f13.net

If you peruse both forums you'll know I asked this same questions at FoH. We got into a pretty lengthy discussion yesterday about the customer, the guest, in the MMO space. The debate centered around what we thought was the 'norm' as it relates to MMO players and games they're subscribed to.

Might be more challenging here since I cannot find a Poll option but that is the question.

1) Age
2) Sex (not a yes/no questions)
3) How many MMO's are you actively subscribed to?
4) What is your 'price point' for MMO's? How much is TOO much for a monthly Sub? Or what is the maximum dollar amount you'd pay for a subscription based monthly MMO?

Not subbed to any MMOs at the moment.

1)   36
2)   Male
3)   0
4)   Depends on the overall quality and amount of content in the game.  If I played WoW, I'd easily pay 20 bucks a month.  I would even entertain the thought of 25 bucks a month for a quality game that continues to deliver new content/expansions, and the cost of said expansions was included in my slightly higher than normal sub price. 

Deliver a premium product and I'll pay a premium price.

1) 32
2) Male
3) 1
4) 15 (I could go higher but there would need to be a damn good reason.  The state most MMOs come out in these days, charging even 15/month is nearly criminal.  You'd have to do much better than them in terms of content, releasing unfucked updates, and generally well thought out design decisions, by which I mean thinking about long term impacts rather than slapping band-aids on shit and saying "good enough!"

Edit: The age spread is interesting.  I expected a lot more young'uns.

1) 30
2) male
3) 1
4) I don't think that one could launch what would be called a premium product for ~$30/mo without first establishing the product as actually being premium. $15 is somewhat standard fare, but the reason that I'm still subscribed to LOTRO is that it's only $30/3 months. I've not been able to play very much at all, but since it's about the same cost as Netflix I let it ride.

"Not being able to play much" leads me to another point. If you're looking to gather data, you should probably get household make up and current employment status as well. I'd probably be subscribed to 3 or 4 MMOs, at the moment, but I've got a 3 year old and my current job is pretty stressful. In order to win my attention the game will have to be pretty goddamn good.
 

1) 44
2) Male
3) 1
4) I'd pay as much as $25 a month for a game that kept me entertained and didn't treat me like a second class citizen for playing it solo. 

1) 34
2) Male
3) 1 or as many as 5, depending on what you mean.
4) $15 a month with discounts for bulk purchases (i.e. 3, 6, 12 month packages are less that $15 a month when divided out)

The problem I have with this is what do you mean by "Subscribed"?  Currently, I only pay a monthly fee to one MMO, Fallen Earth.  However, I am actively playing 5 MMOs, the other four are just different models.  For Wizard101, I bought $80 worth of game cash which I have used to buy more content as I've needed it.  For DDO, I have not yet spent any money, but may if I stick with the game.  Runes of Magic, I am not paying anything for and have no plans to as I have yet to run into a need to pay.  Free Realms, I am purposely freeloading in this game because I want to see if it is possible to exhaust the free content and occasionally blog about my efforts to do so.

But, if you only mean "paying a monthly fee", then I have never and likely will never maintain more than a single monthly subscription over the long term.  Occasionally, however, I will overlap a month or two while decided if I'm going to jump to a new game or stick with my existing game.

1) 30
2) Male, last I checked.
3) 3. One i pay a sub for, but may go lifetime. One I'm still on my free month. and one is a F2P. Four If you count the one I am working on.
4) Depends on the game. Take a look at my response. I typically buy boxed versions if i can, and prefer to do so. If there is a CE, i will go for that. However monthly sub, my limit is the standard 15$, or free With micro-transactions.

1) 42
2) M
3) 6 (two of them are lifetime accounts and two of them are free to play)
4) Maybe $30/mo for some super awesome premium game, but the cost is not usually my main issue. If the game is worth it I will pay.

1) 26
2) Male
3) 0
4) I think I'd draw the line at 25 USD. That being said, few of the current MMORPGs deserve the 15 bucks a month.

1: 36
2: M
3: 3, two of which I'm paying for.
4: I'm prepared to pay whatever your game is worth.

1) 42
2) Male
3) 3 (WoW, CoH, Aion)
4) $15/month

My Aion subscription is still in the first free month, but I'm actively playing it so that counts, imo.

I say $15/mo, because that's the going rate for the games I'm currently subbed to. If a game came along that was actually better, I'd consider paying more. Good luck to you on that score :)

1) 38
2) Male
3) 3: EQ2 for raiding, LoTRO on a lifetime sub and CoH with gametime cards if I feel the urge to wear some tights.
4) $15/month. $200 for a lifetime sub, but since the Hellgate debacle I need to be convinced the game will stay at least long enough alive to amortize the ammount.

