What would you do if playing online on PC became paid?

ChoosableOne

ChoosableOne

ChoosableAll
Microsoft has been listening to players lately and making various improvements to its service. What if they listen to players again and take such a step? What if Steam takes such a step? Never say never, let's plan ahead. What would you do in such a situation?
 
Season 8 Tns GIF by THE NEXT STEP
 
It would never fly on PC. MS already tried with GFWL with disastrous results. Only console gamers are willing to pay to use their own internet which they already pay for.
 
ChoosableOne said:
You think they're not considering ways to do this? After Gabe passes away(may he live long), we could even expect something like this from Steam—and I believe Microsoft and Epic will act sooner.
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PC is an open platform. People are able to play old ass multiplayer games and even revive old, dead and buried MMOs like Monster Hunter Frontier or Dragon's Dogma Online.

Sure they could try it, but I doubt they'd had any success. Remember the pushback for making a PSN account to be able to play Helldivers II? That shit didn't fly at all, now imagine the pushback against something that isn't free.

PD: also sorry, my previous post was kinda hurtful and not cool at all.
 
ChoosableOne said:
Microsoft has been listening to players lately and making various improvements to its service. What if they listen to players again and take such a step? What if Steam takes such a step? Never say never, let's plan ahead. What would you do in such a situation?
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Who gives a shit abou what MS thinks of the PC gaming market.

That's the beauty of a open system. No one dare to do that.
 
ChoosableOne said:
You think they're not considering ways to do this? After Gabe passes away(may he live long), we could even expect something like this from Steam—and I believe Microsoft and Epic will act sooner.
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What makes you think PC gamers wouldn't just move on from Steam? I would without even thinking twice.

Steam is just a digital store and I'm no Steam fanboy by any stretch of the imagination.
 
TintoConCasera said:
PC is an open platform. People are able to play old ass multiplayer games and even revive old, dead and buried MMOs like Monster Hunter Frontier or Dragon's Dogma Online.

Sure they could try it, but I doubt they'd had any success. Remember the pushback for making a PSN account to be able to play Helldivers II? That shit didn't fly at all, now imagine the pushback against something that isn't free.

PD: also sorry, my previous post was kinda hurtful and not cool at all.
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It's ok, thanks for reminding me my pills:messenger_winking:

There are lots of fan projects, but I don't think they are safe. Even Cod's own servers can get hacked, so I wouldn't really trust random people on the internet. In such a case, I'd just curse a bit and either use the paid online options of existing stores or stick to playing offline.
 
MarV0 said:
What makes you think PC gamers wouldn't just move on from Steam?
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Many people's Steam libraries are full of games; we're probably talking about an investment of a few thousand dollars. So it would be hard to give up such a library. We might turn to different options for new games, but it will be hard for older ones.

Also, if this trend starts at one store, it will spread to the others. There might not be anywhere to go in a short time.
 
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If they became paid, I would not pay simply. Having to pay for online MP for a game one already bought at standard price is absurd to me. The game provider should take care of that, by making sure it's a good game, so that more with buy and play, thus keep servers alive and so on.
 
It's really hard to implement something like this. So I would just browse some forums / 4chan threads that discuss how to play online without paying by circumventing these systems.

Maybe it's time to dust off Hamachi again.
 
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Many people would just pay it. That's it. All the largest online MP games such as COD, Battlefield, Fortnite, EA FC etc., have to do is charge you for MP access and it would easily normalize the practice all across the board.
 
ChoosableOne said:
Many people's Steam libraries are full of games; we're probably talking about an investment of a few thousand dollars. So it would be hard to give up such a library. We might turn to different options for new games, but it will be hard for older ones.

Also, if this trend starts at one store, it will spread to the others. There might not be anywhere to go in a short time.
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You wouldn't be giving up on anything, you would just be buying new online games on another launcher that has no paid subs. And you'd still keep steam for the single player games you already own.
It's not like steam disinstalls itself if I have battle net or origin installed.

Edit: I don't even know why I even entertain answering such inane posts.
 
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I would just continue playing offline games, just like I do on my consoles...
 
MMOs like Ragnarok and WoW were built on it, and it was fucking early 2000s. Most people still used dial up internet back then

But guess what? There's private servers that are free since those early days. PC always got some kind of trick

The console user base on other hand has a philosophy that you just play it. Need a few cash more to play? Ok. Convenience still is the key. Of course there's limits, and sometimes pushing too hard just backfires. N64 betting on cartridge when everyone used CDs, Xbox requiring a physical add-on to play DVDs, PS3 having a lot of shit and costing high even by today standards, XOne being show as a DRM machine, Vita having a proprietary memory stick after ages of SD cards...
 
It's a good idea if it means no more cheaters, About 10-30% of active PC players cheat and most console players don't like crossplay because of PC players

A paid online service would be cheap "around $10-15 a year" since it's just for online play and doesn't include games so I don't see the problem
 
SuperC said:
About 10-30% of active PC players cheat
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iu



Besides, when did paying ever detter people from cheating? How dumb is that argument?
Both overblowing the cheating issue and believing that paying a monthly fee somehow creates a magical anticheat forcefield.

I'm losing braincells just reading this crap.
 
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Never happening. I would call it impossible.
Console users on the other hand have been conditioned like sheep. Beaten & whipped into accepting paying through the nose for services that are free elsewhere, because the operating cost for one user is counted in milli-cents.

In fact, it's time to open up consoles for third party stores like smartphones. Competing stores would offer cloud saves & multiplayer for free. It would greatly benefit consumers, so get the EU involved now.
 
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you cant do that on pc since its an open platform. even if in an unlikely situation steam did it, then people can play online on gog,zoom platform,etc
 
Griffon said:
iu



Besides, when did paying ever detter people from cheating? How dumb is that argument?
Both overblowing the cheating issue and believing that paying a monthly fee somehow creates a forcefield for it. I'm losing braincells just reading this crap.
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This is what Gemini had to say:

Key Takeaways
  1. High Range: The most commonly circulated and high-end estimates, particularly for popular, high-stakes FPS games, suggest the figure could be 20% to 40% of players.
  2. Reported Use: A survey-based estimate on gamers who admit to cheating is around 12%.
  3. Game-Dependent: The actual rate is highly dependent on the specific game, its anti-cheat measures, and how popular it is with cheaters (e.g., Fortnite and Call of Duty: Warzone often top lists based on search volume for cheats).
  4. PC is Primary Platform: Data consistently suggests that while cheating is possible on consoles, the vast majority of detected cheaters are on PC due to the relative ease of implementing software-based hacks.
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Paying could actually deter from cheating if it was handled by the service like Steam. Imagine that if you cheat in a game instead of just having your account for that game be banned, you were banned by Steam and lost your whole library. That would be a pretty bid deterrent.
 
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