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PGI: An honest, important suggestion/question regarding the "subscription" and its value.


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#61 Lazarus Hraefncin

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Posted 19 June 2012 - 08:59 PM

View PostPimpChimp, on 19 June 2012 - 08:38 PM, said:


Same here, exact same


Same situation with me too, I am also active duty at this time as well and my reasoning for getting the founders pack is in my mind a way to support piranah in their endevor to make another well quaility mechwarror game. But I agree with the above statments in that i feel that if I can't play then I am not going to buy more time then I already have. If the devs do come up with a way to accurately track our login times I will differently be playing more then if i was restricted to playing in larger chunks when i could justify the time spent on MWO

Edited by Lazarus Hraefncin, 19 June 2012 - 09:00 PM.


#62 Silicio

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 05:06 AM

i agree with the idea!

it would be wonderfull to have an oportunity to select if you want to use your premium.
any type of option will be grate (you conect-premium activated// you activate your premium etc...)

not being able to play for some time and you will be wasting your premium

thx to the hole community!
thx piranha!

#63 Whip

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 05:29 AM

OP. I agree with you in everything you have stated, but now I am going to play devils advocate here.

Money raised / income generated by PAYING SUBSCRIBERS goes toward hardware upkeep, software modernisation, staff wages, utillities etc etc etc, stuff that will need to be maintained and won't be maintained by the FTP (Free To Play) minority.

I too am in the services, on call, drop the mouse and put the house on the back and away you go on a moments notice.

I am also in the older age bracket having played since the original MW game came out some 20+ years ago.

I have seen a lot of games come and go, and each company has to have an effective buisness model to remain in the "game" as it were.

Your method of user pays as they play, although at first glance is both smart feasible, may not be when looked at further down the track.

An example is I buy a months subscription 28 days x 24 hours for a total of 672 hours.

Can anyone tell me how long that 672 hours will last at an average of 4 hours play time per day? (and that is a hefty amount of game time there to a working person)

I can...162 days playing time or a fraction of just under 6 months subscription.

So, what do we do? We have to meet the outgoing expenses, but the incoming is now not meeting it, do we raise the overall price of the subscription to bring into play your idea and charge by the hour? Which you will find, more than likely, will cost more than your monthly sub in the first place anyway.

Raising the subs will also have a follow on effect of actually driving away potential paying customers.

I love the idea, rate +1 the whole way, but having experinced first hand these games that are "pay as you go" (and generally don't have the legs to last), you end up paying more in the long run for the reasons I have already listed.

#64 costi

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 06:31 AM

I totally agree with the idea.

@Whip - I think you misunderstood the OP a bit. He never asked to be charged per-hour, only to not have the subscription as N concurrent days. That is, when I log into the game, a day is taken off my subscription and this day lets me play until midnight. After midningt, another day is ticked wich, again lasts until midnight. This keeps going on as long as I'm logged in (or log in on concurrent days). If I don't log in, the current day will expire but another day won't be taken off and my subscription wiil be on hold until I log in again. It doesn't matter how much time I actually spend in the game - I jump in for 15 minutes, a day is counted.

While a simple, 30-day straight subscription might look more profitable, it also means that people who don't have a lot of time to play will not buy one, while in a "30 non-consecutive days" variant more people might be inclined to pay for the game, as they'll feel they won't waste their money.

Edited by costi, 20 June 2012 - 06:33 AM.


#65 Frostiken

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 08:38 AM

View PostMahws, on 19 June 2012 - 06:00 PM, said:

A good argument, but from my experience it runs in the other direction.

Think of it this way, I'm sitting at the purchase screen, looking at a month of premium. That's $10, but what if my schedule gets busy again? What if I don't have the time to play? It's not like I can't play withouth buying it, I'll just get a bit less XP/Money for my matches. It creates an incentive for people not to hit that buy button when they otherwise would because people simply don't like the uncertainty. It's easier to log in and play a few matches and have a day cut off your premium than it is to buy premium thinking you won't use most of it, money you've already spent is valued a lot less than money you've yet to spend.