1) 36
2) M
3) 0....which is odd for me.  I feel kinda naked.
4) Honestly, for an amazing MMO, I would probably pay up to 50 bucks a month.  If you can get a solid 20-30 hours a month of really excellent gameplay, well, that beats what you'll get out of the average game in any other genre.  Trouble is, nothing has really come close to being that good.

1) 37
2) Male
3) 2 - 2.5  I have 1 account I pay for, 1 free to play, and a 2nd acct for WoW that I did for 3 months, for the RAF, but will not be continuing past that three months.
4) $15/month.  Unless there were some sort of premium content that I were paying for.  I don't see what that would be, to be honest, but if there were something worthwhile that cost a bit extra, I'd be ok with that.

Normally, real companies pay research companies to conduct this kind of focus grouping, but you know, MMOG industry. So with that said:

1) 38
2) Male
3) 1
4) $15 is pushing it for being too much money, but it's my break point. Any higher and MMOG's aren't worth it. For most of them, $15 a month is too much. I'm paying $9.99 a month for Lord of the Rings, but I'd pay the $15 for it, WoW or EQ2. There's nothing else worth my money out there.

ok, I'll bite.

1) In my 30s. So is my wife. None of anyone's business beyond that. You should have asked for people's jobs, annual income, social security number etc as well. Notice how normally-security-minded people people piss all that publically out all over the internet if asked in these me-too polls?

2) Male. My wife is not.

3) 1, though still on the LotRO 30-day box section ATM, likely to lifetime sub. Same with her. In my closer-to-catass younger days, I had 2 subs at max, since the games demand your time. I'd solo in WoW while LFG in EQ1. :uhrr:

4) WoW is $15 a month, so if you want more, you'd better be better than them in terms of ease of use, play experience and polish (protip: you won't be, especially on release)

3) part 2: Now that I am gainfully employed (ie, not a student or unemployed) I don't realistically have the time to play even 1 MMO with any consistency, along with family time, consoles, other PC games etc. For this reason, 1 game is my max (and often play none MMOs). Lifetime sub is the "out" option which will allow me to chill out and play whenever.

Having said that, the chances of me lifetime subbing to anything just starting is :why_so_serious: not incredibly likely. For the why, see WAR, AOC, Hellgate:London, Gods & Heroes, Fury, Auto Assault, MXO, Sims Online EA Land, Earth and Beyond etc. Or even SWG, Vanguard. Once a game has been running with some stability for a couple of years I'd consider it. Of course, the game also has to be good.

1) 40ish
2) Female
3) 2 - WOW/group/raid, UO - sandbox
4) $15

I would go more expensive for games if the industry price point rose, it's not a "I can't afford this" issue, but I'm not looking to break new ground and if you have a successful game, the monthly is money hats anyway, so I'm inclined to view higher prices as greedy and lacking added value.

1.) 40
2.) Male
3.) 2 (WoW, FE)
4.) $12 (I'd like to see a happy medium between the current $15 and the good ol' $9.95 though I'll still pay $15 if it's good.)

Edit: if F2P MMO's are included, then 4. Perfect World and DDO get some occasional love. I don't do any micro-trans.

1) 43
2) Male
3) 2 Lotro and DDO ( free version with a couple of purchses from store).  With wife and 2 kids, only play mmo's casually.
4) For Lotro, I am paying 29.99 for 3 months at at time and have been for a while.

With so much competiton, I find it unfathomable that any company would consider hiking up the average monthly fee of 14.99.

Companies with multiple titles, need to seriously look into combining their games into a All-Access type scenario like Sony did. (Turbine,  NC Soft).

1) 39
2) Male
3) 2, but that's an anomaly because I got LotRO for the $10 moria free month. Normally I just sub to EQ2 from late fall to early spring, about five or six months a year.
4) 10 bucks but 15 is reasonable, I guess. I'll second Nebu's point about being treated like a second class citizen, if I solo exclusively, I should only be charged half the sub fee since I'm cut off from so much content.  :oh_i_see:

That said, when I was playing EQ2, SWG and PS, the Station Pass was reasonable at $30. But not for a single title, even with perks (EQ2 Station Pass perks).

1) 31
2) Male
3) 1 - WoW. I have a fairly strict rule of not subbing to more than one MMO at the same time. Only time I've ever had 2 running at once is when another sub has been canceled and is merely going for the rest of the billing cycle.
4) 15.  Anyone breaking that current barrier better be goddamn outstanding or I will bolt before you get your hands on my credit card. I think 20 is my max right now. 25 if you are just the greatest thing on Earth.  30? Not a chance.

1) 24
2) M
3) 0
4) $15/mo. Being that it converts into Canadian, it's fairly costly. Anything more than $15 and I'm actually paying ~$20 and it's often not worth it.

