Hellgate London - Subscription Details @ Hellgate Guru

Ehh I'm not really of any opinion on this since they still have some kind of service and multi isn't really my thing. I played Hellgate demo for a bit at the Taipei Games Show last time it was here, even though it was in chinese it seemed ok, another diablo kill all the bad guys type of game. I can't tell you anything about story because the game was in chinese and I don't speak it but it will be worth buying the game for the single player at least. No way in heck I'm paying 10 bucks a month for the super special subscription though, not worth.

Even though it's a SMALL fee it's the principal of the matter, if it's a MMO then pay, if it is like Diablo then it should be free.
 
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Well, obviously they updated the post... It now says that elite subscribers will indeed have access to new content being released every month/3months. I think that slightly changes the situation. If I want new content then I guess I have to pay for it.
It also makes pretty clear that non-subscribers will NOT have access to the post-launch content (new dungeons, quests, monsters, etc.).
 
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I'm not sure I get the complaint - won't anyone with the resources to have a high-end computer to run the software and buy the original game be in a position to pay $10 a month if the game means that much to them? Again, I'm asking as someone with a very strong single-player bias who does little multiplayer gaming.

I don't mind the fact that the game costs a monthly fee. However, I do strongly mind the fact that they will sell their box as a standard 'pay once, play as much as you like' game as Diablo was and then offer players an advantage in a multiplayer game by paying more than others - why not sell in-game currency or level-ups, too, once you're at it. Beyond being unfair, immersion in Hellgate's world will suffer from this.
Moreover, they are not just offering 'elite' customers additional features, they are also artificially limiting features for standard customers. As I stated, what is paid extra needs to cost extra for the dev, and this isn't.

As for the matter of $10 being peanuts, sure, but it's usually the accumulation of those peanuts that eats away all our spending money, isn't it? Games such as Hellgate are still primarily marketed towards male adolescents, a demographic that infamously is having their computers paid by their parents but not their games. $120 a year is a lot for them for a single game (in addition to the $50 for the box), and it is even for me for one more game - I'm spending too much as it is and I have a wife and a couple children. How many MMO subscriptions can you afford?

IMHO, Flagship should either be honest and scrap their 'regular' game for a real trial version or make damn sure 'elite' players are just getting token exclusives and pay in advance for expansion stuff that will be available to others as well, and that they do NOT hand any gameplay relevant advantages to their priviledged customers (and neither any artificial disadvantages for the others, such as the much-lamented item storage limitation).
 
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So if I am reading correctly you can play SP and MP out of the box. If however you want any type of expansion you have to subscribe monthly. 120 bucks a year for expansions??? This is one game I will not be buying.
 
I don't mind the fact that the game costs a monthly fee. However, I do strongly mind the fact that they will sell their box as a standard 'pay once, play as much as you like' game as Diablo was and then offer players an advantage in a multiplayer game by paying more than others - why not sell in-game currency or level-ups, too, once you're at it. Beyond being unfair, immersion in Hellgate's world will suffer from this.

So if I get it correctly you would more likely support an 'all or nothing' deal? Buying the box gets you full SP plus 30 days (or whatever) of MP, and if you want more you need to pay a monthly fee.
 
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Indeed. This 'in-between' solution will just leave a bad aftertaste for those who didn't plan on paying monthly fees.
 
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Ok...

So, just to get this straight. The people who are supporting this subscription plan say that it makes since to pay for extra content? If I remember correctly both Diablo 1 and Diablo 2 came out with extra content for free...when you buy software you don't just buy what is in the box, but you are in fact buying what the advertise which almost always requires updates and patches. You also have to realize that even with Diablo 1 and Diablo 2 having free content patches, Blizzard still made enough money to develop WOW and become one of the most profitable game companies. If Blizzard could do this by making games that came with free content patches, why can't Flagship?
The answer is simple. The Flapship development team was essentially bullied into making the paid tier by investment partners and possibly higher ranking people in their company (that's why they couldn't announce the pay structure and kept changing what the said). Why would they do this you ask? Well...on one hand you have the possibility the people investing will loose a little bit of money they don't care about, which already happens on the time on bad titles. On the other hand you have the possibility of creating a new software pay structure where customers are expected to not only cough up money for the initial purchase, which already has overhead profit and future development planned into the price, but also a fee for getting patches. If they are successful it will spread to other games, and perhaps other types of software. So it breaks down to investors possibly loosing a little money if the game flops, or them penitentially increasing the profitability of software by several times by convincing people to pay for something they shouldn't. Accepting this kind of behavior because it is inconvenient to oppose it is exactly why gas prices, cell phones, and internet bandwidth are so highly overpriced. Companies have come to realize people can be tricked into spending several times more on something then it is actually worth, as long as they do it little by little so people think it is more convenient not to fight it.
 
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