Just noticed the price rise as well. Did US players get that as well? If not, this is getting pretty ridiculous.
For those interested, we're a few cents off paying US price + 2x the EU VAT for the subscription.
Last edited by DigitalBath; Jan 1st, 2015 at 16:30:57.
Michizure is love, Michizure is life.
--
Dywas - 220/30/70 Neutral Nanomage Nano-Technician
Caramela - 220/30/70 Neutral Solitus Doctor
Desejos - 220/30/?? Neutral Atrox Enforcer
Gretchenross - 220/30/?? Neutral Opifex Shade
Bizzle - 220/30/70 Neutral Atrox Soldier
--<3 Professional love--
* Aiken pets Lazy on the head. Sure it is, you keep telling self that
<Aiken> such a cutesy clammer aren't you *cheekpinch*
<Lazy>
<Lazy> viva la revolucion
* Dywas decides to walk away from the soon-to-be sexytime
<Aiken> lol Dywas, Id make a man of him
<Lazy> Dywas, i'd go gay for aiken. no lie
I think Funcom Financial departments needs to take a look into the currencies in the systems, because i know Steam, and many other online game retailers have had similar issues when updating currencies in their systems. Something is wrong with the AO monthly fees in some countries because the prices is different from country to country, including EU and NON EU countries.
I have traveled around, and my pay historic differs per months from country to country:
Norway, Non-EU 14,95,-
Sweden, EU 17,19,-
Ireland, EU 17,19,-
Netherlands, EU 14,95,-
**Somehow the prices in Netherlands is 14,95 EURO per months, the same as in Norway which is a NON EU country.
**Sweden, and Ireland is somehow more expensive than Netherlands
. . . everything in creation is impermanenT
18.69 EURO per month is bloody outrageous. AO is already one of the most expensive MMO's out there, increasing the price more is rediculous. FC if you do not change this asap you're going to lose more playerbase than ever before. I already cancelled my subscription.
Valhall Guardians
Thapetowner 220 Meta-Physicist
Hyimoliver 220 Soldier
Ihatemyself 200 Shade
Hardcore 200 Adventurer
Ilovetokill 170 Agent
Ilovetodrain 150 Trader
Oxiahe 150 Doctor
Critterz 150 Martial-Artist
Awaaa 74 Soldier
I'm not too happy with this price, it works out as more than I pay for my broadband per month.
Caloss2 LVL 220 melee VANGUARD (semi retired).....Llewlyn 220/30/70 meepmeep.....Boooocal 220../30/70 Soldier.......Knack 220/30/70 Keeper.....Hiesenberg 215/xx/xx NT NERFED Neytiri1 220/30/70 Shade Knacker220/30/70Meat shield
https://www.youtube.com/user/caloss2 for guides/walkthroughs/letsplays and all your other AO needsOriginally Posted by Mastablasta
There are plenty of free to play, buy to play, or otherwise way less expensive games than AO out there. Have a look around.
@haxi: Played several of them, still prefer AO. The price difference for US/EU customers is unrivaled by any other major (and most if not all minor) MMO I know though..
Michizure is love, Michizure is life.
--
Dywas - 220/30/70 Neutral Nanomage Nano-Technician
Caramela - 220/30/70 Neutral Solitus Doctor
Desejos - 220/30/?? Neutral Atrox Enforcer
Gretchenross - 220/30/?? Neutral Opifex Shade
Bizzle - 220/30/70 Neutral Atrox Soldier
--<3 Professional love--
* Aiken pets Lazy on the head. Sure it is, you keep telling self that
<Aiken> such a cutesy clammer aren't you *cheekpinch*
<Lazy>
<Lazy> viva la revolucion
* Dywas decides to walk away from the soon-to-be sexytime
<Aiken> lol Dywas, Id make a man of him
<Lazy> Dywas, i'd go gay for aiken. no lie
AO is special, but it is also old and overpriced (in the opinion of many). I don't see how they get away with their pricing model, but they do and have done so for over a decade now.
People may not like it, but they do tolerate it. FC has no reason to change as long as that is true.
@haxi: Sad but true.