This is lazy (especially since there's no 0 option in the poll). I'm going to set up a survey monkey thing later. It's more useful to every MMOG than it is to just one. We've enough people here that it's worth the effort.

Edit: And it's the kind of thing that's useful to a wiki. Curt, incoming PM.

1.  35
2.  M
3.  1
4.  As far as price goes, it's about value.  Valve and Blizzard provide it.  Nobody else does.  If you deliver value like Valve and Blizzard, you can charge what you want.  Like IanC said, people will pay you what it's worth to play your game.  As an example Blizz recently said they're releasing a content patch for Diablo 2, which came out in like '99.  I got my 50$ out of that game.

Also, I don't know if you're treating this like a scientific survey, but if you are you've already got a couple problems.  By using forums for this, everyone can see everybody else's answers.  So you've kind of got a subconscious pissing match going on in what people think they'll pay.  Notice how the average answer to question 4 gets higher and higher?  Yea.  Might not want to put too much stock in that.  There are people you can hire who can tell you stuff like this.  But hey, you posted in a different thread, even if it's a marketing survey.  We're here to help.

Not much science in it, not intended. The main question we were looking for some real world answers too is how many subs. Assuming EVERYONE at 0 is a potential 1 if you deliver a quality product, but also hearing those at 1+ talk about how their 1 is really 1.5 or 2.

1. 45
2. M
3. 3, will be 2 by next week.
4. $15 is as much as I'll do, but it had better hit the value I expect. WoW kind of establishes my expectation, LoTRO has content updates that go close. For a game that really went a different way, say a seriously sandboxy, dynamic-world, MMO, I'd keep paying $15 even if it wasn't feature-complete or had technical issues. If it's a WoW-clone, it had better be almost as polished as WoW if there's any expectation of collecting money from me past the box sale.

1.  33
2.  M
3.  1 at a time only
4.  $15 for the few good ones on the market today.  I'd be down for $20-25/month if I don't have to buy a box upfront or yearly expansions ala EVE*. 

*As long as the game is worth my time. 

1) 29
2) Male
3) Three. Or maybe four. Wait... five? uh... I've lost count :O And I only play 1 1/2 of those.
4) Anything under $20.

1. 31

2. M

3. 1, i lose all interest in every other game if im playing an mmo i enjoy.

4.  I could have seen myself paying more for WoW after 2-3 years, not at launch and not for any other game.  Maybe 20-25 bucks eventually.

1. 33
2. M
3. 1
4. $15-20 a month

33/M/0/I prefer F2P with store and I do spend.

I really just don't trust developers to pay more than 15 and that's pushing for most games.  Lately it seems like the developers think that sub is just for bug fixes.  I suspect if we payed more, they'd just pocket the difference and still tack on an additional RMT BS.  At 30 dollars could anyone really make twice the quality of a game?  Seriously.  If you going to charge more, it has got be something that is just beyond the scope and scale of anything else.  A promise of more frequent content updates just isn't going cut it.

1) 32

2) Male

3) 1 only. If a new mmo comes out that I want to play, I will cancel the current one. I refuse to be subbed to more than one at a time. Currently Aion.

4) I think the current price point of $15 is about all that most people will spend. I could possibly see spending more, but the game would have to provide something that current gen games do not. Ether huge frequent content updates or something. Paying more than $15 for the exact same service to what is currently on the market would be hard to justify.

1. 35
2. M
3. 3 currently (WoW, lifetime LotRO sub, and usually 1-2 floater games, right now CoH because I wanted to see what's changed in the last couple years, last month it was Fallen Earth and Champions Online)
4. Anything more than $15 is too much, and discounts that bring it below $15 for multi-month subs are pretty important and also pretty tempting to me. I dislike RMT for anything but I'll put up with it for stuff like server transfers and renames. Anything actually in-game requiring RMT I find pretty distateful. If you push it to $20, expansions need to be free and added content needs to be abundant IMO.

YAY POLLZ!

1. 38
2. Male
3. 2; WoW and Champions Online, though I occasionally kick a few bucks to SL when I need more flying penises. So...2.5?
4. I'll pay up to $20 if it's what I'm looking for; something like a more optimal Fallen Earth for sure. WoW is worth only $9.95/mo to me. I'm cancelling after this month. I would also pay up to $20 in microtransactions per month; again, if it's something I want, like more flying penises.

1) 40
2) Male
3) 1 (2 WoW accounts)
4) £20/month for now. I'm hooked on 2-boxing mmos. Would play EVE too if I had more (any) income and if I could play at the PC for longer.

