Monthly Fee For MP?

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WhiteBoy

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Does anyone think Valve may turn down the dark path that many other major computer companies have taken and require a monthly fee for playing Multiplayer online?
 
They are not going to charge a monthly fee for simply playing online.

The online fees charged by other games are to cover the bandwidth and tech support of a live 24/7 server capable of supporting thousands, even millions of gamers.

They could, potentially, charge a monthly service for steam. But they will not charge a monthly service to simply play HL2 over the internet.
 
WhiteBoy said:
Does anyone think Valve may turn down the dark path that many other major computer companies have taken and require a monthly fee for playing Multiplayer online?
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If they do then i will not buy the game but instead download a pirate copy.

since i wouldnt be going to play MP (if it was Pay per play) i dont see how SP can be justified at £30

*please note thats only if MP was pay per play wich its not*

Having said that you will only be paying for MP if you choose to get this extra package steam thingy mic jiggy...... Even then its not just MP your "renting" its the whole shabang!

*i think*
 
the only pay per month subscription thing valve is planning at the moment is steam. the deal is that you can either buy the mods seperately through steam or pay a monthly fee and dload all the mods you want.
 
By mods do you mean mods such as a CS2? Because I would hope if it was a mod like that it would be available in stores...
 
those mods released by valve will also be sold in stores. dloading them through steam is just another option. but as un1337 as it is, you will have to purchase cs2, hl2 owner or not :flame:
 
Yes, CS2 is going to be in stores... and that only applies to mods who are charging in the first place... most will still be free.
 
yea, only the major mods, and those mod makers who choose to put their mods up on steam to be purchased, will have to be purchased. i hope that not a lot of people do that with their mods, i don't feel like paying for a mod that i will end up hating.
 
They may implement pay to play. I know they said they wouldn't but PEOPLE CHANGE THEIR MINDS.
 
ShaithEatery said:
the only pay per month subscription thing valve is planning at the moment is steam. the deal is that you can either buy the mods seperately through steam or pay a monthly fee and dload all the mods you want.
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Seems you've been misinformed.

The monthly fee entitles you to play ALL Valve GAMES they release so long as you keep paying your subscription fee. This has nothing to do with mods or anything else whatsoever.
 
Unless they plan on providing specific servers on which you can only play on, allow thousands to connect at the same time and play together and provide and staff a 24/7 tech support - they wont.

You cant justify the fees and your user base will be very limited.
 
If they do that, they will ge a bunch of people knocking on VALVes gates, being upset and stuff. Only mmorpg's did that, i tought :|
 
Sigh.

Only mmorpgs do because they are the only ones that can justify the cost.

Unless you connect to a specific Valve server and are only allowed to play on those servers - you will not have to pay a monthly fee.

You honestly think Valve would make you buy the game, then make you pay monthly just so you can connect to other users computers and multiplay?
 
Silver.Fox said:
Sigh.

Only mmorpgs do because they are the only ones that can justify the cost.

Unless you connect to a specific Valve server and are only allowed to play on those servers - you will not have to pay a monthly fee.

You honestly think Valve would make you buy the game, then make you pay monthly just so you can connect to other users computers and multiplay?
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I wouldn't put it past them.
 
Heheh, valve have repeatedly said its something they dont want to do at all. :)

I don't know why people keep asking this.. Its weird....
 
Never trust the person with influance :). I know of mutliple programers who made their software free for 4 years, and without any heads up, they decided to charge $20 and $25 per copy.
 
Sorry, but this is a dumb question. I don't even think there are any non MM games that charge monthly fees.
 
As officially stated by Valve there will be several ways to pay for Half-Life 2 and their other upcoming products.

Retail Singleplayer only: About the price of your average mission pack.
Retail Singleplayer and Multiplayer: The price of a normal game.
Retail Special Collectors edition: Lots of extras but more expensive than a normal game.

STEAM Half-Life 2: Slightly less expensive than retail and will contain the full product which you will download over the internet. Levels will "trickle" their way on to your system during idle times, the bulk downloaded at time of purchase and the rest between level loading and gameplay.
STEAM Subscription: Pay $10 per month (probably a minimum subscription contract). Get all current Valve games to date including Half-Life 2. When they're released download further Valve products such as Team Fortress 2, Day of Defeat 2, Counter-Strike 2, Sven Co-Op 2 (unconfirmed as yet, but I believe Valve will take this team on) for free.

There will be no pay to play. As people have said, it's just not something they can justify unless they don't release the Dedicated Server software and force people to use the Valve dedicated servers. I'm sure Steam is very expensive to run, but the money they'll make from the Steam subscription should be enough to cover their fees.
 
There aren't any mandatory fees for Steam! It's optional.
 
From what i know the only official thing valve said about pay to play was "no comment".
 
WhiteBoy said:
But it seems like I won't get updates without paying...
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Where did anyone say that?

DOD2, CS2, TF2 all of those games are going to be standalone retail products which you can download for free if you subscribe.

If you don't subscribe you will still receive the standard game patches and content updates.


The subscription option will be purely there for peole that want to receive all Valve games for free.
 
If multiplayer is really good and it covers all other user created multiplayer mods then I wouldn't mind paying $4.95 a month to play. If they charged more then $5.00 a month then I would not go for it.
 
Computer5k said:
From what i know the only official thing valve said about pay to play was "no comment".
Click to expand...

That was LONNNGG ago. They shed light on the issue, read what Chris_D just posted
 
peoplesuc said:
If multiplayer is really good and it covers all other user created multiplayer mods then I wouldn't mind paying $4.95 a month to play. If they charged more then $5.00 a month then I would not go for it.
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It aint gonna happen!!
 
