[Good Read] Huge Benefits to Updated Subscription Models

[DkSharktooth]

Swtor:

Current Subscription Model - $15/mo

F2P Model - Allows you to essentially try the game out, and really almost forces you to subscribe due to limitations

Preferred Status - Little More benefits that f2p, but you can't really experience endgame pvp, so you're forced to subscribe if you want to do ranked.

 

Now don't go run and hide when I mention this, just hear me out!

Wildstar Subscription Model - Pay a monthly subscription OR Use ingame currency (CREDD as they call it, Similar to Swtor Credits or Cartel Coins) to Pay Monthly Subscription.

Source: http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/the-game/business-model/

 

Why Wildstars Subscription Model is better for the long term and Next Generation MMOs:

Let's say swtor launched with 2Million Subscribers. As time went by, got tired of paying the subscription fee because the pace they consumed the content wasn't worth the $15/mo in their minds, players either couldn't afford the subscription, or whatever other reasons, these players would now leave SWTOR and firmly decide never to come back or maybe, just maybe give it another try few months down the road (Which is actually what happened with SWTOR).

 

Now my point here is SUBSCRIBER RETENTION. This is VERY VERY VERY Important for an MMO!!! A failure in subscriber retention can cause a huge snowball effect that leads to a mass exodus. Let's continue with SWTOR now. All those 2million subscribers are more or less now with a guild where they either PVE, PVP, or quest together. What happens to all those guilds, raids, quest groups, flashpoint groups, ranked warzone teams when slowly but surely, 1by1, players start unsubscribing and are now unable to play with their groups? Effectively these groups keep getting smaller and smaller as time goes by and minimal content is added to maintain their interests for long, but many of these players did give the game a try and thus accumulated some form of game currency for the time they have put in.

 

Now imagine all those players who are now unsubscribed, but have put a good deal of time into SWTOR and have accumulated a decent chunk of game currency, imagine if they were somehow able to transfer their ingame effort into purchasing another months subscription for themselves. I mean how happy would they be that they can do this? I'll tell you, absolutely thrilled! They can now continue to play with their friends, seasoned game players and subscribers can continue building on the eldergame population of swtor, and they can come back to the game anytime they want to with full access to all features! I mean wow! That would be amazing wouldn't it? But wait a minute....Swtor is a business afterall....you can't just go ahead and give it away for free. How would the company continue paying it's expenses? I'll tell you how: these subscribers that have unsubscribed, they wouldn't have continued paying anyway, and are now able to rejoin the game by paying ingame currency will be giving the opportunity for the rest of your subscribers to continue playing the MASSIVE MULTIPLAYER MMO, emphasis on multiplayer. What does that even mean, you're crazy! Let me ask you this: What happens to a 16man raiding group when 1, 2, 3 or even 5 members unsubscribe? What happens when the top Ranked Teams lose 2 of their core members? Well if you have ever played an MMO long enough, you will learn that this leads to a complete collapse of these groups and guilds who eventually break off and try to find other groups, and this is a really really long and tedious unfun process, which often leads to even more players from that group unsubscribing while a few find a new group to get into. Slowly, but surely this is exactly what happened to Swtor and other MMOs before it. But wait...even if we implement this "freebee" method to our subscription model, we want to milk this new "subscriber" who paid with ingame currency as best we can! We are EAware after all! Well rest assured EAware, you can still milk this subscriber one way or another with your infamous Cartel Market items and updates! That's right, eventually there will be something on there that this player will purchase one day.

 

Well let's look at what you just gained by implementing Wildstars Dual-Subscription Model into Swtor:

• Longer Lasting, Larger Playerbase
  
• Larger Subscriber Retention
  
• Subscribers can come back anytime with full playable benefits so long as they can afford the ingame currency price for subscription
  
• The rest of your subscribers can still do the things they love with this person, and can maintain their pve/pvp groups as is without having to look for constant replacements, often leading to events not occuring for days/weeks at a time while searching for replacements.
  
• Probably more benefits I didn't think of yet
  
• Additional "credit sink"
  
• Keeping your players, subscribed or not, has a direct positive effect on a healthy population for your game as well as a healthy amount of groups going for all kinds of PVE and PVP activities in your game.
  

 

 

Note:: This is a first draft and should be read as such. This was a huge brainstorming effort. The intention of this thread is to express the benefits of Wildstars subscription model over Swtor and how Wildstars Model can help Swtor if implemented.

 

Thank You for reading,

 

Happy Holidays

Edited December 21, 2013 by DkSharktooth

[Pingonaut]

I read through it twice and I'm not really understanding (or maybe I am) the whole concept..

 

Where would they buy the subscriptions from/from who would they buy them?

I mean, it works for that game you mentioned, but this is a different game.