1) 48
2) Male
3) 1 (SWG)
4) Price does not matter to me if I enjoy the game

1) 48
2) Male
3) 5 (LotRO lifetime sub, CoX, AoC, DAoC, Aion) - I am dropping DAoC and probably AoC at least until the expansion. DAoC is just too dated and I am way too far behinnd to bother with Ywain.
4) $15 seems the general limit per game, and since I almost always have 3+ subs to something going on its quite enough. As others said, if a game is really worth it I don't think there is a limit, but it would have ot be something beyond what anyone has now. Don't tell me its great, show me its great if you want my money.

I would pay anything for a RvR game with a motivating and ongoing endgame.

Edit: I would pay 2x anything for DAoC II updated to Aion-like standards, or any game with 3+ playable sides.

1) 40+
2) Male
3) 3 (WoW, CoH, Aion) dropping CoH
4) IainC put it best... I'd pay whatever price delivers good value.

Personally I would prefer a hybrid model: Box Sales, lower monthly maintenance fee ($5-$9), paid enhancements - options - add-ons; Paid Expansions, etc.  - Not quite micro-transactions, but something closer to GW - I don't mind funding the game, but I'm more likely to drop games that need a lot of work than I once was.

The bloom has worn off the MMO rose; I find myself dabbling in more games (since initial investment $$ don't impact my finances), but rarely find the new games worth a long term financial or personal commitment... If I could keep access to an open account to check in on the progress of games, I'd be much more likely to invest new $$ in the form of new content or new characters or other options to play for another segment.

1) 23
2) Male
3) 1, but I'm not actually paying for it. Got a free subscription to WAR for sending a trial thing to a friend of mine.
4) 15 dollars. Or euro, as I am paying for every MMO out there. I already think it costs too much, as we usually don't seem to get much interesting content for it.

1.  41
2.   M
3.   1, soon to be zero. I'm subscribed to WoW for the few hours a month I may log in to help my wife with something. I played dozens of hours a week for 4 years, but I'm utterly bored with it.

4. If I were to pay more than $15 a month it would have to offer me something more than "the WoW experience". It would have to be something where I could do all the content either solo or with just my wife or with a small group. If I wanted to be cockblocked out of content because I have to join up with 10 or 20 mouthbreathers over Vent I could just play WoW. So yeah to put it plainly to charge more than $15 a month you would need to cater to my playstyle AND be as polished and smooth as the most successful video game of all time. Good luck with that.

1) 45
2) M
3) 1
4) $15 a month, somewhere close to $30 if I don't have to buy a box.  You could probably sell me a new $45 game every 4 months or so if you did the GW model. 

1) 40-something
2) M
3) 0 (burned out and nothing appealing or more polished available than WoW still)
4) $20? Depends, as Musashi said about quality but also just tired of the whack-a-mole elves and dorfs fantasy realms and would love to see a Wild West theme or a decent sci-fi game (no, SWG was not that). Also, would like a MMO that doesn't privilege those who w/no RL pursuits can be logged in 24/7 over players w/ <10 hour per week.

1) 36
2) M
3) 2 or 3: LotRO and Fallen Earth, I can't remember if I'm subbed to Conan or not.  I might need to check on that.  You may or may not count DDO since I haven't given them any money but I have a character.
4) Price depends entirely on product.  Most things are not worth more than $9.95 to me.  LotRO is worth my $15 and probably more, although that depends on the direction they take the game.  I'd say FE is worth the $15 also but I do hope they purchase some high-res textures one day.  Make something with PvE, atmosphere and polish better than LotRO and I'll sub.  Make a better Fallen Earth and I'll sub.  Good luck, sir.

31
M
1 (Fallen Earth)
15 is pushing it. I can buy a decent quality game on Steam for $20, so I expect to get a similar amount of value from my MMO sub.

1) 33
2) M
3) 2 MMOs at the moment. A lifetime CO & multi-month sub with LOTRO.  I Couldn't fathom playing more than 2.  LOTRO hasn't been getting enough love from me as it is.
4) Highest I would go is $20-monthly but it would obviously have to be a quality shit/high content update situation.  I do like the option of lifetime subs. I should also mention that I probably average $20 - $30 a month on Steam, which could also be easily coaxed into a properly done RMT.

1) 25
2) M
3) 2 - Aion and WoW
4) I'm generally willing to pay out the ass as a consumer for my entertainment (I'm sure I'll get over that eventually), but I don't see myself paying any more than 20-25 for an MMO. I might pay higher if there were features that I feel would honestly warrant the extra money, but with MMOs being packaged and sold the way they are, that's the price point I'm comfortable with.

