2014 Membership Benefit Update

Define 'people'. I have never in my life 'dropped' $50 casually on any game. Ever. Some people do live on a budget, and many of those don't allow for casual spending.

Subscribers are paying $15. a month. Using a repetitive hammer to try to knock people down to your own personal experience and perspective will not expand their income or reduce their bills.

I think I'm in the minority that is just delighted that it applies to all membership forms since I never got a monthly 500 SC.

Going to echo some others and just wonder what this change does to prices of items moving forward on the market, many of which are already priced too high and I never buy at the regular price. I really can't see SOE keeping prices as they are and giving away items to gold members every month at current prices. Honestly I can't believe you can price a lot of the items any higher and expect to see sales increase, but will see what they do.

To the people saying 'it's only $5, why you whining, do the math'. It was $5 that I could spend as I wished and it accumulated, it did not automagically disappear.
It covered everything in the $hop, it was not restricted. That same 'it's omg just $5' could be used for impulse purchases such as rezzes, masters blah blah.

So really do the math on the so called $20. We can only use it for ONE transaction and it does NOT accumulate.
It is limited to ... ? I'm guessing it excludes almost anything I wish to use it for. Seriously, how many ugly mounts can one person have? Do you see value in using the lol$20 for one rez? Are rezzes even included?
Suddenly that measly $5 seems much more valuable than the $20 don't ya think? Do that math on that.

It's not a deal breaker for me. I'll continue to pay a sub to ensure I don't get pita pop up messages. I'm glad the tokens, even though prices were originally set with double in mind, are staying as is. Honestly, does anyone really think it was going away in February though?

What I will no longer do is use the shop for, anything. So SoE you can have my $15 a month but don't expect one cent more.

A better option may of been to offer Gold subscribers a permanent discount to ALL SHOP ITEMS. ALL OF THEM. NO RESTRICTIONS. ... except maybe Player Studio.

Here's a question: will the item bought with the 2000SC "voucher" or whatever it is be able to be gifted?

Ok I had better things to do but chose to do this instead. Maybe this will help other decide how this affects them. For me it's still a no-go. If something I like is added to shop I buy it, with both free and added SC. I have every house, mount, armor and bag I want for my toons. I also have little hope that anything I really want going forward will meet the restrictions placed on the vouchers.

It does appear that this is geared to new players, someone new to the game will look at all those shiney houses and mounts and think they are making out like a bandit.

Here's what I found in current SC shop that may meet the requirements (as we know them now) broken up by category and sc cost. I have only included items at or over 500 since buying any one item under that amount is less value than what we get now.

For 500 sc........................501-1000k sc ....................................1001k - 1999k sc............................... 2k
House: 2 items...................... 8.............................................................. 17 ...........................................0
Furniture: 0........................... 3 (only if "sets" included) ..........................0............................................ 0
Appearance gear: 0.............18 (if crates/sets included)......................... 19 (if crates/sets included) .....0
Cloaks: 3.............................. 8............................................................... 0.............................................. 0
Pets: 0.................................. 1............................................................... 0............................................... 0
Appear wings: 0................... 2................................................................ 0.............................................. 0
Shields: 1.............................. 2................................................................ 0............................................ 0
Weapons: 3........................... 2............................................................... 0............................................. 0
Bags: 4..................................... 7.............................................................. 0........................................... 0
Potions: .0............................... 1............................................................... 0........................................... 0
LON (if included): 0................ 1+13 tourney packs IF included................... 0........................................... 0
Mounts: 0............................... 16................................................................ 42.............................................. 0
Services: 0............................... 3.................................................................. 2............................................. 1
Frostfell (if holidays included): 1.. 0............................................................. 9 (5 "sets", 1 house, 4 mounts) 0

Totals:
For 500 sc 14 items (13 if holiday is excluded)
501-1k sc 85 items (65 if furniture "sets", LON and services excluded)
1001k-1999k 90 items (78 if services and holiday items excluded)

This is assuming that armor "sets/crates" count as one item.

