I'm Upset at the Daily Membership Cert Gain

The whole point of passive cert gain is to get you to log in everyday, and keep thinking about the game. If you can go two weeks without logging in without any "loss", then you're more likely to forget and go four weeks without logging in. From there, it's a short trip to "why am I paying for this subscription?"

it is so they can brag about how many people a day log in to "play" PS2.

Huh....

Kinda funny that you're acting like you bought membership expressley under the guise that it didn't require daily logging in when....
a) That new benefit to membership is only from GU04 and
b) The requirement to log in daily for passive certs has been known and in effect since launch.

"Paid for free certs"

You're dense bro. loll

Not really..

They just want the player count.

The most important metric for an MMO is not total subs (especially ones with microtransaction). It is concurrent players, and daily log on. This is why lots of games (League of Legends, all FB games) gives you daily reward for logging in--you boost their active player number. Frankly, I would prefer if members do NOT have to log in to claim their certs.

Yeah that's been bothering me all day.

I also have to wonder why people are so vehemently against people getting what they paid for, but then again, most of the people in this forum are unemployed neck beards living in their moms basement and kids who have never worked a day in their lives- so they have no concept of "paid for". "Paid for" to them means "taking moms CC and entering it into that textbox thingy"


Consumers these days- so easily willing to take it in the ***. And to top it off, they are actually willing to DEFEND the companies that do it to them. Stockholm Syndrome much?





I also have to LOL at the people claiming "It is technically is passive, I mean, you get don't have to do anything for certs but all you have to do is log in"

I mean, really? think about your argument, you don't have to do anything... but you have to do something. Last I checked, that's not passive. But hey, I'm sure you unemployed neck beards know much more than myself

It's really amazing how much insult and namecalling is coming from those in the "I don't want to log in" camp. If that's what passes for debate anymore, things are in a sad state. For the record, I'm 39, own my own house, and my SO and I both play, and both subscribe. And as someone who has been stating what passive means, there is a difference between what you have to do to accumulate certs (which is nothing) and what you have to do to claim them (which is log in). There's a cap on the certs, that's the only thing. In some games, when you hit a new level, you have to go back to a trainer, and it won't let you gain XP until you do. It hasn't turned off XP gain, you've just hit the cap. The same thing applies here.

But I fully expect this to be handwaved away as well, in favor of more insults and calling of derogatory names, in order to demonstrate superior maturity. Fire away, friend.

Pssst......Smed, is that you??

The problem, believe it or not, is that you think false advertising should be debated. This isn't an issue of whether SOE should make you sign in to get certs daily or not. It's about them advertising something that they're not delivering on. There should be no argument here.

Some have said that it's been like this from launch. True. But if it were to follow the same daily cap rule that applies to free accounts, which has always worked in this manner, then why emphasize the so called "passive" aspect of the bonus you get for premium membership? It could easily be construed as an additional benefit vs. free accounts.

Personally, I don't like it. But I'll put up with it. Because I have 3 toons and a total of 150 free certs is worth about an hour or two of play time daily. Would I like for them to make it stack up for 2 or 3 days as they've said they're considering? Sure. But is that was the OP is complaining about? No. He's complaining about the deceptive advertising. And that claim is valid. And is not up for debate.

Neckbeards. First time I ever heard that term. Make the certs truly passive. At least my friend will get his monies worth for the next 5 months while being stationed somewhere in the Pacific.

It's still an additional benefit.. 48 vs 12 is additional. It's not false advertising. There is nothing you have to do to earn those 48 certs. At no point does it say that you can accumulate them unlimited. Even if you don't log in for a month, you'll still have the 48 certs that you accumulated, with nothing done to earn them save for being a subscriber, up until you hit the cap.

How does the original post have 38 likes?!?!?!?!?!

Precisely. This is essentially what I was thinking and going to say. The REAL point is in the first sentence of the original post and I quote. "The daily cert gain for members is advertised poorly." No matter how much debate there is over who is calling who...what or whether the (vague) information could be found for how the cert gain really works, if you really pored over SOE's website.......there's no question whether or not the cert gain membership is advertised poorly. Before anyone makes any assumptions about my position about the state of the game or SOE as a whole, you need to know that I am not bashing SOE or the developers of the game in anyway. In fact, this is the first "negative" post if you will that I have made. In general, I am VERY pleased with the product (Planetside 2) and enjoy it immensely! Even through all of the random hiccups and performance issues that I have personally experienced, I hold no harm to SOE. It's all part of the development process and I understand that wholly. I think that this is simply a business that offered a product that did not live up to it's advertised properties. Plain and simple. It happens. As I said in an earlier post, I doubt it was intentional for SOE to leave out critical details on their advertised product. I am a consumer. I expect the entity that I do business with to deliver a product as advertised, with transparency, to the best of their ability.
In the town where I live a local major auto retailer advertised FREE regular maintenance and oil changes for anyone that purchased a new vehicle from their dealership, for as long as you owned the vehicle. To the surprise of many folks in the area, the FREE product did not apply to Diesel trucks or vehicles used commercially (fleet). The language was in the contract signed at sale, but was not conveyed personally or ANYWHERE on their advertising signage or radio announcements (who actually reads ALL of their contracts....especially when they are pushing you out the door like cattle in a squeeze chute.) Many ranchers in the area that I know personally, purchased their trucks from this place solely for this reason. With an average of 4 GALLONS not quarts per oil change and an average price of $20 per gallon, this is a huge expense. They were not made aware until 3 months after they owned the vehicle and went in for their first oil change and maintenance. SURPRISE! No oil for you! (Oil ****)They were intially told.....sorry. You signed the contract. Many tried to return their trucks only to be told they were beyond the time allowed for a return (15 days) and they would offer them a trade in value so they could purchase a regular normally aspirated gasoline powered truck. It was a big deal, and when it was all said and done...several courts of all levels found fault on the dealership and ordered them to make good on their advertising.......even though it was in the contract that they (the consumer) signed. Food for thought.

