Preferred Status is a flawed concept

[Wolfeisberg]

Which brings me back to my original point.

Once you stop paying you should be F2P as you are not currently paying so the game is Free for you to Play.

In my opinion.

 

Another analogy to drive my point home.

 

Today I walk into Macdonalds and buy a Big Mac Combo, I sit and enjoy it and I am a paying customer.

Tomorrow I walk into Macdonalds and tell them I am not spending any money today but because I spent some yesterday I am entitled to just sit here and take up one of your tables.

 

As soon as you stop paying you are F2P , that is why Preferred is a flawed concept, it is designed as a carrot that does not entice as well as it should because the stick alternative is not big enough for the carrot to be appealing.

 

There is still a massive difference between a Preferred account vs a subscribed account. There is still very much a carrot on a stick dangling in front of Preferred account holders.

Check out the big differences here

https://www.reddit.com/r/swtor/wiki/f2p

 

Preferred is designed to give people who did spend some money a little reward for doing so, there is nothing flawed about this. You really haven't talked about why it is a flawed concept, you just said it was without really explaining how it is flawed in the first place.

[Cavelis]

A lot of you have missed my point entirely.

 

EA does not give a rats arse about rewarding players that no longer pay them monthly money. (Opinion but with a strong basis)

 

Take that out of the equation and what is the only reason left for the existence of Preferred status?

Preferred status is there to show ex-subs or other previous payers some of what they are missing in the hope they will resub or sub to gain what they are missing.

 

This is where I say it is a flawed concept because Preferred has too many rewards so players feel no compulsion to resub which also means the restrictions are not punishing players enough, once again "encouraging" them to resub.

 

If this had of been done at the start and just not created the Preferred status then players would have moaned about it but accepted it as that would be all they knew. Taking it away now will cause players to quit in spite and that is not what I am saying, I can see that happening very clearly.

 

My bottom line is preferred was flawed from the start and should never have existed. It fails in its job to encourage resubs and we all know EA, no one could possibly think that preferred is based on rewarding the player, where is the profit in that.

 

You are certainly entitled to have your own opinion. However flawed or wrong that opinion may be.

 

Speaking as someone who originally started playing this game back during Beta, and a long time subscriber, I let my account lax for a while due to a number or different reasons, which are not pertinent to this discussion. However, at several points during the last 5 years I have re-subscribed for a few months at a time to catch up on the game, to reconnect or just to fill some downtime in my life. Each time I re-subscribe, I usually take a few weeks, playing as a preferred status member, to check things out and see if I really want to spend the money to re-sub. And after a few weeks, I usually end up re-subbing for a short while. So, I can tell you from first-hand experience, that preferred status members do in fact re-subscribe and that the preferred status level does work.

 

Now, if I had been downgraded all the way to free-to-play once my subscription ran out, there is a very high probability that I would ave come back, played for a few days as a F2P member, gotten bored, and left. Thus there would have been no incentive for me to re-subscribe.

 

Case in point, Preferred Status does work.

[cpinoy]

I am very glad you are a sub.

But for every one of you (where the carrot did its job) there are a lot more (based on comments I have seen) of those that pay a little bit and have no intention of ever financially supporting the game in a realistic manner, and no $5 is not realistic.

 

Tell me this, if you had of stopped at #2 would you feel like you deserved more perks than a F2P?

 

I think you have a good point in your opinion, put I feel your analogy is wrong in use of the gym scenario. Since your gym scenario is based off of a two class system as you would say while the STOR is a three class system with a rise and fall situation where one can move up and down the ladder. Do you see the connection? It seems your opinion is discriminatory over the middle class (preferred members), as some people do not have the luxury to spend and if little want to make a difference to their enjoyment even just a little. Your opinion comes to my concern as a kind of Totalitarian sort of function where there is only the Party(SUBS) and the Proles or lower-class(F2P), this is a proper analogy to your idea is not one of a gym scenario, which resides in a three class system most notably in well developed countries (United States), this is what STOR appears to be.