1) 35
2) Male
3) 1, I prefer to focus my energies on one MMO at a time.  If I leave a game, I will most likely never go back to it. 
4) 15 bucks is about right.  I don't think I've played a game that delivers enough content to pay more.  However, I'd be willing to go up to 20-25 if there was.  I'm also not a huge fan of the whole RMT thing.  I'd rather have a straight up full pay method.

The demographics of this slight are pretty screwy.

Only 3 of the respondents are under 30.  Only 1 of them female?

Heh, Schild you need to start running advertising for 4-door sedans, golf and viagra.

Heh.  No kidding.  F13 is in no way any sort of representation of the average gamer.

1) 36
2) Female
3) Technically Three*
4) I'm rapidly finding Free Realm's $5 is great if I'm doing multiple games

* WoW because of friends, Free Realms because $5 is worth it for all they have done right.  I have a sub to Fallen Earth and Aion at the moment.  The latter I am not going to renew past the free month.  I may sub to FE for a few months to support an indie dev which did a lot of things right and in a non-fantasy world.

I'm becoming less and less thrilled with the default $15 a month the industry has settled on as a price-point.  It's certainly not sustainable for the games which I would like to play, but will eventually give up simply because I'm not getting my money's worth out of them.

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3035/2774173185_05b315b254_m.jpg)
 :oh_i_see:

Might have been true 10 years ago.

I think last demographic survey I noted said median gamer age was 30something on the closer to 40 end.

Plus, older gamer (on average) has more discretionary money to spend on games than younger gamer.

To build on that further, I've noticed the trend here is to try a new game, maybe sub for a month or two, then go looking elsewhere. A lot of us play just a few hours a week. We're borderline-casual. Core-casual? Something like that. Some of us are hardcore, but only with respect to specific games, and mostly in spurts. Some are hardcore towards a genre, but maybe a few are hardcore all games all the time.

Assumptions abound in that paragraph, to be sure. More surveys would be more fun!

I'd actually agree somewhat with this.  My DDO guild was mainly 30+ year olds, and I'd say that in my WAR guild it was at least 60-70% over the age of 30.

Age: 43
Sex: Male
Locati oh hey, nice twist. Number of games subscribed to: 1 (and playing rarely)
How much would you pay for a game sub: Don't know. Show me the game and I'll tell you.

I did one a year and a half ago about how people choose an MMO (http://www.antipwn.com/blog/?p=36). Curt is welcome to use those not-very scientific numbers too.

1) Age: 29
2) Sex: M
3) How many MMO's are you actively subscribed to: 2 (usually 1, overlapping subs ATM)
4) What is your 'price point' for MMO's: $15/mo.  Could probably go as high as $20 for some mythical robot jesus MMO without breaking the bank, but the instant the game got the least bit aggrivating I'd leave.

1) 39
2) M
3) 1
4) $14.99

I only play one at a time. I don't mind the up-front plus monthly fee. And I'd give MTX a shot if there was a game to come along I thought worth playing. But there better be some chocolate love in that box if the game is going to try and violate the $14.99 barrier. I didn't mind the jump from $9.99 to $14.99 back in the day. But once you hit that $20 mark, now you're talking "hmm, try a new Steam game or keep a MMO subscription active?".

1) ~30
2) M
3) 1 - Eve
4) There's some complex calculus of fun per hour per dollar here that is difficult to untangle. If a persistent game was capable of delivering new kinds of fun every month, it'd be worth $50/m. Realistically, $15/mo is price too high for most games as they all entail a fair amount of repetition, which both reduces the fun and the time spent in game for me. If I was paying $15/m for Eve I'd feel slightly ripped off, because I don't play it that much.

1.  35
2.  M
3.  3 subs-  WOW, Fallen Earth and Aion
    2 "others"-  LOTRO lifetime and Eve 1 year sub (don't play really)
4.  I don't really have a firm limit.  I would think probably around $30/ month, but it would have to be damned good.  Like crystal meth good.  

Edit:  Forgot WOW   :ye_gods:

Not what I was getting at.  I'm not talking about age, or discretionary income or anything of the sort.

The average F13 person is a more informed and intelligent gamer.  Much more refined, and less likely to put up with superfluous bullshit than the average person. 

Though, now I might have been wrong  :grin:

F13 is pretty much the niche of the niche.

1.   39
2.   M
3.   2'ish.  Until last month it's been Staion Pass (Vanguard or EQ2) plus one other game (Eve/WoW/Random MMO FOTM). 
4.   $15'ish.  It'd have to be a  pretty charming pig to get me to pay $29.99 again.

1.  40
2.  Male
3.  1 and only ever 1.  If I am playing an MMO.... I wont play anything else.
4. $15 is good... I would pay to $30, but it would have to really rock, and have a reason it cost more.