So there is really only ONE item atm that cost 2k and that would be the aa bauble that a lot of us wouldn't be surprised to see excluded.
Granted quite a few items cost 1950 so are so close to 2k to trivial but the bottom line is unless you want a lot of mounts you won't be spending all 2k and I'm sure that's intentional.
I'm not going to count up the total # of sc items to items see what percentage is covered by this new value someone else can do that if they want. I can tell you the vast majority of non PS items are 50-100sc so if I want those this decreases my gold sub value it does not increase it (in my opinion).

Most are taking a guess that it will not be. We will just have to wait for more information however. Im sure the "EQ2 Team" is still discussing matters of how this will all work for us as they most likely do not have everything finalized.

Ainaree, I once happily paid for gold for years (all access on one, regular monthly subs on a few others), not because I boxed (never have), but because it was a family game here. Details spared on catastrophic medical expenses and lifestyle change, and after the hack, I eventually moved to kronos. I never put a credit card back on, so I lost my 500 SC, even though my personal subscription was paid ahead for months. I was really bummed about that, but when there was a double or triple sale, I scrimped to take advantage of that, all the while marveling at the ingenuity of 'selling' something as transient and ephemeral as pixels.

Yes, there is cost involved for soe to have the marketplace, but seriously, the cost doesn't begin to compare to filling a physical department store with real merchandise that requires a building, utilities, employees, and merchandise that had to be created in factories somewhere (inventory which had to be purchased, shipped etc.).

The happier you make people, the more they want to spend. What word do you see emphasized non-stop in advertising for almost anything? Value.

Value implies understanding that the customer deserves something worthwhile. Value implies mutual respect of a sort. Value implies a fair deal for both parties. Let a customer base build on the belief that they are valued, and there will be very good profit for the company that understands this. Let a customer base feel deceived, compromise their trust, and customers will begin to weigh and reconsider where to spend their money.

Now, add in the current state of the economy for so many, and people who were casual about certain expenditures are putting the non-essentials on the balance scale to decide which are a personal priority. A smart company would be appealing to almost all of this customer base. I'm suspecting that some of the policy and decision makers live a lifestyle of dropping money casually, and probably live in a much more privileged world than a great percentage of their customers. That's all well and good, until their perspective loses the ability to recognize, understand, and respect the vast difference for others who live on substantially less.

The bottom line is not to dangle a carrot under a contract, then bite off 1/3 of it, and expect the customer to not mind. It doesn't matter what numbers you put to the bite in the carrot.

My playing style is literally geared around being able to get the kronos so the family play style can continue, and to support guild members and newcomers in game. I support the noobies because I want them to have a good first impression of the game so the game can grow, be profitable for soe, and continue on. And because it's fun. I was hoping in time to revert my personal account to a recurring sub, and was planning to do so, but I won't if the announced change becomes implemented.

I think one huge factor being missed here is brand loyalty. That is being hugely damaged, and needs to be seriously addressed before the exponential cost begins to roll. MMO's will continue to appear, and if one or more serious competitive in quality and content arrive, what would keep a nice percentage of customers with soe?

A sense of being valued.

Ditto. I had two gold accounts, now I have just one, and I'm only hanging onto that one because I feel I owe it to my guild as a guild leader to keep going with it. For now.

So Sony, you just ... lost future revenue.

I buy almost exclusively small items with SC, so I don't like this change. I would rather have seen increased prices and/or the "kickback" reduced to smaller than 500. It seems quite possible that this is intended to address the large "liability" represented by SC credits accumulating in accounts. If that's the underlying bean-counter problem driving this, then I think a better solution would be a cap on the amount of SC you can accumulate due to the kickback. Or another compromise would be to make the 500 a use-it-or-lose it per month, but without restrictions on how it is spent. In any case, the proposed change seems way too harsh and definitely lowers the value of being gold for me.

Something else came to my attention and I'm passing it on so Radarx can pass it up to the powers that be.
Maybe this will help them understand how presentation can make a big difference in future decisions.

IF SOE had come and said

"Hey we have to make some changes to how we reward our gold subs and we can no longer give you 500sc a month but will try to make it up in other ways"

I would have taken this much better.....depending on what else they came up with I may still have canceled my gold status but I would NOT have gotten annoyed enough to come here and post on the forums.

