15.1. Does it cost money to play Vanguard: Saga of Heroes?
Yes. Most likely the game will follow the traditional model of buying the box in the stores, receiving a free trial period, and then paying a monthly subscription fee. Other payment plans and options may be made available.
Source: Official FAQ
15.2. Will there be a product to buy in stores?
Most likely, yes.
Source: Official FAQ
15.3. Will there be a monthly fee to pay to play?
Most likely, yes.
Source: Official FAQ
15.4. Will there be alternate ways to pay to play other than a credit card?
There may be other payment plans available, yes.
Source: Official FAQ
We will offer prepaid cards for Vanguard. January 24, 2006
Source: L-Train
15.5. Why, in your opinion, do the monthly subscription costs of MMOGs seem to going up?
In a nutshell, this relatively new industry (MMOGs) is trying to see what the consumer is willing to pay for, what it wants out of MMOGs going forward, and what the market will bear.
The money is being used to pay for larger teams, bigger games, and, of course, an attempt to make more money.
The initial $9.95, I believe, was set by UO in the 'early' days and the rumor is those making the pricing decisions were not all that confident as to how popular these games would be and priced the monthly rate relatively low. (Boy am I going to get in trouble for saying 'low', but that is what I've heard).
On a side note, this issue is probably at least to some degree related to the costs of movie tickets going up in the last decades. We all complain, but then we also like the new technology and massive bucks spent on Ep. 2 and The Return of the King too :)
Source: Official FAQ
15.6. Are you testing the billing systems, and will I need to use Microsoft Passport to create an account?
All of the in game systems including authentication and billing will be stressed via automated systems. We will also use late beta as an opportunity to generate stress numbers from real systems.
Passport is a certainty for Vanguard because it lets us take advantage of billing and authentication systems that are prebuilt and handle millions of transactions a day.
As for web/client - I wouldn't expect a web based authentication solution. Although web based account management is an industry standard and you can expect that with Vanguard.
Source: L-Train
15.7. Are you testing the billing systems, and will I need to use Microsoft Passport to create an account?
All of the in game systems including authentication and billing will be stressed via automated systems. We will also use late beta as an opportunity to generate stress numbers from real systems.
Passport is a certainty for Vanguard because it lets us take advantage of billing and authentication systems that are prebuilt and handle millions of transactions a day.
As for web/client - I wouldn't expect a web based authentication solution. Although web based account management is an industry standard and you can expect that with Vanguard.
Source: L-Train
15.8. Will I need to use Internet Explorer to log in?
Login will be through the game client (just like it is for most MMPs). You will likely have to hit a couple of web pages during the account creation and billing-setup processes, but it will not be onerous, relative to what other games have done.
Source: Taranis