Invite a Friend Program - What's My Incentive?

[kashyyykian]

Let's face it, if I am going to go to all the bother to convince up to three friends to sign on, shouldn't there be a reward for my efforts?

 

I guess they simply want us to do these things out of the goodness of our hearts. Anyway, doesn't this offer seem to smack of desperation?

 

Why bother to get out of bed in the morning? Why bother eating? Why bother going to work? I don't get any rewards out of those...

 

Let's see, what else... Oh, I fed my kid breakfast today. Little brat didn't even say thank you. I'm pretty sure I deserve a reward.

 

I smoked a ciggarette out in the cold. I think it is worth a reward. It was really cold!

 

I am going to go grocery shopping in a while here. I think I deserve a reward for planning it ahead of time.

[Kourage]

Why invite my friends to the beach? Do I get a discount at the parking meter? Do I receive a free volleyball or bucket of beers?

 

[Muskaan]

a better way to say it would be..

 

'when I invite friends to come over, I don't demand that my landlord pays for the pizza'

 

No.. but i don't expect my friends to pay my landlord rent as well.

[MackumDog]

Let's face it, if I am going to go to all the bother to convince up to three friends to sign on, shouldn't there be a reward for my efforts?

 

I guess they simply want us to do these things out of the goodness of our hearts. Anyway, doesn't this offer seem to smack of desperation?

 

 

Do you struggle to find 3 friends?

[JHoltJHolt]

getting your friends to play with you should be reward enough...

 

unless you are of that new generation of people who dont want to do anything unless you get something out of it.

 

personally i plan on inviting my nephew becuase his mom is on the fence about the game. this way they both get to see it and can decide if they want it..

 

I'm entitled. I should have special benefits as I see fit, because I'm a Precous Snowflake. Gimme Gimme Gimme! I'll Occupy Bioware! I swear I'll do it!

[SirRobin]

Invite a Friend Program - What's My Incentive?

 

The warm feeling you get inside, upstairs not downstairs, knowing that you're helping EA make more money?

[Muskaan]

Go invite more people to W*W and you'll get your rewards you so desperately seek.

 

This is not just WoW who has this type of marketing policy. Referrals are pretty common in any industry.

 

An MMO is a service and should be treated as one.

 

E.g. DirectTV gives you 100$ off your bill for every friend you refer for a DTV sub.

Most company employee referral program reward the referrer for the referral.

Proper incentive is needed.

 

Think of it this way--

 

You are doing BW's job of marketing their game at a micro level by persuading 3 friends to play with u and sub.

 

You can take the same friends to the park and play ball instead for free. Very different case than this one.

[DarthKhaos]

No.. but i don't expect my friends to pay my landlord rent as well.

Actually you're not inviting your friends to your house. It's more like inviting them on a night out to Dave & Busters. We all pay our own way and buy our game cards to have fun TOGETHER.

[Phenyr]

Let's face it, if I am going to go to all the bother to convince up to three friends to sign on, shouldn't there be a reward for my efforts?

 

I guess they simply want us to do these things out of the goodness of our hearts. Anyway, doesn't this offer seem to smack of desperation?

 

So you whine about lack of reward for you trying to promote the game within your group of friends. It's your choice to promote the game or not. If you feel like it's not worth it then dont and ignore this if you think is worth it then do it.

 

 

Dont act like a mercenary....

[Arumat]

Let's face it, if I am going to go to all the bother to convince up to three friends to sign on, shouldn't there be a reward for my efforts?

 

I guess they simply want us to do these things out of the goodness of our hearts. Anyway, doesn't this offer seem to smack of desperation?

 

You are absolutely right.

 

I broke my friends disc twice while he tried to install it. I slapped him in the face and put him in his place until I get something out of him playing. Till then no dice.

[sarbonn]

The part that rubs me as a bit uncooth is the email they sent us active players that reads: "You've helped make The Old Republic a success, and now we would like to thank you by giving you the opportunity to invite up to 3 of your closest friends for a 7-day free trial.*"

 

In other words, they want to thank me by having me bring more customers to them. I think that's where the criticism comes. I don't even disagree with the process and the intent. The playthrough, however, is a bit uncool. If you want to "thank me", then actually do something that thanks me. Don't thank me by asking me to increase your profit margin.

[Arumat]

The part that rubs me as a bit uncooth is the email they sent us active players that reads: "You've helped make The Old Republic a success, and now we would like to thank you by giving you the opportunity to invite up to 3 of your closest friends for a 7-day free trial.*"

 

In other words, they want to thank me by having me bring more customers to them. I think that's where the criticism comes. I don't even disagree with the process and the intent. The playthrough, however, is a bit uncool. If you want to "thank me", then actually do something that thanks me. Don't thank me by asking me to increase your profit margin.

 

Personally, I take this as a gift. I have many friends, online and off that want to wait for trials before commiting. Things like this are a godsend for me to get my friends interested in what I am interested in.

[Jederix]

So this is still a sign of the great health of the game huh? And no reward for the one inviting? Well, fits BW.

 

 

I knew we'd see you in here at some point. You just cannot resist.

[GavinPatterson]

i was thrilled when i saw this.....i enjoy the game and want it to do better. I had three friends already lined up and asking if they could use one.

All i can say is to the op that maybe you do not need a reward for doing next to nothing. greedy tis tis tis

[Jederix]

No.. but i don't expect my friends to pay my landlord rent as well.

 

They won't, unless they move in with you permanently after their 7 free days at your house. You are new to the whole analogy thing, aren't you?

[HanzoV]

I got my friend to start playing this game about a month ago. The incentive was getting to play with someone I know, like, and trust, as opposed to some random person.

