Would you pay to play online?

[welshbloke]

Zlejedi said:

welshbloke said:

I prefer to go to LAN parties but guess what they aint free either. Free traditional online gaming is threatened. It is threated by the big publishers who see many hours of gameplay but only small return, it is threatened by the success of WOW and Xbox live.

You might not want to pay for it but you sure is eggs is eggs will end up paying.

 

True but if you go paying now you are sending message to publishers and platform owners that people have no problem paying for stuff that was traditionally free.

I know what you are saying I just think it is too late already. Xbox live and WoW have both proved this model works they have also proved it is the online function people will pay for more than anything else.

I still enjoy Team Fortress which I still play free after all these years yet even in this game they are trying out how to make money. I remember playing battlefield 2 with the in game ads. Not sure about the Team Fortress shop thing but the in game ads do not appear to have had much success.

The most worrying mutterings for me is publishers trying to get a cut when they do not provide the infrastructure. If you provided dedicated hardware to support the online experience and that experience is compelling enough for me to want to get involved I will pay. I you sell a game and just expect it because somebody else is making money who is providing infrastructure but sorry that is not going to fly.