Clearly I didn't explain my particular situation very well. And as with anyone, my own situation is the only one I can see and understand.
Currently I play in 4 worlds (including w1) with premium - premium has already started to lapse in one of them and will lapse in all but w1 as time goes by (and don't, for a minute, make the mistake of assuming that w1 is immune to this change - that day will come soon enough).
I work on the road all day, Monday through Friday, and can never predict how long my day will be until that morning, as I get new work assignments every morning between 7 and 8 am. On a busy day the morning is very hectic, scheduling jobs and getting ready, so I try to schedule my TW jobs the night before. I don't usually have full energy the night before, but try to get at least close to it, by the time I log off at around midnight. So to put it all in perspective, my day could be said to begin at midnight with 8 hours of sleep.
With premium I can schedule 8 slots; here is how a typical day would go.
With 2-hour jobs:
1) 8 hours of sleep
2) Prayer
3) 2-hour job
4) 2-hour job
5) 2-hour job
6) 2-hour job
7) 2-hour job
8) 8 hours of sleep
So on a pretty busy day, which happens maybe twice a week on average, my last job would end at around 6:15 pm (I won't try to factor in travel time between jobs) and I might get home around 10:30 or 11:00 pm. That last 8 hours of sleep would only be half over, I would at any rate have full energy again, since the work was scheduled before the 8 hour sleep period that ended in the morning, so I could do at least 1 more 2-hour job at night before repeating the cycle.
On average I get home between 6 and 8 pm, so the last 8-our sleep slot would either just be starting or 2 hours or so over, and I could do 2, maybe 3 jobs before going to bed.
With 1-hour jobs:
1) 8 hours of sleep
2) Prayer
3) 1-hour job
4) 1-hour job
5) 1-hour job
6) 1-hour job
7) 1-hour job
8) 8 hours of sleep
Now my day also begins around midnight with 8 hours of sleep; but the last 1-hour job ends at 1:15 pm, and the last 8-hour sleep slot ends around 9:15. Now, when I get home around 11, I've been awake - wherever I am - for close to 2 hours and have 5 jobs-worth of pay on me, which at this point would typically totals $2,000 or more. Just one dueling loss and I lose 1/3 of it; at that point I can expect another duel from the same person, and most likely a KO, which loses the rest of it, and puts me to sleep for another 8 hours, so when I do log in, I get to watch and wait until i have enough energy to do a job - but most probably, I'd just log off for the night and wait until morning to schedule the next day's work.
on top of that, i would quickly become known as an easy target for exp and $$, so my only option would be to go townless. Which means I would have to change the way I play anyway, so it's not an "option" at all, but an necessity brought on by the change.
Now, since I can only explain how this change affects me and my gameplay,just like anybody else is limited to their own perspective, I can begin the non-premium part of my post by stating that, since I have no desire to pay for a considerable reduction in my enjoyment of the game, it is a fact that premium will be lapsing in all the worlds where I play - except for w1, until they make these changes there as well. So my future in 3 of 4 worlds will be playing without any premium.
I didn't mind paying for premium when I was having a great time - even though money has been tight for the past 2 years, with a part-time job w/ no benefits and 2 kids in college in the fall - but this change made it pretty easy to give it up.
Anyway, here's how a 3-slot day would shake out for me with non-premium:
1) 8 hours of sleep
2) 1-hour job
3) 8 hours of sleep
Possibly this:
1) 8 hours of sleep
2) 1-hour job
3a) in the morning slot 1 will empty after sleep is over
3b) 1-hour job
4) 8 hours of sleep
So now with the 3 slots available in non-premium - when premium used to lapse by accident I would not be able to schedule anything past 3 slots - I can work a maximum of 2 jobs - if I have a chance to log in in the morning to schedule a second one before work, which I can't always do - and then a final 8 hours of sleep.
Now, never mind whether or not I schedule the 2 jobs the night before, and then schedule the last 8 hours of work in the morning when I log in - or if I schedule the sleep in slot 3 the night before, and in the morning I delete sleep, add a second job, and then add the sleep to slot 3. That would just muddy the waters a bit.
The point is that I would only be safely able to work for 2 hours at most on any given weekday. And even then, sleep would end at around 6 pm, before I would ever be able to log in even on a short work day. So in order to make safe what little work pay I could collect, I'd either have to take chances or work 1 job and 2 8-hour sleep slots. Not very productive.
And I have absolutely NO access to the game during the day - for me it is an impossibility. So that is the extremely limited gameplay I am looking at at this point.
I also understand quite clearly 2 realities about all this:
1) there are probably very few players who have my kind of daily RL schedule and who are inconvenienced to the extent that I am by the change to 1-hour jobs
2) I am, after all, only one person, providing the premium pay of only one small fraction of the premium-buying populace. So whether I stay or go, it doesn't really matter in the general scheme of things. I'm only stating my case - I have no expectation whatsoever that Innogames will change back to 2-hour jobs.
But, to paraphrase Dylan Thomas, I will not go gentle into that good night.
** As to my describing some players as "sitting in front of the computer all day" - what I mean is this: I don't envision more than a few players literally sitting in front of their computer, frenetically scheduling job after job or duel after duel in multiple worlds.
But what I mostly mean by that description is people who, for example, have an office job where access to the game is readily available at any time of day. I've known a number of people, at this game and others, who are constantly checking whatever online game they play innumerable times every day. They get work done too, but know when a job is due to end and can bring up the game window easily enough whenever they need to in order to keep track of things and make whatever changes are needed. This is what I meant. Much the same as people who are constantly checking Facebook - either on their computer or on their phone.
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At any rate, it totally escapes me how it is better to use up all your energy in half the time as before?