Friday, May 20, 2011

Services I Would Pay For

With all the hub bub going on about pay for services with the addition of cross server grouping coming up I tried to think of some services I would pay for.

Personally I would never pay for cross server grouping but that is only because I am not a social player for the most part so why would I want to be social with players on other servers when I don't even like being social with the ones on mine?

Vanity items I see no issue with either.  They can sell as many pets or mounts as they want and you will never hear me bark about it.  Heck, I will be one of the people that buys a pet I never call out or a mount I never use just for the sake of having it and there are many like me in that sense.

Without getting into the argument of the slippery slope of selling things I will leave it quick and simple.  I do not think anything that actively effects game play should ever be sold. Race changes, faction changes, etc, the stuff they already have I see no problem with but the second they start selling gear and + stat bonus stuff I will have issues with it.

Now to the list of services I would gladly pay for and are long over due.

Additional Character Slots:
I would gladly play 10, even 25 dollars for one additional slot on a server I want.  I've one server maxed out and another almost there.  It would be nice to be able to make more characters on those servers that I am most invested in.

Additional Characters:
Different from the previous one.  The previous one would just allow you to have more on a particular server and will not change the total amount allowed, this would change your max amount allowed by 5.  Even if they charged 50 bucks to extend it by 5 total I would not mind.  I am not to the point where I would need it but if I ever got there I would rather pay 50 bucks for an extra 5 spaces then buy all game packs again and a second monthly fee.  Heck, I would rather pay 100 bucks instead of buying all that and having another monthly fee.

Starting Bag Upgrade:
As long as this would be for all characters I would buy something that upgraded the size of the starting bag for all your characters.  They like to increase bags by numbers of two so lets say 20 bucks for each increase of 2.  Could you just imagine 40 slot starting bags for all your characters for just 140 bucks?  It would be the best 140 bucks I ever spent on a game in my opinion.

Character Clone:
This would have to be expensive.  Say something like 500 or even 1000 to do.  It would clone a character you already have on to another server, same gear, achievements, everything.  I would use it for sure.  Starting on a new server?  Why not spend a few bucks to start there with a fully geared ready to raid character that you are good at.  I think I would bite at 500, not so sure about 1000.

Old Mounts or Pets:
People complain about not being able to get some mounts or pets that where removed from the game.  Make versions of them with a slight reskin and the name of classic xxx and let people buy them.  I am sure they would go for 50 bucks each easily.

Personal Tabards:
You would get to design your own tabard with your own artwork.  Being this artwork would need to be added it would be more work so it would not be something that would be cheap.  Have two versions, a personal tabard with predesigned things in the system you choose from for 50 bucks and a personal one with your own image and coloring for 200 maybe.

Character Design Studio:
Create new skins for all classes, face, hair, body art, size, etc that can only be accessed from this special service.  While I can't really see myself using this many would and role players would die for it.  A $50 access to the change studio for a week seems good.  It would give people a week to play with it to find the new look they want that only they can get, well, only them and others that pay.

Fun Items:
Just like the archeology items or trading card items.  Stupid little things that are just for fun.  Like the riding pony and things like that, you spend 10 bucks and you get a stack of 50 that can be used.  People with some free cash would continue to buy these things just for fun, it would be a huge money maker for the company.  Don't believe me, check how many of these things sell on ebay for even more then 10 bucks.

Heirlooms:
They refuse to give us cross server heirlooms but that doesn't mean they can not sell them to us.  Just like they have it set that you can create a 55 DK on any server once you have a level 55 they can make it that as soon as you have have a max level character on any server you open the heirloom store on other servers.  20 bucks or even 50 bucks per piece and I am sure they will sell like wild fire.  I know I would buy them.  Of course, I would prefer it to be a free service and really make the bind on account things bind on account but I would not be completely adverse to paying if I had to.


For now that's all I've got.

Well, I am sure there are many other good ideas and I am sure lots of people will pay for the cross server dungeon thing even if I won't.  We each have a line in the sand of what we would pay for and what we think it would be fine to pay for.  I am sure there is a segment of the player base that would love blizzard to just sell gold itself or gear or other things that directly effect game play whereas I see that as too much.

Above all else listed here, the bigger starting bag thing is the one I would jump on and buy at the price I mentioned or even more then that.  Some of the others I could see myself using as well but the bag one, oh how I want that.

5 comments:

  1. I would consider the extra character slot options, but the one that I really liked on your list, was the character clone. That is probably the only thing on I could/would be a future customer of.

    I also think we have to be careful not to mix services with items. I don't know if you consider them the same, I don't :)

    I'm not enthusiastic about purchasable vanity pets, but I'm over it. And of course, no one likes the idea of epics for sale.

    When it comes to services - in-game services, it starts getting a little muddy. Race/faction change etc, no problem, but this one... I'm concerned... the word "premium".. hmmmmm

    We'll see how it turns out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Premium is one of those words that can be a double edge sword.

    I've played other games where, while cheap enough, you needed to be a premium player to actually ever compete.

    If WoW goes there, I am gone, even if I can afford it.

    The Clone version would help me in so many ways. I have friends alliance side on my horde server. I won't race chance, but would be more then happy to clone one.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Some brilliant ideas here! Might have to work on a post of my own along the same lines. On the topic of paying for main bag upgrades? Totally. When I bought Rift, the main reason I grabbed the digital collectors rather than the normal digital version was for the bigger starting bag and it was *so* worth it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Same for me, I bought the rift collectors edition just so I could have that bigger starting bag.

    There is no bigger selling point in my mind.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I would happily spend money on extra character slots per server as well. I would be even happier if Blizzard just added more for free, but considering that it's something "outside" the game, like server transfers and the like, I would be okay with them charging for it too.

    ReplyDelete