The Shrine

I sure didn't see this coming

http://forums2.warcry.com/read.phtml?f=113&id=633279

Korean subscriber numbers have actually gone DOWN from beta. I heard they paid something like $25 or even more per month to play this game, which could explain why.

Saw this a little while ago at the WOW forums. As I understand it, they pay a higher monthly fee, but don't need to buy the boxed game in order to play. I think they got to hold on to their beta characters, also.

I've got no idea what their level of service is like in Korea, but even with the occasional queues and the downtime, I'm pretty happy with the service Blizzard is offering in the west. They have active CS reps posting in the forums, GM response times are not awful, and in the month or so I've been playing on a moderately popular server I've had very few bad technical experiences.

Golly, an Australian server would be nice, though. Even an Oceanic server based in Korea would kick ass.

Koreans don't get the free month though, I looked it up and it's like $24, and I think the box here is what $50-60? So if you use 60, then (60-24)/(24-15) = 5 months before a Korean starts paying a lot each month for the game than anyone else.

And I'd assume since they get it for free they don't get a box or any instructions. Granted most people don't care about that stuff, but it's got to worth something to some people.

Yeah, I'd rather shell out for the box and pay a lower monthly fee. I think the Koreans are probably burned more by the poor quality of service than higher fees, though.

Poor service is relative. From watching EQ it is almost certain the 'poor service' people refer to is just the usual unrealistic expectations on GMs. Besides I have never actually heard of a MMORPG that failed because of bad customer service. The 'I quit because CS sucks' stuff are around 99% fake.

I'm willing to bet the low sales is related to the cost exclusively (not just the price, but the article said something about how PC cafes aren't getting a good deal as well).

A lot of Koreans also play at PC cafes. So in addition to a higher monthly fee, they also have to pay an extra cost per hour just for using the computer. The queing and server maintenance thing just adds to their frustration.

Man, I never thought about how painful it'd be to wait in a queue to play WOW while you're paying for the 'net by the hour. I can handle the occasional queues because it gives me an opportunity to load up RE4 or Pikmin 2, but man, that would <i>suck</i>.