Customer Service Announcement: Gold Membership

Ok that is completely understandable. Station cash has been in Everquest and Everquest 2 since early 09 i believe. So it took over 4 years to figure out this was an issue? With that how is giving 500 sc to a reoccurring account affected by taxes? Is it not considered part of the product that we purchase and pay taxes on at the time we pay for subscriptions? I wouldnt think the government can tax a vitural currency that within a game. It would be like taxing you if you had a house set up in eq. I am not understand this. Maybe just poor timing or something else big is about to change?

It booted everyone from the game except maybe some folks on FV. It doesn't speak well to your infrastructure that a DDOS attack on a PS2 game crashed all of SOE's properties.

Husband points out that they only pay taxes on actual, RL, money they take in. What they charge for virtual goods is completely irrelevant. Bonus pixels that are rewards are not taxable in any way, shape or form.

You would THINK that the security of them having credit cards on file, being charged automatically, would be worth something to a business.

"This email is to confirm your recent Membership cancellation.
As a result of this cancellation, your access to exclusive Members Only content will be removed after the end of your Membership cycle. In addition, and with immediate effect, you will no longer receive SC500 per month (granted for remaining on an auto-renew plan)."

Guess it doesn't matter then that I canceled my gold membership since you were taking the 500 SC away anyways? Only way to take a stand on this is with my wallet...not sure if I will continue to play, but I will not be a paying Gold Member any longer, I know that much.

Having read most of the 1,100 + comments here and on the EQ2 board, probably around 99.9% of which are critical of this change, may I suggest the way to move this forward is for SOE to announce that:-

1. Existing subscriptions will not be affected by this change until February 2014 or the next renewal date of the subscription, whichever is the later. Note that this point is probably unnecessary if the third point below is accepted.

2. The monthly allowance of 2000 SC should be for a single transaction (i.e. shopping cart), not a single item, purchase.

3. If said monthly allowance is not spent in any particular month, then 500 SC from that allowance will be carried forward, the balance being forfeited.

4. Before the change is formally introduced to the Live servers, a full list of exempt items and services will be published on the forum and time allowed for reasonable feedback.

5. A firm commitment will be given prior to the introduction of the change that no existing and allowed items/services currently priced below 2000 SC will have their prices raised above 2000 SC until at least 12 months after the introduction of the change, and no initially allowed items will be made exempt in that period.

Others may wish to add their own suggestions, please feel free to do so, but I think these points summarise the main concerns that virtually all of those commenting on the respective forums and ingame have raised.

Is this per character in each game? I use station cash to purchase items for numerous characters. For example the levi-cloud. Would this count as a monthly selection for one toon or for each toon. Given the difference in it's cost now and its new auto-inflated value of 2000 for my monthly selection, I am a bit peeve, to say the least.

Allowing me the choice of how to save and spend my 500 monthly (as a benefit of guaranteeing you are paid in advance by my recurring subscription) is better than saying I have a use it or lose is option for one item up to a cost of 2000. This is not improvement simply because the numbers used are bigger for the negative effect than currently allowed for the positive arrangement.

Reminds me of a story that ends with, "Don't ... down my back and call it rain."

Let's see.
Gold accounts using the recurring subscription option have access to various bonus perks including but not limited to full access to the game and all the in-game items.

In addition, currently a paid recurring subscription receives the bonus perk of 500 SC monthly. One can purchase anywhere from one individual item to approximately 10 individual items each month with that 500SC or one can accumulate the 500SC over time and purchase one or more higher priced items.

Effective in February a paid recurring subscription receives a bonus perk of 2000SC each month on a Use it or Lose it basis which may be used to purchase exactly ONE item costing up to 2000SC.

And people still seem to believe that those are raindrops falling on their heads?!

@Seffrid Sounds good to me. I can go along with that.

Liability? Whose? For what? Tax problems? Unless I am vastly mistaken, as of now, neither the U.S. Tax Code, nor that of the State of California, nor that of the City and County of San Diego has provisions which provide for the taxation of virtual currencies! This is a good thing since, at last check, someone calculated the virtual economy of EverQuest to rank somewhere in the top ten real world economies. While Sony/SoE does have a tax liability pertaining to any REAL monies they collect for their various products/services, which should come as no surprise to them one would hope, this offering, that of granting 500SC monthly to recurring subscription accounts, has been in effect since the Free to Play option was introduced.and they are just now discovering some liability and tax problems? Really?

If so, then they need better tax accountants, but I doubt the claim as well.

Ideally we have to provide items that are of value to everyone. I've got the LoN thing noted down and will be bringing that feedback. If there are other specific items you think might be interesting in that range that's also good feedback to bring forward. I'll also certainly mention the shopping cart idea.

Just wanted to say I'm not a fan of this either. I have 4 recurring yearly gold accounts, I've played on and off for over 12 years. Right now I haven't played for a couple months, but I keep my accounts active because I like the fact that I'm accumulating things like loyalty points and SC. I like to save up my SC as well then buy things like housing items and armor ornaments.

I'm not going to threaten to leave the game, but something like this may make me take the time to log into my accounts and cancel them when I know I'm taking a break.

I for one think this stinks. I am seriously considering not renewing my recurring gold membership. They need to go back to the drawing board on this.

When I renewed my yearly subscription I agreed to pay a yearly fee that INCLUDED 500SC a month, I have 323 days left on my subscription. I expect to have my 500SC a month or the option to opt out of the limit of one purchase a month up that can cost up to 2000sc.

SOE should have informed me and all who have recurring memberships of this change so we could evaluate if we wanted to renew our yearly subscriptions

I'm guessing the taxation issue comes from having to pay the artists of the Player Studio submissions real money for items purchased with the free SC.

So can't hoard my free SC for big bags, lame. Losing options is not in any way CS.

Make item where you can transform an item to a hairloom item. Only way to get it is to "buy" it from the 2k thing you get each month. As soon you transfered it over it becomes normal again.

That doesn't add up though when one considers that Player Studio items along with every other item sold in the Marketplace can be and has been purchased with what might also be called free or discounted Station Cash since the introduction of double or triple Station Cash promotions. How does one differentiate between which particular SC pixel was purchased normally, that is during a non-promotional event at full price, or was purchased during a promotional event at a discounted price or provided free via the allocation to those with recurring subscriptions? Station Cash itself isn't money. It's a virtual currency. Further, when Sony/SoE devised and inaugurated Player Studio and the entrance of those created items into the game, do you really think that their accountants hadn't taken into consideration all the ins and outs when they prepared the contracts used to pay the persons whose items had been approved and then marketed via the Marketplace?

it appears they are not going to include player studio items in the 2000 sc deal so that would cut out getting a lot of the nicer small items for houses & characters ;(

quote from the email - "Player Studio items, bundles and additional exclusions may apply"
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I'm new(ish) to these parts, but this seems rather short-sighted to me. I purchased EQ when SOE launched the most recent expansion. I also bought a 1-year subscription at that time. (I should be seeing my 4th month of aggregate SC kicking in any day now.) Part of my decision to do those two things was largely based off of the 500 SC that was a "bonus" for recurring memberships.

Now SOE is changing the script, and the cost/value is no longer something I see as commensurate. In my decision to give SOE any real world money, I decided that the 500 SC per month that could be stored up and used once or twice a years finally made the investment worth it. Now I am being told that I am going to have to live with something significantly less.

It may have been a "free bonus", but that bonus was largely responsible for the decision to buy, and I am certain I am not the only one who feels this way. Without the bonus, the cost is weighing very heavily in favour of cancelling my recurring subscription as the total value is no longer there.