World of Warcraft

[Harovan]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Well I'm used to arguing with you so I'm practiced.

But I talked only about games I actually played, and not heard just fairy tales about. I even had a WoW subscription (or more precise a game card) for 2 months.

[Solver]

There is no 'principle' on which any sane person could avoid paying.

Why not? I honestly believe that, after you've bought a piece of software, you should be able to use it for as long as you please without having to pay for it or having it stop working after a year or two, or whatever. Subscription games violate this principle.

This is not to say that I have a problem with playing for games. I'd probably be willing to pay 100$ for Civ4, and I don't always take the length the game serves me into account, either - say, HL2:Episode One is very short, but worth every cent.

On a somewhat related notice - 10 pounds is less than 2 tickets to the cinema in London ?

[Harovan]

/me wonders, why Spikey doesn't try to drag Solver into Guild Wars

[Kuciwalker]

Why not? I honestly believe that, after you've bought a piece of software, you should be able to use it for as long as you please without having to pay for it or having it stop working after a year or two, or whatever.

The software will work perfectly fine after you pay for it. The remote servers that you're renting time on might not let you sign in, though.

[Solver]

And how big of a deal is it? If those servers don't let you in, can you still play the game? Obviously, if not, there's not much point to the software working...

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Solver

There is no 'principle' on which any sane person could avoid paying.

Why not? I honestly believe that, after you've bought a piece of software, you should be able to use it for as long as you please without having to pay for it or having it stop working after a year or two, or whatever. Subscription games violate this principle.

That's just silly. You are paying for continuing access to the servers and new content as it gets added. The bottom line is people like persistent worlds and it costs money to run one of any significant size.

Using your logic MMOs wouldn't exist, as the up front cost of the game needed to cover server costs would be so high as to discourage most players.

Now if you don't fancy MMOs fine, but there's no principle at stake just tastes.

[Solver]

No, principles and tastes are separate. My tastes are that I probably don't like MMOs - not sure, but probably don't. That's fine. But me not liking continued software payments applies to any games and any software. If a Civ game required payment per months / games played, I wouldn't like it either. I don't like DRM and such stuff included with software.

Anyway, from a practical perspective, why are WoW servers so expensive to cover that subscription costs are needed? There's plenty of multiplayer games that have 3rd-party servers (like the ever-popular Counter-Strike) and there are no subscription costs there. Do the WoW servers just hold that much information, or what?

[Kuciwalker]

A server that matches up peers is far less expensive than a server that actually hosts the game and maintains a constant connection with every user.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Solver
And how big of a deal is it? If those servers don't let you in, can you still play the game? Obviously, if not, there's not much point to the software working...

Do you own a phone? If you stop paying your provider, would you expect them to keep routing your calls?

And if you stop paying your electric bill, your computer won't work and none of that software will be very useful.

Face it: you are buying a service which costs a not insignificant amount of money for them to provide you each month. It's absurd to think that they should charge you once and provide it to you forever.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Exodar (new Dreanai starting city in The Burning Crusade) looks incredible

[Solver]

Do you own a phone? If you stop paying your provider, would you expect them to keep routing your calls?

And if you stop paying your electric bill, your computer won't work and none of that software will be very useful.

Face it: you are buying a service which costs a not insignificant amount of money for them to provide you each month. It's absurd to think that they should charge you once and provide it to you forever.

That's my problem exactly, I just can't bring myself to think of any software as a service. Though I guess there is the distinction of the servers being a service specifically, not the software itself.

It'll probably take me a while to adjust to this thinking.

And that city in Imran's screen looks eerily like the Telvanni towers from Morrowind .

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yeah... um.. not even close, really.

[Asher]

I might pick it up again sometime, WoW.

[Kuciwalker]

That's my problem exactly, I just can't bring myself to think of any software as a service.

Well that's good, we're clear that it's *your* *problem*

[Blake]

Originally posted by DrSpike


Well you had fun for 6 months, and there's every reason to expect a least a few months of fun playing the new content. I guess you must have a level 60 after 6 months so no need to grind up a new char if you don't want to (I certainly don't).

I sold my account, when you beat a strategic retreat, be sure to burn the bridges!

Actually I had an on-line friend offer to buy me Burning Crusade and pay the subscription. He seems to find it hard to believe that I'm REALLY not ever playing WoW again. I'd honestly rather punch myself in the face, it'd be more stimulating than WoW, better exercise too.

I intend to also never play another MMORPG. It's not so much a thing I have against WoW, I've just come to understand the toxic nature of those games.