VIP - Q1 2024

[Zvdegor]

I love the free codes, think they're great for the game. My main beef is they've said multiple times since then that vip is lacking and needs more. It would be pretty simple and easy to implement a few bonuses, or just increase existing one. It doesn't have to be a whole giant new system, especially when they don't have any experience with something like that.

The last 12-month thing they had looked like a horrible idea of a battle pass that many games have. BP are intended to keep players coming back for more. Problem is, they have a FREE path that gives stuff, and then if you pay for the pass, you get extra stuff. These games also have daily rewards and daily missions to get people on every day.

DDO isn't that type of game at all. There's no reason to try and push a VIP(pass) with rewards that very slowly escalate and you don't get the big rewards til the last few months. It would be like if the current vip system started you at 100 store points in the first month and 1% vip bonus, and by 12 months it would go up to 500 and 10%.

People that VIP tend to get it and keep it, not do 1 or 2 months here and there. Everyone I hear just WAS vip. Don't try and shove this new system on us thinking it will change any of that. All that does is spread out things for no reason other than to make the system that NO ONE liked, look like it's necessary.

That plus the boxes every 3 months were insultingly bad. Please just look at the zillion suggestions in the thread in my sig.

They should connect ViP with decent catch up mechanism system. That would skyrocket ViP!!!
Some kind of modified Otto's Boxes which helps a 1st lifer or a low PL toon get to 1 times completionist.
Veterans also would by ViP just b/o this cause they can work on their alts.
Win Win!

 

[l_remmie]

Remember the daily gold dice loot. All those items never leave the game and prevent future sales.

The same problems exist for VIP. All items that can be stored for later prevents future sales.

Having a use it or loose it system that doesn't give storable prevents that problem. The only sale you lose is from people desperate for an item That they would have bought it anyway.

With free stuff opportunities instead of actual items you can be more generous and offer more diverse things and make more people happy without it hurting future sales as much.
Few people can cash in on everything but everybody pays for all the opportunity.

Battlepasses work roughly in a similar way.

 

[Lazuli]

free code should be permanent at this point and VIP should receive other benefits. SSG has changed the turbine model, where the quests were not free but the expansions were very few and restricted only to epic content. Back in the days of turbine, VIP was great for new players because the subscription gave them everything they needed to play during all heroics. Now that's not the case, xpacks dominate everything and the subscription doesn't help with them. The xpacks are also not few, at this point there are already many and they are very expensive. That the old expansions are still at full price is simply ridiculous when there are so many.

In Turbine's time, subscription was already weak for veterans, and there was some slight discomfort about it, but now it doesn't make sense for veterans. It no longer gives any content to VIPs, who have to pay separately for an expansion every year. The only thing of value left in the subscription now for a veteran is the xp, the points per month and skipping one quest per saga, but it falls far short for the price of the subscription.

And please, don't say that they have given 4K favor with the code. The code is NOT permanent. A new one that arrives now is royally screwed. SSG needs to think about a long-term plan to retain new players, a code once a year is nothing more than an anecdote.

 

[Fizban]

They were there, then they weren't. That's "taken away", regardless of the why.

You clearly DO NOT know the definition of "Taken away". It was very LOUD and clear that it was an incentive for a scheduled period of time. This is not so disimilar to Hardcore or any other Festival. Scheduling an event with a start/end date is an event not taking something away.

You have clearly missed the point of what SSG did.

 

[Fizban]

It was in place for one year as a placeholder VIP perk while they worked on other things. Then, towards the end of that year period (as the end date of the rolls was approaching), players asked SSG to extend the daily rolls until they fully implemented the "new replacement perk" they had been working on. They didn't want to do that because it was too costly according to Sev, so VIPs sat around waiting for this new thing to be implemented.

If it was simply just an incentive, and not treated as a placeholder while they worked on something that was supposed to be better, it would be a different story.

TL;DR: they did take away daily gold rolls and left us continuously waiting for something to come in place of it... and guess what we're still waiting for.

SSG clearly stated as an incentive for VIPs the Gold Roll will be allowed to occur daily for 1-year for VIPS. There is no mention of a placeholder or anything else and just because you request something doesn't mean it is so. This is about as plain english can be.

 

[Dom]

SSG clearly stated as an incentive for VIPs the Gold Roll will be allowed to occur daily for 1-year for VIPS. There is no mention of a placeholder or anything else and just because you request something doesn't mean it is so. This is about as plain english can be.

Welcome back. Thanks for bringing the thread back to life.

Anyways, it is clear you didn't watch the Friday's at Four (or may have still been the Weekly Wednesday Lunchtime Livestream at the time) episode where Sev was on and was talking about the Gold Rolls being taken away and not being brought back as it was "too costly". Go watch the livestream and then come back when you're more informed.

 

[Lazuli]

Welcome back. Thanks for bringing the thread back to life.

Anyways, it is clear you didn't watch the Friday's at Four (or may have still been the Weekly Wednesday Lunchtime Livestream at the time) episode where Sev was on and was talking about the Gold Rolls being taken away and not being brought back as it was "too costly". Go watch the livestream and then come back when you're more informed.

And the irony is that what cost them money was not that year of gold rolls (which attracted many subscriptions), but rather the fact that they were tremendously slow in stopping the duplication exploit of that time, which was what stopped sales.

