Hellgate: London won't have free multiplayer
polycounter lvl 19
... developer Flagship Studios revealed this week that the game's multiplayer component is a subscription-based online service. Speaking to Shacknews at CES in Las Vegas, CEO Bill Roper noted that the game draws significantly from massively multiplayer games, with genre trappings such as guilds, continually developed content, a full social system, and raid-type gameplay... Flagship expects to launch an open beta prior to the launch of the game. Pricing details have not yet been determined, though Roper noted that there will be some kind of trial or free play system for those looking to get a taste of the game without commitment.
Replies
/whiney voice "We want monthly payments tooOOooo!!"
Hopefully it will be a good game though. I hope they make Hellgate: Baltimore
Paying a monthly fee for that is really lame in my opinion.
You don't pay monthly fees for Guild Wars or D2. Hellgate better be one fantastic game to make me cough up a monthly fee.
Weaksauce²
Definitely a shame. Hopefully someone will realize that it's a mistake and they'll rethink it all, but I suppose it's doubtful.
I really don't give a crap about all the MMO stuff they are talking about, I just want to get a few friends together and play some Hellgate, like the old Diablo days.
Maybe if they push the "World of Diablo" angle really hard, it won't tank.
Woah, people had faith in former-blizzard employees?
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What did the Condor/Blizzard North guys do not to be trusted? This isn't the crowd that cancelled or seriously changed various *Craft titles over the years.
Not that I'm a fan of paying a monthly fee for a hack-n-slash game...
Woah, people had faith in former-blizzard employees?
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Hmm... lets see, they've made some of the best games in history, are known to have a solid sense of game design, have yet to make a bad, or even average game. Nope, no one has any reason to have faith in them.
LAN play in dungeoun crawls for co-op is excellent. This MMO stuff, is horrid crap, and not even half the entertainment of playing with buddies in the same room.
I'll vote with my wallet, and I hope to god that the developers look at this negative feedback as a reason to rethink thier efforts.
The only hype this game ever got was for being Diablo 3. Diablo 3 - free online play = not Diablo. The single greatest reason for getting the game is now gone.
Maybe if they push the "World of Diablo" angle really hard, it won't tank.
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Gotta agree. The only reason I'm interested in Hellgate is the promise of d2 style online fun with guns. But if I gotta pay for it monthly...
Lets just say that at that point I'd be seriously pissed if they pulled a blizzard and decided to start messing with the game to discourage boss runs and power leveling.
Gonna keep my eye on this one.
"Will the MMO-like features add any ongoing cost to the game? There's been been widespread speculation that Hellgate will require a ongoing subscription fee, but as Roper clarified for us at CES on Wednesday morning, no official decisions or announcements have been made on that topic. Roper acknowledged that once you start running your game like an MMORPG, you need money for a customer support team, but there are any number of ways that might happen. Common sense dictates that some kind of fee might be required; we're hoping it's just a one-time deal or something along the lines of a one-year subscription."
..nobody is complaining about having to pay for wow.
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I did, and still do!
Coming from Guild Wars and not having to pay monthly for it, I reluctantly went out and bought WoW just to see what all the shit was about. Three month supscription... played it a total of 3 times (about 9-10 hours of gameplay). FOR THE SUXZ! Never played again, cancelled my subscription after the 3rd WoW session.
I still play Guild Wars from time to time... Never played any of the Hellgate games, but don't think I'll bother if there's a subscription fee. There are plenty of games out there that don't leech from my wallet that I'd much rather play.
-caseyjones
Frank the Avenger
Never played any of the Hellgate games,
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Makes sense, the first one isn't out yet.
Anyway, this is disappointing news, for me. I'll still try it out, but I've never really been interested in subscription based games. If I do pay a monthly fee for something, it probably won't be hellgate.
