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

[xellos85]

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.

Of course I know that he meant that. In fact I've never said that 13 EUR (or 15 $) is much, I'm only saying that if someone wants to play (so he'll play for a lot of moths) but hasn't much spare time, he would pay but play only 1/10 of the time that the normal players do.
So even if for a working man (or girl) 13 € per month (that is only 3 hours of working in my country at the minimum) is not much, playing only 3 hours per month would mean that you must work one hour for every hour of play.
Obviously the more one plays, the less it costs him.
We must talk in a relative way, not say that *in absolute* 13 € is nothing.

However I don't want to make a numerical analysis, but only a qualitative one.

I don't think it'd be worth [...] bothering with.

[...] the question is whether the potential market served by this option would offset the cost of developing and maintaining it. I have my doubts.

As to the profitability of this plan (in the perspective of the service providers), it all depends on their decisions on the cost, number of hours and plan time until expiration.

As to the possibility of creating this type of plan, It's up to the service providers to decide.
But I hope this will not be too complicated: they decide how the packet will be (X dollars for N hours of prepaid gamaplay to use up in at max M months), and then they must only keep trace of the time played and deduce corrispondently the time at the disposal of the player.
I think that they already keep trace of the time played, like in every MMORPG I've played until now. It isn't necessary to be accurate by the second: even if I lose one minute more than the hour I've already played, I would not even notice!

[sehracii]

What about the possibility that many existing customers who play little switch to the new plan and pay less?

Could potentially deal a loss in profit to GameForge.

[iceaxe68]

As to the profitability of this plan (in the perspective of the service providers), it all depends on their decisions on the cost, number of hours and plan time until expiration.

As you are no doubt aware, there is a balance between the price and the willingness of the potential customer to pay that price. The business question is how many customers are willing to pay a given price for a product or service, and how much it costs up front and ongoing to provide that product or service.

If the price is too high, the number of customers drops, and the costs are not covered. If the price is too low, there is not enough revenue to cover costs. In between there may or may not be a sweet spot where the customers are happy with the price and revenues are sufficient to provide a profit.

THAT is the question. It is driven from both sides of the exchange.


With that said, you'll probably find that the denizens of this forum are disproportionately heavy users of the game, so we have both a different perspective from yours and a vested interest in seeing GF make a nice fat profit and keep this thing going for years and years to come. A bit selfish, but people tend to be that way...

If there are enough folks like you, then the equation works out nicely and GF can implement it. Sometime after the spires and encyclopedia and Kitin's Lair and, and, and...

[beaut666]

I've played a million of those silly asian market games where they have a cash shop to buy "exclusive" items, and I REALLY liked the shops. I got hooked on buying non-combat pets and all that. If Ryzom had one, I'd probably spend my family into oblivion.
Beau

[gcaldani]

I've played a million of those silly asian market games where they have a cash shop to buy "exclusive" items, and I REALLY liked the shops. I got hooked on buying non-combat pets and all that. If Ryzom had one, I'd probably spend my family into oblivion.
Beau

Oh, please Beau... your statement is really really dangerous!!!

You want Ryzom turning into an asian clone? Personally i hate buyable out of game stuff, for a simple reason:

it makes rich people going to rules poor people and create a 'social' difference in the game (as it happens in real life).

Please, don't ask for this!!

Good MMO's are the one where everyone can have the same advantages/disadvantages no matter how is his real life!!

About the topic: altough the idea seems cool, i think most of big Companies sure have a 'market division' with many specialized people working into. If no one changed the way p2p mmo's are sold in the market means there is no real benefit in changing the plans actually in use. It's not casual that all the p2p mmo's have the same kind of subscription rules.

At the end, from the european side, 13 euros means less than 1 coffee/day.
Single user videogames are much much more expensive.

