When it comes to video games I used to love the subscription model. It was a nice base price paid monthly, cancelled when I didn’t want it. Over time, it has evolved and changed into something I no longer recognize or enjoy. Now you’ll see games with a subscription that also offer some sort of pass you have to purchase separately, that also offer a shop to sell things for cash, that also offer any number of other features and bonuses that all add up. It’s rare that a subscription gives you access to everything.
What bothers me even more is that the entire world has turned to a subscription model method of doing things because you can easily nickel and dime this way. Amazon prime – comes with TV channels, but here in Canada you can add MORE channels for a bit more cost. Which (since we cancelled cable) we pay for. Then there’s Netflix, Disney+ and CRAVE (another Canadian streaming option). Then there’s my two young children, they have a subscription to Barbie worlds (which is an amazing app on their ipad, I’m not ragging on the cost of it or the fact that they have it, but it is yet another subscription for me to take mind of), and they used to have a subscription for Pepa Pig, too (they outgrew that one, thankfully).
There’s subscriptions for meals, subscriptions for boxes of goodies that show up at your door monthly, dog or cat supplies, wine, beef jerky, subscriptions for magazines, apps, and music. If you can think of it, there’s probably a subscription for it. When you think about these little bits of bite sized costs it’s easy to forget how much you’re actually spending each month – they add up! I highly suggest people keep a list some place where you can keep track of these little payments and see a grand total some place. It’s VERY easy to forget these costs, especially with automatic payments.
For me, prioritizing is a bit more simple. I pay for WoW (and all Blizzard related things) with gold, so that takes a huge chunk of my personal subscription fees away (two accounts, all expansions, etc). I play FFXIV, and I have the cheaper subscription option but I have 1 extra retainer, which is another fee. I try to keep my personal subscriptions to just 1 item, whether it’s a game, or Crunchyroll (used to watch anime), or a yarn box subscription.
In a world that has become SO subscription heavy, how do you decide what is “worth it” and how many subscriptions are you currently balancing? Let me know in comments!
I have a love/hate relationship with subscriptions. Out of my personal “fun money” I have three: my WoW sub, Humble Choice, and Scribd for ebooks & audiobooks.
It gets messier when it comes to streaming services for TV & movies. We currently have Max through our cell provider & Prime as a bonus since we subscribe to that for the free shipping. On top of that, though, we have several other regular subs and a handful I rotate when there are good deals to be had.
I don’t feel the need to *own* everything, and subscription services give me access to more things than I would ever be able to purchase, so it’s great for how I tend to consume a lot of stuff (play / watch / read once and never think about it again), but a lot of extra effort (and more than a smidge of self-imposed pressure) goes into making sure I’m not regularly paying for things I don’t use.