Passive Certs

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by AshHill07, Oct 16, 2014.

  1. AshHill07

    Any other non-members here finding they're playing the game less because they're not doing a few fights after only originally logging in for your 12 daily certs?

    My fortnightly activity has gone from 30 hours to 8 since the passive certs went.
  2. St0mpy

    tbh since things like the changes to cap xp im finding myself swimming in certs lately, they just keep piling up

    play anyway youll probably earn more now, those free 12 were only one offs, now the easier cert gain is all the time you play
  3. AshHill07

    Its not about the cert though, I have plenty of them right now.
    The issue is before I was logging in just for the passives, and then thinking "Well, I'm already logged in, may as well keep playing this." But now I'm opting to just play other games instead.
    • Up x 2
  4. andy_m


    I know what you are saying and my own game activity has dropped since letting my membership lapse at the start of October and SOE stopping the passive certs. As I said in another thread, I'm actually finding this is helping me to kick my Planetside 2 addiction and return to almost normal life. Almost... I'm still getting on for the odd hour here and there :D

    Also, as you say, it's not the loss of the Certs that is the cause of this, it's knowing that I don't have to religiously log on each day to get them. And 12 Certs is nothing now... I somehow managed to rack up 12 Certs last night in less that twenty minutes of play, and that was without any boosts.
  5. johnway

    Whilst i logged in zealously for my 12 certs, having that feature gone hasn't really hurt my experience as i would just log off straight after and only stay if it was a rather lively situation that i could make a quick cert from. like a bio dome defence, hiding in the spawn point to net an extra one or 2 kills.
  6. SinerAthin

    I think AshHill mentioned an important psychological mechanism.


    Like with a schoolbook or project, it's easier to get reading/working when you finally opened the book, pdf file or whatever you're using.

    Why the Developers would remove such a trivial, yet also beneficial thing such as a measly 12 certs a day is beyond me. In my mind, increased player activity is good for any game, especially an online one.

    An MMO should always strive to keep its amount of active players as high as possible. It is their very lifeblood. I can't imagine there being any sizable thought or consideration put behind this seemingly bizarre decision, which just seems to be a(n, albeit minor,) mistake on every level.
    • Up x 2
  7. Isokon

    Many MMOs have mechanics to get players to log in regularly and play. As an example, some games have a "rest"-bonus that charges while they are offline and gives them a certain amount of additional xp when they play. The daily 12 certs did not adequately serve this purpose, because they don't require that you actually play the game to benefit from them and are therefore somewhat ill suited to keep player activity high.
    The system that functions like such a rest bonus and is currently in the game the daily ribbon bonus.
  8. SinerAthin


    That still doesn't answer the problem though.

    Why remove the 12 certs a day if it was not in any way negatively impacting the game, but still granting the benefited that some players who otherwise might not have opened the game, actually opened the game and played for a bit?

    The more reasons players have to even log on, the better.
  9. Maphreal

    It baffles me why they did this. If they wanted to add value to the subscription, they could have ADDED value to the subscription. Taking away from x does not increase the value of y. All they did is give people less incentive to even load the launcher, which, considering a dwindling population, isn't the brightest of ideas.

    I know they lost a lot of subscription dollars from me when they made it a requirement to login and collect the certs. Before, even if I had no intention of playing the game in a particular month, I still happily subscribed because I knew I was still making progress. Now I only subscribe if I'm playing the game, they won't be receiving from me during my breaks.

    Point is adding hassle and removing perks is not the way to get people to throw money at you.
    • Up x 1
  10. Timithos

    I just found out about this change recently. When addressing this issue, I went searching for bug reports to see what was happening.

    When I would login in daily, I'd on many occasions play multiple characters in addition to getting my 12 certs. This helped provide great population for whatever faction or server I was on. Now I'm just going to make a decision to play one character for probably a lessor period of time.

    Even a faction change extended my game play when I became bored of playing a character.
    And now with the 12 cert incentive removed, there will be many days ahead that I won't bother to play at all.

    I'm also not some farmer that finds ways to make the most certs in the least amount of time. I'm not swimming in certs as others have said. Every cert counts.

    This is a bizarre decision from SOE.