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General: Smedley On Subscriptions - One for All and All for One

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  • asmkm22asmkm22 Member Posts: 1,788
    Originally posted by superniceguy
    Originally posted by Abimor
    So how is this going to work? I have 7500 sc about 1500 is saved from my subscription the rest I have bought when it goes on sale. I cant help but feel I am being ripped off if they take it away.

    I am not seeing that they will be taking any SC away, just that no more SC will be accrued.

    If I stay subbed I may use the monthly voucher to get items that are up to 2000SC and save my accrued SC for items greater than 2000SC or stuff I can't use the voucher on

    Just understand that your monthly voucher is good for ONE item of up to 2k value.  That doesn't mean you have 2k to spend on various items.

    You make me like charity

  • superniceguysuperniceguy Member UncommonPosts: 2,278
    Originally posted by asmkm22
    Originally posted by superniceguy
    Originally posted by Abimor
    So how is this going to work? I have 7500 sc about 1500 is saved from my subscription the rest I have bought when it goes on sale. I cant help but feel I am being ripped off if they take it away.

    I am not seeing that they will be taking any SC away, just that no more SC will be accrued.

    If I stay subbed I may use the monthly voucher to get items that are up to 2000SC and save my accrued SC for items greater than 2000SC or stuff I can't use the voucher on

    Just understand that your monthly voucher is good for ONE item of up to 2k value.  That doesn't mean you have 2k to spend on various items.

    Yeah I was thinking long term, month = item, months = items, and currently with the 500 monthly stipend, months could equal one item!

  • NadiaNadia Member UncommonPosts: 11,798
    Originally posted by SBFordHead to this Reddit thread to read the entire AMA with Smed.

    interesting AMA discussion

     

    i'm sitting on 21140 SC from promotions in early 2013

    i also have 4 timecards i was hoping to cash in using future SC promotions but i guess that won't happen anymore

  • FinalFikusFinalFikus Member Posts: 906

    Can we use station cash to hide the shop and it's ads?

    Wonder what that ...game....is?

    "If the Damned gave you a roadmap, then you'd know just where to go"

  • SlampigSlampig Member UncommonPosts: 2,342
    I might have to jump in on that if it actually comes about.

    That Guild Wars 2 login screen knocked up my wife. Must be the second coming!

  • xpsyncxpsync Member EpicPosts: 1,854
    Originally posted by SBFord
    If they do this, Smed can count me in for sure. Great deal.

    Yeah, me too.

    My faith is my shield! - Turalyon 2022

    Your legend ends here and now! - (Battles Won Long Ago)

    Currently Playing; Dragonflight and SWG:L
  • TalonsinTalonsin Member EpicPosts: 3,619

    If they do this, it would be the first good business decision I have ever seen from Smedley and sadly, as much as I dislike the guy, I would have to start giving him my money again.

    "Sean (Murray) saying MP will be in the game is not remotely close to evidence that at the point of purchase people thought there was MP in the game."  - SEANMCAD

  • NadiaNadia Member UncommonPosts: 11,798
    Originally posted by OG_Zorvan

    I take that to mean Player Studio is going bye-bye. Good.

    Bad enough nickel and diming players with "professional" made items, trying to nickel and dime players with amateur crap is worse.

    PlayerStudio is here to stay - you misunderstood

    Smed was saying it was a bad idea to exclude Player Studio items from sub perks

     

    from the AMA

    ==================

    I wonder what you mean by the player studio items being a bad idea. Are they a pricing issue with conflicts on marketplace sales or with the ratio of money spent to SC? Or is it that they are causing issues with the game itself, performance-wise or something else?

    If they are a big issue or mistake, then do you plan on discontinuing the system?

    • j_smedley[S] <span unvoted"="">20 points ago

      Player Studio items - let me make this simple. We excluded them because we didn't like the idea of giving away someone else's item. The player who made it would get no revenue in that case because it's a free item. We are considering just eating the cost of this. Either way we are likely going to allow Player Studio items.

  • SpottyGekkoSpottyGekko Member EpicPosts: 6,916

    Obviously, SOE aren't making enough money out of their current F2P monetization. So they are inventing all kinds of creative ways to "stimulate purchases".

     

    I'm not greatly surprised to see these kinds of moves being made, because F2P sounds all good and fashionable and all that, but it really doesn't generate the kinds of money that is needed to recoup the investment of a AAA MMO development cycle. These are MMO's we're talking about, not Candy Crush Saga. Nobody will accept being able to do only 3 quests per day unless they pay to unlock more...

