NCSoft's Incentive-

Considering NCSoft is charging no monthly fee and will already have recovered some small amount of money from the purchase price, what is their incentive to maintain constant content updates OUTSIDE OF releasing new expansions?

- edit -

Just while trying to spread word of mouth about this game, a few of my friends pointed out that, technically, since we're not paying on a per-month basis, NCSoft has no real incentive to update content outside of expansions.

Even more, since there is no per-month fee, it looks like a financial risk that might eventually shift into a "well, we're going to charge a monthly fee now. Sorry. It's in the TOS."

Thoughts?

They could do that, but if you recall, Blizzard doesn't charge a monthly fee for battle.net access in diablo 2. And if I recall correctly, many many people still play, and updates were actually pretty recent for it.

Well for the game to continue making money they need to keep the players interested enough to buy the expansions. I know that if ANet does not support the game between expansions, then I will probably stop playing it. They know the same thing that if they dont support the game people wont play it and people wont buy their expansions.

To use a game in another style of playing, people are still buying Age of Kings: the Conquerors and playing it. Regardless of how old the game is, if it is good, people will keep buying it forever.

Yeah, I'm sure in terms of balancing and fixing exploits, Anet will keep updating the game on a regular basis. But if they hold back new maps or areas for the expansions, I have no problem with that.

they have every incentive to add as much as they reasonably can for the word of mouth advertising it will get (for good or bad)

the main incentive is their profit margin. make more people happy get more people buying the game equals more profit

as for switching to a monthly fee that is out of the question.
note that they have a huge backer with a lot of online gaming experience who looked at their business model very closely

besides no monthly fee is one of its primary customer draws. lose that and the customer base would drop

Arenanet is pretty hardcore about expansion support. you bet your bottom dollar that thorough planning has gone into this revolutionary marketing approach.
their profit depends on units sold instead of subscription fees so it is in their best interests to keep selling more units. Arenanet will devote half of the current development team to the next expansion while the other half will continue with maintenence and content for the first chapter. then they will switch over to work on the next expansion when the first expansion is released. your friends most likely are making assumptions with no basis other than the fact that they feel the need to justify their own subscription expenses.

The expansions will count for a lot, as will the customer support and extras already invested. The word of mouth proves to be invaluable for a game such as this, and makes the expansions look all that much more promising when they're providing a fresh and enthusiastic environment to play.

Given the success of modular gaming (i.e. The Sims) and the fact that smaller expenses over a longer period of time are more accessible to a larger public, I expect that Guild Wars will do very well for a number of years... at least until Guild Wars II.

Would you buy any of the expansions if the the original product wasn't of decent quality? Well that would probably be my incentive.

well. im pretty sure the number one reason/incentive theres a ton of ppl here in the forums and those that played beta and will be playing @ release is "the no monthly fee", which sets it apart from the other mmorpg (or rpg if it doesnt want to be called a mmorpg.hehe) and if there's an official news of "there will be a monthly fee" in the distant future, people will leave then. (plain and simple). free=incentive. fee=theres always something else to do.

i.e. diablo 2: lod i only stopped playing when hl2 came out cuz i was into counterstrike source. d2 is still alive and theres still a ton of ppl in d2 cuz its free and enjoyable. when its a free game, even if ppl leave it, it will always be balanced or surpassed by the number of newcomers. So, with pay2play, when ppl leave its because its not as "worth it" and words will spread and newcomers die down.

again. they did say their profit = chapters/expansions = no monthly fees.
and from the looks of the total fanbase around the world, they will have profit.
I will just hold them to their word. (have faith.hehe)

Also don't forget that not everyone will buy the game in the first month, because throughout the months people will buy this game continuously although I assume that it wouldn't be as massive as the first month, but I believe they will generate enough income already month by month. Then with servers and what not because of the no monthly fee people that want to take a break just take a break and eases any issues with server costs and the likes

So the argument is, since there is no monthly fee, they're dedicated to recouping what losses they having because of this by focusing on quality and content--and, through this, catching the attention of other MMORPGers?

since the game has not come out yet and initial sales income hasnt been totaled up how can you say they are having losses?

they have the initial investment in development costs but what game does not have them?

wait until it is out for a while , actual operating costs are known as well as comtinuing sales of the game before saying profit or loss

6 months in between expansions is not a very long time (in computer gaming time, I mean there's a game called ARC put out by Sierra that has been running online for more than 9 years...), for the alleged amount of content these expansions will provide. I'm reasonably sure that when GW is released, there will be enough sales of copies of the game to keep up with the costs etc, and would more than likely (well there's no other option) carry Anet for 6 months, until which then the new expansion would carry them another 6.

