3 replies to this topic

[Capt Jester]

After buying MC for the first time, I carefully decided what I wanted to spend my first batch on. I made my decisions and had some left over and toyed with the idea of buying Premium Time to see what it was like. But before I spent the credits, I looked at how much it really costs. It's just too much for how much you really get out of it.

And let me explain why, before you all curse me to the bottom of a pit for blaspheming:

Let's say you're a casual player with a small budget for video-game expenses. You play MWO 2-4 hours a day, depending on various activities or other events or whatever. If you buy 1 day of Premium Time, you use 2-4 hours of that, per day. That comes to 8.3-16.6% of the total cost per day (approximately $1.40) that you are actually using, so most of the money you spend for Premium Time is wasted.

I think it's fair to assume most of the people actively playing MWO who can justify buying the MC and Premium Time don't actually play all that much because they work and may have families to raise as well.

Now, I know there are some people who play the MechWarrior franchise religiously and are MWO nuts and play anywhere from 2-8 hours a day and they get more out of a day of Premium Time, but they are not the majority of people buying Premium Time.

If we examine other payment models of popular F2P games with premium options, you will quickly begin to notice a trend, usually $5-10 a month for any number or variety of features. You can argue this game needs the money and that the cost is really not that exorbitant, but I would like to propose a new method of paying for Premium Time that I believe would have a good base for support: buying Premium Time by the hour, counted by in-game time.

For the sake of numbers, let us assume that an average game takes 6 minutes, which is fairly reasonable. That comes to 9-10 games per hour, plus or minus a few. You might be wondering where I'm going with this now, and I'm getting there. With a more precise method such as this, costs would be more accurate, since you're actually getting your money's worth instead of getting 8-16% of your money's worth.

In conclusion, I would like to say I have not put hours and hours of research and thought into this; it was really a spur of the moment kind of thing and I would like to say that it is in no way perfect. If you have any ideas or criticisms to this system, please tell me. I don't want to have a thread full of 3-word replies or unjustified claims. If you've been around for a while, let me know what you think. If you're new to MWO, let me know what you think.

Edit: Spelling

Edited by Capt Jester, 14 January 2013 - 06:53 PM.

[Capt Jester]

Not sure if I'm allowed to do this, but bump.

[INSEkT L0GIC]

I voted Other:

- Add ability to pause & resume time between matches (no mechs tied up in combat).

- Add ability to pay by match increments (aka next 10, 25, 100, 500, matches earn premium rewards bonuses).

Edited by INSEkT L0GIC, 16 January 2013 - 03:53 PM.

[Capt Jester]

INSEkT L0GIC, on 16 January 2013 - 03:50 PM, said:

I voted Other:

- Add ability to pause & resume time between matches (no mechs tied up in combat).

- Add ability to pay by match increments (aka next 10, 25, 100, 500, matches earn premium rewards bonuses).

So in other words you want to keep the current payment style but be able to pause the timer so it doesn't run out if you don't want to use it right away? So you want to be able to stash it without using it all up at once, essentially?

And the payment by match is an intriguing thought. That may be even more fair than an hourly deal.