Hurlshort

But these are businesses, they do expect to turn a profit. Companies only lower prices if it is a market necessity. They aren't going to lower it just because they sell like gangbusters. And Blizzard has taken some of those profits and expanded tremendously, so it's not like they are just swimming around in a big vault of gold. They've released huge content patches for free fairly regularly. I actually dislike the EQ2 model more, they release a full price expansion every 6 months, AND you still pay $15 a month. LotR Online is my favorite, they pretty much release new content every 3-6 months regularly, and I'm only paying $10 a month. It never feels like I'm getting ripped off, the new content re-energizes me every time.

Entrerix, you keep using WoW as your example, but WoW is an exception, not a rule. Most MMO's don't have the subscription numbers of WoW. They are lucky to pull in 100k users. So we multiply that by $15 a month, and we get about 1.5 million. Ok, still seems like a lot of money. But then you factor in that you have a full team of people that still need to work on the game. Non-MMO's secure funding, they release a title, and then the team moves on to another project. MMO's require a team to stay with the project long term. So we get a couple programmers and artists at around 100k a year. Then we pay for the servers to be maintained, we pay for the admins, we pay for the fact that the game needs to be advertised continuously, well after release, and that 1.5 million a month gets smaller and smaller. Guild Wars doesn't have the same server costs, but they did attempt to use a different model for an MMO style game. Their goal was to release a new expansion every 6 months, at $50 a pop. That's really not all that different than a monthly fee. But they weren't able to push out their products that fast, and so I remember reading that GW2 will be subscription based.

Good luck! I don't even know what the LSAT is. I can go over all the teacher credential tests, that's about it (MSAT, CSET, CBEST, RICA)

I think I rely on these forums too much. I felt like a spaceman adrift with no communication when the forum was down.

FO DLC = Fecal Odor De-Lousing Chamber

Terminator has been getting trashed by critics. I'm a fan of Christian Bale, so I'll definitely try and see it. I liked 3, but really just for the ending. I just didn't expect them to actually blow up the world. I figured they'd try to drag it out more.

I really hope they don't bother. Games are in the press much more than they were a decade ago, and it's simply an irresponsible decision to allow it. It doesn't add anything to the game.

I looked into buying a replacement drive, and it seems pretty pricey at $139.00. It actually seems like the external CDRW drives are cheaper. Is there any reason this wouldn't be a good idea? I'm also trying to still weigh wether it isn't better just to get a new laptop altogether. For $400 I can get one that is a good deal faster.

I escaped from Butcher's Bay, it was great. I might assault Dark Athena next, but I'm not sure if I want to take a break. I'm also thinking about loading up The Witcher, since everyone else is and I didn't make it too far previously.

I think Maria Caliban was being facetious, flashes in the pan don't usually last for 5 years.

There are a few games that offer that price point, or offer deals where you pay for a few months at a time to get a lower rate. It just depends. Some of these games really struggle financially, not all of them are WoW. LotR Online is $10 a month. It's a promotional price, but they seem to offer it every couple months. That's why it's been easy for me to stay subscribed, I barely notice $10, even if I don't play for a month or two.

It would be fairly humorous if Detroit and Pittsburgh go back to the finals, and the Pens win. I'm pretty sure the expression on Hossa's face will be worth my team losing in the first round.

I've posted numerous times, as have others, exactly why an MMO needs to have monthly fees to stay afloat. I've also rebutted why Guild Wars and Diablo are not MMO's. I'm quite surprised at how many folks seem to live in a perpetual state of denial here. I don't know many mobsters that come into the store and refresh your inventory when it runs low.

So should MMO developers just maintain and update the game servers over the years for free?

I play most of the ones that come out. I usually find one to stick with over a longer period. Usually I play for a couple months, take a break for a year, then give it another try to see if it has improved and what the new content is. Because of this I'm usually playing one or two at all times. But I don't play like many of the people I know in MMO's. I play a few hours a week, rather than playing every night an every weekend. I know a few people who put in 50-60 hours a week. That seems too much like a second job to me.

Yep, there are good servers and bad servers, really. In the Battlefield games, I felt it was pretty rare to run across total lamers. But then again, I was usually hiding on a crane somewhere picking off folks.

Vanguard has a ton of factions, and if your race has a bad reputation with a faction, you have to grind away to not get shot at when you get close to their cities. It sounds worse than it is, but it still is uninspired.

Yep, my daughter just turned two. I was referring more to the complexities of multiple partners and all that jazz. I went the traditional route, met a girl, got married, bought a house, had a kid with the woman I married. You know, the stuff they don't show on TV because it's too boring.

That's pretty cold. Thanks for clearing that up. For the rest of the hockey folks, I bought a lotto ticket this week, so expect your game one Stanley Cup tickets and airfare in the mail soon

i'd be curious as to just how the hell that would work as an MMO there's not really any set factions in the book - other than the Night's Watch really everyone else keeps changing alleigance or backstabbing eachother I actually hate the whole idea of factions, at least the simplistic 'two factions divide up an entire world'. There are a lot of MMO's out there that have different setups in that regard. One of the coolest questlines in Everquest 2 is the city betrayal quest. Basically you get to switch over to the other side around a certain level.

Ok, so I've PM'ed Volourn on numerous occasions. I think it's fair to say that everyone in this thread is pretty friendly, and in fact I consider you all personal friends. Like if I won the Lottery, I'd take you all to a Stanley Cup playoff game on me. I mean most of us have been talking hockey for well on 5 years now, that's a pretty lengthy relationship. I've gone to lengths to try and establish a friendship with Volourn, or to at least find out if he considers anyone on the forum a friend. I don't really get it, because he spends a ton of time conversing with us. Volourn, since you don't respond to PM's, what exactly are you looking for on a forum community? I guess I just don't understand why you spend so much time here if you aren't interested in building a relationship with others. I'm not saying you should be friends with everyone, there are some folks here I avoid, but you've been hanging around here for years. What is your goal here?

Bending the truth and outright lying are very different. In a perfect world, everyone will go into situations with open minds, weigh evidence, and then choose the most logical one. But that's just not the way most humans operate. You go in with your mind made up, you find evidence that supports your line of thinking, and then sleep better at night.

This ain't Jagged Alliance, Crashgirl Which is a shame, really.

I went back and read about that toupee quest. Awesome! I never encountered it myself. There were a lot of moments in Fallout 3 where I felt like I was stumbling upon some story that had already happened, and I was retracing the steps. Sometimes it was rewarding, sometimes I just scratched my head, but it was usually engaging.

I disagree, I thought a lot of the personality that Fallout 3 had was stuff that they used from the license. The Pipboy, vaults and blue jumpsuits, power armor, SPECIAL...all these are used differently than in F1&2, but they are still immediately familiar. I think if Bethesda had made their own IP, it would have lacked a lot of what made it special for me.