Billing Feedback

[Nayal]

I have a new idea that, in my opinion, addresses the issue of both "getting the butts in the seats" and giving current, long time, players the option of keeping what they have without significant extra monetary input.

Introductory or Addon subscription:
$7.95/mo
1 plot
1 character slot
3 con slots per imperial con
1 concurrent login

Standard subscription:
$12.95/mo
1 plot
5 character slots
15 con slots per imperial con (a small increase)
1 concurrent login

Subs would stack in any combination, so you could have 1 standard and 1 intro/addon or 2 standard or, heck, 5 standard if you want!

Then offer the ability to purchase the subs, and combinations in 3, 6, and 12 month increments. Make sure to discount the 6 and 12 month increments, say $1/month per sub for the 6 month and $2/month per sub for the 12 month. So, for instance, having 1 standard and 1 addon would cost you $202.80 for the year ($16.90/mo) or $113.40 for six months ($18.90/mo) or $20.90/mo on a monthly.

I think this offers both simplicity (only 2 subscription options) and customizability since you can combine them in whatever manner you want. This also doesn't raise the price at all for those who want to keep their current, $12.95/mo, subscription and not lose any features.

[Threxx]

Hmm... I mainly just read over the edited OP, but I have to second a lot of the posts on here that the Basic subs should get at least 3-5 consignment slots. The player-driven economy is one of the main selling features of your game (this is something HZ has that most games don't). If this sub is truly intended for new players, then you don't want to exclude them from a major component of the game from Day 1.

While the same argument can be made for plots, you don't necessarily need one to be able to adventure in Istaria effectively. In addition, you can't really buy and construct a plot until you're deep into the game. However, it is VERY difficult to make money and buy adventuring gear without the use of consigners, and that affects you from Day 1. Prospective players will leave very quickly if they cannot be effective in the early adventuring (levels 1-20).

[Sunuke]

What is the reason to cut the consigner amount from 50 to 10 as having higher amounts would give a better chance on a healthy in game community?

Why didn't you guys wait for 6 months and show us some improvement to the game before making this move?

[vahrokh_the_ancient]

You need to understand that Horizons is an old, out dated, buggy, drama filled and very unstable MMO that simple won't bring the money of the top contenders in the market today.

At the moment I am playing the top played MMO on the planet, in the top guild of the server, in the top content. I worked hard for almost 3 years to be up there.

I'd trade 100 of this for this out dated and buggy game if I could play my dragon again. Today.

Do you recall how the one other MMO *promising* half of what Horizons *delivers* today is years away from being finished at all?


As for the possible subscriptions, I'd leave the gifted subscription at exactly what it gives now, maybe with a reasonable price increase.
Reasonable means, people see what newer MMOs give and do comparisons.

A steep increase in subs only gives the impression that you don't have the money to even begin reviving the game and need to bleed the current subscribers.
A steep increase looks bad for the "loyal" customers as well. I understand you are "new" (sort of) owners and the predecessors errors will cost you a lot, but so goes the World.

As for the options, I'd really like for it being like shown above by others: you buy a "basic block" and add as many smaller options as you wish.

First of all, i want to state i'm very glad to see Horizons is in other ( and i hope more well-able ) hands, and to see you communicate

I'm a former player of Unity and only stopped because my chars vanished...

I'm also in contact with several former unity players who'd gladly come back if they had their chars.

Quoted for holy truth, every syllabe of it.

I'm a former player of Unity with others on my messengers that are like slobbering to play again.
Since Luca told me that the Unity data is still here, I'd love an option to import my character(s) on Chaos.

I don't care if it costs USD 1000, 2000 or 5000 and requiring a guy going in Germany to physically query the server, nor that it requires to lose my plots (well, maybe give the building blocks in inventory like in the past) just please provide the option for that.

attract back former unity players by giving them their toons back

Yes, pretty please *kitty eyes*.

One of the things this game has always lacked was marketing.

That would be good. There's little to complain how Horizons sold poorly in my country, when I have never seen a marketing ad, not even post card size.

The MMO market as a whole has already rejected what Horizons had to offer. So much that is has now gone through 3 companies and sent two into bankruptcy

Not really. They rejected the "vaporware" concept that once ran rampant, the "smart company direction" concept, the "sell alpha code as genuine because we are out of cash" and so on.

