Matchmaker Subscription?

Ummmm....that's kind of a conflicting question isn't it? You say you do it just for the enjoyment; but then you go on to say that you're concerned about someone else making money off it... I would think that if you're doing it for the enjoyment, you'd be happy that more people are enjoying your product. Besides, there's always ways of making money (selling in-game ads for instance).

I'm curious, because I don't understand how the business of servers works...how does rFactor profit from more traffic on their servers? Seems as though that would be an added expense. I guess they could sell more copies of rFactor because of your track, but that would happen regardless of the matchmaking system.

 

You said people don't want to pay subscriptions fees. iRacing and it's quarter million people prove that otherwise. I'm not one of them. But someone wants to.

As for GameStockCar. They got the rights to basically sell rFactor with another name and privately mod the game. So if a mod maker really wants to get paid for doing what they love. There is a great example.

 

I didn't mean you specifically; more the community as a whole.

 

I'm happy to support ISI this way. I want them to stick around improving rfactor for a long time to come.

 

Still waiting for some sort of official explanation of what is included with the (yearly?) fee.

I am still under the assumption that rf2 matchmaker is not the same as matchmaker in rf1. If connecting to a server to find a list of available games is so costly to ISI that it warrants a subscription to cover their costs, why hasn't matchmaker for rf1 been canned?

It doesn't really follow that access to the list of available servers is now an itemized cost based on a year of available access. If you refresh for a year straight, once every 30 seconds, you are looking at roughly 1.05 million refreshes. How much data is transferred to populate the servers list? What is the standard going rate for data transfer?

 

Sighs, I think some people complain just for the sake of complaining. I don't really see what the big deal is about. To me what it sounds like is that you will get a year worth of automatic updates and news available to you and after that if you choose not to use the service, you will have to manually look out for updates through website news and manually update your game. As well as joining servers via IP rather then being able to search for them freely.

It does depend greatly on the yearly cost but its not surprising that ISI is going this route. Some of you argue that its because ISI don't want to have to pay out of their own pocket, why should they? How much money do you think ISI is going to make from this game? It is a PC only game, it will surely not have the volume in sales such as Gran Turismo and Forza. God knows if they will even make up the cost for the development of this game. When lead programmers cost between 150-200k per year, and all the various staff and utilities and software and everything just accumulating over the development time, ISI has to hope their sales reach higher and higher amounts to make back what they've spent, let alone reaching the "profit" margin some of you here think they will do so easily.

Developing games is a financial drain in many ways. So ISI has decided to run a method which brings in some extra money to help cover this server management cost. The subscription will cost them something, of course they will be making more then what they would be spending, HOWEVER, why shouldn't they? Do any of you think that any business on this planet works hard to just break even? its all about the profit. ISI is trying to do it in a way that allows them to make back the money they've spent and help fund further things for the community in the future. Be it updates, be it new content or even a new game down the road, as a community, instead of moaning about it, we should show our support in what they do for us and accept that in this industry, in our gaming genre, these things need to be done so that we can continue to acquire more and more great games and content.

I for one will continue to support ISI even with this subscription after one year option. For the hard work they have put in, I feel they deserve it and its the least we the community can do to help support them further.

 

Really?
How many go out and buy a new version of a game that is released every year with minor updated materials?
What does it hurt to spend money once a year to get new content that is constntly being worked on?
I know I will pay for rF2 updates each year to get new features and improve what is out there.

People really amaze me how they want everything for nothing sometimes.

Why not wait till it comes out before you judge everything?

ok back to my hole until I get to beta test as a modder!!!!

 

Wow I don't need to watch the View now, this is so much more full of uninformed ranting than Whoopie could ever muster.
I couldn't give a toss if they charged yearly to use something thats an added extra on top of the game. It cost me thousands to play RF1 and to do modding for it, server costs, ip ,software, hardware and every spare moment of time.
So please wait until we get an official response before you **** on ISI.
I can understand 1 persons complaint as his league is used to using stuff without paying for it.

 

I think some cry babies should stop crying and go buy some tissues and wipe those tears away loll
No one will have to to re new subscription. The service cost will be probably cheap (5 $ - 20 $ a year ?).

Now ISI it's time for the open beta !

 

Jezus... I can see next day began

 

Ladies and Gentlemen .... ........ Enough already!

This annual renewal fee online account thing is a perfectly OK business decision to implement [did I say that before ]. I'll likely keep it up when the 12 months come. Many more will too I'd wager if the updater helps with managing the updates and the process.

For all the pages of babbling [pages 1 & 2 were OK, but it went over the cliff soon after] there is nothing terrible here. It's optional, and in not necessary and it will not prevent those who choose not to renew, continued access to online racing on rFactor2 servers.

Frankly, the way this news got out combined with the possible unexpected reaction offers a lesson for anyone who cares. Tim,, ISI, who knew that this topic would take the hold it did .... So more care next time when it comes to topics involving money!

I'm not slow when it comes to grey matter but this initially did have me thinking .... "what does this really mean?" .......

Now, [and thanks in part of MaXyM's question and Tim's answer to it in Post #4 here], when I re-read the newletter [for the umteenth time], there is now no concern, confusion, consternation or need for congress.

This is now and that was then.

Anyone else in my boat?

 

I'm curious, because I don't understand how the business of servers works...how does rFactor profit from more traffic on their servers? Seems as though that would be an added expense. I guess they could sell more copies of rFactor because of your track, but that would happen regardless of the matchmaking system.[/QUOTE]


You have answered your own question. It will cost ISI "X" amount to either rent or use their own servers to track stats and the use of matchmaker. So, here we are. They are showing us some of their business model, They want to maintain the servers so the charge will come back to the customer. If they get enough of their user base to subscribe to their model then they may even show some profit down the road. That's a good thing. It's economics 101. If you pay more than you bring in well,,, Your not going to survive long. I for one will be happy to support ISI. Rfactor and the people who take their time to give us mods have more than payed for itself over and over.

 

Its amazing isnt it how many people jump to conclusions.

So far all I have been able to figure out from this thread is

A) Most people have no clue about anything at all do with this subscrition service....me included
B) It doesnt effect updates or your ability to play online...

Both of those I BELIEVE have been confirmed in this an other threads.

Beyond that I dont think ISI/Tim have confirmed anything else.

So purely WILD speculation here is that the yearly fee will be for "extra services"..what they are or IF that is the case...*shrugs*.

Personally I paid $50 for 5-6 years of LOTS AND LOTS of play time.....a few extra bucks per year wont kill me or anyone else.

But while we are on wild speculation....

Did you hear that rFactor intends on making mod makers PAY them to release their mods in rFactor...just like Microsoft does....which means we might actually have to start paying for mods.....


Ok...thats a lie and based on no reality what soever.....so it should fit fine in this thread

Sorry...couldnt resist.....

 

"But while we are on wild speculation....

Did you hear that rFactor intends on making mod makers PAY them to release their mods in rFactor...just like Microsoft does....which means we might actually have to start paying for mods.....


Ok...thats a lie and based on no reality what soever.....so it should fit fine in this thread "

Sorry...couldnt resist.....



Good God man, Your going to start a whole new eruption with this one.

 

On this subject, I think we need an exact listing of the concerned feature of this subscription and what is it possible to do without subscription.
After that, guys can complain or not

For the moment, I'm curious on the details and constraints.

 

Second that!

 

It lists the options in your quote.

 

Ok, so you basically buy rF2 for a year. Renewal for next year costs 13 dollars.