Hello fellow Maritimer!
Two things:
Your fault for buying WoW without understanding what you were buying. It says right on the box you have to pay a subscription fee.
I am aware of this... now. Typically the retailer of the game is supposed to sorta inform you of that stuff as well, along with it being perhaps violent for youths, etc. What it says on the box isn't all that easy to notice from all the other typical writing on game boxes:
(temp image removed)
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/4/534914_front.jpg
Maybe it's just because I'm getting old and my vision is hazy, but considering how noticable it is if you're not normally used to looking for such a notice, and considering I never bought a game before that I had to continue to pay for, as I said, I chalked it up to an unfortunate learning experience.
Either way, it turned me off on the game and the franchise.... the couple of free days they provided with the game sure didn't impress me much either.
I might have been swayed with having one year free from day of purchase, that could at least justify the price, but the monthly cost imo is too damn high for what you're getting in return. Sure, it's only 15 bucks (20 or 30 I think when I got it and where I live) but times that by 12 and you're burning 180 bucks a year..... on one game?
Total waste if you ask me.
Also, I have no problem paying a subscription for WoW. I can pay $60 for the game up front (with expacs) and then $15 a month to play the game I enjoy, that has massive technical support needs and ever-changing content (thats the key thing right there), or I can do what everyone else does and go buy a game for $50 and play it for a month and never touch it again and go out the next month and pay $50 for another game and never play it again, ad nauseum.
I didn't even play it for more then a day and a half before I uninstalled it, packed it back up and handed it to a friend..... If I don't see any logic in paying 15 bucks a month for one game that isn't really any different in content updates and distribution then other games I have played, I sure don't see the logic in buying the silly thing again for $50 just to do it all over again..... it's really not that great of a game.... imo of course.
Most online games do not have the user base or technical support needs of a typical MMO.
For me, $15 a month is small potatoes for the game and the service I get and the amount of time I play it.
For me, I knew I'd be lucky if I played it once a week, thus for me, it didn't make any sense.
In regards to this linking to the XboX live, it's the same thing..... why would I want to pay even more money each month then what I already paid for when I bought a game, when there are so many other online/multiplayer games out there that are just as entertaining and you don't have to pay more every month?
To each their own I guess, but I don't have the money to blow on games that make me feel obligated to play them or lose value in the end. Even if I could just stop for a few months and then continue playing it again, that one month of play that I just paid for would make me feel obligated to play the game as much as I could, or feel guilty that I'm wasting money.
^ And that to me is the main reason I believe people get hooked into the game so easily. Sure it might be interesting and fun, but it's also a method of addiction, much like gambling...... you're putting more and more money into the same thing so you can play and get further then you were before..... Oops.... times up, please insert more money.
Feels like a scam if I ever saw one in the video game industry. Mind you a legal scam, but a scam non the less..... I'm sure many adults know how to manage themselves with such pay as you play content.... but how about kids?
