Warhammer 40k devs on unusual pricing structure and WoW-killing

I'd go for Imperial (Guard and Marines), Orks and Eldar. This lines it up for a nice 3 realm fight DAOC style, while leaving some variety in the mobs with Chaos, Tyranids, Necrons and maybe some Dark Eldar!

Unfortunately no Squats.

I could not agree more and I really hope they have them. I am praying for the removal of the hotbar, I am so tired of that crap.

Agreed, and i hope they do away with babysitting quests that give no challenge.

Since WoW players never have to think about what to do ONCE. You can do a form of missions, a form of gear-system, a form of story, a form of level-system.

But do NOT babysit players, let THEM decide what to do and how to solve problems.

The answer to "Why can't I pay by the hour when they can in the Asian market?" is a very simple one, and honestly, one I'm surprised that people don't figure out on their own.

Money.

In the West, people are willing to pay a term-based subscription fee because they game at home. They walk into their office (or wherever), flip on their PC or Xbox and game away. No fuss, no muss. In general, it's what westerners like (you being an exception of course) and it makes a great business model. MMO's like WoW make their money in this type of system by having people (like my wife for instance) pay the monthly fee and log in maybe 1-2 hours a week. Basically for 8 hours of play a month they're paying $2 an hour (roughly).

In the Asian market, games are played in privately owned and operated facilities where people game by paying per unit time to not only the MMO, but the game center itself. Also, in Asia, games are very much a ubiquitous thing and not associated with the "nerd" stigma they are in the west. So let's take that 2$ per hour price tag and knock it down to say 50c. If the average player games for 32 hours a month, they're making just as much off that guy in Asia as they are off my wife. I think you're probably getting the point about the cultural and social differences, though and how they figure into MMO business plans & pricing models.

TLDR: Why would they give us the option to pay them less when they're making money hand over fist by "forcing" us to us the already existing pricing structure?