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The following quote comes from gamespy
"Will the MMO-like features add any ongoing cost to the game? There's been been widespread speculation that Hellgate will require a ongoing subscription fee, but as Roper clarified for us at CES on Wednesday morning, no official decisions or announcements have been made on that topic. Roper acknowledged that once you start running your game like an MMORPG, you need money for a customer support team, but there are any number of ways that might happen. Common sense dictates that some kind of fee might be required; we're hoping it's just a one-time deal or something along the lines of a one-year subscription."
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Jesus, you guys can be bitches. From all the bitching I can only guess you guys think 'monthly fee' translates to around $100 a month? I mean damn, they're saying it's 30-40 hours of single player campaign that you can play, and they want to provide ongoing updates for MP so they have to figure out how to pay for it. Does a ten or fifteen dollar monthly fee mean you can't eat for two weeks or something?
Frank the Avenger
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Yeah, that's why I'm downgrading my live account to silver, my savings seem to drop about $10 each month so I'll be broke eventually. I knew I shouldn't of bought that fucking 360!
Jesus, you guys can be bitches. From all the bitching I can only guess you guys think 'monthly fee' translates to around $100 a month? I mean damn, they're saying it's 30-40 hours of single player campaign that you can play, and they want to provide ongoing updates for MP so they have to figure out how to pay for it. Does a ten or fifteen dollar monthly fee mean you can't eat for two weeks or something?
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$100 is what Diablo 2 + expansion cost me, and I played it for over 2 years. I can pick it up again any time I want and play it some more.
Now look at Hellgate (CDN prices):
Copy of game = $60
1 year of online play = $240
Expansion = $50
Second year of online play = $240
Hellgate would cost $490 more, and in all likelihood won't be as good as a game, and I wouldn't be able to play it online as soon as I stopped paying.
"Ongoing content" has always and will always be a bullshit excuse. It just means that they'll put out patches fixing bugs that they didn't bother to deal with before release and then tell one person to model something every now and then. Any substantial content they make will be withheld for an expansion which, surprise, won't be part of that monthly fee.
Who cares if it is official or not. They suggested it, and I'm suggesting that it sucks.
Makes sense, the first one isn't out yet.
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The way every is bitching and moaning about how they'll be throwing their money at this game seems like its been out for years and people have loved the single player enough to fork out for the multiplayer.
If people want to pay to play, by all means go for it. I have and probably will if its for a game I really want to play. But repeating from my last post, I won't bother while there are great games out there that I can play for no monthly/yearly subscription fee.
-caseyjones
$100 is what Diablo 2 + expansion cost me, and I played it for over 2 years. I can pick it up again any time I want and play it some more.
Now look at Hellgate (CDN prices):
Copy of game = $60
1 year of online play = $240
Expansion = $50
Second year of online play = $240
Hellgate would cost $490 more, and in all likelihood won't be as good as a game, and I wouldn't be able to play it online as soon as I stopped paying.
"Ongoing content" has always and will always be a bullshit excuse. It just means that they'll put out patches fixing bugs that they didn't bother to deal with before release and then tell one person to model something every now and then. Any substantial content they make will be withheld for an expansion which, surprise, won't be part of that monthly fee.
Who cares if it is official or not. They suggested it, and I'm suggesting that it sucks.
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And where has anyone ever said Hellgate was a remake of Diablo 2? Or about plans for withholding content for an expansion? Sounds like you're just being a bitch at the mere possibility of spending money. You have no idea about how Flagship does ongoing content, and you're not even giving them a chance just because someone said 'possibly a monthly fee.'
Frank the Avenger
You see what I did there?
-caseyjones
And where has anyone ever said Hellgate was a remake of Diablo 2? Or about plans for withholding content for an expansion? Sounds like you're just being a bitch at the mere possibility of spending money. You have no idea about how Flagship does ongoing content, and you're not even giving them a chance just because someone said 'possibly a monthly fee.'
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Hi Frank, welcome to the gaming industry. I can see your new to this.
