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YouPlayorWePay claims to offer downtime insurance
I think this is a wild idea (even if it is something I wouldn't actually put my money in). We got tipped about a new site called "You Play or We Pay" and from the looks of it, these guys are offering none other than downtime insurance. That is: you pay a fee to them regularly, and then they "compensate" you for any downtime that your server has. They call it "third-party compensation," but that sounds like insurance to me.At any rate, we wouldn't quite recommend jumping in headfirst yet -- they haven't, as far as we can see, revealed any prices, and while you can register your characters, you can't actually get any sort of payout quite yet, as they say they're still working on the system. For all we know the site could be an elaborate scam at this point. But it is an intriguing idea, and if they're really ready to put their money where their FAQ is, these guys may have an actual business plan that depends on Blizzard keeping the servers up. Just like all insurance companies, they must have figured out that the servers stay up more often than not, and that there was money to be made there.It's quite an interesting plan, and we'll keep an eye on it to see if they ever announce a fee or explain themselves better. The math doesn't quite seem right here, but if somehow their fees are low enough and the payouts are high enough, it's possible that you really could be compensated for downtime by a completely separate company other than Blizzard. Very interesting.Update: The company has contacted WoW Insider, and we've requested an interview. Stay tuned.
Forum post of the day: You stay classy
It seems Blizzard has been listening to the complaints and concerns of players. I've been taken aback by the implementation of paid name changes, PvE to PvP transfers and gender changes. For years, I've read clamoring for race, faction and class changes.Zarhym weighed in Wolfbite of Chromaggus' thread in the general forums requesting class changes. Name and appearance changes are purely cosmetic, while allowing class changes would affect the overall dynamics of the game. Later in the thread Zarhym stated that this is partially to avoid creating a "flavor of the month" class, and would prefer to address player concerns. Rerolling was the most common prescription amongst posters to solve the original poster's issue.
SlySoft moving to subscription-based upgrade model
It was nice to purchase SlySoft's AnyDVD HD once and let the gurus in Antigua continually re-break whatever DRM Hollywood chose to throw out, wasn't it? After this year, you can kiss that luxury goodbye -- that is, if you continue to sit on the sidelines. SlySoft has just announced that starting on January 1, 2009, it will "change its update policy from free lifetime updates to an annual subscription fee." The good news? Anyone who buys a SlySoft product before that day will not be affected by the change. In other words, you've still got a few weeks to decide whether or not you want to join the Blu-ray backup crowd, and to make your decision easier, the outfit is offering a 20% discount on all software products (save for upgrades) through December 31st.
AT&T's U-verse HD Premium Tier explained: $5 for three channels
Ugh. This is just downright ugly. For the longest while, AT&T had quite the edge in the pricing department compared to most other HD programming competitors. For just $10 per month, users had access to over 40 high-def channels, but apparently, all that is about to change. Following a ominous postcard sent out to select California-area U-verse users, AT&T has confirmed on its website that the newfangled HD Premium Tier is real. And it's a ripoff. Beginning "soon," subscribers who wish to see Universal HD, MGM HD and / or Smithsonian HD will be forced to pay an additional $5 on top of the $10 HD access fee. We're not sure if this so-called Premium Tier will eventually host even more HD channels for the same low, low price of $5 per month, but until we find that it does, we'd recommend holding off. Seriously, AT&T? $5 per month for three channels?[Via U-talk forums, thanks Anthony]
Japan to abandon iPod copyright fee
For years, legislators in Japan have wanted a portion of the price of a digital recording device (up to 3%) to go to recording companies, songwriters and artists. The so-called "iPod tax" has met opposition from electronics manufacturers, as you could imagine. However, it looks like it's not going to happen. A group failed to create an agreement yet again this week, prompting official Masafumi Kiyota to say that "...there is virtually no hope for getting the legislation passed." Certainly good news for consumers.Other electronic devices like minidisk players and DVD recorders have a copyright tax built into the price tag in Japan. The logic (if you want to call it that) is that consumers will use these devices to illegally acquire copyrighted material, so why not have them pay for it before hand, as a preemptive strike? Sounds to me like someone has contempt for their customers.
