A new "Subscription" Type

[Marksman12]

Hey everyone; I just had an idea for a new type for payment for mmos and i just decided to share it with you and see what you think about it.

So, its relatively simple; Every day you log onto an mmo, lets say WoW, you are billed $0.50. So, if you logged onto the game every day for a month (30 days) it would come out to be 15 dollars anyways. But, say if you only played 20 days within those 30, you would only be billed 10 dollars at the end of the month, or if you played 11 days out of the month, you would be billed $5.50, etc.

I dont know why i thought of this and wanted to share it, but here it is; why don't you think more companies do this? It would definitely be more appealing to customers, at least I would be drawn to it.

[Deleted]

Making people pay 15 bucks a month is more profitable, because it's a very small amount of money for most people.

[Deleted]

it would need more monitoring = expensive

blizzard is happy with the monthly amount we feed them.

[Very Tired]

This would only be a decrease in profits for companies like Blizzard. Why would they even do it?

[Frozen Death Knight]

Would not really turn into a proper profit and charging each day would be a bit impractical, especially since it would force the customers to bind their credit cards to the game, which I don't think many would like to do, to be perfectly honest.

[Deleted]

As people have already said this would cost them more money for less profit it makes no sense.
Also you can't expect people to not break the rules, i.e you would have people who wouldn't pay at the end of the month for the time they have spent paying (gold farmers and so on)

[Xilurm]

Not everyone is paying with a bank account kind of payment. So no, it wouldn't be more appealing to customers. Besides, it will decrease their profit by alot.

[Arrowstormen]

15$ is not much, and people will pay it without saying much. If you start making people pay for every day they log in, they will start saving money by NOT playing WoW much. They might even start questioning why WoW demands 0.5$ for everyday you play it when other games do not. What's so special about WoW? Am I crossing a virtual border, that requires a fee to get to the other side?

[Obsession]

bit impractical, especially since it would force the customers to bind their credit cards to the game

Did you even read OP? You buy a 15 dollar game card which is 30 days. Playing 1 day would leave you with 29 days, crazy right? However, they would lose money implementing this model of subscription.

[Rucati]

There's no reason a company would do this. It's more work for less money.

Plus you can't really charge people after the fact, since people just wouldn't pay you. Besides, $15 is pretty much nothing, so I don't see why this would be in any way necessary.

[Mad_Murdock]

Isn't this basically the model they use in China ? Or are they more of a pay by the hour versus a day ?

[Frozen Death Knight]

Did you even read OP? You buy a 15 dollar game card which is 30 days. Playing 1 day would leave you with 29 days, crazy right? However, they would lose money implementing this model of subscription.

That is not what he actually said. He said that it would cost $0.50 just to log in one day, while at the same time giving examples where logging in x amount of days would result in a x * $0.50 payment per month. That is not how a game card works. While you could possibly have those as well, it still would mean that if you want to play without having to fill up your game time and overpaying every single time, you still would have to make daily transactions by attaching your credit card, so my point still stands.

[barackopala]

IIRC Gravity used to do this, they sold you gametime, not an ammount of days of subscription.

[Nirawen]

Isn't this basically the model they use in China ? Or are they more of a pay by the hour versus a day ?

Indeed. There are several MMO's, especially in Asia, that currently use a pay-as-you-go style payment system.

IIRC WoW actually runs on a gametime system in a certain area.

[PACOX]

This sort of sub exist in Asia where cafe are more prevalent and one time fees aren't economical for players. Its not a terrible idea but lump sum payments are usually more beneficial for both parties which is why they are usually offered at a discount if doing pay as you go for the same number of hours.

[Kenshin]

The biggest reason, I think, that people in China etc pays by the hour to play WOW, is because majority of those players do not own their own PCs. They play at a Internet Cafe instead.

[Deleted]

Making people pay 15 bucks a month is more profitable, because it's a very small amount of money for most people.

what earth do you live on?

back on topic.. i actually think the best subscription model is the freemium hybrid. making the game free to play but players needing dlc content packs for total access aswell as having an extensive vanity item eshop. People who decide to pay a subscription at the normal $15 / £9.99 (w/e it is) should get full access + perks (including monthly eshop points).

[Dsfunctional]

It would make my credit card statement so much larger..
April 10th - World of Warcraft Subscription $0.50
April 11th - World of Warcraft Subscription $0.50
April 12th - World of Warcraft Subscription $0.50
April 13th - Pornhub Subscription $20
April 13th - World of Warcraft Subscription $0.50

Seems unnecessary, why change whats no broken.

[lanerios]

I would live a system that they have in Japan/China for some MMO's. Truly prepaid cards. You pay for X hours. Everytime you log on, your hours are substracted.

[Pancha]

Not everyone wants to add 30 small micro-transactions when they're able to live with one larger one equalling the same amount. 15 $/month isn't a lot to begin with, when you consider what you get in return. You would pay 4 times that amount in order to get 5-20 hours of fun from new titles. To me, the fun I've gotten for the subscription I've paid over the years, far surpasses its price. As a matter of fact, I would say that I've saved cash by playing World of Warcraft. Prior to WoW back in 2005, I usually bought 3-4 titles a month, that is about (in Norwegian price range) about 420$/month (yes, it is that costly). If you now compare that price towards 15$/month, you'll clearly see that my expenditure on games have decreased by a ton. Now I only buy 3-4 full-price games a year (except during steam sales ..................).

I'm ok with the subscription fee, and I know that I get something in return.