MMORPGs: How much do you spend in a single game?

[powersoul]

By spend, it would be defined as cash shop/subscriptions/trading with real life money for MMORPGs.

I'm just curious, I've heard of people blowing thousands on one single game, namely WoW and even some game known as Perfect World. What about you gamers?

[Estebang]

Essential reading on this subject: http://www.danwei.org/electronic_games/ ... _in_zt.php

(ZT Online 2 has been released since that article was written. God help us all.)

[Friendly]

I think most people here aren't morons, which is why I wouldn't expect many personal stories.

Because only fucking morons ever start to play MMORPGs. Just like only morons put a needle in their arm and inject heroin voluntarily.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I used to an Eve online player, and ran 2 accounts, so about £25 per month for 2 years.

It was the first and only MMO I played, they are just money and time sinks. That said Hawken is going freemium, Im considering playing it, but only if I can spend around £30 to get a decent gaming experience

[Ed Oscuro]

$0 / €0 / ¥0 / £0

I have managed to play a number of MMOs over the years (only in the last five or so, though) for that amount. Free to play and to a much lesser extent emulation servers are amazing. It seems like only yesterday games were folding because bandwidth was too much. I guess I should qualify this, though - I played Star Wars Galaxies for free (to me) for a while.

[iconoclast]

I subscribed to WoW for around two years (early 2005-early 2007), so probably $360 or so. And it was totally worth it, since I don't think I've ever had as much fun playing video games before or since.

I'm glad I don't play any more though. Being in a high-end raiding guild takes a lot of dedication, and that's something I don't ever want to revisit. It was fun while it lasted though.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Because only fucking morons ever start to play MMORPGs. Just like only morons put a needle in their arm and inject heroin voluntarily.

I hear you about that, a big reason why Eve clicked with me was that it wasnt so bad with grinding, As leveling up needed no input from the player, (and ingame cash could be quite easy to get if you used your brain) so I didnt have to spend all my waking hours playing it to get anywhere. Although Eve's system encourages ppl to keep their subs running to keep leveling up.

That said I did have a lot of fun with eve, great PVP where if you die, you lost your shit for good, it was quite a buzz.

[DEL]

Mode 7 got sucked in by WoW and was never seen again.
Nearly....he did post a one liner here about a year ago, but about 9 years were lost.

His story kinda fits with the heroin thing by Friendly:

I think most people here aren't morons, which is why I wouldn't expect many personal stories.

Because only fucking morons ever start to play MMORPGs. Just like only morons put a needle in their arm and inject heroin voluntarily.

[ancestral-knowledge]

I spend nearly 3 full years in WoW when it was teh shit and i was VERRRRY successful in this game if there is anything like success in these games because they aren't exaclty skill based.
I sold my first character for 600 EUR, my second character for 750 EUR and my third for about 300 EUR so at least gaming was for free you could say. Looking back I think it was the best time of my life.

I met my girlfriend at WoW.
I got my job indirectly from WoW.
I got lots of real friends from WoW.

[Ed Oscuro]

Whenever these topics come up, I am compelled to mention Myst Online (which is FINALLY seeming to make some progress with the whole Open Source thing, or as JEFFK! would say, open sores), the talisman says so.

There's no "grinding," per se, just some puzzling and adventuring. Tough at places but you don't HAVE to do everything. Its main problem is that with the lack of polished content compared to some other games, the play system - which doesn't involve going to the same places over and over and doing the same thing repeatedly - reveals the flaw of any game system that doesn't involve a lot of mindless repetition. As far as games go it is almost alone in that respect (aside from other adventure games that is, but I don't know of any others that have an MMO or even an O side to them).

For me, the interesting thing in MMOGs is just seeing things, having some epic fights occasionally, maybe. I would nearly be happy with the exploration side of things alone, truth be told. The grinding kills any game for me.

[Ruldra]

Paid for 3 months of subscription in the official brazilian server of Ragnarok Online (bRO). After the subscription ended I looked around and learned about private servers, so I started playing in one of them (EuphRO).

