Monthly fee?

[Amalgam]

Will there be a monthly fee again? I really don't feel it's justified as this isn't a true MMO game. More like Diablo 2 or Guild Wars except with a subscription?

[Weak]

It's massive. It's multiplayer. It's online.

MMOs need a more specific term, because the word can apply to a lot of games.

[TwilightSea]

Did you not read the recent news about it? Yes there will be a fee of $9.99. If you don't like it the don't complain about it and just play the offline mode. You think running servers is cheap? $9.99 is freaking cheap for an online fee compared to other games. (FFXI, WoW)

[Animosity]

get over it. if you complain about a fee then your not a PSO or a PSU fan

[Nites2Dreamz]

To be fair it isnt technically a MMO. Its just an online rpg with a fee attached, which is why its probably cheaper than a real MMO's monthly fee. But like a sucker I will pay for it because I like Phantasy Star that much.

[Weak]

I don't know why people are wigging out. It's not like PSO's Hunter's License(Gamecube at least, never managed to get online on the Dreamcast) didn't have a fee.

[Amalgam]

Holy crap are you people dumb? I love PSO I've played all the versions up to now yet as much as I love it I still can't justify the monthly fee. To the guy that said that 10 dollars a month was cheap compared to other games, the difference is very minimal. Look at games like Diablo 2 and Guild Wars. They have the same style of instanced gameplay that PSO does and guess what? They are free of any monthly charge.

[Amalgam]

P.S. I will still buy this regardless of the monthly fee and how uneccesary it is.

[Weak]

Then why are you complaining?

The fee is worth it to me, and it seems to be for you too. A fee is justified by demand and/or necessity.

EDIT:

It's business, and it's reality.

You've gotta deal with it.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Weak on 2006-09-19 23:16 ]</font>

[Amalgam]

More like greed but oh well.

[Espilonarge]

I don't want to be rude but can people stop making topics like these?

I can see allot of people who "hate" Sega for charging online service fee's (in this case PSU's P2P) but we must not forget that Sega needs to have income in order to pay for hosting the service, adminastration and techniqual staff, ISP charges, hardware replacement/repairs and so forth. Less we forget Sega suffered a major backburn during the Dreamcast crisis (just before they stopped doing hardware) and lost allot of income so they're trying to regain their status as a game company.

Also Amalgam, shouldn't you make a profile over at one of Sega's offical boards instead of here? Generally when you start a topic like this, you can get into trouble for starting/causing problems (in this case a possible outbreak of a flamewar.) Its usually best to not make topics like these in order to avoid being suspended or banned from the board.

[drownedBYfire]

^Word!

[Authenticate]

$9.99 is far too much. Frickin' highway robery. They need to lower it to $9.98, then it'll be acceptable. Greedy bastids!

[Tystys]

Lmao Authenticate, XD.

Meh, I don't really like the monthly fee, but do you know what that tells me? SEGA has standards that they are willing to stick by, and they feel safe enough with their service and their game that they're willing to charge a fee for it. This just means we get better service in terms of server management and other stuff like that...sure the JP players aren't getting stellar treatment, but atleast SOJ isn't making them pay a dime....or yen, XD

[Ruby-chan]

Well, just as a note. Those of you saying to just not play if you don't agree with the fee (And that'll happen already.) fail to realize how the fee hurts you who do play. If you want a good example, simply look at amount of players each PSO version has had since the original, free play Dreamcast one. It's a big difference. For the operation Sega's running your $9.99 is mostly gravy to them. Sega could easily not charge a fee and free themselves from operating costs, but they choose not to, and instead drive off more players from trying the game in the first place. Expect a lot more "would have purchased" views to turn into "rentals" or, ahem, "torrents".

[-Break-]

On 2006-09-20 12:55, Ruby-chan wrote:
Well, just as a note. Those of you saying to just not play if you don't agree with the fee (And that'll happen already.) fail to realize how the fee hurts you who do play. If you want a good example, simply look at amount of players each PSO version has had since the original, free play Dreamcast one. It's a big difference. For the operation Sega's running your $9.99 is mostly gravy to them. Sega could easily not charge a fee and free themselves from operating costs, but they choose not to, and instead drive off more players from trying the game in the first place. Expect a lot more "would have purchased" views to turn into "rentals" or, ahem, "torrents".



I'm not sure I want to play with people who aren't comfortable with paying a fee for an online game. I'd rather play with a small, quality player base than a large one over run with idiots

[Zaiden]

I'd rather pay a fee.

Atleast then I'm supporting Sega, the servers, and the people who update the game and makes the patches. I mean, wouldn't you rather support a company for a great game than not pay anything at all?

Would you want PSU to be as bad as other online games like Conquer Online? Or Silkroad? or anything else like that?

[Nites2Dreamz]

Really Sega is just trying to make back all that money they lost in the DC days. I think somebody said something to that extent already but thats the only reason they probably have a monthly fee. There is nothing MMO about this game, everything is instanced and all other games like that are free to play online.
I'm not really complaining, I just felt the need to point that out. And don't try to justify it with "server maintenence", as much as I don't like the game Guild Wars gets by just fine with no monthly fee and the concept is about the same.

[Earthsunderer]

Nah, Guild Wars is still turn-based (although quite more faster than WoW), puts more emphasis on PvP, has a ton less customization and other graphical hijinks, and, that's really important to know, is quite dependent on the sales of the expansion/stand-alone titles that follow the first game, now called Guild Wars: Prophecies.

If by some cosmic scheme the successor Guild Wars: Factions would somehow have failed to manage to sell enough copies of it, NCSoft and Arenanet would have had to shut down the Guild Wars-server.
Of course, this was not going to happen, as Factions had ASSASSINS (=OMGNINJASLIKEINDIABLO2LOL). NINJAS=WIN

Guild Wars will go on and be free as long as enough people will buy the supplementary titles. Should one of them ever fail, however, it's byebye for Guild Wars and free server playing.

So if you guys want Guild Wars to stay and be free FOREVER!!! buy all new Guild Wars titles which should come out aproximately every 6 months. Go and play Wikings and DRUIDS (OMGSHAPESHIFTERLIKEINDIABLO2LOL). Druids=Win... Perhaps? Does it? Or at least Wikings or Mayan Warriors or whatever new classes Arenanet will manage to pull out of their sleeves.

[A2K]

There are worse fates than mere monthly fees. There could have been billboards with Subway advertisements plastered all over Clyez City. I honestly don't think anyone would want that.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: A2K on 2006-09-20 16:41 ]</font>

[Earthsunderer]

It depends what advertisements there would be... Pepsi, Coca Cola, join the Navi, join El Kaida, buy Playboy, buy Legend of Zelda... Buy Mitsubishi, buy Toyota, buy stuff!!!

[Banert]

You have to realize, when you pay a monthly fee, your paying for anexpansion pack except rather than every 4 months or so Sega putting out a new disk with new stuff and charging $40, they will constantly implement new features, quests, weapons, and charge you $10 a month.

Some free games like D2 did have added content, a bit, but not as much as I'll expect for paying a monthly fee. It's not just server maintenance, the fee should(keyword, it had better) include regular additions to the game to increase it's longevity (hence letting them milk you longer:p).


Fee = ongoing game with regularly added content

One-time fee = what you see is what you get (GW exempt, that game needs it's own genre, it breaks too many damn rules, but that's why I love it).