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

[Deminia]

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

While agree with your logic here, I still don't see why they could not simply make the base price include 1 active character slot (which you could select from any of your character slots). If you have paid for a gaming subscription, then 1 active character should be included and not be considered another fee.

I don't see any reason - other than to mislead - to have a separate "service fee" when you can't use the service without yet another fee, only that is nearly half again the price of the service.

Note: And for the folks mentioning $12.99 - the fees have been reduced for the next several months (which you can see if you check the fees article posted on the main Lodestone page). The new fee is $6.99 "service" plus $3 per character slot, at least for those paying in US currency.