Lifetime Subscriptions...

[Gandelf]

I am wondering how many players would consider buying a lifetime subscription to DAoC if it were available. By "lifetime" I mean for as long as DAoC exists on servers for players to play on. Obviously, it would be a fair amount to pay, but it would be great knowing that you'd never have to pay another subscription for as long as you played the game. Even if you left the game for a period, you would know you could always come back and not have to pay subscriptions. All you'd have to pay for would be the cost of any new expansions, if applicable. It would also mean that players who could afford a lifetime subscription now, but for whatever reason in the future could not have afford to carry on playing with regular subscriptions, would still be able to play.
You could even remove the game entirely from your computer, but if you missed the game, all you'd have to do is reinstall it and start playing again, without paying a subscription.
The other advantage would be that you would never have to worry about future increases in subscriptions.
So please answer the poll regarding this topic. Please add any comments that you feel are relevant.

[Lieva]

how much would that cost?
do the older peeps get a discount than the teenagers?
or would the teenagers get the discount because they would be playing longer.

ive voted no cuz im skint

/edit
and imo poll should ahave been open - too late now tho

[Rejecta]

its a good idea.

[Elrandhir]

na, is good the way it is, don't want to pay for time I may not spend on playing the game.

[Ovi]

Much as I really really dislike the company, and what they have done to the games they have taken over, I prefer the way SOE is going with the Station accounts.

The cost is less than twice the cost of single MMORPG, but you get access to all their games.

It means you don't have to think what genre to subscribe to this month, you just pick what you want to play that day. It does rely on have a wide selection of good enough games, which I think SOE just about manage (The games are popular even if I don't like them.)

It's thoughts like that make you realise just how limited the selection of MMORPGs really still is, except possible in the Fantasy genre.

Also, in response to Banana, the lifetime accounts would actually refer to the lifetime of the game rather than player, since I doubt many of the current MMORPGs will be around in 20 years.

[VegetaFH1]

No way.. SOE...
<shivers>
probably the cheepest company out there, but when u have deleted ur account in say something like planetside (witch i played for 2 years along side DAOC) but when u delete ur account and delete the sub... they STILL deduct money from ur Credit Card account until u actually go in an tell em "OYY U.. Turn my account off an stop deducting money from my credit card" but i do suppose there support team is... quite good, but i will never go back an play it as SOE are the scabbest ba***rds alive. (ohh the hypocriticisum <sigh>)

But ye.. the opinion of a lifetime sub wood be nice for daoc, u think that when u go on holiday an ur sub runs out... all u have to do is come back.. turn it on.. there u go well it will definatly help when im goin to astreila to see my bro an ski all day but maybe.. i just wonder will i bring my copy of daoc with me an set it up over there

But ye in general the opinion of a lifetime sub is good, saggest putting it in but ppl dont have to use it... but id say it will be.. quite costly.. atleast 1k or so

[Gandelf]

A currently yearly subscription would cost you £75 in the UK.
If you buy a monthly subscription it would cost you £96 for a whole year, so a yearly subs. saves you £21.
If there was a 2-year subscription, it would probably cost around £120-£130.
A 3-year subscription, if available, would cost around £170-£190, at a rough guess.
If we could work out the average time a player is likely to play DAoC for, then GOA could base a lifetime's subscription on that period. The idea being, that GOA wouldn't make a loss, overall.
With this in mind, if a player stayed with DAoC for say 4 years on average, then a lifetime's subscription would probably be somewhere in the region of £250-£300.
That's not a great deal by today's standards, but it would save you at least £100, in comparison to a monthly subscription paid each month for four years.

[Lairiodd]

If we could work out the average time a player is likely to play DAoC for, then GOA could base a lifetime's subscription on that period. The idea being, that GOA wouldn't make a loss, overall.

It wouldn't work if you based it on the average lifetime. People will "self select". This means that only people who are planning to play for a long time will get the lifetime subs. The average playtime of a person with a lifetime sub would be alot higher than the average player.

For example, assume that the average player plays for 6 months, but 25% of players play for 2 years +. Most of the people in the 25% will get the lifetime subs. However, most of the people who stops playing after 6 months will not. This means that if the lifetime is the same as 6 months, then GOA lose alot.

Also, the answer to the poll depends on price , if it was the same as 1 yearly sub, then probably worth it.

It would also act as a disincentive to improve daoc. If 70% of their remaining players have lifetime subs, why both spending any money on the game.

Finally, it would show people exactly how much they are paying for the game. I am not sure that is a good idea.

[VegetaFH1]

While that might be true, it can be said the 50% of most servers populas are major daoc players, these guys are the type that wood get the lifetime subs, but if u were to deduct the time it takes for a regular player "lifetime" on daoc with the "lifetime" of a major player we can see the differance is just mind boggling.

but changes are that atleast 10% of the 50% of players that are only normal players change to major players becuase of the friendships they have found online, a perfect example of this.. (besides myself) wood be aran... or even urself Gandelf... and ofc u too Lairiodd, when u first entered this game u were nothing more then a regular player, yes? but over time u got to know the ppl of the high land an becam friends with em... so naturaly u wood want to keep those friendships alive, an in order to do so.. u have to pay the money to play the game (unless ofc they live down the road from u in witch case ur very lucky)

But im not just talkin friendships here, i know 2 ppl on this game who are very close to me who dragged it out an even got marryed, an those 2 ppl know who they are, so lets just say we take a trip into the past an lets say... one of those 2 ppl just.. didnt want to play.. what then? atleast with a lifetime sub those 2 ppl i know woodnt have to worry about paying through there noses with sub costs, and thats 2 out of a possable.....(how many ppl play daoc???) just say 1million (both euro an us servers)

me thinks goa woodnt be at a loss... but i woodnt say they wood make a huge profit on it cus once u get a lifetime sub.. thats it, goas income from THAT single player stops there an then

[awarkle]

SOE = the worst mmorpg company in the history of the universe ill just say starwars and butchered and leave it at that

as for lifetime subscriptions they wouldnt really work out what if you bought your subscription which was supposed to last 3 years and 6 months down the line the company goes under how are you left ?

i know it generally works out more expensive to buy on a month to month basis but in the end if the company folds tommorow how much money have you lost if you buy 3 months 6 months or 12 months into a game ?

i prefer to pay monthly it might work out more in the long run but in the short run i feel safer.