Character Slot Fee even for your first (only) character?

[buritoslicer]

What I don't understand is why people are maknig such a big deal about this... This is how they choose to set their business layout, and try to understand that not everyone wants it to be one flat rate... I would rather see what I'm paying for, 6.99 for my basic service and 3.00 for my character is perfectly ok with me.

[Xatsh]

Why is this so hard for people to understand the payments....

You pay for the service $6.99 and $3 per character.... It is fairly self explanatory when you look at it, at least to me.

[buritoslicer]

Why is this so hard for people to understand the payments....

You pay for the service $6.99 and $3 per character.... It is fairly self explanatory when you look at it, at least to me.

Wishes Mods would close this thread and send it to it's rightful death. Seriously we've discussed, discussed and discussed this over and over.

[Dreadnought]

Isn't it obvious why they do this? It's a marketing scheme to dupe the simple-minded. And stuff like this works too. Why do you think retailers mark something as 9.99 when it's obviously 10 bucks?

this is the actual reason.
its like when ordering cable in los angeles. you see certain packages advertised but what they dont tell you is that you aslo have to pay for this or that in order to get the package, you then either see a massive charger you didnt know about on your CC or you find you cant afford the package because the commercial said nothing about having to have 8 phone lines...

[ChiefCurrahee]

I think the point is:

You wouldn't subscribe unless you had at least one character, ergo, why not simple state the subscription cost in a plain, straightforward, unambiguous way, for example

"The subscription fee is $9.99 per month. If you want more than one character, there is a $3.00 fee for each additional character."

That is a lot more unambiguous.

Plenty of people will reply that "the way they have communicated it is completely clear" but then, if that were true, we wouldn't have seen a number of different threads on this subject, now would we?

If you think about it, it gives the player better options.

Your line of thought: "why not charge 12.99 flat out? Because in order to play you need a character"

this is why:
If you ever created more than 1 character you would always pay 12.99 +3.00 a month.

Under the pricing of 9.99 for a sub fee +3.00 for a character fee you are allowed to choose what character you want to main w/o having to pay for the one you aren't currently playing.

You are given the option to choose what character slots you want active instead of always having one autoactive tied to the sub fee.

so i can have this:
Characters:

Hank (not active)
Betty (not active)
Sam (active) +3.00
James (not active)
Jill (active) +3.00
Linda (not active)
Casey (not active)

Sub fee: 9.99

total cost month: 15.99

instead of
Hank (ALWAYS active because tied to subfee)
Betty (not active)
Sam (active) +3.00
James (not active)
Jill (active) +3.00
Linda (not active)
Casey (not active)

Sub fee: 12.99

total: 18.99

[ispano]

If you think about it, it gives the player better options.

Your line of thought: "why not charge 12.99 flat out? Because in order to play you need a character"

this is why:
If you ever created more than 1 character you would always pay 12.99 +3.00 a month.

Under the pricing of 9.99 for a sub fee +3.00 for a character fee you are allowed to choose what character you want to main w/o having to pay for the one you aren't currently playing.

You are given the option to choose what character slots you want active instead of always having one autoactive tied to the sub fee.

I'm not the only one who knew this?

[Gramul]

It's just a quick way of displaying how much the game costs.

Really, they could simply say it costs 12.99 (or whatever the base fee plus the character is) to play plus an additional 2.99 per character and nothing would change.

[Ilisidi]

@ChiefCurrahee: It doesn't work like that, there is no "first" character tied to the account. It doesn't matter which character is active, one active character always means 12.95 and each additional 1, no matter what position they take on the list. (Under the old FFXI system that is).

However as far as I see this the base account and characters are activated independently, so if you deactivate your characters you might easily forget about the base account. Byebye money when next month rolls around.

[TinnySnips]

If you think about it, it gives the player better options.

Your line of thought: "why not charge 12.99 flat out? Because in order to play you need a character"

this is why:
If you ever created more than 1 character you would always pay 12.99 +3.00 a month.

Under the pricing of 9.99 for a sub fee +3.00 for a character fee you are allowed to choose what character you want to main w/o having to pay for the one you aren't currently playing.

You are given the option to choose what character slots you want active instead of always having one autoactive tied to the sub fee.

so i can have this:
Characters:

Hank (not active)
Betty (not active)
Sam (active) +3.00
James (not active)
Jill (active) +3.00
Linda (not active)
Casey (not active)

Sub fee: 9.99

total cost month: 15.99

instead of
Hank (ALWAYS active because tied to subfee)
Betty (not active)
Sam (active) +3.00
James (not active)
Jill (active) +3.00
Linda (not active)
Casey (not active)

Sub fee: 12.99

total: 18.99

The only way this scheme offers more options is if the 1st slot were tightly coupled to the sub. They could charge a flat rate for service + 1 active character slot. There is no need for the tight coupling. A company does not regain the faith of its customers by attempting to fool them with unnecessarily complex pricing schemes.

[ispano]

@ChiefCurrahee: It doesn't work like that, there is no "first" character tied to the account. It doesn't matter which character is active, one active character always means 12.95 and each additional 1, no matter what position they take on the list.

However as far as I see this the base account and characters are activated independently, so if you deactivate your characters you might easily forget about the base account. Byebye money when next month roles around.

He never said it did work that way, he was describing that since others want that first character bundled into the base sub fee. And the way he described it is likely how it would work.