Feb 10th Update to See Significant Patron Reward Changes

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Feb 10th Update to See Significant Patron Reward Changes

The Rift forum has a new post by Community Team Member 'Ocho' that lays out some fairly significant changes coming to the Patron Rewards Program.

Read the full story here

Acornia

If this change goes live as is on the 10th, I can see the free to play members leaving the game. All this does is to add a pay wall by limiting free to play member being able to do dungeon, raids and war front.

Like City of Steam, this may put both Rift and Trion on their last legs as for me they have no other games that I care to play.

flizzer

Acornia said:

If this change goes live as is on the 10th, I can see the free to play members leaving the game. All this does is to add a pay wall by limiting free to play member being able to do dungeon, raids and war front.

Like City of Steam, this may put both Rift and Trion on their last legs as for me they have no other games that I care to play.

Don't fret.  DMKano will be here soon to tell you why this is a good idea. 

jesteralways

Patrons already have these by default just like everyone else, how blocking them for non patron playerbase makes it a "reward" for patron, i mean they already have it? I want to call it "SWTOR treatment for Rift". Well goodbye Rift, had some fond memory with you but this is as far as i go.

Samhael

I really enjoyed Rift up to the F2P conversion. I went back briefly for Nightmare Tide but just couldn't stand the water expansion and the new quests/story line. This latest change makes me even less interested in returning to check things out... and I would have done that as a patron anyway.

jesteralways

Samhael said:

I really enjoyed Rift up to the F2P conversion. I went back briefly for Nightmare Tide but just couldn't stand the water expansion and the new quests/story line. This latest change makes me even less interested in returning to check things out... and I would have done that as a patron anyway.

This is coming from someone who up until now had faith in Trion : don't bother even looking back.

A1learjet

Samhael said:

I really enjoyed Rift up to the F2P conversion. I went back briefly for Nightmare Tide but just couldn't stand the water expansion and the new quests/story line. This latest change makes me even less interested in returning to check things out... and I would have done that as a patron anyway.

Totally agree with you right here and of course the changes to skills and skills sets and then the souls where added to cash shop only...I mean I was a patron so no bother but geez at least they could have added in some type of quest chain,some achievement to reach to allow this for others .
IMO it turned many of the player base away and really killed it.

The product they put out for the first year and 1/2 was great and very fun after that it just seemed to be a HUSK of its former self( in fact of a Game)

Razeekster

I was a subscriber to this game before it's F2P conversion and really loved it playing it up until after the first expansion, but I don't get this at all. They are "rewarding" patrons by providing them with something that they already have had... aannnnd punishing F2P players by taking it away from them? Yeah, this obviously isn't a cash-grab attempt at all.

pinktailz

sub in F2P game it is hilarious

you either have P2P game or F2P/B2P

when sub appears in non P2P game it clearly indicates greed and failed F2P model

not to mention they sell earring slot, this is just lmao; this game need to die with greedy company

who plays it anyway, animation looks like 2 students made in one evening with beers

Hariken

Its kind of Trions fault as to what happened here. They just gave away so much free stuff to everyone. I was a sub.player that went f2p because there was no point in subbing. I got 6 mounts in this game and didn't pay for one of them. Not to mention all the other free stuff i got. Now its caught up with them and they have to make subbing seem worth it.

tenfootgoatman123

I've really enjoyed Rift since I started playing in 2011 ( late 2010 if you count the beta test ) . I used to subscribe yearly when it was on offer for 60 pounds which worked out about 5 pounds a month ( as opposed to 9 pounds for most other games ) which made it well worth it as a second mmo to me .

I am not too keen on free to play but Rifts up to this point has been pretty generous but perhaps maybe too generous for it to be successful . I think this will drive a lot of free to play players away from Rift and given its player base is already somewhat diminished that is not good news .

Its been a good 5 years but like with all games you get to a point when you know its time to move on and my gut instinct is now its time to go .

Seelinnikoi

If they put these changes live, I will return to Rift as a subscriber.

I quit because the patron bonus was not worth it, and didnt like playing freeloader either.

So if these changes really happen, count me in Trion!

Octagon7711

I think they know that if this doesn't work out they can drop subs and go completely F2P and just work the cash shop to bring in revenue.

Seelinnikoi

Octagon7711 said:

I think they know that if this doesn't work out they can drop subs and go completely F2P and just work the cash shop to bring in revenue.

The cash shop items they have are not worthy, that is why they now seek to have patron subscribers.

If they add meaningful items in the cash shop, more people would buy.

For example, one 2 hour XP potion costs 10 dollars and the timer keeps counting even when you are in towns.
If they made it cheaper and stopped the timer in the city hub, I am sure more people would buy it. Marvel heroes does that.

