The Daily Grind: What's your preferred payment method?
by Tateru Nino 
Oct 1st 2009 at 8:00AM
Filed under: Opinion, The Daily Grind
Credit cards (including debit cards), Paypal, Microsoft Points, game-time cards. Every payment method has its positives and negatives. As a famous and profitable social-media personality, you probably have more dollars in your Paypal account than you do on your credit card. You can get a Paypal debit card for that, that you can use pretty much anywhere you'd use regular plastic.
Microsoft Points or game-time cards? They've got definite advantages – you can buy them when you've got a little extra cash in your account, and use them when you need them rather than getting awkwardly billed on the very day of the month your mortgage payment is due (two days before you get paid each month – oh, yes. We've been there!)
Given a variety of payment options, how would you prefer to pay for your MMOG subscriptions, if you had the choice?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Smeltn said on 8:14AM 10-01-2009
Debt/Credit Card.. Although that Paypal debt card doesn't look like a bad idea.
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Scragend said on 8:28AM 10-01-2009
I'd rather use Paypal than any other method, or a straight bank transfer/Direct Debit.
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SLiDEnl said on 8:54AM 10-01-2009
Erm? Not at all?
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MATT said on 9:05AM 10-01-2009
ISK
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DrewIW said on 9:30AM 10-01-2009
Gotta agree here.
Wisdomandlore said on 9:20AM 10-01-2009
I'm surprised more MMOs haven't tried to use some form of in-game advertising to defray subscription costs (or simply to make more money).
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mysecretid said on 9:24AM 10-01-2009
Lately, I find I'm all about the MMORPG lifetime subscriptions. Yes, that up-front lump sum can hurt -- but I like having never to worry about fees again after that point.
If I _had_ to pick a monthly payment scheme, I suspect PayPal would be my choice, followed by time-cards.
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tanek said on 2:39PM 10-01-2009
I agree on the lifetime (or as the commenter below says, the GW method is nice, too). While I don't necessarily mind the cost of the monthly subscription payments, I feel an additional pressure to play the game to get my money's worth. All in my head, I know, but it makes a difference in how much I enjoy the time I do have to play.
The only problem with lifetime is that I don't often know what will hold my interest long enough to make it a good choice. LotRO was an easy decision for me right off the bat, but I don't know how many other games I'd do that for.
pogger said on 9:56AM 10-01-2009
I'm with mysecretid. Let's hear it for the Guild Wars model... the lowest LIFETIME subscription in the market. :)
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Andi said on 10:08AM 10-01-2009
I like paying with automatic draft except for one annoying (but in a good way!) thing. Blizzard will refund us gametime if the servers are down for 8 hours (I think) which is nice that they do that. Unfortunately that moves around the day my card is billed which has led to some frustration.
Plus, at least quite a few times during BC when I was a raid leader, someone would restart for whatever reason and on vent they'd be like "uh-oh...guys...apparently my game card time is up...and the stores are all closed..."
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Vitamin Dei said on 10:45AM 10-01-2009
I've traditionally paid with my credit card, but I'm coming around to the idea of game time cards. Once their time runs out you're no longer bleeding the $15 a month, which makes taking time off of a game that's lost some your interest a matter of not picking up a new card rather than remembering to cancel something.
Cards also have the benefit of occasionally being discounted at online retailers like Amazon.
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Jot said on 11:14AM 10-01-2009
I use to subscribe for the recurring method using my virtual credit card and then right after the account is up i cancel it. I can take care of my payments, i do not need recurring monthly fees that will be up forever if for some reason I vanish in space-time.
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Cray said on 6:50PM 10-01-2009
Add me to the preference of having no subscription fees like Guild Wars. However as far as RMT items, Paypal seems to work fine. It's really not hard to set up a Paypal account and it's growing acceptance to a lot reputable online retailers makes it a worthwhile to any online consumer.
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zephyrus_boreas said on 10:40PM 10-01-2009
I'd rather be billed for it, like a utility. That kinda makes mmo's sound like a need rather than a want though, like electricity, gas and water....
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Mr.Woodstock said on 5:44AM 10-02-2009
in-game currency
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