The Elder Scrolls Online

April 15, 2014

The Elder Scrolls Online Extremely Odd Subscription Requirements Take New Turn

I’ve blogged before about the strange issues regarding subscription payments for The Elder Scrolls Online. The crux of the matter seems to be when is 30 days of free game time not 30 days of free game time. Whereas my previous post was largely about the odd pre-authorisation charges whereby customers were reporting they were temporarily having the full subscription charge held on their accounts after setting up payment methods, the latest issue is more about those for whom a credit card wasn’t an option and this remains a very odd issue.

Due to confusion over the issue an official statement has been released :

Every customer that purchases the game receives 30 days of play included. Upon registration, customers are required to choose a payment method for the subscription fee associated with game play beyond the first 30 days of service.

Customers who choose to pay for a subscription with a recurring payment method, such as a credit card, are advised they will not be charged until the first 30-days of use included with the purchase of the game expire. Further, they are informed that they can cancel their chosen payment method up until the first 30-days included with the purchase of the game expires.

That sounds reasonable, you buy the game, it includes 30 days of game time, you setup a subscription method and can cancel before the end of the 30 days. However where matters have taken an odd twist is with their attempts to be more flexible with their payment methods :

In order to give our customers the most flexibility in how they pay for their subscription, we also offer non-recurring payment options, such as Webmoney and iDeal.
Customers choosing to use a non-recurring payment method for a one-time subscription purchase are advised they will be billed immediately for subscription and that their purchase is final. Customers who utilize these non-recurring payment methods will receive immediate access to the 30 days of use included with the purchase of the game plus the additional amount of time associated with the subscription plan they selected – e.g. 30, 90 or 180 days.

Whoa back up there, those who are using non-recurring payment methods are therefore not getting their 30 days of game time included in the game, unless they pay for more game time. That’s not really the best way of going about matters, if something is being included with 30 days of time, that should be honoured and it will be to a fashion now. The Elder Scrolls Online team also insist they were open and upfront about this and to reiterate that fact, they point this out in the official statement as well as explaining how they are going to be flexible over the issue, even though it’s not their fault ….

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April 8, 2014

The Elder Scrolls Online Players Hit By Billing Bombshell

Iris Ophelia over at New World Notes feels that The Elder Scrolls Online is a good MMO, but not a good Elder Scrolls game. Iris didn’t enjoy the beta but since the game went live, she has very much enjoyed it, explaining that something changed :

The very first thing that I will tell you about my time with The Elder Scrolls Online is how much I absolutely hated it during the beta. Playing it was like a chore — gaming housework I had to do — and I just wasn’t having fun, full stop. The second thing I will tell you is that at some point, that changed. Since Head-Start access opened last week, I’ve spent every day eagerly anticipating the moment when my work is done and I’m free to play more. It’s hard to pin down exactly why I’ve done a complete 180, but I think it has something to do with adjusting my expectations.

Over at SLUniverse, Cristiano Midnight agrees with Iris regarding the beta to live game change over, saying : “After playing it for the past week, I have to admit I’ve been pleasantly surprised how much I enjoy it, as I hated the beta.”

However, not everyone is having fun and feeling the love. One of the controversial aspects of The Elder Scrolls Online has been the subscription model, this is why it’s also known as The Elder Subscription Online, as a subscription only model is definitely not the way MMO’s are heading these days. However there’s another issue with the subscription, one that has players who have paid for the game and want to subscribe up in arms, as reported by Kotaku : Players Upset Over The Elder Scrolls Online’s Subscription System. This is different to people being upset about the existence of a subscription model, this is a tale of woe about how players who tried to subscribe after they had bought the game and found their pre-authorisation for a subscription payment method failed.

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March 29, 2014

The Elder Scrolls Online Faces An Uphill Battle

I went back to World Of Warcraft recently, the road back has been a slow one but I’m now firmly back playing. One path on the road to return was the free to play option whereby you can play for free up to level 20, this was how I first returned to the fold. Getting to level 20 these days doesn’t take long and there are some other restrictions on the account, but it took me back to Azeroth and from there I was hooked enough to subscribe again.

The Elder Scrolls Online launches tomorrow, in what is called an early access stage. Those who have purchased the correct version of the game start five days ahead of the official launch. There are some who will start three days ahead of the official launch. The game comes with a 30 day subscription and then the monthly subscription costs are :

$14.99/30 days
€12.99/30 days
£8.99/30 days

This is hardly extortionate but comes in an era when more and more titles offer a free to play option. The thing that oft gets forgotten with free to play options is that there are payment models included, some offer a monthly subscription with perks.