If Horizons had a good ownership, was finished, not open to huge exploits and actually had an end game with epic drops, it'd be a top seller.
Don't think that success as MMO = 9 million subs. WoW is unique at that, 80-100k subs are already a big accomplishment and Horizons had the "numbers", the potential to be it.

I agree with you, but, since that is the case, the basic subscription should not even be included in the deal. Why torture someone who can't pay the normal price, by showing them what they can't have? It's ridiculous.

There's not optimal solution, only partial deals to avoid the worst. (yay optimism!)
Look at the bright side: they won't see the whole game, but still will see the game at all.
Plots and the related database usage are a substantial cost even in an era of low cost hardware, it maps into the subscription fee.
They are stuck with the old and expensive hardware for a long while too (Luca told me the huge number of computers required to make one single shard) so they won't see cheap storage for a while either.

Why didn't you guys wait for 6 months and show us some improvement to the game before making this move?

I have a persisting feeling that they are once again trying and acquire Horizons without a dime to back it up... hence the ravenous need for cash.

[Fyrentennimara]

There's not optimal solution, only partial deals to avoid the worst. (yay optimism!)
Look at the bright side: they won't see the whole game, but still will see the game at all.
Plots and the related database usage are a substantial cost even in an era of low cost hardware, it maps into the subscription fee.
They are stuck with the old and expensive hardware for a long while too (Luca told me the huge number of computers required to make one single shard) so they won't see cheap storage for a while either.

There is no bright side to that statement. At least they'll get to see the game?? Whooopeeee! A game that has housing and lairs, but they won't get that part. They'll get all the bugs and all the problems, but can't even experience the ownership? Bleh. Hurrah, that's full of fail.

But, what I say doesn't matter. What does matter is actions. They speak louder than all words, and if they exclude a portion of the population from experiencing the game based on RL money, they'll do it without my monetary backing. I'll not associate with that.

[Justa Mirage]

*oh well a large thing got accidentally deleted*

In a nutshell:

I like a non-stackable introductory price that is low priced (around 6-7 dollars) that would give a player no plot ownership but only 1 or 2 character slots and a 5 consignment slot allocation. This way a player can see if the game is right for them (This is not meant for Veteran players)

Veterans that have stuck it out with the game expect and deserve better than to be forced due to financial reasons, to not be able to play certain characters, lose plots of land, and reduce their consignment slots.

It's a slap in the face for those of us that stuck it out over the almost 4 years the game has been live. Even if there isn't a non-stackable ability for new players to sign on, at least make the monthly cost for the per month player affordable for those wishing to continue playing but can't afford to maintain the cost structures mentioned.

I am not going to second guess how much it costs to keep this game afloat and properly developed. I can guess it takes lots of capital, but my words reflect what a lot have already mentioned here and I will repeat them for clarity:

If we are to pay the extra money per month to maintain what we already own, we deserve to see a better game for our sacrifice. As stated just recently, this game has gone through 3 owners with 1 bankrupt proceeding. Those hearing a price increase that have been here for years, are very wary that the money will not be well spent and the game will stall and stagnate once more.

There is a LOT of bruised souls out here that have the "fool me once... shame on you..." attitude. This is going to be your biggest hurdle. Winning over the nay-sayers that disbelieve the game will "improve" with a hike in fees. Maybe an olive branch needs to be extended to those people by showing them or actually improving the game to let them know that the money will be well allocated to the future development of the game, and not into the pockets of some greedy company that is "out to ******** your credit card for all they can get" and do nothing in return but empty promises.

This is probably the BIGGEST things to overcome when it comes to laying out the pricing. Drawing back the customers who left with a higher price tag with "promised development" leaves a sour taste in the mouth for some. Which is why an introductory price with less amenities should be thought about.

Those returning players probably have an active account, have been playing for free, and want to keep their plot / lair / characters, but pay an introductory fee. This is when there has to be an accounting of property per player. This lower price will assume the player has no account or an inactive one and does not care to reactivate it.

A lot has to do with people who have left for 2 years, expecting their property to still be available, or they recently logged on for free and refreshed their login so they won't lose their property. To those that have left the game, and have characters and property they want to retain, they should pay a full price. Those that left the game years ago and want to start fresh, with no retaining of their old account, should be given a price to see if they want to come back...

I could be wrong about all of this... so I will stop rambling :P

[Poddu]

Well, my first thought is that this whole idea is a big mess. The initial joy felt by the community has, by and large, been transformed into muted suspicion. Certainly, like many, I've adopted a 'wait & see' attitude.

Way to go!

