How many MMO's do you play?

[gehrig38]

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?

[SnakeCharmer]

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.

[Bzalthek]

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.

[Nija]

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.
 

[Nebu]

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. 

[jason]

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.

[Mrbloodworth]

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.

[Jamiko]

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.

[Von Douchemore]

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.

[IainC]

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

[Hutch]

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 :)

[Wahn]

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.

[Cyrrex]

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.

[Cadaverine]

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.

[HaemishM]

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.

[Azazel]

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.

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 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.

[Numtini]

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.

[raydeen]

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.

[Ixxit]

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).

[Sky]

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. 

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).

[Rasix]

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.

[NiX]

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.

[schild]

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.

[Musashi]

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.

[gehrig38]

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.

[Khaldun]

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.

[Hawkbit]

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. 

[Xuri]

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.

[Threash]

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.

[Amarr HM]

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

[tazelbain]

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.

[Morfiend]

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.

[Ingmar]

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.

[Slyfeind]

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.

[apocrypha]

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.