2014 Membership - Update from Smed

You are going to make us claim it? MAKE US claim it? Oh, that is nice. Something else to do. So in effect getting what we were paying before we are going to be MADE to claim what we used to get?...... Why? Just so you hope that a bunch of us will forget to CLAIM it a few or more times in a year, and in that way ... you don't have to give it out. Nice, like the way you think of us. Guess what guys, you forget to 'claim' it and you loose it. Good Grief, Really? I want my 500 SC put into my Marketplace account as it was, SO that I can buy my digital loot goodies as I like. Hoarding it? it's a digital number in a database, we hogging up to many 1's n' 0's? Like it is bad to HOARD ( SAVE ) up your SC? Till a time when I want to buy some stuff, or decorate my new Bee Hive Bixie home? Or splurge on a new mount? Shame on me. Come on, do not change that part. I have almost 1,200 days played on EQ1. Do I have time to play your entire digital PC collection on games? What will the Claim item be named? Can you put in a timer/reminder to help us conform to the MAKE US CLAIM it? Awe, come on, have a heart! Even the Grinch has a heart! PLEASE !! O M G !!

They haven't told us how the claiming will work, it could be as simple as just logging in to each game you play or it could be you just have to go to the marketplace once each month.

We already have to go to LoN to get our free LoN packs each month, I would imagine this would be the same thing, no actually clicking anything once you get there, just a pop up to tell you, you have received it.

OK how about for the monthly STATION cash you get a choice to either claim an item up to 2k or claim your 500 monthly station cash? also those that pay for their eq account with kronos should get this option also Kronos cost more then paying the sub soo they should be consider the same thank you

I'm usually one who gets angry and goes off half-cocked, so I guess I'll be the voice of reason here. I only read page 1 and page 10, so forgive me if this is mostly a repeat.

1. I've never seen so many people, take so many aspects of one post, completely out of context. The majority of people screamed bloody murder about having to switch to the 1 purchase per month up to 2k sc points, so they reversed it back to the old way. I still have no concept of why they care even a little bit how people spend their free gift....or if they use it immediately each month. It's free...it's a gift...so who cares <shrug>...but obviously they do. At worst, we're gonna have to actually log into our account once per month <on each gold account>, in order to now receive the 500 points (for reoccurring accounts, of course), and possibly click a button. Please stop making this out like its a huge investment of time. This should take no more than 30 seconds of your life, and if you think that is too much of a burden, then you have no business playing this game anyway. I agree with the idea of giving the player a choice between either alternative. I don't think it would be a huge impact on Sony's resources to code in a clicky option...but regardless what they decide to do, they listened to the majority (MAJOR majority), and cancelled the changes with a TINY TINY TINY modification....so quit complaining. PLEASE!!

2. The price alteration was for ALL ACCESS subscriptions. Please read, people. Your regular subscription to individual games was never even mentioned, so why on earth would you even THINK it would be changed in any way?? You are causing panic over a total misconception, without any merit on which to base your unsubstantiated claims! In other words....Stop inventing and start reading!

3. In regards to those writing about not being able to buy certain items with the 500 bucks from now on....Again....where are you coming up with these idea's??? The ONLY mention of ANY restrictions by Smed, was to say that there WONT BE ANY! His mention of the player studio stuff, was in regards to the 2k/one purchase per month that got cancelled, in which there were going to be some restrictions. He merely stated that those restrictions would no longer be in effect. Y'all are paranoid! lol In FACT....there is a BONUS that will now be offered: Smed said that there will be a 10% across the board discount in the station cash store for gold members (unless I read that incorrectly). So lets be thankful for that as well.

4.Is anyone noticing that the only ones who seem to be thankful (there are a few exceptions), and not throwing a fit, are those who preferred the new changes (the 2k/once per month deal)? Almost to a person, those who have made comments that I have read, that were kind and thankful, were those who are saying "well..I liked the new idea, but I was in the minority...but thanks for listening to us Sony" <obviously not an exact quote, but rather a synopsis of the accumulative ideals of like minded members whose posts I read>. Just something I noticed

