it stays that way.

Seconded. Its not the fine print that matters, its the way the average person interprets it.

I think its pretty universally accepted that if GW was a Monthly fee it would not be a viable community any longer... I would simply move on to bigger and better things at that point. I mean EQ and WoW was fun for about a month or so, but in reality I would never be extorted into a subscription structure for something I already paid for in full. I'll walk away from it and not look back.

I don''t believe in such structures and I think its obvious that Anet as a stand alone company feels the same. NCSoft is another story. There has been tremendous pressure on Anet to change their model for one reason and one reason only... The other divisions of companies NCSoft are hurting because of the sucess of GW fee-less model. This forcing companies like Sony and MS and NCsoft and Blizzard, to rethink their existing subscription models in order to gain market share again. Factions is the start of a trend for the market. If numbers are as strong as it seems to be, its a proven success.
This has the competitors running for their lawyers trying with all due effort to FORCE Arenanet to change their model so as not to unduely effect the subscription business model. This will not happen easily to say the least. The legal mumbo Jumbo is there to allow it if it is ever deemed necessary, yes. but Anet knows this is their death sentence upon doing it. If such a thing happens 2 things are guaranteed.

1: GW will die very quickly in popularity.
and 2: Games like EQ and WoW, and Galaxies, and STO, and linage 2, all of em, will jack the monthly fees up 10-20% overnight.

This is known as collusion, Because the THREAT of competition will be eliminated.and they will universally agree to hike prices to cover recent losses.

This makes me wish I had had time to read the EULA better.

1. This probably has nothing to do with the asian users if it is appended to a product designed solely for distribution outside of an asian country (such as the U.S. or U.K.). They would have another license covering concerns for that.

2. This may, however, be the result of an adoption of a standard form from NCsoft 's legal department. Not everyone spends time thinking about the legal ramifications of their actions, but certainly everyone appreciates the dangers of being on the wrong side of the law. Maybe they just grabbed a standard form and had someone fill in the blanks. However:

3. What this effectively does is allow NC soft the option to start using monthly fees (or, heck, daily fees) for whatever they want. If they really don't intend to do this, they should change the EULA agreement to not include this clause and have everyone click accept again. That would fix this little problem.

4. If they don't do this, I admit that I'm worried. This clause isn't necessary if they have been honest with us in saying that there will never be monthly fees. (No, it doesn't cover added premium content, like extra character slots ... the clause by its wording is specifically limited to chapters and service. If you want to cover new premium content, just add:

In Definitions:
Premium Content: Optional upgrades to the Service that may be developed now or at a later date by Provider, the applications of which are not necessary to use the Service and may be purchased for a fee set by Provider.

In Terms of Use:
Notwithstanding any of the preceeding terms (or terms (1) through whichever parts cover any lack of fee promises), Provider reserves the right to charge User for Premium Content provided to that User at the User's request).



It would be nice to get some official response on this. I think, at least, we're owed a "damage control" explanation.

P.S. In regards to Guild Wars needing to charge to "maintain servers" at some point.... If Arena.net invests some of its revenue early on into a trust for the purpose of using its income to pay for server fees, server fees should no longer be an issue after a while, assuming the GW enjoys a long and healthy life.

as far as I know, chinese guild wars lost more than half people after beta, that means people aren't even willing to pay the one time free $40, not to say the monthly fee.

Again, if they start to charge, gw will probably lose half people, hall of hero will have no people and skip map like mad, people won't be able to find a group to do regular mission etc.

I don't feel guildwars has as many people as other popular on-line games have, and I don't see guildwars surpasses other online games in game play and graphics, the only reason I choice this game was its no monthly chrage. If they charge , they simply kill themselves slowly.

Bullshit. Have you played any other MMORPG's?

And please don't claim that NWN was good. Apart from the fact that it wasn't an MMORPG, NWN's official campaigns was utter crap, among the worst cRPG's ever made. NWN relied _entirely_ on user-made content and the fact that anyone could (and did) set up their own server, I don't see any reason to think NWN2 will be any different.

