One Week Unlimited Escrow Is Flawed

*When I speak of escrow please assume I am referring to the 1 week unlimited cash cap package.

The escrow system is flawed because you do not unlock the ability to trade money or send money via mail. Meaning that you only have access to the money you have in your escrow at the time and nothing else. Can't ship money from your alts. Can't borrow money from your friends. If you have even 500k of natural escrow reserves as a premium I'd be shocked. When I say "natural" I mean that, you were never legendary at some point and horded lots of money.

Due to these limitations, Many in-game premiums scoff at the idea of using Escrow. I feel in order to offer an sincere alternative option to premiums, buying escrow should unlock the ability to trade and mail raw cash. It could potentially boost the appeal and revenue of the Escrow system as well as increasing the accessibility of items for premiums who are willing to pay for it. Premiums would be able to get money from friends and sell items(outside the broker), while using unlimited escrow.

Just buy Legendary for a month. For the same cost as 3 escrow withdrawals it gives UNLIMITED funds, access to all DLCs, $5 in-store cash, replay tokens, lock-boxes, and ability to just unlock Legends-suits for marks instead of having to buy them.

If you don't like the escrow system, go Legendary. Problem solved.

It's not flawed, it is working as intended. Allow me to explain...

The whole F2P model is built on an addiction philosophy.

Here, have a little taste of our game. You like that don't you? Want more? Sure, you can have more you just need to buy this DLC. Done with that DLC? Sorry bud, you'll need to buy this next DLC if you want more... and maybe an Armory or two to get that GOOD experience... etc.

Or.... you can subscribe.

tl;dr - the whole point of it all is to drive people to subscribe.

Premium has never allowed cash trades, nor should it allow it. Trading cash is a Legendary Perk, and it should stay that way.

1.2 million escrow. What is Legendary?

So your solution is to offer less alternatives for the company to make money instead of more. Nice business model.

It says nothing about being able to trade money on the escrow token. It allows you, KEY WORD HERE- Access to your escrow

Business model?.. . . BUY 5 Playstation 3s then Buy 5 Playstations 4s. Buy 10 80 Inch 3d SONY 4k Flat Screen No bevel. Make ten Accounts. RUN DCUO from a Nuclear reactor you made from 50,000 thrown out coffee machines.

I had noticed last time i got escrow. Then remembered that i had decided to never get escrow again from the time before that. ooops.
1 month subscription>escrow access token. (because i wanted to give an alt cash to buy from AH on the other side, but could not) Maybe next year (whenever the faction AH is merged into one AH), i'll get an escrow token.

I stored $4,000,000 in escrow before becoming legendary.

My solution brings the company in a more reliable source of income. They would much rather get you into a recurring month-to-month subscription that still has access to ala carte items than have you be purely ala carte. If they can get you into a $15-per-month subscription, they can count on your $15 for their budgeting for the month. With pure ala carte, they can make guesses that based on your user history you might spend $10 this month on escrow tokens or you might spend $15. Or you might throw them a curve and not buy any at all.

Their business model pushes for consistency and reliablity of incoming funds, which is why they push to Legendary and give Legendary better benefits. Remember that Legendary STILL can and do buy stuff off the market, just like Premiums. And also remember that some Legendary peeps DO buy the DLC even though they already have access to it, just to further support the game.

The problem is that it makes more sense to only go Legendary every once in a while. You even alluded to that with your post. If we have to have micro-transactions with Legendary anyway, why be Legendary full time? Better to pay for what we need when we need it than get pulled into a system where we get nickel and dimed while also subscribing.

This is partly why I'm hoping the new bosses force a review of how DCUO is monetised. Because the whole Escrow thing is pathetically out of date.

Players should be encouraged to become members because membership is incredible value and suits their playing needs. It shouldn't be the only option if you want to use your in-game money properly which is the case now. That isn't "a la carte", that's a set menu.

I have multiple characters with 2M in escrow at this time, I never amassed more than a few 100k before I ended my subscription.

