Hi, my name is Shawn and I’m a recovering Free-2 Play-er. The reasons I never imagined I would ever pay a subscription to play an online game stem from the fact that it’s just how I was raised. I eat every bite of food on my plate. I snatch the extra soap at hotels. I’d grab extra ketchup and napkins with my order at McDonalds so I’d never have to actually buy ketchup and napkins from the grocery store. I’m a cheap bastard.

Well, after awhile, you start to realize that paying $1.49 for a bottle of ketchup is just worth it sometimes. The same goes for your online gaming experience. Wait, did I just compare online gaming to a condiment? Yes. Yes I did.

Your first reaction (as was mine) to the thought of a monthly MMO subscription might be something like “What? $15 a month! PLUS buying the game too! Thats just absurd! I’d never in my life pay that much money for a GAME! It’s just simple entertainment!”

Well, let’s break that down a bit. Let’s approach this with the cost of the game factored into the monthly fee as well, to be fair. So with a $50 game, that comes out to $19.16666 USD a month, but for the sake of argument and tax, we’ll say a nice even $20 USD month.

What can you think of in your life that you pay $20 or more for a month?

If you’re a smoker, you’re paying roughly $5 a pack on average. Even if you smoked a half a pack a day, which also is average, you’d be spending about $75-$80 a month.

Ok, so let’s be honest. Most gamers aren’t smokers. Fair enough. Let’s delve into some other past times, hobbies and downright addictions. What else in your life would equal $20 a month?

• One family dinner for 4 at any fast food restaurant.
• Turning your thermostat down 1 degree in the winter is said to save you 10% of your heating costs per month. If your bill is $100 or more a month on average, you can easily turn that thermostat down 2 degrees for a $20 savings. A long sleeve shirt won’t kill you.
• Skip buying the newspaper every day, read your news online.
• In fact, how many magazines do you subscribe to, and not even read? Each magazine subscription is anywhere from $12-$40 a month.
• Do you really need 500 channels on Satellite TV?

I could get even more extreme with this, like making suggestions about buying generic instead of brand named foods, or saving gas by not driving like you’re in a NASCAR race from stoplight to stoplight. But I think you get the idea. If you enjoy playing MMOs, and you enjoy the experience of gaming online, just weigh that experience against the other everyday things that have become habit, to determine what you can cut out to make room for that subscription fee. And put the ketchup packets back.

As a podcaster myself, I guess it’s no big surprise that I also enjoy listening to other podcasts. I usually try to avoid the ones within the same topics as mine, because I don’t even want to know what they’re doing. I know that might sound like the opposite of what I should do, but I do what I want. I run with 12 gangs, I do what I want. Whateva.

One of the podcasts that I’ve been faithful to throughout my limited attention span interest level is the PC Gamer podcast. I’ve always enjoyed roundtable podcasts where people who actually know what they’re talking about, talk about the stuff they know about. Plus, I once had the pleasure of interviewing Kristen Salvatore (the now-Editor-In-Chief of the magazine) and we’ve corresponded a few times since then. BUT… yeah, you knew there was going to be a but, right? I need to go on a Dan Stapleton rant.

Dan Stapleton, I must admit was one of the guys on the show who I liked early on. He has an opinion, isn’t afraid to share it, and he is a huge Fallout fan. So we share that, right off the bat. But lately, I’ve found myself just wincing every time he opens his mouth. Not only does he repeat every single word he says two two times.. uh, times before before, he uh, says says uhhh it it.. uh…. but he also cuts everyone off all the time, which drives me up the effing wall. The worst is when someone is trying to talk (usually Norm) and Dan has to TALK LOUDER AND LOUDER SO HE CAN BE HEARD FIRST AND WIN…. then the point that he was so insistent on making…. just sucks because he’s stammering all over the place.

Dan Stapleton aside, I still listen to the show for many many reasons that equal out his annoyingocity. Of course there’s Kristen, who even if I didn’t kindof know, I still like her because she has this wicked sense of humor, and you just know somewhere deep down, behind the scenes, she’s probably the one with all the fart jokes.

Gary Witta, I LOVE. He is absolutely hilarious, very witty and extremely knowledgable about gaming in general. He is also the only one on the panel who gives MMOs any kind of nod. But, that said, I find his cry-baby approach to the show to be disappointing at times. The worst was a recent one where Dan said something about him, in that Dan-Stapleton-way of half-kidding, and Gary decided he was going to pout the rest of the show and not say anything. Very unprofessional, but I admit, entertaining nonetheless.

