possible new fee structure?

How exactly would they bill your account? Thats a standard NCsoft eula, prolly required in every game they are part of. Anet has no way to bill you, as they have no number to use to do it.

(besides, thats always been there...since they added the eula)

No monthly fees was the #1 selling point for me. If that goes, so do I.

A monthly fee would kill GW as there's not enough content to justify it - I've gone through the game a few times with different characters and replayed some areas loads of times BUT if there'd been a monthly fee I'd have ditched GW last September after finishing it with my 1st character.

To justify a monthly fee there'd need to be enough new content and progression to keep a single character going, as it stands thats not the case and not everyone likes the PvP side.

Could it be that for future chapters you'll need an NCSoft account which, rather than have a monthly fee, will just take the cash for the newly released chapter from your CC or bank account and automatically give you access to it?

(On a side note, this might solve some of their distribution problems )

This is included to cover the Asian versions which are typically pay to play as many play only in internet cafes.

Eventually, in the hopefully distant future, when three new generations of MMO's have come and gone, it will become unprofitable to keep developing new Guild Wars expansions, and they'll be making very little money selling new copies of existing Guild Wars games.

At that point, there will still be servers to maintain, even though no new money will be coming in. Then they'll have to choose between shutting down the servers altogether or switching to a monthy fee structure.

This point in the future will come. We can only hope it is a LONG ways off.

Decay is not inevitable, nor is the eventual death of the no service fee system. Even if one (erroneously) assumes that the game must eventually decay both in its ability to pull new players and technology, there's no reason they could not feed the network with additional income from other projects. One would hope that Anet has plans further down the road that do not revolve entirely on the expansion of Guild Wars. Eggs and baskets and all that.

Note, after all, that if the game itself decays, the userbase will too, cutting support costs, and if you're no longer actively developing extensions to it, your primary expense becomes maintaining the network. With the drop in costs from the ended development/marketing cycle and the diminished userbase, that one cost would likely be negligible.

GW without monthly fee = over 1,000,000 players, Guild wars with monthly fee = about 200,000 players

Clear and Simple more people buy the game withoiut monthly fee.

For those that say it was never in there before, may I present this. I'll quote the section:

"(1)5. CHAPTER PURCHASE
Our fees and billing procedures are published in the registration section of the Web Site, which are incorporated herein by this reference. All fees are stated in U.S. Dollars. YOUR CHAPTER PURCHASE IS PAYABLE IN ADVANCE AND IS NOT REFUNDABLE IN WHOLE OR IN PART FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, INTERRUPTION OR UNAVAILABILITY OF SERVICE (SEE ALSO SECTION 10 BELOW). (2)We will automatically charge your credit card for applicable new Chapter purchases, plus any applicable taxes we are required to collect, where you authorize us to do so. All new Chapter purchases are payable in advance. YOU ARE FULLY LIABLE FOR ALL CHARGES TO YOUR ACCOUNT. (3)By paying by credit card, you represent to NC Interactive that you are the authorized user of the credit card used to pay the new Chapter purchase. You agree to promptly notify NC Interactive of any changes to your credit card account number, its expiration date and/or your billing address, and you agree to promptly notify NC Interactive if your credit card expires or is cancelled for any reason. NC Interactive reserves the right to alter the fees payable for new Chapters or introduce alternative fee structures for the Service. Any alteration to the purchase price will be posted on the Web Site at least 30 days prior to such alteration taking effect. If you do not agree to any such alteration, you should not purchase the new Chapter and/or you should terminate your Account prior to the date on which the alteration takes effect, otherwise the revised amount will automatically be debited to your Account." (bolding done by me)

Note the date and adding a pre-order key (4-4-2005, pre-order for prophecies). Also note that one could easily cut and paste all the posts from each and not know which is from where. We haven't gotten monthly fees yet. You can also search and find the exact same argument in the last update that changed the EULA. It also gets brough up on other boards from time to time when someone decides to read the EULA.

So, if you didn't see it I rather suspect that you haven't read that EULA as well as you thought.

Well, Factions blew me away. If they do have subscriptions in the future, they'd have to out-do WoW by a lightyear - and that's just to cover their reputation on NOT having subscription fees. (Ref: Readbox)

lol, Relying on Anet to be faithful to us and not charging monthlies is just someone venting air. They don't have control over that, the GW population does. As long as 'we' keep buying the game, Anet will have money, and they wont come back to haunt us^^.

That ws the main goal of NetZero also. They eventually failed to do it. Advertizing income wasn't sufficient to keep them up and expanding. They had to go to a minimal pay system.

Fitz

thanks for the update - glad i could learn something.
the reasons i posted this was because i know some people who really got worried about this: thanks for all the constructive and explanatory replies that will help me put their mind at ease just like mine is.

i did some research and the part quoted in my OP is part of every ncsoft eula that goes with their online games: and like posted recently, in a lot of asian countries they offer gw for a fee - so this is something that is very important to those account holders who pay a monthly.

i am sorry if i caused uproar, but community boards are there to take care of things like this: and gwg has been a trustworthy companion for me since beta.

thanks all, imo ready to be closed since all relevant information is present.

More like 10 people with the fee.

Two completely different things. Netzero didn't charge for the software, Anet does. Now, if Guild Wars was completely free, as in, you could just download it instead of paying $50 for the software, then you would have a point.

no monthly fee was the reason i started playing GW. i dont think id stick around if one was added simply because some weeks i play 4 or 5 hours a day for 4 or 5 days. other weeks, i dont even log on. my own inconsistancy in playing would keep me from spending money on something i may not play enough to justify whats spent.

back to the legal bit tho- ANET does have pretty much carte blanche. they *could* institute a fee at any time they wanted, EULA or no. im no lawyer, but most EULAs have more holes than swiss cheese. however, i dont think they will. my guess is theyll pump out chapters as fast as they can, hook us with stuff like more character slots (which is fine because thats a players CHOICE), and more storage space (my guess for the next "$10 for ....). many players will pay, keeping the subscription high, and keeping us away from a monthly fee.

And those 10 will be the game devs, Frog, and GG.

Anet made a Poll on IGN several months ago, asking if people would pay a monthly fee for Guild Wars and thankfully the vast majority of voters voted against the idea.

Then, some Anet employee(s) posted in regards to the Poll something like: "There will never be monthly fees to play Guild Wars."

Good point, I forgot that the Asian nations have the option of buying the game, or paying per hour played. This could just be there to cover that.

i saw someone say that the no monthly fee was one of there selling quotes but so was "MERGE ACCOUTNS AND GET 100% ACCESS TO BOTH WORLDS" didnt happened as planned now did it

Also, GW would go out of business cuz i kno me and most other players would rather play another P2P game, and not GW, becuz the game isnt good enuf to P2P and thats the truth for many people. xD