The Next Step: Open Episodes Should Be The Norm

It is time for this game to evolve. To get with the changing times. The old ways are just not as lucrative(my opinion) and the fact that most FTP games are moving away from them is a sign(my evidence).

Open Episodes should be the new Model

Things that should be considered/understood before reading further:

• Perception is important. Legendary players should gain a new benefit if this was to be implemented. I say perception is important because obviously legendary access is still very beneficial in comparison to other access levels, but history shows that if you give one group of players something, you have to give another group something or risk backlash.
• The loot lockout times for the base game (before the DLCS begin) should stay the same. This way, FTP and premium players have a taste of what buying a DLC or becoming legendary would be like regarding loot lockouts
• This needs to be CLEARLY communicated in-game. Buy episodes or legendary if you want to decrease loot lockout times.

Reasons why Open episodes should be the new model:

Splitting up your player base stifles the community
There's probably a very good reason why information flow is non existent in this game. Namely information regarding how to play. I think the reason is because the players who need that information are literally not able to play with the players who have that information. If all of the knowledgeable top tier players are at end-game content, They never get a chance to mingle and spread knowledge to those that do not have access to that content. Then suddenly those FTP players buy end-game DLCs and have no idea what they are doing because they never got the chance to play with someone who knew what they were doing.

Splitting up your player base decreases the amount of players available for a given content.
There is a reason why first person shooters and other multiplayer games like OverWatch, are moving away from exclusive "maps". Because it decreases player traffic. It decreases the player pool. Queue times are elongated for virtually no reason as a result. Since we already split Powers, Legend Characters, and Player Features from DLCs, it reduces the complexity of implementing this new model.

Replay Badges will regain desirability
Right now replay badges are used by people, who want to reach in-game faster(in a timely fashion), and by those who want to help friends but already did the content. But by creating open episodes you create a whole new market for Replay Badges. Targeting FTP and Premium players who don't wish to wait for the extended loot lockout times on content. It is clear that the devs are already trying to force people to buy replay badges for the events. Well here is a better way that doesn't scream shady and desperate.

Impatience and inconvenience drive sales more than inaccessibility
When something is simply inaccessible, it often leads to the "I don't need it" mentality. And the mentality is even easier to reach when the player in question never participated in the content they are missing. But having to wait an extended loot lockout time period to get into content is an inconvenience. And it's been proven that inconvenience is an extremely powerful tool in sales. Players would rather spend money to make something more convenient than to buy something new! This will be empowered by the fact that the original content will have the original loot lockout times, and since the new players will be use to waiting a day for an alert, they will be extremely tempted to purchase Replay Badges or DLCs when they reach the content that have extended wait times.

May Decrease need to push for unpopular ways of monetization
We can all see the new methods the developers have tried to increase money. Some of the methods growing increasingly unpopular. Perhaps the surge of replay badge sales can settle things?


There is a few more reason I could think of, but that is enough to start out. Tell me what you think!

Because legendary players need more to complain about.

If they do this then Legendary should never get loot locked in content they've surpassed.

Legendary benefits right?

I replied in red. You point is a good one

I like how he used perception. We should do it.

Also not against this. Having the latest episode not part of it. Maybe have it always 6 months behind.

6 months behind seems cool !

interesting concept

I do actually think all access of memberships need to be re-looked at and brought up to snuff in some capacity to make them all feel worthwhile (free is technically fine as is, but will get to that more in a second, the other two should get some buffs, perhaps not many but some), however I don't think they will go this route "full time" because it probably would end up not netting them any money.

If Open Episodes lasted all the time, and the only real thing is "lock outs", than you would of course expect them to make up the lost of dlc sales through an increase of replay badge sales, right? Problem is they can't "trick" folks into the stabilizer game with replay badges... stabilizers "work" because you can get one for a buck... sure you can get a bigger pack and save money.. but bare minimum you can get away with buying just one. Raids however are expensive (which would be the main ones folks would try to reset) and you would at least need to spend $5 bucks to reset one raid. If you go "whole hog" and spend ten bucks you can reset maybe four raids (it's either four or three) but if you're spending that much money, just to speed up long lock outs, you might as fork another five bucks and go legendary.

This is just one of many such scenarios that I could spin as why they won't go ahead and make it open all the time. I expect to see more promotions like this in the future mind you, I just don't see how it realistically could be good on their end to do such a thing.

I as a loyal legendary member approve to open the episodes permanent to everyone with different loot lock timers ofcourse ,i believe buying replay badges is more lucrative than buying episodes anyway.

