Customer Service Announcement: Premium Membership

So what happens right on the edge?

My sub runs out Jan 19th. If I resub, which happens:

1. I get 500 SC when I resub and no free item come Feb 3rd.
2. I get no SC and a free item come Feb 3rd.
3. Both of the above.
4. Neither. (I doubt it, but it's on there.)

If it's 3, I'll probably resub.

I just gotta say, while I am extremely disappointed with the original change and they way it was rolled out, I have been continually impressed by your responses in this thread, Piestro. You have done an amazing job engaging a thoroughly irritated customer base and managed to both reassure the base and turn the bulk of the discussion into positives and suggestions. Nice work.

On that that note: In the All-Access email, there was a mention of a special in-game currency for DCUO. It seems to me that this could be one way of alleviating what many suspect is an issue. It would require a larger change at SOE rather than at just PS2, but if SC remained a SOE currency, applicable to all games, and PS2 created a special in-game currency of Auraxian Credits or somesuch, then the PS2 premium membership could grant these new ACs instead of SCs at the same rate. You would then not have the issue of people transferring rewards from PS2 into EQN or whereever. Purchasable game cards from retailers would give SCs, All-Access accounts could give SCs (or game-specific currency, which I think people would be ok with), and there would be a 1:1 exchange rate from SCs to Game-Specific Currency, but not the other way around.

This wouldn't address any concern about inflation or SC/AC hoarding within a game, but it strikes me that if SOE is willing to allow for an identical program in one of it's games, then it's not the concept of the free 500 credits/month that can be saved that's the problem, it's the tranferrability of these credits to other games that is the true issue.

(bold emphasis added)

This guy is spot on, I'm really concerned about the future of Planetside 2.

You really think you got a point? How about you go back to the drawing board because 500 SC was never ever a part of membership costs. It was always a "bonus" of having reoccurring subscription. You could buy a $15 card at gamestop, use it for 1 month of premium - and that does NOT include 500SC.

The 500SC is not nor was it ever part of the member benefit for just paying your $15.

Your entire argument is invalid. So get rid of the attitude and try again.

I have always used the 500 SC from membership to buy multiple items when they were 50% off, giving me "1000 SC worth of value on as many items as I please"

Below is a list of items that are not Player Studio or Bundles that I don't currently own that cost 1000 SC or more:
-Golden Commissioner, Underboss, NS7 PDW (2,000)
-Black Commissioner, Underboss, NS7 PDW (1,400)
-Grey Scales Weapon Camo, Dark Digital Camos (1000)
-Retracted Foreman Helmet, Djinn Mask (1000)
-Flash Deluxe Bracer Guard, Flash Deluxe Rail Guard, Vanguard Deluxe Paneled Trim (1000)

I could care less about the black and gold versions of weapons, as I will always be using camouflage on them. All three dark digital camos are lighter than the grey scales camos that I have already, and the grey scales weapon camo itself is lighter than most weapons would be without camo applied. The retracted version of the foreman helmet looks like garbage compared to the closed version, which SOE doesn't want members to purchase for some reason. And the Vanguard Deluxe Trim goes in the same slot as lumifiber, which I will be keeping empty until they release the blue lumifiber that I am certain they already have patterns for.

So, with those items excluded for the above reasons, I am left with a choice between 3 items: a mediocre helmet and two flash cosmetics (lol who uses the flash) that both take up the same slot so I will never possibly purchase both.



SOE, if this change goes through, you have 2 months worth of membership left from me. Maybe less.



Things that could increase the potential value for membership:
-One Month resource & exp boots for 1750-2000 SC
-Player Studio items included
-Bundles included
-Able to purchase up to TWO items worth 1000 SC each instead

Will this 2000 SC purchase include bundles? I don't know what will cost that much unless you guys roll out with some new super expensive weapons.

PRO(S):
Lets me buy more expensive items in one month so it won't take as long to unlock things with SC.

CONS:
Will not let me buy multiple member sale items in one month. What about those 1SC member sales for Christmas? Will I only be able to get 1 of those with this new system? I like the fact I can get more things for cheaper prices with sales, but now that will be negated by this new one purchase system.

I think that this system is a start, but you will have to troubleshoot things to make it so people can still take advantage of sales. Maybe something like we have 500SC to spend on anything, then say 1000SC for one big purchase. I think something similar to this would be the best choice. I am not going to cancel my membership due to this change, I think PS2 is a masterpiece of a game. I hope you consider my Idea.

I've contributed a couple of times to this thread already, but I can see why Sony want us to think they're giving us more value for money, by allowing us to spend up to 2000SC at one time and I admit that is a generous thing to do considering that's purchases up to about £20 in value.

What they need to do though, to satisfy those who are leaving, is just specify criteria like so:

- "Buy 2 camo packs a month, whatever your choice!" (Do offers to increase it to 3 for a members sale).
- "Every 3 months, be granted a new gun available to only members, and exclusive to your faction only, based on the length you've been a member for!" (Can see how that might be unpopular but it's one way to reward loyalty nicely, maybe twist it differently).

Or better yet, give members a kind of catalogue where they can select from a certain amount of items every month, selected by the PS2/SOE team, but let them pick 3 items from the catalogue available to them. I think that'd be a trade-off which would meet in the middle between users and between SOE, and tbh I'd probably buy a membership if they did that.

I currently do not play PS2 on the PC and have been waiting for its release on the PS4. I'm very excited, however, this is a bit discouraging.

