Monthly Games: Why We Pay to Play

In America, we pay for virtually everything on a per-month basis. We pay our cable, rent, electricity, and water bills monthly. Some people even pay for online gaming per month as well (often on top of all those other bills). So why is it, when we have so many games that do not require a monthly subscription fee, people are willing to pay on a per-month basis just to play these monthly games?

There are many answers to this question; it’s not an uncommon debate amongst gamers. Why do we pay on a per-month basis for a game we already paid for at the store? Most answers revolve around the same thing: money. It costs money to keep a server up and running, make updates to the game, keep it in good repair, pay the employees…the list goes on and on. Those that do not wish to pay to play on a per-month basis cite several reasons, including (but not limited to): unwillingness to make pay-per-month games a virtual career, the target audience (a younger crowd) of monthly games, and finally, the fact that money is scarce.

I was once a part of the crowd that paid to play. Fortunately, I removed myself from them a few years ago. It was not because I ran out of money or even that the game was not fun anymore. It was the fact that I was not getting my money’s worth. That is the downfall of these pay-per-month games. It is not until late in the game that you find out that even though you are paying a full subscription fee just to play the monthly game, you are unable to access all of the content because of different reasons–both player and technical.

Obviously, though, plenty of people do feel they’re getting their money’s worth–why do you pay to play? What are the non-subscribers of us missing out on?