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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Hourly subscription
DaveRock
Member
Hello,
I'd like to join the game (final version) in the future, but I'm a parent and I don't have much time to play, so I'd get to play the game "quality" 4 times a month for a few hours... so a monthly subscription wouldn't be completely worth it.
Would it be possible on your part to consider adding an hourly subscription? The idea is that I'd pay for 100 hours (about 4 days) and spend that time in the game.
Compared to monthly, it would be a cost disadvantage, but for someone like me (and I'm sure I won't be alone) it would be better and I'd be happy to keep coming back (eventually I could switch to monthly if I get more time and play more than 100 hours a month).
Thanks for reading and commenting if you have any 🙂
I'd like to join the game (final version) in the future, but I'm a parent and I don't have much time to play, so I'd get to play the game "quality" 4 times a month for a few hours... so a monthly subscription wouldn't be completely worth it.
Would it be possible on your part to consider adding an hourly subscription? The idea is that I'd pay for 100 hours (about 4 days) and spend that time in the game.
Compared to monthly, it would be a cost disadvantage, but for someone like me (and I'm sure I won't be alone) it would be better and I'd be happy to keep coming back (eventually I could switch to monthly if I get more time and play more than 100 hours a month).
Thanks for reading and commenting if you have any 🙂
0
Comments
Lets say the game has 1000 players, 800 of which have normal subscriptions, 200 of which have this hourly version.
The game publisher still needs to maintain hardware for that 1000 players, because the 200 with hourly subscriptions 'could' log on at any moment, and expect to play.
However, they may not, and those hours would then roll over to the next month, where the publisher still needs to ensure the hardware is there for the full 1000 players, even though 200 of them paid no money this month. Those players still may not even log in at all that month, and so their hourly subscription could roll over again, and potentially again, and again, and again.
It could well be that you spend money for 100 hours of access, and that locks the publisher in to needing to ensure your access to the games servers for the entire life of the game.
At absolute best, if a subscription like this were offered, it would be offered in a way where such subscriptions have second tier access to the servers. It is the only real way to make it viable - and I personally think that would be a bad idea.
ESO is good for sessions.
Put the money fact aside (which you wont see any studio doing this), this mmo is open world and highly competitive.
You will be left behind, you wont have connections to complete certain milestones or find means to complete your crafting and character equipping.
You wont be able to deal with PvP without a small community.
In ESO and other such mmos there is no progression. All content is optional and all goals can be achieved at your leisure. They are designed in this way.
As a parent, that's my advice.
There are also dynamic servers and here I think they are planning to use them, i.e. according to the number of currently active players they will connect resources... which would eliminate the whole "problem" you describe.
And if not, it would only be possible to have a certain number of slots reserved for such accounts, if it was exhausted, another such player would be in the queue - the assumption would be that they wouldn't be in the game for extra long - so it was a "low priority" account, but it would still be a potential player who would eventually move to normal.
This is pretty shortsighted... there weren't a lot of things before and because someone tried them, they are successful
Anyway, can I ask, do you know anyone who has tried it and it didn't turn out well?
The example of setting 100h for a price was just a sketch... Price/hour ratio and other limitations would be up for discussion within the company. I'm merely suggesting something new here that I think would have potential for a significant portion of players.
Because I don't find anything else interesting? I've played Ultima Online and ESO seems like a great successor.
Why I'd like to play it even if I don't have as much time as others is that
- friends are planning to play it
- even if I play at my own pace, I'll still have something to do and the power to explore the world
- even if I'm behind, I'll be able to play with my friends
it is a long term game, after some time the time to play may change and it would then be possible to switch to a "normal" subscription and devote more time to the game.
However, with the current setup I would most likely try the game to see what it's like, but economically it wouldn't be worth it when I only get to play for about 4-5 hours a week.
Technically, you are absolutely right. The funny thing is that he is right as well.
The fact that no studio has ever done that does not mean that it is impossible or pointless. In the meantime, the fact that no studio has ever done is also an indirect factor that lowers the priori probability of Intrepid doing it for the first time.
Every improvement started with a suggestion, but not every suggestion ended up being an improvement.
As long as it'd be prohibitively expensive for a '6 hours every day' player to do, then it'd be fine as an option to add.
I totally agree with that. I am not an expert and the decision is up to the company
If someone was playing 6 hours a day, it would be worth it to pay monthly. The hourly price should be a significant disadvantage over the monthly, but still better for the occasional player.
Yes. Get your priorities straight. What you ask wont happen because there is no need to accomodate that.
Look at prepaid phone sims. They dont exist in the shops. No phone company will bring them back. Even if someone says "I dont do that many phone calls"
Also keep in mind, that you may reduce the price of your monthly subscription if you use the referral system and invite friends or other players to create an account using your referral link; or even make it free for you if you invite enough players.
I would be against this thb! Nobody is playing 24/7 but everyone still has to pay because intrepid servers don't get to the ability to get money back when their 10k population server only has 2k playing during the night, they don't get to not pay intrepid staff for the same reason. Everyone pays x so Intrepid knows it's income is y so they know they have z to spend on maintaining the company. I think the Subscription model brings in a more of a dedicated crowd to the game whether they are 40 hrs a week or 10 hrs a week.
Oh and just some Dad advice if 15 dollars is a lot of money to you then maybe you should save that for priorities that are a lot more important than gaming. Not a jab just facts!
Disney World also has no hourly entry passes. Neither could you cut college fees by asking for part time (or for example 12-hours-a-day) access to campus and education resources.
The reason is because even though this would be a more precise payment system for you, the costs to provide this service to you do not go away. They have to fund the entire infrastructure 24/7 so you can play at any hour you would decide to. So unstable income from irregular hourly, on-demand payments holds little value to them since their costs are consistent.
IF a game would introduce a hourly payment model, it would be more expensive than a monthly subscription payment model (if you break it down by "$ per hour of access"), like in all other cases: If you buy in bulk, each unit gets cheaper.
I mean, I'm a parent too. I just play after the kids have gone to bed. Can get 3-5hrs in, depending on when I go to bed. More at the weekends.
Being a parent doesn't stop you from playing games! And if you're a new parent, you can use that time when your baby just won't go the hell to sleep, and sit them with you while you play. I'd be interested to know how old your kids are.
And Marketing is not going to want people thinking about that hourly, daily or weekly.
Edit: I see now your reply above:
In this case from your point of view it would make sense.
From IS point of view probably will not happen as long as there are enough players populating the servers.
But is better to observe the Alpha 2, how long it will be, how the game will end up... Maybe your life will also be different by the time the game launches.
He recognizes he cannot play in moderation and the fact that he is paying a monthly sub makes him feel like he is losing money by not playing every waking second. Just one of his many quirks. But something like this would allow him to play
Maybe, but my take on it really is the Min/Max mentality can go deeper than your characters dps. Some people are just wired differently
This is very true - but ain't rapids min/max mentality goes even deeper.
If this isn't something that can work for Intrepid (when costs are factored in), then it isn't something that is likely to happen.
I wonder how Netflix will take your approach on that? 😂
To be fair, Netflix and other streaming services offering a per show option would probably cut down on piracy a lot.
No, no it wouldn't! lol
It actually would - which is obvious when you consider the reason most piracy of shows and movies right now is happening.
However, it isn'treally a topic for this thread - or these forums.