YouPlayorWePay goes free with a new plan
by Mike Schramm 
Feb 17th 2009 at 3:00PM
As promised, YouPlayorWePay has returned, and they've got a whole new plan in place. Originally, as we reported earlier, they wanted to create a site where players would pay a fee for the opportunity to get reimbursed for lost playtime in World of Warcraft, but after outcries from the community, they have outlined a whole slew of changes on the site.And the biggest of these is that the service is now free. Instead of charging users, they plan to support a limited number of registrants (for March, when they begin, they're opening up 150 spots), and when downtime or queues occur for those registrants, they'll be given "YPOWP credits," which apparently will be used either towards compensation or towards "contest prizes," which will update every month. They've got some new stats on the front page, too, including the realms with the most calculated downtime, and how many compensation and contest prizes they've given out every month.
Very interesting. From the beginning, the founders have made it clear that they didn't want to scam anyone (they told us as much in our interview), and they now say that not one person has been charged a cent for compensation. This new model, however, seems much more fair -- there's no cost up front for people who register, even if the "compensation" might not be worth as much as the cash they originally promised. What do you think of the new plan?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Realm Status, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, Contests
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Blarger Feb 17th 2009 3:03PM
LOLOLOLOLOLOL
cjshrader Feb 17th 2009 3:09PM
You've made a well-thought-out point, I really can't argue it further.
Mr Magoo Feb 17th 2009 7:26PM
I think his points was actually thought out a LOT more than their business plan...
Look to them either going out of business if they were stupid enough to rack up a lot of debt for this venture, or simply not making any money if they were not.
perderedeus Feb 17th 2009 3:08PM
It's still a strange business model, but at least this one can be more easily supported with ad revenue alone. Someone charging for "downtime insurance" when they are not directly providing "uptime assurance" (i.e. whoever maintains the datacenters) themselves is... well......
Heck, even a datacenter operator can say they provide 99.999% uptime (power, internet, backups), but the servers may still be 'down' because of Blizzard's patches.
Euripides Feb 17th 2009 3:09PM
Why are you still writing about these clowns? They have no legitimate business plan and fill no niche in a market. All they have is (apparently) the marketing knowhow to get their names put in one of the larger warcraft blogs.
If I come up with some hair-brained idea for a wow website, will you write about it too?
Kvothe Feb 17th 2009 4:32PM
As stupid as their first plan was, they were obviously not actually trying to scam anybody. Since their first plan exploded (as nearly everybody predicted) they seem to have gone with a safer, better route. While I personally am not going to use their service, I am watching them with interest to see how they do with their new, less failing business model.
Euripides Feb 17th 2009 4:37PM
I didn't say I thought they are scamming, I just think they have a stupid idea that's only splash is the fact that WOWInsider keeps writing about them.
Psy Feb 18th 2009 12:40AM
And that's exactly why their name is big, that's why people know about them. Cause WoW Insider advertised them.
Wish they'd do that for my WoW site lol.
rosencratz Feb 18th 2009 5:55AM
Wowinsider also keeps writing about machinma, the guild, Guild drama, Diablo 2 and starcraft as well as other things.
It's wow related it has a chance of hitting the blog and i'm suprised this baffles you. Additionally once WoWinsider writes about something(Which you know they already have on this subject) then obviously, chances are, if there is any new information regarding the item they'll write about it again with the new news.
It suprises me that you need to ask why they need to write about it.
Magma Feb 17th 2009 3:12PM
Stop being assholes in the comments. Assholes.
Mark Feb 17th 2009 3:25PM
Pot, meet Kettle.
Magma Feb 17th 2009 3:26PM
Yeah, nice try Mark. Really, it was.
FireStar Feb 17th 2009 3:34PM
Mark has a great point. Have you ever looked at your comment history? You're a major douche.
Magma Feb 17th 2009 3:38PM
Yeah, too bad the difference is I only act like that when people have it coming. People say this is a scam for no reason. Saying Pot meet kettle was completely useless and only made further argument.
Jamesisgreat Feb 17th 2009 4:21PM
@ firestar - so reading your post, I just had to read his comment history - I think 'major douche' is an understatement!
But why so touchy about this wowsurance thing Magma? Did you buy shares in it or something?
Euripides Feb 17th 2009 4:27PM
I'm really surprised by the level of flamehate being spewed around on this topic- several posters realy REALLY care about this company being mocked!
Now if WOWInsider staff would kindly check to see if the IPs are leading to the company in question, we could see if it's generic basement trollism, or some sort of troll-shill.
Magma Feb 17th 2009 4:33PM
Maybe instead of pointing out comments, you should fact check my post for inaccuracies. Oh wait, you'd rather just downrate someone who disagrees.
cowlik Feb 17th 2009 3:17PM
This stinks of phishing...
gus Feb 17th 2009 7:21PM
This stinks of the the Schramm getting a fat paycheck from these we pay you play SCAM artists.
As if the advertisements plastered all over WI weren't enough. No respectable wow blog would post about these scammers (unless of course your last name is schramm and you get paid a nice fat chunk of cash for it)
Naix Feb 17th 2009 3:24PM
WTF is wrong with them! This service should be paid for!