Guild Wars additional fees?

LOL
they EULA would be laughed out off some courts in Europe, it is all based on the US laws, just see what happens when US companys try to get courts to close down web(P2P) sites in some European countrys, they get told to more or less get lost.

OK.. here's a second take after rereading it.....

OK, so ANet decides to start forcing people to pay to play. so, then what? I recall the original packaging saying somewhere that ANet's promise was to keep Guild Wars free to players. I'll have to find my promotional materials, but the game has free written all over the box. it's the primary advertising. So, if ANet decides that they do not want to keep the game free, then are the people that originally bought it grandfathered in? ANet would be deceiving a large chunk of online gamers. Last I heard (from a clerk at the local GameStop) Guild Wars is in the top 3 MMORPG's. The concept of a Free MMO is very popular. Even the poll in that guy's rant shows how 80% of the community plays GW b/c it's free. And what about games like Diablo II? Diablo II is still free to this day and has never charged a fee. Blizzard set an example there.

Essentially what we're dealing with here is 2 things... ANet needs to make enough money to keep GW going... and ... ANet also has a community to appease.

Also.. what will they do for content?
If Guild Wars gets monthly fees, they need to add new content regularly. World of Warcraft gets new content at bare minimum monthly.

As for the guy's claim that there are no legendary weapons and such, consider that Guild Wars balanced everything out. If you play World of Warcraft casually, you will be stuck with run of the mill weapons and such taht do nothing for you. If you're an elite player, you can get legendary weapons and such taht are so overpowering that you can slaughter people 5 levels above you. It's like Diablo II (also). Weapons & Items make the character, not the player's skill.

There may be truth in some of the things that seem like just hostility, but the fact of the matter is that Guild Wars needs to make money somehow. THey need to support the server costs. There has been serious lag lately as well as other problems with ANet's communication. If they're hurting for money and require a monthly fee, they better make it worth our while to pay. Otherwise it's about as useful as playing Phantasy Star Online. The game has no content added. You still pay to play it on GameCube, PC, and XBox. So, do you want to pay to play a game with no added content and just rotating holidays? Or do you want to pay for a game that actually receives content and is updated regularly for players to benefit from their monthly subscription fees.

Hope you mean "pay their staff" by that....THATS what the money is for. You'd be surprised how affordable servers are - especially if you cut deals with the companies.

Other than that - good post.

MMO's cost money, not because Server space you are using, but because they have an additional staff there working on content continuously that straight game to store game companies dont have (including GMs). Guild Wars has very few staff comparatively that work in this direction, you don't see many updates that include new areas, new quests, etc. Basically its ALL just normal balancing/bug fixing. Most of the staff is working on new chapters (I didn't get this out of nowhere, Anet staff have said that they have teams of people working only on new chapters).

So yes, they would have to justify a monthly fee with the content and features that come with it.

To state back on the article, which I have previously read, it's a load of crock. But, even if Anet charged a monthly fee in the future, I'd glady pay it as GW is the greatest game I have played...yes...better than Galaga...

My sentiment exactly.

Is Guild Wars really all that great? Notice that they don't provide new content, just Nerfs and Buffs on a regular basis. It's quite a while inbetween additions that are anything more than minor adjustements to the game. Ultimately, Guild Wars remains the same throughout the year. ANet sits back and develops the new expansion/episode, but they really don't do any ongoing updates like most paid MMO's.

So, without using the trendy claim that GW is the greatest game ever, what is the real reason you could justify paying?


Here's my thoughts if they did force people to pay, it'd have to be $5 a month or less. They'd be at half the cost of others, and they could still fund development of new content. ANet is by no means bleeding on this. Their model is pretty successful (I'd say, by looking at all the fan sites and support GW gets).

Besides, if worse comes to worse, they can always advertize in-game. There is a huge market for ads skinned to a game envirement. Since GW does nothing in the line of role playing, it could easily be skinned to have a few ads here and there.

I hate to burst anyones bubble, but the money is for the shareholders. Paying staff and buying kit, etc. is an annoying but neccessary drain on profits.

This however I entirely agree with. They'll need to come up with a mighty incentive to get me to p2p.

I still believe it's unlikely to happen, but an interesting topic of conversation.

I'd pay $10 a month gladly. I'm cheap so $15 a month would anger me.

Urgh....

No offense, but I can't see merit in paying for the game. GW was originally meant to be a free MMO. THere are other options for funding. THey could even do expansion packs that add missions and such ever so often and I'd pay. but the monthly fees and not getting anything new.. that's where I draw the line.

I can see ANet building on the GW community for a while, but it seems they get lazy and don't really add much value. Look at the skills for factions. There are some nice and new ones, but others just mirror skills form prophecies. I'm an arcane hunter. I have 1 character that I intend to collect all skills with. Going through the listing, I just find it disappointing that ANet does nothing to come up with new skills. Lifebane strike.... lifebane strike my ---. That' sjust a cheap way of saying shadow strike. ALthough some skills used in duplicate on the skill bar are nice, what happens when the 3rd game is released? Then what?

