VIP Why?

[valharan01]

So let me get this straight, now you can buy a guest pass for the new content right out of the gate? Essentially in the last 2 weeks you have removed exactly every single reason to be VIP from the game. You have taken away 1. Elite opening first run 2. Exclusive new content for a short period 3. New classes/content being free to subscribers 4. Any reason at all to stay VIP. Give me one good reason why I have a subscription? You cannot? Oh good job, I understand it is a business but if this is how you want us to pay for the game remove VIP and stop lying to us as a community saying things like "VIP's will have access to perks not available to premium and free to play" Obviously this is not the case and at best your cash grabbing, at worse your spineless liars that cave to the first outcry from any and all sources. Example would be when a nameless barb who sits in a spot shielded from light sources complains about anything non barb and you give in. Grow a spine, grow a pair and give us VIP's a reason to remain so or tell us that we should all go premium because any reason to be VIP will be removed post haste.

[Hutoth]

Think about who will have access to buy the pass, and also about who asked for the right to buy the pass.

Tell me what you come up with. I'd like to know.

[Emizand]

Give me one good reason why I have a subscription?

I can't!

I can give you reasons I have a subscription though. Its a small amount of cash every 3 months. I get things I like, dont care if what others get. It suits me, if I get fed up I will stop paying and move on. If I was not happy with VIP payments I would change to premium or whatever. Maybe you should consider changing.

Emi

[Uska]

I thought guest passes have to be bought by someone who has the content or is that wrong as to why be a VIP it would cost me more to buy the content I like than I will likely spend in the next 1-2 years of my sub if I stay that long and just before the whole artificer announcement I had just renewed my sub for 6 months otherwise I might not have.

[Hutoth]

I thought guest passes have to be bought by someone who has the content

You are correct. Only VIPs will be able to buy the guest pass during the VIP-only preview.

[Phidius]

You are correct. Only VIPs will be able to buy the guest pass during the VIP-only preview.

Yup - giving VIPs the ability to do something that Premium/F2P cannot do is apparently considered a slap in the face by some VIP.

Op, I encourage you to think of the VIP subscription as a way to play the entire game for $15/month, and not think of it as the red carpet ultimate prestige path.

If you decide that you like the game and want to play for an extended period of time, Premium is a lot easier on the wallet.

[lethargos]

You are correct. Only VIPs will be able to buy the guest pass during the VIP-only preview.

Uhm does that mean i have to buy a pass or the pack to access it as a VIP ?

[Phidius]

Uhm does that mean i have to buy a pass or the pack to access it as a VIP ?

No, you must be able to access a pack to purchase Guest Passes. Since VIP will be the only ones able to access the pack on Monday, they are the only ones who can purchase Guest Passes.

[t0r012]

So let me get this straight, now you can buy a guest pass for the new content right out of the gate? Essentially in the last 2 weeks you have removed exactly every single reason to be VIP from the game. You have taken away 1. Elite opening first run 2. Exclusive new content for a short period 3. New classes/content being free to subscribers 4. Any reason at all to stay VIP. Give me one good reason why I have a subscription? You cannot? Oh good job, I understand it is a business but if this is how you want us to pay for the game remove VIP and stop lying to us as a community saying things like "VIP's will have access to perks not available to premium and free to play" Obviously this is not the case and at best your cash grabbing, at worse your spineless liars that cave to the first outcry from any and all sources. Example would be when a nameless barb who sits in a spot shielded from light sources complains about anything non barb and you give in. Grow a spine, grow a pair and give us VIP's a reason to remain so or tell us that we should all go premium because any reason to be VIP will be removed post haste.

They took away elite opening on first run?
They took away Early access as VIP?

Oh Wait , they didn't.

[grimbot]

How is this not a good thing? Unless....

Me: This new pack seems awesome, wish I could run it with you, buddy.
Friend: Well, I heard you can buy passes early. You got extra TP for a pass until I get the pack?
Me: No. You made your choice when you went premium. Live with it.

