I'm Upset at the Daily Membership Cert Gain

That's all fine and dandy but the problem is that the advertisement simply said we would passively be given those certs without stipulation. After paying for the membership, we found differently.

Can you show me source for this? I'd almost consider re-subbing.... but i wont, for moral dignity.

This is the opinion of someone who has the time to log in every day. Whether the timer is 1 day, 4 days, 7 days or a month probably wouldn't affect your log in habits, you can log in whenever you want, it's simply not an issue.

The people who this actually affects negatively, are the people who simply don't have the time to log in on a daily basis - they can't fit that log in as part of their evening or morning ritual. This is what it's about. I physically can't do it, and this rule affects my satisfaction as a customer and hence my enjoyment of the game, because I feel short-changed.

If I want to log in once a week for two or three hours on a Sunday evening, why am I somehow less entitled to that weeks certs than someone who logs in for 5 minutes everyday and plays for two or three hours on a Sunday evening? Sorry, it's a slap in the face for a LOT of paying customers.

It's a short-sighted business play from SOE too. So they get a boost on daily log in's now, that's great, pat yourselves on the back. You're treating paying customers like ****. That's not a good way to build a loyal customer base, and will lead to a decrease in long term subs.

I reckon the majority of people who purchased premium membership don't know about this rule, and if SOE actually told everyone, there would be uproar. I didn't know about it until I saw this thread and a few things clicked in my head.

Unlike the OP I don't want a refund. I want a realistic cert timer implemented, 24 hours is simply ridiculous.

EVE don't do it, and they've been running a hugely successful passive XP subscription model since 2003.

Maybe there's something there to learn there?

I should note that I'd rather see the timer removed as well. I'd like to get the benefits I expected when I read the advertisement. If nothing is done in a respectable time frame, I will unsub though.

Smedley loves EVE and wanted to mimic a lot of their progression mechanics. So I agree here, why be so shy to mimic what they admire so greatly?

I think it's simply a case of the thirst for daily log in ratings (as other's have mentioned), has overwritten common sense and customer satisfaction. That, and they haven't actually thought about how this come's across.

Here's the thing, SOE want something - daily log in's. The way I see it, there's two ways of going about this. . .

1. Negative Reinforcement (currently selected by SOE)

You don't log in, you don't get Cert's until you reset the 24 hour timer.

Why's it negative? You're punishing people for not logging in.

The end result? People feeling penalised, and a bit miffed that they're not getting a decent deal when paying for premium. People complaining about false advertising, not re-subbing, and getting refunds.

2. Positive Reinforcement

You offer a daily log in 'bonus' cert's. I would say 10 for F2P, 20 for premium would do it, but you have no timer on the 'standard' cert gain.

Why's it positive? You're rewarding people for logging in.

The end result? This actively encourages people to log in with juicy rewards, and it increases the 'apparent' rewards for being a premium member.

Instead of punishing you for not logging it, it's rewarding you for logging in. Not rocket science, just common sense.

They both achieve the same end somewhat, except option 2. you can include the F2P players, add extra incentives for premium players, even add stacking bonus's for logging in on a day to day basis. It's also pretty easy to integrate, it's super positive (hey look how great and generous we are!) and incredibly easy to advertise. Just one of those loading screens make a 'get log in bonus certs's'. I can guarantee that will increase subs, appease already subbed players, and increase their daily log in stat's.

That's actually a really good idea! It would solve both dilemmas (SOE's and its customers')

So after a lot of back and forth SoE still will not refund my membership.
I am pretty much in the same boat as you Chiss but they are only willing to give me a partial refund since i have "used" the first month of the membership. Signed up 02/23/13 and if they would even bother to look they would see my activity has been really low and steadily declining.

Still not willing to accept a partial refund since I haven't got what I thought I paid for as stated on their purchase page

I am going to spend my energy talking to my CC provider instead and the Norwegian Consumer Council.
Can't believe its come to this when they know they are in the wrong as the purchase page still doesn't state anything about the log in requirements.

I agree 100%. I work on the road sometimes for a week at a time and I cannot "log in" on my company laptop.
I feel like I'm being jipped.

Deleted by me because well... even *I* though it was trolling and that says a lot.

Some of us work on the road. Not everyone lives in mommas basement smoking dope and eating Cheetos all day.

I can't think of a nice reason to do what SOE are doing with passive cert gain.

There's no way a freeplayer is going to cry about that small change when I get +100% XP anyway.

It looks like they did it that way to try to make us look at the daily offer in the shop.

Seriously unimpressed.

Yeah this is in no way "passive". This was a deal breaker for me and when I found out that I was required to log in everyday even though I was paying for passive I cancelled.

Its really easy for those who are not always on the road or don't have huge time commitments to family to say how easy it is to log in every day.

Kwes

I will say that the log in daily for passive certs seems to defeat the purpose of passive certs which is to allow occasional players (we'll assume once or twice a week which is actually fairly regular) to sort of keep up with certs compared to more active players.


It seems to me that logging in shouldn't be required more than once every 72 hours... and then even if you did go 4-5 days, at least you'd have 3 days of cert gain stored up for your next login.

I could see extending passive gain time up to a week for premium members, which would be a great boon for very busy gamers who only get a chance to play once a week on Sat or Sun when they get a few hours in the afternoon to themselves away from work and family.

They are NOT free though.

To get the 48 cert points you have to PAY a subscription for the game.

I myself am on a 6 month sub and i find it an annoyance to have to log in every day to receive something that is part of a package i am PAYING for.
I fully agree with the OP.

While it isn't false advertising, it is misleading because it doesn't state that logging in daily is needed.

I do think that it should be set to a weekly pool for accumulation, not just for subscription memberships, but for all players.

People who disagree with the OP must have too much time in their hands, 'paying' customers pay so they don't have to farm/gather/do as much to get the same items as a regular-too much free time player.

If they have other things to do with their time such as -not login to a game they aren't playing at the time- than leave them be, it's none of your business and it's ridiculous to tell ppl to 'just shut up and login once a day even if you dont play', when the publicity promised passive certs.

30 sec login everyday might be or might not be alot of time but it's still a bore to do if you arent doing it to play but to endure a ambiguous advertisement

Despite what others ha e said, they have not removed the cap timer. We still wait for the wrong to be righted.

The only reason to do this is so they can go back to their investors and say "we have xyz people log in every day to play the game", which is true if you call playing the game logging in for 30 seconds on each character to get the cert points we already paid for.

Still no official response on this. Still pissed off about it.

Except that isn't fixing anything at all. It should steadily accumulate in our total certs if we are unable to log on to redeem.