Roper Explains Hellgate: London Subscription Model
"Hellgate: London is completely free to play online, out of the box," the letter states. "Anyone who buys the game can not only play through the fully randomized, storyline-driven gameplay offline, but they can also go online and share that experience with millions of players from around the world...Both free players and subscribers will be playing together in groups and guilds on huge realms supporting tens of thousands of players simultaneously."
"Gamers also want choices, and we have so many great ideas for Hellgate: London, and the concept is so extendable, that we know we can keep adding to this game for a long time," Roper adds. "We want to continue moving Hellgate: London forward in some really exciting directions, and to support ongoing development we've created a subscription service to give players access to new content as we go along. This commitment to our gamers was also a part of our plans for Hellgate: London from the very beginning."
The optional subscription fee for Hellgate: London is currently set at $9.99 a month.
"In short, what subscribers are getting is new content--not simply 'better' things," he writes. "Another way of thinking of this would be that we're delivering smaller expansions over time rather than having players wait a year or more before they finally get something new."
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I feel bad for them right now, kind of. The way they're laying the subscription out actually seems okay to me, and I probably won't spring for one for a few months (and don't mind missing out for that time), if I ever do.
Sounds like they're getting roasted over it on the internets by a lot of people making inferences and assumptions, though.-
I think the problem people have is the way the game was marketed. Lets face it, this game is the spiritual successor to Diablo II. They say it, people know it, thats the kindve game people were expecting.
It now seems like they are trying to make some mmo hybrid. Also, Guild Wars has proven that the expansion model works. Quite frankly, i would have a hard time justifying paying 10 bucks a month for some crippled half mmo when i can play great ones now and new ones coming on the horizon. -
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