[Drfirewater79]

The reason to be VIP is so that you can give your money to turbine and have nothing to show for it when you leave to play SWTOR.

The purpose of F2P is to get two years sub money from you in 1 day so when you leave to play SWTOR they already got two years sub out of you.

if you look at the rate of updates vs the rate of free updates .. vs the cost of items in the updates .. you would realize that F2P who purchase the updates every time .. are really paying the same price as VIPs and VIPs get turbine points for free.

when it comes to price ... both are the same .. so really there is no reason to over bonus VIPs anymore.

[Xaxx]

Yup - giving VIPs the ability to do something that Premium/F2P cannot do is apparently considered a slap in the face by some VIP.

Op, I encourage you to think of the VIP subscription as a way to play the entire game for $15/month, and not think of it as the red carpet ultimate prestige path.

If you decide that you like the game and want to play for an extended period of time, Premium is a lot easier on the wallet.

Except that vip is advertised as the top end path, and via the disolution of all perks is is now just a more expensive long time premium service... if this is what they were going to do with it, it should have been like this from the begining, not advertised as something different and then the old switcheroo later on down the path. How would premiums like it if turbine removed the ability to tr, or to raid, or to no longer be able to buy the newest pack until the next pack is out.... sorry you cant have artis and the new raids till 9.12 because your not vip. I dont think premiums would like turbine switching the game plan on them like that do you?

As for the passes.... oh so you give vips a way to undervalue their own perk.... and oh ... who REAAAAALLLLLY thinks that vips asked for those to be available early? Huh? Oh you know I'm sure one or two did... not really a subject I've ever heard vips complaining about. Compared to how many vips have been upset with turbine over their treatment this last month and even last year of the vip subscription anyway. They listened to their vips in offering these passes..... ROFLMAO. You wanna lisen to your vips turbine, how about some address about your utter abuse of your subscribers.

Oh and tor..... typical premium answer. Did they take bravery system away from premiums upon bravery announcement? Oh wait they didnt. Did premiums loose their **** minds cause vips could access something easier than they could? Oh wait they did. Did premiums moan and complain enough for turbine to give them MUCH EASIER ACCESS TO IT WHILE STRIPPING THE EXCLUSIVITY OF THE VIP OPENING PERK? OH wait they did.

As per above how would you like it if turbine all of a sudden decided that premiums no longer were able to buy the adventure packs until they were an adventure pack old. There is NOTHING ANYWHERE that says when it goes in the store or how long the vip preview has to be (hence this being worn down from 5 days to 2 to 3 days now). Before someone says oh they would never do that, thats a bad financial decision. Ticking off your subscription base, your monthyly cash flow, when new triple a mmos are months down the road is not a good financial decision either, but yet turbine did that in spades over the last month.

So I second the op question. I do believe as paying customers that we deserve an answer as this is definatly an account issue, and seeing as how subscribers and premiums who have purchased points in the last 45 days are the only ones who are actually entitled to account issues being looked at.... well time to look at it. On the other side I wonder how many people who originally complained about the bravery system fell outside of the 45 day mark... and if they did why were they even posting about stuff like that, its an account issue they made that clear as a bell.

So come on turbine you've avoided us for a month now... one of your reps finally gonna stick their head out and give us an explenation besides silence and the assumption of we dont give two flying flips about our subscribers, we want them to go premium. (which is a pretty good assumption based on the recent table thumping you've handed subscribers)

oh and +1 to the op since i'm sure your gonna need it after getting neg rep, if my own expereince trying to defend vips from premiums is any thing to judge how your post is gonna be recieve you'll be at probably 9 or 10 neg reps and 1 or two pos by sometime this afternoon.

OH and no offense drfire... but you have no flppin idea what your talking about expense wise.. zip, zero, zilch, nada, bupkiss... shall I keep going?????