The entire thrust of HZ's message seems to have been written by a "suit." Someone whose scope of vision is to maximize profits at all costs. It's certainly not a discussion about 'changing' prices, it's only a discussion about 'raising' prices. Further, whatever happened to 'Family-friendly gameplay' ? There's absolutely nothing in the entire pricing system that's 'friendly' to families. No breaks whatsoever for families. Nope .. sounds like a "suit" to me. Blech!

Of course, one big change from 2005 to 2007 is the appearance of MMORPGs that do not charge a monthly fee. Guild Wars has been followed by other titles (mostly minor titles) that have embraced this philosophy. Currently, Horizons fits right into that minor title class, and the path to greater success may not lie at all through a subscription increase. In fact, it would seem like the surest way to attract new customers might be a price reduction, at least until you get a large and happy subscriber base. But, what do I know, i'm not a very good "suit."

[HratLi]

Wow... what an awesome thread and GREAT responses.

Personally I cap my 'gaming' budget at $14.95 a month per person, and I would reward the 6 and 12 month subscriptions with a discount since, even though it's a lower dollar income per month, it increases immediate available cash, and the chances of people just letting an account 'sit' there when seeing a charge once a year or so is slightly higher than the monthly folks who have an account but never play.

But at that $14.95 I would want to see CHANGES, story line, and improvements. I am spoiled truely by AC1's story progression. Talk about a gripping involving, multi year arc... I felt INVOLVED, a participant, and ACTIVE in the state of the world. Witnessing a time that was epic and like no other. (I had to stop playing due to school pressures a bit after the destruction of Arwic aka Charwic for those AC1 people). I HAVE felt like that here, but only on and off. The freeing of the Dryads, the mines for instance, end of the world(shards) events still bring back fond memories. I think you folks produced enough content at that time, but had HORRIBLE problems with the pacing. I had several threads on how you could have moved a patch that was 'it' for content for close to 6 months, and spread it out almost weekly and not made it seem like we hit a 'wall' when everyone finished it's content in a week or two and had to sit around for a bunch of months afterwards.

EDIT: And what justa said better than I can, I would be hesitant to rejoin even at the stated $14.95 price until I could be SURE that stuff was happening. That puts you in a catch 22. You need the cash to staff and improve, but people won't give you it until you can prove it.

Maybe a 'new ownership/management special' might be in order that can give you a temporary bump by having the fence sitters sign in will get you enough cash flow to get changes going for a few months then at the expiration move to the new pricing after you have a more proven track record? I know a LOT of people who won't pay the full $14.95 even for curiosity sake until they see if you folks are committed and growing the game. A lot of the people I've seen leave did so because this was a 'dead end game' No improvements, bad problems with Management == no fun.
/EDIT

The tiered accounts are great ideas. It allows people to do an 'extended' trial as others have said. Also allows for families to play together for less than full accounts. The kids can work on their parent's plots like the slave labour they are I think it should be noted we have had a larger population of 'families' play this game than any other I've seen. (AC1,2, DAOC, WoW, and Ultima for instance). All because of the 'constructive' aspects of this game that do NOT focus on killing everything that moves.

I AM tempted to suggest that you allow even the basic accounts access to 'basic' plots. Meaning something that is Tier 2 or 3 and under buildings and a 25x25 max size or something. However I can ALSO see this being a huge incentive to get a full account at all. It's a tough call. Having a plot is addictive, so I want to SHARE that addiction, even to newbies, but yet encourage them strongly to 'move on' and upgrade. So Capping the size and tier of the plot might be the way to go. With the Novian system it's relatively painless to do the upgrade to a new plot when/if they decide to do so.


Keep up the great communications, and a thumbs up to the community for being involved.


-HraLi's player Tyme

[Raeshlavik]

At the moment I am playing the top played MMO on the planet, in the top guild of the server, in the top content. I worked hard for almost 3 years to be up there.

I'd trade 100 of this for this out dated and buggy game if I could play my dragon again. Today.

I'm in a similar situation. In reality, the timing of this news coundn't be better as many, many people in that top MMO are burning out and looking for something new.

Me personally, I figure there is a year or so before the next big content push happens and I fell the need to go see what all of this Northrend noise is about - so until then I've pitched my virtual tent here.

Do you recall how the one other MMO *promising* half of what Horizons *delivers* today is years away from being finished at all?

