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Breakfast Topic: How much would you pay for a lifetime membership to WoW?
Do you suppose we'll ever get the option to purchase a lifetime subscription to World of Warcraft? What about even a lifetime Blizzard game pass? The advantages are many. Obviously, you'd save money once you played past the regular subscription value of the lifetime option. You'd be free from worries about billing and payments. It's likely you'd enjoy perks reserved for lifetime members, as well -- perhaps a special mount or title. Me, I'd like knowing as a lifetime member that I'd made an investment in the game and the company that created it. It's a way to ensure not only that the WoW content keeps coming but that Blizzard itself remains healthy. A lifetime membership would cement my emotional attachment to the game while at the same time relieving the stress I sometimes feel to log on "just to get my money's worth." During times when I'm especially busy or even disinterested in the current content, as a lifetime member, I'd feel less pressured to log in simply to avoid wasting my regular subscription fee. Of course, this late in the game's life cycle, there's always a risk that you might fall out of love with WoW or fall in love with another game after you'd already paid for a lifetime membership. What if all your friends and guildmates left? Heck, what if WoW became free-to-play, leaving you with adjusted perks you didn't particularly appreciate? Would you take advantage of a lifetime membership to WoW if it were ever offered? What benefits would capture your interest? And how much would you be willing to pay for a lifetime subscription to World of Warcraft?
Google+ has 400 million members, a quarter of whom are active each month
Despite a fashionably late entrance to the social networking party 12 months ago, Google+ is already able to claim 400 million users and 100 million monthly active users across both the website and the mobile apps. That compares to just 250 million total users back in June, suggesting the service is growing faster than ever. Revealing the figures as part of his announcement of Google's latest corporate acquisition, a victorious Vic Gundotra said that his team "couldn't have imagined that so many people would join" within a year of G+ going public.
Adobe Muse is ready to let you design websites without the coding headaches for $15 a month
If you've been looking to get that web project off the ground but despise the idea of coding it, Adobe's recently announced web design tool has just landed. Muse, the program that allows you to design websites without having to get your hands dirty with HTML5 is now available. The kit behaves more like a layout program (like InDesign) instead of a web publishing / programming tool, allowing those who are more design-minded to feel right at home. As you might expect, the software is available with an annual $49.99 per month Creative Cloud subscription alongside CS6 heavyweights like Photoshop and Illustrator. If Muse is all you're after, you can snag it alone for a $24.99 month-to-month fee or $14.99 for a twelve-month commitment. Need to see it in action before you open your wallet? No worries. Hit the coverage link below for a look at what the application can do.
Apple introduces VIP discounts for iBooks publishers
Some sharp eyes have once again discovered something new and cool in Apple-land. Apple appears to be offering rather hefty discounts to some (possibly all) iBooks publishers as part of a new iTunes VIP program. Information is still developing on this front. Made available through iTunes Connect, these discounts appear to be exclusive to the iBooks program. Discounts range from $500 off the base Mac Pro down to $60 off the base mini. As with previous programs of this nature, Apple places a limit on the kinds and quantity of hardware affected. The discount is for two computers, two iPods (which appear to include iPads, etc.) and one Apple TV. It's unclear whether Apple will extend these discounts to its App Store members as well, although that was a benefit for the Select and Premier programs until they were more or less discontinued a few years ago.
RuneScape increasing subscription prices on February 1st
In a new post on the official RuneScape site, the game's vice president Daniel Clough has announced that, beginning in February, RuneScape membership prices will be rising from $5.95 US per month to $7.95 US per month. If you're already a member, don't worry! Anyone who is a registered member prior to February 1st will still be able to subscribe to the game at the current fee of $5.95 US per month, and the rate will not rise as long as the subscription isn't cancelled. So if you were thinking about shelling out for a RuneScape membership, act before the end of the month in order to lock in the current, lower pricing model. For the full details, click on through the link below to the RuneScape official site. [Thanks to Sean for the tip!]
