How far are you willing to pay for content?

**Ellyidol** · 12-15-2011, 02:15 PM

I've been thinking about how far I'm personally willing to pay for good content, and I'm wondering the same for others.

Take this situation. How much would you pay for an AO3 calibre campaign in terms of:

1. One time purchase.

And

2. Subscription purchase.

Personally, I would honestly go as far as 100 plat at one time to experience another AO3. Not to mention the amount I may spend through elixirs.

Subscription, as much as $10 a month just from subs alone. Costs as much as WoW, but hey for something I can play anywhere.

This is just coming from an impression that ever since the main spine became free, content quality had also dwindled down with it. The last decent campaign I would gladly pay for again is Sewers, while AO3 being the prime example.

Curious what you guys have to say.

**bronislav84** · 12-15-2011, 02:22 PM

WOW is actually $15 a month, unless they lowered it.

I ALWAYS opt for one time purchases rather than subs. It may be a lot at once, but considering I have it forever and can come and go as I please it's a no brainer for me. This is the best option for the customer but actually screws over the business in the long-term because they cease to get income from you.

**CrimsonTider** · 12-15-2011, 02:24 PM

To be honest, I am not sure I would pay anything at this point. To say I am highly disappointed in the lack of creativity as well as listening to community concerns turns me off to buying any more plat.

If we compare the amount of plat spent now vs. a year ago and compare to the content: huge lapse in creativity and originality.

So for now, it would have to have an overwelming community approval for me to consider this (especially since the Winter Event seems to have already flopped.)

**Ellyidol** · 12-15-2011, 02:29 PM

Too tedious to double quote on app, so pardon my @s.

@bron

I'll have to recheck. 10-15 sounds about right, I think I opted for long term subs which reduced to 10 though.

I also agree. An F2P business model for a game is always more profitable, given the player base is there, however. I just feel like an F2P has an equally strong quit rate as it does a join rate. In other words, I'd rather pay for something guaranteed than play something mediocre.

@Crim

I see your point. The biggest factor leading me to starting this thread was actually the latest WF. I didn't need to play hours on end to see the possible uproar and dissatisfaction coming.

**bronislav84** · 12-15-2011, 02:37 PM

Sorry, I probably should have added that I own lifetime subs to a couple games, which is where I draw my post from. It's very desirable for me to come and go as I please without worrying about "wasting time I paid for" because unless the game itself gets taken down, I can still play tomorrow. All the benefits of a sub, but without the sub. You paid your months in advance, and you are entitled to good service and good content for as long as the game is up.

But again, this hurts the company and not all do it. Once your advance payment is "paid for" (Say $200 divided by $15 if you had paid monthly), you are playing for free on a subscription model. This hurts the company in the long-run.

Pay to unlock forever though, is different. As PL was originally pay to unlock forever and everybody who stayed past level 15 or so had to do it, STS was making good coin from it. This kind of incremental paily to unlock could potentially have brought them more money in the long run, as more content every 3 or so months means another chunk of coin all people need to sink if they want to keep playing. It's almost like a subscription really, although at a much smaller cost.

Of course in the absence of a lifetime option, like you, I would take a discounted multi-month sub, where each month is cheaper than buying per month.

For mobile games such as PL and SL I don't think they will ever offer a lifetime subscription option.

**Elyseon** · 12-15-2011, 02:40 PM

Yeh i liked the old buy campaigns system

**Ellyidol** · 12-15-2011, 02:41 PM

Originally Posted by bronislav84

Sorry, I probably should have added that I own lifetime subs to a couple games, which is where I draw my post from. All the benefits of a sub, but without the sub. You paid your months in advance, and you are entitled to good service and good content for as long as the game is up.

But again, this hurts the company and not all do it. Once your advance payment is "paid for" (Say $200 divided by $15 if you had paid monthly), you are playing for free on a subscription model. This hurts the company in the long-run.

For mobile games such as PL and SL I don't think they will ever offer a lifetime subscription option.

Agreed. A friend actually pointed out that these games actually want you "offline" as much as possible since you've already paid; something that I never actually saw and understood til then.

I do think the sub method works for WoW though, with their massive subscription base. Not sure how an F2P would work out for them.

In that sense, I seem to notice that F2P type games are very short-term in nature too. IIRC, most games I get news of shutting down are F2P.

**bronislav84** · 12-15-2011, 02:44 PM

Please give a full 5 to 10 minutes before quoting me. Now you quoted an old post.

I too have heard that WOW institutes a lot of lockout and limits on what you can do per day now, so people aren't getting their money's worth and have nothing to do for whole days or possibly weeks, having to wait for reset. This wastes their money and makes Blizzard fat. This might be why WOW numbers have been dropping. People are catching on and moving to games where they can get their money's worth.

