VIP Downgrade to Free F.A.Q.

[reuster]

When I log in to my Turbine account, it gives me *no* option to cancel my monthly membership. It has never give me that option--I even wrote to customer service about it and they didn't respond until the end of my month had rolled around and they had charged me for another month. And in their response, they told me I should be able to cancel on my Turbine account page--but there is no cancellation option at all! Ironically, I can cancel my lifetime membership to LOTRO if I wish. Am I just missing something? Something I need to click on to find the "cancel" button?

[Credinus]

So, I've only got one problem with the price system, and it'd be a simple enough one to remedy. As many other have stated, it seems unfair that downgrading from VIP to premium loses content. This isn't entirely the case, and VIP's get turbine points to make up for most of it. However, the problem is that the payment over time doesn't match up. When you get down to the knitty-gritty, the only things absolutely necessary to purchase are monk, warforged, and the adventure packs. Extra character slots, shared bank, etc. are all luxuries that you can go without and still have access to the full content of the game. That being said, premium players actually have the advantage over subscribers in the current system, if my understanding is correct. VIP players get 500 points a month, last I read. I very well could be incorrect with that, but I'm going off of that for my calculations. So, here's the breakdown:

For a premium player, to unlock the necessary content (as stated above, monk, warforged, adventure packs), they will need 11935 TPs. At the best TP-to-dollar rate (the 3300 point option that equivalents to approximately 1.18 cents per point), this will cost the premium user just under $141. That is equivalent to just under a full year's subscription at the yearly subscription rate, which we'll round out to $144 (I remember it about $12 a month at that rate, but I don't have the exact amount on hand to reference). So, when I look at that, I draw the following conclusion: VIP players should have enough TPs built up after a year's subscription to be on their way just the same as a premium player. Re: the game costs about $140. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the VIP player. In order to finishing "purchasing" the game, they'll actually have to end up paying almost double what the premium player pays in subscription fees. If the 500 points a month number is correct, they're only getting 6000 points for their yearly subscription, meaning they'll need 2 full years' worth of subscriptions to get enough TPs to finish "buying" the game. Going back to the old leasing a car analogy, that's a 100% interest rate... America's economy isn't -that- far in the crapper yet!

A quick recap:
Premium players pay approximately $141 to have access to all of the game's content
VIP players pay approximately $288 to have access to all of the game's content without further subscription

So, how do we remedy this? Adjust the TP-per-month gains depending on the subscription rate so that after they've spent approximately $141 in fees, they have enough TP to buy all of the adventure packs, monk, and warforged (again, the number of TP needed for that is 11935). If they wish to continue their subscription beyond that amount, more power to them; they get added bonuses like shared bank and 6 extra character slots which would end up costing the premium player a bit more; but the point is that the VIP players' money needs to be worth as much as the premium players' in the end.

[edit] And looking at that, I personally have no plans to go VIP. I'd much rather pay lower amount to have all of the game's content in the future. If it were the other way around, I'd subscribe again; as it is, I just see being a premium player and paying for the content as having a distinct advantage over subscribing.

[Sohryu]

So, if I buy Favored Soul when I'm a VIP with Turbine Points, and I downgrade to Premium, I will still have access to my FvS, right? I won't have to buy it again, will I?

[Steiner-Davion]

So, if I buy Favored Soul when I'm a VIP with Turbine Points, and I downgrade to Premium, I will still have access to my FvS, right? I won't have to buy it again, will I?

That is correct. Anything you buy with Turbine Points is your to keep and use forever, or at least as long as the game is up and running.

[Baervan]

When you're a premium account owner and you unlock your extra "over the limit" characters by buying slots do you ever get TP favor bonuses with them?

I've unlocked a few now and while they should be getting me significant amounts of favor bonuses none of them are generating ANY Turbine Points. What's up with that?

Logging and relogging doesn't remedy this either.

[rhynobuk]

Q. If I downgrade, what content will I still have access to?
A. You'll be able to access any content a Free player can access. Additional content will need to be purchased in the DDO Store before you can access it, even if you could access it when you were a VIP.


This doesn't effect because my VIP account is still active. But, I talked a friend of mine into coming back to his downgraded account. He had a lvl 16 paladin in GH. he couldn't even leave gianthold. He had to umd a teleport scroll.

Here is my issue...returning players most likely will not stay if they have to buy the stuff they already did many times. I understand not giving access to all players that subscribe for a month and downgrade, just to get the access. Seems to me like pre f2p subscribers having they content the had previously complete being "grandfathered" in would have been a more appropriate route...

Just my 2cp

[vegabond1969]

I've played this game steady for the most part of 3years. Back in March I had to cancel sub because real life issues. When I seen the email that it was going f2p I was like okay so whats that mean for me? Pretty much it's the same as it was. I had access to Korthos, Harbor, and Market. All the houses too. I used the points I had from all my characters and bought the usual lowbie stuff like TR, STK, the new Sharn, and Sorrowdusk. My point is, I went six months and still had access to most of the stuff I had before, except for the fact of havin 4 characters per server. Most of my old characters I just deleted them off after getting what I wanted to keep and rerolled new ones. When i get the money I'll hope back on as a Sub (dont like the term ViP), until then I'm fine with just being able to play again. Sorry for long post

[Regalius]

I checked my subscriptions and the billing methods, but I don't see anywhere about HOW to downgrade.

