Yeah so all these years where SOE was saying "come back vets!!!" handing out free time to us multiple times a year, then this $50 if you ever come back is a punch in the jock, the "sorry we gave you lots of free time, now pay up or F off" message.
Yeah so all these years where SOE was saying "come back vets!!!" handing out free time to us multiple times a year, then this $50 if you ever come back is a punch in the jock, the "sorry we gave you lots of free time, now pay up or F off" message.
Technically, they're not saying "come back and play the old character which you haven't played in YEARS when we happened to offer free transfers but, fortunately, we still archived for you "; it's more of a "come back and play" thing. The choice of playing a newly rolled toon or paying to pull your old, unplayed toon out of mothballs, which likely will have to be entirely respecced, is up to you. It's a subtle difference. ( ' :
I'm pretty sure that soe knows people are not coming back. They have begged for years and people are not coming back. It mat cost them some players, but I'm sure it would cost more just to support a post merger character transfer system. Most likely the cost to support the system and help players would be greater than the revenue generated from a few returning players here and there. Most of which wouldn't stay anyhow.
SWG just doesn't have retaining power. Getting $50 up front is most likely a win for soe overall.
Hi! I played SWG once when i was very young and the game first came out. Today i had thoughts of SWG and thought "Maybe i should try that game again!" I have not concerned myself with the game in any way, shape or form in the intervening time.
I came to these forums to check it out and read this. Look at it from my perspective now.
1. This is as far as i have got. I will assume that SWG offers no warning during the subbing process that there is a 50 dollar fee to play on your old characters (that i so fondly remember).
2. So i would have paid the sub fee, downloaded the game, logged on and wondered where my characters went. After researching it (or being told by the client, perhaps? I imagine they make it clear once you've subbed), i would have immediately closed the client and uninstalled, absolutely appalled.
Ok, that's my speculation over, now we'll cover what really happened:
1. I got interested in SWG, i thought i'd take a look again see if it was any good.
2. I logged into MMORPG.com and checked the forums. Apparently they charge 50 dollars to get your old character back when there really is no need for that to happen at all.
3. I forget the idea of trying SWG again.
And that's really the point. I was going to try until i found out that a) i'd have to pay 50 dollars to play an old char, and b) SOE would actually try to screw me out of 50 dollars in this way.
And that's the bottom line to this argument - for all the defenders of SOE - the true question is: WHY do this? You delete servers? Ok, just copy all the chars to a random server. If they don't like the server, too bad you did what you could. But WHY do this? I wonder how many hundreds perhaps thousands of people who, like me, have gone through this process of walking away? I wonder how many subs have been immediately regretted and cancelled because people weren't aware until they had already paid? I wonder how many potential new community members have been lost because SOE decided they wanted to try and scam an extra 50 dollars?
Bottom line: There's no good reason to do this, it's not even lazyness, it's not technical restrictions or difficulty. It's flat out greed.
And that's really the point. I was going to try until i found out that a) i'd have to pay 50 dollars to play an old char, and b) SOE would actually try to screw me out of 50 dollars in this way.
And that's the bottom line to this argument - for all the defenders of SOE - the true question is: WHY do this? You delete servers? Ok, just copy all the chars to a random server. If they don't like the server, too bad you did what you could. But WHY do this?
BINGO!!! It's not that they closed the servers, it's the slimy pathetic attempt to swindle $50 out of uneducated players who come back to the game - and "casual" players are the majority of any MMO. That's the bottom line. It's VERY poor business practice and it fully exhibits how SoE feels about the customer. All the customer is, is money. Nothing else.
And that's really the point. I was going to try until i found out that a) i'd have to pay 50 dollars to play an old char, and b) SOE would actually try to screw me out of 50 dollars in this way.
And that's the bottom line to this argument - for all the defenders of SOE - the true question is: WHY do this? You delete servers? Ok, just copy all the chars to a random server. If they don't like the server, too bad you did what you could. But WHY do this?
BINGO!!! It's not that they closed the servers, it's the slimy pathetic attempt to swindle $50 out of uneducated players who come back to the game - and "casual" players are the majority of any MMO. That's the bottom line. It's VERY poor business practice and it fully exhibits how SoE feels about the customer. All the customer is, is money. Nothing else.
Well that's just it. When I heard that SOE was planning to do this, I was surprised. I know I shouldn't be, but everytime they seem to shoot themselves in the foot, I shake my head in wonder.
