I paid for a year of subscription. Had no idea about a VIP NPC. SSG wont give me the 2 months of rewards I missed.

[lilgeek]

That's apples to oranges. A more similar comparison is if someone pays for a year of VIP and doesn't play the game. No one is arguing that that wouldn't be solely on the person buying the VIP subscription. Or, to put it another way, it would be like paying for a National Park pass that ALSO included a free coupon in your e-mail every month, but only if you talked to a park ranger. There is absolutely nothing preventing them from sending the e-mail and talking to the ranger is just a burden.

No, you get a coupon that can be redeemed. There is a big icon your buff bar telling you that you need to redeem it. This is the deal that SSG offered. You aren't entitled to change the deal to the one you want them to have offered.

 

[Ethril]

No, you get a coupon that can be redeemed. There is a big icon your buff bar telling you that you need to redeem it. This is the deal that SSG offered. You aren't entitled to change the deal to the one you want them to have offered.

And, as some have pointed out, there are valid reasons why some people can't log in some month. I stand by my point that there is absolutely no reason they can't just issue the reward automatically except for the ones that aren't account-wide.

 

[Griglok]

This happen to anyone else? I've contacted Customer Support twice about it. First what they told me about my problem was basically "Too bad.". Next they told me if I contact CS again they will ban me from using it.

Like... ***? I've been a customer since beta. There was zero information about requiring to talk to an NPC when I subscribed for a year. So, I missed my first two months of VIP rewards. I recently subscribed for another year. Even though I feel I'm being mistreated. I let my subs run for months or years sometimes just because I love the game. This kind of treatment is unacceptable to me.

Anyone have a similar experience? Was it ever resolved? I know life's not fair and this is no great heartache but at the same time. I've given this game thousands of dollars. I should be able to get some help on a system that is clearly flawed and badly communicated.

The best this thread has gotten in defense of the current system is a few folks to say, "at least they told us how it worked up-front", but no one reasonable (at least as far as I can tell) is really happy about the way the system works. If it is within SSG's control to change the way this system works, they should. Why not give catch-up mechanisms? And why require log in each month? The feedback from players is that the current system isn't "fun" at best and creates negative feelings towards being VIP at worst.

 

[Dude]

And, as some have pointed out, there are valid reasons why some people can't log in some month. I stand by my point that there is absolutely no reason they can't just issue the reward automatically except for the ones that aren't account-wide.

There is a HUUUUGE reason that you seem to be ignoring. The intent of the system is to get people to log in on a regular basis. SSG has stated over and over again that's the metric they are measuring. You can not like it, but saying that's not a valid reason is just being ignorant.

 

[danzig138]

dont call me chief, pal

Don't call me pal, Shurely.

 

[lilgeek]

The best this thread has gotten in defense of the current system is a few folks to say, "at least they told us how it worked up-front", but no one reasonable (at least as far as I can tell) is really happy about the way the system works. If it is within SSG's control to change the way this system works, they should. Why not give catch-up mechanisms? And why require log in each month? The feedback from players is that the current system isn't "fun" at best and creates negative feelings towards being VIP at worst.

I am perfectly happy with it. At least you don't have to log in every single day for a month like GW2.

 

[Ethril]

There is a HUUUUGE reason that you seem to be ignoring. The intent of the system is to get people to log in on a regular basis. SSG has stated over and over again that's the metric they are measuring. You can not like it, but saying that's not a valid reason is just being ignorant.

Then that's also misguided. I logged in every day (on multiple servers) when they were giving the gold roll every day. Now, I only log in if I have at least an hour to play.

 

[Bobbryan2]

Then that's also misguided. I logged in every day (on multiple servers) when they were giving the gold roll every day. Now, I only log in if I have at least an hour to play.

It's been pointed out how much effective of a system it was at achieving their desired goals.

 

[Ethril]

It's been pointed out how much effective of a system it was at achieving their desired goals.

For clarification, are you saying the daily gold rolls were more effective, or the new system?

 

[Bobbryan2]

For clarification, are you saying the daily gold rolls were more effective, or the new system?

The daily gold rolls were more effective at getting players to login more often than the new system.

 

[Ethril]

The daily gold rolls were more effective at getting players to login more often than the new system.

Thanks for the clarification. That's what I suspected, what the forum comments seemed to indicate (though that's a small subset of players), and what I found in my personal experience.

 

[Hobgoblin]

Don't call me pal, Shurely.

you messed up the chain, friend

 

[Uska]

For clarification, are you saying the daily gold rolls were more effective, or the new system?

gold rolls get people to login daily new system weekly or monthly

 

[Roper]

Yes, I understand the principle that you're delaying the acquisition of the rewards, of course, but I don't understand why it's that big a deal if you're getting the stuff, anyway.

