01-13-2004, 02:24 PM
Nystul,Jan 12 2004, 07:15 PM Wrote:Howso? The heart of the issue is this: is there something fundamental about MMORPGs that could merit the extra expense over an equally good game that lacks the same element because it is not pay-for-play?It depends on your point of view. MMORPGs have character development (if you call powerleveling character development) and dynamic content updates that most single\multi player environments do not have. D2 & Blizzard are the few exceptions with releases like the 1.10 patch changing game dynamics. Most companies just tweak bugs and then move on with their single with multi player games. The social aspects of a world that changes over time on a server that is owned by the company is not something that is easily duplicated. Another way to look at it is that the company is being paid to host the server that you play on and store the data so that nothing can happen to it. You can say that FPS games are free so MMORPGs should be too. Well, character development is absent in FPS games and all you need there is a box to route connections as opposed to a server package designed to host a world, character data, and NPC data.
As a jaded gamer who doesn't like MMORPGs because of other people, it makes me sad to see the potential such a genre has to only be ruined by other people.
As for the servers shutting down and you having a worthless product, if enough people liked the game chances are they put together an emulator package for it. Quite a few for the various MMORPGs exist out there. Not the same thing as a company server, but the players will find a way if they want the game badly enough.
It comes down to a simple decision of is playing the game fun enough to warrant paying the $9.95 a month? For some people it obviously is. MMOG players are saying "why would I play Diablo? It's just a point and click exercise" while you guys are saying "Why would I pay to play something I can play for free?" Different strokes for different folks and all that.