EA/Funcom's The Secret World MMORPG Now Live

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alidan

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Aug 5, 2009
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[citation][nom]DroKing[/nom]EA? lol... 50 bucks plus 15 monthly for a game that nobody ever heard of... EA seriously quit asking high for so little in the game itself. You suck at making/publishing games without corrupting them.[/citation]

if you read gameing news, even console centered news, you heard of this game at least when it was first being developed.

 

southernshark

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[citation][nom]mayankleoboy1[/nom]minimum net speed of 512KBPS you wont be getting many subscribers from my country. here avg speed is 64KBPS.[/citation]


What country is that? I see the word Mayan in your name and think GT. I live in GT city and my internet is faster here than it was in Florida.
 

DroKing

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[citation][nom]Pinhedd[/nom]EA didn't make or publish the game, they're just facilitating distribution through Origin. Funcom has a good track record of solid games.[/citation]

I did said publishing in my first post. At first, they will just "help" eventually they will try and eat them up. Just watch. Its EA"s normal behavior since late 90's.
 
I'm not very thrilled with EA as a publisher nowadays. I'm going to wait at least a month before I buy any of their games now, since A) I want to see reviews if the games are even worth the money, B) the bugs need to be worked out, and C) they seem to release everything as an add-on (e.g. BF3), and generally you can get better deals on bundles if you wait.
 
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I was under the impression that this game would be free to play at release. Funcom needs to learn that the traditional MMO pricing structure is dead. Either make the game free up front and charge $15 a month, or charge $60 up front and make it free 2 play like Guild Wars 2. This is going to work out for Funcom about as well as the Herschel Walker trade worked out for Minnesota.
 
[citation][nom]mayankleoboy1[/nom]minimum net speed of 512KBPS you wont be getting many subscribers from my country. here avg speed is 64KBPS.[/citation]

512Kb/s is very low. If your country averages lower, well there's nothing that these companies can do to squeeze the game's online communication throughput into such a low bit rate as 64Kb/s, so there's literally nothing that anyone could have done other than getting your ISPs to improve. Nothing against you, your country, and I'd say the same is true from EA and such, but 64Kb/s simply isn't enough to work with for a ~modern MMORPG game.

More on topic, this costs jsut too much. WoW is really the only game that I know of within this genre that charges this much and look at the subscription numbers... Dwindling more and more every time we look at them. Granted, the cost probably isn't the only factor in Bliz's subscriber issue, but who could say that it's not a factor? I know that it's a factor for me not playing WoW much.

I don't know if I'd go as far as demanding that it be F2P, but dropping down the monthly costs should be done without a doubt ASAP. Not everyone can afford to pay hundreds of dollars a year for a game and even people whom can often don't want to. Make a serious investment in in-game things that people can buy, drop prices (both up-front and monthly), and make other incentives.

Maybe make a system where players can do other things to pay that don't involve money. For example, getting other players to join (the joining players getting a discount along with the players who sponsored their joining or some other sort of goodies to help with affordability), making in-game events for players such as competitions and such where rewards are say a free month or three of playing and such, mini-games where players can do surveys or whatever to get bonuses and/or free months of play, etc. etc. Of course, there's always the option of the companies involved not being this greedy and simply cutting prices down to more reasonable amounts, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
 

AlderonnX

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yeah... Pay to play is dead. Only reason we don't know it yet is Blizz got a lot of one year subs to get the free D3. NO game can launch now at 14.99 a month and be a success.
 

Vorador2

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Interesting idea...but way overpriced. 15$ a month? No way.

Several MMOs in the last two years have tried to win the market with a subscription based model and failed, most recently SW: The Old Republic that is steadily losing subscriptions. Others in the same situation (Lord of the Rings Online for example) after switching to F2P and lowering expectations gained a steady income.

The era of overpriced MMO subscriptions are over.
 
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1.5 mln beta testers? AoC had 1mln of games sold at the beginning. I have played it for more than 2 years all the time having an unfufilled hope that FC will start respecting me as a customer. After that, I promised myself that I will never EVER again buy any of their products. Seriously, I could try Secret World if it was only EA. I could try it if it was also Origin. But something made by FC? Never.
 
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im playing and loving the game, and im glad we dont get all the wow kiddies that can't afford to spend 15 dollars for all the awesomeness thats in this game, go play with your fantasy japanese grind in gw2.
 
[citation][nom]Ninetoe[/nom]im playing and loving the game, and im glad we dont get all the wow kiddies that can't afford to spend 15 dollars for all the awesomeness thats in this game, go play with your fantasy japanese grind in gw2.[/citation]

No game that I've ever played was worth several hundred dollars a year. I've played WoW and at no time was it worth the cost that is demanded for it.
 

geminireaper

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[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]No game that I've ever played was worth several hundred dollars a year. I've played WoW and at no time was it worth the cost that is demanded for it.[/citation]
people say this but yet drop how much for a 2hr movie. How often do you go out to dinner or go to a bar? Im willing to bet much more money. Really...what is the cost vs enjoyment ratio here. And yes they can charge both. 50 to recover the huge investment to develope the game. the reoccuring fee to maintain the game. is that such a hard concept? one month of gaming which can give you 20-30 hrs of enjoyment vs 3-4 beers at a bar which are there and gone in 2hrs.
 