Daily, or three day boosts seem like a good counter to this on the surface, but smaller repeat purchases are a major turn-off for most players, in percieved value for money but primarily in percieved value for time spent. When you find out that you've got enough unexpected free time to get a few matches in after work for the first time in a busy week you don't want to spend time buying premium, you want to get straight in and play, make the most of that rare and valuable time.

The best way to look at this proposal is this: People want to be able to pre-buy premium time. Give me the options to buy 30 days of premium or a pack of 30 one day premium boosts that I can use when I want and there's not question of which of the two I'd choose, even if it cost more.

Will this method lose them income from the frequent user market? Debatable, I'd argue that the kinds of people who consistently buy premium boosts play frequently enough that there'd be little difference between them. But more importantly I'd argue that the vast majority of players who are unwilling to drop money on subscriptions would be far more willing to buy packs. Use it or lose it subscription may be the industry standard for MMO's, but for a free to play game, where we're paying for a bonus rather than access, is a completely different product. Die-hard players will always spend a lot, but the purchasing power of all those less frequent players is a market that will remain untapped if you don't tailor your products to offer options that are attractive from where they stand.

TL;DR: Think of it as buying a pack of 30 one day subscriptions and consider how much more attractive that would be to the casual (usually non-purchasing) portion of a F2P games population than Use-It-Or-Lose it monthly or multiple spur-of-the-moment 1 day purchases.


I want to quote this post for truth.

It's not so much a matter of going 'Oh I don't have $10', for me there's a mental roadblock that exists in the form of simply going through the effort of buying something online.

Traditionally speaking, the 1/2/3/7-day 'passes' are worse value than a 30-day pack. I commented earlier that these pay structures and what works best are really unexplored territory, and I doubt anyone could really say what works best.

But from my point of view, I'm more likely to want to buy a 30-day bundle. One, this means I'm not going to have to dig out my card and fight with it on a weekly basis. Secondly, if I know I'm not going to be using much of that 30-day boost, I'm more likely to not buy anything at all. It's much more convenient to have the boost available whenever I log in, whenever that may be, than to ask me to dig out the 'ol card because I planned to have a weekend splurge session, which ultimately costs me $2, when I know in my head that the 30-day deal is more convenient and better value.

So what it comes down to is that I don't understand how the smaller sectioned boost days would be equally appealing. It's more work on my behalf, it costs me more money, and I know this. I'm more likely to buy nothing at all.

Others may disagree, but that's how I see it.



Hopefully a PGI rep can answer this question for me: If I ask, could I have my boost period suspended? This topic arose because of the 90-day for Legendary which I plan on purchasing whenever I stop feeling lazy, which, if I play in August, means I'm losing a bit of value on because I won't have September available.

A per-day activation is obviously the best setup from a consumer standpoint, but since it doesn't sound like that is an option that's being explored right now, is it possible to have my boost status put on hold?

#66 SquareSphere

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 08:42 AM

OMG the Mayans were right, world must be ending cause I agree with Frost :( :P

#67 Frostiken

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 08:44 AM

View PostSquareSphere, on 20 June 2012 - 08:42 AM, said:

OMG the Mayans were right, world must be ending cause I agree with Frost :o :P

Ain't the first time that's happened - but I won't tell :(

#68 Theibault

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 08:50 AM

View PostSquareSphere, on 20 June 2012 - 08:42 AM, said:

OMG the Mayans were right, world must be ending cause I agree with Frost :o :P

If the world ends because of you, I will find you in the afterlife and kill you, since I payed $120 for a F2P game and NEVER got to play!!! :(

#69 SquareSphere

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 08:53 AM

View PostTheibault, on 20 June 2012 - 08:50 AM, said:

If the world ends because of you, I will find you in the afterlife and kill you, since I payed $120 for a F2P game and NEVER got to play!!! :P


:o I didn't even think about that :(

#70 Kyuui

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 08:59 AM

As for the Boost, This Idea isn't bad, but I think the "block style" would accommodate it perfectly. Sell 1k 5k 10k 25K 50K 100K blocks for example. That way it doesn't matter if you have 1 hour a week or 20, you get what you pay for, since it burns up as you earn those rewards. The fact they are looking into different sub blocks, is outstanding as well.

