Seems like alot of people want this game to become Free 2 Play. >.>

[Rannie]

Because Diablo 3 doesn't have any servers. Bandwidth costs for MMOs represent only a tiny part of the monthly fee you pay. What cost the most is the manpower (DEVs and not Customer Support). CS is one of the cheapest manpower with QA... One DEV cost as much as 5~8 QA/CS employee. Most of CS is outsourced nowadays as well.

Updates cost a lot because it requires dev time, hence why MMO without sub usually try and sell expansions on a regular basis in order to generate income through product sales.

you know if you call Se's na customer support line you're contacting California one of the most expensive states besides Alaska and Hawaii for Cost of living and they're in the LA Region as well... their Area code is 305. Also it's why they work on pst hours which are 9-5 so 12-8 est or edt whatever you want to call it at this point in time. So I doubt they're being paid cheaply

[Antipika]

you know if you call Se's na customer support line you're contacting California one of the most expensive states besides Alaska and Hawaii for Cost of living and they're in the LA Region as well... their Area code is 305. Also it's why they work on pst hours which are 9-5 so 12-8 est or edt whatever you want to call it at this point in time. So I doubt they're being paid cheaply

Yeah right, people not being paid cheap in a call center . You should start and look for a job in this sector and see how much you will get out of it Even if you take a "decent" salary for someone in a call center is California, try and compare it to the one of a developer in Tokyo...

Also protip: the number you dial means nothing. You can dial whatever area code you want, your call could be redirected anywhere without you knowing about it. You cannot determine where a call center is located. I'm not saying that SE support itself it outsourced (no way to confirm it from where we are), but it's just a common practice in the industry nowadays. All major companies outsource their support. They only keep a handful amount of employee on their company HQ just to supervise the whole thing.

As for the time you can call, seriously in which world are you living? Ever heard the word globalization? I can call my ISP support during daytime while their call center is in India. Are you aware that you have people working 24/7 everywhere around the world for that? Some employees in these call center even receive "culture training" in order to know more about the country they are supporting. They also listen to the news and keep themselves informed about anything such as the weather so the customer feel like he is talking to someone nearby and the agent can hold a conversation about any kind of recent event happening 10,000km from where he is.

DEVs cost can hardly be reduced. If you want a quality game, you need good devs, that cost lot of money. And you cannot easily outsource all your devs. It's just not convenient and you don't save that much either. However for things like CS, you can save money easily, without impacting much customers

Not sure if this model have been used in a lot of MMO but it looks fair no ?

Pay by day or even per hour of gameplay is a model that is widely used in Asia (just like for internet back in the day, you can purchase bundle of 20/50/100 hours etc.). For some reason it never made in it the West. At least I'm not aware of MMOs using this system. Closest I know is Dofus that allows 1 week subscription. But that's mainly so young people can pay using their (parents) phone.

[Rannie]

Yeah right, people not being paid cheap in a call center . You should start and look for a job in this sector and see how much you will get out of it Even if you take a "decent" salary for someone in a call center is California, try and compare it to the one of a developer in Tokyo...

Also protip: the number you dial means nothing. You can dial whatever area code you want, your call could be redirected anywhere without you knowing about it. You cannot determine where a call center is located. I'm not saying that SE support itself it outsourced (no way to confirm it from where we are), but it's just a common practice in the industry nowadays. All major companies outsource their support. They only keep a handful amount of employee on their company HQ just to supervise the whole thing.

As for the time you can call, seriously in which world are you living? Ever heard the word globalization? I can call my ISP support during daytime while their call center is in India. Are you aware that you have people working 24/7 everywhere around the world for that? Some employees in these call center even receive "culture training" in order to know more about the country they are supporting. They also listen to the news and keep themselves informed about anything such as the weather so the customer feel like he is talking to someone nearby and the agent can hold a conversation about any kind of recent event happening 10,000km from where he is.

DEVs cost can hardly be reduced. If you want a quality game, you need good devs, that cost lot of money. And you cannot easily outsource all your devs. It's just not convenient and you don't save that much either. However for things like CS, you can save money easily, without impacting much customers

Pay by day or even per hour of gameplay is a model that is widely used in Asia (just like for internet back in the day, you can purchase bundle of 20/50/100 hours etc.). For some reason it never made in it the West. At least I'm not aware of MMOs using this system. Closest I know is Dofus that allows 1 week subscription. But that's mainly so young people can pay using their (parents) phone.

here's a protip. I've called up Se Customer service center already and spoke and talked to them about being in California. Second of all I'm already in a customer support job already and the number you have to call for my job is a 1-800 number. There are a lot more call centers here in the states than you realize and they get paid more money than you realize. No Se Na's hours of operation for calling are a set time from 9 am to 5pm pst/pdt try calling outside of those time frames and you get a recording saying they're closed. I also know places say open for 24/7 I WORK IN A CALL CENTER. There are different ques that are open different hours My que closes at 11pm EST/EDT and sometimes earlier due to certain holidays. You don't need to preach to me about it because I AM in that type of business.

PS. I've been working in customer support for almost 5 years now with the same company.
PPS: I get paid well above minimum wage at my job. The only issue I'm having with money is Fmla and not being able to work a full 8 hours without losing my voice to laryngitis. Otherwise for a Single woman who has no children I make damn good money at my job. tyvm