I would love the ability to pay per hour instead of the $10 monthly fee (and other monthly options). I usually play for 2-3 hours at a time once, maybe twice a week. With a job, family, friends, holidays, etc going on I have very little time for Vendetta. Having a flexable payment plan to buy time in chunks would fit my budget and gaming lifestyle.

$10 a month is an excellent fee for an excellent game. I've seen Vendetta grow in the 2 years, 2 months and 5 days I have been playing. Its the only online game I've even considered paying for, ever. But paying $10 a month for maybe 6-8 hours of play is rather high and, in my opionion, wasteful.

I would rather pay $10 for 20 hours (.50 cents a hour) versus $1.20 an hour. I wouldn't feel like I'm wasting money by not playing due to real life (as much as that sucks compared to VO).

So, the gist is, can Guild implement a billing system that can accommodate the needs of people who game less than others? And offer multi-tier hourly chunks ($10 for 20 hours, $20 for 45 hours, etc) to enable buying in bulk?

I would appreciate any feedback from the users and the developers of this excellent game.

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Purple Prune
to splash
Rocket Cow![TM]
Blue Space Cow
[AI] Poopendecker

I'm going with that! Hourly payment for overemployed and familiarized players would be perfect. I can speak at least for to other friends of mine playing VO.

By the way: do you know any online game charging on hourly bases?

cipher
switzerland

I've been playing since the day the game went live. Right now i've got 4 days and 18 hours on my time, thats 114 hours. At 50 cents an hour, i am not willing to pay over 50 dollars for just 4 full days of play.. Nor will anyone else. 9.99 a month is fine. Im sure if they made an option for people like you grandpajive, that would be cool, so you get what you pay for. But as for me. I will never pay 50 cents an hour!

gamejunky, I believe that they were suggesting these options in addition to the payment plans allready availible.

The game can allready keep track of hours (since it tracks the free trial) so i think that offering plans like these would be doable, and while I would never use one of them. (I'm on wayyyy too much for that lol) There are people who only get to play a few hours a night once a week that it would benefit.

Before VO killed my own MMORPG, that was going to be my only billing option. At approximately that rate, too. I was figuring an average playtime of about two or three hours a night, I didn't realize my own capacity (let alone others') for playing a game every single free hour...
-:sigma.SB

I honestly know of no other MMORPG's that charge per hour.. but Guild could maybe become a trendsetter with this.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees the beauty of an hourly rate... and having the monthly rate allows the hardcore types to play their little hearts out :)

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Purple Prune

I think its a horrible idea personally. VO is not a hooker, if you want it pay for it.

I dont see why its a bad idea durgia, Especially if it gets people to pay that wouldnt normally because they dont/cant spend enough time online to feel like they are getting their moneys worth at a monthly rate.

grandpajive didn't say I want to play for free and as gamejunky pointed out it would be more expensive for many current players.

It seems like there might be a price/hour formula that could co-exist with a month to month method. It could be advantageous to both Guild and the players. It works for ISP's and phone companies to have it both ways.

I bought the pre-order because I think Guild and Vendetta are amazing and I wish it all much success. I also really wanted a box after years of beta testing =)

However, when my free months run out I will probably not play anymore unless an option like grandpajive mentions is available. I don't see this as a threat or insult to Vendetta which I love. It's a matter of my circumstance. Something or other about being an adult with a job and a family.

I dearly want to play but my time is fairly limited. If they see fit to implement a pay by hour scheme then wonderful, I will pay and play. If they feel it would hinder their ability to earn income then I understand completely; And, unfortunately I won't be able to play (my tough luck). I'll leave that decision to them (not that it's mine to delegate in the first place) and I don't envy them having to figure out how to work this financial stuff.

I don't see the need for the harsh criticism of this idea. It is an attempt to keep some people playing and keep there money going to Guild, what's wrong with that?

This is already the cheapest MMORPG on the market and now you want to take even more money away from the devs??? Do you expect them to eat, put a roof over there head AND still be able to put out such an awesome game??? I would probably pay a bit more per month although I'm not suggesting that they raise there price. The $9.99 was the main reason I subscribed in the first place. Already having 2 EQ(mac) accounts and soon to have a WoW account, that 9.99 doesn't look to bad at all!!!!!!!

My_2c

[sigh, thank you FM, sorry we're all so much work today, I knew that was flamebate when I wrote it ... deep breath]

No one is asking for a free or discounted game. We are trying out ideas for an alternate payment method that might open up Vendetta to people who will otherwise NOT play. The idea is to get MORE money to Guild and let MORE people play.

I'm willing to bet most players are on 20 hours plus a month. They would end up paying MORE if they went hourly by grandpajive's suggestion.

The players who are on less than that I think are not likely to maintain $10 a month as the price per hour starts to make it silly. This suggestion is an attempt to find a pricing method that will allow the devs to collect payments from them as well. Why don't you let THEM decide if it's financially viable.

I think it may offer them more money by letting them tap a market that otherwise will send them nothing.

[flame deleted. Do not flame or respond to flames. -Forum Mod]

Thank you Hoax, I couldn't have said it better.

It's not if the plan "steals" money from Guild, it would be $x up front. Perhaps other players are thinking of this idea as "every hour $x is deducted". Quite the opposite. X is payed for up front, from which you get Y hours. I'm sure they would have both payment plans, both monthly and hourly, as outlined in the messages above, to fit the needs of the players.

I'm sure if they say it isn't economically viable, well, that would be unfortunate. But it really would fit the bill for players like Hoax and I.

You have to love a community who wants to ensure that the company that they pay money to stays afloat. You can't get better loyalty than that. I can respect why people fear this idea.

I want Guild to stay up and running as much as anyone else who has played this game for a long time. And with this payment arrangement, in a way that fits my and other players gaming life styles, we would all be able to contribute together in a gratuitous fashion and keep the game going.

Simply put, $10 to a plan I can't use acceptably = $0 to Guild. $10 to a plan I can accept = $10 to Guild.

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Purple Prune

We've had a number of requests for an hourly pricing model. I'm not against it, we just have to take a look at how economically viable it would be. I'll put this on the list, along with group-discount accounts and such.

or, maybe have a reduced monthly rate that caps your hours per day?

I too am a less frequent player...

agree 100% with hoax and grandpa.
i've pre ordered to show support, but since I play around 18 hours a month (on average since launch ;) - i would love to be able to pay for 50 hours and not worry when 3 months are up.

Thank you much for the input Incarnate. I hope it ends up being economically feasable for Guild (and soon!). I need my Vendetta fix. ;)

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Purple Prune

*bump* thread, arise!

I'd just like to point out, that I would really, really like to see something like this in the near future... is there an ETC on these things?

at this point, I'm lucky if I can play twice a week - late thursday and friday nights... the rest of the time I just can't afford to get on and play, and it's likely to get even worse before it gets better.

i (a trial member) would DEFINITLY buy this game if there was an hourly rate. there is no question.

not only do i not have a whole lot of time to spend playing vendetta, but i have a somewhat short attention span for computer games, so i usually cycle in between 2 or 3, making monthly rates an absurd option for me.

i guess all im saying, is that i'd pay for an hourly rate as well.

push?! something new?