AT&T's prorated ETF is live for new / renewing customers
We really, really hope you didn't ink a contract with AT&T over the weekend. If so, casually close your browser and attempt to avoid this post forever. Right on cue, AT&T has implemented its consumer-friendly prorated early termination fee, which enables new and renewing subscribers to have their $175 ETF drop by $5 each month they stick with the carrier and pay their bill. Yeah, the burn rate isn't exactly the greatest -- after all, you'll still owe $60 if you cancel with a month remaining -- but it's certainly a move in the right direction. [Via phonemag]
Disenchanting for friends and the Sunwell
So Leafshine has a problem: She's got way too much stuff to disenchant. Her friends have been sending her things to disenchant for quite some time, letting her keep the ingredients. But now there's two things different: They're sending her droves of level 70 items, and they want the materials back. If you've played the level 70 game and done the Shattered Sun Offensive dailies, you probably know where this is going. On a good day, doing the complete Outland daily circle, I can come out with somewhere around 10 disenchant-worthy items between regular drops and Shattered Sun Supplies. Leafshine says she can sometimes spend up to 10 minutes working on Disenchanting, and I can believe it. Every time I process a batch of greens on my disenchanter, not only does it take some time to get through with them, then I have to process multiple piles of reagents, and figure if I'm going to store them, sell them, or use them to make a tailoring blue which I will then disenchant into a shard. If added disenchanting for friends in there, I could spend all the day disenchanting. I have to commend Leafshine for putting up with it, and I don't think it would be a bad idea to start charging a disenchant fee - even if it's as simple as taking a cut of the materials. It's one thing to expect a disenchanter to be ready to disenchant dungeon blues that no-one needs, but it seems like another to mail your stuff to them and expect them to take their time to disenchant it free of charge. I know that friends should help each other out with tradeskill stuff, but there's a limit. Yeah, we're friends, we've raided together, but if I expect you to take 10 minutes out of your play time to help me out, throwing you some gold for your time seems like nothing more than common courtesy.
Craig Sherman of Gaia Online: WoW is "not a success"
See if you can follow this reasoning: WoW has ten million players, which is nice and all, but there are actually 800 million teens in the world. Therefore, since Blizzard hasn't reached even 10% of them (80 million), WoW is not actually a success. That's what Craig Sherman of Gaia Online (a casual, browser-based MMO) said to folks at the M16 Marketing conference in San Francisco this week. He claims that WoW's subscription fee has hampered its growth, and that it would be even bigger if there was a free-to-play model.But his reasoning is unstable there to say the least. Part of the reason WoW is so successful is that Blizzard has had the cash to put up for new servers, new content, and a brand new HQ, and with a free-to-play model, they wouldn't be making nearly as much money as they are. Not to mention the quality of the players -- in my experience, part of the reason WoW is such a good game is that when people pay to play it, you often get a much more interested and involved player base. And of course, while yes, WoW hasn't reached a larger fraction of its "potential" player base (however you define that -- what makes Sherman think that Blizzard is targeting teens at all?), anyone who thinks a 10 million player MMO is "not a success" needs to examine the rest of the MMO market more closely.Will there be a game bigger than World of Warcraft? It sure seems like it -- at some point in the future, there should be a game that does go free to play and does hit on all the marks -- casual, hardcore, serious, fun -- that World of Warcraft does (in fact, maybe WoW itself will someday open up a free-to-play model). But to claim that WoW has somehow suffered from its subscription model is pretty far from the truth.[Via Worldofwar.net]
Lawsuit could force Verizon to pay up for "illegal ETFs"
Simmer down, Verizon subscribers. A trial date has yet to be set, but apparently, an arbitrator has "certified a huge class action against Verizon Wireless" that could cost it nearly $1 billion in refunds of early termination fees. Reportedly, this case marks the "largest class ever certified in arbitration, with approximately 70 million members of the subscriber class." Essentially, the lawsuit is attempting to extract refunds for hordes of VZW customers that were charged with "illegal ETFs," and while a company spokesperson unsurprisingly declined comment, we're hearing that the trial could get going as early as mid-2008. That's two, who's next?[Image courtesy of Spusa]
Postal Service to Netflix: redesign your mailers or face fees
You know those handy mailers that you've been sending back to Netflix for ages as you eagerly await the next few flicks in your queue? Apparently, those buggers have cost the US Postal Service a staggering $41.9 million in additional labor costs over the past two years due to their "nonmachinable nature," and if things aren't changed, it could cost 'em another $61.5 million over the next couple years. In a letter from the Inspector General's office, Netflix is being, um, asked to rework its mailers or face a $0.17 surcharge per envelope, and if such a fee was tacked on, it would reportedly decrease the outfit's monthly operating income per paying subscriber by a whopping 67-percent. Not surprisingly, it sounds as if Netflix will bite the bullet and redesign the problematic mailer if the USPS is serious about the charges, so feel free to keep an eye out for a design change in the not-too-distant future.[Via TechDirt, image courtesy of ABC]Read - Netflix may see mail surchargeRead - Inspector General's letter [PDF]
