I'll Gladly Pay You Tuesday

Like going to the pictures, do you? The movies, eh, wot? Great stuff! What payment model do you prefer then? Pay each time do you? Hand in pocket, bring out the wedge? Feeling of control that gives you, I bet, doesn't it? Or is it those cards? Buy 'em in foyer is it? The supermarket? Fifty notes, what's that last you? Couple of months? Three?. No, no, of course! You're a real fan, I can tell. You'll be a member, course you will. Monthly is it, your subscription? Annual! You really do like your movies, don't you?

Say, whatever did happen to that Everquest movie?

Can you imagine sitting in the pub chewing over the pros and cons of how to pay to watch films? Can you imagine having that conversation over and over and over again? Who bloody cares? What film did you see? Who was in it? Was it any good? That's what we want to know.

Yes, but how you pay for your movie habit doesn't affect what films get made, does it? Doesn't affect the content. Or does it? You know what? I don't know and I don't very much care. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. A million things affect what movies get made and where they get shown but regardless there are always more films being made than I am ever going to see and there always will be. Out of those miles and miles of celluloid (let's not quantify digitally) I am not likely to run out of stuff that appeals to me but I am likely, nay, certain, to run out of time to watch it all.

Pick me! Pick me!

From where I sit there also seems to be no prospect whatsoever of running out of MMOs. There are hundreds of them and they just keep coming. It takes a couple of hours to watch a movie but a middling MMO takes a month or two even for a tourist and a good one might eat up most of a year and that's just on the first go round.

One of the advantages usually quoted for the Subscription model is that you have a fixed price point and once you've paid each month you're done paying til next month. Fine. Dandy, even, but that also works in reverse. When there are too many MMOs to choose from it's very handy for some to rule themselves out by charging an upfront fee. Really, that's great. You guys keep doing that. Makes for one less MMO that I have to think about. Get back to me when you go F2P. I might take a look then.

Make the most of it, it's all you'll ever see

Oh look, here I am talking about payment models and didn't I just say how dull that was? How did I get onto the topic anyway? Everquest going F2P, that was it. I was going to write something about it but Wilhelm beat me to it and covered most of what I might have said.


I did make a character on Vox, the new server. I had to, it's a tradition. I've made a character on every new EQ server that's launched since 2000. Well, except Stormhammer. Now there's a payment model!. Apparently some people really would pay $40 a month just to have a server to themselves. Not being one of them I never did see Marauder's Mire.

First catch your gnoll.

 At the moment the main effect of Everquest going F2P has been to rekindle my interest in leveling up my necromancer on Fippy Darkpaw, one of the two Progression servers both of which remain subscription only. It seems the net result of Everquest going F2P for me is that I've started logging in to do something I could have done at any time anyway. Figures.