I am with Eve on this one.
And to back it up with as much fact as I am able to find/contribute:
I looked on MSN. 16 of those online were people I'd met whilst playing MMOs, from Horizons through to EQ2. So I did a pop quiz. (Conference calling a bunch of people who don't know each other, or people I'd not spoken to in months, and then quizzing them produces some very humorous conversations haha).
*7 are only paying for one sub to a game (the majority is WoW...).
*6 are paying for two (mostly WoW, EVE and/or EQ2).
*2 are paying for three
*1 is paying for four
*7 responded from "No" to "No ******* way!" to the question of whether they'd play a tiered pricing game. (I just asked them the question, no backup story to it or mention of this thread, so personal opinions and preconceptions dominated, which is exactly what Simu would be up against). That was just
play.
*Of the other 9, 3 were undecided in a "Wait to see what the game is like" way.
*4 would be happy to drop all their subs and pay the same amount for one really, really good game.
*2 (the DragonRealm players haha) would be perfectly happy to pay the extra on top of what they're playing/paying.
(On topic here!!)
*When asked what the maximum they'd pay per month was:
<or=$15 - 6
$15-20 - 5
$20-30 - 1
$30-50 - 3
$50+ - 1
*I asked the 11 who voted <$15 to $20, "Same as what you currently pay?"
all said "Yes, or a bit more" or words to that effect.
Now, that's just the 16 people I knew to play MMOs who were online at the time. The majority are Australians and Europeans too, for clarification.
We can all debate with our own assumptions, which is all we're doing, ALL of us
, and one of the only ways we can come to any sort of conclusions on this matter is if people do the same thing as above, ask anyone they know who play games the same questions I listed.
Then we tally the results.
Hell, it'd give us something to do while passing the time til HJ comes out anyways!
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Stado said:
Heck, I'd be willing to pay $100 for a collector's edition of HJ, well, so long as there was an actual difference. It doesn't even have to have some in-game tangibility. Give me a few goodies, the odd behind-the-making DVD, and an art book and I'll be happy with spending nearly twice as much for a collectors edition.
Oh yeah! Like the Guild Wars Factions CE:
Full colour map
GW poster
'Glorious Guild Wars Factions' Art Book (which is gawd dern amazing btw)
Ritualist (class) cloth picture
Guild Wars Factions desk calendar
Guild Wars Factions mouse mat
Assassin (class) sticker
Jeremy Sould GW Factions sountrack
In-game /emote dance
all in one big heavy box.
Hell, the Art Book alone is enough to buy the GW Factions CE. If Simu did something like this for HJ, include a beautiful book of concept art etc, I'd have no problems paying +50% of the standard box price or whatever.
(As it happens, the GW Factions CE was only $8 more expensive than the standard box when I got it).