1) 39
2) Male
3) 0
4) $15 is fine for a mainstream commercial title, higher for epic awesomeness with live actors among the NPCs or extra costs like that.

But I am now wary of MMOs, as I've experienced an out-of-control addiction to them in the past. I would still take an interest if someone took them to the next level (don't know what that is, but it sure doesn't involve being hunched over a computer desk, grinding).

1) 49 (for a few more days)
2) M
3) 1 (max was 4 - never again.  but open to two)
4) $10-15, generally, although I can almost imagine spending up to $25 if it was that much better than anything else out there now.  Start subtracting from the max if there is RMT stuff I need to buy to enjoy the game.  And chop it to $0 if it's an incomplete unbalanced buggy POS like the the last few AAA titles have been.  Strangely enough, at one time I was actually willing to pay a monthly fee to stay in beta if only they would have kept it in beta and actually fixed stuff (EQ), now I'm not willing to pay anything unless/until there is a complete and polished PvE game experience available.  AoC, WAR, H:L, TR and CO got none of my money.  FE actually might, I'm still researching.

Honest to god, I really hope this isn't your "understanding the market" phase of your business case. "Some doodz on the forums said they'd totally pay $20 a month! Let's roll!".

Here's my tip: get some real market research done. I'd suggest conjoint analysis to get at pricing trade-offs and market sizing potential, but MMO product features are a bit nebulous at times so there might be little bit more thinking required than the average type of that project. Since the target market is online, per-recruit collection costs wouldn't be that high. But holy hell, if you are pouring millions into this game, spend a portion on that to actually build a real business case based on target market evidence.

If you charge a cent more than $15, your title will have to be the best damn game of the year (or have the Blizzard name on the box) because you're competing with not only WoW as it stands, but the player's history with WoW and everything they've achieved in that game. In some cases that means they want something new, but that's the baseline for $15. The reality is you should be looking at charging $10 a month - if you even go for a monthly sub, which isn't something you have to do either - for the full game, with perhaps some extras to maybe attract more revenue in.

As for the other questions: my age is irrelevant since you don't understand any other phase of my life (for instance: do I have kids? A single 35 yo and a single 35 yo with kids are entirely different propositions), I'm subbed to 2 MMOs but play several more that are free / on trial / in beta and you've got the best chance of hooking me if your title doesn't have a monthly fee.

Oh jesus christ.  And more than a little self-congratulatory. 

*Fake edit:  Or more Green I guess.

1.) 33, married, have kids (probably relevant)

2.) M

3.) 3 currently, but one is running out and one is with multiple accounts.

4.) About $15, although I would probably go higher if I feel the game is worth it.

1.) 23

2.) M

3.) 0

4.) This probably isn't relevant to you, but I will probably never pay a MMO subscription fee again. I can't remember the last time I've subbed and actually played the entire month. I really don't have a good tolerance for other players idiocy anymore, it just drains me of the will to play. Perhaps if a game actually finds a way to remove the ubiquitous "you've gotta have a group in order to experience all the content!" cockblock.

That's want single player games are for.  Some people need to learn that they just don't want to play multiplayer games.  I don't think the answer is to make all multilayer games single player.  CO is prime example.  It's a crappy single player that you sub for.  Pay more, get less.  It's maddening. 

1) 36
2) M
3) 1-Aion but have 2 accounts so I guess technically 2.  Ive been a dual boxer since EQ1 in 4 MMO's.
4) Paid $15 for years and Im ok with that.  I would be willing to pay a higher fee but I better be getting something unique / awesome in return but I dont think I would pay more then $20 regardless.  TBH I wouldnt be surprised if an MMO comes out with a fee structure where the more you pay the less grinding you have to do or something.  I can see SOE leading that venture. 

Wow.  You guys are really OLD.  You should change the name of this board to Shady Rest. 

This is apparently the place where old internet elephants go to die.

1 - 38
2 - Male
3 - 1 WAR. Playing with longtime friends that are scattered around the world due to job. With house, wife, kids and job it's not possible for me to play 2+ MMO at the same time.
4 - EUR 10-15 but I would pay up to EUR 50,-- if the game could bring MMO to a next-gen level.

Yes, it's true we are old, I am in fact checking to see part of my Social Security check can be direct deposited for my monthly subscription fees.

1. 30
2. Male
3. 4 Subscriptions currently, with Eve actually having 3 seperate subscriptions so um, 6 Total then.
4. Despite the obvious fishing to find out if you can break the status quo on MMO billing, I individually guage each game i try, to decide its approximate value to me.

1. 43
2. M
3. 5
4. $15 max

If we were in our 70s I'd be inclined to agree. My guess is that most of us are still in our 20's mentally/culturally. Not that we share tons of interests with today's 20-year-olds, but that we still live our lives much the same way we did in our 20's, just with more money (and a little less time, and perhaps less sex).

