SOE Punishing High Pay, but Non Members

Let's not sit here and compare ***** size, okay? The point is, SOE does not reward their previous members. Regardless if they are subbing now or not, there should be some sort of system in place that gives benefits based on previous money paid.

Also, don't assume that $400 does not include subbing for most of the time I've played.

When I stop a sub for most games. It means I can't even play those games. FFXIV, WOW, WIldstar, ect. And I don't complain about that. Just like if I were to stop my sub here, I wouldn't complain either (and I may stop subbing soon so its not a matter of me having mine).

Membership gives a ton of benefits, in PS2 and in many other games. Regardless of if you play them or not, the benefits are still there. If you want the benefits, you pay for them. If you can't pay for them, you don't get them.

Remember membership is a SERVICE that you PURCHASE. This whole thing about SOE not awarding previous members... is BS. Plain and simple. They don't owe you anything. You got what you paid for. If you subbed for 2 years, you got benefits for 2 years.

"SOE doesn't award previous members..."

Why don't you all do this when you go to Wal Mart or McDonalds? I'll tell you why you don't, because you know you're full of it and don't want to get told to your face.

How about this. I'm a CURRENT member. Whatever you get, I should get 15x what you get. And I shouldn't have to login for it. Deal? I get 240 certs a day just for faithfully making payments. I'll be for that. You can have your little 16 certs.

The passive cert gain had nothing to do with rewarding high or low pay.

Online MMO games used to have a monthly fee... This isn't the case anymore with free-to-play... Purchase boosts or a membership if you want faster cert gain... Simple as that really...

Now, if you pump a lot of $$$ into the game would it be nice if they gave you some free certs or boosts? Sure, that would be nice and they should think about doing that...

I don't get it.

You know what you got when you paid for it.

It was a small touch of benevolence for someone that can't always play a full session or is new to the game. Your cert gains grow exponentially as you gain BRs, but as a low BR/new player 12 certs is very helpful. It means that even if you're getting absolutely stomped by the high BR players and are trying to learn, you will still be able to get an optical upgrade for the gun you're trying out. For veteran players the change doesn't matter much and they have more than balanced out the gain by adding more experience to gameplay actions like point defense. For new players, it was kind of the 'chin up, maybe you won't die so hard this time' message that greeted you when you logged in. Maybe they could add it back to characters or accounts with BRs under 10-15.

So if I get this right....

People are upset that the game they don't actually pay for no longer rewards them not actually playing?

Are new players and casuals that sensitive that they need to feel good when they login just before they get themselves wrecked? I know society (governments, parents, and teachers) have coddled people so badly that their self esteem is in the toilet, but do video game companies need to further the epidemic too?

Can we let online games be the last bastion of non-wussication? A place where we can remain competitive and not catering to the downfall of confidence and personal responsibility?

Less and less games have baptism by fire. More and more games are getting simpler, mediocre, and boring. And worst of all, less and less competitive. And I don't mean competition by stats. I'm talking one person to one person, team versus team, and faction prides. Everyone is expected to compete, and pull their weight, and shares the glory.. or the defeat. But in defeat, it makes the next victory just that more sweeter.

I agree. It's really bad for new players and everybody who has a low level character of another faction.

The 12 certs are almost halfway to a scope for your weapon which improves your ability to aim a lot.
For 12 certs you can get 12 of the basic 1 cert vehicle upgrades. Also a big help for new players/new characters.

Overall I agree with those saying that the game already is difficult enough for new players. Higher level players have unlocked more stuff and can take more hits or have a bigger variety of weapons for different situations. This is unnecessary!

Especially since there are a lot of items and upgrades in the game so the 12 free certs per day don't matter on the long run. But it does matter in the beginning. You are able to get new weapons/upgrades a little bit faster and by that the game opens up more and more for you.

Grinding for resources is in my opinion one of the most annoying "elements" of gameplay. In fact I think it is a gameplay design failure. But I am willing to tolerate it in a good F2P game because it's in the nature of this business modell. PS2 is considered to be one of the better F2P games because the gameplay itseld is solid and you can get competitive in gear rather fast. The free certs take a big part in this.

You say that they were removed because "offline cert earning is not communicated effectively as a general login incentive and does not achieve its goals" and to "increase the overall benefit of being a Member".

In respone to the first point:

Yes it works. And it even goes further than that. I often just wanted to log into the game to get the certs but then ended up playing with my outfit. I wouldn't have had all that fun if it wasn't for the initiation to log in for the free certs. And it kept me connected to the game which then resulted in me investing money in it. If you are in an outift you like with people you like the free certs work as a login incentive in combination. If they shouldn't work try to think of something that makes it easrier for new players to get into outfits. That way you fix the probem with the tutorial and get them to identify themselves with the game. If they log in we can take them from there. But if they don't log in because there is no reward and everybody in the game has better gear than them and just grinding certs with those zergs is boring (written from their perspective) you will loose them in the early stages.

In respone to the second point:

Is that your solution for it? Instead of thinking of something to increase the value for paying members you just reduce the value for non-members. That's the cheapest and cheasiest solution you had. All you did was taking away something from the non-members so that the members will think they have more value keeping it. I think (hope?) they are smarter than that.

