Jedi? $130/Month

[Jabe Adaks]

Not much to say that Wired hasn't already said...

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,128 ... tw=rss.TOP

Curious to your reactions on this concept...

Jabe

[Shensen]

Well first I find it hard to comprehend anyone paying that much money just to "rent" an account, although chances are if they have the money to do this they aren't going to be teenie boppers.

Money aside, I don't like it anymore than I like Ebay'd Jedi accounts. To me there is no immersion starting from the finish line, no sense of accomplishment, pride, community, etc. There are so many game mechanics and subtleties that one learns best when they take a character from start to finish.

We used to have the same issues back when I played EQ. Someone would buy a level 40-ish account and then you'd group with the person and end up pulling a Leroy Jenkins just because the person had no idea how to play the character or what his/her role was. I think people are robbing themselves of the complete gaming experience by buying finished accounts.

[Dwilah]

Yeah...ruins a gaming experience for many. I think being a new player is just as important as being an old player...and old players offering that help to new players and bringing them into the experience.

[Hashum]

Yeah $130 a month seems a bit steep, heck I'd get a Jedi just to rent it out for that kind of money.

Unfortunately I see the spoiled kids (like I was) being the ones to get these accounts not adults which really concerns me about just getting a bunch of l33t dewd's around.

[Kyanus]

We used to have the same issues back when I played EQ. Someone would buy a level 40-ish account and then you'd group with the person and end up pulling a Leroy Jenkins just because the person had no idea how to play the character or what his/her role was. I think people are robbing themselves of the complete gaming experience by buying finished accounts.

LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEROY JENKINSSSS!

I used to have that same problem in EQ2. I can't count the times I died because someone just bought their class and had no clue what they were doing. But as for paying for an account, I admit that a couple times I was desperate for cash and the thought crossed my mind to buy some credits, but then I remembered that I had a little thing called "honour" and after deciding just how much those farmers destroy the essence of whatever game, I decided to get my money/items/characters the old fashioned way:

I worked for them.

Lazy sods; that's what these people are.

[Illbleed]

I think this is great, although I'm sure the MMO companies hate this idea.

Well, cry me a river. Does anyone find the arguement of "violating our terms of service" familiar?

It should the music industry is using this all the time. Until digital domain/copyright laws become more clear on this issue, I think SOE shouldn't complain. After all they already rip off their user base by only allowing them one character per server and make them buy ANOTHER cd to create a second account and another monthly charge..

[Isleh]

Well.. it's a lot better than eBay accounts.

It's a rental with a $300.00 deposit. If they do turn out to be griefers and/or violate the terms of the rental agreement. They will loose their deposit and, more importantly, won't be back.

LOL

Who knows, Maybe Mark Hamill will rent a Jedi

[Sai'nu]

Well.. it's a lot better than eBay accounts.

It's a rental with a $300.00 deposit. If they do turn out to be griefers and/or violate the terms of the rental agreement. They will loose their deposit and, more importantly, won't be back.

LOL

Who knows, Maybe Mark Hamill will rent a Jedi

LOL... good one, Sis.

Back at Gen Con 95 I had the pleasure of meeting Mark Hamill. I guess he actually married a lady from near my home town too out of Carmi, IL. Anyway, more to the point, he talked to us all about his Wing Commander 4 roll that year. During his talk he said he had absolutely no knowledge of computer games... and he had to do a stand in for promotion for the thing somewhere. The funny part was they surprised him by trying to get him to 'pilot' in the video game and he wrecked on takeoff. He chuckled and said they looked at him like, "Come on, Luke!?! Quit joking around."

I'll always find that a humorous story because of how much we 'do' think of the person as Luke Skywalker and 'not' Mark Hamill in our own minds sometimes. We're all just falable human beings on a big world afterall.

[Kyanus]

I'll always find that a humorous story because of how much we 'do' think of the person as Luke Skywalker and 'not' Mark Hamill in our own minds sometimes. We're all just falable human beings on a big world afterall.

*insert NBC's "The More You Know" theme and graphic here*

[Ekade]

I found it interesting that many of the companies were saying that they felt "renting" and "buying" were bad for the sense of community. I was kind of suprised that they actually consider "community" in regards to the health of their game. Specifically because I think the MMO's companies can do much more to support the community than they currently do.

Many feel one of the chief elements that makes such games worthwhile is the sense of community that grows among players over hundreds of hours of shared quests and battles with monsters.

That sentiment is certain to be even stronger when it comes to players who have rented their accounts and likely won't stick around for the long haul.

"That would seriously diminish the experience for me," said Ron Meiners, an expert on MMOs and a rabid World of Warcraft player. "It would be harder to connect with them (and) I think a lot of why people play MMOs is to share that experience.... So someone who had no investment, or only a small one, wouldn't be part of that experience."

I agree. I don't see much appeal at all in missing the bulk of the playing experience. To a degree, the "newbie" stage is the most enjoyable. Discovery and learning are very enjoyable and stimulating for me.

Other game company executives said they felt the issue had more to do with degradation of community.

If everybody's on short time, you could almost look at the community being lost. It would be a tragedy of the commons

"The main check on poor online behavior is persistent identity," Meiners said. "It just seems like it really upsets a lot of the social dynamics that make (MMOs) work."

Well, some players base their identity off bad behavior.

[Jerrel]

I think I just figgured how to pay my account. I just wonder if they rent an account or just 1 character on an account.