AT&T moves to prorated ETFs, too
Remember when a la carte messaging fees started to go up earlier this year and a couple carriers started to test the waters with unlimited texting plans, it ended up sweeping the whole freaking industry in a matter of a few months? Looks like the move to prorated early termination fees could be the next big move, with AT&T following Verizon away from hefty fines for canceling plans mid-contract. The company has announced that ETFs will be lower the further you are into your agreement period to offer subscribers "more flexibility," while folks simply wanting to change their plans -- not their carriers -- will no longer be required to agree to new terms. Any other carriers want to join the bandwagon?[Via Phone Scoop]
Verizon Wireless allows customers to change plans without extending contract
Though you may be used to hearing Alltel boast of its consumer-friendly policy that enables users to change their plan at anytime without requiring a contract extension, now would be a good time to gear up for lots of similar chatter from Verizon. Reportedly, Verizon Wireless will soon allow its users to change up their plans mid-contract without asking them to sign on for any additional time, which should thoroughly excite those customers who've been regretting their plan decision since day two. So go on, Verizon customers, start scoping out which plan best fits your current lifestyle, because the new rule goes into effect on October 7th.[Thanks, Kiwi616]
Sprint to ditch traditional contracts with Xohm, rely on subscriptions
We've yet to find an average joe (or jane) who just adores that two-year agreement they signed to receive a single subsidized device on day one, and while Sprint hasn't been one to let folks off the hook early, it is trying a slightly different approach with Xohm. Reportedly, the carrier will be relying on "subscriptions," which will enable customers to save more when paying for larger chunks of time, while not forcing them into anything long-term. On the same token, this also means that you'll likely be paying full price for any hardware. Notably, the outfit's CTO also made clear that Xohm "would not be backed by what the industry calls service-level agreements," so don't count on any kind of minimum bandwidth guarantee. As for pricing, the numbers are apparently still being worked, but it was suggested that the service would "probably be based on tiers."[Via TechDirt, image courtesy of BroadbandReports]
A lifetime subscription to Azeroth
Tobold has a good post up about lifetime subscriptions to MMORPGs that got me wondering: why hasn't Blizzard ever offered a lifetime subscription to WoW?The obvious answer, of course, is that they think they can make more money by not doing so. In order for a lifetime subscription to be profitable, the player that buys it has to either stop playing before the subscription would have ended, or not be a major drain on the system after their subscription becomes "free." It's a gamble on both sides.Now, Tobold's reasons for liking his LoTRO lifetime subscription and not jumping on a Hellgate London subscription aren't really applicable to WoW-- HgL is going to be completely different, with no subscription fee required for some players. But would you invest in a lifetime subscription for Blizzard's game? There's little chance they'll offer one now (usually a lifetime subscription is offered at the start of a game's life), but you never know-- if reception to WotLK isn't great, maybe they'll offer it right before the expansion to try and nab players that would quit right afterwards otherwise. By Hellgate's prices, a lifetime subscription to WoW would be $225. Let's go a step further and say that because WoW is so popular, Blizzard would charge $250 for a lifetime subscription to the game, approximately the same price as a year and change paid monthly. Would you take that deal?
Daring Fireball feed goes free
John Gruber's Daring Fireball is probably my favorite Mac blog out there (save for the ol' TUAW, of course)-- it was one of the first I started reading, and he consistently provides not only great insight on Apple products and policies (and journalists' treatment of them), but a strong, often funny voice in the community. We're big fans here at TUAW, and that's why we were so happy to hear that even more people will have a chance to read Gruber's work. Because as of today, he's releasing his full RSS feed, free to anyone.Previously, he had a plan where you paid a membership fee (included when you bought a T-shirt from him) and then got access to the full RSS feed. A feed was available for free, but it was partial content only. Now, he says, confusion about which feed is which, and RSS readers without HTML authentication (most notably Google Reader, and the .Mac reader for iPhone that David loves so much-- what's up with these popular readers not providing a feature that supports the content producers that supply them?) have convinced him to try out a free full feed for a month. Additionally, the free feed will be supported from week to week by sponsors.If you haven't signed on to DF's feed yet, now's your chance. And if, like us, you find it interesting and informative, might as well put a couple bucks in the bucket and pay for it anyway-- Gruber's definitely earning it.
