The fairness in Preferred Status, or lack thereof.

[XiamaraSimi]

More people to group with. .

 

Given the staggering amount of stupid one encounters in pugging/randoms, thats more a deterrant than anything...

[hadoken]

We're all subs here. Your rationalization for it being "I just want more for free" is patently false by the fact that I'm posting here. We do know that you want more if someone else gets a lessened restriction. Please try to create more specious arguments and deflections in your next response.

 

For the time being. The OP's thread is very much about that not remaining the case.

 

Hence the discussion. Again as I pointed out earlier in the thread, conveniently only when it mattered to him personally. I have no idea what your stake in this is. You seem to be under the delusion that the F2P/Preferred systems are badly in need of work and are failing, or something.

[tmwfte]

For the time being. The OP's thread is very much about that not remaining the case.

 

Hence the discussion. Again as I pointed out earlier in the thread, conveniently only when it mattered to him personally. I have no idea what your stake in this is. You seem to be under the delusion that the F2P/Preferred systems are badly in need of work and are failing, or something.

 

Yeah...it's clear you're not worth continuing discussion with.

[Gorrdan]

There are two different theories on how to deal with this and really no way to make people happy. If you go to RIFT, there are constant complaints that Subscription doesn't give you an where near enough. Heck RIFT went so far as to rename it as "Patron" because they know the title "Subscriber" brings with it a certain idea of value for many people.

 

Wildstars, the last I checked, didn't have preferred btw. They have F2P and took a page from RIFT and renamed a subscription "signature". If this is still the case then you should be saying they did " f2p" right. However this is masking something. Wildstars HAD to do something COMPLETELY desperate to get players playing the game in the desperate hope they would pay. NCSoft is actually rare in the gaming world in that they come out and tell you specifically what each game makes for them (I assume this has to do with South Korea financial rules.).

From Q2 2014 to Q3 2015 Wildstars revenue dropped by 96%... Yes 96%.

 

So while you may say Wildstars is "doing it right" they had to try something radical. SWTOR during the same period with their "wrong" model well more than doubled Wildstars revenue.

 

Call me crazy but I want the game I play to make as much money as possible because it is the revenue that, in part, goes towards determing the budget. So more money = more/better game.

 

Our preferred is what Wildstar calls signature and yes they did it right. They gave a lot of perks to old subscriber which included no cap on credits which can be the biggest road block. In SWTOR i was a subscriber from first month of launch and i am still almost on same level as F2P player. This is not about being cheap since i spend close to 50 bucks every month on online games. It is about our value as a customer. Wildstar had all the more reasons to nickle and dime its players and yet they are more generous given the financial mess they are in.with Ncsoft.

 

I am still playing SWTOR as a sub but it does makes me wonder and leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Edited November 11, 2015 by Gorrdan

[hadoken]

Our preferred is what Wildstar calls signature and yes they did it right. They gave a lot of perks to old subscriber which included no cap on credits which can be the biggest road block. In SWTOR i was a subscriber from first month of launch and i am still almost on same level as F2P player. This is not about being cheap since i spend close to 50 bucks every month on online games. It is about our value as a customer. Wildstar ahd all the more reasons to nickle and dime its players and yet they are more generous given the the financial mess they are in.with Ncsoft.

 

I always took it as them being desperate to get people to even come LOOK at their game, hence practically giving it away for free

[Gorrdan]

I always took it as them being desperate to get people to even come LOOK at their game, hence practically giving it away for free

 

Well i guess almost every game out there is desperate compared to SWTOR then considering they give lots of perks to their old customers. In my own personal experience more generous the f2p model is more players are willing to spend money on cash shop.

 

GW2 s perfect example. All of their revenue comes from cash shop. They even stopped charging for the client.

Edited November 11, 2015 by Gorrdan

[LordArtemis]

Well, I have given my opinion on what I think should change about the preferred model, and how I feel the appeal of subscriptions should be increased.

 

I would only say a few more things....

 

The credit cap is vital to keeping credit sellers under the thumb, so to speak IMO. It certainly could be raised a bit, but I would advise against any substantial increase...right now one can buy unlocks to pull credits from escrow, and I think that is mostly sufficient.

 

I do think the constant "ding" you get when credits get deposited in escrow is likely irritating and unnecessary....and I think it should be disabled.

