About Vip, seriously....

[Valerianus]

monthly ddo points allowance and reward track should be both awarded upfront, on the spot when you sub.

because that's what increases the perceived value, not 500 per month, but 6000 NOW, and all the rewards NOW, not gated by log-in, that's silver\gold rolls department, and since in the past you already tried but epically botched that "2 year season pass" , but it did sell yes? then why aren't you just selling to returning players and active players alike the vip, with rewards upfront....i mean, a returning player may pay 2 years of vip upfront and get upfront the rewards.....about catch-up mechanism.....but no.....the players must pay to suffer and be frustrated, ddo was never pay to win but pay to suffer (less than f2p but suffer nonetheless), just eliminate the old turbine mentality from your marketing please, do you really despise so much to sell stuff? as a thank you to us players for being still here despite all the crap turbine threw at us. we are still here out of love and hate. out of habit and spite. out of a whirpool of passions and feelings this wonderful game gives us.

i guess such a system would also involve a lot less tracking the game has to do about our accounts.....? also it would be easier for vips to burn ddo points if they have them all at once instead than little by little. also i guess you already put in place the tech to track the amount of vip months, so even if someone is mad enough to pay for 5 years upfront, the system will award the past, present, and future reward track....i guess?

i see no downsides, i see just win\win\win\win

thoughts?


with love and spite,

Val

 

[erethizon1]

A catch up mechanism isn't a bad idea where you pay an extra $10 for each month you missed. So you could pay $120 to get the last 12 months you missed and then pay for a VIP on top of that for future access. Essentially it wouldn't save you any money at all but would allow you to buy each month you are behind for $10 each.

Honestly, it's not a terrible idea to sell the bonuses in the DDO store for a similar price point. Let people buy permanent 10% durability wear reduction for whatever $10 worth of points is. Not expecting a lot of people to buy it, but it doesn't hurt to try.

 

[Valerianus]

A catch up mechanism isn't a bad idea where you pay an extra $10 for each month you missed. So you could pay $120 to get the last 12 months you missed and then pay for a VIP on top of that for future access. Essentially it wouldn't save you any money at all but would allow you to buy each month you are behind for $10 each.

Honestly, it's not a terrible idea to sell the bonuses in the DDO store for a similar price point. Let people buy permanent 10% durability wear reduction for whatever $10 worth of points is. Not expecting a lot of people to buy it, but it doesn't hurt to try.

sorry, you are missing the point.

the catch-up should not be an extra, the catch-up should not even exist as a concept, you pay now and you get what you paid for now.

what you say sounds like" thank you vip citizen for buying a car. the car engine is set to max 20 mph or kmh or xlhamburgersperbutterflywingsflap, whatever, but if you drive for at least 10k of them in a month you will unlock +1 more. if you pay an extra, max one extra per month, it will go up by an extra +1"

dude!!!!!!!!!

the vip catch-up mechanism would be about, in 5 years some madman pays 5 years of vip upfront and get 5 years of vip benefits immediately, that is, what he or she paid for. as simple as that.

 

[IanMoon8]

The rewards would have to actually be worth something.

They are not.

 

[Zavina]

sorry, you are missing the point.

the catch-up should not be an extra, the catch-up should not even exist as a concept, you pay now and you get what you paid for now.

I got the point, and no.

 

[Valerianus]

I got the point, and no.

sorry Zavina, my respect for you is too high to accept a simple meaningless "no" without an explanation. please elaborate if you like. or don't if you don't, whatever.

