If it's $150 including purchase price, I'll consider it. If it's in addition to purchase price, I suspect I'll pass. I won't know within the first month if the game is honestly going to have 1.5 years + of life for me, though I strongly suspect it will.

Yeah, I read through that press release, it's in addition to the price of the game.

That's a hard choice to make. If the game lasts as long for me (or even just half as long!) long-term as Diablo 2 did, then the $150 up-front is a bargain. But that's an awfully tough call to make up-front.

seeing how i detested Diablo 2, i'd say even $15 would be a waste of my money. That is if they really try to make it like Diablo 2.

Now, if they could promise me Diablo 1 quality, THEN i might think about it.

You know, i actually get what you mean... though D2 online portion was much better than D1....

God I hate monthly fees.

I can't help but find this ridiculous. I'm still hoping Hellgate will be a good game and i will probably buy it. But i won't pay the subscription fee. I just can't get over paying for what is essentially buying Diablo but having to pay a subscription fee to get all the features. I see this lifetime offer as a quick money grab from consumers before they can really see what they would be getting for their money.

If memory serves, the reason the D2 patch took 4 years is because only one person was working on it and that was in his spare time. After all, it wasn't going to generate any revenue.

If you pre-order the game from Best Buy, Gamestop or Walmart, you get access to the beta, which begins in... 6 days.

Its been changed back to TBA. I do hope its soon though =)

And yes, the patch was done by one person in his spare time. I actually happen to know this person. (more of a friend of a some coworker friends) He works for Flagship now.

I'd rather buy Rock Band...

I still fail to see how this game is worth 75% of a LOTRO or World of Warcraft. The only expansion plans I've seen have been vague at best. I don't want to be there 9 months later with Bill Roper apologizing to his most hardcore fans. Of course Hellgate could turn out like Bioshock and blow everyone away when it comes out, but....

Well, if it is only for hardcore and pvp servers and extra character slots and owning guild house, no. Those are features that should be included in the box as they were in D2's box

If Diablo 2 had regular updates like new rune words, new areas (that meant something or gave good quest rewards or with good bosses), new items and crafting recipes, new monsters (not just reskins), new classes, new skills, I would definitely have been happy to buy a lifetime subscription. And I'd still be playing it...

I may be fooling myself but I figure at 10$ a month they could reasonably nickle and dime us to death for the first ~6 months. With the founder's subscription they know they'd better bust their asses to come up with something substantial in the first 2 months (items, levels, monsters). And they'd better have a new class at least announced by 6 months if not in game by then.

That's understandable, I have alot of faith in the developers because they are from blizzard but I am really tempted to pay the 150 for the lifetime subscription, I am just scared that 6 months down the line

they will be like it doesn't have that many subscribers, so we are scrapping the plans for additional content and than being out the 150 bucks.

that said if the game takes up my life like diablo 1 and 2 did than it's more than worth the 150.

It's really hit or miss, I don't know

Definitely not going for a lifetime subscription for $200 or $150.

I got very into another game made by ex-Blizzard employees: Guild Wars.
I played more Guild Wars than probably any other game I've played before, got really involved, formed a Guild that was the best team in America and went on to place 3rd then 2nd at the two Guild Wars World Championships. I put a lot of hours into that game, more than 1000 in the first year.

In total I spent pretty close to $200 over about 18 months. That was the original game, a second account, 2 additional chapters, and 3 extra character slots. And none of that ever came with a monthly subscription. I had the option to pick up different pieces at my own pace along the way.

I was kind of burned out after a year and pretty much totally burned out by 15 months. Looking back the last $60 (chapter 3 and the extra character slots) were unnecessary purchases - I hoped they would rekindle my interest but it didn't. I reallye njoyed those first 12 months, and that's a long time to play a game.

I see no reason to commit that much money to Hellgate up-front, particularly since my buying habits have changed and I'm far more likely to move from game to game than I am to stick with one as single-mindedly as I did with Guild Wars.

I'm waiting to hear from GWJers on this one. My initial excitement has died down considerably after seeing the emptiness of the coop video. Hopefully the world will look a bit more detailed than those bland corridors. It reminded me of Quake and not in a good way.