2014 Membership - Update from Smed

Discussion in 'News and Announcements' started by Ashlanne, Jan 6, 2014.

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  1. Ashlanne Member

    "Hi everyone,

    Thanks for the feedback. We listened.

    Here are the basics of our revised plan. Please note - we have not had the time to do estimates of the work involved, and also we're continuing to listen. so this isn't baked just yet. Do not expect that this is all going to happen immediately. We plain don't know yet. we're doing that meeting tmw.

    1) We're lowering the price of All Access to $14.99 2) We're going to make it so every subscriber to all our PC games an all access member. Basically there will be one SOE membership for our PC games. Please note there are some minor restrictions around our kids titles (simply put - if you're a 12 year old who signed up for FR you won't have access to the adult games so we'll likely leave the lower priced kids offerings as separate subscriptions for under 12 for the same low prices). 3) We're keeping the 500 SC included with the subscription instead of going to the "pick an item" system. We heard you. You didn't like the change. The only change we are making is that we're now going to make you claim it monthly. You can still hoard it though I realize this is a bit of a pain but honestly it's the best compromise we could come up with that solves the problems I mentioned in the other thread. 4) we are going to be giving our members a 10% discount in our marketplaces. 5) European players - we have an idea on how to include you in this but we need to discuss with our partners.We have a pretty good idea on this though. give us a bit of time to suss this out. 6) Nothing is changing with Player Studio items - you'll still be able to buy them with your 500SC. 7) Console titles - you'll notice I only mentioned the PC titles. Our goal is to include the PS3 and PS4 games that we have, but I want to be up front and say that isn't a done deal.

    In a nutshell that's where our head is at.

    As always your feedback is welcomed. Please do us a big favor and carefully think about #3. Our goal is to give you more value in the subscription to make it more attractive and making it simpler in the process.
    I really feel like we're making a good decision going this route. It makes things simpler and gives more value to our players.

    Thanks

    Smed"

    Originally posted here:http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/1ulcav/moving_forward_with_subscription_plan_changes/

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    * Please keep all discussion regarding the membership changes to this thread, so we can easily monitor all feedback. Thank you in advance!
  2. Brezard New Member

    I was about to reply to a post in the previous thread so will continue here as I believe this is something else that SoE might like to consider.
    It's nice to hear the majority voice being heard. Now let's consider the minority who deserve to be recognised as well :)

    Finally - thank you for listening to us over the past few days. It is great to see such passion about EQII.
  3. redwoodtreesprite Well-Known Member

    Just wondering, will this mean those bonus claim items we can now get from subbing will not be available anymore? Like the horse and such? My husband got them when just subbing to EQ2, but I never got any when all-access.
  4. Carribea Active Member

    thank you for listening to our complaints :rolleyes: and of course thank you very much what you decided on :)
  5. Magic Missiles Active Member

    Thank you Smed!
    Now I am going to buy that unicorn i had my eye on :)
  6. Pippers Active Member

    This is acceptable to our household we will be keeping our accounts gold now.
    Thanks for listening and hopefully good things are in store for our Euro players.
    Now I can go back to finishing Frostfell!
  7. Merriel Well-Known Member

    I was actually just getting ready to post another reply in the last thread, and it had to do with Smed's explanation regarding how accounting works with virtual items. In reading that, I can understand why hoarded SC can be an accounting nightmare, because if taxes are charged to SOE when the customer makes the purchase of items from the marketplace, as opposed to when the customer purchases the SC, tax rates change all the time, usually with tax hikes rather than taxes being lowered. I can understand this issue being a problem. From a reasonable point of view, I can also see how hoarded SC could actually hurt SOE in the long run, even without this tax nightmare, but that is another issue entirely and should have been thought about before implementing a virtual currency into the marketplace to begin with. It also encompasses a much larger customer base than the monthly 'stipend' we get on our gold accounts as it would include all SC purchases that get hoarded.

    I still think, however, as far as EQII goes, it could have been easily resolved by making an in game item that would allow us to use our voucher to 'purchase' a single item equivalent to the 500 SC we received monthly that would convert to EQII only currency (say as in Goblin Gold), that would roll over and could be hoarded. Then, with the voucher, we could purchase our 'item' OR choose to use our voucher on one large item, one or the other...our choice. If we choose to purchase the 'item' that converts our SC to in game currency, then SOE would be taxed on that item, as opposed to the items we purchase from the marketplace with that in game currency, as the single item would be what we elected to spend our voucher on, to allow us the freedom to choose how and when to spend our funds.

    Once converted, it's no longer SC but could be used in lieu of SC in the marketplace, at a 1:1 ratio. It can no longer be used on any other SOE game. With this sort of option, I would have considered the one time use it or lose it voucher, though I still don't like the being required to log in at least once a month to claim it, but I can live with that. Still don't like the 'exclusions' portion and will wait to see what is excluded and what is included. I really think that anything that is to be excluded should just simply be removed from the SC marketplace, period. It still doesn't provide a solution to those who spend real money on SC game cards and such, as I am sure many of them hoard that as well. I have been known to hoard mine for at least a few months at a time, sometimes.