Michizure is love, Michizure is life.
--
Dywas - 220/30/70 Neutral Nanomage Nano-Technician
Caramela - 220/30/70 Neutral Solitus Doctor
Desejos - 220/30/?? Neutral Atrox Enforcer
Gretchenross - 220/30/?? Neutral Opifex Shade
Bizzle - 220/30/70 Neutral Atrox Soldier
--<3 Professional love--
* Aiken pets Lazy on the head. Sure it is, you keep telling self that
<Aiken> such a cutesy clammer aren't you *cheekpinch*
<Lazy>
<Lazy> viva la revolucion
* Dywas decides to walk away from the soon-to-be sexytime
<Aiken> lol Dywas, Id make a man of him
<Lazy> Dywas, i'd go gay for aiken. no lie
New Engine - Announced: June 2007 ETA: Soon™ I'm speechless (June 2015)
Rebalancing - Announced: January 2009 ETA: December 21, 2012 Started! (April 2015)
New TL7 Pets - Announced: March 2009 ETA: Uh...
AS Changes - Announced: July 2009 ETA: TBA
Parry/Riposte - Announced: October 2009 ETA: ??? Did it! (April 2015)
Perk Changes - Announced: October 2009 ETA: Right after server merge Started! (April 2015)
Breed Change - Announced: November 2009 ETA: Hell freezing They did it!!! (Oct 2012)
Beta Server - Announced: January 2010 ETA: Pigs Flying Did it! (Feb 2014)
Using prices for 1 month as guideline but everything else scales in the same way.
EU price here, post-VAT (23% where I live) is 18.39€, which, at the current rate, works out to roughly 22.19$.
Pre-VAT it works out to 14.95€ (roughly 18.04$). This is probably where things start to go horribly wrong for EU customers with charging the same numerical value in both currencies.
I get the VAT altering the price, I'm sadly well used to that. The rest is FC's own wrong doing, though.
I do know people who eventually dropped this game for the price inequity.. and others who resort to finding ways of paying for the account in USD.. Can't blame them.
No idea if Michizure has any say in this at all, though. Let's hope so.
Michizure is love, Michizure is life.
--
Dywas - 220/30/70 Neutral Nanomage Nano-Technician
Caramela - 220/30/70 Neutral Solitus Doctor
Desejos - 220/30/?? Neutral Atrox Enforcer
Gretchenross - 220/30/?? Neutral Opifex Shade
Bizzle - 220/30/70 Neutral Atrox Soldier
--<3 Professional love--
* Aiken pets Lazy on the head. Sure it is, you keep telling self that
<Aiken> such a cutesy clammer aren't you *cheekpinch*
<Lazy>
<Lazy> viva la revolucion
* Dywas decides to walk away from the soon-to-be sexytime
<Aiken> lol Dywas, Id make a man of him
<Lazy> Dywas, i'd go gay for aiken. no lie
Caloss2 LVL 220 melee VANGUARD (semi retired).....Llewlyn 220/30/70 meepmeep.....Boooocal 220../30/70 Soldier.......Knack 220/30/70 Keeper.....Hiesenberg 215/xx/xx NT NERFED Neytiri1 220/30/70 Shade Knacker220/30/70Meat shield
https://www.youtube.com/user/caloss2 for guides/walkthroughs/letsplays and all your other AO needsOriginally Posted by Mastablasta
The people who are responsible for the billing thing in AO will not care about the 7 people in this thread complaining. Even if you add the ones from the 2 other threads I've seen recently. Let that be 20 altogether. It will take a lot more than that, because as haxi already stated: as long as people just pay the money, Funcom isn't going to change anything. Neither would any of you, if you run a business that works like this.
The fair price for Europeans would be 12,45€, but it is somewhere between 18-20€. Pretty sure a lot of people don't even know about this injustice, because they have no idea about VAT systems in the US vs VAT in Europe. Or exchange rates.
Don't set yourself on fire to keep others warm.
One profession to RoO them all, one profession to proc stun them, one profession to calm them all and in the darkness Exp perk them!
