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Steven! Your monthly fee is too LOW!

My first MMO was Everquest. It had a box price and a monthly fee of $15. Since that time, inflation has reduced the value in purchasing power of $15 to about $7.50.

AOC has no box price and a $15 per month subscription fee. I believe this to be a flawed pricing model for a AAA MMO. I want Steven and his team to be rewarded for their work. Steven has put his personal fortune at risk. His team should be highly paid and get great performance bonuses.

I want top people and lots of them to be constantly smashing bugs and rolling out content as fast as possible. Top people want to get paid their worth and will be at risked to be stolen by other companies who will pay them more if not paid correctly. To keep such people and to hire more of them will take a lot of money which this current financial model will not support IMHO.

To keep the company flush with cash to be able to do great thing for their customers (us players), Steven needs to revamp his pricing model.

Here is my reasonable suggestion - box price of $45 to $55. Monthy fee of $20 to $25. No cosmetic sales.

Now, the usual suspects will have a negative knee jerk reaction to such a change. These people need to be ignored. This game is just not for them if they are that price sensitive. However, I do believe that the vast, vast majority of the potential player base will recognize the value proposition as reasonable and justified to get the quality game we all want now and into the future with massive content coming online at a much faster pace.

Everyone will win. Steven is rewarded with an excellent return on his investment. The team is rewarded with top pay and bonuses. The players are rewarded with terrific entertainment that, when calculated on an hourly basis, is dirt cheap!

Comments

  • daveywaveydaveywavey Member, Alpha Two
    Here is my reasonable suggestion - box price of $45 to $55. Monthy fee of $20 to $25. No cosmetic sales.

    That was a very long way of saying: No Cosmetic Store plz
    This link may help you: https://ashesofcreation.wiki/


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  • Temijin_DeathStalkyrTemijin_DeathStalkyr Member, Alpha Two
    Not really. I want a terrific game ASAP with top quality content coming regularly. Cosmetic sales would just not be needed. They are now to improve cash flow.

    This market is not as price sensitive as I believe Steven thinks it to be. Most of us are not still in high school washing mom's car for cash or in college surviving on ramen. We have actual jobs to be able to pay to have top quality MMO entertainment for those few hours we have to play.
  • StewBadStewBad Member, Alpha Two
    Someone make this person CFO immediately!
  • I will have 3-4 accounts at my household.

    $45-60 / month is the top end we will pay.

    Unless there's a family plan coming soon.
  • CaerylCaeryl Member, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    'Let's pay a box cost every month'

    How about we don't do that
  • BlipBlip Member, Alpha Two
    This post is just to farm responses. Troll much, buddy? 😅
  • Temijin_DeathStalkyr i think it should be 100$ per month, that's more reasonable to me.






    ps. (kappa)
  • RocketFarmerRocketFarmer Member, Alpha Two
    edited October 18
    Why not tithe? 10% of your income for an MMORPG. Very fair to all income levels. Unemployed get to play for free.

    In addition, a Nigerian prince has left you $10 million. All you need to do to collect is send $5,000 to the address below…
  • VoxtriumVoxtrium Member, Alpha Two
    In all honesty I would be open to $20 a month, no need to remove cosmetics lol. I think they would get broad pushback above $20 though. I am also not opposed to a box cost = to a 1 month sub fee. Help deter those bots a bit :)
  • CawwCaww Member, Alpha Two
    I very much disagree that the cost structure is inadequate given the wide spread F2P options people can enjoy.
  • PyrololPyrolol Member, Alpha Two
    League of Legends is one of the most profitable multiplayer games around

    Free to play (after 15years)
    Only charge you have is optional cosmetics
    rvid9f6vp7vl.png
  • DepravedDepraved Member, Alpha Two
    My first MMO was Everquest. It had a box price and a monthly fee of $15. Since that time, inflation has reduced the value in purchasing power of $15 to about $7.50.

    AOC has no box price and a $15 per month subscription fee. I believe this to be a flawed pricing model for a AAA MMO. I want Steven and his team to be rewarded for their work. Steven has put his personal fortune at risk. His team should be highly paid and get great performance bonuses.