Overall I don't think the communitiy will benefit from this. A lot of new players will just abandon the game after a short while because it's so frustrating in the begining and those items cost so much certs that they feel out of reach. In the end the communitiy will miss them. Their personalitiy as well as their numbers. Well at least the personality of the nice ones.

I can't shop at Wal-Mart, wrong country. However, I can go into any supermarket in the UK and get my bags for free. I can even order it online and have it delivered for free if I order over a certain amount. With a loyalty card I can get money off future purchases. This is what I'm asking for. A little something that doesn't matter too much to show their appreciation for the money we've spent, that's how customer service works.

If you don't keep your customers happy they'll go elsewhere and you'll lose money. Planetside 2 is losing players, because they don't keep their customers happy.

Me? I'll keep playing until they shut the servers down.

That's not a bad idea, actually. Once you sped more than $12-15 within 30 days (about the cost of membership), give the person one month of membership status with better que access, offline certs, etc.

This is not against you, but just a general PSA in this current economic climate:

Go to your local library and borrow books to teach you new skills that can increase your salary. I did this to learn some basic programming, database skills, etc. and went from software support to software configuration, to working on a development team within 1-2 years. Salary increase was nice too. The cost was the price of gas from my house to the library.

Sure, you might not get the ideal job, but if you can do better until the economy gets healthier, why not?

Passive cert gain should have been reduced to 6 or 4 certs a day instead of completely forgoing them for F2P.

i dont think that's the point. i am a free2play player, too, but have currently accumulated 9.5k certs (without boosts). so i couldnt care less about those free 12 certs per gameplay session

but newer and casual players rather tend to struggle with cert accumulation and the 12 certs per 24 hours was a good way to keep them both interested and encouraged to continue playing. with this removed from the game, new player retention probably takes a huge hit and less people will stick around. the servers are already getting emptier, only a question of time until the last servers are getting merged again

i dont think planetside2 can afford losing too many players. its content are the players, as it provides massive battles with huge player numbers. the removal of the passive cert gain for non-members definitely wont help its case

"Nothing is for free, except for PT."

That's what I learned in the US Army and it couldn't be more true. Those bags at the supermarket are not free. They are included in the cost of the food. Bag price goes up, so do food prices. Ordering stuff online over a certain amount, that isn't free either. Its just a convience on their part that they are shipping enough to your area. Again if gas prices go up, so does your goods, even if the shipping is 'free'. And loyalty cards? Yeah I suppose those are free. Free advertising for the company to you. Read the fine print.

All I got to say is, welcome to doing business in the US. Where you only ever get what you pay for. If you don't like that, then don't do business with American companies. SOE is one of our nicer ones. For one membership cost they give you premium access to five games.

But that is one of the benefits of doing business in America. You don't get stuff for free (unless its from the government), but you do get a good bargain once in a while. But free shtuff? Gotta go to a government for that. Businesses here won't do that.

That's one way to do it. Always have a skill that's relevant. One of my sisters for example has a degree in psychology. Because of being married to my brother in law who used to be in the army, she had to work different jobs, many if not all of which were not related to her specialty. It happens.

Rest of this isn't related to the quoted person.

As far as tuition costs are concerned... I'm going to call bull on them being expensive. You don't always have to go to an elite university for a technical trade. For example, here is the tuition costs for the school I went to and got a degree from:



Full time is 12 hrs. But for most trades like electricians, plumbers, and heating/air techs. You're only going to be taking 2-3 hours per semester and maybe only for a semester or two. Its a quick and dirty way to get an education that matters. But it does involve a bit of work.

This whole thing about the economy being crap.. that excuse has been used since the printed currency was invented. I can't buy that as an excuse when it takes me weeks and months to find someone to cement my driveway, do electrical work, do carpeting and tile, to get an addition done on the house, ect ect. Just because the people who are capable of doing it around where I live, are all busy. And it goes further then that. When I go to a restaurant, there's a line. Not because the establishment is full. Half the place is empty, and not reserved. But because they don't have enough wait staff and cooks.

I'm serious.. its ridiculous. Its like we have a negative unemployment rate or something. There's so many jobs and businesses that need people here that there isn't enough to go around. And even if everyone's area isn't like that. There's always jobs for people to take. You just need the skill and the gumption to do them.

Hey, it's not my fault if you don't complain about being treated poorly as a customer of SOE's services, just as you are treated poorly by WoW, Squeenix, etc.

Just because you don't complain, does not mean there is an inherent wrongness about the issue.

Also, Wal-Mart and McDonalds don't charge me $15 a month to access their game (and then charge extra for the patty). Besides which, many other grocery stores which are a lot better offer rewards points and loyalty systems as cheap and frivolous as they are so maybe I'll take my business to those companies instead?

And stop with the '16 certs' yadda yadda. This goes further than that. It simply ended up happening that this occured around the time SOE decided to remove features from F2P players.

That doesn't mean SOE can't change. They don't need you to defend them.