2014 Membership Benefit Update

RadarX said that SOE ensures & consistently delivering great games & products. In SOE;s opinion maybe, but not in the eyes of the consumer or player. Time after time SOE has taken from the gold player this past year. And they offer us temp programs only to soften the blow of what is to come. That is playing dirty pool imo.
Ive been playing EQ since 1999 and spent countless hours and thousands of dollars between EQ1 & EQ2 but it looks like the time has come for change. I have gold for one reason, the benefits it offered me when I agreed to become gold. Whats next a price increase in gold membership?

Offering us 2000 in credit to purchase ONE item a month is NOT a better deal than the free 500 SC we could spend ANY way we wanted to. So if I needed one lousy rail from the marketplace it will now cost me my FULL 2000 SC credit! WOW what a deal!

No more Goblin tickets.
No more free SC
Less benefits than f2p or silver memberships
No more dbl or triple SC days
Most sales consist of mostly junk [imo]

Yeah this is a better game than previous years for sure!

Trouble is, it really, really looks like SOE knew all along (since it was introduced) that the double tokens would be permanent, and have just strung everyone along until now for the sake of looking good when they 'decide' to make it permanent after claiming it would end. This isn't, sadly, uncommon practice, but it feels duplicitous, and causes customers to be suspicious of anything you say. This doesn't promote a feeling of trust or faith in a company.

I'd love to think this wasn't the case, but we'll never know as all we will get is the corporate line. Frankly I would struggle to believe either a denial or admission anyway given SOE's openness and frankness record over the years.

You've taught me to be suspicious of your every move, SOE. Taught me well indeed. /sigh

That said, I am grateful for the replies, it is nice to know someone from SOE is actually reading this stuff.

Could someone please link to that post?

This pretty much sums up how I am looking at things right now. I'm an unhappy customer who feels that I am getting less and less for my money from this company as time goes on. I too have cancelled my gold membership and will remain silver until such a time that I feel like it is worth subscribing again, if that ever happens. If not, so be it.

Integrate a new games in all access plan giva an attractive offer for your customers don't closed the games and the advantage
change your way SOE a new access plan with 500 sc monthly or 1000
lot of people cancelled account
and the false F2P game just P2Win change this
Give the possiblity to win a SC in game and others features
Stop removed advantage for your customers
Sorry for my english

As mentioned folks. no official reasoning has been provided and it is a topic of discussion we'll be discussing tomorrow. Our goal is to provide you as much information as possible so let's stay on the topic at hand.

I agree with you Fixit. I Started playing EQ in March of 1999 about 3 weeks after initial release. I took a 2 year hiatus and I am regarded as a new player. However I can not use my original Station Name (YMIR) because its still in the database. I don't remember my server name anymore but it was the original PVP server. Looking forward to EQ NEXT. Hope you are too.

Going to give it a week. Convince me to keep Gold accounts active or they get canceled, ATM don' t feel like a valued customer. Change my mind.

Aye, i'd love being able to earn SC in game, perhaps as LOTR does for Turbine points by doing deeds (achievements). They only earn 5, 10, 15 or 20 points depending on the difficulty or tier of the deed. Most Achievements have felt a bit pointless in EQ2 except as something else for your Guild to say 'grats' to - very few offer a title or reward of any kind. It would also link the SC shop more to the game rather than it feeling like a tacked on wierd entity that exists in a parallel universe that isnt quite part of Norrath. If only subscribers got the SC, for everyone else achievements as now, that would be quite nice.

Just an idea to throw out there.

A lot of feedback? Sony must have known this was going to upset most of their gold members. How could they really think this was going to go over well with us?

In all my 14+ years of playing EQ this past years changes have really taken the fun and sparkle out of EQ. Sony continues to tie our hands and limit our 'benefits'. They their idea of a great game is totally different than the players idea.

Who keeps coming up these "great" ideas? Give us their email and let us tell them personally how we feel.
Trust me I will not be moving to EQNext not just because I will expect Sony to make similar changes to that game as they do with EQ but because that is not my style of game.

Looks like its time to find a f2p game and not worry about getting any deals. Ive had it with EQ now.

Ultimately I've concluded that I'm just going to have to wait and see how this actually works. I'll have to wait and see what items will be available as the 1 item per month and which items will not (besides the Player Studio items...it's already clear that those will not be included).

i still feel like we don't have enough detail to make a total Nay or Yay......i will say, i can totally live with Player Studio Items not being purchasable with bonus SC we get from SOE directly, i can also live with the 2000 token thingy whatever.......IF services like the 280 AA bauble are included in the deal, i DO NOT like that it is limited to 1 item, not at all......like many, i prefer to save SC for bigger purchases, but again, i can understand if the rollover needs to be removed. if needed like some suggested use a different currency for whatever bonus we get, the goblin gold would be a good choice since it's already part of the market place......just attach a goblin gold value to the items in the cash shop that qualify.
Once again i want to say, as it stands and with the limited info available my vote is a Nay.

