Guild Wars 2

Subscriptions:
- Feeling forced to play to make your money worth
-Doesn’t make sense for the expansion fee as well
-Still has a cash shop, but not reversible (can only use gold to pay for subs)
-In order to make money, the company only has to make enough content for the people to pay the Subscription

No Subscription:
-Can play and quit and come back at no cost
-Justifies the expansion fee
-Has a cash shop, but reversible
-In order to make money, the company has to make enough content for the players to be interested in the game and make interesting cash shop content for the players to buy them

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/No-Subscription-is-not-a-FAVOR/first#post5311809

I don’t know if you’ll get merged, but you’ll certainly find an ongoing discussion on your topic there.

EVE Online is a subscription based game. yet I haven’t paid for a sub. in real money for ages now.

Just remember to point out game should always remain b2p+ and never turn f2p.

After releasing a game with no sub, they cant just activate a monthly sub… I payed and bought the game, with the knowledge that there is NO SUBSCRIPTION… If they apply subs, i wont just stop playing, i will want my money back aswell.. so nope, dumb idea.

Funny enough, most f2p give out their xpac for free, while sub base ones are the ones charging for it, generally it’s down to how much the community willing to pay.

Not quite sure what you mean to by “reversible”(you explanation of the term is equally confusing), but f2p cash shop generally are much more pay to win compare to p2p(if have one).

Lots f2p offer no more, if not less, content than p2p, they just gate their content with higher xp/gear curves, so you need to grind for quite a while before experiencing the actual content.

I would rather say gw2 is a bit…unique(not necessarily better) in its industry. If this is any other mmo, we will most likely need to be 90 to do southsun and 100 to DT/SW, and we will still be busy grinding to level/gear instead of complaining done the content for the 100th times.

No subscription is a misused term here.

You know the fuss everyone is making over the expansion packages? Its because there is no separate expansion purchase. The base game and expansion (and all future expansions) are rolled into a single box. Always.

This means that if you buy the game and then buy an expansion, you’ve been retro-actively charged a subscription. If you buy the game, buy an expansion and then buy another expansion, you’ve repaid for the base game twice (equivalent to two retro-active subscriptions).

If you buy the base game, stop playing computer games for a decade, come back and buy the current game box (base game + 3 expansions), you’ll retro-actively pay 1 subscription worth of… subscribing.

Fairly cheap subscription, I think it will total about a 3rd of a normal subscription subscription – but calling the “unique” model Anet has set up f2p is a prime example of malicious spin doctoring and underhanded psychology.

I prefer sub games.

I feel more in control of what I’m spending, more able to go and find a wide variety of fun stuff within the game (rather than having to pay extra for most of it) and more like an ongoing customer of the game itself; not just of a few peripheral items I have bought from the store.

The downside, is that you do indeed have to pay just to log-in.

But, if I’m so annoyed with the game and/or games company that I don’t want to pay their sub, anymore, then I don’t find I want to log-in, either.

So, it doesn’t matter.

Gerrand.3085:

No subscription is a misused term here.

You know the fuss everyone is making over the expansion packages? Its because there is no separate expansion purchase. The base game and expansion (and all future expansions) are rolled into a single box. Always.

This means that if you buy the game and then buy an expansion, you’ve been retro-actively charged a subscription. If you buy the game, buy an expansion and then buy another expansion, you’ve repaid for the base game twice (equivalent to two retro-active subscriptions).

If you buy the base game, stop playing computer games for a decade, come back and buy the current game box (base game + 3 expansions), you’ll retro-actively pay 1 subscription worth of… subscribing.

Fairly cheap subscription, I think it will total about a 3rd of a normal subscription subscription – but calling the “unique” model Anet has set up f2p is a prime example of malicious spin doctoring and underhanded psychology.

What a convoluted way to think of it. ANet has always described it as “buy to play” (never “free to play”) and that’s much more accurate than describing it as a retroactive subscription.

• If I stop playing computer games, … I won’t be playing computer games and therefore (if sensible) won’t be paying for the games nor the subscriptions. Total costs: US$0.
• When I do start playing a B2P, I am paying for the privilege of playing the game going forward. I will pay that once and not have to pay again to continue to play the vanilla version.
• When an expansion is released, I will again pay once and be able to play the expansion content without being forced to spend any money.

There is no scenario that allows you to play for years in which a B2P/no-sub game costs as much money than a B2P+sub game.

For example, with GW2, to play the game for three years, I paid a set fee and got two living stories free, plus a bunch of other content/QoL changes, also for free. In contrast, with a sub game, I would have paid for the original game and the subscription for those 36 months.

There is no scenario possible in which I get to play a game for 3 years without also paying any sub-fee, if applicable.

IEatCabbage.1907:

Subscriptions:
- Feeling forced to play to make your money worth
-Doesn’t make sense for the expansion fee as well
-Still has a cash shop, but not reversible (can only use gold to pay for subs)
-In order to make money, the company only has to make enough content for the people to pay the Subscription

No Subscription:
-Can play and quit and come back at no cost
-Justifies the expansion fee
-Has a cash shop, but reversible
-In order to make money, the company has to make enough content for the players to be interested in the game and make interesting cash shop content for the players to buy them

False. You make false assumptions that do not apply to everyone.

the total money I have spent on this game on the per time played via cash shop, far exceeds the total money I would have spent via subs.

This invalidates your expansion cost argument, also, I feel very cheated, because I am a WvW player and as I am sure you know a-net dropped the ball on it. Completely, totally.

Also, you can stop playing a sub game anytime, then come back to it months or years later. For starters I have done this with EQ twice and WoW about 3 times, AOC once, SWOTOR once and LOTRO once. There are other MMORPGs I have played but have not come back to yet.

Incidentally, I came back to this game, after all that money I spent, and found myself locked out of season 2 story. Not that I would have finished it because its not my thing, but I migth have played some of it, and its the principle of it that bugs me. In most sub games now adays the base expansions come free (for example Rift , SWOTOR latest expansions) and content such as this story is never locked.