The Subscription plus Item mall debate is something that rages on and on these days. People come up with witty equations to illustrate the differences. Comparing the price of; (Insert unrelated product here) to the price of a game subscription. It’s all very cute and all, but the primary arguments, generally aren’t based completely in reality. A lot of the associated costs of an MMO gets left out, or blatantly ignored.

Is $15 bucks too much for a subscription?

Not really, yes different currencies translate into more or less, that goes without saying. Yes the cost of servers and bandwidth might be down, but that’s not all that’s being paid for, neither is Customer service the sum total of what you’re paying for.

Something that seems to be forgotten is that just like Single Player games (which you used to only pay for once, but with DLC you now pay for expanded content) is the cost of development for the games. For several years games are in design and development, internally tested, worked on and so forth. In the case of triple A titles, that costs a huge amount of money.

Designers, Programmers, Artists, Animators, Writers, Voice Actors, Server Techs, etc, all these people working to make the games people are complaining about, get paid to make the games. This can be a massive investment for a company, and the “box price” and the subscription fees, even the item mall content being added to sub model games go to recoup the money spent to make the game.

But beyond that, with MMO’s or at least with the good ones, new content and patches don’t come out of thin air, the above mentioned group of game staff, plus GM’s, plus Customer service people, plus community management all have to be paid to get all the new content/updates/patches created/made/tested before it gets released.

Using the “Game of main comparison” WoW, Blizzard spent millions developing it before it even launched and they spend more and more for expansions, updates and the like. Now yes they are making a pant load of money but when you factor in original and continuing development costs, continued operation and repair costs, corporate tax and more, that cuts down on actual profit.

Of course all these companies are interested in making profit; no company can survive without it. Not just because profit is good, but also because profit translates into capital for the next game they create/build/launch/operate.

I am not a happy go luck fan of Item malls, not because I don’t like paying for extra content, but because of the kind of crap that usually ends up in them. Items that unbalance a game, uber xp scrolls and the like that those who can afford love and those who can’t loathe.

Looking at STO (which yes I currently play as you all know) which was in development for something like 4+ years, that’s all that money spent, hoping that it would attract Star Trek fans, and gaming fans alike with a new experience. Yes there is the box fee or digital download cost, there’s the subscription cost be it monthly, 3 months, 6 months, or the special year or life time sub cost. Also they do have the C-Shop, which presently only contains 2 items, a playable Federation Klingon or Ferengi.

They need to make back all the money spent designing, developing, and testing the game, then make money to continue to operate, expand, and repair the game. Continuing with this example, the Staff for STO has already said in different places, that how Cryptic’s other games are operated in price models and how STO will be modeled isn’t going to be the same thing. The Borg update was free, and I get the sense other expansion content will likely be free also.

So looking at the overall subscription + item mall model, when you factor in all the costs either spent in development or going forward, it makes sense the company needs to generate revenue. Yes not everyone can or will pay for stuff in the item mall, which goes without saying. People play F2P games all the time without buying a thing. They however balance out with those who do buy things and usually spend an insane amount of money doing it.

How is that any better?

I’m not really sure it is, or different for that matter. The only differences between F2P and Subscription based games is usually quality (though that may be starting to change) and the word “Free”. It might be free to play the basic game, which is great for players, but to get the most out of the game experience you have to spend money. With P2P games you pay money to get the main experience, but there’s also the occasional bonus goodies in the Item mall, usually nothing that is really required, generally in the P2P world these are just nice little bonuses, and not really impactful to the experience over all. (Broad strokes I know)

Expansions on the other hand, yes some companies will make you pay for expansions, but considering an expansion is usually quite a bit of additional content, this makes sense. When of course, the expansion is priced reasonably and is worth buying. Any gamer who plays the Sims franchise will tell you that not always is the expansion worth buying, not because of the price, but because they, for whatever reason, don’t like the content. (Generally)

But you’re still paying for a higher end content package, not just a quick update patch, which costs more to create and develop.

If you want to really argue about this issue, at least be intelligent about it and do some research. Debate, discussion, and dissent is vital to keep the industry moving forward, but just complaining for the sake of complaining doesn’t do anything short of making you look rather stupid and waste the time of those whom participate in it.

My grandma used to fill my ears with the cliché “Money doesn’t grow on trees” Well in Gaming, neither does new content, expansions, and patches.

When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

— Revelation 6:5-6 NIV

After an interesting conversation during a call tonight, and some deep thought of my own, it does make me wonder where the industry is headed these days. With Social Media sites on the rise as gaming platforms, primarily for the sake of this article, Facebook. As well as a lot of companies now gearing their efforts towards development and publishing to make use of these platforms it has me thinking.

I’ve had a lot of people comment to me that they’re finding more and more games that just aren’t catching their interest anymore, or are down right boring. I’ve noticed this myself that a lot of times games aren’t really innovating anything new, just putting on shiny new clothes.

Of course there are plenty of exceptions to this, but not as many as there once were. And to be candid, a lot of the games found on Facebook are without a doubt, boring as crap, yet they get millions of players daily and the market is growing constantly with more and more companies and indie teams getting into the act.

Is the industry headed for another crash before we see a renaissance of creativity and an explosion of innovative creation across the board of games? Honestly, I don’t know, but at the same time as more companies pull away from making console games and of course the continuing stigma of PC gaming aside from the MMO market. (Which is constantly being accused of being clones upon clones upon clones of this game or that game?)

Where is the industry headed?

Where will our new gaming experiences going to coming from?

Has the bubble burst again?