My bet is that they won't come out with much between expansions and--frankly--that is 100% fine with me.

Fact is that the game as shipped will have more content than most single player RPGs of a similar price. Why should I expect more?

The whole "continuous stream of content" promise made by subscription MMORPGs (which has proven to pretty much always have been an exageration at best and a lie more often than not) need not apply here for the simple reason that paying for the new content in expansions is 100% fair.

Somehow fair approaches seem to work out better in the long run: no idea why

Losses as in, "Well, this is what we -could- be making if we had a subscription fee like everyone else."

They don't think that way, they come from Starcraft, Warcraft, Battle.net.
None which charge fees other then to buy the game.

Besides, they know they have people hooked already. Guild Wars pre-order is EBGames #1 seller.

Hmm... I guess NO ONE even thought about the fact that if they charged a fee we could all sure for fraud? Or maybe even get our full price back, because they stated there would never be any fee for any reason except to buy the primary product or expansions. So if they wanted to kill their company they could go back and charge a fee, But then the end of Guild Wars would be right around the corner then....
(NOTE: What you wanna go back to P2P?)

I think it is important to remember that the gw server cost is nowhere near the cost of a persistant online world game.

I'm not saying that they would necessarily start charging.

However, if they wanted to, I'm sure there's some clause in the TOS that would permit them to do so.

It wouldn't be good for publicity, that's for sure.

I'm just Devil Advocating here.

You think they'll ever update with quests here and there, or reserve all content updates for an expansion?

they stated additional content would be streamed in as they see fit between chapters so i see at least some new content

hehe, this game is like GTASA it will be all most imposible to get 100% completion. There are just sooooooooooo many missions.

There will be no need for an update.

I think you have that backwards. They're making more money because they aren't charging subscription fees. "What we could be making if we had a subscription fee like everyone else" is almost certainly less than what they will make by not doing so. Compare the sales figures for Diablo II against any MMORPG you care to compare it to.

As for why keep releasing content, it'd be to keep people interested. If they don't keep people interested, they sell no expansions, and there goes their revenue stream.

If by "not good publicity" you mean "cutting their own throats", you're correct.

NCSoft needs to keep releasing content to compete with games such as World of Warcraft.

dont know why so many people are worried about this game doing well...

Let me give yall an analogy. Say you shop at abercrombi and you want to buy a shirt and its $50... you continue to buy shirts for $50. Then brand x comes along and its $10 for a shirt... are you like HOLY CRAP! how do they plan to support themselves they need to sell shirts for $50 to be able to sustain their business

Yes this is a stretch, but it conveys my point. Games prior to WoW and EQ made plenty of money off of not having a subscription fee. Just because games are doing it for profit, doesnt mean that its necessary and/or the only way to make money.

about half a million people have participated in beta events and world preview events to date.

I gaurentee that NCsoft and Areanet spent the appropriate amount of time laying out their business model.

It will work.

You got it but with a twist. The competitor has the same shirt, material, buttons, & thread. But their label on it. Looks the same, feels the same, even washes the same, plus wear and tear is the SAME. The difference? Where was it made? Who made it? and what type of back bone support did they have to sell it, supply and deamnd.
So RIGHT, but not a strech. Let's take a couple of instances: Blizzard, IdSoftware, Bungie(HaloPC),Epic Games(Unreal), Sierra Entertainment(Half-Life) etc....Opss more than a couple... Remember that EQO wanted to set a standard, But when you get finished with Buying a computer, Paying Phone bills, DSL/Cable, & electricity. There isn't much left.
To be honest I bet the orginal business model was on a scratch piece of paper with doodles on it and talked about over a a death match First Person Shooter...
(I'd love to know the truth.)