Everyone else on the show does a decent job and keeps professional, especially Jeremy Williams who seems to act as the anchor on occasion. That might stem from the fact that he’s the one who has to edit the show afterwards, and I know how that goes when your mind is focused on “I wish these guys would get back on track, this is going to be a b**** to edit”, but he does a great job. Sometimes though, I wish he would take the nerf bat to Dan Stapleton, but that would increase post-production time ten-fold, I’m sure. Maybe he could develop a macro that deleted every second word automatically. Then Dan would sound as coherent as the rest of the crew.

Well, I’ve saved the best for last because this person makes the show for me, and when they host, I actually save those episodes on my harddrive. I am, of course speaking of Senior Editor Logan Decker. His completely left-field sense of humor SLAYS ME. His Cat Fantastic episodes, and his love for squirrels, and those game-show themes he does…. wow. I actually find myself getting mildly aroused when I discover that he’s hosting an episode. If he had his own podcast, just about what goes on in that fascinating mind of his, I’d subscribe and buy the t-shirt.

So anyway, before I start telling you all my plans to name my pets and my next Tabula Rasa character after Mr Decker, I’ll stop here. In all, I really enjoy the podcast. I still listen every week and I hope they never stop. It’s the only “corporate” podcast that I listen to and can stand, because even though they’re all paid to do it, it’s still just them BSing about games and ripping on each other and having fun.

Recently this has been a hot topic among MMO gamers. We want to get away from the evil, oppressive subscription payment plan of games like World of Warcraft, right? But what ever shall we do? Would we rather pay per item or skill or have some other sort of micro transaction plan inside the game? Do we have no subscription fees, but charge for expansions or new chapters? Do we sell play time on little plastic cards that can be renewed online or purchased in retail outlets?

There is no definite answer of course, but this is something I’ve played around with in my brain for quite awhile now. So I’m going to break down the facts and give my opinion and observations on each.

First let’s take the good old reliable monthly subscription. You pay a set amount, let’s say $15.95 USD and you get access to all content in the game. This is after buying the initial game, which for argument’s sake we’ll say $49.99 USD if you bought it when it was first released. So with this method after 1 year, you will have paid roughly $230. After 3 years, you will have paid $590 USD. This of course is assuming there were no other expansions that were purchased. It is strictly based on subscription fees. The best example of this is World of Warcraft, sans Burning Crusade.

Pros:

• You know what to expect each month.
• The price won’t fluctuate, and can be figured easily into a budget.

Cons:

• Even when you don’t play, you still pay.
• It may force you into a mindset that you need to play more to “make it worth it”, so your life begins to revolve around the game more.

Ok, fair enough, now let’s look at pay per item or micro transaction plans. This is where you pay a certain amount, whether in-game itself or on the game’s website, to obtain “better” items than the non-paying players. These games are typically free to download and make their money strictly selling extras. The long and short term costs for this are variable, so we can’t compare that. This is becoming more prevalent in games today, but why?

Pros:

• Game can ideally be played completely for free if you choose
• Great for those who don’t care what their characters look like, but are simply into having fun casually.

Cons:

• Players are restricted and can’t access the entire game
• Money can add up if not regulated somehow. The expenses can easily add up to be much more than a flat subscription fee would cost, much like cellphone ring tones and mini games.

Next let’s move on to the game card option, where you pay a certain amount of money for a certain amount of play time. Again, this is not based on in-game items, but on the time played. This is an especially popular option in the East where cybercafes rule the MMO playerbase.

Pros:

• Unlike subscriptions, you only pay when you play.
• Perfect for those who don’t play enough to warrant a monthly subscription fee, but just need an occasional fix.
• Game cards can be bought at major retail stores, and can easily be given as gifts.

Cons:

• The cost per minute is much higher than if you were to pay the flat rate of a monthly subscription.
• If you lose the card, you’re out of luck.

