Well, this is more of a thought than a well-thought-off suggestion, but I would like to see some other, more flexible payment option offered in ESO (well, and in MMOs in general)

I am not talking about f2p stuff, but something that would allow someone like me, who would like to play the game but have extremely limited free time, to play whenever he can, without feeling like throwing money away for a monthly fee that he rarely actually uses.

I am thinking something along the lines of "pay as you go". This can easily be with a daily fee. The system has my credit card info and each time I log-in it charges a specific amount for a 24-h period.

Or I pre-charge my game account with a XX amount (could have a minimal amount to add like 10-20 dollars to avoid high processing costs) and use that (so that there are no constant payment charges).

The cost can be anything from 0.50 to 1 euros (that's 15e/month to 30e/month compared to the flat 13e/month). That way the monthly fee makes more sense and is much better for someone that plays every day, or even every other day (for the 1e/day), but still people that have limited time can also dive in and not think about if it's worth it or not.

This is not being cheap or anything, I just don't feel at this point that playing a game at most 2 days a week is worth paying 13 euros per month for.

On the other hand I would have no problem paying even 1 euro for a day session (even if I end up playing for a couple of hours) if it only charged me for the times I actually play. And I could switch to monthly subscription whenever I thought it would make more sense.

Well, this is all based on my trying to decide whether it's worth getting the game or not. And how just because it is "standard" for an MMO to offer just monthly subscription we don't feel cheated paying for a month even if we want to play for a day or two. (Plus for me it kinda puts an extra stress factor of "you have to play the game more cause you're paying for it", even thought I don't really care about the 13 euros, it's the principal of the thing)

Edit: though you were complaing about sub sorry lol I really should start reading.

Lord almighty...it breaks bown to fifty cents a day. If you can't pay, don't play. Could we stop beating the horse to death.

Well as I said in the post, it's not really about the money. And even though it's not 50 cents a day, but it's really 15 dollars a month for playing 2-6 days, for maybe 4-6 hours each day, again, NOT about the money. The monthly sub is VERY reasonable. I'm just trying to say, why can't there be another flexible payment option so you don't have to worry about subs and play now and again after 5 months if you feel like it.

I like the idea of more options.

As it stands we've seen the current pay-to-play model fail again and again and again. With developers turning to the god awful free-to-play option in its stead.

$15 is easily affordable, but when going up against WoW it's just not competitive. The more options available, the more people we can keep paying to play the game, the more we stave off the free-to-play menace.

IMO not wanting more options equates to wanting this game to fail.

Personally I'd like to keep it monthly so as to keep it from being complicated, but having cheaper options that only offer a limited time per month could keep the casuals, who would otherwise go elsewhere, interested.

Consider it a pay gate. And why pay 60 bucks for a game with evolving content that you will play once in a while, kind of a waste

Well no, it's not really. I've paid much more for much less in games.

I don't know how it is so difficult to understand that someone that, not by choice, is a casual player, who still enjoys playing once every now and then, even though it could be weeks when he has the time and feels like playing again, would like the option that would allow him to remain active in a game that otherwise would cancel the sub after a couple of months because "there's no point really, I only play once every couple of weeks, and it's fine but I'll try some of the f2p stuff instead"

It seems that people in this forum have been complaining A LOT about the sub, cause most of the answers are just "well pay the freaking monthly fee and shut up".

Again, this is NOT about the sub or why not f2p. The game SHOULD NOT be f2p and all that it means.

The notion of a PAYG option for those who only want to pay every time they use the game is interesting. I've seen this thrown about since the early 00's and while it seems like a great idea the companies interests are better aligned with a "contract" style system where by they always know how much income they are going to get by looking at the total number of subscriptions.

All that said that shouldn't mean its just thrown aside and not considered for its merit. For some this would be a very favourable payment option, it would give them the freedom and flexibility to play as and when they wanted without having to be subscribed to the typical payment model. Will we see this added for TESO? I highly doubt it, can we see this becoming a choice for games in the future? Certainly but probably in the favour of the suits and not the gamers.

My thoughts on the matter are this...I bought The Last of Us for 60$ and then paid 15$ for the DLC. Both are great but I beat both in 10 hrs. I played the last beta for longer then that and therefore this weekend and everyday after it is all butter.