I don't think I was alone in seeing the *amazing* parallels between Horizons-past and Vanguard-current - right down to the 'running out of money and pushing alpha code as a boxed product'...

The difference here is that SoE has, well, all of the money and is planning a re-launch when (if) they finally get the thing working. That will take a mighty bite out of any momentum any other non-top-10 MMO has built up.

As an aside, after analyzing the whole sordid story of Vanguard I've determined that they failed due to too much reliance on art and graphics. Sigil, as a company, was something like 70% artists and even the first "patch" they did after release was almost entirely graphics updates...

While Horizons looks dated, at least it has some playability, which is obviously more important in the long run.

There's not optimal solution, only partial deals to avoid the worst. (yay optimism!)
Look at the bright side: they won't see the whole game, but still will see the game at all.
Plots and the related database usage are a substantial cost even in an era of low cost hardware, it maps into the subscription fee.
They are stuck with the old and expensive hardware for a long while too (Luca told me the huge number of computers required to make one single shard) so they won't see cheap storage for a while either.

I'd be very interested to know what the server stack(s) are made up of. Is it old Sun gear? IBM blades? Generic 4u rackmounts with P4's? Just curious.

(I work in the games industry - Systems design and Load/Perfomance testing to be precise)

That said though, fortunately between the time HZ went online and now, storage costs for both ram and hard drives has plummeted, proccessors are almost infinitely more powerful for the same cost, database technology has come quite a ways, and bandwith is dirt cheap...

I have a persisting feeling that they are once again trying and acquire Horizons without a dime to back it up... hence the ravenous need for cash.

Well, there are three (count 'em, three) people working on HZ right now, from what I've read elsewhere. So, given that, it's amazing that anything other than paperwork has been done in the last few weeks.

I would figure that once billing goes back online and they get a chance to see what the lay of the land looks like, we'll see some job placement adds popping up in the Arizona area so that some long-term work can get started.

They may have a bit of an issue due to company placement as the talented-yet-recently-layed-off MMO folks are all in SoCal, Austin, or Quebec right now... There's a few MMO programmers here in Denver that free'd up with the closing of NetDevil's "AutoAssault" - and rumor has it the dev-team on LegoWorld are polishing resumes pending the first deliverable here in a bit.

But, to stay somewhat within the bounds of the thread topic, I feel that we - the player base - will get what when put in. There's only so much that can be done as a grass-roots group before you need to start kicking in some actual money.

Who knows, If Vi can get HZ out of its flat spin and on a somewhat stable flight plan again, with our support, it's not too big of a stretch to see some VC coming their way... I mean, look at EA/Mythic - DAOC was in a similar boat as HZ when EA decided to play the MMO game and bought them. Now we have Warhammer Online - which borrows *heavily* from the DAOC design (I would say it's DAOC-II), and the buzz is that WAR will be the 'next big thing' and 'the WoW killer'...

In the crazy world of computer games, anything is possible.

[C`gan]

I know this is a stretch. It doesn't make much sense. But why not put out an updated box on store shelves? Bring the DVD install to current updates on live. Something to get out to the public that Horizons is still here.

[Royal]

Dunno if was posted already, but:

Exclude the "new player islands" Imperial Consigners from the max-items list.


Anyone can figure out why.

[LOVWYRM]

sounds like a good idea to me, C´gan.

And I´ll pre- order 20 T-shirts with pics from HZ, and posters and cards..
Having no better ideas-WHY NOT?

[Vahrokh]

sounds like a good idea to me, C´gan.

And I´ll pre- order 20 T-shirts with pics from HZ, and posters and cards..
Having no better ideas-WHY NOT?

I want an Horizons red dragon (!) shirt!

Actually, it'd be easy enough to provide the game with the option to order it with the colors of your in game beastie.

[gopher65]

I think you guys are looking at this "basic" account think backwards. It isn't that *someone is going to be excluded from part of the game*. It's that *if they aren't going to purchase a plot anyway, why should they pay for it?*

For the longest time I didn't own a plot with HZ. Character slots are meaningless to me, cause I really only have 3 characters, and I could drop one of those (1 main on chaos, 1 hatchling on chaos, and one young biped on order).

Why should I have to pay a higher subscription price JUST FOR A PLOT I DON'T WANT? That's what you're telling me I have to do. There are many people out there for whom a basic account would be the way to go. And if they want a plot later on, they can upgrade their account.

As for the price increase, even though I understand why they want to do it, I disagree with their belief that it will bring in more money. I'd say a *decrease* should be in order right now, not an increase. Moresubs*smallersubprice = moremoney.

