Lifetime Subscription for Current Subscibers

S|E,

You did an amazing job by putting Yoshi-P in place. We are grateful that out 80$ Collectors Edition purchase made the game worth fixing. And, we respect that the game is going to need to be buried, for financial reasons, if we don't start paying for it.

But as you know, the game is not yet worth paying for. It's a fun experience, and even enriching in spots. But the core game is still at a level lower than that of any other AAA MMO currently on the market. Additionally, there are several competing titles which are slated for launch in Q4 2011 and Q2 2012 which will substantially lower the player base of the core game.

Combined with the larger percentage who won't be willing to pay for the game in its current state, only to have the world and content they worked so hard for 'Upgraded out of Existence', I recommend the following:

Allow players who have reached a certain level within the game (... say... 20) to purchase a lifetime subscription to the game. It will allow a much higher initial stimulus then your current expectations, and, allow players to feel like their investment in the game is warranted.

If a player knows that they will be able to play FFXIV-2 for one reasonable flat price, they will fee rewarded in investing in the game yet again (before it is repaired/upgraded to a true AAA experience).

Though I can not venture to guess what a reasonable Dollar amount is, I offer the following:

An escelating deal:

October 2011 - January 2012 - 80.00USD
February 2012 - July 2012 - 140.00 USD
August 2012 - 2.0 Launch 2012 - 180.00 USD
Forever On - 250.00 USD

With this structure, the players are given access to a reasonable lifetime structure which helps them to ignore being slated to pay for an unfinished product, while staying with a game that has yet to reach its potential, despite the fact that there are other AAA titles to play. Additionally, having a lifetime account with a game has proven to bring players back to a game they own despite it not being their #1 time consuming MMO.

I offer this suggestion knowing, that I will be among those who pay for play in the new structure, but offering that this premature reinstatement is bad for the morale of a game which has suffered for the last 12 months.

As always, thank you for attempting to bring the brand into the new era of gaming. We are grateful for where the game is headed. 14 months to get this content is just a wee bit daunting. To be asked to pay 200 USD in monthly fees to get there is a bit daunting.

Professor Cid
Conjurer of Trabia

I fully agree with life time subscription, it saves a lot of head ache when worrying about paying your monthly subscription.. ^^

$13.95 x 84 months (7 years) = $1,171.80 that SE made off of me for FINAL FANTASY XI.

Yeah, I'll pay $250 upfront, but it won't happen.

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But as you know, the game is not yet worth paying for.

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Yeah, I really disagree with this. I find the game to be consistently very fun, and that means it's worth paying for.

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Originally Posted by Cycloptichorn

Yeah, I really disagree with this. I find the game to be consistently very fun, and that means it's worth paying for.

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I feel the same. In regards to the OP, however, I feel that lifetime subs are a bad idea. There were a lot of rumors that they were a huge part of the income problems Turbine was having before they made DDO and LotRO free to play. And I reaaaaaaally don't want to see FFXIV go that route - the F2P move did a lot of damage to LotRO's community, which up until that point was one of the best around. Now, it's on par with most f2p games. *shudder*

i care alot now from company , because clickandbuy keep having problem with my account and my friends account, they should change payment company first then we should warry about monthly or early .. but i love to pay for year rather than paying for month. and by this option .. SE could make alot of money from first day of billing ... instead of waiting a year to make it.

It's amazing what the current generation of kids think that they are entitled to. They've never had to work, never had to pay for anything and expect the world to continue to hand things to them on a silver platter. In fact, this permeates up through two generations.

Same people who complain that they can't find a job after graduating from college because they feel that it is beneath them to work in the service industry (i.e., waitress, clerk, attendant) Same people who wouldn't last 5 minutes at manual labor.

My point? You don't want to pay? Go away. There's plenty of other games that allow you to pay for free, by using your privacy as collateral, using you as an ad billboard or marketing statistic or leaving you vulnerable to computer criminals.

Offering lifetime sub basically means "we do not expect our game to last longer than a few years, so please pay us now before we close the shop and/or go f2p".

The reason they do monthly subscriptions (or other subscriptions except lifetime) is because they can say "hey we got this much coming in each month" with one off payments that would mean they are losing out on their per-month income

I'm in favor of a lifetime payment myself, or at the very least, a discounted yearly subscription