Verizon hikes up monthly FiOS DVR charge
Verizon is certainly no stranger to cranking up the fees on its number of services, and while it doesn't exactly have a vast footprint of FiOS subscribers just yet, the monthly charge for your DVR is going up nonetheless. Reportedly, current subscribers are getting notices now that show FiOS DVR pricing going from $12.99 to $15.99 per month "on new services added and orders places on or after July 13, 2007." It still seems ambiguous as to whether or not current customers will be grandfathered in at the lower rate, but we've got all ideas that everyone will end up footing the higher bill. Additionally, the cost of a full disconnect ($74.99) will now be charged to the departing user if "it requires a technician to visit," so we'd strongly suggest delivering your wares sans hired help if you decide to pull the plug.
Apple still not off the hook for $1.99 fee
We really thought this whole 802.11n Apple fee dealio was behind us, but it looks like we'll need to put on our accountant hats one more time. A few trouble makers are taking issue with Apple blaming the $2 fee on generally accepted accounting practices, or GAAP. "GAAP doesn't require you to charge squat," says Lynn Turner, former chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission. "You charge whatever you want. GAAP doesn't even remotely address whether or not you charge for a significant functionality change. GAAP establishes what the proper accounting is, based on what you did or didn't charge for it." It's pretty much a semantics argument at this point, and at $1.99 for the update, we're not going to get too terribly hung up on it, but you know how GAAP fanboys can be. Edward Trott, a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board agrees with Lynn: "No, GAAP doesn't tell you to do anything. You need to work out your transaction with your customer, and GAAP will tell you how to reflect your transaction with that customer." Sounds like Apple had no exact compulsion to charge the fee to stay within GAAP, but they could've been up for some serious deferred revenue, possibly impacting all of their computers sales. Seems to be six one way, half-dozen the other, but we suppose Apple should've been a bit more clear on this all from the start.
Cobra set to unveil red-light camera / radar detector
If you've driven overseas or any mildly large city in America, there's a good chance you slipped by (or not) a red-light camera at a busy intersection. If you happened to be in the unlucky bunch that had to endure a stiff fine for trying to squeeze the lemon tomato, you'll certainly be interested in what Cobra's uncoiling next week. The company so widely known for its speed / radar detectors and GPS units is breaking into the stoplight camera detection game, giving haphazard and flustered drivers a second chance that ticketers would rather them not have. The device will reportedly sync with GPS satellites to determine when a red-light camera, "black spot" (highly watched area), or school zone is being approached, and will give an early warning to the person behind the wheel in order to save them a few bucks, and potentially their life. A spokesperson for Cobra insinuated that the unit would cause drivers to take extra precaution when approaching a target zone, which would also cut back on the daring attempts to blaze through intersections when the light is red; folks who profit mightily from the fees, however, aren't as enthused about the forthcoming device. Nevertheless, Cobra should have its red-light warning device on display at next week's CES, and while we're not sure how much it'll cost just yet, we're certain there are those who'd pay anything to avoid yet another ticket.[Thanks, Chris L]
Universal Music looking to extract royalties on every iPod sold?
We aren't exactly sure who's getting the shorter end of the stick in Universal Music's "deal" with Microsoft to extract a set fee from every Zune sold, but now its oh-so-mettlesome CEO is thinking of putting the same pressure on ole Steve. While Jobs has certainly had a rather sour relationship with the labels over the years, and has flat our refused to boost music prices (twice) at the iTMS, this predicament could be a fair bit stickier. Doug Morris is reportedly considering asking demanding a royalty fee from every iPod sold now that he's already won the war over at Microsoft, touting Universal's massive music collection on iTMS as something fairly essential to the program's continued success. But things aren't as clear cut as the previous deal, as the Zune Marketplace was (and still is) in a position trying to grab any sliver of market share it possibly can, while Apple's rendition basically owns the digital download realm already. While it's easy to assume that both companies will agree on a ridiculously small fee just to save face, it begs the question of other labels trying to cash in at Jobs' expense if this deal goes down -- but hey, what goes around, comes around, right?
Nintendo: no love for Phat crack
Reader Kirk Winters has a problem. His DS Phat has succumbed to crack. As we previously reported, those of us who were still clinging to our Phats lost the high ground when they began to suffer the slings and arrows of cracked hinges, but we never thought it would come to this. Nintendo, it seems, is not repairing the Phats for free, as they are with the DS Lite.Ninty, where's the love? We thought we had something special. Kirk was heartbroken when his DS developed the same crack that raised such a stink with the Lites, but when he called Nintendo, he expected to get the same deal. No dice -- they'll haggle, but it's still not going to be a free ride if you end up in the same boat. But there's a light at the end of the tunnel. At first, Nintendo planned to charge for Lite repair, so maybe if we raise enough stink, we'll get the same treatment for the Phat. [Thanks for tipping us off, Kirk!]