#71 Frostiken

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 10:35 AM

View PostKyuui, on 20 June 2012 - 08:59 AM, said:

As for the Boost, This Idea isn't bad, but I think the "block style" would accommodate it perfectly. Sell 1k 5k 10k 25K 50K 100K blocks for example. That way it doesn't matter if you have 1 hour a week or 20, you get what you pay for, since it burns up as you earn those rewards. The fact they are looking into different sub blocks, is outstanding as well.

That would also work, though in my eyes it feels a little too close to simply buying the XP outright. Psychologically I think I feel a bit more reward in earning what I can based on my ability to play with the boost rather than simply knowing that no matter what I do I'm going to get my lump-sum of $ -> XP.

Edited by Frostiken, 20 June 2012 - 10:40 AM.


#72 Purlana

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 10:39 AM

View PostTheibault, on 20 June 2012 - 08:50 AM, said:

If the world ends because of you, I will find you in the afterlife and kill you, since I payed $120 for a F2P game and NEVER got to play!!! :D


But it wouldn't matter, you can't spend money in the afterlife. Well I guess in some religions you can...

Hmmm!

#73 Torban

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 10:46 AM

Sounds like this would triple or more the premium boost purchases.

Edited by Torban, 20 June 2012 - 10:46 AM.


#74 Stalkerr

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 10:48 AM

Agreed with the OP... my schedule is all over the place. Some weeks I'll have a ton of time to play, other times I'll have a few weeks where I'll only have maybe 15 minutes on the weekend to do one match. Being able to allocate my premium time to just the days I'm playing would be HUGE for me as otherwise I just waste it.

#75 Team Leader

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 10:50 AM

This is a great, very nicely expressed idea. It would benefit everybody, not just military. I think for the good of the community this should be implemented.

#76 Blakmage86

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 10:54 AM

First, Thanks for your service. Second, there are a lot of great opinions/statements in this thread. One I have not seen, and if its there sorry for the repost, is an option similar to what League of Legends has. They offer both XP and IP, their in game currency to buy stuff, boosts for x matches. That would be a great way for people who cant play very much to get a boost. Buy a 25 match bonus of XP and if you only play 2 today and play 10 two days later you still get boosted on them and didnt 'lose' anything from only playing 2 matches the first day.

#77 Juiced

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 11:01 AM

I dont see the issue. its $10 bucks a month. Premium runs on the same concept as any other subscription based game out there.

#78 costi

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 11:05 AM

A "bonus for X matches" version sounds good, and solves all the weird timing problems (like someone logging in on 23:45 and losing a day because of that).

Edited by costi, 20 June 2012 - 11:05 AM.


#79 Gydeon Praise

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 11:08 AM

If I am not mistaken most F2P MMOs allow you to purchase boosts from their micro-transaction stores. I Know you can with DDO (Dungeons and Dragons Online) and a few other Korean MMO style games. I am willing to bet that these will be available here. I can see them counted off by either per drop/match or by the hour. Either should work for the OP. I do feel that this is an optional part of the game and if you are overly concerned about the value of a $10 optional expense; then maybe you shouldn't...

#80 Hawker

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Posted 20 June 2012 - 11:11 AM

More options for paid play time is better, however the real deal is can the company stay in business with a model like that? If they can, then great for us, and if they can't stay in business then bad for us. I have to trust that they are going to give options that both keep them in business and us happy. Or at least I hope so since I plunked down $120. :D

Edited by Hawker, 20 June 2012 - 11:12 AM.






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