Tradeable item 1-year subscription

[Morteia]

This really isn't a bad idea, as I've seen it work before in another MMO (I see someone has mentioned PLEX in EVE), but I do have trepidations about it.

My worries would be:

1. What if an account gets hacked and someone steals that item from you, and then they use it? We'd probably have to develop a policy in CS about how to handle such a thing happening. It's never a matter of "if", but a matter of "when".

2. Implementation and possible abuse of creating those items (duping). We all know that has happened before.

3. There also might be some legal issues with selling game time for in-game money, but, well, I don't even know where to start with that so it might not even be the case.

Either way, I'll still pass this up the chain if people are interested. It seems that some people would like the ability to pay for their game time with credits, and I'm not wholly opposed to that idea. I've been in that situation where I have a huge pile of in-game currency, but that won't pay for my sub! :P

[oegaboega]

thx for the reply !
i really hope fc will make this happen for ao : )

[Agentcora]

Yes please, would be a viable credit sink aswell for all the players with billions of credits.

You'd probably also get some players who return since they wouldn't have to pay straight away, adding much needed life back into the game.

[Farlath]

I played eve for a couple of years, plex was part of their plan to kill gold sellers and it worked beautifully. CCP made more money off plex subscribers than they did regular ones, and it murdered the gold selling market in a matter of weeks.

[User1337]

Bump for and idea that would benefit me more than any other in my 12 years playing AO (bought the game in 2001 in a box and all). I have farmed credits to pay for subscription. Yes, I know this could violate the EULA, but I'll explain the reason.

I live in Venezuela. Here, for 14 years, we've had a government led by recently laid president Hugo Chávez. His economical policies (which is what matters for this discussion) have always been questioned. One of the main reasons is that he restricted the access to foreign currencies (dollar, euro, pounds, anything) because the country was basically bankrupt when he got to power.

By doing so he controlled what the upper classes had access to, meaning they no longer could invest whatever amount of bolívares (our currency) they had in foreign currency and by doing so they no longer had total control of what they did with their money, and so they had to invest inside the country, which isn’t a bad thing at all.

When Chávez announced the currency restriction the access we had was higher than what it is now. Basically you can only access US$ 3900 through the legal way (you can buy US$ 500 cash, 3k for your credit cards and 400 for internet usage), and that’s for a whole year (of course that’s for regular people, not for businesses and companies, who can get more).

What does that translate to in bolívares? Legally US$ 1 equals 6,3 bolívares, so US$ 3900 would be ~25k bolívares. How much is the minimum wage you might ask? 2.047,52 (US$ 324,92) a month. So in order to get the amount of dollars the government CAN “sell” you in a year, you have to work your ass off.

But that’s the good side. Yes, the good one. After you're “done” with those US$ 3900 you have to go to the black market. How much is one dollar in the black market? 27 bolívares, give or take. So, buying US$ 1000 on the black market will cost you a lot.

I particularly don’t even have a credit card because banks don’t hand them out that easily. I’m 26 years old, a graduated journalist, worked in the same newspaper for almost three years (and having worked since I'm 18 in other places) and yet asking for a credit card was easier in the Bank of America (I was up in the States last month covering the World Baseball Classic and the MLB Spring Training), although I got rejected for it hehe.

So, to sum it all up:

BUMP.

I'd farm credits again and give them to someone else if that could buy me my monthly subscription (again).

[Windguaerd]

This really isn't a bad idea, as I've seen it work before in another MMO (I see someone has mentioned PLEX in EVE), but I do have trepidations about it.

My worries would be:

1. What if an account gets hacked and someone steals that item from you, and then they use it? We'd probably have to develop a policy in CS about how to handle such a thing happening. It's never a matter of "if", but a matter of "when".

2. Implementation and possible abuse of creating those items (duping). We all know that has happened before.

3. There also might be some legal issues with selling game time for in-game money, but, well, I don't even know where to start with that so it might not even be the case.

Either way, I'll still pass this up the chain if people are interested. It seems that some people would like the ability to pay for their game time with credits, and I'm not wholly opposed to that idea. I've been in that situation where I have a huge pile of in-game currency, but that won't pay for my sub! :P

In reply to your numbers.

1. AO accounts seem to get hacked every year, so there should already be a set of rules within CS policy covering theft of items regardless of what they are. If this is not true... it should be.

2. Every year (or so) someone does find a way to dupe an item. However, the window that the thief uses... is one which is opened by FC since no user can actually change AO code... the person is using a method which is ALLOWED by the game itself. Probably a BUG, but still... there. If you leave your door open 24/7, would you expect to have all your valuables remain in your home? Because this HAS happened in the past, there should already be a set of rules to deal with this situation and any culprit.

3. I'm pretty sure the EULA states that no matter what happens in-game (or because of the game) in any way or form, that FC cannot be sued. There are already players who buy stuff with cash and sell it in-game for millions of creds, this is been going on for years, and now there is a concern about legal issues? You'd have to backpedal quite a bit on this one.

In short, your company should already have everything in place to sell the suggested item.

What is likely to happen...

FC ponders how profitable this could be.
Item is added to the shop.
Players buy with cash, trade for creds (like other items). More players stay in AO.

