Ripping off the EU Player...

[Chillee]

Huum I thought this had been changed but maybe they changed it back or something? And are you sure this is the price when you buy just ONE month? (since you get discounts when you buy more)

But still the OPs point stands, servers are in the US (=decreased quality of product for Eu players), offices in the US, no reason to have us pay more.

The reason is they believe you're willing to pay it. If they could double the EU (or US) fee and lose none or few players, they'd do it. It seems to escape everyone that fairness has nothing to do with it. Those who make these decisions at FC have determined that the most profitable prices at this point are for EU to be higher.

Don't really understand why anyone is QQing about price. Sign up during one of the sub specials, and you're paying like $.25 a day.

[Marlekin]

The OECD gives us some numbers about disposable income across the world, already taking into account different costs of living:

http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/income/

Careful with average incomes...

For countries with high income spread like the US the average is a pretty useless value, in particular if looking at an target group "MMO player". You have, e.g.

- an insanely rich US upper class, people with millions and billions. These people collect cars and racing horses, not virtual crap.

- the income-strong middle/upper class. Aerospace managers, defense industry engineers, industry lawyers, big-oil managers, .... people who have specialized themselves for an entire life, and work. Always. Can earn a lot in the US. But these people never play. No time. Especially not for MMOs.

- consider it's after taxes, but not after social services costs. US citizens have to buy health insurance (usually bad coverage for huge monthly chunk of the salary), which in many other countries is included in the taxes (e.g. France, Sweden). Add childcare etc. to that.... only then you start seeing what average MMO Joe has left for entertainment. All those reasons why medium/low income in the US sucks.

And MMO's target the masses, that means medium and low income people, right?

[-tomhet-]

i dont get this thread the amount i spend monthly is way less then buying a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers in a pub.
what i do feel ripped off about is i play game subscribed on and off with some breaks in between since october 2008 and money i spent on aoc went to finance shiit games like tsw and lego instead of making hyboria a better place to play in.

watching last game director squander my money in twits about how nice other mmo's are instead of making hyboria better in aoc...now that is the real rip off here.

good thing hes off from aoc.

[Khaletohep]

Careful with average incomes...

Of course, I completely agree (as I wrote on page 1). The "average Joe the Plumber" income might actually be lower than in Europe because of income disparity.

However, the effect doesn't really seem to reverse the ranking. Wikipedia* has a ranking based on the median income. The differences lessen, but the U. S. still sits at number 1.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Househo..._.28PPP.29_.24

Maybe, there are factors not or not correctly considered in these statitics, e. g. health care might have been forgotten (although I doubt that). At least in the media, surviving on an average in the U. S. is apparently seen as surprisingly difficult, but that might be a perceived difficulty. Living in a rented apartment, driving a compact car and so on seems to be better accepted in Europe than in the U. S., so the income and costs might be the same or even better, but the expectation of what one should earn might be different. That alone could still, of course, lead to less enthusiasm in paying MMO fees.

*Yes, yes, it's Wikipedia, where theoretically, any idiot can post bullsh1t data, I know, I know. But it's a discussion on an MMO messageboard, not a dissertation.

[Kurt2013]

Charging anything more than 0 is a rip off. There are other amazing free mmos on the market and those that stick to the sub model have regular content updates. Funcom seems to think we're all dumb.

Err... they may have a point.

You are aware that "free" is not actually free? With this in mind, you can consider AoC free as well, since in theory you can play 2 chars indefinetely in solo, group and pvp content. How much fun and how customerfriendly this is, is a different page though. Also not arguing that other games might do a lot better when it comes to earning money from a "free" game...but if i look at recent changes, at least one at funcom seems to have realized the model they had, does not work (in terms of motivation+money/effort).

Do the amazing free MMOs offer a low fantasy world with motion capture, realistic human models and gearwise a variety from almost nude to yog-sogoth-battlemech?

[Rathothis]

Maybe, there are factors not or not correctly considered in these statitics, e. g. health care might have been forgotten (although I doubt that).

Healthcare will typically be included in these figures to the extent that is is financed via taxes or other mandatory social contributions. This makes quite a difference when comparing EU vs US as (i) the US spend more than any other country on healthcare, by quite a margin, and (ii) a much larger part of this expenditure is private than is the case in Europe.

See OECD

But as others have said, pricing is not an issue of fairness, but of supply and demand. So this discussion is rather moot

what i do feel ripped off about is i play game subscribed on and off with some breaks in between since october 2008 and money i spent on aoc went to finance shiit games like tsw and lego instead of making hyboria a better place to play in.

This! I won't deny that a lot of creativity went into TSW, but someone at FC should have had enough sense to tell that it wouldn't go anywhere business-wise. If they had only spent a fraction of what they spent on TSW on AoC instead (after RotGS), both FC and the AoC playerbase would be much better off.

[Khaletohep]

Yes... that's the problem with Funcom. They create great games, but they're apparently not that great in the business department. The fate of true artists.

[LunaticAsylumLA]

They corrected the prices once in January 2011 by doubling the price that Polish and Russian players had to pay for the game to match the European one.
I assume something similar will happen soon with the European prices.

[Azmith]

Of course, I completely agree (as I wrote on page 1). The "average Joe the Plumber" income might actually be lower than in Europe because of income disparity.

However, the effect doesn't really seem to reverse the ranking. Wikipedia* has a ranking based on the median income. The differences lessen, but the U. S. still sits at number 1.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Househo..._.28PPP.29_.24

Maybe, there are factors not or not correctly considered in these statitics, e. g. health care might have been forgotten (although I doubt that). At least in the media, surviving on an average in the U. S. is apparently seen as surprisingly difficult, but that might be a perceived difficulty. Living in a rented apartment, driving a compact car and so on seems to be better accepted in Europe than in the U. S., so the income and costs might be the same or even better, but the expectation of what one should earn might be different. That alone could still, of course, lead to less enthusiasm in paying MMO fees.

*Yes, yes, it's Wikipedia, where theoretically, any idiot can post bullsh1t data, I know, I know. But it's a discussion on an MMO messageboard, not a dissertation.

... Plumbers make a lot of money... No joke.

[Khaletohep]

'bout 40.000 $ p. a. ;-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_the...ng_credentials