Free Questing Coupon and a VIP Update – Thank You From Standing Stone Games

[Thar]

I will agree that this is a nice move by SSG, however as mentioned in other parts of this thread this does not do much for premium players who paid up front for this content. I have not read the entire thread yet and will return to reading it to see what the dev's have to say, but I am a long time premium player and have purchased all the content, expansion packs (the majority of them as the collector's editions) and this is sounding like it may do nothing for me personally and probably a number of other players. Hoping that this may draw more players back to the game by giving them access to more content to experience the joy that is this game and its occasional frustration of lag and odd quirks.

Anyway back to reading.

So I just read through the thread in its current state looking for dev responses and saw only 2 more from cord. This is a good thing, but I will iterate once again it does nothing for players like me and I do not think I am alone in this. I have all content (adventure packs), classes, expansions, and universal trees. From what I have read it appears that players like me will get nothing. The VIPs get an additional exp boost, and if they have not purchased any of the the packs or a few, they can get all the packs added allowing them to play everything should their sub lapse.

Now for those that mentioned concern about the expansion that contains the epic trees and destinies that is not that much of an issue. The pack that contains that content will be on sale for 99 points. All a player has to do (free or otherwise) is run quests (speed farm or otherwise) and get 200 points which can be achieved by completing the harbor, korthos and borderlands on elite. Then you can purchase both expansions and have permanent access to the epic content as well.

Will continue to watch this thread to see what other things the Cord may reveal in the next day or week about what the entire community can look forward to in regards to this generous gift they are offering.

it will hopefully give you more people to group with. and more people = longevity of the game.

to all those complaining just received a vip only 10 char space bonus. and who knows what other vip only bonus they will cook up. relax and enjoy the game.

[Lonnbeimnech]

I'm not boohooing. I'm laying out exactly what the extra money purchased since this thread is filled with people who don't even know what the season pass consisted of. It's up to the individual to decide if it was worth it, with or without this give-away. I personally don't care if they extend season passes or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did something like that.

https://www.ddo.com/en/seasonpass

difference being that you had those benefits for the past 2 years, while everyone else is given the promise of those benefits if they redeem the coupon within the next few weeks.

[Lokeal_The_Flame]

Can someone who bought these for 99 DDO points get upgraded to collector's edition from the DDO marketplace?

[Red_Knight]

Completely irrelevant. I mean completely. My issue is not with the original offer.

Do, or do you not, think that SSG should try to make their gifts universally beneficial? Yes or no, simple as that.

It's more relevant then you're willing to admit. By demanding a refund, you are claiming that you've somehow been cheated by this. You're implying you think SSG offered the season pass in the full knowledge that a future promotion that would be done because of the pandemic would "invalidate" the season pass. But hey, you want a binary "yes/no" answer to if SSG should make gifts universally beneficial? Well, the answer was they were under no obligation to offer any gifts. They didn't have to offer access to all quests for free during this crisis. There was no obligation for them to offer the coupon that is going to be offered soon.

Once again, irrelevant. But the answer is actually "no" for "at the time", I did it because it was "ok", not great, but SSG needed some support, so I went in on it.

You, for whatever reason you had, decided the Season Pass was worth paying for. You have gotten everything the season pass was offering. And now you are claiming you deserve a refund because of a new promotion that neither you nor Standing Stone Games could have had any clue would occur at the time the Season Pass was for sale. Yeah, I'm not feeling any sympathy for you. If you didn't think the Season Pass was worth the money at the time of purchase, what made you think it would suddenly change your mind a year or two later? And if you did think it was worth the money, then it has provided you everything you thought made it worth the money.

Wow, a long winded answer with a lot of "word changing" from my original question. I never said "entitled", and your statement about "devs spending time and resources" is the dumbest thing I have heard. It has nothing to do with the time and resources (its not like they are coding new adventures or trouble shooting lag), its simply putting more thought into rewarding the community for the support and patience during the troubling times we have gone through.

My question (which you were trying to answer from your soapbox) was a simple "Should they be more all-inclusive". You know the answer is "yes, they should try to make it more all-inclusive". But you can't bring yourself to admit it because you prefer to lecture others on how appreciative we should be that we spent $300 and got what we payed for. My stance is just simply that SSG did not make the "Thank you" reward apply to everyone. They could have, but they didn't. And just for the record, I never said, nor did my post indicate, that I am "enraged" about anything. You people with the soapboxes seem to try twist other people's words to make yourself appear more righteous.

You keep trying to change the goal post, and ignore my answer with it's reasoning. So let me make it perfectly clear. This upcoming coupon? It's a nice gesture. And it has the potential to create a lot of loyal customers. It's not intended to be a gift that's universally beneficial to everyone. That's immediately obvious. What could they have possibly offered that is already available in-game and would be 100% universally useful to everyone? Bank space? There's people who have already bought every bank, inventory, and shared bank upgrade. Character slots? How does that benefit people who already have paid for so many character slots they can't possibly play all their characters and still have extra slots available? 32 point builds? Again, many people already have access to this. What about stat tomes? Does nothing for anyone who already has a full set of +8 tomes on their characters. Whatever they decided the gift should be, someone would feel it's a slap in the face because it doesn't benefit them. ****, them offering consumables gets considered a slap in the face every time it occurs.

