Comments on: What would a lifetime subscription be worth to you?

By: Tesh

Tesh — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:34:04 +0000

Aye, that never quite sat right with me, either. Then again, it never sat right with me for “regular subscription” either, since my assumption was that at least part of the sub fee was being spent on *making* those expansions. That may be a faulty assumption, but that’s the root of why buying expansion boxes bothers me.

By: Brian 'Psychochild' Green

Brian 'Psychochild' Green — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 08:15:27 +0000

Only problem I have with lifetime subs is that you still have to fork over the cash for expansions. So, you have to take that into consideration for your “worth it if you play X months” calculations. Gotta spend more money to make that investment worth it.

That’s another issue with longer term subscriptions. I bought a year’s worth of LotRO during the special. It’s going to kind of suck if an expansion comes out and I have to buy it to keep playing with everyone, otherwise I “waste” part of my pre-paid subscription.

By: Stabs

Stabs — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:05:56 +0000

It could still get cancelled before release….

By: spinks

spinks — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:32:23 +0000

I think at £20 I’d take a lifetime sub to just about anything

By: Hambone Hamlet

Hambone Hamlet — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:26:22 +0000

$299 for LOTRO and I do not regret my decision because I really enjoy the game and the people I played with. Yes, I would have loved to have gotten the $199 deal but I came to the game 6 months after launch and after the free 30-day trial I knew that I would be playing this game for the next 5 years. I want to see Mordor

By: Tesh

Tesh — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:05:09 +0000

At least offer an offline version to lifers, so that they can get their money out of it if the provider tanks, like Hellgate.

Of course, if the game itself isn’t any fun, yes, that’s a pain. Hands-on experience really needs to be a prerequisite for lifetime sub purchases.

By: Tesh

Tesh — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:03:20 +0000

I prefer the Guild Wars “lifetime sub” price. Buy the box, you’re a lifer. It’s pretty simple, and if I want later content, the price is clear for that as well. It takes time out of the equation, and I’m free to just play it as I feel inclined.

By: Pete S

Pete S — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:51:10 +0000

I’d pay $200, as it so happens. And I did, for LOTRO, and I’m glad I did. BUT, I had a chance to play it before I made that decision, and saw in it a game I’d enjoy for a good long while. I’ve more than made my money back.

I don’t think I’d be enjoying LOTRO as much as I am had I been paying $15 every month, because then I’d feel somehow obligated to play when I wasn’t really feeling it.

But I’ll agree its a gamble. I also paid $140 for a Lifetime Sub to Hellgate London. This was very much a ‘good faith’ purpose because even though the game was semi-broken, I believed in Bill Roper and believed the game would be fixed. That belief was misplaced and I lived to regret that purchase.

So now here’s Bill Roper asking for $200 for a Lifetime Sub to this new game, but he expects me to buy without seeing the game in action?

Screw me once, shame on you. Screw me twice, shame on me. Thanks but no thanks, Bill.

So now, I’m only going to consider Lifetime Memberships if I’m able to play the game a lot before making the decision, and the game is fairly solid when I do so.

By: spinks

spinks — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:16:56 +0000

It’s funny really. WAR is the game where I’d have jumped at a lifetime sub and probably been really happy with it. It really is a great casual PvP game and I could easily imagine wanting to jump into the odd scenario and open RvR session, especially when the live events were on. Just I can’t justify a regular sub.

By: Longasc

Longasc — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:10:17 +0000

I wonder which MMO I will play for a lifetime. But it could be a bargain if you plan to play longer than 14-20 months, depending on the monthly fee.

It is still a gamble. The game is not even out yet, and I think it is a gamble heavily in favor of the “bank”, in this case of Cryptic.

The other thing is, really good games make you want to pay for them. If I really like a game it does not matter to me if it costs 5, 10 or 15 bucks a month. You are already in the stage of boredom and quitting when you think about if the game is worth the money or not.

I really like the Guild Wars chapter model, but they did not manage to bring out new content every 6 months and Guild Wars 2 is going to follow the new hype, “FREE TO PLAY” – “BUT MICRO-TRANSACTIONS”.