SC unlocks not account-based?!

If the things we're purchasing were significantly cheaper I wouldn't mind so much, but they're way too expensive not to be account-bound. I'm not even really talking about guns so much as I am the cosmetic items.

They're really shooting themselves in the foot when populations start to subside. People might be ok floating from server to server if they get to keep their gear, but having to start fresh each time. Kind of a major pain.

Another thing not mentioned (though implied by the thread title): if you spend money on an experience boost, it should be account-wide. Why shouldn't a different character not get the boost you spent money on when you're in another server?

Of course the team at SOE have had their hands full with the launch, but I hope this oversight is fixed soon so I can use some SC with confidence. And yes, I believe it was an oversight. The dev team has been reasonable throughout beta, and I hope they continue now. I'm just baffled that they didn't see this coming, the fix could be farther off than I'd hope if they have to rework their purchasing infrastructure to fix this.

I had this issue myself; thinking that it would be unlocked on all my "Faction Specific" characters (TR). I was so sure of myself that I deleted a character with a very high amount of SC spent... then when I went to re-create that character... I had none of those unlocks so all that SC t hat was spent just evaporated and SoE cashed out (technically).

However, I did call and put in a support ticket and they are working with me to try and recover my SC, or give me the items I unlocked on my newly created character.

Sure; I could be at blame for deleting a character with all that SC on it... but no where, ever, does it say that the items are Character Bound and that if I deleted my character that I would no longer have access to them. This, in my eyes, puts SoE on just the same amount of blame, if not more.

It makes more sense to me; that the unlocks are Faction-Wide... not Character-Wide. Since each faction has it's own pool of unique guns that you're unlocking... they would still fetch a decent price to anyone that wanted to unlock them with SC. Sorry, but Character-Specific is pretty low and bad form.

They would make more money from having account wide unlocks. I know I am not going to spend any money on stuff that is character bound. There are many out there like me. It makes more sense to me to have 50000 people spend 10 bucks on an account wide unlock than 5000 people spend 30 bucks on 3 characters. I made up those numbers for easy comparison but In my opinion that is how it works.

People are much less willing to impulse buy on character unlocks. Account unlocks always sell better in any F2P game. It also creates more of a connection to your account by having account wide unlocks. What is the point of limiting the characters you can make on a server when someone can just make another account?? It doesnt prevent spying because the items are character bound so there is no need for me to stick to the single account.

That's fine, I just hope you realize how much of a copout that is.

So, you and others did mention some valid reasons for changing servers, such as wanting to play with friends, or if a server is too laggy. The latter might not be something you notice right off the bat, so some leniency can be made for arguing the point of, "If the experience on that server was bad, why would you buy stuff there?" but the friend thing is a pretty big oversight. If you don't know where your friends are going, that's kind of on you.

But really this isn't about you or your reasons for switching servers, at the heart of it; I think that most people here don't seem to be accustomed to F2P MMOs, or F2P games in general. Very, very, very few MMOs have account-wide unlocks for cosmetic items (someone in this thread said boosts should be account-wide, and that's pretty much non-existant--it'd be a dumb business decision). Hell I can think of a few games off the top of my head that will charge you $40 for an outfit that you can use ONCE, and if you take it off it's gone--a one-time use thing. This is standard practice in the MMO world, and it just seems to me that a lot of people are complaining because they're not familiar with that.

Ultimately though this thread isn't going to change anything, and nobody should believe it should. If you think it's going to do anything, you're totally wrong. Sorry. Sony would be foolish to change the way it is; these items are their moneymaker, and this is the industry standard for how these items are doled out.

I suppose it's too bad you spent money and...I don't know, are you not going to play your character on that server now? Anyway, welcome to MMOs, I guess. Bit of a hard crash course but now you know.

Everyone who says this has never actually looked at sales data for commercial products, least of all video games supported by microtransactions. Consumer logic tells you that "lower prices and/or less restrictions (in this case making a one-time purchase for all characters) = more people spending = higher profit." Your jaw would literally fall to the ground to find out how wrong that is, because it goes against logic. But that's the difference between what consumers think should happen, and actual consumer spending habits.

I agree the cosmetics should be account-bound. They are COSMETICS... The camo, helmets, and composite armors should be aviable for every server and every faction once paid for... I have to say, this really puts me off... I am even considering quitting the game. I simply refuse take part in game developed by company that makes theese kinds of decisions.

People willing to pay for items in F2P games won`t do it if they feel like they are being ripped off since they dont need to... You`d better keep this in mind SOE.

You realize that they are in fact just that: COSMETICS, with absolutely no bearing on the mechanics of the game. Therefore leaving the game over a trivial matter like, "oh no, a business is out to make money and I don't agree with how they do it, regardless of the rest of the product they are offering to me at no cost" is rather silly.

Plus there's no punch in saying, "I'm leaving a free-to-play game," because who knows what your personal average spend over the lifetime of this game was going to be? It probably would not have amounted to much if you are upset that someone would have to buy $7 helmets over and over.

I'm in the same boat here.

I might spend a little on a some camo or even an unlock but facing the prospect of being stuck on a low pop server leaves me unlikely to spend much.

A good solution is to increase to choice and have a couple of unlocking levels.

