Massively Speaking Episode 86: Global Agenda pre-launch interview

well i think the sub fee question got softballed a bit :P

i think it would have been better worded "Did you apply the mmo label to your game just so you could charge a sub fee?" or perhaps "Is there really enough content to justify a sub fee?" HiRez mentions there will not be any paid expansions, but you basically are paying for them in advance with the sub fee. so we assume large blocks of content every 6 months, it comes down to ~$78 per batch of content. subtract some for server costs, still looking at a price tag about as big as the original client.

be very interesting to see how well this pricing model does in 10% unemployment conditions, especially when the closest cousin (tf2) does content updates with no fee and allows user made maps for greater immediate variety.

your sub fee will fail HiRez people expect alot of content when they pay for monthly games....drop it to 5 bucks or you will be in the same boat as citiesXL in 3 months..this isnt trolling this is 100% truth to anyone who is in the beta.

Although I am interested in this game, the subscription sounds a bit steep for what you are getting (from what I've read).

One question I would really liked to have answered is their opinion on the current subscription AvA timed events. From what I have read, agencies will only be allowed to attack and/or defend areas at certain times in the day. As a somewhat casual gamer, I would be worried that I would miss these 'windows' and not be able to contribute in a meaningful way once I have a few hours to spare.

^^ Dirty Ape, every 30 minutes there is a Conquest map open for 2 hours and 30 minutes. So when one closes down, 30 minutes later another opens up. So provided you get with an Agency that is most active around your playing times, you shouldn't have problems with being able to participate in conquest mode.

As for the subscription fee, after playing in the beta, I honestly believe it is a stretch to charge one at all. There simply isn't enough content to justify it. Conquest mode, as cool and interesting as it is, just isn't expansive enough to warrant a sub at all, let alone one that is roughly the same price as the standard MMO fees.

I have really enjoyed my time with Global Agenda and will be playing it at launch, however, I am truly hoping HiRez reevaluates their current business model very soon. I feel like It is almost a scam to charge a full blown sub fee for the "MMO features" in this game. I believe the success of the game overall would be better served without it.

Well you can join this agency, im in it, its pretty great, vent, site, etc. the main guild is ISU but that doesnt matter much since we really work as an alliance and the alliance is called ISF, to join you can whisper newrelic, trucker, or wrathischaos.

For next week's show we will be interviewing the creators of XBox Live's lobby and achievement system.

Seriously, this isn't an MMO and it should be sites like Massively calling them out for it, not pretending it is and going along with it. It's not some new fancy hybrid game either - just an overblown lobby. I bought the game via Steam because of Massively's previews and I was pissed. Luckily it was still during beta so Steam refunded me the money.

There are some big holes in the field when it comes to MMOFPSs and the first company that makes a WoW without auto-aim is going to clean up. Adventurine came really close with Darkfall - if they had a bigger marketing budget and the game wasn't populated by griefers they might have done it. Will it be Mortal Online? Maybe Blizzards next offering? It certainly won't be this "TF2 in space" known as Global Agenda.