Everyone making MMO style games withholds content for expansions that they had already promised to release as part of the monthly fee system. EQ, AO, DOAC, WoW, etc. They all do it, they always have done it, and there is no reason to believe that anyone will ever stop doing. It's people like you who do give companies the benefit of the doubt that gives them the signal to go ahead and just keep lying about it. After all, you'll just be happy to suck it up and take it over and over again because this time it will be different.
Wanna buy some cheat codes why'll your at it? How about mandatory horse armour upgrades? It's only a little fee! We have to do it, I mean Guild Wars doesn't exist or anything like that.
Hellgate has been comparing itself to Diablo 2 for years and as I said already, all of the hype this game has ever gotten has been because of that reason. Chances are you wouldn't have even heard of the game if that wasn't the case. For them to, this late in development, turn around and say they're ditching the one feature that their entire fanbase desires (free online play) is a sure signal that they really don't know what they're doing anymore.
Benefit of the doubt my ass. I prefer to not be a consumer whore.
just because someone said 'possibly a monthly fee'
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That would be the quote right there, you see...
Plenty of ESTABLISHED devs have released FREE content to support their games and generate a certain sense of "Value" to the original purchase price. Now here we have rumours of a start-up wanting to charge a monthly fee because they support a multiplayer that has been provided by established companies for FREE in the past ... I WAS looking forward to this title, but if Flagship wants to charge a monthly fee for the kind of content that has already been established as an added value by the likes of Diablo 2 and Guild Wars in the past, I'm gonna have to call "bullshit" on that one ...
In short: You wanna charge me money for something other people have provided for free in the past? HELL YEA I am gonna be pissed off. Why the surprise and why am I a "whiny bitch" for complaining at such?!!? And the argument of "what's a few extra dollars, are you gonna starve?" is total bullshit. If it's $5 bucks that is still money I could have spent somewhere else. Money is money, we all use it and we all need it. I don't think that it is necessary to belittle people for complaining about spending $10 bucks a month on a bullshit subscription fee for content and service other devs have already proven can be provided for free.
Hi Frank, welcome to the gaming industry. I can see your new to this.
Everyone making MMO style games withholds content for expansions that they had already promised to release as part of the monthly fee system. EQ, AO, DOAC, WoW, etc. They all do it, they always have done it, and there is no reason to believe that anyone will ever stop doing. It's people like you who do give companies the benefit of the doubt that gives them the signal to go ahead and just keep lying about it. After all, you'll just be happy to suck it up and take it over and over again because this time it will be different.
Wanna buy some cheat codes why'll your at it? How about mandatory horse armour upgrades? It's only a little fee! We have to do it, I mean Guild Wars doesn't exist or anything like that.
Hellgate has been comparing itself to Diablo 2 for years and as I said already, all of the hype this game has ever gotten has been because of that reason. Chances are you wouldn't have even heard of the game if that wasn't the case. For them to, this late in development, turn around and say they're ditching the one feature that their entire fanbase desires (free online play) is a sure signal that they really don't know what they're doing anymore.
Benefit of the doubt my ass. I prefer to not be a consumer whore.
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Bwahahah, wow, are you a jackass. Your argument is actually 'this is the way it's always been done so this is the way it always will be'? Good luck with that. And who's lying about anything? Nothing's confirmed, it's just a goddamn rumor! Oh, wait, this is the internet, I forgot.
Side note, I actually heard about Hellgate a while ago, since I, you know, worked with a couple of guys that are working on it. Back when I'd only been in the industry for a few years.
Frank the Avenger
Hellgate should be cool, still really lookin forward to it.
While I dont like the idea of a monthly fee i'll just wait and see what happens at release time.
The pessimist in me assumes that the free stuff will be gimped in some way,with maps/game modes/items/whatever only available if you are on a pay account. On the other hand, if the griping about it is already so loud that Flagship have to address the issue even before it goes to beta, maybe they'll revise whatever plans they have in mind to be more consumer friendly. I hadn't been following the game's development and have no horse in this race, but it is interesting to see how they'll handle it.
Full article for the curious:
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6164306.html