The Shrine

It'll be more expensive to play Monster Hunter 3 online than to pay for Xbox Live. That's a fucking joke

http://www.edge-online.com/news/101/mon ... ption-fees

This article sucks ass, why bother linking it? It doesn't give any real information (like WHY are they charging, is this an MMO? Who the fuck knows) AND this is only happening in Japan so it doesn't impact anyone here at all.

To summarize: A game nobody here would buy is going to charge a subscription fee for unknown reasons but you can't buy it anyway so it doesn't matter.

He's right, Zeus. Why bother linking anything ever? Cut it out! You're stupid!


I can't tell if this is a smart idea or not. Monster Hunter is the new Pokemon for Japan and is probably the sole reason people are still buying PSP's there. However, I don't think Japanese are terribly familiar with the idea of paying for an online service. Isn't Monster Hunter PSP free to play online? Still, even if they only sell half of what the PSP version did (likely more, since it's on the Wii) Capcom will be rolling in it.

I'm just amazed it's going to be more than Live. I know it's going to be basically an MMO Pokemon and it's the greatest thing since sliced bread over there right now but man, that's huge fleecing.

In Korea and China they're huge on the microtransaction thing but I think you're right. I don't think Japan's overly used to paying to play online. Maybe Capcom's trying to start something here?

Tess - this is likely their plan eventually for here as well. And it's the fact that not only does Capcom charge for it when no other Wii title charges for online play but also that the charge is SO FUCKING MUCH. It's up there in the Warcrack range and is a bit shocking. So I'm now officilaly extending all the bitching I made about Microshaft charging for Live over to Capcom for this screw-job and then some.

I saw an article that credits the game in question as to the only reason why PSP is still competitive with DS so it must have a pretty big following. I've heard sales in McDonalds went up from this game because people would hang out near a McDonalds to use their free wi-fi stuff to play together. So when you got that kind of pull it isn't surprising to get even more money out of your fans.

If it's an MMO the subscription fee is not at all surprising except that it's a first for the Wii. If it's not an MMO then a big WTF to the fee.

As the article mentioned, Japan isn't used to paying subscription fees for games so this may not go over well anyway

From what I read the game sounds a lot like Diablo except grouping is compulsory because there's like no way you'll ever be able to beat some boss on your own.

Koreans will pay for anything that involves electronic equipment and an Internet account.

SineSwiper wrote:Koreans will pay for anything that involves electronic equipment and an Internet account.

Koreans != Japanese

I despise the new pay-to-play online models. Similarly bad is when you buy the game online and then they make you spend the game's price again or more in order to see all the content.

I bought Final Fantasy: My Life As A King online for the Wii, and it was a fun game. It's basically kind of like the ActRaiser building modes, minus the combat, but you send out parties of adventurers to fight for you. It was enjoyable - until I realized that while the game cost about fifteen bucks, in order to access advanced content you have to pay for each race, dungeon, or building. In order to see the full game you have to spend an extra twenty-five bucks. It makes me mad because it's aimed at kids, and the kids will either shriek until their parents buy them the rest of the content, or else end up feeling like crap because they're too poor to afford the full game. The later game really kind of sucks unless you shell out for the new buildings and dungeons at the very least. If you don't, by the end of the game it's obvious that you're intended to be rather hobbled and have an un-fun time unless you buy some of the "optional content". You CAN beat the game without shelling out, but it's clearly a second-class experience.

I finished it anyway without buying anything extra, so screw them.

IMO game mechanics where you can buy your way to success suck, we were talking about that a bit with the WoW Death Knights. One of the best things about old-school games is that, mostly, everyone who puts in a quarter or presses START on an old NES game gets the same starting experience, and there used to be an expectation that that was intentional. Games where you are DELIBERATELY DESIGNED to suck until you buy your way to success are even worse, and there are a lot, lot, lot of those lately. Apparently China's biggest MMO is almost completely a buy-your-way-to-the-top experience, they even call the players who twink out ridiculously with pay-to-play gear a special name - "renminbi gamers", after the Chinese currency.

Oh, well. At least plenty of game developers still recognize that, unlike life, a game experience is something where you CAN give everyone the same chance when you start out. I more or less avoid anything that smacks of buying your way to the best player experience in the gaming world, and I expect that's not going to change. To me, once you start running your game like an airline, you've lost something precious.