[Mark]

I swear I'll make these news posts more wordy when this Chinese beta is over. ;)

Quote

Gaming company Shanda (Nasdaq: SNDA) announced yesterday evening that the game Aion will make use of a time-based payment model that will take effect April 16 with the release of the all-new commercial version 1.0 of "Yaosai Pan Long" (unofficial translation: The Coiled Stronghold). Shanda said that following the announcement on the evening of April 9 that game-play would be billed by time spent playing, several hundred thousand gamers increased their account balances.

RMB 1 equates to 100 Shanda game points, each of which is worth 75 seconds of game-play. RMB 1 therefore purchases 125 minutes of Aion game-play.

Editor's Note: According to an industry insider, Aion's peak concurrent user (PCU) total reached 250,000 in the first two hours of open beta testing. Aion began open beta testing at 8 am on April 8.

Source: Shanda to Use Pay-to-Play Model for Aion | Marbridge Consulting - China Internet News

Quote

Even though it's not a full loot sandbox, this game has an incredible sense of freedom. The game is still in beta, but it feels so finished. Other than issues caused by the eternal dark curse upon the earth, more commonly known as GameGuard(which I doubt will even be added for NA players), I never crashed, I rarely got lag spikes, and I was never once disconnected from the servers. Ever. No 10k latency, no 5k latency like some games had at release. I'm looking at you, Age of Conan. They could release this game tomorrow, in beta, and I'd buy it.

Source: AION: Chinese Beta Impressions | MMORPG Games & MMO News - MMOCrunch

[IntangibleFatty]

Mark said:

I swear I'll make these news posts more wordy when this Chinese beta is over. ;)

Source: Shanda to Use Pay-to-Play Model for Aion | Marbridge Consulting - China Internet News

Source: AION: Chinese Beta Impressions | MMORPG Games & MMO News - MMOCrunch

Thank you very much, dear Mark, for this marvelous news on Easter Day. May Jesus Christ be with you on this day of peace and joy. And please remember; Jesus our Savior died for our sins. Amen.

[ashin]

Ugh.. this newflash just reminded me of a very good reason not to play Aion.

Game guard. :dazed:

I don't share the author's optimism that the NA market will be spared GG, since L2 uses it. It was amazing to have played L2 before they instituted GG, and then a second time, after. The negative impact that thing has on performance and stability is remarkable.

[Felluah]

IntangibleFatty said:

Thank you very much, dear Mark, for this marvelous news on Easter Day. May Jesus Christ be with you on this day of peace and joy. And please remember; Jesus our Savior died for our sins. Amen.

Or in other words, BEWARE OF ZOMBIE JESUS! Don't go out without a shotgun (pesky zombies)

[Webb]

The swiftness of the strike by NC Soft to my attraction to Aion is PHENOMENAL, there is no way am I going to play a game that is in a pay-as-you-go format. I literally cannot believe how quickly NC Soft killed my love of this game, seriously, 1 strike, ONE. At least I only need to focus on 1 upcoming game.

[Exsultare]

Webb said:

The swiftness of the strike by NC Soft to my attraction to Aion is PHENOMENAL, there is no way am I going to play a game that is in a pay-as-you-go format. I literally cannot believe how quickly NC Soft killed my love of this game, seriously, 1 strike, ONE. At least I only need to focus on 1 upcoming game.

They have not stated they are using the same model for NA/US and I would be very, very surprised were they foolish enough to do so.

No issue with your strikes, but you may wish to consider not counting them until they've actually swung. (grin) :sparkles:

[MuffinBoy]

they so better not do it that way just keep it monthly :D like every other successful mmo out there

[Felluah]

Webb said:

The swiftness of the strike by NC Soft to my attraction to Aion is PHENOMENAL, there is no way am I going to play a game that is in a pay-as-you-go format. I literally cannot believe how quickly NC Soft killed my love of this game, seriously, 1 strike, ONE. At least I only need to focus on 1 upcoming game.

The pay-as-you-play model is common in China, it's not common in the NA/EU territories. So it's unlikely they'll use that model here. Although they haven't said what model they will use, it's been hinted at that they will use the most common method of payment for that area. For us, it's mostly likely going to be a monthly subscription, or possibly a combination, with both choices available.

