Crowns for already paid time, keep more long term players?

Daemyn · January 2015

The B2P implementation is a huge change to the game, and many people feel pretty betrayed by it. There's pros and cons, but the pros are mostly for Zenimax and perhaps future players, the cons mostly for the current community of players. There is, however, one thing that Zenimax might do to somewhat alleviate the frustration of long term subscribers, the people who have stuck with the game through all the craziness and issues:

Give the ESO Plus Crown awards retroactively to all accounts.

Essentially, act as though we've been paying for ESO Plus this whole time, since we have been but without any of the benefits. Even if it isn't at the full amount (though it perhaps ought to be), a nice chunk of crowns for those who have paid for subscriptions before the B2P implementation might go a long way to soothe some ruffled feathers, and show some appreciation for those who believed that paying for the game was worth it. As it is, a lot of people feel we've been paying to play a beta. Yes, the game has been enjoyable, or we wouldn't have paid, but there were also promises that the subscription was there for a reason, and would not be changed.

I want to make it clear, since the first argument will be "you just want handouts!", it really isn't...we have already paid for it in full, we just didn't realize it at the time because of a lack of transparency. I don't really expect that Zenimax will actually take this suggestion to heart either....I just really hope they would, they might lose a lot less long term players that have loved the game but feel that this is just too much. Losing a chunk of the dedicated players and replacing them with a B2P crowd may end up driving even more long term players away as well, so hopefully this may make sense from a business pov as well, since the long term players are probably the most likely to pay for ESO Plus.

Just my 2 cents and some wishful thinking.

Orious13 · January 2015

SIGNED

Korah_Eaglecry · January 2015

Theyre already giving you 100 Crowns per month youve subbed.

Its kind of obvious at this point that the vast majority on this Forums are first time MMO players. Or theyd know ZOS owes you nothing. You paid month to month for access. Access that you got in spades.

And you should be thankful theyre doing ANYTHING for you at all. They could of decided to drop Subs. They could of decided that beyond a stipend of Crowns you were going to get NOTHING else as a Sub holder. Plenty of other games have Subs in their F2P models and NEVER EVER gave their Playerbase retroactive Cash Shop Funds once they went F2P/B2P.

Be thankful the Devs do think of you as the special snowflakes youve convinced yourselves you are. Because if it was any other company. Youd probably be lucky with a Sub option worth a **** at all.

Orious13 · January 2015

The last MMO I paid for was SWG Pre-NGE so although I've played MMORPGs since 1999 (and have not enjoyed any since SWG), the fact is back then games either went down completely or stayed up for years.

It's more likely newer MMO players would be used to having this happen so early in a games tenure given AOC/STO/SW:TOR/RIFT

but Korah is correct. I just reread the terms of service and it says:

"5. PAID SERVICES
Some Services require payment of a fee. You must have an Account and pay the applicable fees to participate in those Services. For information about subscription and other fees for particular Services, visit Your particular Service’s product page or Customer Services at support.bethsoft.com.

FEES ARE PAYABLE IN ADVANCE AND, EXCEPT AS OTHERWISE REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ARE NOT REFUNDABLE IN WHOLE OR IN PART.

ZeniMax reserves the right to change the fees or billing methods at any time upon notice to You through Your Account....."

They can change whatever they want.

Playing EVE now while I wait for Crowfall, though.

Enodoc · January 2015

500 free +100 per month subscribed is pretty good I think; considering there has been nothing to spend them on up until now, I don't think we need a direct conversion.

It'll come down to how many Crowns each item costs when considering whether 100 is good value; you shouldn't be able to buy out the store, but considering some of the purchases as an extended loyalty reward is a good direction for ZOS to take. Item prices should be viewable on PTS, so we'll be able to determine whether it's good value.

Daemyn · January 2015

Yeah, I'd started writing this before I'd seen that they were doing some retroactive awarding of crowns. It doesn't seem like a lot, given that one month of ESO Plus gets you 1500 crowns, but it is at least something. And yes, legally they have no need to do anything whatsoever, that's pretty much always true. It's not a matter of expecting anything, more just hoping that they might, and that has nothing to do with being a snowflake or any of those other stupid overused terms. It has to do with the fact that they have been misleading their player base, and hoping that they can respect their paying customers as not just money sources but loyal fans. But, a lot of this is likely being done by the business side, whereas the ones that care about the fans the most probably have little input.

