By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Website Topics - VGChartz Standard and Premium Memberships

 

What if VgChartz starts charging a monthly fee to view sales numbers?

I won't pay. 334 75.57%
 
I'll pay. 23 5.20%
 
I'll go to BugriChartz instead. 85 19.23%
 
Total:442
O-D-C on 19 January 2010

glad to see the site is growing in many ways, now we really have professionals and industry powers backing our numbers



Around the Network
Kantor on 19 January 2010
ioi said:

And yes, staff members will get free standard access to data... will be one of the perks of the job.

Awesome!

We can always use more staff. Get drafting reviews, people



(Former) Lead Moderator and (Eternal) VGC Detective

Kantor on 19 January 2010
Faxanadu said:
ioi said:
Faxanadu said:
And why is ioi referring to himself in plural? He became royalty?

?

You do realise there are a number of staff who run vgchartz?

I was actually joking on that one.

 

But then again, is staff making decisions or the owners?

I would think that ioi has the final word, but he consults with all of the admins.



(Former) Lead Moderator and (Eternal) VGC Detective

Barozi on 19 January 2010
ioi said:

And yes, staff members will get free standard access to data... will be one of the perks of the job.

*cough* you maybe still need some new guys ?



naznatips on 19 January 2010
Kantor said:
Faxanadu said:
ioi said:
Faxanadu said:
And why is ioi referring to himself in plural? He became royalty?

?

You do realise there are a number of staff who run vgchartz?

I was actually joking on that one.

 

But then again, is staff making decisions or the owners?

I would think that ioi has the final word, but he consults with all of the admins.

Indeed. It's his site but he takes quite a lot of input from the administrators as to positive improvements, and we all work hard to support our sections of the site that we're in charge of. He trusts us to run our areas to the best of the website's interest and continue to grow and expand the site.



Around the Network
Alby_da_Wolf on 19 January 2010
Faxanadu said:
Ah yes, the facebook problem.

And why is ioi referring to himself in plural? He became royalty?

Brilliant! To persuade people to subscribe, instead of making some features now free pay ones, VGC could be play on users' pride:

  1. Premium subscribers would be called "VGC Lords"
  2. Standard, "VGC Knights"
  3. Free, "VGC Peasants"
  4. Unregistered, "VGC Serfs"

 

Edit: Improvement, VGC Serfs should pass through Viagra, Diet Pills, Penis Enlargement, FarmVille Tricks, etc ads before accessing pages beyond home, devilish, innit?

 



Stwike him, Centuwion. Stwike him vewy wuffly! (Pontius Pilate, "Life of Brian")
A fart without stink is like a sky without stars.
TGS, Third Grade Shooter: brand new genre invented by Kevin Butler exclusively for Natal WiiToo Kinect. PEW! PEW-PEW-PEW!   


oldschoolfool on 19 January 2010
ioi said:

This isn't mean to be trying to squeeze money out of people or to be greedy or to slap anyone in the face. In order to continue to make the data more accurate and to improve on what we do and make the service more professional we need to take these steps. Banner ads can support news activity or forum activity but the amount of work involved in putting the data together each week is highly involved and the nature of it is that there are a lot of people who want to see top line stuff (i.e what you get for free), a number of harcore people who like to see data in some detail (standard membership) and a small number of people who use the data for business purposes and need access to the complete data set with the ability to manipulate it how they want (premium membership).

As most of you have said, you only read the top 50 games anyway so don't care much for the idea of a standard membership, whereas some of you do like the idea of having more access and more tools and would be willing to pay, and some people out there are willing to pay a lot for total access - therefore the costing model works.

 

@Zuhyc

The site grew enormously in the first 2 years but in the last 18 months the growth has slowed. Only so many people are interested in sales data and we have them here already. VGC 3.0 is a four-sided approach to growth, what has been described so far is just one of those.

At the end of the day, this data is costly and work-intensive to produce. By rights, you're lucky that you currently have free access to it all - no other data organisation provides this. I personally don't think $5-8 per month or whatever we decide upon will be a lot to ask for access to the top 200 games and top 50 per platform along with the new additions I have listed (many more of which are also being planned).

I fully understand that some people won't like this new direction - who does want to pay for something that is currently free - but it is the direction we need to take in order to continue to grow.

please consider the free/premium model. Thank you!!!



dunno001 on 19 January 2010
loadedstatement said:
Would you guys be more happy if you got EVERYTHING you get now for free. In other words, nothing would be taken away. However, if you are a crazy numbers person or just totally love the website, you can pay to access more in-depth numbers. What do you think?


This I think would be much better. People don't like having stuff that was free now being something you have to pay for. Paying for additional manipulation tools that do not exist may be a route that some people may look at, though.

As for the prices that ioi mentioned above, I think that while the $99 price when broken down isn't too bad, it does have that sticker shock for the average user. Note what MS does with Live: if the $50 is too scary for a year, you can get 1 month for $8, or 3 months for $20. Keeping things close to that $99/year price, might I propose the following: 1 week for $5 (for those who really just want to do a lot fast, though if you want simplification, this could be dropped), 1 month for $10, 3 months for $25, or 12 months for $90. This way, people can get it in the size (and price) chunks that works best for them, without feeling like they're committed, or avoiding the highest price right away.

-dunno001

-On a quest for the truly perfect game; I don't think it exists...

MontanaHatchet on 19 January 2010
ioi said:

And yes, staff members will get free standard access to data... will be one of the perks of the job.

So...contributors, game database administrators, poll administrators, any and/or all of those?



 

 

Griffin on 19 January 2010

What a joke.