What pushed me over that edge was the "lets spins this as better and hope they bite approach"

Either the folks at SOE are so delusional they really thought this was an improvement.......
OR
They really thought we'd be dumb enough to fall for it.

And that is the slap in the face that pissed me and I think a lot of others off about it.

For the majority you are not giving us something better....please don't tell us you are. You have the right to change it and we may not like it but treat us like children or idiots and that's a whole different game.

Spoke too soon.... would not let me cancel. This is what I got when trying to cancel my station pass under My Account:

They've either locked us out of cancelling or so many people are cancelling it can't handle it...

Or they are getting denial of service attacks again.

Apologies if this has been posted already - I've done my best to keep up and remember what info has been provided - but it might help clarify whether or not the monthly SC500 sticks around for the remainder of your subscription period once you've cancelled Gold. When cancelling a pop-up box comes up saying you forfeit the 500. And in the subsequent cancellation confirmation email:

"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)."

So take note - "with immediate effect" your SC500 will stop, no matter how long the remainder of your sub lasts. I do not know if that message has always been a part of the cancellation process or if it's brand new.

That said - the reason for my cancellation? It's not so much about the SC500 (which was nice but not a deal breaker for me). It's the feeling of being slowly but surely let down. EQ2 has been a great stress reliever for me and one of the few luxuries I've allowed myself to regularly pay for - random SC cards included. But the way the recent announcement was handled (despite the sudden band-aid "OMG we better make doubles permanent") has made me grumpy. Perhaps I should have waited this out - yet I do not feel regret.

This wasn't a light decision for me. Let me tell you, I freaking love this game. I'm in almost every day even if it's just a few minutes here and there to totter around one of my houses. I love crafting, I love harvesting, I love the in-game holidays, I love exploring, I love cluttering up my homes, I love seeing what other players do with theirs, I love the world, I love the colors, I love how EQ2 players are typically more refined, creative and helpful than I've seen in other games, and I love my Frostfell rainbows! It is very, very difficult for me to cancel Gold on EQ2. I may upgrade again at some point as I do want to support the game I love, but I don't see that happening until I start to feel better about it as a whole. For now I'll play at Silver with what I have and keep an ear to the ground.

i really think you guys need to leave the system as it is, you can tell us that we are getting a better value all you want, all i see is a way for you guys to make us pay more money,...

Snowmoon,

Your post made me so sad. I wish I could hug you. The feeling of disappointment in your post really struck a deep chord and resonated with me!

You boiled it down nicely too, that it's the slow and steady let down feeling that I know you feel, that so many here have expressed.

Soe, we all want to support the game we love, so why make that so hard? Why make it feel like money wasted?

Could there not be a poll on benefits for gold? Or some choices? Some options that gold members can pick every month? Say one high priced item or double xp for three days, or x amount of plat in game?

If the 500 a month is an impossible thing, say so. Flat out. If items won't be available for the 2000 sc, lay it out. But never again present us with a half baked plan and then go silent on the details. It's unfair to people to do that. It's insensitive. An apology at the least, is in order.

Unless you want people to stop playing, that is. If so, carry on. You're doing great.

No regret here either. Converting my 2nd gold account to FTP will be easy to ignore. My main's sub account... we'll just have to wait and see. When I cut the strings on that one, I will be done, and moving on to other things. Started playing EQ in 1999 and EQ2 in 2004. DEFINITELY would not have been getting value for both still being gold.

Sony is definitely making it much easier to cut the string.

Having read additional comments and looked back at the original post and thought about my own reaction, I am convinced that a lot (if not most) of the negative feeling here is generated by the presentation of this as "better value" when it is abundantly clear that it is not. The crowd you are dealing with here does not appreciate marketing spin.

On the other hand, to those of you cancelling or threatening to cancel your gold sub: do you remember that there was a time (a long time) when there was no SC bonus or any other percs for what was then a standard subscription? Cancelling your sub is just participating in the race to the bottom started by lower quality MMOs in the market. It should be clear to anyone paying attention that SOE is facing some very real revenue challenges. If you like the game and you can afford it, it would be a good idea to support it. Otherwise, we're gonna end up either with no game at all or weird stuff like in-game RL product placements.