The charts are a tool, yes.
I suspect when people do the sums with
realistic numbers they will be surprised at just how good a deal the Premium Accounts and Premium Worlds are for those focusing on building worlds for exploration, for the occasional event or even simply to express their own creativity.
Premium Account vs Starter World
Maria Korolov touched on this back in April 2014:
Why Kitely’s $20 plan is the better deal. She rounds up the monthly costs; her "$20 plan" is the Premium Account at $19.95 per month, the "$15 plan" is the fixed-cost Starter World at $14.95 per month, and the "$50 plan" is the Standard World at $49.95.
Maria wrote:If you’re going to be a Kitely customer, then go for the $20 plan. Most people don’t get enough traffic on their regions to worry about. At 20 cents an hour, billed by the minute, it’s not going to add up fast, especially since Kitely automatically boots people off if they’re inactive.
If it turns out that a particular region is very busy, move it to the $15 a month plan, or the $50 plan if the region is both busy and very crowded.
Let's estimate the cross-over price points in terms of Regular/HG visitor hours.
For the cost of a Starter World ($14.95) and using the maximum KC discount rate, a Premium Account holder can pay for 4485 Regular/HG visitor inworld minutes, or
74.75 hours. The other KC/$ rates yield 62.29 and 49.83 Regular/HG visitor inworld hours per month.
For the cost of a Standard World ($49.95), a Premium Account holder can pay for 14,985 Regular/HG visitor inworld minutes, or
249.75 hours. The other KC/$ rates give 208.125 and 166.50 Regular/HG visitor inworld hours per month.
Premium Account vs Standard World
In the above I haven't factored in the monthly cost of the Premium Account. So let's do a comparison between a Premium Account holder running a 2x2 Premium World ($19.95 per month plus Regular/HG visitor inworld time) and a Regular Account holder with a 2x2 Standard World ($49.95 per month).
The price difference is $30 per month, or 9000 Regular/HG visitor minutes, or
150 hours when buying KC at the maximum discount rate (it's 125 hours or 100 hours at the other KC/$ rates).
Premium Account vs Advanced World
Now let's compare a Premium Account holder running a 4x4 Premium World ($19.95 plus world cost of 11x30x10 KC = $11, totalling $30.95 per month, plus Regular/HG visitor inworld time) and a Regular Account holder with a 4x4 Advanced World ($99.95 per month). (Note: In this comparison I'm ignoring the fact that Advanced Worlds get more computing power than the other types.)
The price difference is $69 per month, or 20,700 Regular/HG visitor minutes, or
345 hours when buying KC at the maximum discount rate (it's 287.5 hours or 230 hours at the other KC/$ rates).