I started and subscribed to Age Of Conan, Star Trek Online and Star Wars, so I’m familiar with subscription models. However the times have changed and yet, World Of Warcraft is still going strong, with a largely subscription only model. This is the game that many cite as an example of how the subscription model works and they use it as an example of Zenimax making the right choice in going subscription only with The Elder Scrolls Online. However there are some gaping flaws in this theory.

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March 6, 2014

Price Comparisons For SL Go Are Difficult, But Please Leave Coffee Out Of It

Often when people are debating costs of online services, such as MMO’s or SL Go, the coffee argument will be trotted out. On the face of it the coffee argument is a good one, the cost can be compared to buying a few cups of coffee a month, which is true. The problem with the coffee comparison is that coffee is a consumable product, with little investment opportunity. I mean you may get a coffee loyalty card which can earn you free coffee, but you know that each cup is going to be disposed of in one form or another.

People who spend time in MMO’s and virtual worlds such as Second Life are investing in their avatar, there are various different ways of doing this but people generally don’t think of this avatar investment as a disposable product. They see it as an ongoing cost in developing said avatar.

That avatar investment is extremely important for developers of MMO’s and virtual worlds, it’s the hook, it’s why people are prepared to keep logging on, there’s progression. This is why in MMO’s a hardcore mode where you lose everything if your character is killed is not the norm, some have it as an option, but it’s not the norm because if that were the norm, people would see their character as disposable, like coffee.

Coffee is not a good comparison, nor is Pizza or even a trip to the pictures. This of course leaves one in the awkward position of trying to find a good comparison. In terms of something like The Elder Scrolls Online, it’s other MMO’s, and there are plenty of them with different pricing structures.

In terms of SL Go, it’s a lot trickier because there’s nothing really like it. Lumiya is a mobile client for Second Life, but it doesn’t deliver its service in the same way as SL Go and it won’t provide the same levels of performance. However Lumiya will provide a means of logging into Second Life on a mobile device.

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March 5, 2014

The Trouble With Pricing Models

No matter what price a company puts on a product, there are going to be people who complain about it. There are umpteen examples of this, a glaring one for Second Life users is tier pricing. The tier is too damn high for many potential use cases of Second Life, but it is what it is. However there are ways and means of introducing pricing structures that can help to attract more customers.

The Elder Scrolls Online will be out soon, with an upfront fee and a USD$15 a month subscription fee, and there have been plenty of complaints about it. The price itself is not outrageously expensive but the pricing models for MMO’s has for some time been moving away from a subscription only model. Indeed Second Life is a glaring example of a product that moved from a subscription only model, to a choice of payment model and undoubtedly prospered.

I’ll be amazed if The Elder Scrolls Online does not change its pricing model within a year or two of release. I’ve seen this before with Star Wars The Old Republic, Age Of Conan, Star Trek Online yadda yadda yadda. The MMO market has moved on in the main from the subscription only model. There are at least two whopping examples of pretty much subscription fee only models, World Of Warcraft and Eve-Online. WoW has the people, that’s something you simply can’t buy. Eve-Online is far more niche, that’s a good advantage, but in the main the subscription only model is heading into extinction. The thing to note is that many a free to play MMO model offers a subscription option.

Now the new SL Go is getting criticised for its pricing model and I personally think this is a bridge that the concept won’t be able to cross. The technology really is brilliant in terms of delivery, the pricing model is quite heinous and there is a virtual world precedent here, Kitely.

Kitely had a pay per minute plan, it was not quite the same as the Onlive SL Go model, but it was a pay for your time model. On January 1st Kitely changed their model quite substantially, announcing in a blog post:

Until now, users had a certain number of Minutes that they could spend in-world; this was similar to the Minutes in a cellphone plan. Unfortunately, using Minutes had some downsides.

The biggest problem was that using Minutes caused anxiety among casual users: they had to count their Minutes and “spend them wisely”. But starting now, visitors never pay for visiting a world. It’s possible that a user won’t be able to visit a particular world due to the access settings chosen by the world owner, but if they can visit the world then it’s completely free for them.

Whereas paid time has not been completely removed from Kitely, the onus now falls on a sim owner to pay the bill for visitor’s time, but Kitely has a range of other options that mean sim owners can avoid such fees and it’s this sort of range of choice that helps end users.

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