    I want top people and lots of them to be constantly smashing bugs and rolling out content as fast as possible. Top people want to get paid their worth and will be at risked to be stolen by other companies who will pay them more if not paid correctly. To keep such people and to hire more of them will take a lot of money which this current financial model will not support IMHO.

    To keep the company flush with cash to be able to do great thing for their customers (us players), Steven needs to revamp his pricing model.

    Here is my reasonable suggestion - box price of $45 to $55. Monthy fee of $20 to $25. No cosmetic sales.

    Now, the usual suspects will have a negative knee jerk reaction to such a change. These people need to be ignored. This game is just not for them if they are that price sensitive. However, I do believe that the vast, vast majority of the potential player base will recognize the value proposition as reasonable and justified to get the quality game we all want now and into the future with massive content coming online at a much faster pace.

    Everyone will win. Steven is rewarded with an excellent return on his investment. The team is rewarded with top pay and bonuses. The players are rewarded with terrific entertainment that, when calculated on an hourly basis, is dirt cheap!

    just say you don't want cosmetics lmao
    those cosmetics will make more money than all the monthly fees combined. if the actual value of $15 is $7 or whatever, then that's good for us, we can play this awesome game for cheap and get carried by the cosmetics whales.
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  • GrulshGrulsh Member, Alpha Two
    I think a monthly model of $12-15.99 is perfect. They can sell mount skins etc for more. I hope player skins are not overwhelming though. I always felt sin AION that, all those player skins took away from that old school player immersion for an mmo. Some epic looking armor imo should be granted via challenging content.
    ..."to lay down one's life for one's friends"
  • wakkytabbakywakkytabbaky Member, Alpha Two
    edited October 20
    as someone from aus that already is paying 22aud for a 15usd subscription im fine with the current pricing.
    only price hike i would go is to 20usd but after that it gets a bit ridiculous. once game hits release and actual subs start paying steven and studio will be sitting pretty even at the current cost.
  • Hutchy1989Hutchy1989 Member, Alpha Two
    I think you are underestimating how much money cosmetics make.
  • VeeshanVeeshan Member, Alpha Two
    if they didnt have a cosmetic cash shop too yeah i would say so too. although they could do a premium sub fee which is more but comes with bonus cash shop money too if they wanted im sure som people would go for that one aswell
  • to be fair i think the way right now is fair
  • Temijin_DeathStalkyrTemijin_DeathStalkyr Member, Alpha Two
    Why do people expect top quality yet do not want to pay for it? The monthly fee has half the buying power it did 25 years ago when the $15.00 fee became a standard.

    To be fair, it is not a fair price for the ownwership and developmental team. If someone couldn't come up with another $5 or $10 a month for quality entertainment, the game realy isn't for them. There are plenty of other games in their price range. Not everyone can afford a Mercedes even though they may want one.

    The incremental loss in player revenue from those who are unable to pay the increase would more than be made up by the increase in fee from the remaining player base who are willing to pay for quality.

    If Steven and his team deliver what is promised (which I wholeheartedly believe will happen), then the game has been massively underpriced compared to the market.

    As players, we cannot constantly expect more regular quality content and feature improvements and not pay for it. You end up with a game run by an underpaid skeleton crew always on the verg of shutting down.

    If someone couldn't afford a $40 box price and another $10 per month, then they most likely wouldn't have a rig to properly run the game anyway.

    I'm sure I am not alone in wanting this game to be a huge success. That means the customers get the quality entertainment they desire, the ownership gets a good return on investment, and the dev team is competitively paid. "Everyone" wins!

    The monthly cash burn rate may force a pricing change as it is.
  • CaerylCaeryl Member, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    I'm sure Steven will take your donations if you want to give double or triple the established MMO pricing standard
  • I think its very important, that there is not a box set price. The monthly sub could go up to 30 bucks, I would pay it no problem at all. 30 bucks aint nothing to spend on a months fun and games. But the boxset price is what brings new people in. I really hope, that they have some sort of EQ2 arrangement, where you can start on an Island, that is meat for news players, where you can get to level 10, and try the basic systems. To leave that island and get your character into the normal game world, you have to subscribe. Then people can try it, and it makes a lot more people willing to try it, when it cost nothing.
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