RuneScape warms our hearts with subscription deal
Is the frigid winter closing in, encasing your life in ice and gaming frustration? Or, for those of you who live in Florida, do you have to suffer the indignities of wearing a windbreaker when you go outdoors? Jagex is here to help by offering a sunshiny deal on a six-month subscription to RuneScape. Until January 4th, 2012, RuneScape players can sign up for six months of membership for the price of four, which basically gives two free months of premium service. As if that wasn't enough, Jagex is also handing out spiffy reversible ice masks -- with angry and happy sides -- to those who snag this deal. RuneScape's membership starts at $5.95 a month, and upgrades the free-to-play title with additional quests, landscape, minigames, player housing, and no advertisements.
Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott, and Starwood Hotels reward your loyalty with free WiFi
Free WiFi is practically a given at coffee shops and motels, yet lots of luxury hotels hit you with an extra $10 - $15 a day to ride their waves of wireless internet. Good news is, well-heeled world travelers won't be paying those fees much longer, because several high-end hotel chains are now giving temporary tenants complimentary wireless internet. Loyalty program members for Hilton, Hyatt, and Starwood Hotels get online gratis if they have Gold or Platinum status, while Marriott lets all who sign up for its rewards program get WiFi for free. Seems ridiculous that some folks still pay extra for internet when a room runs several hundred dollars, but a little free websurfing is better than none. We can only hope that towel retention technology will provide a sufficient boost to their bottom lines to eventually allow access for all.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood bonus mission free to European Uplay users [update]
Launched last year with Assassin's Creed 2, Ubisoft's Uplay has served as an in-game rewards system on top of Xbox Live's Achievements and PlayStation Network's Trophies, letting those who sign up for it unlock bonus items using accrued points across supported games. Recently, these same folks got an email offering them a free bonus mission in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood called "The Trajan Market." The mission was originally available as part of the game's "Codex Edition" and sends Ezio into a marketplace in the middle of Rome, where he fights Borgia guards and discovers a treasure hidden in a ruined tower. As you can see in the screen grab above, the code was even sent out to Uplay members who don't own the game. If you're not yet a Uplay member, you can sign up on the official site. Also, you didn't tell us there'd be free stuff, Ubisoft! Oh wait, maybe you did. Update: Ubisoft has clarified that this offer is for European Uplay members. [Thanks, RobLink and Jason]
iPad now on sale at Sam's Club
Not only can you buy a jar full of more pickles than a human could ever eat, you can also now pick up an iPad at your local Sam's Club. Apple's magical and revolutionary device has been spotted on shelves at Sam Walton's big box supply store, and pretty cheap, too -- you can get a 16GB Wi-Fi model for just $488, $11 cheaper than it is on Apple's online store. The only problem is that you have to buy a big box of 30 at a time to get that price. No, of course we're kidding. Considering that Walmart is selling the iPad, it was only a matter of time before these showed up at Sam's Club, and the $11 off is just the discount that Sam's Club makes back whenever you pay for their membership fees. Still, if you're in the market for an iPad and have a Sam's Club card from your business or organization, eleven bucks is eleven bucks. [via Engadget]
Xbox Live Silver to be called 'Xbox Live Free Membership'
Microsoft is renaming its (free) Xbox Live Silver service to "Xbox Live Free Membership," according to a tweet from European community manager Graeme Boyd. This comes alongside the refreshed Xbox.com and, of course, the Xbox Live Gold price hike, as part of an apparent pre-Kinect relaunch of the Xbox's online presence. The new name no longer emphasizes Silver's status as subordinate to Gold, but rather highlights the advantage of that level of membership -- the fact that it's free. In a followup tweet, Boyd clarified that the feature set for Silver won't change and neither will the name for the paid membership. If you're Gold now, you'll stay gold.
Free Realms offering lifetime memberships for $30
Listen here, you Free Realms freeloader, you. If you've been thinking about throwing some money at Sony Online Entertainment's MMO to get the full experience the game has to offer, you can now get a lifetime membership to the game for a one-time lump sum of $30.
