I would just like to express the disappointment I experienced, a disappointment that kept me as well as my brother and many of our friends from purchasing this game, upon my discovery that "PlanetSide" is a MMORPG (i.e. an online multiplayer game that requires enrollment in a monthly fee). I have no doubt that PlanteSide is an impressive game. However, the idea of paying $50 for a video I would just like to express the disappointment I experienced, a disappointment that kept me as well as my brother and many of our friends from purchasing this game, upon my discovery that "PlanetSide" is a MMORPG (i.e. an online multiplayer game that requires enrollment in a monthly fee). I have no doubt that PlanteSide is an impressive game. However, the idea of paying $50 for a video game and then having to pay an additional $13 a month to be able to play the game is ridiculous to me. I realize that SOE offers the first month of service for free. However, after that first month the game is rendered useless unless the consumer chooses to enroll in a month by month subscription fee. I don't pretend to be a financial expert or a CEO of some big company. However, I would still like to ask the question: is "the cost of bandwidth, server maintenance, continuous feature improvements and content updates, as well as customer support" so much that SOE cannot absorb these costs through the already exaggerated purchasing price of the game ($50)? If not, how in the world did all of SOE's predecessors afford to produce similar games to this one for the past five or more years without the subscription fee? I know gaming companies such as SOE are attempting to justify this kind of subscription service to that of cable services, telephone services, and the like. However -- again realizing that I am not an expert but making the assertion anyway -- this kind of comparison is completely false considering that there is no way that support for a single game such as PlanetSide requires the kind of hardware to setup a nationwide cable service or telephone service. I have yet to see employees of SOE in my neighborhood burying underground cable or in my home installing cable boxes. Nor should SOE and the like attempt to compare such gaming services to that of online services such as AOL or MSN. There is no comparison between an online service encompassing universal need and ever expanding use versus a limited use game that will be out of date within two or thee months. To make that comparison would require lowering the games purchasing price to that of the first month subscription (i.e. $13 or free for the first 1400 or more hours of use as AOL does) and then offer free expansion packs every time computer performance and online service increases. In an attempt to keep this posting from being nothing more then trivial complaining, I would like to offer what I see as a viable solution to the monthly subscription service charged to the consumers. The solution is found by looking at all of the other free online services throughout the internet. Visit any site on the internet and one of the first things to pop-up is an advertisement from some sponsor supporting the cite. Again, I am not aware of the legality or the technical difficulties in implementing something similar in the content of an MMORPG, but I am almost certain that it can be done. Hollywood does it all time in the production of their movies. What is keeping the makers of MMORPG's from enlisting the help of sponsors to help pay for the aforementioned monthly company costs instead of placing the burden on consumers who already paid for an overpriced game? Companies such as SOE could simply put sponsors on a monthly subscription fee and then place adds for each sponsor throughout the MMORPG environment. I'm sure my idea is oversimplified, but I can almost guarantee that the solution would be much more popular than the current practice. I personally hope that some company does implement this or some other solution and puts all of these other MMORPG monthly subscription services out of business. To help speed along the process, I recommend that people cease the purchase of such games as these until a change is made. Thank you for your time. Respectully, - Brian… Expand
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