[DieAlteHexe]

Personally, I take this as a gift. I have many friends, online and off that want to wait for trials before commiting. Things like this are a godsend for me to get my friends interested in what I am interested in.

 

Indeed. Perfect opportunity to give folks the chance to see if this game is something they want to play with only associated cost being DL time.

[DarthKhaos]

The part that rubs me as a bit uncooth is the email they sent us active players that reads: "You've helped make The Old Republic a success, and now we would like to thank you by giving you the opportunity to invite up to 3 of your closest friends for a 7-day free trial.*"

 

In other words, they want to thank me by having me bring more customers to them. I think that's where the criticism comes. I don't even disagree with the process and the intent. The playthrough, however, is a bit uncool. If you want to "thank me", then actually do something that thanks me. Don't thank me by asking me to increase your profit margin.

Interesting I got similar mails from Blizzard, Square, and every damn company that runs an MMO I've played on. Why? Because it's good business.

[Tiam]

No way I would ask 3 friends to play SWTOR.

 

They do not want to have to buy a high end computer to play it, mind you we have 3 high end computers that still should get better fps that we currently do, and only performance issues with SWTOR, no other game.

 

They do not want to play a game that has just pve for endgame (they've all had enough of that from WoW), let's face it, the world pvp...errr Illum is terrible, and you can only play huttball so many times before you lose your mind as far as Wz's go.

 

Combat is sluggish on Republic side, just doesn't feel as smooth as the Empire side and it's still off on Empire as well.

 

My friends wouldn't put up with the lack of customer service, or non interactiveness with the community as BW is.

 

My friends wouldn't want to play an mmo that feels like a pc solo game. There's nothing lively about SWTOR, anywhere you go. It's like playing Kotr with a chatbox.

 

I could go on, and on, the reasons my friends wouldn't even bother with it, many of the reasons above is why they didn't bother buying the game after beta.

Edited March 6, 2012 by Tiam

[Sandtrooper]

1. Getting friends to play with.

 

2. Increasing server populations.

 

3. Possibly decreasing faction imbalance.

 

4. Enlarging your guild.

 

 

Why should it be about getting something?

 

 

Sand

[Istelle]

wow really? You expect more of a reward than inviting friends? I was just happy to be able to share the game with friends because right now our guild is small and we need more people... and I love playing with friends so... wow.

 

You shouldn't NEED any other incentive.

[TUXs]

This would have been better timed with the release of 1.2...not now.

[Kubernetic]

Let's face it, if I am going to go to all the bother to convince up to three friends to sign on, shouldn't there be a reward for my efforts?

 

I guess they simply want us to do these things out of the goodness of our hearts. Anyway, doesn't this offer seem to smack of desperation?

 

Your incentive is to share a game that you enjoy with your friends, because they're your friends.

 

Does there have to be a reward for you for being nice enough to suggest a game that your friends like?

 

Sheesh. Gimme gimme gimme.

[Draflorin]

So yeah, Refer a friend came out recently and I briefly considered which of my friends I might suggest this game to. Shortly I wondered what rewards/incentives were being offered in exchange for MY endorsement.

 

To those of you who will generously apply the term "entitled", the offer of incentives and rewards is very common and frankly I was a little surprised that there was absolutely nothing offered for the service BW/EA are asking us to do for them.

 

By the way - when I read the blurb for the refer a friend program BW are initiating, I see that it is now a privilege to offer my friends some "free game time" with some fairly limiting restrictions. and if your not a current subscriber don't worry as soon as you sub you can have the privilege too!!! WOW that's awesome - not... I rolled my eyes and thought "get over yourself BW". Recognise that you are asking us for a favour and not the other way round. I consider their presnetation of the "refer a friend" program to be extremely cheeky and condescending.

 

I did a quick Google search for "Refer a friend Rewards" and added the name of a number of other popular titles to refine the search a bit if I needed to and I came up with a very common theme - 100% of all other titles that I investigated give rewards ranging from free game time to in game items and benefits to the referrer in addition to the free trial time for the friend.

• WoW = in game benefits , extra levelling, unique mount, other benefits, free game time for friend.
  
• Eveonline = In game item that can be applied to your account for 1 months game time or can be sold on in game market for approx 400million in game currency, free trial period for the friend.
  
• LOTRO = in game benefits/items for both friend and referrer, free trial period for friend.
  
• Rift = in game benefits/items for friend and referrer, free trial period for friend.
  
• Aion = in game Benefits/items for both friend and Referrer, free trial period for friend.
  

That is where the bar is set. once again BW falling short a standard that has been set by others.

 

Anyway the above are not the main reasons I would not refer a Friend, the only reason I am a current subscriber is that I still have a few friends left here and I do still enjoy aspects of the game.

 

The first and foremost reason I will not be referring a friend is the extreme poor customer service experience I have had with this game. they say customers are important to them but their actions say otherwise.

• They constantly perform global maintenance at a time that ONLY suits Americans.
  
• In Game tickets/reports are answered only by canned response and closed immediately with no further discussion entered into.
  
• time for resolution is very long, I still have quests that cannot be cancelled even though it was reported over a month ago.
  
• poor and unfair forum moderation policy - mostly their insistence that we all post in the consolidated discussion and the closure of all other threads on the subject
  

 

when i see BW's attitude improve towards customers and customer service - i will consider offering a friend the opportunity to play this game and it would be nice if BW recognised that my endorsement of their product has some value even if its some crappy in game trinket - at least make the effort ffs.

Edited March 8, 2012 by Draflorin

[Woke]

They need new accounts to be made since the huge drop of the old players so things will balance out somewhow....Trials after 3months of game is preety fail.