[User1337]

In short, your company should already have everything in place to sell the suggested item.

What is likely to happen...

FC ponders how profitable this could be.
Item is added to the shop.
Players buy with cash, trade for creds (like other items). More players stay in AO.

Amen to that!

[Tommara3]

Everquest2 also implemented a trade-able one-month subscription, implemented as an item called a Krono. I think they were selling it for $18 or $19 USD, whereas a recurring subscription is $15/mo. To encourage recurring subscriptions, EQ2 included $5 worth of their version of Funcom points (Station Cash), which players using Station Cash or Krono to buy the same privileges of a paid account did not receive.

They sold very well, the market price dropping in half from their first market value, which I assume means that players bought them in droves. Most importantly for players like me not interested in buying or selling Krono is that I haven't had any gold seller spam at all (not that I do in AO either, have only heard a few in public chat, unlike EQ2 where it used to be personal tells and in-game mail.)

So although I'm not likely to buy or sell them, I think it's a good idea. I'd rather Funcom get the money.

A couple of differences between EQ2 and AO though:

1. In EQ2, free players are able to buy from the market and they can purchase rights from the item store to sell on the in-game market. So the market is much healthier than in AO (more items available for sale, more stable prices.) The gold farming that would likely follow trade-able subscriptions plus froobs being able to buy from the market would probably improve AO's overall market.

2. In EQ2, most valuable item drops are no-trade, especially from contested mobs, and almost all of the newer dungeons are instanced, so players just trying to play the game aren't bothered too much by gold farmers. If Funcom implemented paid status via the Item Store, daily quests like The Hunt would probably be almost impossible to do unless the dyna bosses are re-itemized to drop NoDrop items only. This, in turn, would cause a hardship for players because so many necessary nanos are on dyna bosses. Of course, more of them would be available on the market if not NoDrop, but this doesn't help someone who just wants to complete the daily.

Edited note: Trade-able subscriptions in EQ2 can be accessed from the Station Cash store, but they are sold for real money only.

[orochi3]

being sold for real money only and not "funcom" points would boost the ammount of money Fc recieves indeed.
But u never know, maybe FC will be generous and let us choose if we wanna convert FC points to sell subs for creds, or use them outselfes to get extra game time.

Either way is fine though. We should not complain.

[Misat0]

+1

This is a great idea and as said has worked perfectly for other games.

@Tommara3#2: Making Dynaboss loot NODROP wouldn't solve anything. People would just sell the loot rights then as it is already done for instance bosses today. Also I don't think implementing ingame-buyable game time this will rise any issue as severe as that.

[Freqflyerdnt]

To whom, exactly, did he pay the 200m?

Better late than never.
There were two or three of us willing to help him out. So "duty" of paying the sub was rotated between those three.
Whoever's turn it was to pay for the sub got the credits.

[Doctrony]

While I am impartial on the topic at hand, I did want to extend my thanks to Morteia for making a statement on the topic of a well-founded player suggestion. Feedback to the community, in my opinion, is one of the greatest things a development team can do for their community.

Thank you.

Cheers.
-Trony-

[mariposita]

Bump this. Would be nice to help out org mates who have come on hard times if I've got spare cash.

[Gorathon]

Better late than never.
There were two or three of us willing to help him out. So "duty" of paying the sub was rotated between those three.
Whoever's turn it was to pay for the sub got the credits.

Gotchya, and thanks for responding. I was worried there was some reverse gold farm schemer out there.

[Tradoroz]

Bump!

[Dreamer]

This really isn't a bad idea, as I've seen it work before in another MMO (I see someone has mentioned PLEX in EVE), but I do have trepidations about it.

My worries would be:

1. What if an account gets hacked and someone steals that item from you, and then they use it? We'd probably have to develop a policy in CS about how to handle such a thing happening. It's never a matter of "if", but a matter of "when".

2. Implementation and possible abuse of creating those items (duping). We all know that has happened before.

3. There also might be some legal issues with selling game time for in-game money, but, well, I don't even know where to start with that so it might not even be the case.

Either way, I'll still pass this up the chain if people are interested. It seems that some people would like the ability to pay for their game time with credits, and I'm not wholly opposed to that idea. I've been in that situation where I have a huge pile of in-game currency, but that won't pay for my sub! :P

QFT.

I would pay atleast 1bil a month for this sort of item.

[Flyingengi]

2. Implementation and possible abuse of creating those items (duping). We all know that has happened before.

Make the item impossible to put into a backpack. Most of the duplication exploits involved using a backpack of some kind. This would highly reduce the chance of the items being duplicated.

You can also give them items a unique id that, when used, cannot be used again. Even if it does get duplicated, it will only be usable once.

[Rushutnick]

Not a bad idea.
I play EVE there have a PLEX , and I play at Perpetuum and there too there is I.C.E. ( Integration Cycle Extender). Both versions are available in-game store, but you can also buy directly on your account page))!

[AldousDei]

This is an amazing idea.

[CivilGuardian]

+1
But I think they should only have a 1 month sub item, while leaving 3-12 month for paying via the account. I feel like that would curb a few issues.