I hope this is a change is for the best and truly benefits all parties as the outcome will affect more than just the PC side and will reflect SOE's player relations.

P.S. hurry up with that PS4 release

Here's the thing.

SOE isn't just correcting the issue they need to resolve - they are also taking something real away from subscribers.

If SOE was just trying to make it a better situation for both sides, why are we going to be forced to choose 1 item per month? Why can't we save them up and force SOE to make a steady stream of items worth our attention?

If SOE was trying to make it a better situation for both sides, why are people that have already had their subs renewed not being allowed to keep the SC option til the end of the sub... or, get a refund on remaining months?

Why does DCUO get to keep their 500 loyalty points, and we don't get to?
I could care less if my *Station Cash* is planetside2 only.. can we just convert to a planetside only currency to solve the issue?

Hi Piestro,
Thank you for taking the time to reply to my post. I agree with some of the other folks and appreciate that you actually take the time to listen to the feedback from your customer base.
I'm trying to understand your company's situation in order to formulate a suggestion that would work all-round. My understanding is that the SC is causing the company problems because it's so closely tied to actual currency especially now that the player studio has come about.
If the player studio is what is causing the additional issues, may I suggest giving the customers a second option if they wish to stay with the current 500 SC a month plan? I would suggest for those who wish to continue receiving 500SC a month, the tradeoff will be that they will not have access to player studio items. Those will need to be purchased separately. To allow the players to distinguish between what items they can buy, you can create a new third currency called UC (Universal Currency) for example. This currency can be used to buy any item in the game but can only be obtained by actual money exchange for cash rather than part of a package deal. The items in the game will simply be priced as UC/SC or UC only. I would recommend keeping the UC and SC prices equal for each item (if that item can be bought with SC that is).
For the rest of the players that want to get access to player studio items using their membership, you can just give them the one item free per month deal. I would further suggest allowing the player to switch between options from month to month just so they don't feel like they are locked in.
Would something like this be a win/win?

Aside from the 3 gold plated hand guns, there is nothing that costs even close to 2000 SC, aside from a few bundles, which you are excluding.

Although it SOUNDS like you are giving a lot you are really not since the vast majority of the items cost ~700SC, and since we are allowed to choose ONE item UP TO 2000 SC, 99% of the people will be wasting the vast majority of the SC.
Also that unused amount will vanish on the next month, therefore people will more likely be trying to purchase the most expensive things to use as much of their SC as possible, I PREDICT A LOT of gold plated NS-44's the day this is implemented.

Perhaps we could purchase more than 1 item at a time, and therefore change the rules to one TRANSACTION per month up to 2000 SC. That way if you wanted to buy a couple camouflage patterns or something it won't be such a waste.
Also include bundles/boosts as eligible.

This needs rethinking or left alone.

That would actually be a good idea and not only make SOE a lot of money in both the short and long term but it would also make the customers extremely loyal word of mouth advertisers of the game.

It makes too much common sense. It WON'T happen.

+1 for 1500 monthly SC instead of this proposed solution.

I like the idea of that catalog, it would be really neat to have different items in it every month. Or maybe have different items in the catalog have different "point" values, and you have X amount of points to puts towards items each month. So you could get 3-4 camos or 2 Tier-5 costing weapons or an expensive cosmetic. You have different point values to spend depending on how long your membership lasts for.
EXAMPLE:
1-month: 5 points
2-months: 10 points
3-months: 15 points
5-months: 30 points
6-months: 45 points
12-months: 95 points
A camo can cost say 15 points and an 750cert weapon can cost 60 points. These values won't work for balancing issues probably, but it's the idea that counts. Points can carry over to encourage saving and people can get what they want. See this SOE? This is a perfect method to encourage people to get longer memberships, and it gets you money!

I appreciate that, thanks.

The purpose of this change seems fairly obvious to me, in light of the quasi-announcement that SC multiplier sales will also no longer happen: SOE probably feels like their big-spending customers were having too easy a time spending their cash efficiently. They don't want people piling up a bunch of cheap SC and spending it steadily as things go on sale; they want you to be pulling out your CC when they release the Hot New Thing(TM.)

That's fair enough as far as it goes; sometimes costs increase, and sometimes you just feel like your business could be making more money if you charged more. I manage a business that rents space and equipment to consumers and other businesses, and sometimes our rates increase. As long as you give adequate notice to customers they mostly don't mind because they understand that it happens, even if it means they take their business elsewhere.

The people I feel badly for are the people who just renewed their membership. Letting people continue to pay for renewals under the old payment scheme right up to the point that you irrevocably change the terms is openly predatory; there is nothing else to call it. If I were in that situation I would immediately chargeback my sub fees and let them ban me if they wanted.

I'm sure they could do that, if they made some PS2 only currency that excluded Studio items.

But is that really what you want?

It is not a boon because you are taking away player choice. I can buy whatever I want with 500 SC/month such as item bundles or player studio items, or even choose to save it for next month. Your replacement "boon" means I can only pick ONE ITEM, can't be a bundle or player studio item, and I HAVE to log in once a month to do it, yet even if I don't log in you guys will charge my CC anyways. Its worse in every single way compared to 500 SC.

In my opinion (key words here), your company's intent is NOT to provide a "better benefit" or "boon" or whatever nice, calm words your marketing team wants to throw out there, but to up-sell the people who have already bought a membership for an additional $10+ month.

This sounds like a good change; but the internet can never recieve a gift without thinking there isnt some kind of bomb attached to it.

Thank You Soe;and guys come on they are giving us something more for subscribing.