2014 Membership - Update from Smed

Also if I'm reading it correctly, now you would get the 500 per month and thats it, usable in any game. In the original proposal, you got one voucher per month, PER GAME, which is quite generous with the base subscription becoming a station pass.

I like the idea of letting people choose the 500 cash, or 1 token per game per month (if it works like that). Take the cash one month for cheap sales (camo, etc, I don't buy other cosmetics), take tokens in games the next month. Choice is great.

Another idea that would be even more technically challenging for the SOE boys is to make it a month by month choice.

The first time you log into an SOE game in a given month, as a subscriber, you would get a message with two choices;
You could get 500 SC added to your SOE SC wallet, redeemable in any game at any time.
OR
You would get ONE voucher for any ONE item or bundle valued up to 2000 SC, redeemable only in one game, that expired at the end of that month.

Best of both worlds. The people who liked the 2000 SC voucher idea get it, the people who wanted to hoard SC 500 at a time can, and everyone gets a 10% discount in the store as part of their subscription to boot.

Why is it that it that when people discuss a topic online it has to resort to getting personal? No need for the bit I highlighted in red to be honest.

I am perfectly able and willing to 'do math', but it isn't a straightforward comparison of 2000 > 500 no matter how much you want to dress it up. In Planetside 2 there are not enough 1500-2000 items to make a single monthly redemption of limited items a viable option. Simple as that. Multiple smaller transactions via the free 500SC, or accrued SC over a few months, is simply not possible with the restricted single item redemption. If you can tell me how you would have bought multiple low cost decals one month, lets say 3 for arguments sake, with your 2000SC wonder coupon, I'm all ears. YOU personally might not want to, but the majority it seems did want the flexibility to do such a thing if the mood took them. The 2000SC single item restricted redemption did not permit this behavioural pattern.

On the topic of behavioural patterns, people enjoy the sales. They enjoy getting money off, they enjoy the randomness of it all. These people are people who play the game for fun, for enjoyment, who are not out to buy everything immediately because it is new or OP, or flavour of the month. People when they make purchases, whether in real life or in game, want to feel they are getting value. Taking sales away because of a 2000SC grant doesn't provide anywhere near the same sense of value. You get between 28 and 31 daily deals every month, double that with membership. There are only so many times you can buy a gold Underboss or Commissioner - once each - before your 2000SC value is devalued each and every month. There is nothing else selling for that price (that I can see), and to be honest, 2000SC for a weapon that costs 700SC in standard colours, or 350SC in a sale - I know my math is bang on with regard to which is the proper value purchase option there, and it isn't the one that is a sham in a funky outfit.

You also say they were willing to retract the player studio / bundle restriction - show me where that was stated. All we had from Luperza and Piestro were comments that they would 'feed back the comments'. Until the Smed announcement, and do correct me if I am wrong, Player Studio (the largest pull for long term PS2 players) was still out.

So, we're just going to have to agree to disagree mate, otherwise it will end up in forum violations.

This is the problem with people either not realising, or not getting, what the original deal was. It was FAR TOO restrictive on usage, and that is why all the SOE forums for the affected games lit up like a Christmas tree.

Guess I will have to agree with the majority agreeing with the backtrack change. A single 2000sc item isn't as good as getting 500sc and saving for sales or what not. Seems a lot of people have a better outlook on this than I did. Might actually get a extra month for the sake of trying out games I haven't played.

That being said thank you SOE for listening. I want new map mao...

So paypal is accepted almost everywhere (stores on American soil) when I purchase digital games in dollar currency, with no additional costs for being from Europe but with SOE, that's not the case. You know if the numbers weren't mirror copies of each other, I might have believed you, but no VAT or additional costs make a 5 dollar item cost EXACTLY 5 euro, and a 10 dollar item cost EXACTLY 10 euro. So if there are additional charges (which I still don't believe), then you are rounding the result up and charging us more than what is needed even with additional costs included. Also, if the system can identify that I'm from Europe to charge me in euro, then how about it also uses that same recognizing to charge me the actual euro amount of 5 dollars, and that's 3.6?

Really impressed with SOE here, a big thanks for listening to the community. Had already decided to cancel subscription due to the 2000 SC debacle when Smed's update hit - now I'll make sure to grab an extended sub period as the deal got even better than before.

If I am to offer one bit of feedback, it would be on the wording of the original e-mail. By all means, I realize the PR spin doctors desire to make any change appear as positive as possible. The wording, however, really aggrevated me. Feel free to list what terms have changed, though please don't make any claims as to whether the change is for the better or not - I can make that desicion myself, and I certainly did not consider the original e-mail to be value for money with regards to my station cash usage.

That aside, can I also ask whether it would be possible to get passive certs on all characters on an account upon logging in on any of them? Despite appreciating the possibility to have alts and try out the gear of the Blues and Purples from time to time, I do not fourth faction and as such it is a hassle to log on/off 5 alts before starting a play session (48 free certs are too good to pass up on even if I very rarely use my alts).

Anyway, thanks again for the new subscription terms - you certainy convinced me to renew and continue to support this fantastic game.

Regards,
Hogfoot
[Z3TA] Zeta Squad | Cobalt EU

But we still have the problem where Members say they aren't getting enough SC, out of their subscription. Why not just raise it to 750 SC, or something like that so you can get a gun monthly?

Yes it was, but if people argued for the restrictions to be loosened instead of getting rid of it then it would have been better. Smedley even stated on Reddit that they were going to include Player Studio generated items at the cost of SOE. In my opinion this would have been far greater in value than what is on offer now.

This new model is more restrictive than the current model especially if you go on holidays for a month without access to your computer.

I respect that they listened, but I think too many people complained about the wrong thing without really understanding what they were complaining about.

I think it would be cool if you could give your friend a 50% exp bonus when you, the subscriber, play with them in a squad. I think it would be a good way to get new people interested in the game at the same time give them a progression boost when they play with others. Or maybe when a subscriber invites his friends' new accounts into a squad they all get an experience bonus but as the more people join the exp bonus increases so that the more you have the better the exp gets. Maybe have it as a exp pack they can buy and put on themselves for group bonus exp when they are squad leaders and give a free pack for subscribers monthly. I think it would make a real difference for new people to progress in a game they are not sure about spending money in.

Holy **** a big company actually listened to player feedback!

Seriously, I was most unimpressed with your treatment of the player base in the way the original change was dropped on people, but it is really good to see you listened and changed back.

Making people claim their bonus each month is fair and I don't think anyone can really complain about that.

Why don't they just make it an option? let us choose either 500SC or 1 item at or under 2000SC???

Maybe make it 1 purchase under 20 bucks that isn't a player studio item?

The only bad thing about that is SOE doesnt want you to level super quickly, think about it 50% exp boost at beginning of SQUAD then it increases to a PLATOON and the exp increases, Whats the % gonna be? around 90% (Imagine if its a double exp boost day, as well). the starting % would need to be around 10% and increases to a total of 30%.

please i need a explanation more simple...

now with this rulez i need pay 15 dollars for play planetside 2?now with this changes the game not is more free to play?

i loose the Access free?


this is terrible.

No, it is still free to play. $15 subscription is still optional.

thanks for the response.

YES! I'd be all for that. Everyone gets what they want.

Awesome one all counts. Love that the 500SC/mnth is staying and I cant wait to get back into a little bit of everquest.

I purchased 6 month plan last month at the old or regular price, is there any plan to refund/extend/compensate those that have purchased the plans at a higher rate?

If I had 1 month left I wouldn't care but 6 months would be 30 bucks!

Thanks!