 

[Dom]

And the irony is that what cost them money was not that year of gold rolls (which attracted many subscriptions), but rather the fact that they were tremendously slow in stopping the duplication exploit of that time, which was what stopped sales.

What really cost them money was the loss of VIP subscriptions due to things like this and the overall lack of VIP benefits over the years.

 

[Kimbere]

You clearly DO NOT know the definition of "Taken away". It was very LOUD and clear that it was an incentive for a scheduled period of time. This is not so disimilar to Hardcore or any other Festival. Scheduling an event with a start/end date is an event not taking something away.

You have clearly missed the point of what SSG did.

LOL. My grasp of vocabulary is pretty solid, no matter how many capitalized letters you use to make it seem otherwise.

Your reading comprehension on the other hand is suspect. You completely ignored the context of my statement.

 

[Lazuli]

What really cost them money was the loss of VIP subscriptions due to things like this and the overall lack of VIP benefits over the years.

yup. I agree. But they have other ideas, it seems.

 

[cdbd3rd]

I can immediately think of one VIP convenience for which some players would sub... open quest instance or instant teleport to quest instance from Quest Journal. Just click on quest in journal you wish to begin and ta-da the quest panel opens and you are instantly teleported inside. No more running to quest after someone shares it, no more running around wilderness zone from quest hub if you do not desire to do so.

Expansion teleports would still be both viable and valuable to get to quest hubs faster and especially for those that aren't VIP.

That would be a great one, going back and touching on DDO's roots of "no endless running" to quests. I'd still spend time in Explorer areas, but when I want to run a quest, I want to run a quest.

I'd start resubbing again in yearly intervals for what LOTRO has - remote access to storage/AH/mail/etc.

Side note to whoever has taken over the reins of the VIP project - that initial preview of the previous thing held 0% of my interest.

 

[Jasparius]

And the irony is that what cost them money was not that year of gold rolls (which attracted many subscriptions), but rather the fact that they were tremendously slow in stopping the duplication exploit of that time, which was what stopped sales.

And so many people got away with it which would have wrecked XP pot sales.

I wonder if 20% XP and RXP would have heaps of people subbing.

 

[seph1roth5]

I don't think it'd take much, certainly not a whole convoluted new mess of a system. I'm fast losing hope in this new VIP update though, since one of the devs (forget which) said something about how the old system (that most people hated) wasn't scrapped.

 

[Aelonwy]

That would be a great one, going back and touching on DDO's roots of "no endless running" to quests. I'd still spend time in Explorer areas, but when I want to run a quest, I want to run a quest.

I was mostly thinking of my hubby when I made the suggestion. I get to play more than he does because I'm at home keeping an eye on family. Because I get to play more I've learned where all the quest entrances are in wilderness zones. (I love wilderness zones.) Hubby hasn't and making the run out to some of them sets his teeth on edge. Especially when he makes a wrong turn. He doesn't connect quest name to location really well either. We have our own shorthand for some quest names like Dwarven Trap Gauntlet for Made to Order. So something that would allow him to enter quests immediately without having to run around looking for the quest entrance would suit him well.

 

[Fizban]

Welcome back. Thanks for bringing the thread back to life.

Anyways, it is clear you didn't watch the Friday's at Four (or may have still been the Weekly Wednesday Lunchtime Livestream at the time) episode where Sev was on and was talking about the Gold Rolls being taken away and not being brought back as it was "too costly". Go watch the livestream and then come back when you're more informed.

I still don't have to watch the livestream to know what SSG put out and what I read. SSG anouced the Gold Roll for 1-year (12-months) with an expiration date. They honored the 1-year Gold Roll and retired the VIP perk on the date they stated they always would. We knew it was going away in 12-months on the same day it was live.

 

[Dom]

I still don't have to watch the livestream to know what SSG put out and what I read. SSG anouced the Gold Roll for 1-year (12-months) with an expiration date. They honored the 1-year Gold Roll and retired the VIP perk on the date they stated they always would. We knew it was going away in 12-months on the same day it was live.

If you don't want to watch the livestreams, that's nice, good for you. But then don't come on the forums and act surprised when you are missing context and information that was announced on the livestreams.

 

[Fizban]

If you don't want to watch the livestreams, that's nice, good for you. But then don't come on the forums and act surprised when you are missing context and information that was announced on the livestreams.

I do watch livestrems and have heard past comments on the Gold Rolls. I'm fully versed in the content. I certainly can make comments as I know you know what the intent of the Gold Roll service was for VIPs. It was meant to expire and everything single person knows this.

 

[popejubal]

If you don't want to watch the livestreams, that's nice, good for you. But then don't come on the forums and act surprised when you are missing context and information that was announced on the livestreams.

Dom, this is the forums. Making comments while missing context and information is practically mandatory.

 

[Dom]

Dom, this is the forums. Making comments while missing context and information is practically mandatory.

You right. Should get Fiz to be the poster child for the forums... Marketing 101.

 

[FixBows]

We can certainly have differening opions. SSG didn't take away Daily Gold Rolls, they stated up front it was an incentive with a start and end date.

This is funny. Pick and choose what they state? They state they knew VIP was not where it should be YEARS ago. Not weeks, not moths. YEARS. So, saying that SSG told us it was only temporary is only a very small part of the big picture.