Something for Sony: While I got the overall meaning of what you were saying, Smed, there were vague statements that obviously caused great confusion to some. You might want to be more concise the next time! As for something I have to agree on with some who posted on here: Not giving the 500 points to those who either have to, or chose to pay for their memberships with Krono's, SC cards or non reoccurring memberships is really lame. Why does SOE care HOW they get their money, as long as its going into their coffers?? It makes no sense! In fact....those paying with the alternative method's are spending MORE money than those with long term/reoccurring memberships! C'mon...If its going to be a gift, let it be a gift...with a thank you for your support! Not a tool to trap people into feeding SOE long term. It's a lame and antiquated ideal, that just doesn't apply in today's MMO concepts of FTP/full content access. Let a thank you gift be a thank you gift. No strings attached!
Along those same lines: Krono's absolutely should be allowed to be used for SC point purchases as well. There is no logical reason for them not to be. Regardless of how someone obtains the krono, someone at some point paid Sony more for that Krono, than a 15 dollar SC card would cost them. You made and marketed Krono's to slow down off-site sales of platinum, and indirectly to give players a safe way to use their platinum to pay for gold access.....which was a great move on your part. However, creating these limitations in their usage, has no reasonable purpose. PLEASE let use use them for station cash purchases!!! Thank you for listening,
SF101.

4.

I just read most of this and I'm baffled that people cannot comprehend why 500sc per month and not being forced to spend it is better than 2000sc you have to spend on one item.

There are almost no items priced at 2000SC in the marketplace. They are either lower or higher. You couldn't make the difference if you got something higher. As for getting something lower, you would lose the SC. Also, there were many restrictions on what you could and couldn't get with the 2000SC. Merc slots, hero's forge, big bags...That was all OFF THE MENU. You will be able to get much more items with the 500sc per month. The only things close to the price of the 2000sec per month were some mounts and how many do you need? Then there was one xp potion. One miserable potion per month. Most people don't need xp anymore. What they need is content from SoE. As for the currency to pay for your merc (Bayle's marks or whatever), most people have millions of plat. It would be 2000sc for 20 000 plat. What a terrible deal. I don't even think my merc costs me that much in a month and I'm on almost all the time.

With most of the items before under 500sc, you will get much more for your money. Yes, you may want some 2000sc item and have to save up for it like you have before. What's the big deal about it?> Over time, you will end up with more SC. Yes you may have to wait a bit longer for that one big purchase but you would end up wasting so much SC with the 2000sc on 1 item only per momth (with some fairly strict item choices).

Then there's the people who are all about it being free and telling others not to co,plain and when they find out that it's going to essentially stay the same way, they start complaining. They even complain about people with a non reoccurring sub having the possibility of obtaining the 500SC as part of membership even if said membership isn't reoccurring. Because you know...how others get 500sc affects their EQ life SOOOO much lol

Finally, why are people asking SoE to let them choose monthly between the 2k on 1 item and the 500sc? They would lose money that way. You'd buy anything close to 2k with the 2k on 1 item until you were done and then you could buy a ton of smaller items with the 500sc. They need to sell SC somehow. If people only needed SC for items over 2k that they didn't want to save up on, their finances would suffer. It's one or the other and the majority has spoken. Not the vocal majority but people who hasn't used the forums until then. Most people were angry over the 2k change. Sure, some who may have planned something very specific like 2k bayle marks every month are losing. They are a very small minority however. Most people spend a little here and a little there. I'm not sure why some people feel entitled to tell these people to go buy SC for their smaller purchases. Use your 500SC for smaller purchases, save it for the bigger purchase that you want or go buy currency if it's not a big deal to you (it clearly isn't since you're telling others to do it without any worries) and buy those bigger items.

Let's face it. A ton of new people were upset enough about this to come post here asking for their 500sc per month back. Since it's been given to them, most of them went silent again as they got what they wanted. Now it's mainly 5-10 loud people who are unhappy. Most of you post on every issues and seem to like to go against the general public opinion. In this case, you lost. The 500sc is here to stay with some changes but the 2k isn't going in. Deal with it and move on. That's what most of you said to people complaining about the 2k at first. Listen to your own advice.

Better or worse depends entirely on how you would spend it. "Would" does depends on "could", so of course if there were too many restrictions it could be bad. Not sure where you're getting your information from about what was specifically restricted. The original statement was "Nearly all items within the games’ Marketplace will be available for this selection. Players Studio, bundles and additional exclusions may apply. ". But there are quite a lot of items priced between 500 and 2K SC. Certainly shouldn't be hard to imagine someone being able to come out ahead. Personally, I could spend the next 4 years worth or so just buying the polymorph wands and mounts already on the market. Since I don't maintain a Gold membership all the time, that 4 years would be more like 8-12 years.