[HungryEd]

Yea, yea. Truth is, you would just rather the server be populated with you and your small group of elitist friends. Edited January 13, 2016 by HungryEd

[Netchae]

The only reason Preferred exists is to put the pudim (you can image it as you like, i have a version of it that i can't put here ) in your face and keep shaking it so much that at one point you are going to say OK you win i am back God dammit

 

hahahahaha it is nothing but a marketing strategy they are not nice, they are only running a business

[QuinlanSaathis]

So the old point of view is that from an accountant at EA and not a passionate developer who doesn't want to play on human weakness or a players point of view? Because reading your post it seems very much driven by improving the bottom line instead of focusing on QoL for players.

 

Yes it is

 

im usually u know half decent on here but *** dude r u daft thats like a complete backwards step in modern gaming. so ur telling me when we BOUGHT the game we were...renting it?

 

It is a MMO that started life as a subscription so yes, you are/were renting it. Buying an MMO means nothing.

 

I`ll just add my humble voice to this discussion: I`ve began this game as F2P, then i moved to subscription after playing the game for almost a year + the current expansion was coming and i wanted to play since i already had one character at level 55 (I own the physical copy which has never worked, but i used the subscription code to gain levels 51-55 ) After getting the KOtFE, i dropped my subscribtion since i don`t have any incomes to keep up the subscribtion. I do return to subscribe when new chapters are out. So i hope everyone understands that for some people, who don`t have afford to keep up continous subscribtion, the preferred status is actually kind good thing since it encourages them to subscribe once again. (Sunscibed again yesterday after being preferred for 4 months to gain HK-55 and new chapter )

 

I have nothing against you personally with this opinion, it is purely about mechanics.

 

Again, you have no proof, no facts to back any of this up. Do you have access to numbers we don't know about? Please post them for all to read. You have no clue if the "preferred" status is actually doing its job or not because you can't see into EA's pocketbooks.

 

No I don't, this is opinion and I avoided using the word fact like I did originally, that was a mistake.

 

There is still a massive difference between a Preferred account vs a subscribed account. There is still very much a carrot on a stick dangling in front of Preferred account holders.

Check out the big differences here

https://www.reddit.com/r/swtor/wiki/f2p

 

Preferred is designed to give people who did spend some money a little reward for doing so, there is nothing flawed about this. You really haven't talked about why it is a flawed concept, you just said it was without really explaining how it is flawed in the first place.

 

I disagree, As a reward, preferred actually sucks in my opinion which is why I believe it is not a reward but a failed incentive to get people to re-sub, sure some will resub anyway there are always exceptions to the rule but it is not because of the rewards of Preferred.

 

You are certainly entitled to have your own opinion. However flawed or wrong that opinion may be.

 

Speaking as someone who originally started playing this game back during Beta, and a long time subscriber, I let my account lax for a while due to a number or different reasons, which are not pertinent to this discussion. However, at several points during the last 5 years I have re-subscribed for a few months at a time to catch up on the game, to reconnect or just to fill some downtime in my life. Each time I re-subscribe, I usually take a few weeks, playing as a preferred status member, to check things out and see if I really want to spend the money to re-sub. And after a few weeks, I usually end up re-subbing for a short while. So, I can tell you from first-hand experience, that preferred status members do in fact re-subscribe and that the preferred status level does work.

 

Now, if I had been downgraded all the way to free-to-play once my subscription ran out, there is a very high probability that I would ave come back, played for a few days as a F2P member, gotten bored, and left. Thus there would have been no incentive for me to re-subscribe.

 

Case in point, Preferred Status does work.

 

If preferred never existed (which is what I am saying should have been the case) and you were downgraded to F2P, would your love of Star Wars (assumption) have not kept you in game?

 

I think you have a good point in your opinion, put I feel your analogy is wrong in use of the gym scenario. Since your gym scenario is based off of a two class system as you would say while the STOR is a three class system with a rise and fall situation where one can move up and down the ladder. Do you see the connection? It seems your opinion is discriminatory over the middle class (preferred members), as some people do not have the luxury to spend and if little want to make a difference to their enjoyment even just a little. Your opinion comes to my concern as a kind of Totalitarian sort of function where there is only the Party(SUBS) and the Proles or lower-class(F2P), this is a proper analogy to your idea is not one of a gym scenario, which resides in a three class system most notably in well developed countries (United States), this is what STOR appears to be.