     

    Those SC balances in player accounts are a huge liability for SOE. The player has paid for the option to take something from the cash shop at some future time. But SOE cannot predict when that option will be exercised, therefore it creates havoc with their CS revenue predictions.

  • erictlewiserictlewis Member UncommonPosts: 3,022

    Considering a gold sub got you 500 station cash to begin with, and it been that way for a while.  Now they come out and say oh were going to give you 2k station cash but you can only spend it on one item,  that is kind of a rip off.  That is what is happening over in Everquest II,  meanwhile the guys in planetside are getting a better deal. 

     

  • ZagaZaga Member Posts: 23

    If those are their true intentions, then things could be done a lot simpler and with a lot less controversy:

    1) Increase the monthly gain to 2000. Now everyone can buy expensive items.

    2) Put a hard cap on SC that can be saved up without affecting current balances. Now people won't accrue indefinitely.

    3) Keep using a separate system for consoles (how does this change solve this problem anyway?)

    4) Reduce the price on station pass by 5 bucks (this was their "very important news"?).

     

    Bam, all of the alleged current issues solved.

     

    But instead they are turning the SC you gain monthly by means of paying the first 15 bucks for the sub into a lower-tier currency: It's not valid for storage over time, it's not valid for topping up any purchase of an item costing over 2000, and it's reduced in worth if you choose to buy an item costing under 2000.

     

    The cash shop becomes effectively two-tiered, and only SC acquired by spending money beyond the initial 15 bucks becomes as good as the SC we get from our 15 bucks now. In exchange for that you get 1500 more of the new, low-tier, currency. Is that a good deal? It depends on where the portfolio of the shops goes from here.

     

    It really sounds like the #4 "very important change" mentioned in their post is just an attempt to put lipstick on the pig above. It amounts to a 5-buck discount on the station pass price, which is probably not a huge success at its current price to begin with. Their portolio of P2P games is not really impressive when you consider they all have a cash shop on top (IMHO).

  • SpottyGekkoSpottyGekko Member EpicPosts: 6,916
    And I'm assuming this "new deal" will only apply to SOE customers, i.e. all SOE players in Europe will not be given this option ?
  • RocknissRockniss Member Posts: 1,034
    I'm in. I might actually play SOE games then. Does this crossover to PS4 too? I'm trying hard to get my friends into pc, even offered to build them for them, but I have a feeling they will ultimately buy PS4's and Planetside2 would just rock hard with all of us jammed into my living room.
  • NadiaNadia Member UncommonPosts: 11,798

    Smed said it was for PC games only

     

    We are considering (and are likely going to move forward with) a plan that means if you subscribe to one of our games you are a subscriber to all our games (this applies to PC titles only btw).. all for the current $14.99 a month.

  • NadiaNadia Member UncommonPosts: 11,798
    Originally posted by Zaga

    2) Put a hard cap on SC that can be saved up without affecting current balances. Now people won't accrue indefinitely.

    there is hardcap but it's pretty high -- i forget what it is

    https://www.soe.com/stationcash-faq

  • Rommie10-284Rommie10-284 Member UncommonPosts: 265
    Originally posted by SpottyGekko

    Obviously, SOE aren't making enough money out of their current F2P monetization. So they are inventing all kinds of creative ways to "stimulate purchases".

     

    I'm not greatly surprised to see these kinds of moves being made, because F2P sounds all good and fashionable and all that, but it really doesn't generate the kinds of money that is needed to recoup the investment of a AAA MMO development cycle. These are MMO's we're talking about, not Candy Crush Saga. Nobody will accept being able to do only 3 quests per day unless they pay to unlock more...

     

    Those SC balances in player accounts are a huge liability for SOE. The player has paid for the option to take something from the cash shop at some future time. But SOE cannot predict when that option will be exercised, therefore it creates havoc with their CS revenue predictions.

    Yep, the players have gamed the system and SOE realizes they have to stop it before their virtual liability in SC grows into the real thing.   IOW, they need to get a stream of tangible money back into place before the virtual chickens come home.

    I'm going to have a good laugh if Smed's solution is to double down on RMT and offer power items in the new games.  It would be the same as Daffy Duck blowing himself up to out-do Bugs Bunny - one and done.

