Customer Service Announcement: Premium Membership

I totally understand some not liking the new "bonus" for subbing. But, as a working adult with a decent job, it really doesn't bother me. $10-15 per month for a game I devote most of my free-time to is so small it's irrelevant compared to any other monthly household expense. Seriously, it costs me about $30 just to take the kid & wife to a freaking movie that only lasts two hours.

So, splitting hairs between the +/- ramifications of 1 free item of your choosing versus 500 SC is really not that important. I would venture a guess that most adults, like myself, who pay the sub do it mostly to offer our support for a product we enjoy and for the resource/experience boost we get, which equates to more bang for our precious time and more opportunities to pull a MAX or vehicle if we want.

just canceled my renewal for Premium Membership.

AND THERE IS STILL NO INFILTRATOR UPDATE.

I don't see how this adds value at all.

I'm sorry but I will not renew once my current sub runs out. Please pass that up the chain of command to the *insert expletive here* who thought this up.

Honestly I really thought SOE had turned a corner with their business model and were offering the best value to their customers. But this decision is woeful and it will turn people away from the game. I'd hoped you'd seen the success of the sales over the Christmas Period and reconsider you pricing structure to make items more purchasable. I'm not talking 1SC per item but reasonably priced stuff. 1000 SC is too much for the stuff you sell. Especially cosmetic items and carbon copy weapons.

Now you've de-incentivised memberships people will drift away from the game and find value elsewhere.

This is horrible imo. I have had a station pass for a long time now. The 500sc is honestly the only reason ive kept it this last year. As someone who has been playing since launch and spent money on this game there is almost nothing that i want that i dont have. Saving the station cash until eqnext (or if i decide to go back to any other soe game) was really the only valuable perk i could see in the all access pass. Like others if this change does indeed go through ill be changing my account status to a ftp member.

What is being implemented is not "adding more value" like you say, it is doing the opposite. I hope this gets a serious reevaluation before it goes live.

For me it's not the change that is infuriating, it's the way it was implemented.
"Hai, we take your options away, and give you 1/2 of them back! Isn't that just WONDERFUL? You sure are a happy customer now!"

I don't like when people take my money and treat me like an idiot after that. Make a change if it is necessary, but don't try to sell me that additional limitations are for my own good. I'm well fed up with this approach in 14-years Putin's rule, I don't need more of it.

I'm sorry, I was planning to get a membership.

I see that I was wrong.

I will probably go and support other games. Star Citizen looks good, and I really want to get into that alpha.

Just resubbed for 6 month a few days ago after half a year of f2p... wanted to buy smaller things from the 500sc - mainly members or daily sales. Got fooled again since i actually didnt want to resub because of the lousy content updates, but the balance update gave me a little bit of hope the games takes the right direction... all i got to say is **** you! Never ever again!

Lame.

A.) Rewards should NEVER expire, especially while you have an active membership.

B.) Player studio items and bundles should NOT be excluded. This screws the players and the player artists.

C.) This makes member sales less valuable, as we have to use our own cash to buy stuff, not our membership cash.

D.) This forces people who have most of the useful items to buy cosmetics and other junk, just to waste expiring SC. In reality it would be in our best interest to save up for useful new items that come out (e.g. the holiday pistols).

Oh for God's sake. It's the damned OMFG ploy again. STOP trying to sugar the pill. It actually makes my skin crawl.

This offer is NOT more generous, AND YOU KNOW IT'S NOT! If it were, you'd recognise that whilst (theoretically) more generous, it's different, and one-size-fits-all means this isn't going to go down well (see the two likes on the original post and 30+ likes on the ones saying its a terrible idea). Thus, if this offer were truly about added value, you'd either offer an opt-out, or you'd make it such that if you didn't claim your free item, you got the 500SC as previously agreed (since apparently giving that is LESS generous than this new idea).

Let me know when you implement the above and I'll subscribe just to show my support for admitting when you've been caught out. Otherwise, change the smarmy used car salesman attitude in the first post; it's simply not the way to handle things. It's just one more moment of SOE running in their customers faces just how much they're being milked for their cash.

