Online Play: Pay to Play?

[TigerXtrm 0]

On Monte Cristo's website is a job opening for Customer Support Manager which asks for the following:

Previous experience in customer support specifically in the context of a subscription based online game.

Knowledge of internet based payment systems.

Is this an indicator that Cities XL's online services will have to be paid for? And if so, how much do you think it will be costing?

[BurroDiablo 222]

It'll probably have to be paid for, Dirk mentioned it -

Originally posted by: dirk

 Yes, I had asked what the cost would be of course I can not say in any official capacity, so take it with a grain of salt until we get some official words, but they were mentioning about around USD12 bucks

quote>

I'm not too bothered, as long as all the majority of good content isn't purely online.

[dasilva 3]

Hi guys,

We are currently pricing one month of Cities XL Planet Offer subscribtion fee to be one third of the price you would pay for one month of a premium MMORPG so something around 5 or 6

[SimHoTToDDy 2,939]

Sounds good to me. This might be the first game I pay for monthly, I never got into any of the other games to justify it (except Diablo 2, which was free )

Thanks a million Da Silva,

-Todd

[TigerXtrm 0]

If I may continue on the issue then .

I like those prices, low and affordable. However what will happen to a player's online city if he does not pay for a month or two? Will it be deleted or something? How will that work?

[Kevin 101]

Originally posted by: dasilva

Hi guys,

We are currently pricing one month of Cities XL Planet Offer subscribtion fee to be one third of the price you would pay for one month of a premium MMORPG so something around 5 or 6€.quote>

Thats good news... are there going to be different price points for length of subscription? In other words, if I pay upfront for a year's subscription, will I be getting any sort of deal?

[your_adress_here 11]

Originally posted by: Cheese89

Originally posted by: dasilva

Hi guys,

We are currently pricing one month of Cities XL Planet Offer subscribtion fee to be one third of the price you would pay for one month of a premium MMORPG so something around 5 or 6€.quote>

Thats good news... are there going to be different price points for length of subscription? In other words, if I pay upfront for a year's subscription, will I be getting any sort of deal?

quote>

Yes, this would be much more convenient. (to be able to pay for a full year at a time)

[Kevin 101]

I'm much better at parting with money all at once than over and over again

[Silentradar 9]

Originally posted by: dasilva

Hi guys,

We are currently pricing one month of Cities XL Planet Offer subscribtion fee to be one third of the price you would pay for one month of a premium MMORPG so something around 5 or 6€.

And to cut of another thread on this question we are asking players to subscribe because the Planet Offer will be a persistent game which means that we will be running servers to host your online experience. You can compare it to any MMO out there. quote>

I for one am THRILLED there is a "persistant" component to this game.  I generally have 1-3 MMO subscriptions going at any given time and have recently cut back my MMO playing, but I definately enjoy the genre.  I am CitiesXL's target market you could say - I am an avid city building game fan with a comfort level of paying for game content and a willingness to do so.

I am THRILLED about playing this game, hopefully soon!

[MandelSoft 2,775]

One question: what are the limitations if you have Cities XL, but don't use the on-line services (so you don't pay €5 a month)?

[Kevin 101]

Originally posted by: mrtnrln

One question: what are the limitations if you have Cities XL, but don't use the on-line services (so you don't pay €5 a month)?quote>

Monte Cristo has confirmed that Cities XL will be a full-featured city building game right out of the box, and you won't have to pay a dime more than what you already paid. You'll just be missing out on the ability to interact and trade with other people's cities. I guess its up to you whether or not you want your game to feature that component.

By the way, I was talking to Dasilva and he did say that Monte Cristo is working out different price points for length of subscription, and it seems that the longer you subscribe for, the more money you save in the long run.

[MandelSoft 2,775]

OK, so the only limitation is that you'll miss some interactivity with other players. OK, that's good to know. My point of view is that I payed for the game, but don't want to pay for it again here I mean the €5 a month, and considering that a new game costs about €50, I pay the whole newprice for the game in just 10 months! Something that I'm not happy about

Best,

Maarten

[Silentradar 9]

Originally posted by: Cheese89

Originally posted by: mrtnrln

One question: what are the limitations if you have Cities XL, but don't use the on-line services (so you don't pay €5 a month)?quote>

Monte Cristo has confirmed that Cities XL will be a full-featured city building game right out of the box, and you won't have to pay a dime more than what you already paid. You'll just be missing out on the ability to interact and trade with other people's cities. I guess its up to you whether or not you want your game to feature that component.

