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Considering the response from the reopening of lifetime subs
4Renziks
Member UncommonPosts: 390
I think we can call this game a success...
playing: Dragon Age
Waiting: for FF14, Mass Effect
Want to try: Fallen Earth
Comments
Or as I've been saying, the possibility that Atari, in the midst of it's lawsuit from Turbine over poor advertising and contractual agreements, is being really careful about how they break their agreements in their other projects so they don't get more than one potentially company-destroying lawsuit at a time.
Or as I've been saying, the possibility that Atari, in the midst of it's lawsuit from Turbine over poor advertising and contractual agreements, is being really careful about how they break their agreements in their other projects so they don't get more than one potentially company-destroying lawsuit at a time.
Iam just going by the number of people saying they are buying lifetime subs...reason for opening it or not is besides the point. I never understood why there can even be a lawsuit....i have a pizza place by my house that claims that have the worlds biggest slice...2blocks down i can get a bigger slice...i dont think they have been sued yet.
playing: Dragon Age
Waiting: for FF14, Mass Effect
Want to try: Fallen Earth
playing: Dragon Age
Waiting: for FF14, Mass Effect
Want to try: Fallen Earth
Or as I've been saying, the possibility that Atari, in the midst of it's lawsuit from Turbine over poor advertising and contractual agreements, is being really careful about how they break their agreements in their other projects so they don't get more than one potentially company-destroying lawsuit at a time.
Iam just going by the number of people saying they are buying lifetime subs...reason for opening it or not is besides the point. I never understood why there can even be a lawsuit....i have a pizza place by my house that claims that have the worlds biggest slice...2blocks down i can get a bigger slice...i dont think they have been sued yet.
It's very easy for them to be targeted for not advertising properly or changing their "limited time" offer into a "limited quantity" offer. Especially when there's a lawsuit in progress about their advertising and how they handle their games.
If you want to be really skeptical, then it's quite possible to imagine that the whole 'sold out' thing was part of the marketing strategy.
Once they said it was sold out, everyone wanted one. Until then, most people were whining like hell about how the lifetime subscription was such a horrible investment. Once it sold out, the feeling completely changed.
Saying that it sold out told everyone that the lifetime sub was popular. It told everyone that other people trusted Cryptic and their product to be worth playing for at least an year.
Maybe it created a little bad press for a couple days, but the end result is more subscriptions.
I think what happened was those that got into the OPEN OPEN BETA really enjoyed the games style. Many then jumped on the bandwagon of the special subs. More so then was anticipated. However, ticking off those that didn't get a shot at it after the BETA was a boneheaded mistake, bad publicty will certainly hurt their current AND future earnings. Plus, more likely the Turbine lawsuit was a contributing factor to the reinstatement.
Could see Turbine's lawyers using numerous posts on this, against Atari, in court.
It is definately a good thing. Of course here on MMORPG you get people bitching no matter what. It just shows how MMORPG is the bottom of the barrel. This place has a lot of info and its really good. Except for those idiot posters/Trolls/Haters what ever you want to call them.
On one hand it was just a bit of an oversight and they deserve recognition for reopening the offer when the news broke.
On the other hand it was a carefully orchastrated piece of marketing to make those who were undecided suddenly panic to take the offer when they thought it had been taken away from them- worthy of marketing praise instead.
Either way it works out to 11 months subscription for me so I signed up.
Have this and the Lotro one which allows me to dive in and out whenever I want. I certainly have made a profit on LOTRO against paying monthly
To err is human....to play is divine
I tend to agree. A few days ago, I predicted (on the CO forums) they would re-open the life-time subs again before launch.
It looks a lot like a marketing scheme, pretty much after the book. And the bad press for the closing will be far less than the good press for the re-opening.
But I guess it will please some people, and I have problems thinking that is bad, so...
I tend to agree. A few days ago, I predicted (on the CO forums) they would re-open the life-time subs again before launch.
It looks a lot like a marketing scheme, pretty much after the book. And the bad press for the closing will be far less than the good press for the re-opening.
But I guess it will please some people, and I have problems thinking that is bad, so...
That's a nice theory, but I don't think the facts support it.
They spent a lot of time retroactively editing their posts and announcements so that they no longer mentioned the Sept 1 deadline and instead just said limited time offer. It was only when people started coming up with Google (and other) caches of edited pages that they relented and reinstated the offer.