You're not getting the "stuff" at the same rate as if you'd been logging in and were claiming it all along. It feels punitive when a lot of us have a lot of things going on IRL. If this is supposed to encourage people to pay 99 a year, we shouldn't have to be bothered to login.

I suspect the main reason to force logins is to show traffic data? I can't think of any other reason to "punish" people, who have a standing subscription, denying them their "loyalty reward/s" when life happens and we cannot make the time to login for a few months.

For the record, I haven't had this problem. Eh, mostly - I think I'm behind a month but that's nothing compared to my now 2nd VIP account.

Edit: and yes, the Daily Gold Rolls had me logging in Daily.

 

[erethizon1]

It's simply a poor implementation. There should be a system that tracks when your subscription started and how many VIP rewards you haven't claimed. If you've missed a reward that you were entitled to as a paying VIP member, it should still be possible to claim it later. At the very least, customer support should assist, since this is clearly SSG's responsibility.

Yes. I've said many times, the best customer is one who starts VIP and then leaves the game, never to return, but never cancels their VIP. They provide a stream of income at no cost to the company. Sure, you still want people that log in and spend lots of money, but give me a low paying customer that never bothers me or even uses my product any day. If I had 1000 people with lifetime subscriptions to my platform that never cancelled but also never used the platform, I would be set for life. It is absolutely insane to discourage people from keeping their VIP when they leave the game. Let them accumulate rewards so they keep their VIP long after they leave the game (just in case they ever decide to return).

 

[erethizon1]

I dunno - when all the rewards are touted as the big reasons to sub (i.e. right up there in the 'why should I become a VIP' page), then forcing people to login to get them seems like a mis-target. By all means, have stuff that encourages daily/weekly/whatever logins (daily dice is a good example), but doing it on such big stuff just feels like a way to make more people unhappy. Unhappy people don't tend to renew subs, I suspect.

Also, is it just me, or are the encouragements for folks with subs to login regularly a load more compelling than those for plain prems?

Also also, wouldn't it be better if folks were encouraged to actually play, rather than just login and do a quick chore before logging out to do something else?

You make an interesting point. If getting people to log in is so valuable they are missing an opportunity by not making logging in more rewarding for premium and free to play accounts. VIP get a monthly reward and weekly gold dice reward to get them to log in. All you miss by taking years off as a premium is silver dice rolls and whatever garbage they gave away with their weekly free store code (often a potion you will never use).

 

[erethizon1]

Then you should probably call it something other than "Loyalty". Loyalty implies that you're rewarding VIP subscribers for remaining loyal, long-term subscribers.

Maybe call it, "VIP Active Rewards"?

I was thinking something like VIP login rewards. Same concept. Make it apparent that if you don't log in and collect it, you don't get it. I had accounts that logged out in front of the year of the dragon reward vendor so I could log them in once a month to collect the reward. VIP's should know they need to do something similar.

 

[Kimbere]

Adding more daily-dice-style UI is a lot more expensive than adding a quest NPC. That’s why.

It wouldn't require a UI change. They could use the reward NPC as is minus the arbitrary time-gated claim component.

The current NPC already has the functionality to provide/restore rewards you've previously claimed if they're missing (i.e. after TR, etc.)

Simply calculate the rewards available to the player based on total VIP time since the loyalty program was implemented and let them claim any within that timeframe.

 

[erethizon1]

Basic tenet of the FOMO system. Miss jumping thru a hoop, behind forever.

And this is the major point that causes cancellation of subscriptions. If you ever have a life experience where you simply will not be able to log in for 2 months no matter what, then you may as well cancel VIP because you will be behind forever no matter what you do. Why pay to be behind forever? Just give up now.

 

[erethizon1]

There's absolutely no reason why you should have a month to claim a login prize. I've played plenty of mobile games that just keep that all for you. People come back from a break and they get a pile of stuff they missed.

Sorry, there's no GOOD reason to use this kind of system, other than to artificially force people to play every day/month (gold rolls could totally rollover lol). But like I've said before, it really seems like they're trying to copy battle passes from successful games, but not doing it right, at all. I bet the number of people that login more as vip than they would've otherwise is uh...zero? Ok maybe 1, someone whose PC broke or something and they couldn't get it fixed for a week or 2, and they hadn't picked up the VIP reward. They might have a friend login for them and claim it.

Contrast that to the number of people having issues claiming, forgetting to, claiming on the wrong person, etc. That's...well, at least 1 lol, but I'm sure a fair chunk more.

The crazy thing is, they already have daily dice. Daily dice worked perfectly on me. I used to only log in when I wanted to play. When they added daily dice (and hobbit presents in LOTRO) I started logging in every day, even if I had no intention to play. I have not played LOTRO in years, but still log in every day to get my free item.

People that want to log in daily for prizes already do. The people that are not logging in daily (or at least weekly for gold rolls if VIP) have a reason for not doing so and don't need further pressure to log in. Just let them have their VIP rewards whether they logged in or not.