The Daily Grind: Should MMO companies offer severance packages?

Reader Comments (2)

I think they should give a refund of the box price.

When you buy a single-player game, you get to play it forever, as long as you have the equipment to run it.

When you buy an MMO, you only get to play for as long as they keep the servers running, something they have no control over.

The most reasonable way to price these things, then, would be to provide an amount of free time at the beginning of your subscription commensurate with the price of the box. So an MMO with a $45 box price should come with THREE free months, not just one (assuming a subscription fee of $15/month).

But since no one does that, I guess three free months of other games is as close as one can expect to get to a refund of the box.

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I think MMOs should stop charging for the box altogether, but I don't see that happening (no sense in throwing away free money). I think games that just charge for monthly service or microtransactions are pretty slick. It's like a no commitment form of online gaming, no hard feelings when they have to shut down.

Still, the severance package is a nice gesture. Gamers should already know that MMOs are "buyer beware". Anything else is an olive branch to continue patronage.

As for the playing forever bit, I like the idea of homebrew servers stepping in to fill the gap, like Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst has. I'm tempted to get back into that game, just because of the prospect of running my own server for it. I always wanted a private EQ server where it could just be me and my friends in all of Norrath... am I on a tangent yet?

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