OnLive offering one year free membership to pre-registrants
Smart move by OnLive today. The controversial streaming game service is offering to waive the $14.95 monthly access fee for a full year (originally it was 3 months) for anyone who enthusiastically pre-registered early -- many of you we suspect. It's even tossing in a coupon for a free game when you register for the offer. The only catch seems to be the credit card required to complete registration as proof that you're over 18. If you didn't pre-register then tough luck, no offer for you. But at least you can take comfort in knowing that a small army of gamers will be taking the service to task unencumbered by membership fees. In other words, we'll know right quickly if OnLive can live up to its "ultra high-performance" streaming gameplay on entry-level PCs and Macs. [Thanks, Michael M.]
Free Realms introduces T-Rex and flying dragon mounts
Traveling in Free Realms just got a whole lot cooler. Today, the team at Sony Online Entertainment dropped a shiny surprise into the cash shop -- mounts! Currently only available for paying members, these new T-Rex and Dragon mounts come in several different colors for players to pick from. When you consider that SOE treated players to some free Station Cash as part of the recent ConnecDING promotions in EverQuest, EverQuest II, and Free Realms, members may even have part (or all) of their mounts paid for already. (Assuming you haven't spent it, anyway!) In any event, we suspect Free Realms will be full of many dinosaurs and dragons soon -- and perhaps some new members itching to pick up their very own mounts. For a complete list of features on these new mounts, keep reading beyond the cut.
ECA members cry foul over auto-renewal cancellation hassles [update: Halpin responds]
In an attempt to bolster its ranks with thrifty members of the gaming community, the Entertainment Consumers Association recently partnered with a few online retailers to offer its members some nice deals on video games, including a pretty sweet discount on purchases from Amazon. To accompany these offers, the ECA had its own spectacular deal: One free year of membership, which would normally cost $19.99. All applicants had to do was provide their credit card information, sign up and enjoy the discounts that were being passed along to ECA members. Sadly, this is where the idyllic tale begins to go south. Shortly after the ECA began offering the free year of membership, the Amazon offer mysteriously disappeared. This drew the ire of the group's new members, but would be quickly forgotten when the option to cancel the auto-renewal of the membership fee, through the ECA's website, also vanished without a trace. An ECA forum moderator explained the option only appeared "for some browsers, but it wasn't intended to be there, wasn't a working option and was removed as soon as we became aware." Now, users who were drawn in by these discounts can only cancel their memberships (and subsequent annual $20 fees) by sending a letter directly to the ECA's accounting department (the address is posted after the jump). What's worse, those who canceled their auto-renewal plans with the temporarily available online option could still be locked into the annual fee, if the moderator's claim that it "wasn't a working option" is accurate. We've contacted the ECA to find out if anything is being done to inform these honorable, due-paying members that they're still, you know, due-paying members. Update: ECA president Hal Halpin issued a statement in response to the complaints, the full transcript for which can be found after the jump. He explains that the Amazon deal was taken down due to an exploit the ECA's new members found within the offer. He adds that simultaneously, the ECA updated its site as part of a "long planned for Content Management System upgrade," at which point they found a non-functioning feature which "looked to give some members the option to opt-out of the association." The option, which Halpin claims was never functional, was quickly removed. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
The more you know: How to turn off automatic Xbox Live renewal
By default, Xbox Live is set to automatically renew Gold subscriptions when a user's current membership expires, but not everyone is down with a surprise credit card charge -- especially if they're rocking a parent's plastic. Thankfully, Xbox Live's Major Nelson has posted a quick guide to help users disable the automatic renewal process. The steps are simple: Sign in to Xbox.com and go to the My Account section. Click the Membership level link on the left. You'll see a page that has your Membership level, and the end date. Under that, you'll see your "Automatic Renewal" status (as shown above). If it reads ON, users can click the ON link and be brought to a page to turn the feature OFF. If you'd like to change the setting to ON or OFF -- Click the link, make your selection, then click next. You'll be returned to your Membership level page, where you can confirm your selection That's it. Easy as warm apple pie -- now excuse us, we just got hungry. [Thanks, Juan]
From our readers: Guild Retention
We get lots of email from our readers trying to find their way though WoW. I'd like to take a moment to answer a question about membership retention. This also builds on a previous response regarding the trials and tribulations of starting a guild.Hi I been reading your posts and listening to the podcast and you recently made a new guild. I have a guild with around 140 members and we do some raiding weekly but every time I log off, it seems that people start arguing, and drama just starts building up. I went away for a couple days and when I come back from my vacation, Alot of people have left the guild. Maybe 10-15 people. Now they are stealing my members and have made a new guild. Do you have tips on member retaining and stuff like that, would be cool if you can do a post on that kind of stuff and how you work that out, thanksHello reader,Thank you for the email. One of the hardest things I've noticed about a guild is dealing with a certain amount of churn. Acceptance is the first step. People leave for all kinds of reasons. There will be those that come and go. The stronger you make your core, the stronger you make your guild.