Will they get a few people spending the 50 bucks? I'm sure someone will be desperate enough to pay the extra fee to actually find some other people on a server, but how is this a good strategy to grow your game? It's sure not likely to attract former players, and even new players who see how they do business might think twice.
So, I figure they're either too greedy for quarterly earnings to know how to survive, or they really have no long terms plans for this game. Strategies like this seem aimed at nothing more than gouging the few remaining hardcore players before they take the game off-line.
Comments
Yeah so all these years where SOE was saying "come back vets!!!" handing out free time to us multiple times a year, then this $50 if you ever come back is a punch in the jock, the "sorry we gave you lots of free time, now pay up or F off" message.
Technically, they're not saying "come back and play the old character which you haven't played in YEARS when we happened to offer free transfers but, fortunately, we still archived for you "; it's more of a "come back and play" thing. The choice of playing a newly rolled toon or paying to pull your old, unplayed toon out of mothballs, which likely will have to be entirely respecced, is up to you. It's a subtle difference. ( ' :
I'm pretty sure that soe knows people are not coming back. They have begged for years and people are not coming back. It mat cost them some players, but I'm sure it would cost more just to support a post merger character transfer system. Most likely the cost to support the system and help players would be greater than the revenue generated from a few returning players here and there. Most of which wouldn't stay anyhow.
SWG just doesn't have retaining power. Getting $50 up front is most likely a win for soe overall.
Just thought i'd pop up and say hi..
Hi! I played SWG once when i was very young and the game first came out. Today i had thoughts of SWG and thought "Maybe i should try that game again!" I have not concerned myself with the game in any way, shape or form in the intervening time.
I came to these forums to check it out and read this. Look at it from my perspective now.
1. This is as far as i have got. I will assume that SWG offers no warning during the subbing process that there is a 50 dollar fee to play on your old characters (that i so fondly remember).
2. So i would have paid the sub fee, downloaded the game, logged on and wondered where my characters went. After researching it (or being told by the client, perhaps? I imagine they make it clear once you've subbed), i would have immediately closed the client and uninstalled, absolutely appalled.
Ok, that's my speculation over, now we'll cover what really happened:
1. I got interested in SWG, i thought i'd take a look again see if it was any good.
2. I logged into MMORPG.com and checked the forums. Apparently they charge 50 dollars to get your old character back when there really is no need for that to happen at all.
3. I forget the idea of trying SWG again.
And that's really the point. I was going to try until i found out that a) i'd have to pay 50 dollars to play an old char, and b) SOE would actually try to screw me out of 50 dollars in this way.
And that's the bottom line to this argument - for all the defenders of SOE - the true question is: WHY do this? You delete servers? Ok, just copy all the chars to a random server. If they don't like the server, too bad you did what you could. But WHY do this? I wonder how many hundreds perhaps thousands of people who, like me, have gone through this process of walking away? I wonder how many subs have been immediately regretted and cancelled because people weren't aware until they had already paid? I wonder how many potential new community members have been lost because SOE decided they wanted to try and scam an extra 50 dollars?
Bottom line: There's no good reason to do this, it's not even lazyness, it's not technical restrictions or difficulty. It's flat out greed.
BINGO!!! It's not that they closed the servers, it's the slimy pathetic attempt to swindle $50 out of uneducated players who come back to the game - and "casual" players are the majority of any MMO. That's the bottom line. It's VERY poor business practice and it fully exhibits how SoE feels about the customer. All the customer is, is money. Nothing else.
BINGO!!! It's not that they closed the servers, it's the slimy pathetic attempt to swindle $50 out of uneducated players who come back to the game - and "casual" players are the majority of any MMO. That's the bottom line. It's VERY poor business practice and it fully exhibits how SoE feels about the customer. All the customer is, is money. Nothing else.
Well that's just it. When I heard that SOE was planning to do this, I was surprised. I know I shouldn't be, but everytime they seem to shoot themselves in the foot, I shake my head in wonder.
Will they get a few people spending the 50 bucks? I'm sure someone will be desperate enough to pay the extra fee to actually find some other people on a server, but how is this a good strategy to grow your game? It's sure not likely to attract former players, and even new players who see how they do business might think twice.
So, I figure they're either too greedy for quarterly earnings to know how to survive, or they really have no long terms plans for this game. Strategies like this seem aimed at nothing more than gouging the few remaining hardcore players before they take the game off-line.