Lifetime Subscription
2010-01-17
I pay monthly for EVE Online. I recently resubscribed to WoW. I have lifetime membership to LotRO. I'm quite pleased with the LotRO deal, even though I don't play it. Now I'm looking carefully at Star Trek Online...
When LotRO was released and the lifetime subscription offer was open only to pre-order players ('Founders', as they were called), it was worth about 11 months of regular subscription. 11 months isn't very long in an MMO: since I sometimes run multiple accounts in a single game (currently do in EVE, occasionally have done in WoW and consistently did in SWG) I've probably racked up about 60 months in WoW, more than that in SWG, and around 20 in EVE even though I only started last year.*
* These figures are a little misleading, because of course if I want to run two accounts I'd need two lifetimes of subscription. But the WoW figure is probably still 50 or more on my main account.
I probably only got 9 or so solid months of play out of LotRO before I went back to WoW, but since then I've been back once or twice to see what had changed and talk to old friends. I wouldn't have bothered had I needed to resubscribe and would have lost the benefit (enjoyment, knowledge, etc.) of having done so, and on that basis I should probably assign some utility** to the ability to go back to a game without resubbing, even when I'm not actually doing so. Even if that utility is 50p a month or so (give up a couple of cans a drink each month to keep the game open? Yeah, sure) then I'm quids in with the LotRO deal, and in MMO terms I've barely played the game.
** I'm not an economist, but some days it feels like I ought to be.
The strange thing is, much like LotRO, I wasn't even going to look at STO until I heard that there was a lifetime membership offer. I'm a little more sceptical now that I've seen that it breaks even at around 2 years, but provided it runs for a while without being given up on, shoved into maintenance mode and having all the good people taken off, 2 years isn't so long.
And that is the crux of the matter. If Blizzard comes to me with a 'pay two years of subscription on our new game and play it forever' deal, I'm likely to overlook the few gripes I've had with the in the past and put my money down***. If CCP asks me the same thing, I say 'hells yeah, where do I sign?': those people are crazy but awesome.
Even if SOE came to me with such an offer I'd consider it carefully, although I'd have to check that the demolition derby had the experience implemented (or at least a sensible warning that it wasn't) and I'd want them to promise not to make a New Game Entirely until at least I'd broken even on the subscription deal.
*** I probably wouldn't put 2 years down for more WoW, but that's only because I've played it for so many years already.
Cryptic, on the other hand... All I really know about them is what little news and rumour I bothered listening to about Champions and the way they essentially launched it half-heartedly, noticed that it wasn't an instant WoW-killer, panicked and mothballed it, keeping it open for the few die-hards who don't care. (Most of whom promptly went back to CoX, which has been gradually learning how to make superheroes work in an MMO for years now.)
I'm just not sure I want to give these people that much money.
Well, any money, to be fair, but I'll risk £25 on the preorder (maybe even £15 more on the deluxe one) on the basis that I can regret wasting that money and just earn it back fairly quickly, but I might regret spending it and have that bug me (if only a little) for years to come.
When LotRO was released and the lifetime subscription offer was open only to pre-order players ('Founders', as they were called), it was worth about 11 months of regular subscription. 11 months isn't very long in an MMO: since I sometimes run multiple accounts in a single game (currently do in EVE, occasionally have done in WoW and consistently did in SWG) I've probably racked up about 60 months in WoW, more than that in SWG, and around 20 in EVE even though I only started last year.*
* These figures are a little misleading, because of course if I want to run two accounts I'd need two lifetimes of subscription. But the WoW figure is probably still 50 or more on my main account.
I probably only got 9 or so solid months of play out of LotRO before I went back to WoW, but since then I've been back once or twice to see what had changed and talk to old friends. I wouldn't have bothered had I needed to resubscribe and would have lost the benefit (enjoyment, knowledge, etc.) of having done so, and on that basis I should probably assign some utility** to the ability to go back to a game without resubbing, even when I'm not actually doing so. Even if that utility is 50p a month or so (give up a couple of cans a drink each month to keep the game open? Yeah, sure) then I'm quids in with the LotRO deal, and in MMO terms I've barely played the game.
** I'm not an economist, but some days it feels like I ought to be.
The strange thing is, much like LotRO, I wasn't even going to look at STO until I heard that there was a lifetime membership offer. I'm a little more sceptical now that I've seen that it breaks even at around 2 years, but provided it runs for a while without being given up on, shoved into maintenance mode and having all the good people taken off, 2 years isn't so long.
And that is the crux of the matter. If Blizzard comes to me with a 'pay two years of subscription on our new game and play it forever' deal, I'm likely to overlook the few gripes I've had with the in the past and put my money down***. If CCP asks me the same thing, I say 'hells yeah, where do I sign?': those people are crazy but awesome.
Even if SOE came to me with such an offer I'd consider it carefully, although I'd have to check that the demolition derby had the experience implemented (or at least a sensible warning that it wasn't) and I'd want them to promise not to make a New Game Entirely until at least I'd broken even on the subscription deal.
*** I probably wouldn't put 2 years down for more WoW, but that's only because I've played it for so many years already.
Cryptic, on the other hand... All I really know about them is what little news and rumour I bothered listening to about Champions and the way they essentially launched it half-heartedly, noticed that it wasn't an instant WoW-killer, panicked and mothballed it, keeping it open for the few die-hards who don't care. (Most of whom promptly went back to CoX, which has been gradually learning how to make superheroes work in an MMO for years now.)
I'm just not sure I want to give these people that much money.
Well, any money, to be fair, but I'll risk £25 on the preorder (maybe even £15 more on the deluxe one) on the basis that I can regret wasting that money and just earn it back fairly quickly, but I might regret spending it and have that bug me (if only a little) for years to come.
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