Tough questions; and maybe a bit of an alarmist bent to my thinking as I look over the scope of the gaming space these days. A lot of companies have been cutting stuff, shutting down, restructuring, and changing direction, so on, so forth, etcetera, and etcetera.

So I but it to all of you dear friends and readers, is this new explosion of gaming on social platforms a sign of great change that will push the industry into a new era of creativity or is Facebook the rider of the black horse, preparing to spread a famine amongst hardcore games and gamers while it sows the seeds of meaningless fluff?

Comment below.

Yes I know, there’s been a long pause in posting as of late, things have been busy for us and to be perfectly honest, I myself came down with a case of the lazies as I was dealing with some changes and upheavals.

That said, Merry Christmas, Happie Hollidaze, Joyous Solstice , etc etc.

I hope everyone enjoys the 2 weeks between now and 2010. Hopefully 2010 brings more excitement, good times and even better games!

Also, before anyone else yells at me, I’ll see about writing up more content and posting more frequently, or getting some other writers to join in the fun lol. We’ll see how the landscape of 2010 presents itself!

~Anj

The recent news about the job cuts at EA prompted some thoughts as well as thinking about the spurt of indie films that have achieved a lot with a very small budget. One of the things that discussed all the time about game development is the cost of development. The cost of tools, team, and all the other associated costs, and yet we see some indie games make it bigger it leads one to wonder.

Does it really cost or does it really need to cost that much to make a game. Certainly big budget Triple A titles spend amazing amounts of money for the building of their products, and yet even these have a tendency to fall short when they roll out. Yet we see low cost indie games or smaller budget games go on to success and prosperity. Is it the lack of funds that prompts that extra something in the creative process that leads these titles to shine?

With studios cutting their work forces, what is the soon to be unemployed to do? Why don’t they go rogue and build their own titles while they job hunt? I suspect a major influx of these previous employed designers, programmers, artists and so forth could make a serious impact on the indie scene, bringing their experience and their own creative vision to the table. We all want to get paid for the work we do, that goes without saying, but the more I watch and think, the more I see a sort of stagnancy in the gaming corporate world.

Like any industry it’s grown and growing bigger and bigger, and with any large system, there’s a vacuum that slowly sucks the life out of it. More and more we hear about user generated content, we hear about the free to play model, we hear about how the industry is growing in demographic and the casual market is making crazy amounts of money when they get it right.

So what’s the magic ingredient? Looking at Farmville and the numbers it generates in terms of users, the believed amount of money it generates and the cost it was for development. Does the industry need to shift from these overkill budgets and focus on the product in terms of creativity and experience and cut costs not on the staff but on the prices paid for the rest. I’d rather pay for quality staff to create an awesome game, and then spend a fortune on the newest shiniest engine.

If Facebook, MySpace, and if the overall casual game market teaches us anything, you don’t need to have the amazing stunning, photo realistic graphics with 3D depth whenever your characters sneeze to capture the players.  Sure it is nice, but required to be successful? Doesn’t appear that way to me, and hasn’t for a while, not anymore anyways, there’s always some example that changes the way we look at things.

It sucks to loose your job, no question, but it doesn’t mean it’s the end, if you want to make games, and then make games; sure it might not be the amazing budgeted game you’re used to, but it doesn’t mean it will suck, just means you need to be more inventive. These days getting into the industry usually requires all kinds of experience, education, previous products delivered and so on. That amuses me considering the origins of the industry was certainly not built by experienced , titles delivered hands, but by people who wanted to create fun, entertaining games.

When did we get away from that?

So many people want to make games, so make games.  You don’t need the company to tell you what to work on unless you’re working for them. You’re cut loose so finally pursue that game idea you’ve had stashed in your old campfire note book since you first killed slimes in Dragon Warrior. The only limit to your creativity is yourself. Sure it costs money to do it the way you exactly pictured it, but if you deliver something that starts building your own momentum, you build upon it and make your own destiny using your own creativity and your own hands.

A renaissance of creativity in the indie space would be delightful, and watching more and more indie titles make it big would certainly be a healthy thing for the industry, I’m tired of seeing 15 sequels of the same tired old game; I personally thrive on the new when it comes to my game playing habits. I don’t mind the usual settings, but I want to see them delivered in a new way, with a new spin.

I want to see something magical come out of no where in our industry all the time and it’s entirely possible. Considering many of the players of games might be rocking the latest amazing title from “Insert studio here” when that experience is over, they loop back to the old games, their favourites from the previous generations. Just because the technology has changed it doesn’t mean that style of game isn’t viable, it just means people aren’t looking back and thinking “hey I loved this; why not make something to recapture the nostalgia?”

It’s never the end, it’s good to have accomplished something before, but it’s what you do next that has real meaning.

So came across this little nugget of teaser trailer goodness….

What more needs to be said? How about holy crap, I hope this actually comes to pass. The second coming of Bob, like seriously, I’m filled with the warm fuzzies of excitement. A tingle of thrill running down my spine making me giggle like a happy penguin…

Okay not really that bad, but it is interesting enough to warrant me posting like a jack ass about it. I’m interesting in seeing and hearing more details about this, as obviously like anyone else I’m a fan of Reboot for a variety of reasons. That said, a reboot of any series is fraught with danger, (IE droves of pissed off fanbois and fangerls)

That said, I’ll be tracking this one for sure, and hoping for the best possible outcome. I may be pessimistic most of the time on a good amount of things, but sometimes I give in and let a little optimism shine through the darkness of my lil black heart.

After all, I come from the net, through systems … ah you get the point XD