That said, it's been stated over and over and over and over that GW will not have monthly fees. I don't know why this subject keeps popping up regardless*.

Read ANets lips: GW will not have monthly fees.



* Well, actually I do. It's because people play crap like WoW, where you pay $40 for the game then $15 per month, then find it hard to understand that GW could possibly be just $40, period.

Uh...

Overreact much?

You'll see the same thing everywhere that provides an ongoing service. If they DON'T, then if they do want to change the payment structure in the future, they can run into a bunch of legal trouble. Just because they CAN doesn't mean they will, but they'd rather have the option than be completely locked out from ever changing pay structure. Read some other EULAs, half the text is there in order to allow companies to keep their options open.

Here's a for instance:

Also in the EULA is the following clause:

NC Interactive reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to (1) delete or alter any Account ID or (2) terminate any license granted herein, for any reason whatsoever, including, without limitation, any suspected or actual infringement of any trademark or trade name right, copyright, or other proprietary right. You have sole liability for all activities conducted through your Account or under your Account ID.

Do any of you realize that without this clause, if they delete your account, you can theoretically sue them for what is essentially breach of contract? Doesn't mean they're going to delete the account of anyone who's name starts with a B, even though they can delete people's accounts 'for any reason'.

The phrase "reserves the right" appears 9 times in the EULA. Frankly, it needs to be there in case sometime in the future the situation arises where they need to go to a subscription-based payment system. It doesn't mean they're planning on it. Point is, it would be kind of naive to exclude this kind of thing because you don't think things will ever change from their current state. I don't buy life insurance because I know I'm going to get hit by a bus tommorow, I buy it in case the situation arises where it's needed.

It's not a part of the EULA because they're planning to implement it, it's there because they're smart enough to know that one day the situation might require them to use this option.

That's incorrect. You only "technically" pay a monthly fee if you plan on buying every single game that comes out. And even if you compare the evaluation of 8 euro a month, it's considered much less than what other games are charging. Not only do you have to pay the monthly for fee-based games, but when they do open up a new area, you have to pay for that as well. You mention this, but you forget to revise back to what you previously say. And of course, there are FREE online games that you can play, they are just significantly crappy... or text-based (note, I did not link 'crappy' to 'text-based', nor do i plan to)

The fact that Factions is a stand-alone game IS correct, you are completely able to play factions by itself, their sneak is that it's far superior to own merged games (or at least own some/all games)than to just have one. Consider a person who has never played factions and only owns prophecies. They are more likely to buy Factions than a person who had just heard of Guild Wars after the release of Factions. But they are still playing one game. I suppose for now, Prophecies will become the very base for all future games to come. And to counter your argument again, there are already people who havent bought factions, or consider NOT buying factions - so...

Yep. If your biggest advertising strategy is "No monthly fees" quoted on every single Factions and Prophecies box, as well as the website and contained in many reviews of the game, to change that will turn all of these "what if's?" into "what the f***?". Look at this statement closely, Not only is this quote their biggest advertising appeal, it's got a big weight on it if they decide to remove it. Their business plan includes the No Monthly fees even. They enforce that more strongly than an old man's intestinal fortitude...^^.

(sorry for any unwanted images i have caused :P)

And to add to this rather repetative list coming along. If they charge or even propose monthly fees, I'm not even going to argue against it, I'll just leave.

I dont think any game deserves a monthly fee. That is such a scam...15$ a month for WoW and EQ2...yha right.

Read NC-Softs lips: It's not up to Arena Net to set fee's, NC-Soft set's fee's.


As long as they sell XX amount's off GWF per monthto cover the cost of development and upkeep of servers, if that declines then they might have to start charging a monthly fee.

"Read NC-Softs lips: It's not up to Arena Net to set fee's, NC-Soft set's fee's.


As long as they sell XX amount's off GWF per monthto cover the cost of development and upkeep of servers, if that declines then they might have to start charging a monthly fee."

There will be NO monthly fees EVER!

Gail has already set the record straight, so stop these pointless threads.