[Sunuke]

I fully agree here with you gopher.

If the sub price would be lower more players would be tempted to come back and more would be tempted to try out the game, as the game would be developed they can over time increase the sub.

If they would lower the sub I might even go for the yearly payment for my 7 accounts so they would get more money as they would have shown they would be willing to comprimise with us while I normally pay per 6 months, while the way it's looking right now i'd do it monthly

[Death-knell]

I have to disagree. One of the big draws to this game is the crafting and building. Asking people pay extra for a plot is just silly. It's part of the game and should be included.
I don't think lowering the price and stripping your options is going to increase anything. The price it's at now is rock bottom as MMO's go but your getting what you pay for.....HZ is a unique game and I miss it dearly. I love my draggie. I would not mind paying $14.95 to keep my account status quo.
They should give that a shot for a few months as they improve the game and add stuff in, sure it will take them longer with 3 people but as others before have said, it's going to take some actual improvements in the game to get more people subbing....not price gimmicks.

[Arietna]

get the billing system working at the old price.. see how many of us JUMP at the chance to actually support you..

and then see how your income changes (with recommendations from existing players to old ones to return, actually GETTING subs from those that are currently playing for free...)

Offer character transfers to old Unity players if that's quicker than getting the whole thing up and running.. I know a lot of Unity players that are now settled on Chaos and would actually not want to move back to Unity if they had the option of relocating their Unity characters to Chaos..

[Soresha]

I played on Unity and I had 3 accounts/subscriptions. Why? Because I had 2 plots and a lair. I only had 2 proper characters, my dragon and my saris.

(NB: To clarify for our US friends, whatever arrangement it is you have to combine multiple subs on one account, that never existed on Unity. A 2nd plot meant getting a 2nd account.)

From what I remember, there were quite a few Unity players with multiple accounts too, all paying out the extra money for the same reason: plot+plot, plot+lair, plot+plot+plot... it was all about the fun of building, the convenience of silo farms or holding on to the guild master plot, etc.

Ok once we had those multiple accounts there were other advantages too, several of us had HZs running on 2 PCs side by side with different characters logged in, one buffing or dragging a CD for the other... but that wasn't the reason we paid more money.

Now I haven't waded through the maths, for one thing I can't think in terms of US dollars. However do make sure you don't accidentally lose income by making it cheaper for people to have multiple plots/lairs!

Basic Subscriptions:
I think the idea of a cheap sub for new players after a trial period is a good one. It might also support players with lower incomes.

Here's my idea: allow the basic subs to have a 25x25 plot, but nothing bigger. There are (were?) far too many of those little 25x25 plots around, both in guild towns and all across Istaria. Established players have always shunned them, they're just too small. However they'd be ideal for getting new players hooked on construction!

Give them a taster, then when they want more they'll have to move up to the full-priced, normal sub. They can upgrade to a decent-sized plot and take their novians with them. This might also help to prevent the larger plots being bought up by players who then realise they don't like plot-building afterall.

For dragon players, you'd have to introduce the equivalent in the form of cheap, basic lairs. I'd suggest a size of 4x3x2 (erm, 96x72x48?) - that's just enough for a t1/t2 lair or hall and a couple of storage chambers. It would be a close equivalent to the t1 guildhouse and a few silos that will fit on a 25x25 plot. (I think that's right, I'm doing this from memory and I haven't played since Unity went down.) The other advantage of this size is you don't need as much terrain to fit the lairs into, so placing them should be be relatively easy. They'll fit in the spaces where you couldn't originally get the decent-sized lairs to fit.

Revenue from Unity Players:
I think you need to consider the importance of plots/lairs very carefully when looking at what revenue you can get from Unity players.

A character copy to the existing shards will probably only get you 1 sub per player. A character copy plus novians will still probably only get you 1 sub per player, because people won't feel the need to rebuild more than one plot or lair.

A complete server copy, Unity resurrected exactly as it was when GN sent the data to EI... well we'd still have our plots and lairs, our guild towns, and returning players would probably pay the subs necessary to keep all that they had previously built intact. (NB: You might want to highlight how plot reclamations work, since they were missing from Unity.)

I think plots/lairs also affect how likely Unity players are to return. I know some people would be happy just to run/fly their main character around Istaria again. But there are a significant number of other people who consider their building efforts such a major part of the game that they probably would not return without them.