**Ellyidol** · 12-15-2011, 02:49 PM

Lol, I did catch the changes though.

I see what you mean, now that you mention it. I didn't even take into account how much money WoW makes through their bi-annual (I think?) expansion sales.

Something which I could see possibly working for STS. I wouldn't mind paying a small sub fee + a couple of one time amounts for campaigns. Both steady and burst in-flows.

**razerfingers** · 12-15-2011, 02:51 PM

Im about to give up on trying to voice my opinion sts doesnt care it seems just sayin...and i dont like your ideas honestly

**Ellyidol** · 12-15-2011, 02:53 PM

Originally Posted by razerfingers

i dont like your ideas honestly

If you misunderstood and somehow got the impression that its an idea or a suggestion to implement (which I don't know how you got), you're wrong.

Read the last line. I'm curious what you have to say.

**razerfingers** · 12-15-2011, 02:56 PM

Originally Posted by Ellyidol:512685

Originally Posted by razerfingers

i dont like your ideas honestly

If you misunderstood and somehow got the impression that its an idea or a suggestion to implement (which I don't know how you got), you're wrong.

Read the last line. I'm curious what you have to say.

Sorry, misunderstood and kinda irritated at sts so my bad im just tired of seeing simple designed stuff after lvl 50 its retarded and i dont know why i keep playing this game honestly

**bronislav84** · 12-15-2011, 02:56 PM

Added more to above post.

Honestly, I'm one way or the other usually. Either I lifetime for a game and pay close to zero afterward, or I play a F2P game and give them money on my own terms. If I wanna play a sub-only game, SWTOR being a good example, I would go for the most long-term option to save money. Does that make me cheap? I wanna support games I enjoy, but does putting a limit on how much money I give them really make me cheap?

I have all of WOW sitting in my house as of Black Friday and have yet to touch it. I just got it cause the boxes were on sale cheap in case I wanna play years down the road and it doesn't degenerate to fail by then.

**LADYHADASSA** · 12-15-2011, 04:56 PM

I amwith Elli i would pay a larger amount per map.. The old way of purchasing campaigns worked well, though i realize many young ones do not have parents that will spend money for their games, so some players left after lvl 15. The largest spenders in the game are adult players. If sts allowed gift purchases for game currency threw them and not apple I believe many pl players would have had plat coupons under the tree, great for Christmas and would allow for expanded player compassion giving, If i want to buy plat and gift it why not?

I hope there is a way to feed the mouths of the creativity behind the game and keep player interest

**StompArtist** · 12-15-2011, 05:02 PM

Originally Posted by CrimsonTider

To be honest, I am not sure I would pay anything at this point. To say I am highly disappointed in the lack of creativity as well as listening to community concerns turns me off to buying any more plat.

If we compare the amount of plat spent now vs. a year ago and compare to the content: huge lapse in creativity and originality.

So for now, it would have to have an overwelming community approval for me to consider this (especially since the Winter Event seems to have already flopped.)

Absolutely correct on all accounts

**Duped** · 12-15-2011, 05:06 PM

I guess time will tell if people are willing to pay 2 plat per run, because that apparently is the new goal?

**Zeusofire** · 12-15-2011, 05:48 PM

Spacetime Studios is a business people! and from what I can tell they are a pretty new business. They need to charge money for their games. They also have the issue that they allow Tapjoy to advertise so people can buy free Platinum which may not be entirely profitable to them. Think about how this game would be without free plat. You need to understand that STS is doing this to make money, and that is respectable.

HOWEVER. The Quality of the game has deteriorated from when I started playing EXACTLY one year ago. Even the holiday gear looks worse. This game needs something very new and creative. It needs to be something that all players can participate in. The AO trilogy of campaigns was incredible, but STS needs to make a new campaign that is as good as it.

AND THEY REALLY NEED TO START LISTENING TO THEIR CONSUMERS.

**Conradin** · 12-15-2011, 06:04 PM

why not make 2 campaigns per lvl cap? I mediocre free one- and a sweet plat one (by mediocre i mean like mt fang or nuris) boom everybodies happy. Btw PL's creativity has dropped imo ever since SL came out

**Nick41324** · 12-15-2011, 06:05 PM

Mt. fang didn't have to be free... I wont minded having to pay a small amount of platinum for each map in the future if it will keep everything else at normal cost.

I will pay 5-10 plat for the new maps when the lvl cap increases.

**Conradin** · 12-15-2011, 06:06 PM

Originally Posted by Nick41324

Mt. fang didn't have to be free... I wont minded having to pay a small amount of platinum for each map in the future if it will keep everything else at normal cost.

I will pay 5-10 plat for the new maps when the lvl cap increases.

aas Somebody said above- ide pay 100 plat for another AO3