By the way, I was talking to Dasilva and he did say that Monte Cristo is working out different price points for length of subscription, and it seems that the longer you subscribe for, the more money you save in the long run.

quote>

I'm under the impression that some of the special "blueprints" are tied to the planet offer, also the feasability of building said special blueprints is supposed to hinge on your ability to aquire other materials from other players.

[Dagen 0]

If you don't pay for the online play, will there be region play in single player? I don't intend to ever pay for any kind of mulitplayer ever, and if there isnt region play, I won't buy this game. 

[gabry85 2]

Originally posted by: Dagen

If you don't pay for the online play, will there be region play in single player? I don't intend to ever pay for any kind of mulitplayer ever, and if there isnt region play, I won't buy this game. quote>

I'll be delicate here:

No(t yet), but they say they're still working on it. What worries me is that we're still talking about Region Play for 9 months (that is when we started the debate at CitiesXL.com).

[Silentradar 9]

Originally posted by: Dagen

If you don't pay for the online play, will there be region play in single player? I don't intend to ever pay for any kind of mulitplayer ever, and if there isnt region play, I won't buy this game. quote>

This isn't SimCity, it's CitiesXL.

I won't loose any sleep over no regions if thats what happens, it certainly won't stop me from buying the game.

[dedgren 830]

Think about it, folks- this is perhaps the ultimate distinction between SC4 and C:XL. We all know what EA's marketing model is by now. Whatever else one might have to say about Electronic Arts, once you paid it for SC4 (and I more or less ignore here that some of us had to pay a second time for Rush Hour), it (1) gave you everything that there was to have and (2) went away and left you alone. No new official content, no support worth dookie, but there was a user community (which did, at least at first, receive some unofficial EA help and encouragement) for all that. Six years later, that user community, left to its own devices, has essentially rebuilt SC4 into a new game, and provides perhaps 90% (that's a SWAG, but I bet I'm not far off) of the content that is essential for those who play on an ongoing basis.

Enter Monte Cristo, which has a different business model. A cross between the RIAA (the recording industry association that goes around suing folks for sharing stuff they bought- you know the story) and the folks who manufacture computer printers or razor blades comes to mind. The RIAA because Monte Cristo, as best I can tell, has absolutely no intention of ceding any significant degree of control over C:XL to you, the user. No real ability to MOD the game, no unsanctioned player to player ability to develop and share custom content. These things won't just be perfunctorily frowned upon in a EULA and left at that- MC will (bets, anyone?) implement both passive (software-based controls and limitations) and active (cease and desist notices, for one) measures to stop these things. There will be a user community (AKA the Planet Offer Subscription), but it will simply be an extension of MC's marketing plan. That's where the razor blades come in.

Everyone knows you can buy a color inkjet printer from Epson or other comparable manufacturers for next to nothing. That's because Epson doesn't make its money on those printers- it makes its money on selling the ink and supplies that you put into the printer over and over again. When a set of ink cartridges for that nifty little (US)$79.99 printer cost (US)$59.99 for the set, and you are buying a set every other month or so over the life of the printer, the math can be figured out pretty easily. An American named King Camp Gillette was one of the first to figure this out- he gave away fairly expensive razor blade holders which only his company's "inexpensive" disposable blades would fit into. Don't laugh- he became a very, very rich man.  You only needed one blade holder- the razor blades, on the other hand, were pretty much a lifetime proposition.

If you buy C:XL, you'll have a city builder game that will provide you the basic game experience. I don't doubt that for a minute.  That experience, however, will be basic and finite. When you reach its limits, you will have no choice but to "join" the C:XL community (i.e. purchase the Planet Offer Subscription) to get additional content. There will be a STEX or its equivalent, but you won't be able to go there unless you have paid Monte Cristo for the privilege. Peer to peer file sharing and collaboration will not be possible and, if done openly, might land you in trouble.