SoloAnything

flizzer said:

Acornia said:

If this change goes live as is on the 10th, I can see the free to play members leaving the game. All this does is to add a pay wall by limiting free to play member being able to do dungeon, raids and war front.



Like City of Steam, this may put both Rift and Trion on their last legs as for me they have no other games that I care to play.

Don't fret.  DMKano will be here soon to tell you why this is a good idea. 

Even him can't back up this.

rodarin

they made the color tiers t he mini game there guys using REX or buying credits to fill out the bats and get the free crap. Some of it was cool, bit I gave up somewhere in the middle of red. They have added a couple new tiers since then.

These games were pretty awesome when you had alot of people on servers and even when there were multiple raids for certain things (volan) but yu can only grind the same things so many times before your eyes bleed.

I got int dimensions for awhile and that made me stick around a few more months than I probably would have. But with any other game where you can buy sub time with in game currency the wallet circle gets introduced. 

I did log in about a month ago and played for maybe 15 minutes. It is just dated right now, same with Lotro, two decent to good games that are suffering with age.

Reame both with better graphics better engine the 'epicness' of Lotro and make dimensions into a larger instanced 'neighborhood' (cant make open world housing) and these games would take off (again).

But I just think people are completely burnt ot from MMOs and the quest hub hamster wheel. Yeah it isnt bad when the games are brand new and you have seen the same quest a dozen times but after awhile and a coupel alts and these games just run together.

Nicco77

More cash grab from Trion is hardly a news,I wonder what they do with all this money because it's sure that don't go on games improvements.

jesteralways

Seelinnikoi said:

If they put these changes live, I will return to Rift as a subscriber.



I quit because the patron bonus was not worth it, and didnt like playing freeloader either.



So if these changes really happen, count me in Trion!

And i am sure you will get your monies' worth by staying afk in game since the wf queue or gf queue that is already a rare occurrence will now become even more rare. And then you will ask for help in cross server chat, server chat, zone chat with nothing but silence thrown back at you, you will then hopelessly join the faction chat like many others to debate whether to vote trump and kill all muslims or vote for hillary and ban usage of guns. Enjoy.

jesteralways

jesteralways said:

Seelinnikoi said:

If they put these changes live, I will return to Rift as a subscriber.





I quit because the patron bonus was not worth it, and didnt like playing freeloader either.





So if these changes really happen, count me in Trion!

And i am sure you will get your monies' worth by staying afk in game since the wf queue or gf queue that is already a rare occurrence will now become even more rare. And then you will ask for help in cross server chat, server chat, zone chat with nothing but silence thrown back at you, you will then hopelessly join the chat like many others before you to debate whether to vote trump and kill all muslims or vote for hillary and ban usage of guns. Enjoy.

Warlyx

Nicco77 said:

More cash grab from Trion is hardly a news,I wonder what they do with all this money because it's sure that don't go on games improvements.

charlie sheen lifeway :P

syriinx

How is taking stuff away from F2P "Patron Reward Changes". Typical trion being disingenuous to their players. Along side such gems 'as we arent closing servers, we are making trial servers' or 'three faction PvP is what the PvP community wanted (nevermind the fact that almost no one in the forums asked for it and another game with 3 faction PvP was nearing release).

Trion thinks their customers are idiots. Granted so do most companies, but few have ever been so obvious about it.

jesteralways

syriinx said:

How is taking stuff away from F2P "Patron Reward Changes". Typical trion being disingenuous to their players. Along side such gems 'as we arent closing servers, we are making trial servers' or 'three faction PvP is what the PvP community wanted (nevermind the fact that almost no one in the forums asked for it and another game with 3 faction PvP was nearing release).

Trion thinks their customers are idiots. Granted so do most companies, but few have ever been so obvious about it.

They are so blind that they don't see that in their official forums there are currently only 5 people defending their new changes and all 5 of them are RIft fansite owners who make money through rift related sites. Just in a matter of week they have lost so many staunch supporters who would say "yes" to any changes made by them. Trion still won't take it as a sign.

syriinx

jesteralways said:

syriinx said:

How is taking stuff away from F2P "Patron Reward Changes". Typical trion being disingenuous to their players. Along side such gems 'as we arent closing servers, we are making trial servers' or 'three faction PvP is what the PvP community wanted (nevermind the fact that almost no one in the forums asked for it and another game with 3 faction PvP was nearing release).



Trion thinks their customers are idiots. Granted so do most companies, but few have ever been so obvious about it.