Why do you depress me so.

1) 26
2) Male
3) Currently 1 (Aion), if the game is good enough I'm willing to do 2 (CoX/WoW) for dual boxing. Although whatever I play my brother and his wife usually end up playing.
4) I give any new MMO I play 60 days (including the free 30) to demonstrate they can maintain and optimize their game at a 15$ sub. If the MMO can't deliver then I'll cancel and revisit it for review in 3-6 months to see how things are going (assuming the servers are still up). For example AION right now is very much bordering a cancel until I see more issues addressed rather than talked about.

For more than 15$ it best have all the magic of UO, MoO2, and X-Com crammed into one box and the manual considered a holy text in some cultures.

Accuracy?

I'll have you know that having a family has changed my life significantly! I can no longer watch anime during dinner. Or at least not anything more edgy than Snow Fairy Sugar.

I think I might suck at sarcasm.   :ye_gods:

No, they just really suck at picking up on it.

Sarcasm requires context. You didn't post your own answer in the thread (at least, not that I've seen) so I took your post at face value.

Also...getting old makes me more sensitive to people commenting that I'm getting old   ;D

Oh hey, this derail looks like more fun than giving free marketing research to someone else..


You just replace the eastern cartoons with something more western.  Spongebob and Phineas and Ferb get watched a lot in the house these days.

I'm not old, I just act like it.  In part to counter all the co-workers who tell me I'm too young to have kids as old as mine.  I'm 35 damnit, that's plenty old enough to have an 11 year old!  I'd like to see my grandkids and not be retired by the time they're born.   Having kids late in life ups the chances of bad things by too much, too.  Damn people.

1) 30 yrs
2) male
3) 1 - World of Warcraft
4) I would pay up to 20€ for a subscription based game monthly if I feel entertained enough. And I haven't payed a single € in a cashshop. Doing this triggers my "you have cheated"-sense.   :oh_i_see:

Having kids early in life makes you an unfun schlub to all your friends who are too smart to have kids and are more interested in doing things to further themselves as people (travel, hobbies, etc). Also it contributes to the possibility of a Baby Boomers Part Deux. Which no one wants.

Just saying.

I know a fair number of people that had kids early enough that they can now have much more fun that I can because I had a kid later in life.  It's really pick-your-poison on the timing. 

This.

Some of my friends are travelling the world. I've got a house. It's a trade-off.

I refuse to have kids... but I came from a big family, so I have the neices and nephews that I can corrupt.

Fuck kids.

 :hello_thar:

Now that's an appropriate use of that emoticon.

(http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/963220/RageFace.png)

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...

Nah, see I'll be doing the traveling the world thing in my 40's rather than my 50's.  Those 10 years make a hell of a difference.


I don't have friends like that.  You and I would get along about as well as oil and water IRL, we have completely different friend types and life values.   As for furthering yourselves as people, you can still do all that stuff but instead - gasp- you involve your kids rather than being a self-centered egoist.  Wow, what a concept.

Being a self-centered egoist has nothing to do with whether you have kids or not, IMHO. There are plenty of people, unfortunately, who have kids and essentially neglect them. There are also plenty of people who don't have kids but who involve others in what they do.

Schild, world traveller! IF ONLY IT WASN'T FOR THOSE MEDDLING KIDS.

o wait

I bet this is the same discussion that this survey prompted over at FoH.  :why_so_serious:

And there are those that argue that with the world's population problem, the act of having kids is pure narcissism. :P

You're half a step away from making this thread poof into Politics.

I read the thread over there. it seems the average , of what was posted mind you, is younger than here.

Shocking!

Pointing out the nefarious plot is a mean thing to do.

* fuck it, I don't have time for idiots *

No kids for me. Ever. They'll break my toys and they'd get in the way of my self-centred narcissistic lifestyle. I plan to live a barren-of-children, but otherwise happy life, and if my wife goes before I do, I'll top myself.

I'm too busy trying to occasionally be a role model to other people's kids. Many of the parents of which are unfortunately concentrating on living a self-centred narcissistic lifestyle, and their kids unfortunately aren't always necessarily high on their lists of priorities. The last thing I want to see when I get home is more kids.

 :drill:

The above is written in a sarcastic way, but the actual content is pretty accurate.
 :heart:

Appears this poll is officially over.   :ye_gods:

1) 30
2) Male
3) 1
4) 15 bucks.

Subbed to Eve but not even playing it. League of Legends has me at the moment.