No thanks, already cancelled my subscription. I'm tired of the dangling carrots and hype of things 8 months old, buffing purchased items after being purchased to the point of being useless, laggy servers after the OMFG, and the list goes on. I provided my own endgame of reaching BR100, now that is done, not much need in sticking around considering all of the issues I mentioned. No doubt that Buzzcut has issues, but even he (a hard core gamer) pulled the Enclave months ago.

Just into my second month of my six month sub (first time subbing) and will obviously cancel as well, now.

So insulting to try to pass this off as "better".

This is not a better deal for us. Please do not implement it.

I'm not sure what to think. Currently it's the short end of the stick for subscribers. In the future it has potential.

Negative
Every 3 months I'd have 1500 SC. I like the sale items so that would get me 4 700SC items.
Now every 3 months I can get 3 700SC items.
But if I didn't want 700SC items I could.....for example today.....buy that Helmet for 125SC and I could get 12 of those every 3 months but now I can get 3.
During the Christmas Sales I bought almost everything. With the new system I could not have landed even a tiny bit of those sales on my premium allowance.

Positive

If we get 2000SC items that are really cool such as that MAX armor in the general discussion......and it's not mostly player created......and it's not considered a bundle........I would be pretty cool with the change.

So forcing players into a $120/year re-occurring subscription to claim their benefit wasn't enough? The only people that would agree to such conditions are going to be your most loyal customers and now you're screwing them over even more? What the hell is wrong with you, SOE?

I've dipped into the cash shop and boosts but I've never fully subscribed and good god I certainly don't have a reason to now.

I agree. Im so sick of them using Reddit, Twitter, blogs, facebook or whatever 10 other random sites they post stuff on.
It seems like the sarcastically named "Official News and Announcements" forum section is there to troll everybody.
Same when you run the launcher and they use it to show you Gamestop Commissioner, Recruit a Friend and Become a Premium Member today! And nothing really relevant that people might like to know when starting up the game...

Im thinking they either like having us look all over the internet to find out these things, or have horrible community management.
Maybe nobody is in charge of these things over there and everybody just does their own thing. It sure seems like it.

I rather liked saving up for big purchases or getting a few little items.
TBH i really don't need anymore of the big purchases.

The feedback you folks are providing goes directly to those who implemented these changes. While these changes do impact multiple games we definitely want to listen and respond to your feedback individually. The way Planetside 2 players feel may be similar or may be different from the way EverQuest players react for instance.

SOE All Access will also be impacted by this change. You should be recieving an email shortly.

This change is across multiple games. In some games there are more items in the 1000 to 2000sc price range.

What kind of things would make this more attractive for veterans do you think?

Item of your choice, not a single item for everyone.

If you have specific suggestions for other ways to increase the value of premium membership please post them. We are listening. I'd reccomend starting a seperate thread though, please PM me with a link if you do.

The goal is for exclusions to be the rarity rather than the norm. That being said it's hard to demonstrate this until we roll out the change.

Your balance will remain in your accounts.

We basically have to include disclaimers for the rare cases we have to use them. But the goal is to make almost everything available.

The emails are going out right now. It's also on the Launchpad, and we'll be pushing this announcement in other ways. We definitely want folks to be aware and give us feedback.

A better option would have been to give people all the SC up front. So as an annual member i would get a lump sum of 12 * 500 SC = 6000 SC. i would be likely to spend it all at once, then when you add more stuff to the shop i'd be out of SC and would likely buy more.

i like getting SOMETHING for my membership on a monthly basis. The 500 SC can't buy much of anything, so i would only get something every other month. Not sure this was the right plan though.

Also, usually when you cancel your membership you lose some of the benefits. Since Sony is changing the system for the worse I hope that when I cancel my membership renewal that I am not adversely effected for the duration of my current membership.

I am a sporadic PS2 player, I play hard core for a month or two then won't log in for a month or two. My sub has been active since launch. I have a decent amount of disposable income (DINK) so the $15 a month didn't hurt. However I really no longer need the extra certs, would need new content and stuff to unlock amiright?!?, so I decided to cancel my membership. I will keep playing and buying SC for stuff I want of course but I see this change as diminishing the value of my membership and will vote with my wallet on this one and remove my membership.