The majority does certainly seem to prefer the 500/month, so I have no problem with it. But I do get a little annoyed at all the narrow-minded people suggesting that someone would have to be stupid to prefer the 2K proposal.

Actually, the way the proposed change is worded, it seems as though there will no longer be subscriptions for individual games, which is in fact a change. Wondering about the future of promotional plans was a valid concern.

The info on restricted items was given in the course of the multiple threads. It got confusing as it wasn't just 1 thread with specific info from SoE at the beginning.,..It was a bit of info here....response to a question there...Quite a few restrictions were mentioned.

The polymorph tend to be 700sc per item. With 2 months at 500 sc, you get one and have 300sec saved into your next one. With 2k, you get one per month and ''wasted'' 1300sc. The next month you can afford another at 700sc again but so can you with the 500+300sc=800sc. You have your 100 sc and then you get your 500 and then you have to wait another month. Then you're at 1100sc...It's not always one per month but on average you're able to keep more SC. Especially after you've bought everything that you wanted which was a bit more expensive. I LOVE illusions and have A LOT of them but some of them I'm not going to buy...Like female/male erudite pirate for example...one out of 2 is enough. They aren't all that interesting illusions to me. Same for the mounts. Some I find ugly and pretty much everyone has their preferences., Some people won't even bother getting those items. They like to get 50sc, 100 sc items...the small housing type of items or the petamorphs. By voting in the 2k per month for 1 item, we'd be excluding these people greatly. Sure, some people can find it better for themselves to get the 2k. They are a small minority but they do exist. Still, a lot of them were the ones who kept telling people not to complain about any changes because it was free and now it's a bit ironic to see them change their tune. Just goes to show you people's true colors sometimes are not what we'd think. If you put everything together and think about it, the 500sc includes more people. It's the way to go even if a few would prefer something else

So what about those of us who have purchased a yearly sub, will we have a yearly "All Access" pass to play any of the S.O.E. games? (referring to the non-youth/kids games)

And does this "All access" pass pertain to EQN as well ?

So...people need to read...it is only for those folks that are currently ALL ACCESS that are getting a change to the price of the subscription? Really?

While the format of the "Smed" comment is horrible...it sure looks like #1 there is saying a lower price for ALL ACCESS and then #2 says that all PC games will be ALL ACCESS members.

Reading...a fundamental life skill...critical. Please, again, someone with more than a sixth grade reading skill level help confirm the text that says "every subscriber to all our PC games an(sic) all access member." means what it says...or to clarify..."Basically there will be one SOE membership for our PC games." means it includes all PC games...making all subscriptions fall into the ALL ACCESS subscription format? (Of course there is the exception of youth games...but that part is written in English and hard to comprehend.)

Sure the "Smed" post is horrible to read...and is nearly impossible to know what the hell "make it so every subscriber to all our PC games an all access member" really means...so lets run wild with it is "only current" ALL ACCESS subscriptions...since folks like to invent things right? You are causing panic over a total misconception, without any merit on which to base your unsubstantiated claims! In other words....Stop inventing and start reading!

Since EQ Casual will be free to play it would make sense it is part of the All Access system right? So sure...seems logical.

Want to come visit that land in Florida?

Well, is it really folks not liking 2k/month and want 500/month? The numbers are not the issue it would seem....it is how those numbers are managed.

The 500/month can be accumulated to become 2k in 4 months...or 6k in 12 months, etc. and folks can use that amount to buy any number of items... So, as it is now...500SC would get you 5 x Frostfell Peppermint Candy Fence Section (player studio item) or 10 x Shrooms of Sights or 2 x Potion of Companion's Amnesia potions. With the change it would have been one Frostfell Peppermint Candy Fence Section (if Player Studio items were allowed) or 1 Shrooms of Sights or 1 Potion of Companion's Amnesia potion. Clearly, there is a huge difference in the use of the number.

Also, having someone save up 10000 SC (20 months?) to be able to buy a Storm Break Booster Box isn't an option with the 2k/month proposal...but if someone wants to pay for an account for 20 months and use the SC earned for that item it is an option with 500/month.

The 2k/month was (poorly) designed...and limited the amount of possible purchases with the 2k. This limitation in how to use the 2k/month seemed to be the key problem for folks...not the number (2000) itself. The proposal may have been received better if it had been simply stated that each month recurring subscriptions can purchase one item 'free' and not list a number limit. This is of course no better than the proposal but it eliminates the questions of how to leverage the number to its full potential.

