Why pay per hour sub plans would be bad for the West

[Cazamar]

Don't worry. Probably never happen. As already stated this is more of an Asian pay style. Here in America we figure if you want to play you can dish out 14.99 a month. Which is very cheap in my opinion for a game I will enjoy for a long time.

[Snoozle]

Hourly subs make more sense if you have to pay for your bandwidth. Most Americans are paying a flat monthly fee for (mostly) unlimited internet and so a monthly plan is an obvious choice for mmo's.

I also think that the success of microtransactions in free mmo's suggests that there are other viable payment options, as long as the game is built around supporting them.

[lash]

Your hour is about to expire, insert coin here for another one

[Zavinris]

Originally Posted by Cazamar

Don't worry. Probably never happen. As already stated this is more of an Asian pay style. Here in America we figure if you want to play you can dish out 14.99 a month. Which is very cheap in my opinion for a game I will enjoy for a long time.

This. We wont see an hourly system it will most likely be 14.99/mo.

[Moonlight Shadow]

Don't know if it's been mentioned but the whole reason they have pay per hour feature is to reduce the amount of time people spend in game for the better of their health and lifestyle. Also, pay per hour is a lot cheaper if you're a casual gamer. It's more expensive for the obsessed.

I personally don't care what they go with. I estimated I would break even with how much I play. Monthly fees in general are more convenient though in my opinion.

[Skecys]

Originally Posted by Muta

Funny, because with the Chinese servers down, WoW lost 6.5 million subs, down to 5 million. Sounds like China alone was a majority, and a huge cash cow.

This is false. Blizzard sold the LICENSE to WoW to some company in China that is running it, or was rather. They don't get revenue from the actual subscription so it's not really a big deal to them just looks bad on paper.

Back on topic; I have a friend who is sort of *nal about monthly subscription fees. He loves EvE cause there you can basically buy gametime with ingame money. Anyway his point is that he feels "bound" to play if he has to pay a fee, he wouldn't want to pay for a month if hes going on vacation for 2 weeks during. Imo he is cheap but the pay per hour option would be perfect.

[Toxin]

Originally Posted by Moonlight Shadow

Monthly fees in general are more convenient though in my opinion.

This. Paying by the hour would be a real hassle IMO.

My favourite option is game cards though, because as Skecys mentioned about vacations - just don't buy a game card for that month or something :/