Why Play an MMO You Know One Day Will End?

In today’s Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter Kain’s Legacy asks a poignant question: Why do we invest so much time in massively multiplayer online games that will one day cease to be?

I was reading the article about the Lineage servers closing and it just got me thinking. I’ve thought about his before, but I thought this was a good time to bring it up. This is why I don’t understand MMO’s.

I’m not attacking anyone. Just expressing my opinion and I would love to hear the opposite’s point of view. But the way I see it, why waste money on MMO’s? You don’t actually own the game because you have to keep paying monthly in order to keep playing; you’re practically just renting the game every month. Which also makes buying the game at the store at retail price a rip-off.

I would understand paying a monthly fee if you didn’t have to pay for the initial game, which would work as a download, or if they have to sell it at the store, at least sell it for the same price as the subscription fee. $50-60 doesn’t sound like a fair price for a free month.

Then you have this sort of thing happen where the servers go offline eventually, then you can never play the game again. There are a few MMO’s I want to try out, but just don’t see how it’s worth, pay full price for the game, plus subscription, and then go through a server shut down, thus having a game you can’t use.

Like I said, I’m not telling you what you should or shouldn’t do with your money or anything like that; I’m not attacking anyone. That’s just how I see it, and I would love to hear your views, so don’t go crucifying me.

About Speak Up on Kotaku: Our readers have a lot to say, and sometimes what they have to say has nothing to do with the stories we run. That’s why we have a forum on Kotaku called Speak Up. That’s the place to post anecdotes, photos, game tips and hints, and anything you want to share with Kotaku at large. Every weekday we’ll pull one of the best Speak Up posts we can find and highlight it here.