The effort required to rebuild a fully developed guild town is too much, even if by some miracle a guild town was available to buy on Chaos/Order. And those of us who spend every last bit of money we had to win the best lairs in the auctions, those lairs just won't be available again either. And the same will be true for the largest plots and those in the best locations. Please don't forget that the European veterans you are hoping to attract back had all these things on Unity.

I do realise there is a hardware requirement to restoring Unity as a European server, and I too have heard that a server requires "several machines". I have no idea of the financial cost involved, however I would ask you to consider it an investment, if you want to see the playerbase grow again. You might also want to consider the cross-atlantic lag seen by EU players playing on US shards, I messed around a bit on the US shards in the past and it was quite noticeable at times.

Soresha

[Fyrentennimara]

Let me clarifiy my position. I'm not really arguing for those people who won't use the plot. I'm arguing against them enticing people to play this game with a low subscription fee, and the barring them from an aspect of gameplay because they had to choose that subscription fee. Of course there will be people who don't want a plot, but..so? What about the ones that DO and can't pay more??

Gopher, some people just will not be able to pay $15/mo. And some people can barely pay $13/mo. It isn't fair to them to entice them to play and then watch them not be able to experience land ownership, it's just ridiculous! why in the world can't they have that basic subscription be called a "trial sub" and have it have a certain day limit on it? Better yet, why would they need different price figures in the first place? No other game does that, why should Hz?? WoW doesn't offer several different pricing structures, barring you from playing a dwarf priest or something goofy and inexcusable like that because you can't pay a higher price! And Blizzard is one of the most money grubbing companies on the entire planet! You don't see SoE(snicker)offering several different rates and then barring you from being Jedi, do you? No. So why would Hz do it? You can come here and play adventure, but don't think about owning land unless you pay us more money? I don't think so, that's not right at all.

I'm arguing that that subscription might exist and it shouldn't in it's current form. Call it trial, make it 15 days, and drop it. I would rather see them leave the pricing structures exactly the same as they were when EI(spit) screwed them up. There was nothing wrong with those prices! Plus, new players aren't coming here for $15/mo. I've talked to people about trying this game who laughed in my face when I told them it cost $13!

Bottom line. Hz isn't attracting enough back to make a difference, by charging more money. And they certainly aren't going to yank people out of other games that are....better, right now, for more money either. I find it highly suspicious that we're even debating this topic 2 weeks into VI ownership and it doesn't look good. $13/mo right now to Vi is better than what they're getting TODAY, which is ZILCH.

[Salis]

I read the updated post and it seems the Trio doesn't feel a lot for the Ã** la carte system fearing decrease in revenue.
I think that is the wrong way to look at it.

At the moment no way I am going to spend 25 dollars on 2 subscriptions.
Alto I really want a second plot, so I could speed up my building by relocating storage and processing closer to the harvesting grounds, I am a guildless more or less solo player (yep they do exist).

If I could speed up my lairbuilding be having a second recall or having an extra plot at about $17 dollars a month I would be thrilled, and would gladly pay. Heck depending on the extra's on the Ã** la carte menu I could be that I do even spend $25 dollars but not for a double subscription only given me an extra plot to play on.
So instead of getting $20 or so dollars from me, you only get $12.95 and not a dime more.

Yes I know, some of those options while decrease your revenue stream aswell. But I think those paying $50 dollars or more a month to obtain 4 accounts or more feel they are paying through the nose. On the opposite I think if the Horizons billing system was more adaptable to their playstyle they could start even spending more. Cause some really love to have those extra plots, other really love to play with the whole family at once but can't due to limited funding.
A happy player base is worth way more in Advertising than a disgruntled playerbase, which feel they need to pay to much for 1 or to extra's the actually play the game for.

Maybe you could make some sort of Poll with webpages allowing for players to input their current subscriptions, what options they want to see in the Ã** la carte system, what they would want to pay for them, and what they would do if you offered them at certain price settings presented by you?

I also know financial info is usually kept very secretative, but maybe you could given us some rough figures on what the upkeep cost of Horizons is, future replacements (servers, ...), and salary cost. In that way maybe we could find a middleground with the players to work out a billing system. And if you do give is those figures. PEOPLE keep in mind they do need to be able to make profit on this game. This isn't a communist system or something.

As others already mentioned why don't you get a Sponsor wallet on those paypal or whatever systems, allowing players donating some extra cash on speeding up the much needed cash inflow.

Salis