I´m a Legendary member aswell, and i support Open Episodes for everyone. Of course that some perks need to be looked at, but more players is always a good thing in my book.

First of all let's look at exactly what "open season" actually was/is. Because anyone out there wandering around under the misguided perception it was a "GIFT" that DBG gave to the F2P and Premium players is sadly mistaken. It was a straight up marketing ploy to accomplish two things..


1. Allow F2P to play for several months with access to anything and everything and advance their characters as high as possible in that time frame.. and then POOF open season is over and you suddenly have a character way above the limits of you status that can't earn a single mark playing the limited content now available. So you either go premium and start buying up a bunch of DLCs or you break down and go legendary and start renting the game by the month. Don't think that' true? Then explain why beginning on Jan 26 through February 6th there are "special" deals available allowing players to purchase DLCs for "up t0 66% off.

2. Now with the Premiums the result of open season was pretty much the same.. let them get their characters into newer higher tier content and then.. AGAIN offer them a special deal to buy those new DLCs they need because their alts are now have CR so high they can't get marks from the DLCs they currently own or "hopefully" convince them to just sub up and avoid the constant solo dlc purchases and cash cap.

Will DBG do it again? Probably but they have enough REVAMPING going on at the moment with the entire dev team working to accomplish Stats matter so i seriously doubt they want the added work load of making Open Season year round and then having to find some NEW benefit to appease the legendary and potentially need to go in and recode half the game to make THAT a reality. Remember the Dev team we have now is SMALL and over worked as it is.

Now allow me to explain MY own particular situation to explain why i have a little better handle on this than some (or not). I have two accounts on DCUO one is my Legendary and I pay by the quarter for access to the whole game. The other is my Premium account which I created a while back when the last of my league mates quit the game. WHY? Simple. I have the ability to log on BOTH accounts at the same time which allows me to invite any new alts I create into my one man league without having to find someone i can BRIDE into doing me a "favor" and joining the league just long enough to invite my "new" alt.

So yes I own a premium account and I have two alts in that account that currently are above CR 100. The one character I actually got there the old fashion way by simply playing the game and getting better armor until he reached CR 104 during open season. The second I cheated with a bit and used my 1 free upgrade to CR 100 with 60 SP to move a second alt up to that range as wel.

Now YESTERDAY when open season ended and the "special deals" were in place in the market I went in with credit card in hand and $40 later I had access to DLC 1-26, lair access, utility belt access and access to all 14 available power sets. now I am not a fool and realize that any premium that has been in that status for years and bought each and every single one of those DLCs at full price paid significantly more than $40 but here's the thing.. At this moment a F2P out there that has never spent a dime on this game can do the exact same thing I just did yesterday and go from very limited access to access to basically the entire game for under $50.

No do YOU honestly think DBG is going to do anything to eliminate the possibility that those players may open up their wallets. for the first time EVER 9remember we are talking F2P) and just allow them to suddenly have access to all content all the time?

not just in old content but we should get to run raids free 2-3x a week without having to use replays.

This is a good thread.

I support your perception. I am currently a legendary player, but by the end of the month, I will buy the episodes that have seemed good to me. I believe that all these years I did not return to DCUO because I simply could not play it without knowing if those episodes were worth it or not. Now with the episodes open I was able to judge which ones were worth buying for a casual player like me.

Give legendary members a full stabilizer for running the daily mission and leave open episodes for premium and FTP.

Just my 2 cents

Can't really argue with any of this. Well thought out. Just a couple of points.

1, would the devs be worried this might cause people to drop their sub?

2, in pursuit of them attempting to get F2P/Premiums to spend (more) money, I wouldn't want anything being implemented which 'forced' Legendary members to spend more

Free players who benefit from open episodes are still in a disadvantage compared to a legendary due to longer loot lockout timers. Though the last episode should always be excluded so it has a driving sale for those who make it up to the point and missing that one last step to get in touch with the rest of the endgame.

remove loot locks for legendary ppl new or old content, up LP and replays given, inventory/bank/broker/shared spaces given, and IMO that'd be worth it.

I support open episodes for everyone. However I do believe Legendary members need a new perk to compensate.

Keep the 20% off for legendary and I'll consider letting the freemiums keep open episodes

they could not do this and would not do this. then everyone would become legendary which would be great in my eyes more subs, but to them, they would not make anything of replays if there was no loot locks.

either way, I think open episodes should stay, I'm a legendary as well. Give us a perk added to compensate. It has to be worth while. Maybe not locking legendary members from elite raids right after we completed the regular one