I didn't know that about Silver, but I was responding to a straw man argument, anyway. "What of nobody pays?" Isn't a reasonable scenario. And regarding making Gold worth paying for, like I said before, if F2P is now basically as good as Gold, then be happy and pump the money into SC.
YES, more F2P spam, we need to see this pop-up at the start of every pull while raiding! looks like we all are gold for a few weeks, no spam!
There isn't enough in the marketplace that interests me to spend $15 worth a month, even spread out over a year. Also, subscriptions are a steady reliable source of income. Impulse buys on the marketplace are not.
Personally, I love it (having more than one Silver account myself). I still can't make as many characters as I'd want, send Mail, or use the Broker to sell anything, which are huge disadvantages (but the last 2 also make being in a guild infinitely more desirable, especially guilds with Collectible Depots and LnL Depots). But hey, at least now I'll be able to use items that I'll outgrow in 10 levels! [sarcasm]Ooh! That is surely a deal-breaker![/sarcasm] Uwk
I don't want to see the game go away because the revenue stream dries up. More players is a good thing, but if there isn't enough money flowing to SoE, the game goes away, no matter how many people are playing the game. Is that really such a hard concept to grasp?
Exactly. I spend generally around 500sc per character (usually on a half price rebate) to get a nice appearance look, and that's it. I'd do that as gold or silver. I have occasionally bought a vitality pot (twice) but now I can get an orb of concentrated memories instead for free (loyalty tokens). For most of my characters I've bought a prestige home for, but again I can get that for free with loyalty tokens and one day they'll all get one free with vet rewards. And I only do this so I can forget about rent upkeep. So all in, I'm averaging 1000sc per character total, usually using triple SC. And it's a one off. The most I've ever spent with SC is 4 character transfers, again with triple SC, and that's not a frequent thing. There's no way I'll spend $10 a month (what my sub costs at 25% discount offer every 3 months) on broker tokens. The vast majority of the stuff I sell is trash for at most 5pp, so I'd vendor it or mute it or sacrifice to an alter if I was f2p.
I wasn't sure if referencing another game was appropriate and the details were what was important to my post not really the exact game doing this. But, yes it's Tera. I wasn't trying to be clever, just polite to the mods and EQ2 team.
Are you being willfully obtuse? Nothing is stopping you from spending that much or more if you're concerned about them getting enough money. If you just want them to see that revenue per month then spend that much per month on whatever. It could be goodies, buffs/boosts, or Krono for that matter. You're presenting an unlikely hypothetical scenario as the only likely conclusion. So, yes, it's hard to grasp an unlikely scenario that relies upon a pile of baseless assumptions. You're trying to envision a business scenario without any data behind it. Doesn't it seem reasonable that there are smart business analysts and economists working at SoE that have a strategy for maximizing profit and player retention? It's really the most simple and likely scenario.
I understand everyone has a point of view however if you are not a Gold memeber can you please refrain from posting here. I know we all have derailed a bit. I would like this thread to stay focused on what the Gold member has to say about the change so it can be communicated to the team.
That's Selection Bias. Any changes made to the game affect Bronze and Silver members as much as Gold, and I think it's fair to argue that these changes affect Bronze and Silver members more than Gold members. SOE requires feedback from all players, and every customer deserves a voice regardless of how their money is spent. ----- With that being said, I'm looking forward to some clarification from RadarX regarding a recurring subscription and the Walmart specific SC cards, as 1000sc per month plus the other benefits of a Gold level subscription may be enough to push me to make the hop from Silver. It was hinted at either in this thread or another, (I'll freely admit I'm going to be lazy and not search for the post at this moment), that there would be additional perks coming to Gold to make up for the narrowing of the gap between it and Silver, (above and beyond bonus coin and mount speed).
Why are you worrying about something that SOE isn't? While many companies make mistakes, it seems likely they have considered the very likely possibility that this will shift revenue away from subs. My guess is that they believe they will make more if they encourage people to play and thus have a reason to spend SC.
Exactly. SOE is informed on their finances, and this decision is for them to worry about and not gamers.
Shadrac if no one pays for the sub nor buys anythign from SC how long do you think SoE can stay in Business? how long will EQ2 be running so that we can play it. as for me yes I will still pay the sub I have to many alts not to.
Don't you think that perhaps you've just highlighted a flaw in this argument? You're a gold member who will continue to be gold. You're obviously not the only person who will. I'm a silver member who will continue to spend SC, and even after these changes I'm still considering "upgrading" to gold. I'm not the only person who's considering that change. So, yes, if not one single solitary person spent any money at all ever, then the servers would likely be shut down. I say likely, because Sony does love to take profits from one place in order to keep another running at a loss. However, that's not the case, now is it? There will still be people spending money. You yourself just said you would continue to spend money, so the argument "what if nobody spends money" is moot. Will fewer people spend money? Likely. Will it be such a reduction in income that SOE is going to flip the big red switch that turns everything off? Unlikely.
Posing two scenarios like that (the old system vs. SOE makes zero $) is a false dichotomy. A third possible scenario would be that SOE makes more money as many more players enter the game, some of which go Silver, others Gold, and some of which buy SC.
We're all members here and I think it's reasonable that there are others like me who shift between Silver and Gold periodically. I'm giving feedback (like the Tera sub suggestion) because I think Gold status could be a lot better, but I don't think it needs to be how it has been traditionally implemented. In fact I'm really encouraged by how the EQ2 team is moving away from the traditional concept of what a sub offers (locking the game and making it inconvenient not to sub). Another option could be to offer subscribers a list of items they could claim. The list could have items that would enhance gameplay for a lot of level ranges or play styles and players could choose a subset of those monthly. Let's say there are 30 items in the monthly claim window and a player can choose 10. There could be items in there that raiders might want for their gameplay, a solo player another, a crafter different things, and so on. I'm sure there are some other good ideas floating around as well if we just think outside the box and stop worrying about things outside of our control (ie: worrying if they'll make enough money).
Correct. The truth is there are lots of possibilities here. We only have our speculation. I don't see why folks need to default to the most pessimistic scenario. Especially when SOE is often called derisively $OE around the broader MMO community. Do you really think Smedley is not trying to get his money!!!
ROFLMAO!!! You must be new here. .. ... .... Sorry, just had to get that out of my system. On a selfish personal level I am happy with the changes, I try not to have more than 2-3 paid mmo subs running at a time so going to silver frees up some of my entertainment budget to try other games. Don't get me wrong I like this game I really do and I don't want to see it go into a steeper downward spiral than it already is. My biggest concern with this change is this seems like a big gamble on SOEs part. They are betting that new and returning ftp player purchases will outweigh the loss from subscriptions, and I just can't see that happening long term with the current structure. In the short term I'm sure there will be a spike in sales but that will eventually fade. Once they dig themselves into this hole there is no going back, the only recourse is to add highly desirable/required items to the marketplace to try and fill the funding gap. Whatever happens I wish them them the best of luck and hope this works out for everyone.