Character - have the character unlocks as they are now, drop the price to about 1/3 to 1/2.
Once-Per-Server - Let the unlock be used for one character on each server. Cost about the same as current
Account-Wide - Probably a significant cost increase but you can use it on an unlimited number of characters per server.

Everything that's unlockable by using cert points should be character-bound.
Everything that's only unlockable by SC should be account/empire-bound.

Otherwise it's a total ripoff. I'm not going to buy anything from the store if it stays like it's now.
Especially the cosmetics.
I could live with character-bound exp/ressource-boosts.

You realize that I am not talking about the game mechanics nor trying to "punch" anything here. I am not trying to blackmail SOE into changing the system by sayting I`ll quit.

Since they are cosmetics, I don`t see any gameplay mechanics reason for them to be character bound (contrary to weapons).

Yes, the statement "business is out to make money and I don't agree with how they do it, regardless of the rest of the product they are offering to me at no cost" is accurate. I dont agree with the way SOE decided to sell their ingame items. You can`t preview them on your character/vehicle before purchase, you can`t get a refund, not even considering the fact that you do not have an idea it is character bound until you actually pay for it and learn it the hard way.

Now where I live, If I bought something over the internet and I didnt like the way it performed (or looked like) I would have a 7 days refund period. This law is there for a reason - to prevent customers from getting ripped off.

I dont care what is an industry standard - look at how stable, inovative and profittable the industry is theese days, or at the average quality and longevity of MMOs.

I dont care about some fancy dress in a korean F2P model MMO you payed 40 bucks for.

If I state I am willing to completely quit the game just because I dont like their policies, I am just stating that fact.

Give me a freakin break people unless this is the first F2P game you have EVER played you know damn well that items you buy are character bound they ALWAYS are, except in APB where they had to back down to the whiners alliance.

I spent 10k SC on one avatar last night and subscribed for 3 months and I very well may be moving to the new server and that choice is on me, that is not on SOE.

Therefore if I decide to move and spend another 10k station cash good for them, they do not make these games for free and they deserve to make some money to keep making the game better.

Oh and lastly if you are so cheap then wait and watch for the 3X station cash deals they offer now and again. I just loaded up on one the other day knowing I was going to be needing it for this game.

I have to agree if you are willing to spend REAL money on items the items should be Account based not character based BE it weapons or camos etc.. (ofcourse you should not be able to buy VANU camos on TR etc...)

(oh and someone asked if any MMORPG actually did account wide items and APBR does that (tough it did take em quite long time to implement)

Who says I didn't know where they were going? Sometimes people have prior obligations with other people and things don't work out so that everyone can play on the same server all the time. Therefore, multiple characters are created. The actual reasons don't matter, only the situation matters. I have two characters on two servers and one doesn't have the stuff I bought and I think that is dumb. That is the scenario.

That may be standard practice in many awful smaller MMOs, but the ones that are really popular, especially in the west, don't follow that model.

I have spent over a hundred dollars in DDO, purchasing content that I was able to use permanently and for my entire account.
I have spent around a hundred and fifty dollars on PoxNora minis, which I either still have or have traded. If I want to, I can transfer them all to another account (and I have).
I have spent around fifteen dollars on City of Heroes costume pieces, which are available account-wide.
I have spent around thirty dollars on unlocks in Guild Wars 2, which are all available account-wide.
I even spent about twenty dollars on Exteel unlocks which were usable on any mech I built.

There is a reason why I assumed these unlocks would be account-based. I have learned from experience.

The fact that you are willing to pay for the same virtual items over and over means either you don`t care about money or that you`re a M O R O N (I serisouly doubt the first instance).

You see, this is about principle for me. It is not about whether it is ALLWAYS, NORMAL, or STANDARD. It is about the fact, that someone is trying to lure the money from me by shiny thingies ant they do not even provie enough information for me to do make an educated purchase. And there are no refunds. If this doesnt seem shady to you or if you are fine with it or even willing to advocate this kind of behavior, I must return to my initial statement about you nature.

doublepost sorry

If you have that much disposable income to spend on a videogame, then I'm happy for you, but most people don't.

Please keep it civil.

Actually it's the practice of most MMOs, of which there are dozens upon dozens; you listed five, and two of which were not financially successful. This is actually the standard, and it's generally pretty lucrative. I think this discussion is kind of going in circles now; it's regrettable that you didn't know these unlocks would be per character, and spent your money, but I'm not sure what you're looking for SOE to do about it.

This is the real heart of the issue. But again, MOST people aren't really the people being targeted for cosmetic items. The people being targeted for these types of things are the ones with disposable income who don't mind purchasing the same helmet or camo pattern.

You dont make much sense, since it is you who brought up this comparison in the first place.
It is in no way comparable really, but if anything, a hat in TF2 is an honest possession of the player, no matter where he goes. This is not the case with PS2 unlocks.

I dont see much point in defending this other than beein affiliated with SOE.

It is only ugly ugly greed and not anything else.
You will lose more profit by scaring people away with this than you will earn with the unfair greed you are running.

Beeing aware that at least half of the population will have to move server sooner or later and re-buy all their equipment is simply a rip-off. Nuff said.
Im out, kiss my money good-bye.