Every game cant start charging monthly fees..Pre-Xbox games were always no monthly fee. I cancelled xbox live and refuse to buy anything for xbox again. Software Game companies used to make money selling us games. I dont see why every game needs to cash in on this cash cow. ------G Microsoft for ever scheming this evil idea in the 1st place. Go back to the days of pay for the game and play it as much as you like instead of popping quarters into the machine to play when the machine is in your house !
SRRY just pissed off at the way gaming has evolved into this money making cash cow scam.
If i buy a kid a football do i have to pay the NFL a monthly charge to let him play outside with that football....this is where the gaming industry is leading !

thats why we should boycott pay to play buy getting guildwars

Arena.net seems to have some pretty insane technology behind the 73k client and underlying structure to this. I'd think they can sell the technology too, not like it's gone but more like renting it. The idea that selling just the games is their profit center seems highly unlikely then again, asian countries are already nuts over it.

You got that right. Just like Id Software licenses their Quake engine to (lots of) other games, it is very possible ANet might do the same.

Sadly, I don't see ANet selling their own game on the website, since all you need is a <100kb download and a CD-Key. I hope they do in the future with expansions. That would be pretty cool. Buy now, play in under 5 minutes.

(I understand most people want the box, install CD, game manual and stuff, but they aren't really needed for you to play it, is it? )

IMO I think they should add a donation box to their website. I've payed monthly bils for games for years and NEVER get what I'm looking for out of it and here comes a company with no monthly bill and has everything I could possibly want. I mean it's not like i'd donate as if it's a monthly bill game, but seriously if they make me happy and supply me with all of this then heck why not donate every now and then. I'm sure plenty of people would do the same. Heck 20 bucks every now and then isn't a big deal for me. This way you can choose to make a donation or not and they don't need to add anything special for people to donate just make it out of the generosity of their hearts. I'm a giving person and am willing to donate to them.

Ok to the point of the thread. They'll keep it alive with expansions. Look at funny EQ2's desperate attempts to keep players lol their down to 350k subscribers. They've removed all traces of seeing server population from all their games. Sony is dead.. I am glad too

Ok yet again I went off track LOL. Back to thread. Seriously they have AWESOME PvP and the PvE missions are so freaken fun it blows my mind. Seriously the graphics make me feel liek i'm playing a movie sometimes, because their so cenimatic(sp?). Me and my GF played for hours on end during beta having a blast during missions. We died a few times and it wasn't a big deal. Deathly penalty is so much better then stripping our exp away. We got to PvP and it was so suspensful. I mean we were grinding our teeth sometimes. It was just so much fun. Hopefully others feel the same, but if they add a donation box then they'll get few bucks from me.

Ya a donation box may not pull in all the money they need, but add that to their sales profits and it's just an extra bonus to help adding even more content for us. Allowing them to expand their technology even more.

(Pardon all my spelling and grammer errors. It's a long standing problem of mine )

The expansion.

Say $50 every 6 months.

$100 per year. At 80% profit or more being that the engine is done.

Add 1 mill. people = $8,000,000.00 /year (apx.) REALY BIG INCENTIVE

PtP $10 per month and bad servers = $120 per year.

NCSoft and Area.net will make more money. Their will be no reason to charge a monthly fee. As that fee will be the expansion packs.

You will not need an expansion pack to keep playing though.

Happy customers and more profit with a liesenceable game structure such as the Quake engine.

Yes it is still all about money. They are just going about it much better.

"A happy customer will tell 2 to 6 other people. A mad customer will tell 5 to 15 people and be much more vocal. Keep your customers happy and you make money."

seen in this thread

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ead.php?t=3970

I am willing to make a gentlemans bet that Area.net will make more money than Battle.net (Blizzard). And that their customers will be much more happy.

I don't know who you are gonna bet with, I mean, maybe go to a WOW forum to make that wager. hahahaha I doubt you'll have any takers on Guru.

Isn't it funny how WOW players pay for their service yet Blizzard is using their POS Battle.Net service for it LMFAO.. I'll find a funny screenshot for ya here soon.

Edit: Can't find a dern screeny *shrug* was looking for the one where someone is waiting in line behind 350 people trying to log in lol

And that is exactly why I said Gentlemans Bet. Say a cup of coffee or a slice of pizza and a can of coke.