[Webb]

well... ok.. i'll see how this turns out... but NC Soft are on thin ice :)

[Loan]

i manage to play aion on the korean servers and game guard already gave problems to one of my friends could not got to run the game at all <-- yes im looking at you aion lol, and for me i just let the pc alone for like 30 sec then the game start runing (dual core 2ghz 2gig ram x1950 also the game plays good without lag or anything once it load.

still they need to loose game guard and our monthly fee

[Konvay]

I can't seem to do the calculations right, I calculated for if someone left Aion running for 30 days, they would be paying around 50 USD, which is way more than a monthly subscription xP, now I know no one would leave their game on for that long, but you never know.

Someone double check my math

60 minutes * 24(hours) * 30(days) = 2,592,000 minutes in a month
43,200 minutes / 125 minutes (one point) = 345.6 RMB
345.6 RMB * 0.146342 = 50.5758 USD::RMB conversion

10 hours = 21.0732 USD
8 hours = 16.8586 USD
5 hours = 10.5366 USD


Interesting

[Underneath]

Konvay said:

Someone double check my math

60 minutes * 24(hours) * 30(days) = 43,200 minutes in a month
43,200 minutes / 125 minutes (one point) = 345.6 RMB
345.6 RMB * 0.146342 = 50.5758 USD::RMB conversion

For simplicity, ~50 USD for a full months (720 hours) worth of playtime.

50 / 720 = ~7 cents an hour.

[Granado]

Konvay said:

I can't seem to do the calculations right, I calculated for if someone left Aion running for 30 days, they would be paying around 50 USD, which is way more than a monthly subscription xP, now I know no one would leave their game on for that long, but you never know.

Someone double check my math

60 minutes * 24(hours) * 30(days) = 2,592,000 minutes in a month
43,200 minutes / 125 minutes (one point) = 345.6 RMB
345.6 RMB * 0.146342 = 50.5758 USD::RMB conversion

10 hours = 21.0732 USD
8 hours = 16.8586 USD
5 hours = 10.5366 USD


Interesting

I know someone already pointed something out... but what does this mean?

[Konvay]

Underneath said:

For simplicity, ~50 USD for a full months (720 hours) worth of playtime.

50 / 720 = ~7 cents an hour.

Whoops, I did a few calculations and in my post I kept my "seconds" calculation instead of minutes.

7 cents an hour sounds good, just don't make the mistake of leaving aion up if you afk D:


That kinda makes stalls pointless, especially with an auction house.

Granado said:

I know someone already pointed something out... but what does this mean?

43,200 minutes in a month divided by one RMB (125 minutes)

This post has been edited by Konvay: 12 April 2009 - 08:29 PM

[Huguitu]

in EU/NA probably will be monthly fee, at least i hope so.... maybe they input the 2 ways and we choose what is more better for each one of us.... i prefer monthly fee, but is my opinion...

[Grandstrider]

I hope that there will be NCSoft Timecards. The same like for City of Heroes, Lineage2 and so on.

So don't worry. It's comfortable to them, just use the same cards for AION too here in Europe and in the US ;)

So don't break your head in calculating these prices that are actual for china. It also would influence the economy in Europe/NA.

Why do you think that they have a pay-as-you-play method? Simple. Chinese Gamers play a lot of more time than ours. A lot of ppl in china got ill, a few died on starvation (no Joke = China Farmers). Because of this they force the poorer one not to play so long. When they play just 3 hours a day they have more days of their 320 hours, and they are healthy.. when they play 20 hours a day.. their 320 hours are in 16 days away.. and they are ill AND they spend 25 dollars for just 16 days..

So.. don't worry ;)

[GhostBoy]

As long as the pricing is comparable to other games (ie. max 12-15 euro/month), I really don't give a toss whether I'm paying for minutes or days. The real issue with pay-by-minute is not the minutes, but whether it'll make things more expensive over all.

Paying by the minute may server to limit afk'ers cluttering up the main city, if nothing else. Though I would prefer a standard monthly payment to be sure, because it would make it easier to calculate into my budget and lessen the stress of feeling I have to do *something* while online, and not just faff about. :D

[Kaldur]

I'm sure Aion in NA/EU will be a monthly fee. Even FFXI had a Monthly fee, and that game is pretty much Japanese.

Buying time to play might be a good secondary payment option for kids who can't afford a credit card, or very casual players.
I mean WoW has it, and it still works under the Monthly Fee principle as it main payment method, and I don't see anyone crying or threatening the Publishers for being in "thin ice" (sorry I had to laugh at that one :D ) because of that option being available.

[IntangibleFatty]

Felluah said:

Or in other words, BEWARE OF ZOMBIE JESUS! Don't go out without a shotgun (pesky zombies)

Screw the shotgun; I'll drop that mother ****er with my fists.

[Stormcrow]

"They could release this game tomorrow, in beta, and I'd buy it."