/me shudders

Ack, I remember the first time this went around- every idiot had their own theory on what was going to happen after some git severely misinterpreted Gabe's statement. At least this time round someone's already clearing things up.

Right now, I don't think anyone would consider paying for Steam through the monthly subscription system Valve mentioned. I just don't trust them to release enough content annually to make it worth my time. Suppose they could throw in perks... own private server (although I can't see them pulling a Fileplanet), early access to teasers and such like.
 
I know it's not going to happen. I just wanted others to know that me as a consumer I wouldn't mind paying monthly for a really good MP AS LONG AS IT IT'S UNDER $5.00!
 
For me I'll probably just buy the regular version of the game, and only play the community made mods. Although the subsciption plan doesn't sound as bad as you guys seam to think.
For example
hl2=$50(amazon.com price)
lets say that valve will come out with at least 3 professional mods(tf2,dod2,cs2) within 12 months of the release of hl2. (at least two of those games have probably been in development for a while now)
so lets add 3*$25=$75
so all together thats $125 on valve games which doesn't include CS:CZ(if your going to buy that)

year contract = 12*$10=$120
With this you get hl2, all released professional mods and CS:CZ for $5 cheaper then everything w/o CS:CZ.

Hope that helps some people understand how the monthly payment idea isn't half bad.

*Note I didn't add tax onto the price, so depending on what contry,province,state,ect you live in prices may vary.

**Who said anything about paying for mp playing? This isn't a MMOG, what you pay for are future game titles from Valve.
 
i'm not paying any monthly fee for playing a game.

i'm already paying to upgrade, i'm paying £25 a month for bband, and i'm paying for the game. they can shove off if they are thinking of getting any money out of me.
 
kalayq said:
For me I'll probably just buy the regular version of the game, and only play the community made mods. Although the subsciption plan doesn't sound as bad as you guys seam to think.
For example
hl2=$50(amazon.com price)
lets say that valve will come out with at least 3 professional mods(tf2,dod2,cs2) within 12 months of the release of hl2. (at least two of those games have probably been in development for a while now)
so lets add 3*$25=$75
so all together thats $125 on valve games which doesn't include CS:CZ(if your going to buy that)

year contract = 12*$10=$120
With this you get hl2, all released professional mods and CS:CZ for $5 cheaper then everything w/o CS:CZ.
Click to expand...
Man, you're realy smart. i didn't looked upon the issue like that. But my mother probably won't let me pay over the internet, so it will be in the store for me!!! :p
 
Glad to help :)

<rant>
Although I just want to mention that I do not agree with what valve is doing with internet cafe's. They have to pay $10/month/computer which amounts to a place with 25 computers paying $3000/year for people to play CS. (no one plays any other valve games @ cafe's) When the price of CS retail is now ~$10 which would cost the cafe $250 in a one time purchase. So basically valve is making the cafe pay 12 times the price for playing CS for a year.
</rant>
 
Hm... the problem is with subscription, if you decide to cancel it, you lose those games (i should imagine).
Whats to stop someone subscribing for one month, then cancelling? Of course they cant keep those games. all the games and mods for 10 dollars? i think not.

So that leaves us with one conclusion, when you stop subscribing you lose the games. So that measly 5 dollars you save by subscribing kind of turns into a bit useless, because those boxed copies will last you forever, whereas after one year, they're gone. (unless you decide to pay more and more money)
I think there wont be enough valve games to justify it, take a look at what valve has released commercially in the past few years? HL1, counterstrike a few years later... and after HL2 is released there will be CS2, TF2, DOD2 (in some form).
But where to from there? Nowhere really. Unless they sign mods that are already free, and make people pay for it, which isnt really a good way to make people happy.
Plus you get all the current games with your subscription of course, you know, the ones you already have...

Subscription just seems pointless.
 
2004
12 * 10 = $120
HL1 = $20 = OpFor, DOD, CS retail, possibly Blue Shift (these are all available with anyone of the above CD keys).
CS:CZ = $40
HL2 = $50
20 + 40 + 50 = $110

2005
12*10 = $120
TF2 = $50
HL2 Expansion = $30
50+30 = $80

Hardly pointless for Valve is it? They'll earn a lot of money out of it if people like the idea of subscribing. Think about the fact as well that when games are distributed through Steam - Valve are the publisher.

And Wes, Valve aren't stupid. I think they'd realise that offering people all of the Valve games at any one time for $10 is pretty stupid which is why they'd probably insist on a minimum subscription contract. No one would subscribe if it meant they'd lose the games if they stopped the subscription.

People would probably still pay the subscription charge regardless of whether it would work out cheaper or not to buy the retail game or one at a time. I'd consider it for the ease of it alone.
 
you mean to say that going to the shops is too much of a hassle for you? it takes like 5 minutes each way to drive. i still prefer the good old installers, i see nothing wrong with them.

and when i said pointless, i meant pointless for the gamer. i dont care if it's great for valve to make money. as you pointed out, subscription costs more in both years, and come on, 120 dollars US for something i could have purchased much cheaper? steam has proven time and time again that it is inefficient anyway
 
Yeah but:

EDIT: I need a new calculator.

You're right.
 
Fallout2man said:
Seems you've been misinformed.

The monthly fee entitles you to play ALL Valve GAMES they release so long as you keep paying your subscription fee. This has nothing to do with mods or anything else whatsoever.
Click to expand...

excuse me for concidering cs2 and dod2 as MODS, instead of GAMES, because of the fact that all those MODS are based off of hl2 engine and can be INSTALLED LIKE MODS with hl2.
 
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