Thread: 2.0 Game Time Cards ?

Originally Posted by Antipika

These are only available in the US.

Really?
Dont know that

Originally Posted by rina_inverse

SE has been using UGC as one of the payment method since my day one
I dont see any different with this time card

Like i said, CnB & direct Debit Card transactions are Still giving some of us problems when we try to pay our monthly fees.
not all "Countries" seems to be affected by these problems etc.

So just because your payment system is working perfectly, dosent mean it should for Everyone else aswell Rina.
Dont expect everyone on this forum that speaks english in an almost flawless way to be a US or UK residence.

Adding the option for "Game Time Cards" will dramaticly increase FFXIV's population wether you believe it or not.
The reason for this is the simplicity of the option.

You buy a time card in a shop / order it online (w/e), you get a code & enter it at the payment screen.

And voila, all done.

Yes, it's not much diffrent from using a debit card or credit card, but the thing is... not everyone got Access to credit / debit cards.
Especially younge players, not to mention Not all countries aroudn the world have these options for Visa/Mastercards.
(just incase you obvisouly didnt know this, welcome to outside your own world)
This is the reason i mentioned the above statement regarding other well known mmo's huge success.

Besides, if your payment system is working flawlessly Rina... Hooray and good foor you! ^.^)b
Then i do not see the reason why you even bothering commenting on something you obviously clueless about.
No one is forcing You to change your payment solution or even forcing you to use it.

But for those of us that are getting these kind of wierd payment issues now & then...this option would be a god send.

Originally Posted by Thanos

They said we are gonna get these? Must have missed it.

Im sorry i was just looking for where i read it, but i just cant find it in the forum soup of threads.
only "rumor" thread i found is fro ma 2year old post here....

but i know i read it somewhere else aswell.

Originally Posted by rina_inverse

Really?
Dont know that

Well now you know That's why having a generic, branded, XIV time card is better. But that cost more money for SE. (or players).

Originally Posted by Antipika

Well now you know That's why having a generic, branded, XIV time card is better. But that cost more money for SE. (or players).

It depend
If I can get physical one, I dont mind with more price
But if I only can get it online, I better stick with something cheaper

I think this is a really good way of doing it, partly due to problems people have experienced, but mainly because some people are still dubious about giving a third party their card details, this hasn't got better because of the recent Anonymous and not as recent LulzSec hacks, it could open the game to more people if they can just go to a store and buy a 30, 60, 90 day time card.

Yes we have UGC but as some people have said they are only available in US (well at least not in UK, but I have only heard of them in US) if SE makes their own time cards and ships them world wide, it will increase interest in the game.

It will not be hard for SE and could increase their takings from the game, if they are dubious about the profitability of time cards, because they have to get the cards and print them, then send them round the world they could trial them to see how many people use them and make a decision from there.

Each time card only costs a few pence/cents or what ever your country uses, the overhead would not warrant much of an increase, but if they print, for the sake of argument lets say, 100,000 time cards, but only sell 100, they have still made massive losses on them, which is why I suggested a trial just so SE can see how they do.

Its kinda like adding funds to your PS3 wallet via one of these "Cards" you can buy in almost any game store.

Or the XBOX360's points cards, also sold in game store or online.

Managing that for Europe is way harder than NA however. Each country got its own set of rules and regulations. +UK got its own currency. (And most of the time, paying in GBP is better than in EUR when you do the conversion.) So SE would have to make sure that UK cards can only be used on UK accounts. EUR cards, on EU accounts.

Then manufacturing and shipping cards away to retailers is a pain, cards will need to be localized at least in French & German (supported languages). The game doesn't have enough customers yet in France/Germany to deploy this. Cards need to be widely available or it's pointless to have them if they can only be found in major cities. (No one will take his car and ride for 45 minutes+ just to get a card...)

I'd say we have at -best- 5K French players now (and I'm being generous). Let's say half of them will want to use this payment method (generous here as well, usually debit card is the winner as long as it works :d). Selling cards across France just for 2.5K players? Complete waste...

If ARR gets a lot of interest in EU why not, but until then, costs will be > profits. And if we don't have cards yet, it's not because SE is slacking or is ignorant, it's most likely because of profitability. There isn't any other possible reason. If cards can generate more profits, we will have them in EU

I know that in France, lot of "small" MMOs are using a third party service (like Ultimate Game Cards) in order to lower the costs. Since cards can be used for lot of MMOs (and also all sort of online services), they are selling more = lower cost