[Yarrgg]

I wanted to download the F2P to compare to my VIP account. However, I've tried dozen's of times to register and it won't let me saying my username may be taken. Now of course I'm not using the same username. And I've even tried random entry of letters - still no luck.

Does the system somehow know that I already VIP and won't let me register a F2P user?

[Letrii]

You are trying to register a new account with same name of old account?

[Yarrgg]

No, I've tried new names and even rndom strings of letters. Won't let me register.

[Larhanya_Theliel]

At one point, Tolero said:

If your character happens to be parked in a content pack you didn't unlock with Turbine Points (example: you're in the public zone of a content pack that you didn't unlock), you'll be able to log into the character, but you won't be able to enter any of the quests associated with that area. You'll also be able to take the character to other free parts of the game so that you're not "stuck" there.

Unfortunately, she was wrong. My husband and I recently downgraded and unfortunately were last logged in at the bar in Reaver's Reach. We aren't planning on buying that adventure pack yet, so we don't want to spend TP on it.

My wizard teleported out of the Reach to the Marketplace. No problem. My husband's cleric got the Reaver to make him fly and hit the portal at the top only to be told "You have not purchased this content pack."

He is bound to the Reaver's Reach bar, so /die isn't an option.

After 20 minutes waiting on the support ticket, he was moved to the MP. Just a warning for those who are planning to downgrade.

[USAvatar]

Like many people, I have more than one account. One of them had been Free level, so I decided to upgrade it to VIP for one month to get it up to Premium. Once I upgraded, I received my 500 turbine point grant in a couple of days. However, when I downgraded back to premium, my 500 turbine points disappeared without a trace.

Is this a bug? Is this deliberate? Has anything like this happened to anyone else? I contacted turbine, but have not received any reply as of yet.

I wanted to give everyone a heads up on this one. So, if anyone else is thinking about downgrading from VIP to premium, keep an eye on your turbine points to make sure some of them don't get retroactively removed.

[Anichillus]

i downgraded to free from VIP and looks like i can only select 2 characters. I read on the FAQ that we should have 4 character slots...then something must be wrong. Any advice ?
This game is starting to annoy me . I bought VIP exactly one month ago. They didn't distribute the 500 turbine points so 2 days ago I got mad after sending allot of tickets and canceled the VIP subscription. Yesterday i received the 500 turbine points along with allot of mails replying my tickets...Today the game booted me out of the game and when i tried to login it let me choose only 2 characters. I chose a monk and one of my high lvls. I didn't bought monk because when it was 595 the lame service didn't sent me the 500 turbine points when i needed them so now it's 795 and can't afford to buy it. Needless to say it's all starting to **** me off. Congrats turbine...you're doing a very good job (SARCASM).

[Letrii]

Like many people, I have more than one account. One of them had been Free level, so I decided to upgrade it to VIP for one month to get it up to Premium. Once I upgraded, I received my 500 turbine point grant in a couple of days. However, when I downgraded back to premium, my 500 turbine points disappeared without a trace.

Is this a bug? Is this deliberate? Has anything like this happened to anyone else? I contacted turbine, but have not received any reply as of yet.

I wanted to give everyone a heads up on this one. So, if anyone else is thinking about downgrading from VIP to premium, keep an eye on your turbine points to make sure some of them don't get retroactively removed.

When you downgrading, were you just not renewing sub for next month or canceling current month?

[voidholder]

Does anyone know what happens if you unsubscribe and your character is say, level 10. Does she need a silver sigil to get to 11 & 12 first or just the gold sigil when about to turn 13?

[vegabond1969]

Just the gold sigil

[shawnvw]

When I log in to my Turbine account, it gives me *no* option to cancel my monthly membership. It has never give me that option--I even wrote to customer service about it and they didn't respond until the end of my month had rolled around and they had charged me for another month. And in their response, they told me I should be able to cancel on my Turbine account page--but there is no cancellation option at all! Ironically, I can cancel my lifetime membership to LOTRO if I wish. Am I just missing something? Something I need to click on to find the "cancel" button?

Did you ever get this resolved? I had this problem at one point but I'll need to dig to find out how I got the link to reappear.

[Mylon]

How do leveling sigils work? If I buy one month of VIP, does that eliminate the need (permanently) for sigils for all characters currently existing? That is, can I create some 20-30 characters, buy one month of VIP, and then never need to worry about sigils for those characters?

I'm currently stuck at level 12. I already bought a silver sigil. I've been playing alts waiting for the sigil to go on sale, and soon they may reach their cap too. I wonder if this might be a way to 'unlock' and bypass this silly sigil system.

[chakekik]

just to point out when you downgrade you are not a "free" player you become a "premium" play so you have more then a standard free newb