Warp2Search.net » News » September 2003 » Half-Life 2 Pay To Play?

Just spotted this bit of news at Planet Halflife.

A fan by the name of Kamakiri mailed Valve's Gabe Newell about those "pay to play" rumors, and received the following response (which has been confirmed as being legit):



As I'm sure you are aware the HL2 community is going crazy with the rumour that HL2 is going to be like a MMORPG and you will have to pay a fee each month via Steam to play HL2 multiplayer.

Half-Life 2 Pay To Play

daedalus Unregistered

#46882 Posted on: 09/03/2003 10:53 PM what about those of us who will play a game, then leave it to do something else, then go back to it at a later date, possible 1-2 years later.. I did that with HL1, it'd be a bugger to cancel payments and restart later on

Killermac Junior Member Posts: 0 Joined: 2007-09-09

#46883 Posted on: 09/03/2003 11:35 PM Ok I read the response and all I have to say is that is a lot of Bull donkey! I get the idea with the wal*mart stores but WTF if I purchase the special limited edition version I should get the other mods that come out for it for free. I forsee that costing around 60.00 dollars but I guess it is money that matters not how well your game becomes renowned.

AC Member Posts: 36 Joined: 2003-06-09

#46884 Posted on: 09/03/2003 11:46 PM Isnt there going to be 3 types of HL2? A single player one, a Multiplayer one and a Special edition with bonus stuff? If you leave the game (multiplayer) for a year you will have to pay the years subscription. They dont normally keep your data nad information for a year without you paying. Storage costs money! If its Pay to play i wont be buying or paying the multiplayer cost. I rather play it on a LAN or using KALI or something instead. Pay to play is TOO expensive for people who cannot afford it. I dont play games that much say once a week at most so thats 4 times a month and paying $9 something :/ Nope count me out!

TSThomas Junior Member Posts: 2 Joined: 2003-05-10

#46885 Posted on: 09/04/2003 12:03 AM Sounds fair enough, either you pay once per product, or you pay a subscription for multiple content - not both. Thanks to Captain Obvious here as well for the big laugh "Pay to play is TOO expensive for people who cannot afford it."

El_Coyote Senior Member Posts: 555 Joined: 2002-12-18

#46886 Posted on: 09/04/2003 12:11 AM ah its not pay to play you can buy the game like you would normally and be done with it. but then additional content like teamfortress 2 would cost money. or you couls pay the subscribers fee of $9 and get all additional content without extra charge (it will be some months befor you reach the retail brice of the product.) its not going to be like a mmorpg.

BetrayerX Unregistered

#46887 Posted on: 09/04/2003 12:12 AM I'm really getting sick and tired about having to dish ~$50 on a game then having to pay extra to play it. You'll pay $9-10 monthly (~$120 a year) + the game cost, just to get on many overcrowded servers with a bunch of idiots who will probably call everyone NOOB and do a number on the less skilled. Exactly the same as with the MMoRPG games around. You'll pay that amount regardless if you have dial up or broadband, so you know who is handicapped. I seriously hope that they reconsider...people should boicot this type of games...what happened to the "free internet"? I paid for the game already, so why can't I play it? You know what? here are some good ideas for paying online: 1. Cheating...for a few bucks more you can cheat and not get banned. Heck NVidia does it, why can't you? 2. Cursing...for an extra 4.95 a month you get Cursing. You can say every single bad word available in all possible languages. 3. Hacking.....an extra 4.95.....now you can nuke and get into machines...administrators will look elsewhere when a hacking-approved player f*cks another's machine. 4. Special patches with exclusive weapons...1.95 a month...now you can play RAMBO. 5. Xbandwith....1.95 for higer ping and bandwith, so your game can run smoother and with a higher response time. 6. Super Freeze.....2.95....perfect sniper mode when you can freeze the game for 3-5 seconds to get those amazing shots. 7. Permanent Quad damage.....3.95.... played Quake? you know what this means. 8. 2X health....3.95....go mano a mano against someone you hate and laugh when the other guy wonders wtf happened when he emptied his gone and you are still kicking his ar$e. Any other options? How can that be an enjoyable experience?

BetrayerX Unregistered

#46888 Posted on: 09/04/2003 12:20 AM gone = gun ....my bad

MagamiAKO Unregistered

#46893 Posted on: 09/04/2003 02:37 AM Most people don't understand the pricing details and I think the real problem is the confusion that it will involve in the marketplace. While budget people will enjoy nonetheless a single player only experience, what made the modding communities was the fact that EVERYONE could get into it. Let me put it in this format: If I was a dumbass guy, but I eventually had potential to make a mod for a game. I get the SP version only, because, I'm still Mr. Dumbass and I don't know much about that sort of stuff. I'll be less inclined to go out and spend the money on the MP/Mod version *just* to start 'messing around' with a hobby of mine. I might take the thought and throw it out, due to the money involved. What made the mod community was that after someone played the game, they had the idea "wouldn't it be cool if?" This pricing system undoubtedly will leave the mod developing to seasoned developers and fans without encouraging new ones. Another good question I've got is what are they going to do if say, I buy the SP, and later on down the road want MP? I don't want to seriously pay about double EXTRA for the game than I already paid. So I would hope they also have a cheap 'upgrade package' available for purchase.

BIgal0 Unregistered

#46894 Posted on: 09/04/2003 03:50 AM its not that hard to understand.. If you buy HL2 in store, it will be exactly like HL1 you'll download free mods and play it just like you're doing with HL1 And if Valve releases other officials addons or others retail games, you'll pay for those exactly like the way it is now BUT, AS AN ALTERNATIVE, you can decide to not buy HL2 and pay 10$/mth to be able to play it on steam And you'll be able to play all RETAIL products (Officials Addons, Retail Mods, Others games like TF2 and CS:CZ) So when you buy HL2 in store, you will be able to play all the free mods created by the community like with HL1 And btw TF2 has always been announced as a retail product, not a free mod TFC was created by the community and then Valve continued to develop it (like CS and DOD) TF2 is a game fully created by Valve

Trik Junior Member Posts: 3 Joined: 2003-02-13

#46900 Posted on: 09/04/2003 09:46 AM I tried Steam. It installed a ton of spyware.

El_Coyote Senior Member Posts: 555 Joined: 2002-12-18

#46903 Posted on: 09/04/2003 11:28 AM yep it always helps reading the article before freaking out

AC Member Posts: 36 Joined: 2003-06-09

#46907 Posted on: 09/04/2003 12:05 PM They have their head up high because of the sucess of HL, the thing is HL2 WONT be as BIG as HL. HL was unique when it arrived and spawned off al ot of other games similar. HL2 will have to be packed full of a lot more features to win votes. ATM HL2 doesnt impress me one bit, new engine, new gfx etc the ONLY thing that does impress me is how u can interact with objects in the world. I wont be paying to play anyways, i rather stick with HL because i dont play games that much.

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