The proposal makes it clear that SOE doesn't respect the communities ability to do math and think independently. Perhaps some in the community felt SOE was testing to see if the community was stupid?

Hmm.. perhaps it's just for monthly accounts then not for yearly ones? idk, never had a yearly sub, and a LONG time ago I was paying for 3 months but this was before SC was even introduced.

your kidding right is it really that hard to take the minute to type /claim and accept your 500sc each month then hoard the 500sc

the New Game Experience for all accounts for all games should not have a Station Cash incentive.

NGE bronze free to play.

NGE silver 5 USD one time buy in.

NGE gold accounts paid subscription model.

This is a good time for SOE to update the back bone of the commerce servers before EQN goes live.

SOE really needs to make some fundamental commerce changes that will secure and simplifies long term commerce functions and the value of accounts.

Marketing the games is your least best function in group speak at SOE!!!!

Simple commerce functions and LONG TERM game value; the community needs to be able to start and stop and start and stop the games easy as logging on the game server.

The efficiency of hardware and the expectations of players has gone up and up and up, please do not shatter EQN.

Google and Facebook and the NSA save everything they can mess with, SOE save our accounts.

ONCE upon a time SOE made bad decisions about accounts terms and EULA and storage of account data? NOW account data is the only asset SOE has and SOE must assign the most value to each account, all accounts should be forever and forever accounts because the name of the game is EVERQUEST!

Lets say that the player accounts are one rail and the station cash store is the other rail, do not mess with the third rail, the power of the community.

The player accounts on one server. The commerce player accounts on one server. Then the in game server where we play on and on. Three distinct servers working for the whole community. Necessary for a modern game worlds long term success.

Player accounts and Station Cash must be converted to a catalog system fully indexed for the game world.

You may also like to consult with Feldon and MasterCosmo, they are smart fellows; it would be valuable to solicit their opinions and observations.

... You must have misunderstood what I was saying, as I have no problem with the intended change. I was simply replying to someone who didn't understand how it was going to work.

As mentioned in earlier threads on this, not everyone can log in each month. Some of them are deployed active duty military. They can login if they aren't deployed.

And there was no package deal at first. At first, you only could buy one item with the 2k SC. I don't such expensive items. I buy lots of cheap 100SC items, gear for instance. Sometimes I buy Adventure III.

It would be added value if 1) no one didn't have to log in to get it each month, it accumulated as before when it was 500SC, 2) we could buy multiple items up to a total of 2k SC if it stayed at 'you must spend it each month'.

Hence why I said the majority seems to prefer it, so I have no problem...

I understand fine why some people prefer the 500/month, and the limitations proposed on the 2K plan. Why can't you understand how someone could prefer the 2K without assuming they must be stupid?

2x skystriders @ 1950/ea = 3900. 3x LON tourney packs @ 1000/ea. = 3000. 1x Dragonfly mount = 1450. 6x Polymorph wands @ 750/ea. = 3000. Total over 12 months = 11350.

Assuming all those items were available it's considerably more than 6K/year. Those are just some examples. There's around 50 items in the market right now that I'd personally like in that 500-2000 range, and who knows what might be added in the next few years. Maybe, if those items were to go on sale, and I happened to catch the sale, and I had the accumulated SC at the time to take advantage, I could match the 2K plan...but I would prefer just being able to pick one each month without having to worry about watching for deals. I have somewhat less interest in many of the cheaper items, since I've already bought a lot that I did want. And I do occasionally purchase SC cards anyway, so I could still get some if I wanted.

Again, I don't have any problem with 500/month. It's what most people want and I've been happy with it all this time. I'm not complaining about the plan, just about being called stupid.

[edit]6x 750 = 4500. So 12850 total. So I'd need better than 1/2 off sales to match it...

Thanks for listening to your customer base, and for the time your spending re-evaluating and accommodating. I can't think of any other gaming company that shows they care as much about their customer base as this gesture has.

For those who have "no interest what so ever" in the rest of SOE's titles, that's like turning down the rest of the free buffet because you like the ice cream machine best. Me personally, i'm going to sample the cake and pie, maybe have some of the steak. There are some great titles in there, and on those days between spawns, go check them out. You may be pleasantly surprised. It costs you nothing but time and hard drive space.

I don't understand the concept behind if you don't claim it you don't get it. That doesn't change it from a tax perspective. Its still an open flow system. The only thing I see is that it frustrates customers. Something I can understand only a corporate accountant would think is a good thing, but still leaves me boggled.