    Avatars are people too

  • superniceguysuperniceguy Member UncommonPosts: 2,278
    Originally posted by SpottyGekko

     

    Those SC balances in player accounts are a huge liability for SOE. The player has paid for the option to take something from the cash shop at some future time. But SOE cannot predict when that option will be exercised, therefore it creates havoc with their CS revenue predictions.

    I only have a huge SC balance because I could not cancel All Access as it was pulled from the EU when they were trying to force people over to PSS1. If I cancelled I would not have gotten All Access back, but at the time was not playing. If All Access was not pulled, I would have cancelled my sub and not accrued the SC. If I had been playing I would have used it up. SOE created the problem where I am concerned.

    Also my ZEN and Turbine Points build up too in STO and LOTRO on LT accounts, and you do not see them whining about the accruals, and they do not get any more money from LT people not playing. To get the SC if people do play they have to pay £13.99 per month.

  • asmkm22asmkm22 Member Posts: 1,788
    I wonder if they would use this as a way to pad subscriber numbers for their games.  Stuff like "EQ1 gained 500k subscribers last quarter" because someone subscribed to EQN...

    You make me like charity

  • MandibleMandible Member UncommonPosts: 14
    I cant hep but like the candor in Smedly's communciations. 
  • Po_ggPo_gg Member EpicPosts: 5,749
    Originally posted by superniceguy
    Originally posted by SpottyGekko

     

    Those SC balances in player accounts are a huge liability for SOE. The player has paid for the option to take something from the cash shop at some future time. But SOE cannot predict when that option will be exercised, therefore it creates havoc with their CS revenue predictions.

    I only have a huge SC balance because I could not cancel All Access as it was pulled from the EU when they were trying to force people over to PSS1. If I cancelled I would not have gotten All Access back, but at the time was not playing. If All Access was not pulled, I would have cancelled my sub and not accrued the SC. If I had been playing I would have used it up. SOE created the problem where I am concerned.

    Also my ZEN and Turbine Points build up too in STO and LOTRO on LT accounts, and you do not see them whining about the accruals, and they do not get any more money from LT people not playing. To get the SC if people do play they have to pay £13.99 per month.

    +1 to superniceguy. As I commented on the first letter about the changes, I don't see what's the fuzz :) Instead of $20 it will be $15, but without the option to accumulate the stipend(*). As I look It depends the player's individual playstyle how the change affects them, but it's hardly a landslide-causing massively awesome update...

     

    Yep, neither PWE nor Turbine whine about the stipend. I know many lifers in LotRO who never buy fluff, just piling up the TPs (6000 / year), and when an expansion arrives (usually at around 4000-4500), they purchase it from the stipend. And look at PWE, I think many would sign up for voting them the greediest, p2w cashgrab publisher out there, and still, they don't have any problems with stockpiles of Zen. (though they're locking it to the games, so the Zen from STO stipend can't be used for purchasing stuff in, for example, Neverwinter)

     

    I'm curious though, what will happen to us, the Eu players under P7S1. Seems unlikely that if I subscribe to DCUO here, I'll get full access to Vanguard on my SOE account...

    (on a sidenote, superniceguy's method should've been posted somewhere during the handover, at least on the fineprint... So, All Access saved you from the clutches of P7S1? :) )

     

    (*) edit: my bad, it seems the hoarding option was given back. :)

  • TheAmazingDwarfTheAmazingDwarf Member UncommonPosts: 234
    It's great, it's Station Pass 2. And about Europe? Will Prosieben have the same payment option?

    My FFXIV ARR referral code for new EU accounts: 5JPF7ZQ3
    Step into the amazing world of Eorzea! Use this reference code on a new account and we'll both get goodies for it!

  • AnthurAnthur Member UncommonPosts: 961
    Originally posted by DwarfZZZ
    It's great, it's Station Pass 2. And about Europe? Will Prosieben have the same payment option?

    Arghs, my first thought was, ok, if it includes EQN/L it might be a nice deal including EQ/EQ2 and PS2. Unfortunately I forgot about Pro7 for europeans. F..... :(

    Something else to recognize is that again consoles pull down PCs to their level. Why does it always have to be the lowest common denominator (aka console standard) nowadays ?

  • kinkyJalepenokinkyJalepeno Member UncommonPosts: 1,044

    Sounds good to me...  Bring it on !!!

     

  • Ice-QueenIce-Queen Member UncommonPosts: 2,483
    Very reasonable, sounds good.

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    What happens when you log off your characters????.....
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