Hellgate: London Subscriptions Set, Explained

1up is reporting on a letter directly from Bill Roper to Hellgate: London fans on what the subscription fee is all about. The letter, reprinted by the site Hellgate Guru, suggests that the premium content unlocked by the subscription fee is meant to give players options on how to play the game. " Hellgate: London is completely free to play online, out of the box. 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. We're excited to be able to bring gamers an amazing, free online experience that is included with their single player game ... 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. 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."

Comments

Another Interview

[Anonymous Coward]

Gamespy's interview seemed to be more detailed:
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/hellgate-london/786714p1. html

Re:What?

[MeanderingMind]

It's made by Flagship Studios, comprised almost entirely of ex-Blizzard North people. Bill Roper himself leads the team. As the Diablo series of games is one that stole the lives of many nerds, another game by the same people is newsworthy.

Secondly, Hellgate is the first Guild Wars style MMO to charge any fee whatsoever, even if it isn't mandantory.

Re:orly?

[toleraen]

This article probably should have been linked in the summary. It explains what else the $9.95/month gets you. And before people freak out, the 'unique' gear is supposed to just be shinier, not statistically better.

Clarifying info

[Anonymous Coward]

It's $9.99 a month. Content updates are guaranteed every 3 months according to other interviews. Subscribers also get access to things like alternate game modes (whatever those may be), more characters, more item storage, more comprehensive guild support (like guild housing) and more. I like this more than dropping 50 bucks on an expansion a year later because while the cost is about the same in the end, it's nice to be able to have a constantly expanding game rather than the possibility of getting into a position of waiting, bored, for an expansion to show up. People also seem to get all hot and bothered over this issue as if they were getting a gimped package. You get the whole game when you buy it, but if you toss them some cash every month it allows them the funds to continue working to provide you with more content as time passes. If you don't want to pay money, then play online anyway. Maybe a year later they'll release all of the subscriber content in a retail box for some kind of cost and then it really makes no difference to those complaining about the subscription cost anyway. They'd have had to wait regardless if there was no subscription fee and the only extra content was expansions.

From the Gamespy.com article:

[spocksbrain]

For $9.99 a month, you can subscribe to Elite, which will give you access to ongoing content (more on this in a bit), about twelve or more characters, a larger stash that can be shared between characters, a level cap that increases as content is released, access to a special train that takes you to Elite areas, and the ability to form guilds and choose different gameplay modes (PvP, Hardcore mode, and so on). "Ongoing content" is made up of stuff like new locations, quests, enemies, item drops, player housing, and even character classes. Flagship is estimating that about 40% of the development team will be focused on just creating new content for Elite subscribers.

It looks like there is a lot more than just "as-we-go" content for the 9.99 price tag.

Re:So am I reading this right?

[BloodAngel_Au]

Not quite...

You can either:

A. Buy the game, play single player & online ala Diablo 2 for the cost of buying the box. No problems. (and free online players share the server/s with paying customers)

OR

B. Buy the game, play single player & pay $9.95 for ENHANCED ONLINE content, I.E. particiate in the MMO portion. You get updates, more character slots, fancyer looking items (it has been stated the Elite players items only look different, not statistically different to a free players items.) and a few other things.

We all have played Diablo 2 ?? Most of us have played WoW or some MMO game online and paid for it ?? So I fail to see the pain in buying the game off the shelf and getting free MMO-Style play, with paying players getting more content (admittedly, but that costs to make over time) and some different looks.

Bill Roper has stated himself he wants to expand the game for the next few years, and possibly even explore the rest of the world. It sounds like a good proposition to me all told, long as you can cancel your sub and not loose your items (maybee they just loose their skin, and regain it if you sub again ?) only the perks.

Re:orly?

[Thaelon]

Their patches have only the most minimal content despite having promised "free monthly content updates" and the expansion was the price of a full game on top of that.

Their "free patches" were mostly bug fixes and balance corrections, not content.

I was extremely disappointed in them for that. I bought the collector's edition when it first came out and was eagerly anticipating the Honor System, the Dishonor System and Battlegrounds from day one. Both of those things were promised to be already in the game by the freaking game manual. But they didn't actually come out until over a year later. I got bored and canceled my subscription before they ever came out with features promised at release. And they never did deliver the free monthly content updates they promised.

So screw'em.

I play EVE Online now. The UI sucks, but we get a free expansion every year and constant improvements every month or two.