    I'm still not interested in the All Access sub, as I simply won't be playing any other games, as stated previously, but if things go through as proposed in the original post of this thread, I will consider keeping my gold account (it really depends on what's excluded), if the proposal in the original post of this thread does go through. It's nice to see SOE has decided to listen to the uproar, though it seems all of this could have been avoided had they thought it out and come up with a more viable solution, instead of throwing us bones and degrading us as customers.
  8. Torryn Woodsrunner Active Member

    On first read, this seems like a good path toward an acceptable program that can benefit both SOE and the players. I'll feedback more once there's a little more detail, and I can read it fully without my eyes crossing from lack of sleep.

    However, I must say this is a huge improvement over past communications. Still a few hiccups, but still an improvement.
  9. Ainaree Well-Known Member

    Sounds like they shaved $5 off All Access in exchange for us having to do a /claim once a month. I feel like we've come out ahead.
    Slant, Geden, Kurisutaru and 10 others like this.
  10. Fixit Active Member

    This shows us, the consumer, that SOE does read our posts. /applaud.
    Im sure this wont be 100% accepted by many that don't always log in every month but it is a compromise and MUCH better than the other plan. It saves me from canceling my gold accounts.

    May I just make one small suggestion to SOE for the future..... when you have plans to make a change, maybe post the IDEA before making it law? Like polls you have done in the past or ask us for a better alternative to what you propose. It will save you, SOE, and us, the customer, a lot of headaches.

    Again TYVM for letting us keep our 500 sc!
    Galldora, Katra, Karrane and 10 others like this.
  11. TarnaX Active Member

  12. Alenua New Member

    Thank you for listening, it means a lot.
  13. paa5403 New Member

    Ah well, I was actually looking forward to the change. I think what most people had a problem with was having to /claim it each month or lose it. Now we get less value with the 500 SC and having to /claim it or lose it. I had high hopes of getting more of the expensive SC items faster with the item claim way.

    I am saddened to see that so many people were unhappy and now we will still have to /claim but get only 500 SC instead of an item worth up to 2K SC. :(

    /pout

    Anyway to make it optional to go either way, based on each paid members preferences? That in my humble opinion would be the optimal solution.

    Thank you as always for providing an excellent game and support for it too. I have been an EQ addict ever since the orignal EQ hit the stores back in what, 1999? Wow, that is a long time. I hope EQ will be around forever! <3
    Jesse, Cyliena, ShyMidnight and 2 others like this.
  14. Palarran Member

    What will happen to existing $90/year subscriptions?
  15. Amix New Member

    Very let down with the 500 SC, Very. I for one was looking forward to the change. Only one thing may keep me going gold is all access. If this is how gold members are going to be treated please don't change it. Let down, Big time.
  16. Kaeros New Member

    Wow, that's incredible. A bunch of people just b & m'd the entire community out of 4 times the rewards. Way to go forums.

    Personally all the people I play with were pretty hyped about the new version once they said they were looking at bundles and player studio items being back on the table for it.

    Stick to your guns Sony!
  17. Charlice Well-Known Member

    You had just as much opportunity to sing its praises as people did to complain.

    Having 500 SC that can be spent as people wish, that can be carried over, still seems to me to be the better deal than being forced to spend 2000 SC that is limited to certain items, one use only per month, then vanishes.
  18. Maizing Member

    Thanks. I can live with this.

    There was a suggestion in the last thread though about being able to claim the 500 SC through the web site. I think that would be a good idea for those who are unable to log into the game (such as servicemen).
  19. Pippers Active Member

    It was only 4x the reward if everything on the marketplace was 2k sc OR we were allowed to buy more than item.

    I would have been happy with them letting pick ONE 2k item (great for new people or those that can't buy sc often) or picking multiple items up to 500sc total (great for those that have all the big ticket things they want or those that don't use those items)

    Those that thought the 2k one was such a great deal should go take a close look at how many items were actually over the 500sc mark. Even without exclusions the options are actually fairly limited and if you don't want mounts/houses well then you were really out of luck. I did just that and I can tell the results are really limited unless you want 42 mounts then it was a great deal.

    That's just my opinion though, for those that were looking forward to it I wish they had given us the option to pick either or.
  20. Lodrelhai Well-Known Member

    While I think the previous plan would've been better for me personally (able to get items in EQ and EQ2 and DCUO rather than just 500SC between all 3), I do think this plan is better for the majority of subscribers. Even though I often like big-ticket items, in the end there's only so many a person can buy. Sooner or later even I'd be buying 100-300SC items with my 2000SC coupon simply because that'd be all I wanted that month.

    So are all-access members going to have their billing switched to single-game pricing automatically, and if so when should we expect it? And I know I'm being nit-picky, but just want to be sure - does an annual all-access sub go down to the price of a single-game annual sub, or is the price of a single-game annual sub going up to match all-access, or will the sub cost some middle ground?
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