Has AGS made you rethink games as a service?

[Dubhlainn]

Before New World, I was pretty happy to see more MMOs and Games as Services titles move away from the subscription model. After years of paying subs in various games, it was a nice change of pace to not have to worry about a monthly fee for content.

This game has now made me change my mind.

As consumers, we vote with our wallets. That has always been the case. With New World (and other games in this genre as well) we have effectively been stripped of our right to vote.

With a single-player title, you can watch videos, read reviews, etc., and then make a decision about if a game is right for you or not. If you do decide to buy it, in most cases you get what you expect. It may not be the best game you have ever played, but at least you can learn about the game prior to purchase. In the case that there is something fundamentally wrong with the release product, you have things like Stream’s 2-hour refund policy to help you “cast a vote”.

With New World and other MMOs or Games as Service titles, you can do all the research you want. Find out the game sounds great - hell, even play in the beta before launch. You can decide to buy the game and play it for hundreds of hours, and then, seemingly on a whim, the developers can take the game you used to love and essentially destroy it.

They can nerf your favorite weapons into the ground.

They can make areas you used to be able to progress in impossible to manage.

They can run off the player base with these types of horrid design decisions and leave the rest of the server wondering how to make the player-driven economy and game systems function with only 10-15% of the population left.

They can (and have) done all of this and worse, and what can you do? What vote do you have left to cast?

Basically, you can come here and the Steam review section and complain. That’s it.

AGS doesn’t have to care about you or your opinion, because they already got your money. You purchased the game. Maybe you bought a few things from the in-game shop, etc., but now they have royally screwed up the game and what recourse do you have?

None.

AGS has shown they will simply ignore your “feedback” and keep on trucking down their own path regardless of the effect it has on the players. You have no power in this equation.

Despite feeling a couple of months ago like this was the best MMO I had ever played, I have now quit the game. I can’t send a message with any actual weight to the developers by canceling my subscription, because there isn’t one.

Games with a sub give the players the power to make a meaningful statement. Something tangible.

Nothing with New World will change for the better because they have no financial incentive to keep you logging in. Sure you are likely not going to be buying any future expansions (assuming this game lasts long enough for that - which is highly questionable at best), but there is nothing you can do about it in the short term.

Personally, I’m feeling like it might be time to stop being a beta-tester for game developers. I’m feeling like the model of early access and Games as a Service have screwed me one too many times. There are exceptions to be sure, but if I could send an impactful financial message to AGS by having my entire family and circle of friends cancel their subscriptions, I would.

What are your thoughts?

No one likes subscriptions, but do you feel like the lack of one takes away your ability to make your voice heard in any meaningful way?

[Cuhulin1]

Interesting post.

I think you are right that moving from the subscription model takes away one clear signal - cancellation. However, there are other signals available, like not logging on, not being online for as long, not purchasing cash items and leaving forum and reddit posts. Just as AGS can choose to ignore any or all of these, it can ignore cancellations as well. Ion does this all the time at Blizzard, claiming that subscription cancellations are just part of the life-cycle of an MMORPG, and not a matter to be paid any attention.

In my opinion, therefore, the current developments in New World don’t reflect on the choice of business model, be it subscription or GAAS.

[Dubhlainn]

Interesting points.

I agree with you.

I guess I’m just feeling like I should have gone with my gut and waited on New World to see how the players were reacting to it a few months after launch.

Just tired of feeling swindled, ya know?

[DemonicRuins]

For starters you are right about the Sub model and being able to speak with your wallet. Typically B2P games always make me nervous simply because if they are not getting X amount of dollars from the subscriptions from Y amount of players to sustain development and overhead costs then they must accrue that income by other means which typically result in robust In-Game Shops for microtransactions. We’ve seen plenty of games do this method and they all result in P2W shops. New World hasn’t gotten to that point yet but with the steady decline of players who knows.

Trust me though they have taken notice after losing 90% of their player base. Only real question is are they smart enough to course correct or are they dumb enough to double down. Evidence in their decisions thus far suggest “Doubling Down” is all they know.

[Cuhulin1]

Yeah, I know.

On the other hand, I had so much fun in the early days of this game that I can’t be unhappy with the expenditure. I just wish (and keep hoping, as sorry as that may be) that they had gone down a different path with it.