 

[Mornyngstar]

monthly ddo points allowance and reward track should be both awarded upfront, on the spot when you sub.

because that's what increases the perceived value, not 500 per month, but 6000 NOW, and all the rewards NOW, not gated by log-in, that's silver\gold rolls department, and since in the past you already tried but epically botched that "2 year season pass" , but it did sell yes? then why aren't you just selling to returning players and active players alike the vip, with rewards upfront....i mean, a returning player may pay 2 years of vip upfront and get upfront the rewards.....about catch-up mechanism.....but no.....the players must pay to suffer and be frustrated, ddo was never pay to win but pay to suffer (less than f2p but suffer nonetheless), just eliminate the old turbine mentality from your marketing please, do you really despise so much to sell stuff? as a thank you to us players for being still here despite all the crap turbine threw at us. we are still here out of love and hate. out of habit and spite. out of a whirpool of passions and feelings this wonderful game gives us.

i guess such a system would also involve a lot less tracking the game has to do about our accounts.....? also it would be easier for vips to burn ddo points if they have them all at once instead than little by little. also i guess you already put in place the tech to track the amount of vip months, so even if someone is mad enough to pay for 5 years upfront, the system will award the past, present, and future reward track....i guess?

i see no downsides, i see just win\win\win\win

thoughts?


with love and spite,

Val

The reward track is a Loyalty program for logging in. How does that equate with just having VIP?

 

[Valerianus]

The reward track is a Loyalty program for logging in. How does that equate with just having VIP?

if you pay x months upfront, that's showing enough loyalty i guess. about log-in reward, as i said, there are gold rolls.

 

[danzig138]

A catch up mechanism isn't a bad idea where you pay an extra $10 for each month you missed. So you could pay $120 to get the last 12 months you missed and then pay for a VIP on top of that for future access. Essentially it wouldn't save you any money at all but would allow you to buy each month you are behind for $10 each.

Lol that's one of the worst ideas ever.

 

[Ungermax]

I agree, not necessarily about the points although I dont see why not. But certainly these VIP program bonuses. Yes its meant to increase logins, BUT, if at the start you could pay 12 months in one go and get the cosmetics ie the trail and cloud mount up front, i would have done that

 

[Jasparius]

sorry, you are missing the point.

the catch-up should not be an extra, the catch-up should not even exist as a concept, you pay now and you get what you paid for now.

what you say sounds like" thank you vip citizen for buying a car. the car engine is set to max 20 mph or kmh or xlhamburgersperbutterflywingsflap, whatever, but if you drive for at least 10k of them in a month you will unlock +1 more. if you pay an extra, max one extra per month, it will go up by an extra +1"

dude!!!!!!!!!

the vip catch-up mechanism would be about, in 5 years some madman pays 5 years of vip upfront and get 5 years of vip benefits immediately, that is, what he or she paid for. as simple as that.

If you pay for 12 months you get 12 months worth of future monthly rewards. If you missed the previous 6 months rewards then you'd need to pay for those 6 months, not get them for free.

Otherwise wouldnt a lot of people delay VIP to get all the old ones in one go?

 

[Valerianus]

If you pay for 12 months you get 12 months worth of future monthly rewards. If you missed the previous 6 months rewards then you'd need to pay for those 6 months, not get them for free.

Otherwise wouldnt a lot of people delay VIP to get all the old ones in one go?

i don't understand you. nothing about vip is free. not even gold rolls.

players stopped vip and resume vip later and get anyway the rewards, starting from when they left and getting them till they paid for ? yes, exactly, that's my point. but that's not free, i seriously don't understand how can anyone think that something come "free" along a paid subscription. am i living in a reality different than yours?

 

[Valerianus]

extremely important point, imho, it's how vip will be marketed in the future. think about, like, 3 or 4 or 5 years from now. they are selling it now leveraging the fear of missing out, but in the future this fear will be a double edge, it will be something that you have missed, forever. so what's the point in even starting? they will sell a product that will be perceived as faulty, incomplete, by default.

a mmo player may perceive a missed out past expansion bundle bonus, some past anniversary prize, stuff like that, as missed forever. it would be normal and obvious. but linking the subscription with something lost forever is a grand epic major mistake.

 

[Chab]

ive wondered this myself, how long are they gonna keep this VIP thing going. because in the long run, eventually it will come to a point where people wont get stuff because theyre so far behind

 

[PersonMan]

Introduce a paid only currency. Give that currency primarily through VIP sub (in addition to and at the same time as the current f2p currency), and maybe to a lesser extent give it through marketplace expansion purchase and regular points purchases. Add a section to the store where you can buy these perks piecemeal but only with the new paid "VIP" currency.