 

As to the other restrictions that folks rail against, I tend to agree with those folks that believe the way to remove those restrictions is to simply sub.

 

I think that folks that feel a player should have too much for nothing do not benefit this game in any substantial way and the game would likely be better off without them. This game needs folks that are willing to contribute to it's health and longevity, and that means financial support as well as constant feedback.

 

....same goes for those that would threaten to leave if the cap was removed, or rail against free to play players in general. These kind of players are completely toxic to a game community and it's development and IMO are almost as bad as those that milk the game without paying for it...they are responsible, partially of course, for the debacle that was the original state of the game and the turtle pace to improve it, fighting substantial and healthy improvements at every turn, ESPECIALLY with respect to the F2P launch....and the game would be better off without them as well.

 

Luckilly most of their diatribe was ignored by the new dev team it seems.

 

I think both of those types of players need to go.

Edited November 11, 2015 by LordArtemis

[Nerdimports]

I've been a sub since my 3rd or 4th day of playing and haven't looked back.

 

That said, I do feel like both F2P and Preferred ought to have caps increased just due to cost of living / mudflation. 600k and 1 million credits would still deny them easy access to some of the rarer items for sale on the GTN but 200k and 350k really don't buy a lot in the game.

[LordArtemis]

I've been a sub since my 3rd or 4th day of playing and haven't looked back.

 

That said, I do feel like both F2P and Preferred ought to have caps increased just due to cost of living / mudflation. 600k and 1 million credits would still deny them easy access to some of the rarer items for sale on the GTN but 200k and 350k really don't buy a lot in the game.

 

I personally feel 1 mil is too much. I think it should be more along the lines of 250k for free, 500k for preferred.

 

Anything above that might cause some revenue loss and/or give a hand to credit sellers.

 

Just my take of course.

[LordJestR]

To bring a touch of reality into this thread, you guys should know you are dealing with the notoriously greedy EA. So if you want to ask for freebies, you might want to come up with a financially sound proposal that benefits both EA and you.

 

Walls of entitled text sadly would not work.

[Nommaz]

Businesses are around to make money, they give away things for free in the hopes this will entice people into spending money, not to provide a service that will enable many people stop paying money for to use for free.

 

Whilst SOME of the restrictions are hard, it is in the best interests of the paying customers that the business don't allow free loaders, otherwise the income goes down and the quality/service must also drop(not wanting to start a bug/service war).

As for Bioware only being in it for the money, well yeah.... they are actually a business, not a NFP group.

 

The devs do it because they love the work or to bring home a pay check.

The server contractors do it to bring home a paycheck.

The company do it to bring home to $$ to pay the employers, and all the other costs in a business, give the shareholders the profits they want and to continue to keep others happy, that's how businesses work, they are not contrary to the belief of this generation, their to pander to freeloaders and supply stuff for free.

 

Go get a coffee card and tell them you should get 3 free coffee's because you have been buying for ages, instead of the one they supply, when they laugh at your stupidity, think of this thread.

[Cuiwe]

I am all for eliminating ALL of restrictions that don't empower bots. But by battling bots and hackers, the only people who'll be hurt by this will be the loyal subs or otherwise loyal players(prefs for example). In this way, it's the exact same as the battle against the pirates. These are things that are edgy:

 

-> Money cap: If you leave it as is, it is NOT ENOUGH to unlock things you'd like to unlock / to buy things you want. On the other hand, if you increase it by too much, it'll be a bot paradise. Do you really want to give so much power to bots / hackers? Also do think what this could to the game's economy...

 

-> Character slots: This is again controversial because of bots. But I see no reason why not increase this to 8 characters / pref status.

 

-> Mail / GTM access: I fully agree with this being limited to EVERYTHING except the subs. Because this would get abused SO HARD by RMAH scumlords. Just imagine...

 

Every other limitation EXCEPT the RoTH / SoR / KoTFE access SHOULD BE ELIMINATED for Prefs. Colour customisation, hide head slot, display title...really? The only thing that could be both here and there is the OP access. What I feel like would ultimately work the best:

 

TIERED PREFERED STATUS:

 

Based upon how much you spent on the game, that's how much bonuses you get when you switch to the pref status: spending 5$ in CM gets you the basic prefered status(the current one). When you spend more than...90(?) dollars on swtor, you unlock the final tier of prefered. Which is basically the same as a sub, but with some deceleration on key spots(character slots, mail/GTM access etc). I think this'd work just nice .

