- Since Green Armadillo of Player Versus Developer has already posted his thoughts about his year with the WoW Annual Pass, there's no reason for me to hold off. Last year I signed up for the annual pass, right around the same time GA did. No that the year is almost passed, I have to admit that it was not a good investment. Here's the breakdown:
- 12 month subscription - One of the features of the annual pass is that you are locked into a 12 month subscription. I chose to pay this off on the semi-annual cycle because it was the cheapest way to fulfill the obligation. If I had played throughout the deal, this would have been a crazy good deal. In the end, I ended up playing for four or five of the twelve months. At some points during the year, I didn't even have the game installed thanks to the Windows 8 preview. That means I paid more for my time than if I had just paid monthly for those months I actually wanted to play.
- Tyrael's Charger - I used this mount for about a week. Then I got sick of the wings obscuring my view and went back to my flying carpet.
- Beta Access - I don't really do beta, not for things I know that I'm already interested in. That I have not bought MoP doesn't change that I want to go in fresh when I eventually do. So beta access was a wash.
- Diablo III - And here is the thing. The big draw of the Annual Pass was getting Diablo III free. Even if I didn't get the annual pass, I would have bought this. And I would have regreted it either way. Like everyone else, I ran afoul of the day one server disaster. But then when I could play, I only did so for a couple of nights. I don't think it is a very good game. And because of various Windows updates, it is no longer installed on my computer.
- So at the end of one year, I find I have made a very bad decision. I will continue to play WoW from time to time. But from here on out, I'm going to do so on my own terms and no lock myself into a long term committment.
© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
Wow, sorry to hear the investment worked out so poorly for you. When the deal went live I was still in "Wait and see" mode on DIII because I'm skeptical of rogue-likes. Not that many of the best games ever made aren't rogue-likes, it's just that I've played so many of them I'm damn picky now.
ReplyDeleteRogue-likes with good graphics I usually prefer to play on a console, because "point and click to move + point and click to kill everything = carpal tunnel in two easy steps" in my experience. I'd much rather steer with an analogue stick and kill with an assortment of buttons. The PC rogue-likes I enjoy tend to be askii graphics games I can play with my keyboard. Hellgate and Dungeon Runners got passes because they used a FPS interface.
Considering your feeling about ARPGs, I don't blame you for avoiding D3. It'll be on sale some day if you're even curious.
DeleteI should probably use the flying carpet more - I actually use the charger mount a fair amount because most of my other mounts are Drakes so large they block my own view. I don't really count this against the value of the promo because I would never have paid for it, but I like it pretty well as a freebie.
ReplyDeleteIt is striking how in some ways our outlook is not that different. Like you, I probably would have paid for around 4 months of game time, and thereby would have paid less on a month-to-month basis. I guess I just got a little more mileage out of an hour or three of WoW in the off-months?
Absolutely. I made a little progress in Uldum with my mage, but I didn't take advantage of the Darkmoon monthlies like I could have. WoW was the farthest thing from my mind most of the time.
DeleteSorry to hear about that. I get tempted by these offers all the time, but in the end I always back down from them. Even if I play a game for the long haul it tends to follow a "couple months here, take a few months break, and return for a couple months more" pattern. It would be much more economical to drop and pick up a monthly sub as needed. The problem is, I can commit to long term, but just not continuously every single month through a whole year.
ReplyDeleteIf this offer came up during TBC, it would have been much more useful to me. Since WoW isn't really My Game anymore, I should have known better. A month at a time when I'm in the mood is more my speed now.
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