How much is Runescape's entertainment worth to you?

[Troll Bomber]

I began to think about how cheap Runescape membership really is. Seeing that I spend lots of time playing the game, I'm amazed that I only have to pay ~$6 a month for countless hours of gameplay.

 

It began to make me think, could Jagex make more money by charging just a bit more a month for membership? Think of all the people that play and how often they do. Some people are receiving a hundred or more hours of entertainment a month for less than 6 cents an hour which is very cheap imo.

 

Sure, it would shoo away some customers, but would also bring in more money obviously due to the vaste amount of people that would continue to play.

 

So I propose two questions:

 

1. (Poll), how much would you be willing to pay to continue playing Runescape?

 

2. *Theoretically speaking, how much do you think Jagex could get away with charging if they were to increase prices, so that they made more money each month?

 

*In no way am I proposing that Jagex should do this. I'd rather continue to pay only ~$6 a month, but if Jagex ever were to increase monthly fees, $20 a month would be my max I'd be willing to pay for membership.

 

What about you?

[Lep]

It's entertainment (if you wanna call it that) is worth so little to me that I'd sell my account for $1 if I could. Just kidding obviously... I'd probly never see that dollar.

 

[hide]Don't ban me mods it's a joke. :wink: [/hide]

 

Also I think this guy is a JaGeX Mod undercover and it secretly polling us.

[Blyaunte]

I'd be willing to pay $10-$15 a month IF, and only if, Jagex bans the bots ...

[Zaps]

I currently pay $12 a month between both of my accounts.

[Bladewing]

i'd be willing to pay $20 a month if i knew all $20 would go towards improving the game, cracking down on illegitimate players (members or not!), and would not be funneled into developing the next JaGEx MMORPG

[Blyaunte]

i'd be willing to pay $20 a month if i knew all $20 would go towards improving the game, cracking down on illegitimate players (members or not!), and would not be funneled into developing the next JaGEx MMORPG

 

I would agree with those restrictions for $20 a month. :thumbup:

[Lep]

i'd be willing to pay $20 a month if i knew all $20 would go towards improving the game, cracking down on illegitimate players (members or not!), and would not be funneled into developing the next JaGEx MMORPG

 

Of course all your money would go to the next mmorpg! If the price was raised that high then they'd have no bots feeding them irl money and would need yours to make up for it.

[Troll Bomber]

It's entertainment (if you wanna call it that) is worth so little to me that I'd sell my account for $1 if I could. Just kidding obviously... I'd probly never see that dollar.

 

[hide]Don't ban me mods it's a joke. :wink: [/hide]

 

Also I think this guy is a JaGeX Mod undercover and it secretly polling us.

 

Hehe I can assure you I'm not :wink:

[SirHartlar]

I'd only pay more if I was getting value for money. I pay a pittance to play a fun game so I try not to complain when Jagex messes up, but if I paid more I'd expect them to be more competent at running their own game.

[langer]

i'd be willing to pay $20 a month if i knew all $20 would go towards improving the game, cracking down on illegitimate players (members or not!), and would not be funneled into developing the next JaGEx MMORPG

 

Sums it up for me. I have a very good job and 6$ is really petty cash for me at the moment.

[Star_Fox]

-$5 a month as it is now.

 

-$8 a month for better customer support.

 

-$10 a month if bots didn't exist.

 

-$12 a month if it has everything above mentioned AND old graphics.

[Grimy_Bunyip]

-$5 a month as it is now.

 

-$8 a month for better customer support.

 

-$10 a month if bots didn't exist.

 

-$12 a month if it has everything above mentioned AND old graphics.

^^ yeah i'd pay $15-20 easy if jagex made enough changes that i liked.

[Instinctive]

If I was going to pay much more, I'd play a "better" game - one with higher level graphics and more skill in its play. RS is a nice distraction, and it's fun --- but it's not worth much more cash.

[Range_This11]

One of the reasons it is so cheap is that many bots buy memberships every month. If they got rid of those paying members, I would bet prices would rise. I'll never pay more than $5 for a browser-based MMORPG with poor graphics.

[Zenmoris]

I'd go up to $8 or $9 for better customer support (eg. fixing unfair mutes/bans) or improved bot detection, $12 for both. Anything higher is really pushing it for a java game.

 

And I'm pretty sure no amount of money would help with better content... Anyone who thought MA was a good idea is beyond hope. =|

[lordkafei]

I'm not even willing to pay $6 a month.

 

=========

 

Jagex is making money hand over fist. Improved customer service could come out of current revenues, TBH.

[Troll Bomber]

I had the idea that if charges were say, doubled to about $12 a month, that it would get rid of quite a few bots, but I'm not sure. If so, then it would really be killing two birds with one stone imo.

 

Jagex makes more money and many botters would quit. There would obviously still be botters... but far less I would guess.

