2014 Membership Benefit Update

I have to agree with some of the other members, this new SC thing where you can buy a single item up to 2000 sc is not interesting to me. I like it better having my 500sc a month, and when I find something I wish to get I can get it. Most of the time, depends on which toon I'm playing with, needs the special potions and stuff. Occasionally I may find an outfit I like, but most of it is spent on consumables. So no, I'm not happy about the change.

I'm not fond of this either. I usually buy a bunch of small things with my 500sc. or save it for something bigger I want.

Currently my SC use is gifting a friend something small for their birthday, or buying a tracking scroll, etc. Now if I want such items, I will have to add my own purchased SC for the little things I used monthly.. Oh wait, I bet that's what they want

I do not normally post but this has my attention. I have been defending EQ2 and SOE on their changes for a while now but this one has me pausing. I love being a gold member even when free members got more things added, I felt I was helping the game with 15 dollars a month but this... honestly I am not happy at all.

If you allow us to have more then ONE item that equals up to 2000sc then I will be breathing better. Not all of us like to buy one darn thing and that's it, I get you want to push more money out of our pockets but this is not the way to do it.

If this must continue then I honestly ask that you look into allow us to have a few more like 2 or 3 or even 4 items that equal up to the amount instead of just ONE! I enjoyed using the 500 I got to buy a few really nice items or saving it up in order to go for a bigger item later on.

I will be watching this closely and it will the outcome will greatly affect if I wish to continue to be gold member anymore.

If this was an ADDITIONAL perk instead of a replacement perk, I can see a lot of gold members getting behind this.

But it seems a vast majority of SC users use their SC to buy low-price items, so this is obviously not a good deal to them.

If SOE wishes to be generous, I propose to make it an additional perk; if not, at least let players choose between the 500sc or a coupon for up to 2k sc each month.

Station cash is the most valuable asset in SOE games. It's universal and can be used to purchase anything for sale on the marketplace, in any SOE games, player made or not. This change is a bad deal for subscribers, I hope people are smart enough to see it.

By the way, they're making this change to ALL SOE games. This means they want to get rid of giving players Station Cash, in preparation for Everquest Landmark/EQN launch later. Playing SOE games just got more expensive, because you'll for sure spend more money on station cash in the future.

Speak with your wallet, cancel subscription if you don't like this change. I see the same disappointment on Planetside 2 forums where they also announced this.

The trick I think that is an issue for the 500SC/Month is ultimately it inflates the SC Market. If perhaps they limited it to 500 SC/Month up to 2000 SC it would encourage small purchases and then offered this one-time claim as a perk to add I think it could balance out for both parties.

As much as I understand the motivations, this will turn what was a nice and occasionally useful perk into something nearly useless, especially with the restrictions being mentioned so far. So yeah, thumbs down

Must say this year is already turning out to be a big year for companies dressing up a cutback as some kind of a good thing. SOE has no doubt calculated that by doing this, we would have to spend more $$ on SC if we kept spending SC the same ways we do now, so it would be a way to increase $$ input to them. Shame SOE, for dressing this up as a good thing when your real goal is to get more $$ in the end - shame.

The fact that they are excluding player studio items tell you this is all done in preparation for their EQ Landmark launch....where player studio & money exchanges will be huge cash cows for SOE.

I would feel cheated each time I bought something for less than 2,000 SC. I know that isn't true, but it still feels as though I threw away whatever was not spent. For instance, most prestige houses cost 1,500 SC or less. Mounts cost 1,950 SC or less, most a lot less. The main things I would buy are bundles of housing stuff and you say these are going to be excluded. I get that Player Studio items would be excluded, but why bundles when most of them are way less than 2,000 SC. This change seems to be designed to tick off gold subscribers rather than lure silver players into subscribing. You really need to rethink this if you want your customer base to be happy.

Lots of things sound good at first glance but reveal themselves as less than desirable after further thought. One example is an across the board percentage based wage raise. It sounds fair but eventually it leads to greater inequality between low wage folks and high wage folks, often at what appears to be an exponential difference after several years of compounding.

SOE's hope is that no one will use that 2k option, or forget to spend it, instead of hoarding up the 500 a month for a big spending spree later. By not allowing us to spend the 2k on player made items means real money needs to be paid to get those items, especially as SOE needs to pay the creators in actual cash. Also by allowing only one choice, yes, if you want more than one of whatever it is, more SC will need to be purchased. They already know there are only so many houses and mounts people will want to buy and are counting on the desirability of those smaller and player made items to entice the purchase of station cash.

While I can understand why they are making the change, as a loyal player since launch, I can certainly say that I feel this is a stupid move as far as customer relations are concerned.

This is actually pretty disgraceful on the part of Sony - it's clearly a moneyspinner for them. I went gold a few weeks ago and thought the 500 station cash was a decent incentive for paying a regular membership fee - like others have mentioned above I was intending to both save to buy bigger items (eg a prestige home) and then on smaller items. To be forced to buy something I might not necessarily want or need is really unacceptable. If I'd known Sony was going to introduce this change, I never would have signed up for gold.

I do not like this change either.

It seems like an underhanded way of just ensuring we don't save up SC. And to make us feel better about removing the ability to save SC, we get this 2000SC grant on 1 item. So a quick glance on the surface would lead you to think "hey, 4 times the usual SC every month, woohoo!!!". However, that's not the case since you'll rarely get the benefit of that.

NOW, if they gave us 2000 SC to spend ANYWAY we wanted every month, that would be cool. If I wanted to buy 20 separate purchases of 100 SC each, I would like that. But this "1 item" nonsense is just an insult. I feel like SOE is doing something on my leg and calling it rain......

This is kinda a major bummer for me... I like to save up my pennies every month that I get as a gold member to get cool things like the Bristlebane mount and nifty things like that, that often when they show up on the marketplace are valued much higher than the allotment offered here... I don't tend to buy the cheaper items I go for houses, occasionally mounts and rarely outfit sets. So based on my marketplace spending and the contingency of it possibly being restricted to some items? I understand we aren't really entitled to the SC we currently get as gold members but it is a very nice perk and I feel it's being replaced with something somewhat subpar. Likely this is because it makes more sense for Sony monetarily to cut us back from this influx of station cash but, not sure the change will encourage subscribers to stick with gold or all access. Anyway wanted to give my two cents. (Dude I actually setup my forum account after waaay too many years)

Also I like to ask, 2 questions here....

1: What happens to the sc we already have saved up now?

2: How will the system know what is 2ksc given and the sc we have bought. Say I get 10dollars worth and i spend only 100 of that then I get my 2ksc does that mean it all goes away after a month?

I am curious how it works but still not loving this. I am talking with all my friends and we are already talking of letting go of gold. We get this is needed for other reasons but the ONE item only is what is stopping us from completely wanting anything to do this change. If we are going to spend 15 dollars a month we will spend it where we feel it will have the most value, it use to be here but that no longer is looking to be the case.

I really dislike the whole 'Use it or Lose it' mindset. I like saving my SC so I can take my time deciding what to get, rather than being forced to fit an exact timeframe. Especially since there are always new things coming out.

I'm not a fan of this change. Buying multiple things for 500sc when *I* want to is a much better choice than one item 'up-to' 2000sc but only if you buy it before date X.

Really good points LunaMoon.
A further question - why is no-one from Sony answering all these questions?

I don't believe that anything we say will change their minds since this is apparently happening SOE wide. I do believe this thread is just for us to let off steam about a done-deal they know is going to make us unhappy.

I guess this change means getting any cosmetic armor using this method is out?