Brainstorming how a Sims Subscription Model could work

That doesn't sound too bad but I wouldn't like if there was content exclusive to subscribers

"kaiwrysims;c-18093662" wrote:
That doesn't sound too bad but I wouldn't like if there was content exclusive to subscribers

Yeah. Subscriber-exclusive items would certainly boost the number of subscriptions but also p*** off the fanbase.

The non-retro aspect would be a killer for me on a subscription model.

Why should the player who just discovered Sims because they just turned the appropriate age be forbidden from having an item just because they weren't playing the game a month ago?

Also means that a player doesn't feel pressured to keep a subscription up they can't afford and they aren't actively playing the game at the moment due to real life issues.

My suggestions:

Tokens are fine, but of the packs you can only buy kits with tokens (larger packs are enough work that they should be bought with real money outside of things earned from a subscription.

Items start off being the free monthly item(s) - number/type dependent on sub type. The next month (or maybe a few months later), you can buy them with tokens. After a year or so, they can be bought with real money as a say "2022 Subscriber Items Kit" with the price being appropriate. Any price difference can be argued to be the early access fee like what should happen with CC.

"Seera1024;c-18093698" wrote:
The non-retro aspect would be a killer for me on a subscription model.

Why should the player who just discovered Sims because they just turned the appropriate age be forbidden from having an item just because they weren't playing the game a month ago?

Also means that a player doesn't feel pressured to keep a subscription up they can't afford and they aren't actively playing the game at the moment due to real life issues.

My suggestions:

Tokens are fine, but of the packs you can only buy kits with tokens (larger packs are enough work that they should be bought with real money outside of things earned from a subscription.

Items start off being the free monthly item(s) - number/type dependent on sub type. The next month (or maybe a few months later), you can buy them with tokens. After a year or so, they can be bought with real money as a say "2022 Subscriber Items Kit" with the price being appropriate. Any price difference can be argued to be the early access fee like what should happen with CC.

I agree with all of this except only being able to redeem tokens for kits. Because for me, the tokens ARE real money since they're just like a virtual currency akin to SimPoints. I would want to buy EPs and GPs because I like gameplay in general over CAS and Build/Buy. If I can only redeem for kits and have to pay even more money to buy packs separately, I would never subscribe to such a model.

I am not sure what we're supposed to subscribe to here. You get more discount if you buy during sales, with subscription system you can get at most 60 dollars worth of discount, so assuming you've already subscribed for a year you can pay fully in tokens for an EP and GP. Last year we had one EP and one GP, and the year before that we had two EPs and one GP. Unless you buy every pack fully in tokens, there's not much else to spend your tokens on. They released monthly kit packs for the past year so almost like a subscription, except kits you can buy whenever you want to but you cannot get subscriber content retroactively. So you basically want to subscribe to 5 dollars worth of kits, and not everyone wants all the kits, and some exclusive content every month. We already have those Sim Delivery Express type additional content, why would you want to make it exclusive and retroactively unavailable?

I am not so sure a subscription type game would work for Me. I would not be happy paying for tokens to redeem on unknown kits, unknown content, and Unknown EP's that are still to come in the future. What would happen if I paid for a full six months to a year and had all kinds of tokens and Maxis/EA does not release anything I am interested in purchasing? I prefer the way the game is set up now. I can purchase the packs I want when I feel I can afford it and I am interested in playing. Like another poster said, there has been a dry spell of content that I am not at all interested in and will probably never purchase so meanwhile I have been catching up on EP's and other content I passed on years ago. A subscription service really limits your freedom.

That would probably not be popular seeing that Maxis seems to release whatever they like and when they like, so imagine someone paying a subscription fee and then Maxis releases nothing but kits for half a year.

"simmerorigin;d-998971" wrote:

Spoiler

Guiding principles

• Opt-in only
  
• You pay a low monthly fee and earn equivalent tokens each month worth what you pay
  
• You can redeem these tokens for the packs you want
  
• Some tiny, occasional Sims Delivery Express type of CAS or Build/Buy objects to encourage subscriptions
  

Example
You pay $5 each month and earn 5 tokens each month. Packs on paper cost:
EP: 40 tokens
GP: 20 tokens
SP: 10 tokens
Kits: 5 tokens

You earn these tokens from being a subscriber and can redeem them to buy packs, whichever ones you want. You are never forced to buy anything. But perhaps to reward you from giving EA a consistent subscription revenue stream, you can buy these back for less than their paper cost (i.e. on sale). Think buying an EP on release for 35 tokens instead of 40 dollars. You also happen to get a few new objects that month. You can only get those objects from being a subscriber in that month i.e. no retroactive obtainment of special objects.

Target Customers

• Customers who buy most or all packs and would appreciate discounts
  
• Customers who wouldn't mind a small fee because they are engaged with the Sims community and would appreciate regular accrual of credits with which to redeem packs
  

Thoughts? Personally, the only way I'm accepting a subscription model is if it offers me discounts and choice in redeeming which packs I want.

That sounds extremely nice and fair, so I'm pretty sure we won't get anything similar to that. This is EA we're talking about :neutral:

It'll most likely be like playstation plus where you're paying a monthly subscription just to have access to online multiplayer mode. Then there will probably be lots of overpriced microtransactions for a small amount of content like they have in Sims Mobile right now.

I've been an MMORPG player for a long time and have witnessed the decline in quality across multiple online games so far. If Sims 5 is going to be multiplayer and subscription-based, I have no hope for it. I don't trust EA to make something amazing like Stardew Valley. Greedy companies ruin their games.

It would be nice if Maxis/EA actually proved me wrong, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

Yeah, no thanks. If they make TS5 like that, then I will continue to play TS2/3/4 as I already pay for a monthly subscription with World of Warcraft and have no desire to pay for other games that I don't play that often like I do with WoW. So I will refuse to buy a Sims game that makes their players pay a sub to be able to play their game unless they have the sub option like they do with Star Wars: The Old Republic.

I'd rather pay more to pay for exactly what I want, when I want then be tied into any kind of subscription service. Any game that has a subscription service, even if it is opt-in rather than required also pretty much always has some kind of content that is exclusively available to subscribers. Which ultimately makes me feel pressured to subscribe. My solution is to not play those games at all.

So, I hope this is not the direction they go with the franchise.