[citation][nom]geminireaper[/nom]people say this but yet drop how much for a 2hr movie. How often do you go out to dinner or go to a bar? Im willing to bet much more money. Really...what is the cost vs enjoyment ratio here. And yes they can charge both. 50 to recover the huge investment to develope the game. the reoccuring fee to maintain the game. is that such a hard concept? one month of gaming which can give you 20-30 hrs of enjoyment vs 3-4 beers at a bar which are there and gone in 2hrs.[/citation]

I don't go to bars, I don't go out for dinner more than once or twice a year, and I don't buy many movies. I go to a movie theater maybe two to four times a year and when I do, I don't spend more than $15. Paying for a year of WoW would cost about as much as my other activities would after maybe ten years if I spent $14.99 every month on WoW. Bringing the monthly cost down to $5 or $6 would make it more acceptable. Heck, so long as it's below $8, it would be a serious improvement. Despite this, you go out on a limb and assume that not only that you know me, but also that I spend ridiculous amounts of money on these other things. I couldnt even afford that right now and even if I could, that money would most certainly not go to dinner and bars and would also not go to WoW or this Secret World game.
 

brettms71

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I purchased a lifetime subscription. $250USD seems like a fair deal to me. Will probably play for a couple of years for 10+ hours a week. And since i don't have to pay monthly, i don't care if i pick up a single player game every now and then. I'm really enjoying the game, no levels, and not having to roll a different toon because i want to be able to heal but i only have a DPS character. Means i dont have to do all the same quests over and over again each time. Really good system. The other thing i like is the social clothing. You can actually recognise people from a distance, because people are wearing normal clothes. Not everyone wearing the same armour as everyone else. The quests are awesome. No go here, kill 10 of these and return quests!
 
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simply... if you want it for free, dont buy it and it will become a F2P game.
 

stingstang

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[citation][nom]mrmangirlguy[/nom]simply... if you want it for free, dont buy it and it will become a F2P game.[/citation]
Yea...and games go F2P after 80% of the staff is laid off, which means that if you wanted this game to have expansions, you can forget about it. The fact is; if you like a certain game, you gotta pay for it to be better.
 
[citation][nom]stingstang[/nom]Yea...and games go F2P after 80% of the staff is laid off, which means that if you wanted this game to have expansions, you can forget about it. The fact is; if you like a certain game, you gotta pay for it to be better.[/citation]

That's a good point, but the amount of money being requested is still over the top.
 

blackbke

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[citation][nom]leongrado[/nom]I doubt this will even last as long as SWTOR. I'll try it when it goes F2P.[/citation]

Free to play is never really free. It just gives you a taste and if you want more you need to pay. Not saying it's a bad solution, but it doesn't differ all that much from a monthly fee if you're really into a game.
 

Wolvan

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All you people who complain about paying to play need to stop browsing the forums and get a job. If you can't pay $15/month on a product, you shouldn't be playing any games, but getting a second job.

I would gladly pay more then $15/month for a good game. That is .50c a freaking day. Cut one coffee out every week and its payed for. Free to pay (ie pay to win with microtransactions) sucks.

As for The Secret World, I had heard of it years ago, forgot all about it until 2 weeks ago when I got an invite to the last beta weekend. I was wary, after the Age of Conan ickyness, but this game is pretty awesome. I've been playing MMO's since Asheron's Call, and gaming my entire life. The storyline is top notch, the skill system is unique, awesome and frustrating at the same time (if I only had 1 more active slot...)



 
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It's amazing to me how many comments are barking at the cost of this game. Back in the day with AC1, EQ, and AO when it started (a game which I got in on beta) most players had zero qualms with paying the 50/15 price. WoW got amazing reviews when it came out. For the most part players were not crying about the upfront and/or the ongoing cost of the game. The F2P movement, while getting more people in the game, is simply doing the same thing but by a different means. The idea is the same with iOS and Android apps. FREE FREE FREE! Usually means free for a short while then PAY PAY PAY! to continue having fun. In my mind it would be like a theme park - say Six Flags - having no entrance fee, and letting you ride some of the more basic rides for free. But you have to pay per day or maybe even per ride for the Batman coaster. They are still getting money from you, but are charging for a specific thing instead of a blanket fee that covers everything. I prefer a hybrid sub/F2P model like Turbine has. If you want the whole kit-and-caboodle, you pay $15/month. If not, use F2P until you run out of quests or want to speed leveling, etc. I'd bet if it were all laid out in figures, the F2P and P2P are similar in cost - and I think (speculation here) that the F2P costs the player more.
 

mank

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It's not the amount, simply the subscription model. Did you skim posts? Many are fine with either upfront $$ and no sub fee, or sub fee with no upfront costs. The MMO market is already saturated enough for people to be holding multiple subscriptions or purchase prices. Because of all these options, more people are being savvy with their money too.

Doesn't matter to FC though, they truly only care about money.
 
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