I see the subscription fee complaint so much here and other other sites like Neogaf and Reddit and I simply dont get it. Are you guys kids or unemployed or something?

It is 50 cents a day. Do people every buy coffee? How do you do it without declaring bankruptcy?

I have no problem with the monthly fee, because it means the game is being properly supported. Much of the single player TES games' longevity came from mods. Even some bug-fixing...

It's the entry cost for the standard edition that's too high, at 75 dollars (for Europeans). This is way more than what new console games go for, and we're paying it for a PC game which also has a subscription fee afterwards. It costs over 100 dollars to play it for 3 months.

I am not trying to sound terible or anything. Just trying to get a better view and perspective on this. With a reasonably bulk payment plan of some type, the ability to stop, and renew a subscription, and the joys of an MMO where one side can finally actually take over territories, I am already more open to playing this game. Thanks guys

The thing with F2P, is that the people with money are subsidizing the cost for the have-nots. Ask any F2P mmo'er how much they spend. It will probably be more than it would have cost to have an all-inclusive subscription fee. I know LoL is not a MMO, but you routinely hear about people who spend thousands of dollars on the game.

From my experience, every F2P MMO i have played has been crap. They all just seem to "phone it in" with F2P MMO's. That is why I am a staunch supporter of the subscription model

Just look at that megaserver picture I posted on this forum. LOOK AT IT. That thing is why you pay money.
Keeping 2 of those operational must be expensive =p

Im half divided, I feel the game is worth the sub, but it could be lower to attract other players (even dropping it to 11€, better 10€, would be a huge difference for little loss), but the box price is a bit ridiculous....

It is a lot of content I know, but I would prefer them to expect their pay from subs and not pre-orders of imperial edition, which btw, probably made them back around 40% of the investment.

I don't mind paying the sub, it will all depend on the content they release, for this sub I expect some "dlc-like" updates frequently between expansions. Since most likely expansions will be separate, I really would hate if they hold their content behind another paywall (expansion) and release nothing worthy between expansions...

Bethesda and Zenimax can charge what they may. None of you entitlementists put up a red cent for the development or hardware costs of this game. Which was huge. Can't afford it? Tough [censored].

the OP and others begging for a reduction in the fee are absolutely ridiculous ot listen to if you cannot afford the purchase cost of 60 dollars and 15 dollars a month then you probably shouldnt be playing video games? I am a disabled Veteran I take home 750 bux a month I pay my rent I buy food and clothes etc and Pay my taxes etc and I provide for me and my wife and two children and yet I am able to buy not 1 but 3 Imperial Codes AND pay the 45 dollars a month subscription

get mad at me if you want flame me if you want but its about priorities if your priority isnt to pay for this game and support the zenimax/bethesda team then you really need to go do what your priority is and stop trying to get something for nothing

honestly I dont want the purchase price OR the sub any lower I like it just the way it is

$15 is a small price to pay to keep the garbage of the internet out of ESO, by which I mean both f2p game mechanics and f2p players

And btw, in case you are thinking of saying 'I don't want it to be free, I just want it to be $5 cheaper!', if it were any cheaper there would still be people who wanted it to be cheaper still, and they'd use the exact same arguments... because a good number of them would be the same people complaining right now.

What part of ya's disabled? =p hopefully it's not PTS.
Yeah, I'm a poor guy I make no money I'll steal the 60 if I have to, I'll be playing this game regardless. ;[

As someone already pointed out a good sub MMO will save you money on the long run.

You wont be spend as much on silly single player games or on F2P games cash shops.

For an online game only, you could argue the initial price is extensive.

Imagine you spend $60 on the game initially......you find that you don't get to play enough. You then rely on paying $15 monthy yo get the value from the gameplay.

You cannot put this $60 to the side & wait until you have more time to get the value from your investment.....so you are basically paying through the teeth after paying such a large sum before hand.

Is it worth it? Only to those who have the time and enjoy playing it.

I mean, there is no issue paying $60 for a game you can play at any time......take Skryim for example. You can create your character, run the tutorials, blast away for a weekend and put it to the side to live your life. But the investment is still there 3 months later to play whenever you want. But to pay $60 initially & then have to subscribe for every little bit of free time you might have may be a little too much.

But then, a counter argument is....why buy a time-absorbing game if you have no time to put into it?

Its a big investment to make for the early adopters...really big in terms of being a gamer.

If the game gathers pace, and proves itself down the line where people can see the entirety of what to expect via videos or Free Trial periods, then they can make a more informed choice.

Like I've said many times...Im kinda torn.

I always wanted a TES MMO, but it seems they come with restrictions or design choices that may not have been expected for a TES fan.

I'll keep watching it for a while yet. And while Im watching ESO, I'll also watch for the next TES game & wonder if they will add a co-op functionality dso you can explore the realms with your friends.

