Your favorite mmo game gets a policy change

[Simulacrum]

Such a policy would be incredibly stupid. One of the main things that draw me back to games like WoW is continuing playing my existing characters when a new expansion is launched. Personally, I play from when the expansion is launched to the last patch (which was over 6 months ago now, wasn't it? Man, get WoD ready for launch already).

If they decided to delete my characters when I go inactive between expansions then I simply wouldn't return, and I expect neither would huge amounts of other people who wouldn't be willing to pay a subscription fee just to maintain their characters for the better part of a year while they're not playing the game.

[prwraith]

Would you stil bother playing it?

To play *your mmo*, a player must pay a connection fee of 20 $ every month. Players are given 6 months window time to pay the connection fee. If a player does not pay the connection fee within 6 months, the account of the player will be deleted forever.

Now lets say blizzard did this. I would lose 8 years of playing, thats of cose gold, pets, characters, world 1.st achivments and so on.

Think if every mmo company did this at the same time (in free to play games, you need to buy XXX ammount of gold instead).



Oh and before you ask....yes that exist. But right now only for a cell phone numbers.

I'll be happy as a clam when this sword art online / attack on titan craze ends

[openair]

20$ is example. Wow would stil be 15$.

Pretty weird example. More than double the price for a connection fee? You should realistic examples if you want realistic replies. But I guess $20 will bias replies towards the answer you want...

BTW... if your cell provider is charging you $20 EVERY month for a connection fee, you need to look for a new provider. Every cell provider here in Ontario charges a once per device (once, one off, one single charge, not monthly) connection fee.

[WanderingBreezes]

Honestly, $20 isn't that far removed from $15 and I don't really expect wow to keep my characters saved, anyway.

Personally, I play from when the expansion is launched to the last patch (which was over 6 months ago now, wasn't it? Man, get WoD ready for launch already).

Eight going on nine months, actually.

[Seosaimhin]

This depends:
+You quit and return for only 30 days. And then quit again. Company losses money.
+You quit, you buy a new accaunt (40-60$) and you dont want to quit again. Company gains another sucker.

This depends on marketing of a game and how good it is. Also how fast it trows out continent.
For this to work, the game needs to be very addictive and punishing.

Think of a mmo like a drug.

I don't follow your reasoning. When people quit, the company loses money either way.
-You quit for a month, company loses $20. Then you come back for a month. Sure, the company gets that $20 for that month, but they didn't the month before.
-You quit for 6 months, company loses $120. Then you come back, and even if you have to pay for both a new account ($60, let's say) and that month's time ($20) you still wouldn't make up for the money lost.
-You quit, then come back, regardless of the scenario. Company doesn't gain "another sucker" unless you're bringing a friend along.

Unless they make you entirely re-buy the game and all of its expansions, AND make you pay for time that month, the company wouldn't be able to make up for the loss of quitting for 6 months. And even with those qualifiers, if you've been gone for, say, 8 months or more, they definitely wouldn't be able to make up the loss.

I don't really think it matters what the game is like; this seems like a terrible policy, regardless. I'm of the opinion that for a game like WoW, there would be such an outrage from all the people who leave at the end of an expansion (or even a long patch) that it would truly have to be an all-out, desperate last attempt at keeping the game afloat. I sure as hell wouldn't want to drop $60(acct)+$20(time) to play again and not have my old characters. I wouldn't even want to pay the $20.

The better option would be to deactivate the account after x months and add a resub fee for the same cost. Then at least people could get their characters/achieves/whatever back. Not that I'm partial to either of those options.

If I was actively playing, I probably wouldn't care. I'm a role-player, so I always have something to do even during content droughts. If I was one of those people who unsub for long periods of time while they wait for new content, however, I wouldn't bother resubbing at all under this policy.

[breadisfunny]

Would you stil bother playing it?

To play *your mmo*, a player must pay a connection fee of 20 $ every month. Players are given 6 months window time to pay the connection fee. If a player does not pay the connection fee within 6 months, the account of the player will be deleted forever.

Now lets say blizzard did this. I would lose 8 years of playing, thats of cose gold, pets, characters, world 1.st achivments and so on.

Think if every mmo company did this at the same time (in free to play games, you need to buy XXX ammount of gold instead).

Oh and before you ask....yes that exist. But right now only for a cell phone numbers.

uhm what does this have to do with wow?
i dont see any links to where this is happening or anything.
(yes i know its off topic but op is asking if it applies to wow)
a policy like this would be financial suicide for a company that implemented it since if a player is active duty and has to go away or some other circumstance they return find their characters they worked on deleted i can promise you they wont ever come back and would probably not buy anymore of their products.
one of the appeals of most mmos is you can always return to your characters if its still an active mmo.

[ComputerNerd]

I think if a personal character goes unused for six months the character should exist but the name should be removed. If the person wants to use the character again after six months - they'll just have to hope nobody else has taken the name.

That tends to be a request from people upset that someone else got a name before they did.
Some sort of period of time maybe, but not as short as that.

[breadisfunny]

I think if a personal character goes unused for six months the character should exist but the name should be removed. If the person wants to use the character again after six months - they'll just have to hope nobody else has taken the name.

then you just have people resubbing for one month every 5-6 months. exactly how are you going to determine what constitutes playing the game or not?

[Powerogue]

That's just plain exploitation. I think the worst of that I've seen is RuneScape where your "loyalty points" (which grow exponentially every month you're subscribed, and you spend on cosmetics and less-than-cosmetics) are reset.

I think it'd be worse for them in the long run because people who quit aren't going to feel the tug to go back of having all that work they put into the character discarded. If they've quit, they're going to stay quit.

If I played an MMO like this I don't think I could get invested since the character progress wouldn't have a sense of permanence.

[Captain N]

then you just have people resubbing for one month every 5-6 months. exactly how are you going to determine what constitutes playing the game or not?

Doesn't really matter if the person is playing. All they need to do is log in once every six months and they keep their name. It manages to at least get 1 month of subscription from the account if the player wants to keep his name. Which I find to be fair...The only part of your character that is yours even after you quit a game or take a hiatus is the name anyways.