This doesn't strike me as a marketing move to generate more business. Instead, it seems like they really did try to cancel things and then cover up all their mistakes with the retroactive editing. When the complaints about this got too common though and people pointed out how dishonest it was, they felt they had to relent and reinstate things.
Or as I've been saying, the possibility that Atari, in the midst of it's lawsuit from Turbine over poor advertising and contractual agreements, is being really careful about how they break their agreements in their other projects so they don't get more than one potentially company-destroying lawsuit at a time.
Yay for negative nancies ... seriously who cares if that had anything to do with it or not. Personally I don't think it had anything to do it. It was a pretty large negative out pouring over the sudden removal.
"Freedom is just another name for nothing left to lose" - Janis Joplin
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Or as I've been saying, the possibility that Atari, in the midst of it's lawsuit from Turbine over poor advertising and contractual agreements, is being really careful about how they break their agreements in their other projects so they don't get more than one potentially company-destroying lawsuit at a time.
Link Proof? or bullcrap!
This game is gonna blow WoW out of the water. In fact its scarrier than that, the target audience for this game has WoW all over it plus the Hardcore like me Love the game since the new frontier is Character Creativity.
When I begin my take over of the world...I will come for you, I think you are a villain type hehe.
A pretty interesting marketing trick to get people that were either not interested or on the fence to actually purchase the lifetime sub. The fact that they are pushing a lifetime sub means they are betting you won't be entertained by the game for more than 13 months.
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic
Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW
Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike
Loved: Star Wars Galaxies
Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
call me a sucker......maybe I was duped, but I bought one immediately after I saw the remaining 1000 & 500 post on the main site. I had already planned on probably doing the lifetime, keyword probably, but I was going to wait until the last day to get a better impression, especially since I heard beta was extended. Ultimately I didn't want to risk losing my chance at the lifetime so I purchased it. Played CoX for three years so I think I will at least get my 13 months of enjoyment out of it.
The main reason I bought the lifetime sub is because I'm a very busy working adult with little time to play and have months here and there were I only squeeze in 3-4 hours for the month. When I do that I feel like I'm wasting money at $15 a month. However, after that first year I'm playing for free so it will be much easier to pick up the game when I can and leave it when I can't, not feeling like I'm wasting money.
There sure is a lot of conspiracy theories abounding.
Here's mine.
The accounts department wasn't set up to process the transactions as fast as they were getting them, or it's system had an unforseen glitch.
So they shut it down.
It's fixed, so now it's back up.
Or as I've been saying, the possibility that Atari, in the midst of it's lawsuit from Turbine over poor advertising and contractual agreements, is being really careful about how they break their agreements in their other projects so they don't get more than one potentially company-destroying lawsuit at a time.
exactly. They feared another lawsuit. They actually stealth-edited the post to say quantities when it originally said Sept 1.
Want Proof? Well google cache has your back. Undisputable proof.
What the thread originally said before they canceled the program
"We're very excited to announce two special subscription packages available for purchase for a limited-time! Both of these offers are only going to be around until September 1st, so sign up while you still can. Below are the details for both the lifetime and 6-month subscription packages.
What it said after they stealth edited it
Both of these offers are only going to be around until supplies last,
It could also have been a marketing trick though. A basic principle of marketing is the theory of limited freedom. If you tell someone they cant have something, they tend to want it more. So they can make up a reason to stir up people (& get free press at the same time) then allow people to buy it but "only for the next couple days hurry!". As if it's such a great deal that people have to act fast since they're stealing from the company. I'm sorry this game is not that good. After the first few months, Most of these people (who dont have strong denial mechanisms anyway) are going to realize they just dropped a chunk of change on a clunker.
Or as I've been saying, the possibility that Atari, in the midst of it's lawsuit from Turbine over poor advertising and contractual agreements, is being really careful about how they break their agreements in their other projects so they don't get more than one potentially company-destroying lawsuit at a time.
exactly. They feared another lawsuit. They actually stealth-edited the post to say quantities when it originally said Sept 1.
Want Proof? Well google cache has your back. Undisputable proof.
What the thread originally said before they canceled the program
"We're very excited to announce two special subscription packages available for purchase for a limited-time! Both of these offers are only going to be around until September 1st, so sign up while you still can. Below are the details for both the lifetime and 6-month subscription packages.