[xxIncubixx]

Play Wildstar. Whilst its not this game, it does not content any outdated restrictive pay walls. SWTOR claims to be f2p but only is for 'story' to level 50. Everything else is locked behind a pay wall. Bioware can't see the link between low population and pay walls.

 

It's the only MMO that continues to lock content behind a pay wall.

 

HAHAH Wildstar HAHAHA good joke wildstar is so bad.

 

I still dont get this type of discussion... before if you didnt have a sub you couldnt even log in or play the game, now they let you play with limitations and still people complain.

Edited November 11, 2015 by xxIncubixx

[Cuiwe]

HAHAH Wildstar HAHAHA good joke wildstar is so bad.

 

I still dont get this type of discussion... before if you didnt have a sub you couldnt even log in or play the game, now they let you play with limitations and still people complain.

 

Sometimes it's better not to play at all than to play with a slave collar up your neck. Just saying .

[LordJestR]

Sometimes it's better not to play at all than to play with a slave collar up your neck. Just saying .

 

See how delusional people can get? Apparently playing a video game can be linked to slavery.

 

Hey EA, I demand you pay me to play your games, because reasons.

[t-darko]

Preferred Status feels like one big hit in the stomach.

So things weren't as great as you thought without your sub! I guess that was a chocker, but could easily been avoided if you went out here on the forums and politely asked how life as a preferred player actually is.

 

My subscription is nearly ending and due to personal reasons I won't be able to re-subscribe for a while.

So you're short on cash and that happens, personal stuff is personal stuff - so you had to priorities, fair enough, but what urges you to call on a collapse of the principles of the monetary system and commerce!?

 

Being capped at 350K is unreasonable: only 150K credits more than F2P?

And this do bother me, you did get some stuff from the supermarket for free, but that isn't enough?!

 

I don't mean all this in a leeching and give me stuff-for-free kind of way,

But you do come across as that, mate . . .

 

you may disagree, and share your opinion all right, but please don't attack me.

 

Yours kindly.

 

And this quote actually tells me that even YOU know how flawed your argument is...

 

My suggestion: Make a valid point in your OP that actually would make prefered status better than F2P but don't diminish the "benefits" of being a Sub!

 

Yours Kindly

[Cuiwe]

See how delusional people can get? Apparently playing a video game can be linked to slavery.

 

Hey EA, I demand you pay me to play your games, because reasons.

 

I prefer to enjoy myself. That's why I work: to purchase things that are enjoyable to me. That's also why I don't prefer such games as follows:

 

-> Grindy games(eq etc)

-> super hardcore games(dark souls etc)

-> very competitive games(fps / moba genre)

 

Enjoying myself is just as much my prerogative as someone else is to pull his nails out while playing a game. Live and let live.

[Mdgshorty]

As it stands there is 2 types of preferred status players.

 

1. The ones that have paid $5 to go preferred

2. The ones who have paid for expansions, subs or cartel coins.

 

Some of you are saying preferred players are not contributing to the game. The people in the second category are. Honestly, I think there should be another tier for subscription status.

 

I have been thinking about this and it should be called preferred plus. They get most of the benefits that the subs get but in order to stay in this tier, they must sub or buy cartel coins every few months. The only thing they won't get will be new chapters and cartel coins other than the ones you get from the security key.

 

I do think the credit cap for preferred should be increased. Most of the stuff sold on the gtn is over the credit cap for preferred plays including the escrows.

Edited November 11, 2015 by Mdgshorty

[branmakmuffin]

As it stands there is 2 types of preferred status players.

 

1. The ones that have paid $5 to go preferred

2. The ones who have paid for expansions, subs or cartel coins.

 

Some of you are saying preferred players are not contributing to the game. The people in the second category are.

They did contribute to the game. Unless and until they buy something else, their contribution is over.

[Kalfridian]

I play the game mainly as a preferred, but I don't really feel bothered by the limitations while I did feel bothered by them when i was trying as a total F2P.

