A Paying Customer

Picture stolen from Ehow.co.uk

Two years and three months after joining, and 19 days of Pirate Galaxy (PG) play time, I finally put my hand in my pocket and paid for the privilege.

I've already posted on the arguments about paying in Cheating? Or paying your way? Feel free to comment if you're either outraged by my actions or want to pat me on the back. Another good read on this topic is Tobold's MMORPG Blog. Tobold regularly blogs on payment for online games and he talks a lot of sense. His blog covers a much wider scope than mine and is always worth visiting.

From my Pirate career so far I had collected just over 12,000 gold bullion. Some of this was rewards for levelling up, but most was compensation from Gamigo ages ago for a service outage. I'd decided that I wanted to get myself the 6 month Ultimate Membership which costs 66,000 gold. I clicked on the purchase gold button in the shop and a separate browser window opened to take me through the transaction. Gold is purchased in packages so I chose the 54,500 deal which was almost exactly the amount I needed. A couple of clicks later and the deal was done, costing me just over £44. Minutes later the gold appeared in my game account and I took out my membership. I should say that this was for my Gamigo account which houses my main pilot. My Splitscreen account is separate so how smoothly that would go or how much it would cost I don't know.

For those who don't know, the Ultimate Membership means that playing the game is virtually Energy (E) free. Using my Blaster, Repair Droid, Shield, Aim Computer or any other equipment uses no E at all. I can also repair ships in the hangar for free, and jump between planets at zero E cost. Resurrecting yourself costs just as much E as it normally does but that's the only cost there is. Sweet.

In the few days I've had membership I've wondered why it took me so long to get it. No more boring E collecting is the most obvious benefit, but there are others. For example jumping between planets is now almost a joy. If I want to nip back to Gemini, swap my ship and have a blast on Technatoria, it takes one or two minutes. Previously that trip could take seven  minutes or more, unless I wanted to spend all my E in hyperjumps.

Grinding is easier as you don't have to keep leaving your spot to fuel up. Another gain is that it's free to kill something. Before, when I passed a solo Mender I'd be tempted to blast it but might have wanted to save power. Now as long as I'm not against the clock I can indulge myself and see if I strike gold.

Basically I get more fun time in the game, and I suppose a slight advantage against other players. Nothing as significant as a Blueprint (BP) or firepower booster but I do have more staying power. The non-game benefit is a warm feeling knowing that I've contributed financially to PG, helping preserve its existence and adding to Splitscreen's honest profit.