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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In terms of SL Go, it’s a lot trickier because there’s nothing really like it. Lumiya<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The fact that SL Go is new and delivering via a different method to that people are used to is one of the reasons why a pricing debate is difficult. We may get a better comparison when the pricing for War Thunder is announced because that will also use Onlive Go. Although there is talk in the War Thunder blog<\/a> about this, unlike SL Go, there are no firm pricing details.<\/p>\n Comparisons with the main Onlive gaming service are unfair, as I’ve previously mentioned. A standalone game has static or pre-determined content, it’s not streaming new and dynamic content as Second Life requires.<\/p>\n The Onlive team themselves have made an attempt at a price comparison on their blog post : The Respawn Of OnLive<\/a> :<\/p>\n This variable-rate billing model seems very 1990\u2019s, but is inescapable since so many MMO users spend large fractions of their lives connected, sometimes only in the background. Think of it this way, at 5 cents\/minute it is 37% cheaper than a Skype call to Italy from the USA, and it\u2019s a connection that consumes >100X Skype\u2019s bandwidth and includes a very powerful computer that would only have been cheaper to have owned after you used it for almost 1000 hours, and even then, it could not achieve our speeds since our data centers benefit from gigabit connections to the internet. The latter claim can be verified by subscribing to our amazing OnLive Cloud Desktop (for iOS and Android) and running SpeedTest.net or similar bandwidth tools. SL Go is a power tool that delivers a fast and immersive experience that enables one to experience Second Life in all of its beauty and complexity. If you want almost-free with less performance, use Lumiya for Android. This power tool is for people who value their time and getting the best graphical experiences where they are or would like to be.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Fair play to them for mentioning Lumiya in their post, that shows a refreshing honesty. However the statement is a bit contradictory because it mentions that sometimes people are only connected in the background, yet it’s that connected in the background concept that puts people off a per minute billing option.<\/p>\n