Information regarding Expansion and DLC Pack Purchases

Discussion in 'Community News' started by ARCHIVED-Dexella, Aug 10, 2012.

  1. ARCHIVED-Dexella Guest

    Starting Monday, August 27th, 2012, we will no longer accept Station Cash as a payment method for Expansions and DLC Packs. Real-world currency will be the only way to purchase these products.
    The reason for this is simply that these products require a high level of development resource and are therefore a substantial cost. We want to continue to run aggressive Station Cash promotions, which we know our customers love, but cannot continue to do this and protect the revenue that we need to offset these costs.
    In consideration of our players who would like the opportunity to purchase current Expansion and DLC Packs with Station Cash, we are running a 50% discount on them from Friday August 10th until Sunday August 12th*.
    As always, if you have questions about your Station Account or Station Cash Balance, please contact customer service at http://www.soe.com/support.
  2. ARCHIVED-Karimonster Guest

    So, let me get this straight...

    We have subscriptions. We pay our regular money for subscriptions and buy fluff items from the marketplace.

    You guys go F2P and give us the option of purchasing sub time and expansions AND fluff items with SC meaning we don't need subscriptions any longer.

    You take away sub time meaning we can purchase expansions and fluff items with SC.

    You take away expansions, meaning we're right back in the same boat that we were before it was F2P.

    Is there a redname that can actually tell me what the benefit to going F2P is now? Honestly. I REALLY want to know why we're an F2P game when the only F2P features are fluff items and we're exactly back to where we were with everything else.
    And, yes, I'd like to know how to get my SC back as cash from all of my accounts as I will no longer be needing any of it. I will not be purchasing any expansions for EQ2 from this point forward.
  3. ARCHIVED-Iad Guest

    I think we all saw this coming when they removed the option to pay for a sub with SC.
  4. ARCHIVED-Brook Guest

    Dexella wrote:
    How does it require a high level of development resource, the matrix is already set up and billing is basically automated?
    Just feed billing through the same program you use to put stats on gear and it should take care of itself with most of us being happy.
  5. ARCHIVED-SisterTheresa Guest

    Laenai@Oasis wrote:
    In all honesty, I have no clue whatsoever.
    Getting subscriptions and expansions through SC ... SoE STILL got money whether it was by CC, PayPal or Cards. There are people who are cmfortable using the game cards and not their CC, whether by choice or age restriction. So yes, SoE, you are really ((add expletitive here)) your customers over with this that makes zero sense.
    I know about the explination how you are "looking over the models" or something ... this is the post Piestro made about removing the SC for subs explination for EQ. Can it be justified that it is an underused feature in EQ2 as well??
    So .... colour me confused.
  6. ARCHIVED-Peogia Guest

    Dexella wrote:
    May I have a refund for Age of Discover
  7. ARCHIVED-Reazon Guest

    Brace yourselfs for another population decline from whatever little population exists today. Really, these decisions to take away the ability to pay with SC for a subscription and also the expansions/dlc packs is going to hurt this game more than help it. Very bad timing with these unpopular decisions with Guild Wars 2 just around the corner.
  8. ARCHIVED-Kaylakaze Guest

    I think I get it. I buy SC only when it's double (or triple) SC days. I also only bought my expansions during the half price sale, so effectively I paid $5 and $10 (or less) for the expansions. So what they're saying is they want to make sure they have tighter control of exactly what amount expansions are going to be sold at.

    Don't worry, in another month, they'll be announcing you can't use SC for anything anymore. And a month after that, they'll announce that only subscribers are allowed in the game on weekends. Then they'll keep increasing "subscriber only" time until only 3 F2P players are allowed to be logged in at a time and they're not allowed to be over level 10.
  9. ARCHIVED-m1ndtrix Guest

    Crap, now I have like 60 dollars in Sation Cash and nothing really to buy with it. I want to support SOE, but buying cosmetic items has always seemed very silly to me. I'm also terrible at CCG. So I'm left with no way to spend this money on actual content.
    I'm usually good at keeping my money away from the "cash traps" that are so prevelant in gaming now (Xbox Live Points, Steam Wallet, etc.), but this time I got burned. Lesson learned.
  10. ARCHIVED-Dreamaria Guest

    It's actually very easy to understand from SoE's point of veiw.
    People buy SC at discount prices (say you buy it on double SC weekend), meaning you pay half of what you would normally have. Then you save it and buy a $50 expansion with it, meaning SoE only got half of the value of the expansion - easy enough to understand why SoE would want all their money for the work...they have to pay their employees with something...and I don't think cookies will work.
    Secondly those that have reoccuring subscriptions get a bonus 500 sc per month they have it reoccur...IE save it up and buy your expansion filling in the rest...meaning again SoE gets cut short on what they would normally get from an expansion.
    The point of business..make money. Though I do feel bad for those that uploaded sc and have little spend it on, I personally have a fair amount and nothing snags me on the market...and I have 7 alts to put appearance gear on :)
  11. ARCHIVED-jjlo69 Guest

    well im gonna play the bad guy here on this .. it just closes another loop hole of players paying plat for SC to buy things that overall will hurt the soe's pocket book.. lets face it $20.00 worth of smed cash = what 300-1k plat depending on the server(note this is a complete estimate on my part) so if an exp comes out that roughly 4999 you could basicly spend 600-2k plat or even goto wall mart and but a couple of the 2k card for $15 and buying the expansion for 30 bucks respectively. plus with the pss1 merge hapening soon europe players will not be able to get the expansion via what every pss1 is called
  12. ARCHIVED-Darktreem Guest