We get a 3rd version of Shadow Strike?
More worthless elites (and, face it, some elites added are pretty worthless)
MOre reskinned content?

consider what ANet has done between factions and prophecies. They added new game play options,but it's essentially Street Fighter II all over again. Everyone should recognize the name and players like me recognize the game. SF2 had 4 different iterations. It started with 8 playable characters, then branched to 12, then 16. Sound familiar? Prophecies was 6 classes, then factions is 8. They're adding 2 more for chapter 3.

Hmm...



Street fight II added some new gameplay mechanics between games and "balanced" the characters out. At the end of the day, Super Street Fighter II Turbo really wasn't a world apart from the original game (Street Fighter II: The World Warriors). Improvments were made, but at the core, they were too similar. Later, they came out with Street Fighter Anniversary that allowed players to play as any version of the SF characters from any game. I equate that to owning all GW games and being able to start from anywhere. Sure, you have limitations as to what skills are available in the region, but eventually you can branch out and use different sets/systems.

Street Fighter went into clone city. There were too many SF titles that just weren't different enough. I'm wondering how ANet intends to keep the game fresh without having that stale stopping point where players are just like.. uh... OK, and not getting much from the game. Since I started playing in Nov, I've seen very little added to the game. A friend of mine said that he started playing a week after GW first released and they had new content almost all the time. After a while, it slowed down and eventually nothing.


ANet discontinued a few elite armor sets and also puts limits on the game that make questing for higher armor almost pointless. With that guy's rant, I will somewhat agree. Now, if I had FoW armor that could give me a +1 (20%) to casting or whatever, that would be more of an incentive to do elite missions and stuff, but the draw to guild wars is purely PvP. And as history shows, PvP games are shorter lived. RPG titles last a lot longer.


Back to my point before I started to Rant....

ANet needs to be more proactive in creation of new content. Especially if they're considering charging monthly fees. GW is a good game, but people who are willing to pay for it should really consider what ANet is offering that you can't get anywhere else? I've played other MMO's while they were still in beta. GW sucks for storytelling compared to the ones I've played. And those were just beta.


With a major lack in content, I can't see GW staying in the circle of respected MMO titles.

I understand where you're coming from.

Personally for me at least it's damn cheap entertainment and over the last year I haven't even hit level 20 and I bought factions and now have a level 12 factions character. For me at least there's plenty of content and I haven't hit a level where pvp plays a role yet.

All of the MMO games have an issue with those that devour content quickly and those that don't. Games that cater to those that devour content will have at best 200k customers others will have millions over time.

** SPOILERIFIC WARNING FOR UNREAL CHAMPIONSHIP II


Well.. it's not about devouring new content, but rather about getting your money's worth.

XBox Live is a great example of getting your money's worth. Most games on XBL offer downloadable content and upgrades. Some content must be paid for (not so good) but the majority of content is free. I remember purchasing Unreal Championship II when it first came out. About a month later, they offered new levels and new playable characters. They even had an undead version of Selket (a main character who dies at the end of the game).

Factions is worth paying another $50 for b/c there is so much more added. But I'm curious what about Episode 3 and later? Will they just abandon previous areas, or will they add new content for people with updates? Also, have they considered revisiting Tyria and adding to the areas that are still clouded on the map? There are tons of places in Tyria that are still unavailable and should have commotion.

Cantha is even worse. There are areas in cantha that have nothing. Larger chunks than Tyria. Both maps should receive new content (IMO).

Meh, I'm just saying the same thing over, but GW (IMO) is a good game. To be worth monthly fees, it needs to be a GREAT game. Upon completion of Factions, I was kinda disappointed that there wasn't a whole lot for me to do. Atleast there were teh Titan Quests in Prophecies. And, why don't things cross over between Cantha and Tyria? Why don't Lich's actions affect Cantha or Shiro's affect Tyria? Major evils like those are not bound to regions, but have effects that can be felt through out the world. (Look at the Holocaust, The American Revolution, Vietnam, and other notable events that were felt around the world)

I Challenge ANet to put some more creativity behind thier game. Guild Wars is good, but to achieve greatness, they need to blend the worlds better and update more.


Also, throw in some more holidays besides Halloween (should be Day of the Dead, but I guess they have no respect for mexicans =p) and Christmas. Phantasy Star Online wasn't nearly as good as GW,but it had Christmas, New Years, Valentines, White day (Japanese Holiday), Easter, and THanksgiving. That's a whole lot better than GW (IMO).

apparently the topic changed around a bit my post wasn't really relavent anymore

On what seems to be the current topic: I personally at least have no intentions of buying Chapter 3. Like people have said their 6 months per game hasn't really shown the best of quality assurance yet and I don't feel like buying another expansion, and lets face it, it IS actually nothing more than an unmandatory expansion, if it's just going to draw out the life of my characters a little longer. Not to mention that if I did get Chapter 3, and I am probably getting a 7th slot, that would be 9 slots, 8 slots being PvE chars. I already thought it was annoying playing through the story 5 times. Now I would have to play through the Chapter 3 storyline 8 times O.o if I wanted to get to all the elites and such that always seem to be way at the end.

And many thanks for that option

It's not a contempt for copyrights it's a contempt for the american Law and the way they try to Implement it in Soverigne countrys, any company wanting to do bussines in the US has to adhear to US law, well wake up America it works the other way around aswell.

Back to topic.
I think NC-soft would more or less kill GW in the US and EU if they go to monthly fee's, after all "no monthly fee's " was a big selling argument from the begining.