And for the record, I've been playing MMOs for a very long time...but I don't keep playing the ones that make me feel like I'm wasting my money. And I'm not saying that I feel I have wasted my money either, ESO has been a fun game or I wouldn't be paying. I'm actually not personally concerned that much about the crowns even, but I am concerned about the game losing a lot of the players that do feel upset about this situation. For the sake of the long term health of the game, I think more of the players that have been around and supported the game before it went B2P need to be encouraged to stay. They are the most likely to pay for ESO Plus for one, and they will give more informed feedback about the direction of the game on the forums. As much as people say otherwise, Zenimax does listen to the players with game adjustments, and if all the voices are coming from those who are just here because it's free and not those that were willing to pay to play the game before, I don't see that being great for the enjoyment of the serious fans.

It is nice to see that they are making an effort to reach out to those who have been here with crowns and other possible bonuses. It is something to keep in mind though, just because a person doesn't HAVE to do something and no one else is either, that doesn't mean they shouldn't. That's kind of the basis of being a good person.

grimjim398 · January 2015

Daemyn wrote: »

The B2P implementation is a huge change to the game, and many people feel pretty betrayed by it. There's pros and cons, but the pros are mostly for Zenimax and perhaps future players, the cons mostly for the current community of players. There is, however, one thing that Zenimax might do to somewhat alleviate the frustration of long term subscribers, the people who have stuck with the game through all the craziness and issues:

Give the ESO Plus Crown awards retroactively to all accounts.

Essentially, act as though we've been paying for ESO Plus this whole time, since we have been but without any of the benefits. Even if it isn't at the full amount (though it perhaps ought to be), a nice chunk of crowns for those who have paid for subscriptions before the B2P implementation might go a long way to soothe some ruffled feathers, and show some appreciation for those who believed that paying for the game was worth it. As it is, a lot of people feel we've been paying to play a beta. Yes, the game has been enjoyable, or we wouldn't have paid, but there were also promises that the subscription was there for a reason, and would not be changed.

I want to make it clear, since the first argument will be "you just want handouts!", it really isn't...we have already paid for it in full, we just didn't realize it at the time because of a lack of transparency. I don't really expect that Zenimax will actually take this suggestion to heart either....I just really hope they would, they might lose a lot less long term players that have loved the game but feel that this is just too much. Losing a chunk of the dedicated players and replacing them with a B2P crowd may end up driving even more long term players away as well, so hopefully this may make sense from a business pov as well, since the long term players are probably the most likely to pay for ESO Plus.

Just my 2 cents and some wishful thinking.

Crowns for what? So I can buy a wedding dress to wear while I crawl through dungeons? No thanks. The very idea that the crowns are a reward at all makes me laugh, ha ha ha. The crown shop is the toilet down which this game is being flushed.

lathbury · January 2015

"5. PAID SERVICES
Some Services require payment of a fee. You must have an Account and pay the applicable fees to participate in those Services. For information about subscription and other fees for particular Services, visit Your particular Service’s product page or Customer Services at support.bethsoft.com.

FEES ARE PAYABLE IN ADVANCE AND, EXCEPT AS OTHERWISE REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ARE NOT REFUNDABLE IN WHOLE OR IN PART.

ZeniMax reserves the right to change the fees or billing methods at any time upon notice to You through Your Account....."

heres the applicable law in the uk

If a trader leaves out important information to mislead you into buying something that you may not have bought if you had been given all the facts, this is an unfair commercial practice and is against the law. Misleading actions are covered by Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations (2008).
What are misleading omissions?

Traders must give you enough accurate information to allow you to make an informed choice before you buy something. If they leave out information that would be important to the choice you make about what to buy, they are breaking the law.

Examples of misleading omissions include:

deliberately leaving out or hiding information that is important in making a decision about whether to buy the product or service.
giving you information that is unclear, hard to understand, ambiguous or not given at the right time
not revealing that the information you've been given is really for commercial reasons.