[acridiel]

I've played a million of those silly asian market games where they have a cash shop to buy "exclusive" items, and I REALLY liked the shops. I got hooked on buying non-combat pets and all that. If Ryzom had one, I'd probably spend my family into oblivion.
Beau

*slaps Beau around a bit with a large trout*

What (slap) did (slap) I (slap) tell (slap) you (slap)about (slap) thinking (slap) before (slap) posting (SLAP)...

I completely agree with gcaldani.

The last thing I want to seee here is people running around showing off their large RL money... *bleh*

And on topic:

Well, I too see the trouble of a huge finacial loss for GF here.
While this model might work for Games that start out that way and Item sales might work well for Browsergames and somesuch, switching to such a pay mode over the course of a running game isn´t advisible.
It would leave a gapping hole in the financial strukture.

CU
Acridiel

[ffxjosh]

IMO, your example doesn't fit well:

<snip>.

his example fits perfectly.

You don't eat lunch once a month do you?

The $15 isnt for every second of every hour of every day in the month.

Staying on 'lunch' terms, If you played 2 hours a week thats 8 hours a month. 8 hours of eating lunch is way way way more than $15.

If you played 10 hours a week. 40 hours of eating lunch/going down the pub/cinema/renting DVD's/buying and completeing 2 Xbox360 games/(whatever else you can do in 40 hours) is still WAY less than the $15.

You want something that is already VERY cheap (relitivly speaking) to be even cheaper. for a company that's struggiling to keep afloat. I doubt they will do this. Maybe once Ryzom's popularity has increased enough. but certianly not yet

[gillest]

I say NO to the korean shops in ryzom for sure....

- We already have the wheel and it crashed the game lol: can't imagine what a Korean shop will do in there.... hmmm, second thought: maybe some yubo noodles

I say don't really say NO to to pay per time, as long as it is not pushed on to us cos we would all be ruined lol

[xellos85]

If the price is too high, the number of customers drops, and the costs are not covered. If the price is too low, there is not enough revenue to cover costs. In between there may or may not be a sweet spot where the customers are happy with the price and revenues are sufficient to provide a profit.
THAT is the question. It is driven from both sides of the exchange.

Obviously.
This comment is absolutely right.
It all depends on the potential number of people that would subscribe to this plan, and uses the hypothesis that the current players won't change to that plan (or at least not many of them).
I can't say that this can be realizable and profitable, because I don't work in the economics sector of online games industry (if it's called this way). So the decision is up to the administration folks. If your fears are right, then they won't do anything and everything will remain as it is. But if it comes out that this plan is realizable and profitable, then both some players and the game providers would gain benefit.
I though it was worth trying to suggest.

PS: I've read also the other posts, but I think this would resume quite well the subject of this thread.

Hope to have not angered too much people out there!! ^^

[xellos85]

Ok, now some Off Topic to make "minor" replies... (sorry for not quoting, but it would take too much)

...15 € for 2 beers?!? I hope u were exaggerating..! If it's true I'm glad that here prices haven't gone that high!

Coffe... Fortunately I don't drink coffe.

Someone confronted the monthly fees to extra activities, like going to pubs, restaurants, cinemas, renting or buying games or films, etcetera...
...What makes u think that if I DON'T have time for playing SoR, I would have time doing these extra activities?!?

I don't know how some people could say that this suggestion is DEFINITELY not profitable without knowing the all the details (I've never set a price or defined the number of hours: it could as well cost only a few $$ less to the players, and considering that the variable costs are usually related to the server load - amongst other things - the game providers could possibly gain: i.e. if one hour of gameplay of a hardcore gamer is paid only 5 cents, for the player of this offer it would be paid 50 cents -- please don't refer to these values, just making up examples).

Last comment.
If someone didn't understand my situation, I'll explain more clearly: I don't work because I'm still studying, so I've little time for extra activities and since I don't get money - but I just spend it - it would be wise not to waste it! Considering that SoR seems to me having a great potential, I tried to post this suggestion and see what it came out (in fact when I'll restart lessons I won't subscribe for more time, as it is).

PS: for the comments pertaining the main subject, please refer to my previous post.