Oh, I'd take it too, but it's unlikley they will offer it. It's usually done by games starting up, needing cash infusions, or proof that the game is profitable and viable.
www.paragonwiki.com is a great source of information for this game.
New or returning to the game? Want advice from experienced players who want to help YOU?
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Originally Posted by magnus1
while the game was down yesterday i went looking at the new mmo's coming out . i saw something that caught my eye. it was this new mmo that had a lifetime membership for $199.99, and i thought that was a very unique idea. do you think this game could do something like this?i would gladly do that over any other pay rate we have now. not saying this $200 price is set in stone, but the concept is great.
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Not gonna happen.
This game is 5 years old and at this point offering a lifetime membership tells the playerbase that the game is no longer profitable. They will not be paying anyone to create any more new content and it is just a matter of time before they shut everything down.
A lifetime membership for a new MMO is a way to get a limited number of players to fork over a years subscription so the company has a quick influx of cash.
You'll notice that the MMO in question is only offering the lifetime sub to people that buy it before August 31st. That is the day before the game gets released. Not many people are going to buy a lifetime sub without trying the game first, so the players that will take advantage of it will be the ones in the open beta.
I already pay $143.40 every 14 months. I've been here for over 3 years, and at the beginning I was paying the $14.99 per month (for comparison, that's $209.86 for 14 months).
If we had a $200 lifetime membership, I should have 3 permanent accounts by now. lol
Like they said above, it's not something a long-existing subscription service like CoH would benefit from.
Depends on a lot of things. If the game was planning to be around for more than a year (assuing the price stays the same) it would be a bad deal for them because, while they would make an initial boost in upfront cash from people, they would be making less than if they kept people on a monthly membership.
From a player perspective it again depends on if they plan on being able to play the game for more than they year. If they do, then its a great deal. In hindsight, if that option was around for CoX when I first started, I should have signed up. But thats a risky move for a game that hasn't even been released yet since you have no idea if you'll even want to play the game for over a year, let alone if the game will succeed and actually still be around.
Generally startup games do this to get the initial boost of revenue in before the game starts from the people with money to burn. Usually they don't offer it after the first month or two, which I think is the case for this other game you speak of...the lifetime subscription isn't going to be available after launch from what I've read. Sounds like a riskier move player side due to any number of unforeseen things happening, and $15 a month isn't exactly breaking the bank.
I have to ask this:
several of us know the game of which you speak. Are we not actually allowed to speak it's name here?
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It's just in poor taste. Now, if someone's spouting NDA violations, that goes away into the deep dark. But idle "hey, I saw this" seems to be fine with the mods. |
Originally Posted by IronJelly
I have to ask this:
several of us know the game of which you speak. Are we not actually allowed to speak it's name here? |
In other words, no, this isn't Praetoria and the mods only have red names, not red eyes.
Explorer: 93%. Achiever: 40%. Socializer: 40%. Killer 33%.
Current Heroes and Villains (altitis holding at 50 currents)
To all the devs, past, present, (and may there be) future: /salute
To NCSoft: Understand that you reap what you plant, and you cannot gain what you throw away.
LOTRO offered a lifetime membership when it first came out, and it's still going strong today. They've even brought back the lifetime payment option.
The fact that CO is offering the lifetime membership actually makes me a bit more skeptical. There's a lot of "CoH doesn't, but we do! LOOK! RIGHT HERE!" things I've been noticing about CO, and all it's doing is making me step further away from it.
Basically it's a gamble. If you think you'll enjoy the game enough to play it for a year and a half, by all means, pony up the money because then you won't be out any money. If you're not sure about it, like a lot of CoH people I've talked to, then don't. Wait and see.
I can't see CoH offering a lifetime membership. I could see a reduction in subscription fees as a veteran reward, however.
Yeah LOTRO also offers it's vetran players,which they call something else but I can not remeber what it is.Anyway,the monthly fee is only $10 instead of the regular $15.
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I have to disagree, I have seen at least one other MMO that has been out quite some time that does offer a lifetime subscription and they are coming out with new content on the average of one to three months. They have been out several years now
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Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Not gonna happen.
This game is 5 years old and at this point offering a lifetime membership tells the playerbase that the game is no longer profitable. They will not be paying anyone to create any more new content and it is just a matter of time before they shut everything down. A lifetime membership for a new MMO is a way to get a limited number of players to fork over a years subscription so the company has a quick influx of cash. You'll notice that the MMO in question is only offering the lifetime sub to people that buy it before August 31st. That is the day before the game gets released. Not many people are going to buy a lifetime sub without trying the game first, so the players that will take advantage of it will be the ones in the open beta. |
Well.. they probably intend to make up for the lost revenue in lifetime memberships by offering regular bonus packs. $10 for that one.. $10 for this other one.. etc etc..
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Originally Posted by crimsonwillow
I have to disagree, I have seen at least one other MMO that has been out quite some time that does offer a lifetime subscription and they are coming out with new content on the average of one to three months. They have been out several years now
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Disagree all you want but it still won't change the fact that this game isn't going to offer a lifetime subscriptions and forever lose the income from those customers.
This games business model isn't set up to replace the lost income that lifetime subs would remove. You can't be gullible enough to think that CoH can stay profitable selling respecs, character slots, transfers, rename tokens, and booster packs.
(all unsubstantiated assumptions on my part, but here goes...)
In any business model, you need cash coming in to fund ongoing development/expansion.
So, for example, in the case of CoX, you have
· Initial purchase income
· Subscription income (A lot of this usually covers ongoing server upkeep)
· Special costume pack/powers packs, etc. (microtransaction) income
· Income from new boxes (CoV, Going Rogue, etc.)
