Runescape Lifetime Membership

[Skull]

Hell no.

[Shyla]

Nope. Having a lifetime membership would just draw me back in whenever I try to quit Runescape (I hate wasting money *cheapo*).

[Kenshinjapan]

I wouldn't. 200 dollars (as used as an example) is quite a heavy single investment and if it takes me years to benefit from it, I wouldn't bother. Paying a price worth a beer at a club per month is nothing, but that is something. The time range is far too long for me to actually even think about it: using the "$200/$5 " ratio mentioned earlier it would take 40 months to breakeven. After 50 months you would have saved 50 dollars. Now, 50 months equals to 4 years and 2 months. That's a 50 dollar save in a bit over 1,5k days.

 

For me, those years are a far too long period of time to plan it. I got no guarantees I would be playing still then and it's also unsure wether RS exists then, at least in the form it is now. It's easy enough to just let them automaticly bill my credit card once a month and then cancel it when I won't need it anymore. Moneywise it isn't any worse opinion seeing how it would take me years to benefit from this idea suggested here but it would save me money if I decided to quit, got banned or something. Plus 5 dollars per month is nothing but 200 dollars at once is something.

 

Excellently put. To put it in perspective for me, I could just work an extra day one week to get that 50 dollars saved too. That way, I'd only waste 8 hours at work and wouldn't feel the pressure of having to play if I bought lifetime membership.

[Star_Fox]

for 200 dollars, no. too inconvenient...the next day, i could of died and lost all my items, quit and BOOM, there goes my money.

[Distracted]

Nah, it just doesn't seem right to me.

[nerdboyxxx]

I am rather inconsistent with my playing time. So, I probably wouldn't. I prefer to be able to cancel/stop paing for my membership whenever I feel like it, to focus on school or if I feel like playing F2P for a while. You know, depends on the situation.

[Tim]

I'd assume it would be more than $200, but I'm not sure I would. Everyone is bound to get bored of the game and leave before they get the money's worth. I doubt I'll be playing in my late 20s, 30s, 40s etc.

Pretty much sums it up for me.

[Omali]

Runescape has such a cheap monthly price, that I think I'd keep paying monthly. At least I would be assured that Jagex wouldn't pull a Flagship Studios on us.

 

Pulling a Flagship Studios is a term where an MMO developer offers a lifetime subscription and then shuts down the service before the lifetime subscription price is paid off. Hellgate: London, by Flagship Studios, offered a lifetime subscription for $150 USD, alongside the $10 monthly subscription. Due to poor public reaction, Flagship Studios suspended payments and stopped billing customers 8 months later in July 2008, in preparation for an eventual shutdown. As that would cover only $80 of the original $150, anyone who purchased the lifetime subscription came out at least at a $70 loss, or almost 50% of the total fee.

[Elektrik2H]

I would buy it so I wouldn't have to worry about the money being taken from my credit card or something, ya know?

[Merre]

I played Lotro for a year (Lord Of The Rings Online) and the price per month was 12. I payed little over 200 for a lifetime account.

I got bored after a year having 4 L60 accounts ( max level ) and best gear on 2 of the chars.

I sold the account with profit, since I was extremely rich compared to most players.

 

I couldn't imagine rs being as expensive as Lotro since a month's fee is half of most online games.

Ofc the graphics aren't the same as lotro and most MMORPG's but also Runescape has way more cheaters on it.

Lotro was one of the best protected games I've ever played. Macroing and all was merely impossible because the game was this huge and you couldn't pin on a certain creature in one particular zone. (like everywhere in rs).

If Runescape would make a lifetime account, it should be between 100-150 to beat the other gamedevelopers...

[unjustblood]

As far as Im concerned, the monthly thing is lifetime enough.

Only with so many more advantages.

-Transfer members to one account to another

-Stop when you dont want it

-Start whenever you want, and dont pay for the time lapse

-Multiple accounts members, for cheaper.

-Not as big of a loss when banned.

 

Also, think about the stress it would put on customer support.

"Oh, we can exactly ban this player that easily, they have lifetime membership"

 

It would probably let a lot of cheaters go who have paid for lifetime membership, since Jagex values its customers so much, they already let members get away with a lot of things. Lifetime membership is 40x as expensive as a month of members, so just think about what you would get away with then.

[KaurK_unused]

I'd buy it.

Not planning to quit within the next 10 years.

[Kenshinjapan]

As far as Im concerned, the monthly thing is lifetime enough.

Only with so many more advantages.

-Transfer members to one account to another

-Stop when you dont want it

-Start whenever you want, and dont pay for the time lapse

-Multiple accounts members, for cheaper.

-Not as big of a loss when banned.

 

Also, think about the stress it would put on customer support.

"Oh, we can exactly ban this player that easily, they have lifetime membership"

 

It would probably let a lot of cheaters go who have paid for lifetime membership, since Jagex values its customers so much, they already let members get away with a lot of things. Lifetime membership is 40x as expensive as a month of members, so just think about what you would get away with then.

I think it would have the opposite effect. If a player had lifetime membership, they'd be more weary about making bad decisions in fear of being banned. As for jagex, they wouldn't be less likely to ban you. They've already got your money, it doesn't matter if you continue to play or not.

[Bladewing]

I actually think RuneScape might be gone within $200 worth of subscription. Plus the fact that they would do this (for quick money now) would make this even more likely.

[Will H]

I'm sure the game will last far longer than the the 3 and a half years to make up for the subscription, but I'd much rather control membership over a monthly basis. I go members for up to three months then semi-retire for about two months then repeat, more or less. If I put that in the equation, I would be investing in eliminating a frankly tiny payment that happens in about 5 or 6 years time. There really is no point.

[chc05dude]

Well they would have lost money on me for sure.

[KingOfjapan]

Id probably get it, I don't plan on quiting anytime soon.

[hohto]

Lifetime memberships are usually only offered by companies who are failing and desperately need a cash injection to stay afloat. There is no long term profit to be make with life memberships. If a person plays for 3 years at $5 a month they would give Jagex $180. A life membership at a theoretical cost of $200 would mean that Jagex make a loss every month on anyone subscribing for more than 3 years and 4 months.

 

The thing is, if an average gaming time is short enough, the company benefits. Lets use this 180$/5$ ratio for example.

 

180/ 5= 36 months

36 months = 3 years

 

that means that if the average gaming time is less than 3 years, Jagex benefits even if some players played for longer than 3. I'm also almost sure that when you pay your things to Jagex, banks, phone companies or other middle men take their own share. This kind of payment menthods could reduce that sum and thus mean that for Jagex 1*3year payment is worth more than 36*month payment, of course not counting in inflation.

[Uula]

for 200 dollars, no. too inconvenient...the next day, i could of died and lost all my items, quit and BOOM, there goes my money.

You wouldn't be quitting if you just spent $200 the day before. But I guess you won't be spending it in the first place since you think this way, so I should've just shut my mouth.

 

I surely wouldn't pay that money. I used to think I'd be playing for at least a few years more but that wasn't quite the case.

[Plugpoint]

I wouldn't, like someone said before, less than a fiver from your bank account per month is nothing and you can cancel at any time... ~£200 or whatever's a big payment to make in one go and you don't know if you'd be playing enough to actually get to the point where you're saving money. Bit pointless really, but someone'll buy it.

[Pr3c1pit0us]

in fine print:"if you buy this your character will be unfairly banned"

I remember an incident like that. You wouldn't happen to be referring to the allegedly innocent players who were perma-banned for giving Jagex information regarding the party hat dupe, would you?

 

Or implying that Jagex would ban their "lifetime" players to gain profits.