I call BS.

If that's the issue, then how is DC UO able to continue essentially the same program by renaming "Station Cash" to "Loyalty Points" and still giving out 500/month that accrue over time?

Unless by "liability" they mean the risk that EQ Next will tank as people don't spend any new money since they're using the SC they've hoarded for the next two to three years before that game comes out, and by 'tax issues' they mean the problems that crop up when a company doesn't show a profit.

Goblin gold is being phased out of game. The final date has not yet been announced but that too has been taken from us.

I don't join big raid guilds because I don't want to be dictated to on how to spend my hours and I play my game. I play to have fun but Sony is now taking that from me as well. Seems like we can expect anything from Sony when we log in these days.

Has Sony ever heard of the saying...... DONT MESS WITH SUCCESS?

Looks like Im going to be canceling my gold memberships as well. Im just tired of the bs Sony is handing us these days.

Point system! Holy Hannah! Brilliant!

Y'know, I've always wondered what the stupid Achievement points were for...

"Congratulations! You earned 5 points by learning 5 languages! Yay, you!"
"Great! Thanks! What can I spend them on or save them up for?"
"No-prizes!"
"Wow, just like Marvel!"
"Worse, actually; these literally don't do anything, anywhere, in the game or out, but congratulations!"
"Wow, thanks."

Having them actually add up like the old Green Stamps (I still remember those redemption centers; those were cool!) and be worth something, as in:

"Congratulations! Because you're a Gold member, you earned 5 Everquest II Cash Coins for learning 5 languages! It's only 'worth' 5 cents, but they never go away, they add up with other Achievement Points and other Everquest II Cash Coins, and you can spend them on anything!"
"WOOT! Lemme at them other languages! "

just MIGHT spark some interest in achieving that kind of thing...call me crazy. ;->

Uwk

I can remember a time when there was only one perk for a subscription: YOU GOT TO PLAY THE FREAKIN' GAME!

Now, you can play the game for free, so everything has changed. The 'perks' are what you are actually buying when you pay for a subscription, because you already have access to the game without having to spend a dime.

What SOE is slowly and steadily doing is narrowing the gap between silver and gold: both by raising the amount of benefits given to Silver members, and now taking away some benefits from gold. As the gap continues to narrow, more and more people will decide that paying for a subscription just isn't worth it.

To make it even more clear: $15 will get you a 2000 SC card at Walmart. That SC can be used on anything and doesn't disappear at the end of the month. If you're sitting at endgame with maxed out toons, you may have to buy a few unlockers and maybe a couple master spells, but then what else do you NEED to spend that SC on in order to play the game?

Is a month of Gold membership still worth more than a month of Silver + 2000 SC? When that answer becomes NO, that's the point where people stop subscribing.

Because Loyalty points is NOT station cash, it can not be purchased, and is not subject to gambling laws, tax laws, or any other government regulations.

If this was a problem for EQN then all that SC that has already been hoarded would still be an issue as this does not stop that from being used.

Consider this article about bitcoin http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/18/technology/bitcoin-regulation/
And then consider the NSA spieing that was done in various online games reported here http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/09/tech/web/nsa-spying-video-games/
It suddenly paints a whole new picture for any digital in game currency with real monetary value.

We do not know yet why this change is being implemented, anything at this point is speculation an opinion not fact. I personally prefer it, though I would like to see some minor changes, such as being able to use the free item redeem on anything, such as bundles, with player studio items being the only restriction.
I also could care less if SOE suddenly decided to stop giving any incentive outside of unrestricted game access. I paid a sub to play this game before free to play existed, I will continue to pay a sub when i want to play because I love my all access pass and the games I play offered by it, which are most of them. As far as i am concerned this is a great incentive and a subscription now days offers far more than it did prior to the free to play model's inception.

Oh I am well aware they could have done things differently. I'm right on the first page of this thread expressing my dislike of this change. Please don't take my post about the other games & Piestro's post as support of this change. I really really dislike it.




And here are links to the other threads:
Piestro posts several times in the EQ1 thread
https://forums.station.sony.com/eq/...t-gold-membership.206241/page-12#post-3028814

And both Piestro & Luperza post several times in the Planetside 2 thread.

https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2...remium-membership.166053/page-32#post-2382979

I think the 2000 walmart cards are going away too. The ones online don't mention a bonus.

For those dropping from gold to ftp, isn't it a fundamental change in the way you play? Fewer character slots (2 I think), broker restrictions, no sending mail (that alone would kill me), and no talking in the regular chat channels? The 15% exp boost and the 10% mount speed as well as double currency/tokens and one item per month from the marketplace already seem to have been deemed insufficient.