What it said after they stealth edited it
Both of these offers are only going to be around until supplies last,
It could also have been a marketing trick though. A basic principle of marketing is the theory of limited freedom. If you tell someone they cant have something, they tend to want it more. So they can make up a reason to stir up people (& get free press at the same time) then allow people to buy it but "only for the next couple days hurry!". As if it's such a great deal that people have to act fast since they're stealing from the company. I'm sorry this game is not that good. After the first few months, Most of these people (who dont have strong denial mechanisms anyway) are going to realize they just dropped a chunk of change on a clunker.
CHATTER, there is simply nothing legally obligating them to continue selling their lifetime offer if they don't want to. The reason for not selling it doesn't matter one bit. A lawsuit wouldn't do anything. Stealth edit or not, Cryptic didn't break the law.
If you think they did something amoral, then by all means shout it across the internet and never buy their products. That is how capitalism works.
Actually thre are laws about false advertising. I can't tell you that I am selling cars for $10, and then not do that. There have been numerous cases where people have had to sell things for stupid low prices because they had an add that someone "proved" was deceptive.
These adds were very clear. You have until Sept 1st to purchase one of these special offers. There was no mention on quantifties or that the offer might be rescinded at any time other than the Sept 1st date. That means that they have a legal obligation to honor people trying to buy that product at that price until that time.
Now I'm not mad at them. They probably had a target quota on them, made the quota on them and tried to shut to down. I actually do think they've had more interest than they expected. I know that I had a hard time getting a pre-order key from Gamestop and had to go to a store 20 miles away (in the chicagoland area) to actually get mine. If you think you have that much interest or that your product will be a hit, you don't want to discount.
When confronted with the negative outcry and perhaps the threat of lawsuits, they did the right thing.
If you've ever worked for a corporation, they aren't some kind of conspiracy sleuth. It's frankly amazing that any large company manages to survive day to day. In reality they are just not that adept at the kinds of market manipulation that they are being acused of. The simplest explaination is that they wanted to limit the discounts, saw the negative reaction and perhaps even the legal repercussions, and did the right thing before taking too much damage on it.
Does this change my opinion of the game and/or Cryptic? No. I like the game, and Cryptic/Atari are no better or worse than any other bumbling corporation (which is pretty much all of them).
Atari had everything to do with how many lifetime subs they could sell. Publishers are like the Mob. They lend you money than drain the hell out of you for life.
There is no conflict about the pricing. You're talking applies. This is oranges. If I have a sign in my shop window that says I am open from 9AM to 5PM on Friday, I am not legaly obligated to be open at that time. If I needed to close at 4PM for *whatever* reason I don't think you're gonna get very far with your lawsuit. How is this any different?
There is no conflict about the pricing. You're talking applies. This is oranges. If I have a sign in my shop window that says I am open from 9AM to 5PM on Friday, I am not legaly obligated to be open at that time. If I needed to close at 4PM for *whatever* reason I don't think you're gonna get very far with your lawsuit. How is this any different?
I think the more accurate connection would be to say that in your store you said I open 9pm-5pm and if you come to my store you can take part in this limited time offer where I will give you a drawing I made of you and a whole bunch of goodies. The only stipulation is you have to come to the store by 12pm no later because the offer is only valid until that time. And then when you come to the store at 10:30 they say, "Oh sorry! We ran out!"
The point of the matter is, they gave a certain amount of perks and options associated with these subscriptions. They also had a disclaimer on the site saying "These offers end August 31st, 11:59PM PDT." And then before that time you are being presented with - "These offers are over". You can make a valid argument stating that they advertised that you could purchase these offers up until August 31st, 11:59PM PDT, and they did not honor that advertisement.
I think most people were in the same boat. I was between 90 and 95% sure of getting one, but there just wasn't any reason to actually purchase until beta was over. Once they gave a reason to hurry, people did - and they immediately sold out.
I only heard about this game through a friend and also from the limited offer hulaballoo that has arisen
So I went online and picked up a pre-order from play and got my code this morning, Inputting my code I saw the lifetime offer showing, did some quick math (roughly 11 months playtime) and considered how many MMO I had brought and payed monthly subs to I debated it
but the Star Trek Beta Access certainly clinched the deal for me
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