After about 2 months of play, it was discovered that the server's admin was taking the players' donation money to buy drugs and pay his rent. Major shitstorm ensues, Level Up lawyers contact him, he is forced to close down the server. My level 7x Wizard is gone.

Then I played a month of Trickster Online. After that, I finally realized how addicting those games are and how bad they were affecting my life (I'd play all day long and do little else). Deleted the game from my PC and never touched the genre again.

I certainly had a lot of fun during my time with MMOs, but I know better now. Stay the fuck away.

PS: Money-wise, I only paid for subscription fees in bRO (a negigible amount). Everything else was free.

[Elixir]

I heard EuphRO's donations were going towards a drug habit. I miss the Canadian ValhallaRO, late 04/early 05. Good times.

[Skykid]

The closest I ever got to an MMO was being invited to NCSoft's UK offices to play Aion ahead of the finished western translation. They gave me a big bag full of free shit and some coffee.

That's it.

[Vexorg]

Played Asheron's Call for two years back in the day, and had two accounts for a lot of that time, probably don't want to know how much that cost. Also spent about a year total in WoW, and a few months in the short lived Motor City Online. I also have one of the ultra-rare lifetime subscriptions given to alpha testers of Puzzle Pirates, but haven't played in ages.

[Jockel]

Phantasy Star Online, still love it, still play it (Blue Burst Version), never paid for a Hunters License.

[Ruldra]

Essential reading on this subject: http://www.danwei.org/electronic_games/ ... _in_zt.php

I'm only halfway through the article and I'm dumbfounded at how willing those people are to spend thousands of cash in a game. They happily jump into a money-sucking scheme and never realize it.

Speaking of which, I heard there's a russian billionaire funding an entire Eve corp all by himself. Lolz.

[ratikal]

Oh god MMO's.

The least I've spent was on WoW which was just the monthly subscription fee.

I think the most I've spent was on both iRO and Maplestory. In iRO, I spent money on subscription fees and the once they introduced the cash shop, all the shit they had on there like 1.5x EXP and such.

Maplestory however, oh boy, I bought so much shit from that game. Those cash shop items, the store, man I spent too much that I don't even want to think about it. At least my character looked cute.

As soon as I got a job was the moment I started spending lods of emone.

[Ixranin]

I regularly watch people dump $150+ on gambling events in Ragnarok Online iRO. (Which happen about every month, not including upgrading.) There was even one player who earned a reputation because he was paying so much that the payment system was automatically locking him out as a precaution against fraud or somesuch.

Myself I've barely paid anything beyond the subscription costs, and now all the servers are free-to-play. All the gambling cash shop stuff hasn't been able to get any hold of me, though they like putting stupidly good exclusive equipment in the gambling. I've never been the kind of hardcore player who NEEDS that kind of stuff and who spends all day min-maxing things and hunting bosses though, so I've been mostly content to level at the snails pace that non-paying players are restricted to. (Also even less incentive to pay since the class I play got nerfed into uselessness.)

[Jeneki]

I had some buddies that played City of Heroes back when it was a subscription-only game. That was $15 a month. I think these days you can either subscribe and get the full game, or do the micro transaction thing. Oddly enough, the monthly fee looks cheaper than the "free" version, hehe.

[BIL]

Fucking zero.

[brentsg]

It doesn't make sense to pay more than the monthly sub fee. Honestly I'm surprised that these games exist, that are simply a money grab (article). The comment about porting you right to whatever NPC or whatever.. that's just to reduce downtime to maximize your opportunity to keep putting money in. They are little more than an online shot machine, it seems.

Any MMO is a time grab, but with a little bit of self control that's not a big deal. They can be enjoyed just like anything else. I laughed at some of the comments regarding wasted years. If a person enjoys what they are doing then who cares? Is it any worse than someone who "wastes" time reading, playing shmups, watching TV, etc? You could spend the time amassing Xbox Live achievements.. I guess I don't see the difference.