I have no difficulty in understanding it I just don't agree. i have Wife, Kids, Dog, Cat, work 70+ hours a week trust me I get it. The by the day Payment model is used as a gimmick in F2P games (Rift uses it)

2 days a week in ESO would work out at roughly ￡1.12 per day. Even if on those days you only play for a couple of hours that's still damned good value for money imo.

Obviously, someone who plays more is going to get better value for money, but, if you enjoy for game for just 2 hours per day, 2 days per week, ￡1.12 is more than reasonable.

More options? id be interested to see how they'd implement it for sure, and i wouldn't complain at all about it. But they have to be very careful about how they go about it.

so you would rather pay a buck or eu or whatever per day, than $15/mo?

what if you were locked into a plan a month, or say, 3 months at a time? or that if you switched, it was 30 days from the switch, then back to daily?

and would you be willing to give them the right to delete your stuff if you had money in the wallet to pay day by day from, but hadnt logged in in a week? (not that they would, but that they would be able to)

I dunno. Seems like they would lose money that way. Less money means less future content, less customer service, less quality. I would prefer a AAA game that ensures high quality content and future expansions. Some people pay twice what ESO is asking for cable TV that has 500 channels and nothing to watch or $60 for a single player game that only has 12 hours of content. A night at the movies can run up to $50 for two people after throwing in food and drinks. In my opinion they aren't asking for enough, I mean $15 a month that will ensure years of quality content that you can spend hours a day playing... I really don't see a valid argument against that considering all the other forms of entertainment that are much more expensive.

Is this the same Rift that failed under the standard pay-to-play model to the point where it had to go free-to-play?

Rift was a decent mmo but around level 40 it just got dull. Maybe it was the same type of quests over and over that did it. It has tons of fairly short repetitive quests.

I think that's what's really going to be one of the things that really makes a difference in ESO. It has these long story line quests with really good writing and the stories are actually captivating.

Amazing what good writing can do for a game.

Eh, not a fan of the idea, I admit. But if people really think that way I say they could pay by the day at a premium. So you can pay, for example, $15 a month ($0.50 per day access), $35 three months ($0.39 per day access), $60 six months ($0.33 per day access) and then $100 yearly ($0.27 per day access), OR! You could say "Eh, I'll pay when I get on." and do a 24 hour, one time payment of a dollar. You pay for access to the game for 24 hours on that dollar, while those who want to pay for the game to reliably be there for them can pay the extra. It can also work that those people that aren't too sure and gain more gaming access than normal on the daily plan may end up paying more, if they find out 'Oh, I get 2 hours today, then another 4 next day. Oh! Cool! I get my days off and pay two days in a row.'

Either way, not a fan, think it's dumb doing that (As I personally rather have the access there without having to open my wallet each day I want to play), but hey, who am I to say no of people who want to pay more? XD

TL;DR:

Go ahead and set it for $1.00 per 24 hour access for some folks. may generate more revenue not previously there. But that will cost more than paying the $15 monthly since you're not being reliable to the company.

Indeed it can, just ask Bioware.

... Oh, wait...

i would pay the games worth considering how much it would be. just not too much $15 is okay for me considering i live in a 3rd world country.

Yeah, those are good games just waaaay too short. But yeah, great stories in some of them.

I'd hate to see pay as you go (what if your time runs out in the middle of a dungeon) but would very much like to see 3/6/12 month plans

I find that with the game I pay monthly for (currently SWTOR) I feel obligated to play a certain amount to "get my money's worth" even though as far as entertainment goes as long as I play about 2 hours a month it's the same entertainment value as a movie ($15 for 2 hours). The game I pay yearly (LOTRO) doesn't have that feeling. Once a year my card gets dinged for $99 or so and I carry on. Some months I don't play at all, sometimes I play for lengthy periods of time. It's the perception of value. The SWTOR is a monthly bill and a monthly reminder of "oh yeah, I should play" whereas the LOTRO one is like my car's MVI - once a year I pay out a bit of money and then don't think of it again.

Actually no, the pay as you go method have been used in many Asian MMO on top of monthly subscription. It gives player who cannot afford to play every day due to works (or people that can only play 2 days per week) the option of not wasting the 'paid days'.

When I played Aion on an Chinese server before they released the game in Europe there was an option to buy game time per hour. Thought this was a grate obtion to have when you get a bit bored of the game and only want to log in and play once in the blue moon while waiting for a new expansion back.

Of course it's more expensive in the long run to pay per hour but it's still a nice option to have I most say.

do your research before dismissing a statement. you are only partially correct.

did you miss the part where I said F2P gimmick?