[KookieKobold]

Some of your questions and concerns may be answered here:

http://my.ddo.com/ddoqablog/

[Xaxx]

Some of your questions and concerns may be answered here:

http://my.ddo.com/ddoqablog/

Oh vips know they werent forgotten... I'm pretty sure I remember how much you just hammered us over the last month. That little vip blerb is not an answer its a turbine sidestep excuse nothing more nothing less. I think we're looking for something a little more concrete... I mean hell it took you guys a week or two to decide to hammer vips... I dont think its asking to much for you guys to respond on how you plan on fixing said hammering in a week or two and... oh wow its been more than a week or two since these questions arose.

So yeah, an actual answer is whats needed, not some little sidestep blerb that you HOPE we might be satisfied with.

[smatt]

The reason to be VIP is so that you can give your money to turbine and have nothing to show for it when you leave to play SWTOR.

The purpose of F2P is to get two years sub money from you in 1 day so when you leave to play SWTOR they already got two years sub out of you.

if you look at the rate of updates vs the rate of free updates .. vs the cost of items in the updates .. you would realize that F2P who purchase the updates every time .. are really paying the same price as VIPs and VIPs get turbine points for free.

when it comes to price ... both are the same .. so really there is no reason to over bonus VIPs anymore.

I expect SWTOR to crash and burn within a year of launch....

As for VIP's.. well I'm too lazy to bother to change... At this point it would cost me around 2 years of the pitance I pay a month in sub fees to buy everything... Screw that.... But I do agree taht it has been constantly erroded by Turbine giving into to every complaint by the Prem crowd.

[Kalari]

look with all the gripes I have about update 11 cant side with this one even though the sentiment for the OP is understandable.

Lets face it anyone knocking him in light of the way information about the update was passed with many of us (I am speaking mostly for myself but sure others do feel this way) as a cash grab type release its easy to pick apart the sentiment behind this.

When you look at it outside the other issues we have it really is a good idea I know for me I tend to wait to go into new content till every one in my guild has access now and since many of them are premium we do that as a courtesy not to spoil things.

With this if I wished to partake in it means all my guild could run on day one and they can see if its worth buying in the long run. If its not I saved them a ton of points if it is the company makes money.

I already decided that I will wait to unlock the new class whenever update 12 drops so buying guess passes specially since they are pretty cheap wouldnt dent the bonus points that people keep throwing up at us subscribers.

But honestly I do get the Op's sentiment there just is no real perks to being VIP outside just being able to be one for me at least. I really thought a paid subscription would mean less worry about what I need to have and more content without fuss and I have said several times if they had to raise the rates to insure that do so. But with this and many of our perceived perks being eroded given away or sold in the store its hard to see the benefits of the pay model outside the few of us who it would cost more to convert.

[BOgre]

@ kookiekobold: Actually, that link is excellent. I've never seen it before, and it does address just about everything I've been talking about. I'll be copying the link into the 'what is owed' thread. Thank you very much!

You should probably sticky that link somehow. I've never seen that page, and probably many others haven't either. It deserves more attention.

Thanks again!

[Ryiah]

Give me one good reason why I have a subscription?

So you can feel like you fit in with the rest of your VIP brethren who are complaining? I mean after all what prestige is there being a F2P and complaining.

[Jandric]

Like Kalari, I understand the sentiment, but disagree with the OP on this topic. I've always thought that the exclusive time for VIPs was well intentioned, but otherwise terrible. I don't care if I can get in earlier than premiums, because I want to be able to play with my premium friends. I'm totally behind the guest passes.

I'm glad that Kookie has said that Turbine is at least looking at the VIP package. For me the issue really was the decision to give away elite unlock, and, to a lesser degree, the Artificer availability mess. There are plenty of creative ideas that have been posted for new benefits. I'm personally against anything related to an XP bonus (we all saw how that turned out with the bravery bonus), but something like an exclusive vendor in game that sells huge bags for plats, and higher level pots 42 or 48 second haste pots anyone?) might help.

[TheRealest]

Except that vip is advertised as the top end path...?

Honestly never believe advertising.