 

I just keep thinking of all of the possibilities for the future of RS. I try to be optimistic about it's survival, but sometimes I think Jagex doesn't realize how much opportunity the game still has.

 

I keep wondering if a massive overhaul of a subscription to Runescape membership would help anything.

 

-> More employees

-> ^ that listen to what the players actually want in an update

-> Much harsher penalties for botters, and more effort put in overall into an attempt to stop it.

-> Better graphics, ect.

 

The list goes on an on when I think about it for a while. I just don't think Jagex realizes that if they were to invest more money into the game to make it a better atmosphere than it is now, that people wouldn't mind paying a bit more.

[Nopenope]

Paying 72$ a year to play this game, in addition to the cost of Internet, electricity, and initially a computer is enough for me. I wouldn't want to pay more whether it's bot riddled or bot free. Don't give Jagex any ideas on upping the price btw.

[highlanders]

I could go 10$, beyond that IDK.

[Fairness]

Right now, I'm willing to pay $6 and no more. As things are going, this is actually going to be less quite soon. And I'm not going to pay for it any more until Jagex shows they are really dedicated and passionate about their own game - this includes faster bugfixing (like, Trollheim is still not fixed - what the hell? Faster!), no updates that were poorly and quickly conceived just to appease the moronic masses and for nothing more (Wildywyrms), no updates just to screw with a specific group of people while favoring combat even more (noted torstol drops that appeared together with the better RoW), and a few finished questlines - Myreque is my most urgent wish - that actually results in an epic and exciting ending, and is not just a half-ass job like some quests nowadays (like Forgiveness of a Chaos Dwarf*, Prisoner of Glouphrie - they hardly added anything to their respective plots and served only to let us down as we waited for a long and fun quest). There are my requirements - if we don't get that, I refuse to pay more than $6 as well.

 

*I know this is not a new quest, but was probably the first in the line of such quests.

 

EDIT: Oh, yeah, and regarding combat, more monsters that are difficult to fight - bosses or not. Jagex showed that they at least have a clue with Nex, Nomad and some Dungeoneering bosses.

[Vex]

A pint of beer costs more than this game does a month at the moment.

 

lol

[Fairness]

A pint of beer costs more than this game does a month at the moment.

 

lol

 

It's not just about the price you see. Look at your Adventurers' Log and see how much time you played, then calculate how much you have already spent on RS. I spent something like $150, I suppose, for 50 days of gametime.That's 1200 hours. I could name two games off the top of my head together with which I spent at least 500-600 - and they definitely did cost less than $50 together. While playing those games (UT 2004 and Age of Mythology, to name those two examples) close to 100% of my invested time is spent... well, having fun. A large portion of my RS time was spent grinding hoping I'd have fun in the future. So, I'd say that in the end, I had the same amount of fun with UT2004+AoM as with RuneScape, and the latter was much more expensive, while also wasting a lot of my time (so, in terms of money, we could say I actually paid twice the amount above). This may vary from person to person but I'm sure that the vast majority can say that RuneScape is a terribly inefficient way to spend your money on games. Therefore I have the right to expect high value for my money, even if it does cost less than a pint of beer (over where you live even, here it doesn't).

Hopefully this also shuts down this "haha, poor noob"-kind of argument once and for all.

[Nopenope]

You're paying for a set allotment of time, not for the time you put in. So calculating ingame time has no bearing on monthly payment, seeing as you could pay 6$ and not play 1 minute that month.

[Troll Bomber]

Maybe it's just me, but I don't really find playing Runescape "inefficient". I pay about 5 cents an hour to have fun. Sounds like a deal to me.

[Fairness]

You're paying for a set allotment of time, not for the time you put in. So calculating ingame time has no bearing on monthly payment, seeing as you could pay 6$ and not play 1 minute that month.

 

You're totally wrong. I spend X amount of money for Y amount of gaming hours. If I play 300 hours in 1 month and none during the other, and pay $6 for each, in the end I still paid $12 for 300 hours of game time. If your argument is that the price is too high because I don't play during some months - guess what, I consistently play a fair bit of time each month. If not, I cancel my subscription.

 

Maybe it's just me, but I don't really find playing Runescape "inefficient". I pay about 5 cents an hour to have fun. Sounds like a deal to me.

 

I'm sure it's not just you, but consider this. As far as I can see your lowest level is 67, which means you've invested quite a bit of time into each skill - though more into some than others. Have you ever thought "I hate this skill, I don't want to train it"? If the answer is yes, guess what - that much time was wasted not actually having fun, however you go around it. Have you ever done cooking semi-AFKing while watching a movie (for example)? In that case, it wasn't RuneScape that gave you the entertainment, but the movie or whatever. Of course, if every single moment of your RuneScape career was spent having fun, then RS is a pretty great investment for you, but I doubt that's so.