Those days (3.0 or before) I couldn't even run before level 10 (and it was before 4.0 and its leveling pace), had only two quickbar (hard to play when you need at least three to decently play a tank class like me) and can't trade (so I could only sell the piece of equipmente I didn't need): as a preferred I can actually play the game without it feeling like a chore.

Must say though that I'm a strange kind of player since I'm here because this is the sequel of KOTOR, so mainly a solo player interested in the storyline (but i grouped for heroics and SM flashpoint to see the story, especially the one like Esseles, Taral V and Maelstrom Prison) and the preferred option is pretty much tailored for that kind of play, the only thing really locked behind a "Paywall" is the hardcore endgame group content, the one you need outrageous gear for like Operations HM, and I don't do that.

Moreover not doing them lift the need for the only gear locked for preferred (you need good gear only for the specific content itself), the purple artifact one, you can curbstomp heroics and solo content with orange gear outfitted with green mods (the one I used, the 190 greens now and the 180 blue before, are pretty powerful). The game itself outfit you for the story content with mission reward (let's not talk about post 4.0 where you can solo the story content naked with a lv 12 affection companion).

 

I feel pretty conflicted about the credit cap, since I can buy pretty much anything I need with the 350k one. Medkit, stims and armor, the orange one cost common crystal and I have lots of them even as a preferred, and If i don't like the looks of the vendor armor I can go on the GTN and buy one that I like.

As of now I've bought a lv 31 orange armor for 40000 and a lv 50 (the War Hero Weaponmaster Set - Rated) for 129000 and some black dye for 24000 ( all of which are below the cap). The problem is not the cap itself (maybe) but some of the GTN vendors: while a lot of people have pretty good price (they want to sell, so they price the set under the cap) others sell the sets for stupidly high prices, and that's something you can't change with a higher cap (some people sell legacy species unlock for 2 million or more while you can unlock it for 1.5 million on the legacy panel, I understand Cathar and Togruta which you can't, but a Sith Pureblood unlock at 10 million I don't really understand, maybe I'm missing something though).

Sure, you can't afford to buy the hefty watchamacallit Cartel Market Armors Set on the GTN but something has to be exclusive for the subscriber or $$$ only. You want it, you pay it (or subscribe and farm money).

 

I know someone can say "but I want to do operations and endgame group content as a preferred, so i need gear, I'm not a player like you who do mainly solo story content", but exactly like the hefty armor sets, someone has to be done to make people subscribe and something must be given to the subscriber and in the end what's locked is pretty specific and hardcore group content for hardcore players, who spend their time to grind gear (something I don't know If I will ever do) and use the most social aspect of the game, and a sidestory (the Dread Master).

I'm even fine with paying for expansion (since they're expansion like Heart of Stone for The Witcher 3 for example).

 

And I think they're pretty lenient with future ex-subscriber as well, I think. As of now If sub for one month and then cancel your subscription for only 13 euro (I'm european) you retain:

-All the story content till now (and I've bought SoR for 17 euro and 4 euro for the Section X pass);

-All your high end equipment will be usable without authorization (so if you got the Apocalypse Gear farming ops before the subscription expire, you retain it);

-Non-human toon you have created that are normally beyond the reach of the preferred only;

 

And if you farm money a little in that month (you get a lot of money even without farming, the game is really generous) you can buy a ton of unlock, pass or whatever you want.

So in the end I don't think preferred get the short end of the stick considering this is a subscription based game.

In some ways and depending on theyr playstile, they can get a better deal than the subscriber.

Definitely better deal than what you get for some F2P where you get scammed for money in some of the so-called "event".

And a lot better than normal F2P who I feel can't really play the game.

 

If I had to name some limitations I'd like to see removed for preferred, I'd say just the Unify Color and Hide Head Gear, but I hardly need them (they're cool tought, my Sith Marauder only wears black).

What really needs to be removed are the notifications, like someone has already noted: man, they're really annoying. I know I have a cap, you don't have to soundly remember me every single penny I get. Moreover 280000 is not near the 350000 cap, damn.

One other thing though, when I was preferred I couldn't use the Green Barrel\Hilt from the mod vendors on the fleet, but I think that was a bug: if not that's another thing I'd like to see removed, I still like to curbstomp mooks.

 

Sorry for the WoT and the english.

