If anything, doing the math should encourage people to buy more premium paid accounts, not more icons:
Paid account: $25-50 per year, includes 100-250 icon slots, depending on account price Icons a la carte: $1 per icon *plus* paid account costing $25-50 per year
So I'm a free user and I want 250 icons. (In reality, I'm a paid user and you can take all my icons away if you want - except the one above, which I treasure - I'm just not that into icons.)
I have two options: buy a paid account for $50. Boom! 250 icons are mine. Or buy a paid account for up to $35 per year, and boom! 100 icons are mine.
$50 / 250 = .20 cents an icon $35 / 100 = .35 cents an icon
Option 1, buy a $50 paid account, gives me 150 more icons at .15 cents less per icon than Option 2. But Option 1 has to be renewed at $50 each year to not lose all but 15 of my icons.
Option 2, buy a $35 paid account, gives me 100 icons at .15 more per icon than Option 1. But if I add on 150 icons at $150, I never have to pay for my extra icon slots again, just my account's default 100 icons.
Total cost for my first year on DW at $35 + $150 for icons: $185 Second year: $35 Third year: $35 Fourth year: $35 Fifth year: $35 Sixth year: $35
Cost for six years at $35 per year plus $150 for icons: $360 Cost for six years at $50 per year including all 250 icons: $300
OK, so what's the math telling us? That whether you plan to stay here short or long term, if you want to use up to 250 icons, it's *always* cheaper to buy a premium paid account to do so than to buy a regular paid account and purchase another 150 icons a la carte.
Most RPGers want (and often need to use) a ton of icons, so the above example should cover most of them. For the rest of us, if we need more than 100 but less than 250 icons, we'll need to do the math on an individual basis to see what works best depending on how long we plan on staying here, how many icons we actually need, and whether or not the $50 premium paid account is in fact a better value than purchasing the extra icons we need a la carte.
(Someone needs to make a graph illustrating all of this, btw...*hint hint*)
no subject
Paid account: $25-50 per year, includes 100-250 icon slots, depending on account price
Icons a la carte: $1 per icon *plus* paid account costing $25-50 per year
So I'm a free user and I want 250 icons. (In reality, I'm a paid user and you can take all my icons away if you want - except the one above, which I treasure - I'm just not that into icons.)
I have two options: buy a paid account for $50. Boom! 250 icons are mine. Or buy a paid account for up to $35 per year, and boom! 100 icons are mine.
$50 / 250 = .20 cents an icon
$35 / 100 = .35 cents an icon
Option 1, buy a $50 paid account, gives me 150 more icons at .15 cents less per icon than Option 2. But Option 1 has to be renewed at $50 each year to not lose all but 15 of my icons.
Option 2, buy a $35 paid account, gives me 100 icons at .15 more per icon than Option 1. But if I add on 150 icons at $150, I never have to pay for my extra icon slots again, just my account's default 100 icons.
Total cost for my first year on DW at $35 + $150 for icons: $185
Second year: $35
Third year: $35
Fourth year: $35
Fifth year: $35
Sixth year: $35
Cost for six years at $35 per year plus $150 for icons: $360
Cost for six years at $50 per year including all 250 icons: $300
OK, so what's the math telling us? That whether you plan to stay here short or long term, if you want to use up to 250 icons, it's *always* cheaper to buy a premium paid account to do so than to buy a regular paid account and purchase another 150 icons a la carte.
Most RPGers want (and often need to use) a ton of icons, so the above example should cover most of them. For the rest of us, if we need more than 100 but less than 250 icons, we'll need to do the math on an individual basis to see what works best depending on how long we plan on staying here, how many icons we actually need, and whether or not the $50 premium paid account is in fact a better value than purchasing the extra icons we need a la carte.
(Someone needs to make a graph illustrating all of this, btw...*hint hint*)