Would you get Half-Life 2 if it was pay to play?

[Gwarsbane]

I just read over on http://www.planethalflife.com about another site ( http://www.halflife.nu/artiklar/?id=70 ) that is saying something about Half-Life 2 might be pay to play.

For all those that don't know what Pay to Play is...

Pay to play is basically when a company offers a game but the only way you can play it is if you pay an average of 10 bucks USD a month. There are some games that you have to still buy the software for it to be able to play like this and that software can cost around 40 to 50 bucks USD.


Plus side... well really there is no plus side for the people that want to play the game, but the company rakes in tons of money and that might mean that they might do another game in the future.

Bad side....

If not enough people play the game servers are shut down.

There usually is no other way to play the game except on the servers provided by the company, there usually isn't even a single player mode to use.

First year of play costs about 120 to 160 bucks USD or more and each year of play after that costs about 120 bucks USD. (This is the average price I have seen for all pay to play games) So with say a 5 year run you could put out from 600 bucks USD to about 640 USD. If you stick with the game that long.



I am personally 100% against pay to play games, mainly for the reasons above. I was part of a beta for a pay to play game (and asked to be a beta tester for another one) The one that I was testing was just all of a sudden closed down because the bigwigs didn't see that much profit would be coming from it when it was finally released. The other one I was just not interested in.

I hate these kinds of games because if I sink my hard earned cash into a game and I like it, I don't want to be told someday 2 to 6 months down the road or what ever that I can't play the game any more because the company that is making it isn't seeing any profits from it.

I want to be able to pick the game up 5 years from now, start playing it on my own or meet up with a few friends and have a fun time. In 5 years I will be able to have Half-Life installed on my computer, start it up and kill some aliens even if I am the last person playing it.

I have old games now that I could install and go play that are 7 to 10 years old.


So if it is true that Half-Life 2 will be pay to play, I will not be buying it.

[Gwarsbane]

Forgot to mention that I don't know if it is true or not that HL 2 will be pay to play, we will have to wait and see once its out or till an official yes or no comes from Valve.

[Power and Glory]

I cannot see how this could be true. Valve would never make any money off of it. I centainly would not pay a monthly fee to play games. It would be a waste of money for me. I play games for only 2-3 hours total a week at the most.

[g-boy]

Depends on what you mean... the only reason any games are pay to play are because they need to maintain extremely large servers, like MMORPG's (ie, Star Wars Galaxies, which has hundreds if not thousands of people in a server at any given time). I couldn't see why HL2 would have pay to play, considering most first person shooters aren't going to have servers that large. If they were to do that, there would be some wild wars... interesting concept, but I think a bit beyond their capacity just yet. Also, other games give you multiple accounts and customizable characters, you get stats, build up strengths, etc... hence the RPG part of it.

Anyway, if it were pay to play for some funky reason, it would only be for an online account. In which case, I would just stick to playing HL mods online, and playing HL2 for the single player which looks awesome on its own. By the way, if you said all of this in your post gb, sorry... that was just such a long post, didn't really read beyond the first paragraph.

[Wha?]

Can't forget the mod community is what kept Valve alive long enough for this release.

[[CAKE]anonymity]

In all honesty, I'm not really looking forward to HL2 that much, don't know why, maybe im just likeing ricochet too much. Either way if it is pay to play i'll stick with bands opinions of it. Never take a pay to play gig.

[Power and Glory]

If this is their way to curb cheaters and other lamers this would not be the way to do it. They will also be turning away the good ones which far outnumber the bad ones.

[kermit]

i doubt it would be for several reasons...many already stated. they could suprise us but it doesn't seem like they are going that direction for now.

valve may decide to produce a hl spinoff of sorts that is a massively multiplayer co-op game but it would probably be a completely seperate product. to be honest...that sounds interesting and i would be tempted to get in on that perhaps...like sven co-op but w/ these huge-ass maps that could take weeks to finish...could even get a RPG element in there too. anyways, i'm sort of paranoid of steam...so i'm more watchful of what they do with that concept.

i do think if you pay a monthly fee to play a game, you better damn well play it...it better come before your relationships, work and school. i would want every pixel of playing action that i could sqeeze out of a buck...lol. i've been playing hl (and it's mods) for almost 9 months...not bad for $40 bucks. imagine the people who been playing for 5 years now...wow...the game's a true bargain...and i'm hoping that hl2 will become just as good of an investment.

[Sockhole]

It's probably just a rumor. Maybe some site was trying to gain some attention. Maybe Valve is ... That whole "aa won't work on x card" issue ended up being pretty inconsequential. They don't want to show any more content so they state bogus things about HL2 to keep them in the spotlight. Hey, where is that guy that was big into conspiracy theories?! The moon guy.

[MaGoo.]

Yes, but I wouldn't pay. ;P

[Gwarsbane]

I also don't think that it will be pay to play because of the reason that g-boy mentioned. Its not going to be one of these huge games with hundreds or thousands of people on each map so they don't need to provide the servers for them.

But I figured that I would bring this up just because of that article.

[fritoman]

I wouldnt pay to play anything, I did that way to much when I was growing up and spending my paycheck at the arcade.

[Guest]

But back then, the arcades vs home machines ... it was well worth it... today ... just a no go ...

[GRITS]

No never how could anyone pay to play online games....OMG can you imagine a monthly bill that you have to pay in order to hang out with a bunch of gamers......;)
:P
:wacko:
:wub:
:thumb:

[[CAKE]anonymity]

All i know is, valve would have to pay me too hang around in servers with an average cser (without admin powers at least) B)

[Gwarsbane]

ok polls are now closed because we now have an answer to the whole "Will Half-Life 2 be pay to play" question.


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