UPGRADE NOW!

I dont mind the advertisment but what I dont get is when i say No its NO!.
Asking me over and over again while I play isnt going to change my mind.

Is this a ploy to let underaged kids to "acidently" buy things for over 1000's of $$$ like they do in free to play games on the ipad/tablet?

Also, from now on, I'll end each and every single one of my posts with UPGRADE NOW!

I don't care if members get all weapons, XP and resources for free.
It's not pay2win if you can get all these things by simply spending time in the game.

PS2 is an FPS, but also an MMO. An MMO works by the interaction between lots of humans. Human interaction can't be replaced by bots or automation.
The more players, the more interaction, the more likely players will stick and pay.
There are many players (especially teenagers and students) who have lots of time but little money.
There are many players (especially adults in their 30-40s) who have little time but lots of money to spend since they do have a job but don't have a family yet.

Since you can't replace the human factor, you need to make the game appeal to both types of players.
If PS2 loses the players with time but no money, it will suffer one way or the other.



I already said this in https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/april-outfit-base-capture.83039/ : if you want to make people spend money in the long run, give veterans a reason to stick around. Give outfits a HOME (not just a base) they can improve over time, give them a reason to spend money - and STOP THE SPAM!

Maybe you should go back and read all the shill/apologist posts you've made in this thread. You're embarrassing yourself.

You guys, it's not that bad. Is this seriously what everyone is complaining about? I thought there was going to be some kind of popup mid-game or message over chat or something. This is nothing, get over it.

PLEASE HELP

WHEN DO I UPGRADE

I DON'T KNOW PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP ME

Ah, I see. Anyone who isn't a part of the mob is an apologist. If people are really getting angry about a single ad on the menu screen for PS2 membership (and not anything else) then I think these people need to relax a bit.

There is ..

A message pops up in the same way a Squad invite does.

Oh and btw. I quit Everquest 2 exactly because of the constant advertisement spam. I quit Drakensang the moment I saw a "membership only" dungeon.
But I just paid 20€ on Star Trek Online this month for a visual upgrade and 30€ on PS2 last month for some things that are not game deciding.
However I won't get membership for either game since I want to decide on when and how my money is spend.

After having a MAX revived by a kind medic, only to "Revive" onto the redeploy/upgrade now map (rather than back into the game), a few deaths plagued by upgrade pleas, I had a good, solid crash 15 minutes into my game session. That last part, ok, I know better than to play on patch days, but I still wanted to see what the new advertising was like. And honestly, I had been considering getting a sub. No longer.

First, it was the 2x Member Only XP change. I've played since beta, and yes, the game is playable without boosted XP or resources (as a solo player not working with squad members or even in an outfit.) However, I started worrying at that point that if SOE saw I subbed after the XP boost announcement, they'd think their plan was working and wouldn't change it for the better (of their players.) Now, there's no way I'm subbing. I'm not about to let whoever-is-responsible-for-the-ads gloat over me subbing because they think it's because of their obtrusive, out of place, and unprofessional ads on nearly every page, tab, and pop-up window in the game.

There's some important things to note about the feedback on your forums, SOE; The players don't give you money because we want you to make money. The players give you money because they want to enjoy the product you produce for them. I am completely aware that you feel that members need something for being members, and a good place to start is disabling these ads for them. On the other hand, as others have mentioned, there are not only players who put no money toward the game, but there are also those who have spent money above and beyond your 'dedicated members' without ever subscribing. People you got even more money from than your dear members.

The players, as a whole, don't pay because you show them ads. The players who can/will pay for things will only do so if there's a reason. And if you want a reason, it isn't ads; it's CONTENT. It's bugfixes. It's new things and improvements, fixings of balance, and preventing things from driving away your core players. Instead of showing us big upgrade buttons, show us the same kind of respect you expect from us, and don't take us for fools. Yeah, some of us are... but not all of us. I realize the devs have an incredibly large amount of information to go through to try to fix bugs; I know it takes time; I know new content takes time to balance and implement, not to mention test; but if your marketing division were to put (for the lack of a better term) advertisements of upcoming content or fixes instead of "Upgrade now" buttons, I for one would be more likely to subscribe, or invest in the game elsewhere. Because what matters to me is what I can do and use in the game, not how much money I can give you.

It may be just a single ad at the moment, yes.
But there is some shadow lurking beneath it.
The question is what it may become tomorrow, if me choose to ignore it today...

Wow, I was trying to find a way to say this.... thx, I think you nailed it. And perfectly.

Everytime i come back to the forums to see what SOE has done since i deinstalled PS2 3 days into the latest WDS ********, i find things like this one, that give me the impression that my decision was a smart one.

It isn't just a single ad on a menu screen(that moves the resupply button) You get in-game notifications to buy memberships/look at the spring sale. That's the part that rubs me the wrong way. And I'm only calling that one poster an apologist.

I don't see those ads..I'm European but do have a SOE account instead of Pro Sieben.

What...

I...

That...

I...

Don't...

*Facedesk*

Regardless of actual Pay2Win-ness, this change makes the game LOOK very pay to win to new players. New people already are easily farmed, die to unseen and unexpected things, and overall have a tough time. A lot of them start complaining that the game is Pay2win (we see a few threads every week on this) because they see lots of experienced players beating them with non-default stuff. Generally every thread then is someone explaining that the starter weapons are really good, it just takes practice, go watch Wrel's videos, talk to this outfit, etc. In the new player advice threads, someone always mentions that the starter weapons are some of the best in the game, also fighting the pay2win perception (because it's generally untrue--it's more "pay for convenience").

The key thing here is that the perception comes from ingame experience, so people are hopping in game, trying things out, and are at least trying. When they see HUGE BIG ADS and HERE'S ANOTHER POPUP TAKING AWAY YOUR CONTROLS, that's a big red flag that the game is Pay2win in most cases, and that turns people away VERY quickly. One of the things I look at when I'm investigating new games is pay2win-ness, and if you're watching a video of something and see that in the menus there are pop-ups and big glaring announcements everywhere showing you can give them money to upgrade (really bad choice of wording SOE), I am not going to play that game. If I start something up and start seeing those notices, I generally uninstall. It creates a very bad perception to new players.

Things like the deathscreen? I'm okay with that. The "upgrade now" button is obnoxious, but if it was retooled and placed somewhere else (for example, if "Station: Upgrade now!" popped up when you highlighted the cash shop button, since the faction logo isn't very indicative of "insert money here," although it fits nicely into the UI) could work, although I really really dislike the way it breaks immersion. The popups? Absolutely ridiculous. As someone who leads, I get lots of notifications from /squad invites (as do many people, I'm sure) or when I get invited to outfit squads, so if I get a notification checking it is a high priority--I don't want to be killed because I paused to check my menu thinking that it was an outfit mate, only to be asked "upgrade now!" It interferes with gameplay, and takes up a lot of screen real estate.

I've also read that if you're a full member you get a pop-up saying "thanks for subscribing." Which, while friendly, is also kind of annoying.