If their goal with the program is to get people to log in they should have just kept daily gold rolls. They were super effective.

 

[Phaedra]

The real VIP scam (possibly also the reason there's no catch-up) is the FOMO aspect that says "But what if there's finally something good in the year 3 track? I'll be two years behind by the time they announce it."

 

[erethizon1]

sorry, you are missing the point.

the catch-up should not be an extra, the catch-up should not even exist as a concept, you pay now and you get what you paid for now.

what you say sounds like" thank you vip citizen for buying a car. the car engine is set to max 20 mph or kmh or xlhamburgersperbutterflywingsflap, whatever, but if you drive for at least 10k of them in a month you will unlock +1 more. if you pay an extra, max one extra per month, it will go up by an extra +1"

dude!!!!!!!!!

the vip catch-up mechanism would be about, in 5 years some madman pays 5 years of vip upfront and get 5 years of vip benefits immediately, that is, what he or she paid for. as simple as that.

VIP is a payment for access to the game. If you got it instantly then your subscription would end as soon as you paid for it and wouldn't have game access. Alternatively, if you buy a 1 year VIP for the first time now, you would get 12 months of perks (like you mentioned) which means you would instantly have all of last years perks and would get no additional perks for the next 12 months (which means you would not get any of the upcoming perks). It wouldn't help you catch up at all. Unless you are saying that someone that doesn't go VIP for the next 10 years and then does for a month will instantly get all 10 years of perks (in which case the wise way to play is to cancel now and only subscribe several years from now when there are enough bonuses accumulated to make it worthwhile).

To use your 5 year example, 4 years from now they pay for 5 years of VIP which gives them the past 60 months of perks and then, for the next 5 years, they get no additional perks (since they already got their 60 perks that had been released over the previous 5 years) and will slowly fall 5 years behind again. Either this system continues to leave them always behind in perks or it allows people to get perks more cheaply by cancelling VIP and waiting for additional perks to release so they can get everything later at a cheaper price. I think the point of the system is to encourage people to go VIP and then stay VIP forever so they don't fall behind in perks. Allowing a catch-up that costs full price would allow for a fix that didn't cost SSG any revenue.

 

[erethizon1]

extremely important point, imho, it's how vip will be marketed in the future. think about, like, 3 or 4 or 5 years from now. they are selling it now leveraging the fear of missing out, but in the future this fear will be a double edge, it will be something that you have missed, forever. so what's the point in even starting? they will sell a product that will be perceived as faulty, incomplete, by default.

a mmo player may perceive a missed out past expansion bundle bonus, some past anniversary prize, stuff like that, as missed forever. it would be normal and obvious. but linking the subscription with something lost forever is a grand epic major mistake.

That is why the very first reply was support of a catch-up mechanism. The 60th month reward is a reward for having paid for 60 months of subscription. I get that you could let people get past bonuses early by coming in late to VIP and getting the bonuses that were already released if their subscription was 60 months long. But they still would fall 60 months behind over the next 5 years as there would then be 120 months of bonuses and they only paid for 60. A true catch-up mechanism would be a way to get on par with someone that has always been VIP and logged in every month. That catch-up mechanism needs to cost at least as much as a constant VIP subscription or it would encourage people to cancel VIP and buy it later at a better price per perk. The point of the loyalty program is to get people to put in their credit card for VIP and leave it there until the day they die even if they rarely play.

 

[Sarlona Raiding]

There are a fair number of people in this game that take extended breaks. It seems unwise to irritate those people as they probably benefit the least from a subscription.

 

[FaceDancer]

If you were to buy a 1-Year subscription, can you cancel mid-year? Does SSG refund you the difference if you do? If so, this would be a good reason why points and other goodies are released per month and not upfront methinks.