But who cares?

[Mellow-]

Taken from the NGUK forums:

Originally posted by TopBanana
Personally speaking, I've had my fill of the mythical commadarie and general "spirit of online gaming" given to us by other providers so in direct answer - we'll go our own way.

Anyone who wishes to jump on the good ship NGUK are of course welcome and we hope they enjoy the ride, those wishing to travel in a different style of course entitled to their choice.

Just as well we didn't "jump on the good ship" recently because it would have been like paying a full bus fair to go one stop.

And of course the more recent statements of not caring about anything to do with that service except the stuff you own just goes to show how well you did the job of "going your own way"

 

[old.Kurt_Angle]

Who cares? All this nguk, barrysworld stuff kinda explains why most people here spend most of there time playing computer games locked in the rooms away from other people.

 

[Moving Target]

what is the point of this thread? :sleeping:

 

[Durzel]

Donning my pessimistic hat for a moment..

I've had my fill of the mythical commadarie and general "spirit of online gaming"

Hit the nail on the head in my opinion.

The gamer-GSP relationship is purely one-way. GSPs provide services, gamers use (take) them. Gamers are a fickle bunch who, by and large, have no real allegiance with anything. The single controlling factor in most gamers minds is money. "Ping" comes a close second but you can be sure that if someone can get something for £0.02p cheaper elsewhere, that's where they'll go. You need only look at how readily people criticise GSP services as soon as something minor happens, or whenever a server isn't patched to the latest version 0.002 seconds after the patch has been released.

I have no doubt that people who sing the praises at any given interval of the GSP they happen to be "mates with" would drop said GSP at the drop of a hat if, for example, they introduced Pay-per-Play subscriptions.

It's a no-win situation for GSPs - others have already died or are in the motions of dying simply because they can no longer make enough money (or any money) to break even. Any way you cut it, a company that provides services that cost them money at no cost to the consumer is losing money.

 

[old.Vectrex]

Originally posted by Durzel

The gamer-GSP relationship is purely one-way. GSPs provide services, gamers use (take) them. Gamers are a fickle bunch who, by and large, have no real allegiance with anything. The single controlling factor in most gamers minds is money. "Ping" comes a close second but you can be sure that if someone can get something for £0.02p cheaper elsewhere, that's where they'll go. You need only look at how readily people criticise GSP services as soon as something minor happens, or whenever a server isn't patched to the latest version 0.002 seconds after the patch has been released.

I have no doubt that people who sing the praises at any given interval of the GSP they happen to be "mates with" would drop said GSP at the drop of a hat if, for example, they introduced Pay-per-Play subscriptions.

I don't think I'm far wrong when I say most gamers are students of some sort and, by definition, are generally skint. If you're going to provide a service to a group of people who are notoriously short of cash of course they're going to go elsewhere if they can get something for free. Not meaning to pick on Durz but when you were a student, if BW had decided to start charging you to use the 'public' servers, would you honestly have payed when you could have got a similar service from elsewhere for free? Common sense should apply really when it comes to that point.

Before the flames begin, I understand that some gamers aren't students and do have money, but I'd bet 5p on it that most BW users and probably UK gamers come under the 'student category,' whether that be school, college or uni.

I think now that the market is changing and more and more GSP's are going to heaven (or hell?) there is and will be less choice. Eventually someone (BarrysWorld?) is going to start charging and the ones that don't will go the way of the ghost because, as everyone knows, you can't keep spending money forever without getting any money back. It's a just a matter of whether BW or whoever can survive the initial mass exodus of users when charging starts. As soon as the last of them die out people won't have a choice and will have to start paying. It's just going to take one company to try to ride out the storm and charge for their services.

I agree that critising 'free' services that are pretty damn good as soon as they make one mistake is a bit silly really, but at the end of the day that's human nature. How many people can honestly say they've never thought 'oh ffs' when a free IRC server dies, a server goes down unexpectedly or you can't get hold of an admin when you need one? I think everyone tends to forget how hard people work for these things, even the people who've seen it first hand like myself. Whether or not you translate that brief thought into abuse in #barrysworld or where ever is where the difference between the morons and the slightly-more-clever-people shows through.

Dave

 

[Durzel]

It's a just a matter of whether BW or whoever can survive the initial mass exodus of users when charging starts

There will be an exodus - there's no doubt about that. Not because of people "hating BW" or anything like that, but people suddenly finding themselves having to pay for something that they were previously getting for nothing. Wireplay succeeded (in its hay-day) because it introduced subscription-based services at the outset - therefore anyone signing up to use the service would implicitly already have agreed to the subscription fee. Wireplay also introduced users to gaming in an typically AOL-fashion. There's nothing wrong with this really, whilst many people used to (and still do) criticise AOL and Wireplay for being "full of n00bies" - it filled an essential niche. Which is by the by in this argument...

In reality, if you forget about the supposed "community" side of things, BW wont be adversely affected by any kind of exodus. In actuality the reverse would be true - less people using the service = more bandwidth to go around, or the ability to reduce bandwidth costs.

I think 90%+ of BW's customer base would be able to afford £10 a month, it may even end up being less than this if the law of averages (the amount of people that subscribe) is high enough to offset the subscription cost. It's the BT Internet scenario, "stack em high, sell em cheap".

The real danger to the likes of BW (and others) now are companies like Blueyonder and NTL - companies with huge pockets (not saying EB's isnt) who are already funded through ancilliary gaming-related services (ie. the provision of broadband, etc). That said, I don't think any one of those companies is actually looking to shaft one another simply because there's no margin to be made (if users are paying nothing to use your services, what to you gain from attracting new ones?).

Just my 2p.

 

[Will]

Don't forget cable companies are essentially limited by areas they have cabled, so there will always be room for an independant(ish) company like Barrysworld. I'd have no problem with a £5/month, play on the pubbies pass, but then I have a day job. I think that, if it would improve the level of service (not that it isn't good just now), it would be worth it. Hell, I'd probably go higher, but a fiver would be no dent in my pocket.
And with EB behind them, a monthly CD with demos to flog some games would be cool too. Maybe the odd promo - I think I'm dreaming now...