Its a tough one. Tougher for console players who will undoubtley have 2 subscription fees to pay regardless what good intentioned deals have been made.

If your that busy surely you'd be able to afford it though, even if you only get to play it every now and again.

Hmmm dunno if it's worth it to throw ones life away for political terrorists within the american government giving the marines a bad name by sending them out to proxy wars.
'Tis a big issue for me, uncle Sam. He should be defending the rights of the people right now instead he's defending the pipe lines.

which is why a lot of ppl have a pipe at home

Well, if you are not sure about having free time to play, I would recommend going month to month, and turn off reoccurring billing. That way you can let your subscription lapse and sign back up whenever time frees up.

It also depends on how you quantify your entertainment value. The way I look at it is, that I will easily pay $16 to go see a 2 hour movie, that is more than an entire month's worth of ESO. The same 2 hours of ESO breaks down to 2.08 cents per hour. That is what I call value!

I'm really on the fence here. I do think the OP has a valid point. I remains to be seen if 15$ a month is worth it, content-wise. My beef is that I have to pay 50$ upfront for the client, but when I don't want to (or can't) afford to pay the sub fee, I will end up with a dead game. It feels kinda wrong.

Another thing I though about is that this pricing model is not very enticing for my , maybe rather specific, target group. I have been playing ES since the very beginning with ES Arena. It was this very game that enthralled me for a lifetime of computer RPGs. Playing ES online is an almost 2 decades long dream of mine. That means I'm a middle-aged (39) man with a job and a young family now. My play time is not only quite limited, but also very randomly distributed. Sometimes I have more sometimes less. Often I get to play once or twice a month only. Having payed for a full month and not being able to play feels wrong (again). I think, based on the history of this game I might not be alone in my target group. So something that is geared for the daddy-players would feel sooo much better:)

I understand though that having an f2p model is very destructive to the game community. There must be a 3rd way....hopefully

Then again...15$ is really not that much if you put it in perspective....

I would take monthly subscription fees over the micro transaction model every time.

In 6 months of playing perfect world I spent about ￡700 on in game items, flying mounts, dragon orbs and the likes. Just to be competitive in territory wars!

Yet I'll have access to all of the content in TESO for ￡8.99 a month and not need to think about micro transactions to keep on top.

Like someone else said it's the cost of one takeaway meal a month for what will give you hours of entertainment. You wouldn't get the same hours of entertainment from a standard AAA console game at ￡50 each and you're going to need a new one every month as most games have 8-14 hours gameplay!!

Is that data center picture REALLY the ESO server farm, and not some generic server farm clip art? Source? I'm skeptical.

Regardless, I am all in favor of having a yearly package that costs less, even a lifetime package. I would totally go for that. And probably ESO makes up for the money they lose that way, because some percentage of the people that buy it won't play every month of that year. Plus they have the funds upfront so they can plan their expenditures better.

No idea what the right price point would be. Basically it's up to them to set it, and up to us individually to decide if we want to pay it.

How about everyone stay away from the name-calling?

Everyone is going to have to decide for themselves whether they can afford or want to afford the game.

There may be discounts offered for multiple months purchased; there are time cards; there may be other things in the works that we don't know about yet. This is why we were locking the payment system threads for a while; there isn't enough definite information yet, besides the cost of the game and monthly sub.

Skyrim has a finite amount of content. Sure, you can play the game even after you've done the main quest. But after you've discovered everything in it, the game will still be the same. Also, bug fixes and support only lasted until they were done releasing DLC, which also was finite. Now if you have problems with the game, you're stuck with trying to find a fix online.

MMO's that have a monthly subscription model provide support for the life of the game. So long as the game is still running they will be working on fixing any problems. You have 24/7 in-game support- get stuck on a rock? Message a GM. Have a problem with a player harassing you? Message a GM. They also add new content every few weeks, whether that's refining a skill that didn't seem to be working or buffing up a spell that isn't delivering damage the way it should. WoW added new weapons, quest givers, added or removed mobs from areas, all without needing to buy an expansion. Sure, they'll keep large areas of the map for expansion content later, but Zenimax devs have already stated they will be adding content to the vanilla game every 4-6 weeks to keep things interesting until the first expansion happens.

That's worth a subscription.

Talaran, how much did the mega-server cost? feed my curiosity. do you guys have pictures of it?
not in game stuff, I mean, the server itself. show us

Well, if I were going to be nitpicky, I would say that there is a free month's worth of game time thrown in there, so it's really like $45 for the game.

Also, is there any game that isn't dead when you stop playing it?

exactly. look at games like path of exile. someone dropped 10k on that game before it launched. i know 3 people who put at least 200 down on star citizen already and they cant even play it yet. f2p is like obama care. its being paid for just not by the freeloading community