 

My analogy is based on a system where Preferred does not exist, so there is only F2P and Subbed which is way there are two rooms.

 

Yea, yea. Truth is, you would just rather the server be populated with you and your small group of elitist friends.

 

I am not an elitist, I have a view of the mechanics of the game, it is not personal to anyone.

[Cavelis]

Yes it is

If preferred never existed (which is what I am saying should have been the case) and you were downgraded to F2P, would your love of Star Wars (assumption) have not kept you in game?

 

I think I basically answered this question in my earlier response, but no. As I said, if I were downgraded completely to F2P, it is highly unlikely that I would have re-subscribed. And with the restrictions placed on F2P accounts, I doubt I would have stuck around much longer than a few weeks (the time it took me to hit the restrictions imposed on F2P accounts).

 

Let me give you one example of how Preferred Status benefits over Free-to-Play and encourages players to no only continue playing but to also re-subscribe periodically.

 

Legacy: F2P players are seriously restricted in how they can utilize their legacy. With Preferred, a number of those restrictions are lifted or reduced, allowing players to enjoy creating and playing multiple characters, and sharing the benefits of them across their legacy. However, since there are still restrictions in place that limit how far they can go, Preferred Status players will get to a point where they are unable to accomplish something without being subscribed (or buying unlocks) and they have to pay Bioware for that privilege.

[LordArtemis]

I have always found it odd that folks resist bringing in freeps. Perhaps it makes a bit more sense in the end game content drought, but overall more players means more things to sell, buy, more folks to run content runs, etc.

 

I believe this game can use all the help it can get.

[TX_Angel]

I have always found it odd that folks resist bringing in freeps. Perhaps it makes a bit more sense in the end game content drought, but overall more players means more things to sell, buy, more folks to run content runs, etc.

 

I believe this game can use all the help it can get.

 

The part that bothers me is that some people want to play for free, while expecting others to pay for it so they can do so.

 

Oh sure, it is nice to have lots of players around, but remind me again why I wouldn't be one of them?

 

If I'm paying for the game and you're not, then I should be getting something that you're not, or I would have no reason to pay. And if it isn't ENOUGH more than you're getting, then I also wouldn't have reason to pay.

 

If 75% of the current F2P people went away and the other 25% subbed, I'd be happy with that. Fewer people to play with, but a more dedicated set of players who had skin in the game and cared a bit more.

 

I find in life that people don't tend to take seriously or care much about something they don't have to pay for. So many people in WZ/GSF/FP/OPS that take a "whatever, who cares" attitude.

 

Numbers aren't everything, quality of player matters as much as quantity of player.

[LordArtemis]

The part that bothers me is that some people want to play for free, while expecting others to pay for it so they can do so.

 

Oh sure, it is nice to have lots of players around, but remind me again why I wouldn't be one of them?

 

If I'm paying for the game and you're not, then I should be getting something that you're not, or I would have no reason to pay. And if it isn't ENOUGH more than you're getting, then I also wouldn't have reason to pay.

 

If 75% of the current F2P people went away and the other 25% subbed, I'd be happy with that. Fewer people to play with, but a more dedicated set of players who had skin in the game and cared a bit more.

 

I find in life that people don't tend to take seriously or care much about something they don't have to pay for. So many people in WZ/GSF/FP/OPS that take a "whatever, who cares" attitude.

 

Numbers aren't everything, quality of player matters as much as quantity of player.

 

I understand. I tend not to care about what other players are getting...I generally only worry about myself.

 

As long as the financial model is solid and new players/revenue is pouring in there are very few things I would actually complain about with respect to freeps and what they get.

 

Note: as a sub, I want to feel like I am getting a good value for my money. That has more to do with what I get than what someone else gets that is not a sub, from my perspective of course.