1) 32
2) Male
3) 1
4) $15

I'm pretty much done with subscription MMOGs.  I currently have two DAoC accounts (one is free however) , but one of the biggest reasons I continue to play and be interested is because I've been involved with the Team Lead program for several years now.  The only MMOG I'm currently looking forward to and even considering playing is Guild Wars 2 (no monthly fee).

1) Age: 39
2) Sex (not a yes/no quesion): Haha. Male.
3) How many MMO's are you actively subscribed to?: One.
4) What is your 'price point' for MMO's? How much is TOO much for a monthly Sub? Or what is the maximum dollar amount you'd pay for a subscription based monthly MMO?:
Seriously? Whenever a dev asks that question, I get the feeling that I'm being asked to give money away for nothing.
So I grudge my 15 bucks, but I feel most MMOGs are barely worth 10.

P.S. I'm currently subscribed to one MMOG, but I have had two active accounts in different games. It doesn't happen very often.

Most of the people I know who had kids early is because they forgot to put a rubber on it, or thought that kids were the way to get a man to marry you.
I know a lot of divorced, bitter 30somethings now.  :oh_i_see:

1) 27
2) M
3) 0
4) $50/box. $15/sub - anyone who thinks they can go higher is playing a dangerous game.

As has been said, no 0 option makes this a real fail.

1) 27
2) M
3) 0
4) I'd pay the normal price for the box and a free month. Anything after that... $15 tops if it was great fun and I'd be done with it in another month. Anything that I expected to play more casually over a longer period of time I'd expect to be free or less than $10. And I'd never pay more than one $15 sub in a month.

1 - 39
2 - M
3 - 2 MMOs right now, but one is lifetime and one is Eve...
4 - 15 or so dollars is trivial, so I'll happily try stuff out at that price point. But Eve will sometimes see me spend as much as 75 dollars in a month, depending on what I am doing and how many alts it would benefit from. Other games might sit somewhere between the two price points, if they provided something fairly awesome.

One thing I'll add is I have 2 accounts in Eve, but one I pay for with a mixture of passive & active game income (windfalls) if I don't make enough when not playing basically I can leave this account unsubbed and let the passive income tick over. This is a nice (niche even) reward for longterm players, actually I set the account up through the power of II offer CCP give out once in a while.

Family style!

1 - 39 (and 14 and 9)
2 - M (all of us)
3 - 4 currently, but 2 will lapse end of 30 days.
4 - 15 per person per month works for me.  We basically will allow the kids to each have one sub to something, and than I have one myself.  Of those 4 games, 2 are played by my kids, not me.  My older son is heavy into WoW and upper level raiding, yet he bought Aion to try out based on feedback from some friends at school.  He liked it ok, but not enough to switch over and made that decision inside of two weeks.  (and i have to say i concur; i played it up to level 10 just to try it and it just doesnt grab me as being significantly different enough from WoW to make many people want to change.  Early game needs to be more differentiated and compelling to accomplish that.  Sure is purty though.)  I have subbed to DDO for a while now and am sticking with the monthly sub even though they have F2P now.  Tried fallen age and like it, but not enough to leave my other online friends.  I suspect ill be back into it sooner or later - different enough from other games out there to make it worth doing, but i just dont have the time for 2. My 9 year old has played many but generally only sticks with a given title for about 2 months tops.  Currently he is not subbed to anything.  We have tied close to all of them.

Any game my kids show interest in (or me for that matter) I like to try and beta test or do a free trial.  It generally doesnt take long (2 weeks or less) to decide if it's something we want to get i.e. the Champions beta - fun for about 2 weeks tops.

1) 25
2) M
3) 1
4) $15/month with no MTX. If you're putting in MTX, it better have a very low sub fee (~$5/month), although I dislike MTX as a business model.



I'm almost always subscribed to one "serious" MMO; I switch back and forth between WoW and EQ2 depending on content patch/expansion cycles. I also occasionally try out new ones, but nothing has held my attention for more then 2-3 months in a while (Ex: WAR, occasional resubs to CoH, etc).

I'm going to revise my list a bit:

Subscribed to 0 MMOs because they all stink.

1) 33
2) M
3) 0
4) $15-$20/month

1) 41
2) M
3) 3 (Eve, Aion and WoW)
4) 15USD feels about right. Keep in mind I run 3 Eve accounts and am unsubbing from WoW as I'm over it - haven't played in a month. Guild Wars has the right sub price though :D

1) 28
2) M
3) 2 (WoW and CoH, though I don't really play CoH nowadays)
4) $15/mo or guildwars-style box cost + microtrans and $0/mo. I really can't see myself paying $20/mo or more (including microtrans costs) unless the game was robot jesus.

(as an aside, a big eff you to all companies who think $15 = E15 .. though I don't think I've seen any of those recently)