[powersoul]

Any MMO is a time grab, but with a little bit of self control that's not a big deal. They can be enjoyed just like anything else. I laughed at some of the comments regarding wasted years. If a person enjoys what they are doing then who cares? Is it any worse than someone who "wastes" time reading, playing shmups, watching TV, etc? You could spend the time amassing Xbox Live achievements.. I guess I don't see the difference.

That is the point of the thread. I'm just curious about how serious others take their games.

[Ruldra]

Any MMO is a time grab, but with a little bit of self control that's not a big deal. They can be enjoyed just like anything else. I laughed at some of the comments regarding wasted years. If a person enjoys what they are doing then who cares? Is it any worse than someone who "wastes" time reading, playing shmups, watching TV, etc? You could spend the time amassing Xbox Live achievements.. I guess I don't see the difference.

The difference is that MMOs are made in a way that sucks you in and doesn't let you go. A player will naturally try to improve his character, hunt for items and make friends, and in the process he finds himself spending more and more time with it. It's far more engaging than your usual console or PC game.

Self control only comes after you realize how addicting MMOs are. Some people realize this in weeks, others go on for years blindly playing all day long.

[GaijinPunch]

Phantasy Star Online, still love it, still play it (Blue Burst Version), never paid for a Hunters License.

I played PSO but I hardly find 1000 yen a month to be something a 'moron' would do, as that moron stated. In fact, for the GC version I pretty much played it exclusively for 8 months. It was the cheapest gaming stretch of my career.

What server do you play on? I had a good BB character on the official site... I guess that was my first bitter taste of server side saves, as those servers have long since faded into the ether.

[iconoclast]

Phantasy Star Online, still love it, still play it (Blue Burst Version), never paid for a Hunters License.

I played PSO but I hardly find 1000 yen a month to be something a 'moron' would do, as that moron stated. In fact, for the GC version I pretty much played it exclusively for 8 months. It was the cheapest gaming stretch of my career.

What server do you play on? I had a good BB character on the official site... I guess that was my first bitter taste of server side saves, as those servers have long since faded into the ether.

http://schtserv.com/ is where everyone goes for their PSO fix now.

I can't wait to play PSO2. It looks like Sega has finally come up with a worthy sequel.

[Elixir]

PSO2 looks awesome, so jealous of those that were in the Alpha.

[Friendly]

Reality check for people with hurt feelings: This topic is about MMORPGs. PSO is not a MMORPG. It's neither massive (small parties, no large, consistent overworld) nor is it really an RPG; it's an action-oriented game with some RPG elements that can be played online with three other people in your group. Carry on.

[GaijinPunch]

I played on Schtack before... don't have the time for it now. I doubt I will give PSO2 the time of day. Even though it's not an MMO in the traditional sense, it fits the bill for this topic: IE, donate your life to it.

Reality check for people with hurt feelings: This topic is about MMORPGs. PSO is not a MMORPG. It's neither massive (small parties, no large, consistent overworld) nor is it really an RPG; it's an action-oriented game with some RPG elements that can be played online with three other people in your group. Carry on.

What would we ever do without you, erinu?

[Friendly]

I played on Schtack before... don't have the time for it now. I doubt I will give PSO2 the time of day. Even though it's not an MMO in the traditional sense, it fits the bill for this topic: IE, donate your life to it.

Reality check for people with hurt feelings: This topic is about MMORPGs. PSO is not a MMORPG. It's neither massive (small parties, no large, consistent overworld) nor is it really an RPG; it's an action-oriented game with some RPG elements that can be played online with three other people in your group. Carry on.

What would we ever do without you, erinu?

I don't get it, I suppose that's an insult? It's not in urban dictionary.

edit: http://abbreviations.yourdictionary.com/erinu ? Makes no sense.

[GaijinPunch]

I can't wait to play PSO2. It looks like Sega has finally come up with a worthy sequel.

I guess my problem I have w/ this is that while it can be played casually, I'm sure there will be a sense of "left out in the dust" for people that have normal lives (eg, deadlines at work, children that play, demanding wives, hot girlfriends) and can "only" squeeze in about 10 ours a week max.

Bah... might try it. Would have to dig up a PC.