Forum post of the day: The end of big guilds
Oldmaveric of Azgalor posed the question on the General Discussion Forum: are Big guilds on their way out due to easy WoW? He suggested that easier content on 10 man raids and regular content nerfs has led to the breakdown of some of the top guilds and caused players to quit the game.Savvage of Spinebreaker quickly responded that big guilds have their place, but "People can now play in closer more tightly-knit groups..." For many players, raiding offers sufficient challenge while being more enjoyable than it once was. The raiding experience is not only more accessible, but also more fun. Smaller guilds can afford to be more selective of the online personalities of their membership, while still being able to to make progress.
...is now recruiting
I've been reading the comments from some of our recent posts and realized that there is quite a bit of mismatch between players and guilds. There are casual players in hardcore guilds that find themselves being passed over in content. There are hardcore players in casual guilds that don't get to move on to things they want. Some players need a higher level of maturity.There are usually a handful of guilds recruiting in the Guildwatch column, but I think, for today, we can do better. If your guild looking for more take a moment to comment with the nitty gritty. If you're interested in putting up a little advertisement take a moment to copy/paste and complete the following form:
Free Realms to cost five bucks a month, membership details revealed
With the launch of Free Realms coming up next month (and beta even closer!) it comes as no surprise that the official website has been updated with tons of information. The biggest piece of news is concerning what an optional membership (IE paid subscription) entails. Here's the full run-down of what a 4.99 per month membership grants someone: 5 extra jobs Ranking on Free Realms' leaderboards Up to three character slots 400 extra items and quests Now, it's our assumption that as time goes on more and more benefits will manifest themselves. Things like new jobs, items, quests and possibly entire zones. Of course, to keep free players interested we're sure older premium content will trickle down to the free accounts. But remember, this is all speculation until SOE makes some kind of official announcement.[Thanks, Thee]
"Return Home to Vana'diel" is back, and Squeenix hopes you will be too
The last "Return Home to Vana'diel" campaign ended in February this year, making the decision of whether to return to Final Fantasy XI a lot easier. Now, Square Enix is running the promotion again, giving former players the chance to restore their characters and making that decision a little less clear-cut. The campaign officially kicks off at midnight on Thursday, the 18th of December, and ends at 1am on April 15th. After that point, you'll be stuck with two choices: waiting for the chance of another campaign, or starting from scratch if you wish to resubscribe.To sweeten the deal, re-subscribers will be able to obtain an Anniversary Ring which provides a 100% experience bonus. However, there are a couple of eligibility requirements:- Characters who did not receive an Anniversary Ring during the Adventurer Appreciation Campaign in May 2008.- Characters who were created before Wednesday, May 28, 2008 and have logged into the game at least once since then.*Note: Characters meeting the above requirements are able to receive an Anniversary Ring even without participating in the Return Home to Vana'diel Campaign.That's right -- if you're already a subscriber and don't have an Anniversary Ring, this will be your chance to pick one up as well (this offer also ends on April 15th). Be warned though that deleting your current ring doesn't mean you can get another one.This is a great opportunity to get back into FFXI, and we can't deny that there's a lot going on in the game right now -- but such a campaign would not be necessary if characters weren't deleted after 3 months. Is such a practice acceptable for today's MMOs?