Crataiken 220/30/70 General - Primal Evolution - 3rd AI 30 'Crat on RK 1 Setup
Calms 220/30/70 General - Primal Evolution
Medicaiken 220/30/70 General - Primal Evolution Setup
Newen 220/30/70 President - The Galactic Milieu
Mettagirl 220/20/** General - Primal Evolution
Krataiken 150/18/40 General - Primal Evolution Setup
So price is around 2 minimum wage hours in Germany, maybe 4 hours in less fortunate countries.
If price was half that, would twice as many people pay?
Not likeley, 20% drop nobody would notice... Except funcom when they get 10% Less revenue.
VAT part is not a price diffrence... its called living in EU, where consumers get taxed when getting paid and when paying for stuff.
Funcom should as a coorporation research pricing. If they did, and found out most MMOs are 10€ per montth but people still pay 15? Imagine Ferrari droping their price just becouse price is unfairly high. Yet price for cars in US is lower than price in europe.
Saying that, many years I paid 100ish € yearly sub. Never managed to get them 16 month deals, but with VAT it comes down to less then 10€ per month.
18€ Argument is just void, game is way cheaper for most subscribers. If you want your AO to be cheaper, pay yearly sub. Or Grace for free to play awesomeness. 700mil per month currently.
Bellow is a poem i have made to describes the society as i understand today, ENJOY:
"In this world cash is king and money is necessary for everything
10 EURO is worth more 10 years ago, your 10 EURO will eventually drops in value, when next 10 years is through"
. . . everything in creation is impermanenT
@Cratertina: I think you missed the argument entirely. We're talking about EU-US price difference WITHOUT including VAT. The only reason VAT is brought to the table is that many people try to blame it on that out of ignorance.
It doesn't matter if you pay for 1 month or 1 year. The price difference in % is there anyway because the base price of 14.95€ isn't the same as 14.95 USD (which are the pre-VAT prices depending on where you "live" and the root of the problem).
If suddenly prices were equalized upwards (they'd be paying 18$ pre-sales tax) I'd imagine a surge of USA players not resubbing on the next cycle.. takes a while to get noticed but it does have an effect.
If I paid 14.95 USD + 23% (vat) I'd be more than happy as I wouldn't be charged a higher base price for no legitimate reason.
Apply the same difference to 12month sub.
Last edited by DigitalBath; Jan 2nd, 2015 at 19:17:30.
Michizure is love, Michizure is life.
--
Dywas - 220/30/70 Neutral Nanomage Nano-Technician
Caramela - 220/30/70 Neutral Solitus Doctor
Desejos - 220/30/?? Neutral Atrox Enforcer
Gretchenross - 220/30/?? Neutral Opifex Shade
Bizzle - 220/30/70 Neutral Atrox Soldier
--<3 Professional love--
* Aiken pets Lazy on the head. Sure it is, you keep telling self that
<Aiken> such a cutesy clammer aren't you *cheekpinch*
<Lazy>
<Lazy> viva la revolucion
* Dywas decides to walk away from the soon-to-be sexytime
<Aiken> lol Dywas, Id make a man of him
<Lazy> Dywas, i'd go gay for aiken. no lie
True VAT is not part of the netto price, but $15 is 12,45€ as I said. Even if you added the 19% VAT from Germany, you'd only be at 14,80€ circa. That is a lot less than the 18€ it costs now. And it doesn't matter if you pay per month, every 3 months or once a year.
Yearly sub in USD: 95,40 (= 79€)
Yearly sub in EUR: 113,53 (= $135)
19% VAT of 79€ = 15€
79+15 = 94€
113-94 = 19€ difference.
I dunno about you, but I'd rather have those 19€. Thank you.
Don't set yourself on fire to keep others warm.
Just to play Devil's Advocate, where do you draw the line? Should prices be updated daily according to the exchange rate? Monthly? Yearly?
Also, $18/month would still be fine for most US players, most of us aren't charged sales tax online unless the company has a presence in our state. It definitely doesn't sound like that big a deal when you consider most European countries have higher minimum wages than ours.
I really have no strong feelings one way or the other, though. Good luck getting Funcom to listen this time!