Lets stop throwing around the whole "that's how it's been since launch" argument because not everyone has played since launch. Furthermore, there is no information easily accessible that outlines the way Snny's vision of passive cert gain works, paid subscriber or otherwise. There is little to no official documentation on how the game is played and most of the players do not read forums.

Take a step back and read the membership benefits page from the point of view of someone who stumbled into this site yesterday looking for a new game to play. I promise you that 99.99% of the people in that situation would interpret passive membership cert gain as certs gained daily no matter what their account activity consisted of on a daily basis. In fact, that is my challenge to all of the defenders of the login requirement. Show the membership benefit page to someone you know who doesn't play and ask them to tell you what they think that means.

Anyone who argues that is playing devil's advocate whether you admit it or not.

For the record I do pay and I really don't care (I don't login daily), but if they aren't willing to change the policy then I absolutely agree that they need to change the wording from "x% of passive certs a day" to "x% of passive certs each day you login."

LOL, Oglaf ftw

Logged in just to give this a 'like' and add:

I wouldn't mind logging in to claim my free certs every day if the PS2 client wasn't such a wet sack of dog doodies. If I could log in, poke my three characters, and log out in a 3-minute span, I'd be content with that.

Problem is, this is my usual routine when trying to claim my "passive" certs:

1) Run PS2 launcher.
2) It has to download and apply a 40mb patch. This inexplicably takes more than 5 minutes on a 2mbps connection.
2a) In the event of a real content patch, multiply "more than 5 minutes" time by a lot.
3) Load client. This takes 3 minutes usually. Hangs at 98% for most of the time.
4) Select TR character. Load game. This takes 2-4 minutes usually. Hangs at 98% for most of the time.
5) Character loads. Wait 1-2 minutes for the resource-intensive (to put it kindly) UI to load.
6) Log out of TR character. This is the only time the client is fast. ~20 seconds.
7) Select NC character. Load game. This takes 2-4 minutes usually. Hangs at 98% for most of the time.
8) Character loads. Wait 1-2 minutes for the resource-intensive (to put it kindly) UI to load.
9) Log out of NC character.
10) Client crashes to desktop, loads my browser, and tells me there was an error with the last action.
11) Run PS2 launcher.
12) Load client. This takes 3 minutes usually. Hangs at 98% for most of the time.
13) Select VS character. Load game. This takes 2-4 minutes usually. Hangs at 98% for most of the time.
14) Character loads. Wait 1-2 minutes for the resource-intensive (to put it kindly) UI to load.
15) Log out of VS character.
16) Log out of client.
17) Sigh, realizing I'll never get those parts of my life back.

And no, I'm not playing on a toaster. I'm not on a NASA computer by any stretch, either, but I'm running a solid rig. Nothing else on my spindle brings this computer to its knees the way the PS2 client does.

Well said.



Update from SOE Support Ticket;
I spoke to SOE's live support yesterday on this matter.
They told me Memberships were non-refundable, and they would escalate my case to a Game Master.

Today i received an email from a Game Master.
They were very friendly, and understanding of my situation, stating;
If you are still interested in having your Membership refunded, please let us know so that we can escalate your ticket to our Account/Billing Department.
I have let them know that i'm interested in a refund.
I'll let you all know how it goes, in case you're interested in doing the same.

I would really like to see the certs that you were promised, from you paying for them, be earned regardless of logging in.

This is reasonable, as, they payed for this. They forgot to log in for the day, but they still got it, because.... They payed for it. There is a money investment, they are not leaving.
Not giving them their certs, the ones they payed for, causes flame wars like this.

Do you really care if people who are giving SOE a lot of money are encouraged log in every day?
I mean, really... Just give them their certs totally passively.

Well, its a good thing they found a MASSIVE reason for the frame drops:
The game saves itself too often, creating latency, which causes your client to freeze, causes logging in and the likes to slow down your game, and in general drags out every element of the client.

The game literally saves itself server side every time anyone earns a cert. This... IS absurd.

Thus, latency will kill your client currently regardless of other issues.

As would i.
I also suggested they update the Membership Purchase page, to explain this shortcoming.