    Dreamaria wrote:
    I do find that the expansions for EQ2 are a bit expensive to begin with. AoD collectors edition cost about £30 at 50%, so would be £60 at normal price. The most expensive expansion for LOTRO due in Sep costs £45. I am a bit annoyed with Turbine now, as they stated that when the game was going F2P you could buy the expansions with Turbine points, but now the latest expansion can only be bought with real money. So Turbine is doing the same it seems.
    I bet this change is a negative side effect to the PSS1 parternship. They are not getting enough subs now from cancelled EU players, they now have to get the money back elsewhere.
  13. ARCHIVED-Spakka Guest

    I am absolutely disgusted at this announcement, I have never bought fluff items or anything else with SC except for subs and xpacs. I have 6,800 Sc now that I purchased when both these items were available in the marketplace and the intention was to use it for only those items. There should be some sort of breach of implied contract here.
    What if SOE were to yank all items from the market place so you can buy nothing at all with SC, leaving people with heavily funded wallets and nothing to buy? There is no difference in principle.
    I could see a case for making an announcement that all future purchases of SC would not be able to buy subs/xpacs but to hugely promote the sale of SC and later remove the ability to buy subs/xpacs from people who had already purchased SC when these items were available on the marketplace (and no indication they would ever not be available) is outright fraudulent if you ask me.
  14. ARCHIVED-GusEQ Guest

    I also saw this coming after they removed non-recurring.

    Admittedly I was also frugal when it came to sc, cashing in only on bonus days...

    What bothers me though, is that they would have implemented this in the first place without understanding the basic mentality of consumers in that yes....they prefer to save money where they can.
    I mean what exactly went on in their heads when they went in this direction in the first place? To walk back on this now really is a slap in the face to people who loaded up on sc.

    So they claim that in order to maintain their bonus sc days they needed to do this...because of how much players love it, yet they completely ignore a huge part of why players love(d) sc bonus days....being able to spend it on practical things. Now the bonus days really mean a whole lot less now that it is restricted to fluff items.
  15. ARCHIVED-Peogia Guest

    Dreamaria wrote:
    If I have but only one complaint about Age of Discovery it would be mercenaries.
  16. ARCHIVED-GusEQ Guest

    One alternative I would have been more accepting of would have been only restricting the most new expansion to real world currency.
    People who play the game extensively would more than likely end up paying them in full, and it would probably get more new people to buy sc cards during promotions if they could use the sc to purchase older xpacks.
  17. ARCHIVED-SlashnGut Guest

    Development of the game costs money - understandable
    However, instead of stopping people from using SC an easy fix would have been the below:
    Expansion: $39.99 if paid for with cash
    $69.99 or $99.99 if paid for with SC

    Those who wish to use SC to make the purchase due to lack of a credit card or not wanting to use their credit card could still do so it would just cost more. They woud still have to buy the SC and would need to buy more of it in order to make the purchase. The above is just an example but would not be that hard to set up and would appease the ones who want to use SC, or should anyway. Can't please everyone all the time and all.
  18. ARCHIVED-Buffalo Guest

    A very easy solution to me. Just quit the game and find something new.
  19. ARCHIVED-Trinral Guest

    Dexella wrote:

    A very effective solution to this was proposed when subscriptions were removed from the MarketPlace.

    Add a secondary figure for SC, called Bonus Station Cash (BSC). Basic examples include...
    A 1500 walmart card gives : 1500SC, 500BSC
    A 1500 walmart card on triple redemption day gives : 1500SC, 4500BSC
    Buying 5000 SC on a double SC promo day gives : 5000SC, 5000BSC

    The 500SC per month, for being a gold recurring subscriber would be changed to 500BSC per month.

    Make it so expansions and subs can only be purchased with SC, not BSC.
    Use judgement as to whether or not expansions/subscriptions should be included in half price promotions.


    SOE could start doing that, as of the 27th of August. What ever people already have, they have as "SC", but from the 27th Aug, any SC redemptions would be put in relevant categories.

    At least, that is what I would do, if I was wanting to provide a reasonable solution for both new and existing customers, while retaining functionality of the MarketPlace systems.

    Edit: change to include the 500 per month for recurring subs.
  20. ARCHIVED-Orpheus666 Guest

    They likely got tired of giving away expansions to the folks who sit on the free monthly SC for having the appropriate subscription.