In the case of a free to play (TR) game, you usually have
· Initial purchase income (Sometimes this is also free)
· Special costume pack/powers packs, etc. (microtransaction) income
· (In this plan, microtransaction income content is usually a much higher percentage of content offered, otherwise not enough income to keep operations going)
· Income from new boxes
In the case of a lifetime subscription. Its
· Initial purchase income (much higher than standard)
· Special costume pack/powers packs, etc. (microtransaction) income
· Income from new boxes
But after a certain number of months, the game effectively becomes free to play to the player except for the added expenses new boxes, more costume/powers packs/etc. (I mean, thats the point of getting the lifetime subscription, right?)
So in the end, the game will have to find a way to charge at least enough to keep it going and be profitable, and move the development cycle to the income stream that achieves this goal.
In our case, CoX has a steady income stream from subscriptions. I think this is preferable to a one time, huge spurt of cash, as the predictable flow of cash allows for more consistent planning, longer term projects, and allows for free issues (which, in essence, we pay for with subscription money, of course).
In the case of the lifetime subscription game, it would involve supplying more expansions as boxes, more content would be in Packs, and you get a lot fewer free expansions. This is theoretically made up for by the initial cash infusion
but whos kidding who? The cash infusion gets used up, and then youre left with people working for nothing but server upkeep costs money, as well as Customer Support, and as a result, focus shifts solely to paying the bills (new micro-content, new boxes) at the expense of free issues, bug fixes, and longer term planning.
I like the current model. I get a yearly sub at a significant discount, I only play this MMO, I get as many packs as interests me (and there arent an exorbitant amount) and I think it is a fair deal.
Arc #6015 - Coming Unglued
"A good n00b-sauce is based on a good n00b-roux." - The Masque
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Originally Posted by Tayla_Ewa
Well.. they probably intend to make up for the lost revenue in lifetime memberships by offering regular bonus packs. $10 for that one.. $10 for this other one.. etc etc..
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CO's lifetime subs are only being offered for the next three weeks. They aren't offering it indefinitely so only a very finite number of players will buy it. Primarily the ones that are beta testing the game.
99% of the customers are not going to cough up $200. to buy a lifetime sub for a game they haven't played yet. They don't even know if they'll like it or not. Only an ***** would throw his money away like that.
That isn't a lot of lost revenue to make up. It won't even add up to 1% of their playerbase.
Yeah,the lifetime sub plan is not about money at all.It is about building a base membership for the game.
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I've noticed that too. I'm still going to try it, in fact I just pre-ordered it the other night, but it seems like many of their marketing points for the game keep indirectly suggesting that some of the things they are doing in the game are to try and be different from CoX for the sake of being different. Most of the marketing points seem to be followed by an unwritten unlike CoH like they are saying it under their breath. No idea if they will work or not, part of the reason I preordered because I want to try something different, but the more I read about the game, the more it feels less like a new game trying to be fun for the players, and more of one company trying to stick it to their former partner.
| There's a lot of "CoH doesn't, but we do! LOOK! RIGHT HERE!" things I've been noticing about CO, and all it's doing is making me step further away from it. |
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Its a business. Everything is about money. A base membership for a game is about having a supply of money coming in.
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Originally Posted by Plyxx
Yeah,the lifetime sub plan is not about money at all.It is about building a base membership for the game.
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Originally Posted by Plyxx
Yeah,the lifetime sub plan is not about money at all.It is about building a base membership for the game.
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There is the initial cash infusion that demonstrates that the public is interested in the product and are willing to commit to playing the game. The lifetime sub will be replaced by the yearly sub for new customers. The 6 month sub is already in place.
It can also be seen as a risk/reward calculation for the player:
For $200 (@$15, about 14 months subscription):
Risk: Maybe I won't like the game for as long a 14 months.
So I lose (200-15*months played.)
Reward: If I like it enough to play more than 14 months, I play for free from then onward. (well, not including packs/expansions/boxes/etc.)
I suspect the news from CO aftrer about 6 months will be, "Look! we still have X active subs! They love us!!" when those "active subs" will include Lifers who haven't played for 4 months.
Whatever. Some will stay, Some will go, So what? CoX will survive and thrive.
Arc #6015 - Coming Unglued
"A good n00b-sauce is based on a good n00b-roux." - The Masque
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| I suspect the news from CO aftrer about 6 months will be, "Look! we still have X active subs! They love us!!" when those "active subs" will include Lifers who haven't played for 4 months. |
Your probably right but if they paid for the lifetime sub it doesn't matter if they haven't actually played for four months because at the six month mark they won't have used up the entire sub fee. The sub fee is the equivilant of a 1 year sub.
Now if they did it at 18 months that would be fudging the numbers because then that would be 6 months they could have been getting a monthly sub from someone without the lifetime sub.
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Don't you hate when companies do that? Well I'm off to tell my friend's fortune but lemme use the Super Serum first to change my costume......
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Originally Posted by Tayla_Ewa
Well.. they probably intend to make up for the lost revenue in lifetime memberships by offering regular bonus packs. $10 for that one.. $10 for this other one.. etc etc..
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Proctector: Doc Heal lvl 50 Illusion / Empath
Sweet Fyre lvl 50 Fire / Rad
Axe Wielding Maniac lvl 50 Stone / Axe
Doc Heel lvl 39 Robots / Traps
A lot of players are skeptical about lifetime offers after Hellgate: London shut down on them.
As said though, they are a good way for a fledgeling MMO to get quick cash to recover development costs. And they may be a good investment eventually- look at this game, which has improved leaps and bounds from its original release.
while the game was down yesterday i went looking at the new mmo's coming out . i saw something that caught my eye. it was this new mmo that had a lifetime membership for $199.99, and i thought that was a very unique idea. do you think this game could do something like this?i would gladly do that over any other pay rate we have now. not saying this $200 price is set in stone, but the concept is great.