I implied no such thing. I think you get much more benefit from subscribing.

1) I have access to 16 character slots. You'd have to buy 10 to match me: $50
2) I have more inventory slots. You'll need 5 packs to match: $20
3) I have 36 additional bank slots. You'll need 5 packs to match: $15
4) I have all 12 (tomorrow 13) DLCs. You'll need to buy those: $120
5) I have free Promo Box keys. If you win 20 boxes a month: $20
6) I get 150 replay badges free. You'll need that too: $5
7) I get unlimited cash all month long. You'll need 4 escrow tokens to match: $20
8) I get $5 in Market-cash each month. You'll need to spend that: $5
9) I get to earn Legend-suits instead of buying them. I have earned 9 I'll let you buy the cheapest 9): $80
10) I get unlimited cash and item trades. You don't. No way to fix that.

So......

In order for you to almost-but-not-quite match my gaming experience for one month, you'll have to pay $335.

My legendary costs me $30 / 3-months. So I pay $120 for an entire year of entertainment.

Of course you are welcome to not buy as much inventory, or skip DLCs, or avoid escrow tokens from time to time, or not buy all the Legend-suits, or ignore Promo boxes and lower your price. That's not the point. The point is that as a Legendary Subscriber, I *don't* have to do that.

I would rather devs look for more ways to make legendary appealing than solve premium problems.

The posts in response to my proposal only reaffirm my negative opinion of this forum. WOW is not all i have to say.

So let me get this straight:

For YEARS, premiums have asked for an increased cash cap
For YEARS, legendary members have trolled them. Commonly saying Sub up or shut up(that's trolling) or demanding that they used the escrow system

I make a post explaining to people why the Escrow system isn't a viable alternative to Subbing, and propose a way that it becomes more useful and appealing. I.e. More money for the game. And the first responses I get are EXACTLY the same responses premiums get when they make a cash cap thread. Are you guys kidding?

This community is sickening at times. Everyone cares more about what other people are doing rather than worrying about their selves. Legendary members would rather keep premiums down than work to improve the benefits of legendary. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME ANYONE HAS SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS TO THE LEGENDARY MODEL? When was the last time such a topic was highly discussed and the general community supported it? Please I'll wait.... Legendary members won't even make threads that would improve their own benefits and when one does appear there is never vast support for it by the legendary community. This forum takes more effort in denying cash cap threads (because it would "devalue legendary membership" lol) than they do supporting things that would increase membership value.

Then I come up with this completely reasonable and fair idea, that would turn the Escrow system from the joke it is, into a viable alternative option, and this is my response? Are you serious?

Rant over. I don't even know why I bother with this toxic community.

Sorry if anyone was offended(even if no insults were said)

If someone has already come to the conclusion that they will/can/should not go legendary, and the current escrow system is a joke. What money is being made by the company? Please enlighten me.

What you said is the definition of a bad business plan. YES there is a main source of income. But unless that source of income is non-optional for the consumer, it is stupid to not have viable alternative options.

Business tacticians don't say " OK, we have this one thing. Every thing else is allowed to be crappy. We will live and die by this one source of income!'

Ideally they say " Ok, We have a variety of ways to make money INCLUDING our main source. Increasing the appeal of our options across the board, would net us more money. "

What you described is akin to Microsoft allowing their game consoles to be crappy, so people will be more inclined to by their computers. Lol what? The consumers will just not buy either. Nobody wins.

The simple fact is you cannot alter premium benefits or abilities via marketplace to temporarily act as a legendary player. This could only be made true if devs add tons of new legendary benefits to the game.

Do you understand the definition of an alternative option is.Go make a thread asking for more legendary stuff. Believe me, premiums won't come in and troll you because of it

Also, do you honestly won't me to compose a list of the benefits legendary has gained since the inception of FTP... than compare it the benefits that premiums have (not) gained? I mean especially in the past year (2014), my list will be quite.... lopsided