They are so blind that they don't see that in their official forums there are currently only 5 people defending their new changes and all 5 of them are RIft fansite owners who make money through rift related sites. Just in a matter of week they have lost so many staunch supporters who would say "yes" to any changes made by them. Trion still won't take it as a sign.

I get the fact they have to make money, and I understand that they initially set up the F2P system to be the most generous, least restrictive system out there.

If its not working for them, be honest about it. And find out from the F2P community what changes they would like to see to the patron benefits that would encourage them to sub instead of taking stuff away from them.

Games like EQ2 and SWtOR have gotten less restrictive to the F2Pers since their programs launched. Rift has gone the opposite. Obviously the two launched at different ends of the spectrum (well, SWtOR at one end and EQ2 closer to the middle) but it looks like they will end up meeting in the middle eventually.

Viper482

DMKano said:

jesteralways said:

syriinx said:

How is taking stuff away from F2P "Patron Reward Changes". Typical trion being disingenuous to their players. Along side such gems 'as we arent closing servers, we are making trial servers' or 'three faction PvP is what the PvP community wanted (nevermind the fact that almost no one in the forums asked for it and another game with 3 faction PvP was nearing release).

Trion thinks their customers are idiots. Granted so do most companies, but few have ever been so obvious about it.

They are so blind that they don't see that in their official forums there are currently only 5 people defending their new changes and all 5 of them are RIft fansite owners who make money through rift related sites. Just in a matter of week they have lost so many staunch supporters who would say "yes" to any changes made by them. Trion still won't take it as a sign.

Companies never use forums as a sign of anything other than about 5% of the playerbase that posts in forums.

What they use is data analytics provided by their business intelligence team that shows clear player trends of actual entire playerbase. 

This data is what drives monetization changes - when companies see that a current model could be made better they change it - and after a while they will change it again because player trends change over time. 

The problem is from an outside people can say whatever they want - they don't have any of the hard data to back anything up,  just their own preference and opinion.

Just go ahead and say this is a great idea dude, stop beating around the bush.

R3dbud

DMKano said:

jesteralways said:

syriinx said:

How is taking stuff away from F2P "Patron Reward Changes". Typical trion being disingenuous to their players. Along side such gems 'as we arent closing servers, we are making trial servers' or 'three faction PvP is what the PvP community wanted (nevermind the fact that almost no one in the forums asked for it and another game with 3 faction PvP was nearing release).

Trion thinks their customers are idiots. Granted so do most companies, but few have ever been so obvious about it.

They are so blind that they don't see that in their official forums there are currently only 5 people defending their new changes and all 5 of them are RIft fansite owners who make money through rift related sites. Just in a matter of week they have lost so many staunch supporters who would say "yes" to any changes made by them. Trion still won't take it as a sign.

Companies never use forums as a sign of anything other than about 5% of the playerbase that posts in forums.

What they use is data analytics provided by their business intelligence team that shows clear player trends of actual entire playerbase. 

This data is what drives monetization changes - when companies see that a current model could be made better they change it - and after a while they will change it again because player trends change over time. 

The problem is from an outside people can say whatever they want - they don't have any of the hard data to back anything up,  just their own preference and opinion.

Yeah, absolute right. BUT...

Its not always only the data itself that is important, its how you god damn read it. And if you take a look at Rift and the last 3-4 Months, it gets pretty clear they fail on that part AGAIN.

As long as Trion is pushing Changes, be it to Rex/Ingame Economy or the ways you get your Gear, on Players that are new(ish) to Rift they will lose more Players in the long run.

Just take a look at this Thread, and the Dev responses in it

 http://forums.riftgame.com/game-discussions/dungeons-raids/474111-atrocious-state-gearing-rift.html

And compare that with the changes in the last few Weeks.

(and btw that they refuse to make Alts viable again, as you can see in this Thread also, will lose them even more new Players in the long run, since they have no Players that can help/play with the new Players. Week long IDs without alot of Alts in the Raidingscene= no/less Pug Raids. You dont need to be a genius to see that ingame)


Tl;DR Trion isnt reading the data right, and is losing touch on what is really going on in Rift, and the Players.

gervaise1

flizzer said:

Acornia said:

If this change goes live as is on the 10th, I can see the free to play members leaving the game. All this does is to add a pay wall by limiting free to play member being able to do dungeon, raids and war front.

Like City of Steam, this may put both Rift and Trion on their last legs as for me they have no other games that I care to play.

Don't fret.  DMKano will be here soon to tell you why this is a good idea. 

No DMKano in his post above has told you why it has happened. Companies use data they gather to make changes that - they hope - will make the company more money.

And they don't always make the right decisions which is why games close, studios fail.