For all I know, C:XL might be a better game from a technical standpoint than SC4. It might run better. It might even be more "fun," in the abstract, to play. For the sake of argument, if that was the whole deal, maybe I'd switch. Maybe. But it's not. Take that to the bank, friends.

David

[Neddiggis 1]

Thats not so unusual David, given they are pushing this as an MMO game.  However, I would be interested to know what you get for the money you pay each month.  Most MMOs provide regular updates to the game, new content, etc and I would hope that Monte Cristo would be doing the same.

Additionally, I recall (and I could be wrong, don't have the log at hand) Da Silva saying that Monte Cristo wouldn't be charging for user created content, even though all of it would have to pass through their hands before being released.  I'm not sure if this is still the case (both the charging and the process of creation) but I would be very dissapointed were that the case.

[Silentradar 9]

Monte Cristo, as best I can tell, has absolutely no intention of ceding any significant degree of control over C:XL to you, the user. No real ability to MOD the game, no unsanctioned player to player ability to develop and share custom content. These things won't just be perfunctorily frowned upon in a EULA and left at that- MC will (bets, anyone?) implement both passive (software-based controls and limitations) and active (cease and desist notices, for one) measures to stop these things 

 

This is purely speculation, and I in fact think the exact opposite of this view.  I think MC knows the community it is selling to, and while it is adding features to attract a larger and more diverse audience, MC knows who butters their bread and what those people want to see for them to stay playing - and paying - for their game.  If they loose the hard core city builders, they've lost their core group.

There may not be a fully featured mod package of tools or whatever at release, but I would expect to see and hear something about that pretty quick (likely right around the same time peoples free trials - assuming they are going to offer 1 month free like most mmo's - of "planet offer" are about to run out haha)

[Neddiggis 1]

I've just checked over the Chat Log from our chat with Da Silva at SC4D in Sept last year.  Couple of small quotes:

7:39 < PhilippeCitiesXL> We don't want players to be forced to pay anything for custom content

Is this still the case, because from what was said earlier it sounds like a change of heart.

Additionally, to reinforce what David is saying:

17:30 < PhilippeCitiesXL> However, we cannot give you full control on the building properties

17:30 < PhilippeCitiesXL> Let me explain you what we would like to achieve

17:30 < PhilippeCitiesXL> Ideally

17:31 < PhilippeCitiesXL> We would like players willing to go on the Custom Content creation to have the right tools (provided by us and other dedicated community members) to create Art Assets

17:32 < PhilippeCitiesXL> Once those assets are made, we would take them and place them in our level design pipeline with YOUR recommendations as how they should react in the Sim

17:32 < callagrafx> RAISE HAND: Without full control, how can we add content that fits in-game?  We submit it to MC for inclusion?  So you want control of all content made for CXL?  Do you realise the sheer volume of work you're opening yoursleves up for?

17:32 < PhilippeCitiesXL> Then, we would take care of its distribution to players throught our website and our dispatcher system that allows players to download and manage their buildings

17:33 < PhilippeCitiesXL> cal: Yes we do

17:33 < PhilippeCitiesXL> cal: But there is no other way around

Again, I wonder if this is still the intention, but it sounds like everything we create for CXL would have to pass through MC's hands, and then possibly be only available if you pay for their subscription, creating the strange situation of paying for your own work.

I would recommend people interested check out the chat log here:

sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php

[Silentradar 9]

keep in mind there may be a proprietary coding issue, or some other technical issue which prevents people from directly placing custom content in cities. mc does have the right to protect its coding assets and any other information it uses to construct citiesxl, especially if the game is intended to be persistent and go through ongoing development - they need to have security measures in place to protect themselves from potential competitors.

[chris0101 8]

Any idea whether or not we could add as much custom content as SC4? For a lot of us here, most of us have like as David points out 90% of our own buildings downloaded from here, SC4 Devotion, etc. That would be a big blow if we couldn't mod, add things like a CitiesXL NAM, etc.

[BurroDiablo 222]

 I'm still holding onto hope that it will be possible, maybe not straight away, but in the near future after CitiesXL is released. What Neddiggis posted isn't particularly encouraging, but maybe things have changed...

[Evillions 552]

This is going to end up like World of Warcraft expect no fighting but teamwork required.