Originally Posted by
Galdethriel
You and I both know the suggestion is a little more constructive than just making the game cheaper. The idea is that a less expensive game is more manageable and appealing, especially when wanting to hold onto plots long term. This could well mean more players, more plot holders, and VI could potentially be making more money from that than it currently is holding onto old MMO pricing.
People will justify payment for a game if they really want to play it - assuming that they can manage to justify paying for HZ instead of various other modern MMOs that still charge as well as the increasing number of MMOs that don't - can they then continue to justify paying for HZ when times are hard? And when they can't do so for a while, can they then justify coming back, having to work to get back to where they left off so that they can repeat the process all over again? My friend couldn't.
And as for offering gameplay - we need to get this idea out of our heads. HZ offers playable dragons. That's it. Everything else is covered in other MMOs.
I can see that I'm not going to get too far, but I just want to leave you with this final suggestion for the subscription model, one I think wouldn't step on VI's toes in the way you believe the other suggestions will.
Basic sub - same price and character slots, but add a single plot ownership right to it
Gifted sub - same price, 10 character slots, add two plots
Single Holding sub - low price (eg. 3-5 dollars), no character slots, one plot
Double Holding sub - low-mid price (6-7 dollars), no character slots, two plots
Get the old players back, let people hold onto plots, populate the world a little. Things can add up.