Hileict:
Huh.. $10 USD is $10.78 AUD.. I guess I can let 78c slide. See you on the other side, I guess?

Now what a twist! I tought you would never como to the dark side with us!!
Why such a sudden change of mind?

If it means the servers are more reliable, I'm paying you.

EDIT: Awww... It doesn't like my card...

Hileict:

Tharwen:
If it means the servers are more reliable, I'm paying you.

EDIT: Awww... It doesn't like my card...

Now that you mention it.. The site is running rather quickly since signing up.. Didn't like Visa/Mastercard though? O:

Maestro, which is a sort of baby Mastercard.

Hileict:

Tharwen:
Maestro, which is a sort of baby Mastercard.

Ah, I have heard of them! If you like, I can look it up if Amazon will also take that card type too? By rights, it should.. o.O

It isn't an option on the subscription payment page.

Hileict:

Tharwen:
It isn't an option on the subscription payment page.

That's.. Odd.. I mean, I didn't see it there either, but there are many sources that indicate that Amazon's payment system should have it.. Huh.

Yeah, it's pretty antisocial...

*Beckons mods over*

Is there no other way I can pay?

It is worth noting that this website is called 'The Escapist Magazine'. Therefore, if we judge it as a magazine, a subscription model is completely logical.

I get far more content on a daily basis then I would from a normal magazine per month. So rather than paying $80 a year for a subscription to a magazine with less content, I'm paying $20 to support one of the best sites on the web.

Hell, I'd pay $20 a month just to watch LRR and read Shamus Young's column and comic.

I completely understand the annoyance of a few vocal LRR fans. We did used to get HD content for free. But they weren't making a lot of money back then. This is a chance to help them (and the Escapist as a whole) to give us more of what we love.

What could possibly be bad about that?

Virgil:

Dudemeister:
I have a question.
What's this walled garden exactly? I mean I know it's a separate forum area but is it just for keeping the peasants out of sight of subscribers or is it a different kind of forum?

It's a forum category that only subscribers can see. It will probably have less traffic, if that kind of thing appeals to you.

Yeah, I really don't want my posts to be read by some pesky humans, I'm not talking to them, I'm talking to the Internet itself.

It is a great deal. I'm definitely loving my new custom title. Internet site membership wise, ten dollars for a year is practically a steal.

Damnn, now that is a good deal. Considering how often I go to this site, I think $20 bucks a year is pretty damn reasonable. And now my videos look prettier!

newuseforvintage:

knight of some random number:
I would join, but lack of credit card and money prevents, me from doing so.

However is there any chance of a paypal option being included using my debit card?

Amazon accepts debit cards, i don't have a credit card either and i managed to join :-)

only for americans then? for payment options i only seem to get credit cards..

This is a nifty idea, and I'm all for it in theory, but for me it comes down a few questions I had to ask myself. First, is The Escapist worth $20 a year? The answer was, of course, resoundingly yes. The second was are the features being offered worth $10 a year? Sadly, to me at least, the answer here was no.

That brings us to the most important question. Should I give my money to The Escapist for no reason other than that I believe they deserve it? Sadly the answer is no again. I already pay nearly $60 a month for the privilege of connecting to the Internet, and while I understand that nobody on this site sees a penny of that, it's still money I'm paying for access to all the sites on the Internet. If I gave even more money to every site that I felt deserved it I would rapidly find myself unable to pay for my Internet connection, and so I must pass on this offer.

I do wish you the best of luck with it however. I certainly have no objection to the people who run this fine site making money.

I'd just like to say thanks very much guys, I've been wanting to help contribute to the site for a while now and probably would have done it for a lot less than what you've given us.
I was a bit skeptical of your choice to use Amazon for payments, but I found it to be very quick and easy to set up, so no problem there.

So thanks very much guys!

I don't know if anyone's touched on this subject yet, but I have to ask.

While I'll most definitely be handing my hard-earned cash over to the Escapist (customs titles? Where do I sign?), I just wanted to know if people outside America will finally be able to enter Escapist competitions?

While I can sort of understand why normal contests would be for American citizens only, the list of benefits for subscribing offers "members-only contests", but it would seem a little self-defeating if the only paying members that can enter are those who live in the US. Are people living outside America effectively paying the same amount of money whilst receiving less content than Americans?

Tharwen:

Hileict:

Tharwen:
If it means the servers are more reliable, I'm paying you.

EDIT: Awww... It doesn't like my card...

Now that you mention it.. The site is running rather quickly since signing up.. Didn't like Visa/Mastercard though? O:

Maestro, which is a sort of baby Mastercard.

I'm having the same problem. Anyone know if there's a way to subscribe via a non-US Amazon thing?

I love the...

*Cue sad music* Every thirty days, an Escapist game journalist is forced to buy his own videogame at retail price. But you don't have to let them suffer anymore. Now, for just twenty cents a week, you can help...

As you can see they had me at 50% off :)

Virgil:

Insanum:
The forum community, Which probably gives a proportion of the revenue via the advertising & Site traffic to the Escapist, And the Suits, Who want to make as much money as they can from the site.

Here's something you may not know. Forum traffic is, in ad terms, completely worthless. It's a tiny percentage of our total site visitors that view lots of pages but never click on ads. Nobody wants to advertise in them. The forums are also the heaviest load on our servers, and require a dedicated employee and several very gracious volunteer moderators to even attempt to keep in line. As a business, we'd be better off not having most of our forums at all.

I'll leave it to you to decide why the "suits," every one of which who is a long-time dedicated gamer and has written articles about gaming for our site, keep the forums around. Frankly, as one of them, I find your insinuation pretty offensive.

Insanum:
My question to the Escapist faculty is why Should we part with our hard earned money?

Here's the thing: As an ad-supported business, there are certain things we can and can't reasonably do. The membership program is a way to do two different things. First, it's a way for people who want to support the site but not see ads to support us and what we do directly.

Second, it's a way for us to add features that being ad-supported doesn't allow us to do. For example, we couldn't afford the bandwidth to serve the high quality video to everyone. Video podcasts mean people don't need to come to the site or see ads to see the videos. Full-content RSS feeds also keep people away from the site and ads.

If you don't mind seeing the ads, and none of the features sound like something you'd use, then by all means take a pass on this. I personally think that when you add everything up it's a nice set of features, but it's definitely not for everyone.

I didnt mean to cause offence with my previous post, but im sure you could see the point i was trying to make.

The thing is, I see this now as a slippery slope, First its memberships, then microtransactions, then other things. Before you know it things get out'ta hand. I can understand you want to keep the lights on at the Esc HQ, and im not bothered about the price (£6 is hardly going to break the bank), but its the principle that now we're going to have to pay for a site we've come to know and love.

I know we're not losing anything if we dont pay, but things that are being added to members only would've been stuff that was added to everone before.

Once again, I see how it makes business sense, it just doesnt make it sting any less when your reminded your favourite site on the internet is a business.