2014 Membership Update - News from Smed!

Hello all!

We wanted to let you know that we collected a metric ton of feedback and suggestions regarding the membership update - which we announced on Friday, far in advance of the February implementation date. Thank you one and all for your input!
Today, Smed posted to PS2 Reddit to discuss the changes, your concerns and feedback, along with his personal response. We wanted to share the information across all games at Smed's recommendation, because it applies to all of our titles. Smed's original Reddit post can be found here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/1ukdxb/regarding_the_changes_to_our_subscription_plans/

Please continue to contribute to the discussion as we evolve our services!
~Brasse


"Hello everyone,

I hope you all had a Happy New Year! we're here back working hard to make cool stuff.
I wanted to give a little more insight into our thinking regarding the changes to the upcoming subscription plan.
I have been personally reading every post I can find about it and I understand there is a lot of FUD out there around it. So let me clear some things up and let you in on some of our thinking process.
Goals

The goals of our plan are very simple. Let players buy anything they want up to 2000 SC. It's fair to say that there aren't a lot of high priced items in the Planetside 2 shop, but that's kind of a good thing too. It's just when you look at it from the perspective of someone who's plan is changing they are right to ask "why is this good for me?".
We are discussing the feedback we've been getting and we are making some decisions regarding this today. Particularly around Player Studio items (yeah that was a bad idea) and we're talking about bundles as well. I promise that we are listening.

Why did we make this change? There were a few reasons really. First and foremost we wanted to let players get some of the larger items on the marketplace. People complain the other way on this all the time - they complain that the 500SC isn't enough for them to buy enough stuff. So we thought this would be a positive change.

Second - it helps us deal with some internal issues regarding accrual of balances of SC for people who aren't playing or spending. There are a lot of people who play and have SC in their wallets and don't spend it ever.. this accrues over time and it's a problem. Before the jaded among you cry out that this is really the most important reason - please don't judge just yet. It's actually not but I don't want to hide the fact that it's a part of it.

Third - we have a problem with a disparity between our console titles (which can't use Station Cash) and our PC Games. We can't do the same kind of promotions as easily on the PS3 and PS4. We're a lot more limited because we can't use Station Cash on there. So when we have a 3x sale on SC we have to do something different for our console titles. It's a pain in the neck to deal with this.

Forth - And this is very important -
We are considering (and are likely going to move forward with) a plan that means if you subscribe to one of our games you are a subscriber to all our games (this applies to PC titles only btw).. all for the current $14.99 a month. That's a benefit most companies simply can't offer because they don't have our portfolio of games. The goal would be to let you pick an item in each game you play. Some of you might say "well who cares..I only play Planetside 2. How is that a benefit to me?" My answer is simple - we've got a great lineup of games, some of which aren't announced yet that cater to a lot of players. We have EQN and EQNL coming along with other..... games... that PS2 players might just like

I will do my best to keep up with this thread and answer questions as much as I can (a bit AMA style).
Smed"

In case it's confusing, other games do not have a loyalty point system. Many of those other games look to what DCUO is implementing as the more ideal option. They're being presented with the ability to claim one item a month from the marketplace valued up to 2000 SC. If that one item only costs 100 SC, well that's it...that's your item. SOE thinks of this as 1 free item. Players think of this as how they need to be getting 2000 SC worth of value each month or they're losing out. A rub with this is that PlanetSide 2 doesn't have a single item in the marketplace for over 1000 SC.

There also was a Player Studio exemption. Player Studio is where players get to make items for the game using SOE tools and be paid for how those items sell. Originally, SOE wasn't going to let Player Studio items be claimed because the author wouldn't be compensated. They're revisiting that. Because of the DC License and Warner Brothers approval processes, Player Studio doesn't apply to DCUO anyway.

So essentially this is just another snub to the console players.

Account entitlements for console players are managed through the PSN. SCEA controls that. My assumption is that SCEA hasn't provided SOE the tools to cross-link entitlements like that even if they wanted to.

Me likey.

Sounds like there's going to be a lot of value attached to being Legendary for PC players...and not necessarily in DCUO.