[Mithros]

I have been thinking about this and it should be called preferred plus. They get most of the benefits that the subs get but in order to stay in this tier, they must sub or buy cartel coins every few months. The only thing they won't get will be new chapters and cartel coins other than the ones you get from the security key.

 

So you think that they should take $5 worth of cartel coins away from people that spend $15 less per month than subscribers and that should be good enough? They just have to spend a little money or sub once in a while to maintain that status?

 

So someone could maybe resub one out of every three months or so to maintain this?

 

So over a three month span of time a preferred player can spend $25 ($15 for the sub and $10 to make up for the coins they didn't get during the two months that they were not subbed) and have everything that a subscriber paid $45 to have?

 

And in your world that makes sense?

 

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

 

You want the subscriber experience then subscribe.

 

You run into something that causes you to suspend your account for a time? Hey, you can still play the game. If you saved some CCs from when you were subbing then maybe you can buy a warzone or operations pass or whatever.

 

You just want to spend your money on another game? Bye. Go play that other game.

 

The OP seems to want to play another game for whatever it offers while still being allowed to come back here for unlimited warzones because they like to PvP here.

 

Someone else could make the exact same argument only replace PvP with operations. Log in once a week for the guild "operations night" while spending their money on another game they play the other days.

 

This game owes you nothing other than what you paid for.

 

If someone is a pure F2Per that means that they should be happy just to play.

Preferred players got everything that they got while subbing and/or whatever they spent their CCs on, and as an extra thank you they get a little bit more than the F2Pers.

 

If the PvP isn't enough to get you to sub then don't sub, but also don't complain.

If the operations aren't enough to get you to sub then don't sub, but also don't complain.

If the credit cap or the extra crew skills or whatever else isn't enough to get you to sub then don't sub, but also don't complain.

 

If everything that this game offers subs isn't enough to keep you subbing then don't sub, but don't act like they owe it to you to let you hang out and do whatever you want while you are spending your money elsewhere.

[LordArtemis]

I would like to see more tiers...but with very high requirements.

 

I would say that folks that have at least 24 months of subscription payments or 360 dollars spent would get a silver account, and those that have 36 months of subscription payments or 540 dollars would get a gold account.

 

Silver would provide....

 

If preferred - allowance to mail unlimited items and credits to legacy only, chat restrictions removed, escrow sound disabled, cap pushed to 500k.

If subbed - double rested XP, 100 CC bonus per month on top of current 500 stipend and 100 SK bonus.

 

Gold would provide, in addition to silver....

 

If preferred - cosmetic limitations removed, all bars allowed, fleet travel cooldown reductions enabled (but quick travel limitations stay in place), cap pushed to 750k.

If subbed - extra character slot, 250 CC bonus per month on top of silver, monthly stipend and SK bonus, appearance designer cost reduced 50 percent.

 

All other restrictions would remain in place. Cap boosts are suggestive, whatever provides suitable value without removing the incentive to sub or enabling coin sales.

Edited November 11, 2015 by LordArtemis

[hadoken]

I would like to see more tiers...but with very high requirements.

 

I have no argument for this proposal. I don't think it'll ever happen though.

[LordArtemis]

I have no argument for this proposal. I don't think it'll ever happen though.

 

Your probably right. Unfortunately, despite their rhetoric to the contrary, I think they do everything short of encouraging whales.

 

Personally, I would rather see more whales and less subs....or get subs to spend even more. Either way, I would like to see revenue increase substantially....that way content becomes more frequent.

 

IMO you haven't truly supported the game until you have broken the 1400.00 barrier. That is real commitment to the title IMO. Personally I am only about halfway there.

 

Purely selfish I know

Edited November 11, 2015 by LordArtemis

[hadoken]

Your probably right. Unfortunately, despite their rhetoric to the contrary, I think they do everything short of encouraging whales.

 

Personally, I would rather see more whales and less subs....or get subs to spend even more. Either way, I would like to see revenue increase substantially....that way content becomes more frequent.

 

IMO you haven't truly supported the game until you have broken the 1400.00 barrier. That is real commitment to the title IMO. Personally I am only about halfway there.

 

Purely selfish I know

 

I think most of the whales are also subscribers, though. I don't see how anyone can really enjoy the game as a non-sub. But that's probably because when I go preferred I see the game reverting back to launch style play, and I'm SO past that.