New Subscription plan suggestion: "playing time"-based plan

[xellos85]

I'll copy down here a ticket I've already sent (yesterday) to the Support Staff, pertaining a suggestion to render available a new subscription plan: a "playing time"-based plan.
I'd like to know what do you think about it and invite you to post comments and/or suggestions!

DESCRIPTION & ADVANTAGES:
In addition to the "calendar time"-based subscription plans, it would be useful a plan based on effective playing time, obviously less economically advantageous than the calendar ones and with a time limit before his expiration; that is, if for 13 EUR I can buy a full month of calendar time, for the same money I could buy a certain number of hours of effective gameplay, to be used up in no more than X months (with X>1). The decision of the price, number of hours and the expiration time is left to the administration folks.

This is useful to players (like me) who do NOT have much spare time and would not subscribe for a long time, because they would not play enough compared to the price paid; so if this offer is not available, they would NOT subscribe at all, or subscribe only for a month in which they think they'll have enough time, and then freezing the account for a lot of time... And so on.
This would be useful for the service providers, because they will attract & retain a new slice of population: the people that would like playing the game, but consider subscribing for calendar time economically disadvantageous.
If the offer exists, the people who could be interested are not only the ones with less spare time, but also people who already play a MMORPG but can't afford to subscribe to 2 games for calendar-based plans.
Consider also that there aren't many MMORPGs that offer this kind of subscription plan (I know only of "Ragnarok Online": see page "http://www.euro-ro.net/corp/terms/", 4th paragraph).

In short, the service providers would not loose anything:
1. the time is paid in advantage;
2. when the bandwidth is used, the players consume playing time;
3. if they do not play for a long time, the subcription will expire.
...But if there are people (like me) that are interested in the offer, they will gain more money ;-)

NOTE: if anyone thinks that this suggestion is NOT good, please explain how this would DAMAGE yourself or the service providers.
I agree that for most people this new offer would not bring more benefits, but there can be people that would gain benefit from this: probably people not already subscribed and thus not surfing on this forum!

[tigrus]

Its only 15 bucks a month...... I spend more on lunch every day.

[fiach]

As Sun Ce says, its not particularly expensive, MMO's are one of the most cost effective forms of entertainment around, its the price of 2 beers to me.

I want to see Ryzom survive profitably and of course, innovative payment methods can contribute successfully to this end.

A couple of suggestions :

1. An in-game shop, where people could use external finances, to procure in-game items, time limited items like Attack Buff's, XP buffs etc. This is a method used in alot of the "free to Play" korean MMO's

2. A "pay by cash" weekly/monthly subscription, because not everybody has credit cards.

3. Dare I say it an increased subscription rate, I want Ryzom to make money, I would pay a little more money, if it helped Ryzom survive.

I dont necessarily agree with all these methods, but just listing them as options.

[stijn]

Originally Posted by fiach

2. A "pay by cash" weekly/monthly subscription, because not everybody has credit cards.

There is a monthly paybycash option

I want a six month subscription with it tho, always forget to pay

[fiach]

Originally Posted by stijn

There is a monthly paybycash option

Never knew that, cheers

[xellos85]

Originally Posted by tigrus

Its only 15 bucks a month...... I spend more on lunch every day.

IMO, your example doesn't fit well:
when you go to a restaurant and pay 15 bucks for your dinner, you EAT the food! Am I wrong?
But what if you pay and then you go out, leaving nearly all the food untouched on the table?
That's what I'm talking about.
Also, consider someone who already plays (and pays) a MMORG (or already has another kind of subscriptions in real life): then he would spend twice, and more likely he won't subscribe. But if this offer would exist, he could subscribe and the service providers would gain profit from this.

[ajsuk]

God help us, Sunce is right.

Most service billing systems aren't dynamic enough to incorporate such a system and I don't think it'd be worth trying to adjust/find one that is.
As others have said, the small costs involved aren't worth bothering with.

[iceaxe68]

Pay by the hour? I'd be frickin' hosed....

Interesting thought, and I'm sure it would be attractive to some, but the question is whether the potential market served by this option would offset the cost of developing and maintaining it. I have my doubts.

Also, I think I saw that paybycash did have multi-month subscription options. Too lazy to go look it up right now, maybe I'll check later.

[fiach]

Originally Posted by xellos85

IMO, your example doesn't fit well:
when you go to a restaurant and pay 15 bucks for your dinner, you EAT the food! Am I wrong?
But what if you pay and then you go out, leaving nearly all the food untouched on the table?
That's what I'm talking about.
Also, consider someone who already plays (and pays) a MMORG (or already has another kind of subscriptions in real life): then he would spend twice, and more likely he won't subscribe. But if this offer would exist, he could subscribe and the service providers would gain profit from this.

I dont think Sun Ce's point was the comsumption of the dinner, I think he meant, in the ultimate scheme of things, 15 bucks is not alot of money.

[tigrus]

not worth it, anyway. Your example fits. I for some reason always order the biggest bunch of food, usually cant eat it all... bad habit