Now let’s take a look at the old no-subscription fee plan. This is not a free game, yet it is supported solely by expansion packs and new chapters of the game. This was an option created by ArenaNet for the game Guild Wars. The initial game on release day is $49.99 USD, as are all subsequent chapters (3 games in all). There was also an expansion pack that was $29.99 upon release. If you were to compare this directly to the monthly subscription plan, you’d see that buying all chapters and the expansion, while still not paying a monthly fee in a 1-year period would result in a similar cost of $180 USD. This is lower than the $230 for that same year of WoW, yet in the long-run, over 3 years is when it is most cost-effective. Assuming you did not spend any money on other things like new character slots ($9.99 each) or other bonuses (typically in the $4.99 - $9.99 range) then you will still spend only $180 USD for those 3 years, while a subscription-based MMO will cost you $590 USD. This is a remarkable difference, yet lets go over some pros and cons.

Pros:

• Much cheaper option in the long run, while still sticking to an expected budget.
• As with the pay-per-item option, you only pay for what you want.

Cons:

• If you decided to not pay for all chapters or expansions, you will not get the entire game experience.
• Other limitation such as a low number of character slots, urging you to purchase more slots
• This eventually becomes like the pay-per-item option where the developers are offering in-game items for sale as a bonus, yet you’re still paying for the game itself.

And finally, we have the option to pay in larger chunks at a time, at a discounted rate. Some examples of this are LOTRO’s lifetime membership deal that was only available to beta testers and pre-orderers where you paid $199 USD only once, and you can play forever. This isn’t an option that’s available anymore, but they also have the option to pay in smaller chunks like 3 months, 6 months of 1 year at a time. Tabula Rasa is like this also, and with each longer chunk, the monthly fee breaks down to a smaller amount. For instance, for 1 year of LOTRO you’d pay $143.88 USD, which translates to $11.99 USD a month.

Pros:

• You’re set for life, or even just for a longer period of time.
• This can work out to be the cheapest option in the very long term, even cheaper than the “free-to-play” option

Cons:

• Very expensive up front
• If you pay a large chunk and then don’t like the game, you’re SOL

I’d like to take all of this a step further and dissect the long-term effects that some of these payment plans might evolve into, concerning the people who use them. With a monthly subscription plan there are no surprises. The type of person who would be willing to get involved with this is usually an organized person who likes to know what to expect. Or, to be honest, many people who do this are older gamers who only know this way of MMO subscription, and may be afraid to dabble in any of this new-fangled other stuff the kids are doing these days. Either way, I have no problem with any of this.

In something like LOTRO, the large-chunk or lifetime option is bound to attract some hardcore gamers who don’t mess around when it comes to their MMO of choice. The problem with this is the game didn’t actually provide that hardcore content (high level content) that those hardcore gamers needed.

In the case of Guild Wars, with it’s “free-to-play” option, it attracted many new gamers to the genre. But the inherent problem with this, is many of these people bought the initial game and since there’s no monthly fees, they use it as a big avatar-based chat room. It has the opposite effect as LOTRO, where it actually attracts many casual gamers who are not that serious about the game. This, coupled with the fact that ArenaNet has said themselves that their failed initial plan to pay their bills by selling new chapters every 6 months, makes for some disastrous results, in my opinion.

So what’s the solution?

Well, does anyone really know? I don’t think so, but I think we’re getting comfortably close to a real answer. Personally, I enjoy the larger-chunk option because I do the same thing with my auto insurance, website hosting and groceries. I’d rather go to the store once every 2 weeks and stock up, than to go back every day for the little things I might need here and there. It’s more efficient and just makes more sense to me.

So those of you who play multiple MMOs with multiple payment plans, I challenge you to look around at the community. Tell me there is no difference between the people who play games with different payment options, at least drastically different ones. I’d venture a guess that you will notice this trend, also.

Welcome to the first insertion of what I hope will be an ongoing personal blog. Heh, I said insertion. My topics will include anything and everything from random news to gaming/MMO topics to podcasting or my latest project news, to whatever else I feel like sharing with the 2 of you who may read this.

Currently, I’m working on my first audio book, or podcast novel or podiobook or whatever you’d like to call it. It has a release date slated for March 1st, so expect to hear much more about this very soon.

I have also worked on several podcasts throughout the last 2-3 years, so feel free to check those out on the Podcast page right over chyeyah.

Some goals I have for this site:

• To feed my obsessively organizational nature by cataloging my projects; past, present and future.
• To help listeners of one or more of my shows to experience other things that I’ve done, or will do.
• To actually make my own blog where I can rant about whatever I want, instead of expressing myself on other blogs scattered here and there.
• To act as a bit of motivation for the projects I have in the works by presenting a visual of what needs to be done