Except that if they do this, we can purchase one $10 item per month instead of the one $10 item every TWO months that we're at now. I think if they go forward with the game-share plan on the PC alongside this, then it's going to be a total win for gamers.

"The goals of our plan are very simple. Let players buy anything they want up to 2000 SC."
so once a month we can buy something worth 2000 SC... but if something is worth 2001 SC it is forever out or our grasp unless we buy extra sc?
Also will we be able to top up the purchase ie"2001 sc items will cost an extra 1sc or have to buy the full 2001sc?"

That doesn't apply to DCUO because we're still getting 500 LP a month.

Nevermind

How would this work with PSG members?

With all due respect, as you are much more versed in the cross platform titles, and how those member benefits work, while I am only a console player of DCUO.

I think console players are frustrated in the membership rewards available to PC players as a whole and feel that they are given a shaft. Half of the half off sales PC players have, that are not even half off. Rewards benefits that are not even available to console players. Some, like myself, have been legendary subscribers since the launch of this game, yet we do not own the purchase of a single DLC even though we have bought that ten times over in the past three years. And legendary memberships are designed to force you to be legendary than to provide any specific benefit. Dont even get me started on lockboxes or that we comprise the heavy bulk of the population of players but are unable to contribute to testing feedback.

While I understand that across SOE titles there are worse cases, here on the DCUO forums I am wiling to bet most console players feel short changed when compared to the PC counterparts.

So out of curiosity Mepps, why was this put on the DCUO forums if it seems as though 99% of it doesn't apply to us?
Seriously, not being a smart butt or anything. Am curious if perhaps I misinterpreted something that makes the announcement more beneficial or informative to DCUO players.

So, this update is to keep the PC players and the PS players on the same "playing field". So, will the Station Cash that PC players have right now be converted to Loyalty points come the update?

I really don't care for the politics of the matter. We both play the same game, PC/console. Time and again pc has received more sales and benefits than the higher population console base. Yet again, we are snubbed.

No, SC is its own thing for the marketplace now and you keep whatever you have right now while also being able to buy more in the future.

When the change comes you'll only earn Loyalty points to be spent on the loyalty vendor.

As anybody who has ever seen me posts knows, I'm one extreme to the other with the way DCUO is handled. But this actually is in NO way a rub to console players. It is putting the PC players on the same footing as the console players in regards to the loyalty system. So for every single FB or Thread post of the "OMG CONSOLES PLAYERS SCREWED AGAIN" posts that fill up with every SC sale, well thats gone and out the window now.

The only way that consoles get remotely hurt is by the monthly sub plan. But seeing as how the All Access Pass is already a better deal than paying a 14.99 on a PS system, and then another 14.99 on a PC this isnt really anything new either. I for one dropped my console sub after getting (admittedly) over excited about some changes to the game that I still do not entirely agree with. I went back to EQ2. Looked at the All Access Pass, and said why not get two of those so my kids and I can finally play MMO's together at a cheaper cost, and a month after cooling off find myself and my kids back in DCUO only on the PC side of things.

So again, no rubs to anybody. All in all this is a move in a very positive direction and will hopefully open all of the SOE titles to more options to the players so we do not feel like one is being favored over others, or that all marketplace items are an attempt to nickle and dime us to death. I think its fair to say that game companies can see the advantage of a monthly sub, and by SOE tossing that one sub out to cover their entire portfolio creates a huge amount of customer loyalty which they are compensating with a HUGE free market item system.

All in all I can see this as only a good thing.

Actually, I'm a console player. I share the desire to have such great deals come our way too.

The cross-platform entitlement is definitely in favor of PC...no doubt about that. I'm sure SOE would like to be able to offer that. On the other hand, the transition of PC players to loyalty points kinda levels the playing field in terms of sales. I don't think it's a story of console players being frustrated about not getting the great PC sales. I think it's going to be a story of PC players frustrated that they're not going to be living in a double/triple SC, bonus SC gamecard, half off marketplace sale environment anymore. At least 2013 seemed to move in that direction.