Last night I was chatting to yet another one of my friends who plays WoW… The discussion went along the lines of So, how have you been? Ok, I guess… So what’s been keeping you busy… WoW…
Kinda seems that I have alot of friends who play alot of online games… Now I can’t really talk, I spend an awful lot of time doing SCA related things… But the topic of discussion made me think about the marketing behind WoW. The company obviously want to encourage it’s use, however don’t want to make their setup/ongoing costs to be high. By providing a fee per month, they are instilling the idea that to get the most out of their fee, players need to play as often in that time as possible, the more they play, the cheaper the gaming experience, and the more addicted the player becomes.
So what’s one alternative? Pay per minute? You buy a card with a bulk amount of minutes playing time, this time doesn’t run out, you can just add it to an account, and that account can be accessed whenever the gamer wants to spend some time playing… Why would the gaming companies not be using this option? Maybe because a pay by the minute option only gives those with the money to buy minutes in huge bulk lots the option of saving money? Maybe because it gives people a reason to actually spend time elsewhere, as they don’t feel they have to play each month to get their money’s worth? Maybe because it may lead to players realising that there is a life out there other than the game? Maybe because if players realised that life exists outside of the box, then there may be less players in the game for others to interact with?
In my opinion, it benefits the company much more to continue the way they current do and sucking the souls out of people, rather than provide a fun means of escape when an escape is needed. There’s no real answer here… Nor is there really a complaint, but just a differant way of looking at it, maybe a more human way?

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