If they wanted to do something that is universally useful, that would mean devoting developer resources to creating something new. At which point people get angry because they missed out on getting whatever Gee Whatsit that was gifted during the limited time promotion. Especially if it's something that gets considered "essential" by the community.

And when you stop to think about it, the coupon does benefit everyone. Even if you already owned every adventure pack, you'll have an easier time grouping due to all the new players having access to the same content as you. How is this not a "universal benefit" of the coupon?

And that is simply what I am, a little annoyed that they didn't put more thought into it.

They probably put a lot more thought into this then you're giving them credit for. But hey, I guess, based on your rants, that you're a member of the "Me First, Me Only" generation. If that's true, I can't exactly blame you. It's society's fault as a whole that a generation of people feel that entitled. Me, I can appreciate this promotion for what it is and what it will do, even though I personally don't benefit much from it.



Irrelevant. They didn't have to have foresight to know what would happen. It's current, right now, that they made the decision to give away all the content for free. They could ALSO have made it so everyone benefited, and not just some.



Not sure where that came from. I'd gently ask where you got the idea someone isn't happy? Or that this issue is causing anger or frustration? You certainly didn't get it from my post. I'm good, just expressing my opinion about being all-inclusive. I did state that it was good for the community, go back and read my OP.[/QUOTE]

[Red_Knight]

Can someone who bought these for 99 DDO points get upgraded to collector's edition from the DDO marketplace?

Yes, unless you are referring to the Menace of the Underdark collectors edition. There were a number of Pre-Order exclusive items for that expansion and the CE was only available as a pre-order. You'll pay full price for the Expansion, but you'll get all the bonuses.

[Zwentibald]

Yes, unless you are referring to the Menace of the Underdark collectors edition. There were a number of Pre-Order exclusive items for that expansion and the CE was only available as a pre-order. You'll pay full price for the Expansion, but you'll get all the bonuses.

Nope, collectors editions are paid in real money.

[Aelonwy]

And you all play together? You sound like a way cool family!

Thank you. Usually we all play together but we need to get my daughter's comp upgraded soon she's been alternating with her brother on his comp because hers is having problems. (Its the oldest comp at ~9yrs old, good enough for PBSkids and such but struggling with DDO now.)

[Jetwise]

Love this and will be sure to continue my vip, my wonder is if this includes ravenloft and sharn content.
I was planning on buying the fan bundles of both on the first but now I'm not sure if it's entirely going to be worth it.
Either way I'm happy I don't have to worry about farming the tokens out for borderlands

[Bainir]

To Cordovan and everyone else at Standing Stone Games thank you very much for doing this! My wife and I play both DDO and Lotro and love both games. I do have a question because I am currently subscribed to DDO. Will I be able to apply the coupon to my account while I am subscribed or do I have to drop down to a premium player temporarily just to apply the coupon?

[Greeka]

Personally I am looking forward to a possible influx of new or returning players. Then maybe a server merge to make things even more populated and better server hardware while trying to root out the lag issues that currently persist. They are also making the same offer on LoTRO as well. I went back and played then stopped again, but I barely have any of the packs on that game (probably less than half) and I believe I have maybe a couple of hundred points still saved. I will definitely cash that coupon on and then make use of the points to grab a couple of expansion packs. Maybe even go back and play a little, but will have to see. That game is not very solo friendly and I know no one that plays it anymore, even when I went back and the majority of the players are playing end game content only or is all private groups.

Personally in DDO I bought the collector's editions of the expansions because it supported the game with extra dollars. In the end it just filled up my banks on toons and shared bank storage. Looking forward to more information on the coupons and will be updating old guild members to see if it can at least entice them to return for a month or two.

[Greeka]

To Cordovan and everyone else at Standing Stone Games thank you very much for doing this! My wife and I play both DDO and Lotro and love both games. I do have a question because I am currently subscribed to DDO. Will I be able to apply the coupon to my account while I am subscribed or do I have to drop down to a premium player temporarily just to apply the coupon?

You can apply the coupon to your account while VIP.

[Greeka]

Love this and will be sure to continue my vip, my wonder is if this includes ravenloft and sharn content.
I was planning on buying the fan bundles of both on the first but now I'm not sure if it's entirely going to be worth it.
Either way I'm happy I don't have to worry about farming the tokens out for borderlands

If I have read right it will not apply to Ravenloft or Sharn, just Menace of the Underdark and Wheloon.

[Cordovan]

To Cordovan and everyone else at Standing Stone Games thank you very much for doing this! My wife and I play both DDO and Lotro and love both games. I do have a question because I am currently subscribed to DDO. Will I be able to apply the coupon to my account while I am subscribed or do I have to drop down to a premium player temporarily just to apply the coupon?

You will be able to apply the coupon as VIP. It can be used by everyone.

[axan22]

@Cordovan

Any announcement about the season pass holders yet? You are also giving away the content that we got to keep for free as part of the season pass updates 43,44,45, & 46 which helped give the season pass the extra value over just VIP.

ive also bought every adventure pack in the game so how much have i lost out on when i could have got everything for free. I think its great that people have been given stuff and its a really nice thing to do, but they need to value there long term players who have supported the game with their $ and have spent $300 on a pass that is vastly loosing in my opinion its value.

[Thar]

@Cordovan

Any announcement about the season pass holders yet? As we have now lost 5 months of vip as this was given to everyone which was very generous and i accept with the current situation was great for them to do, but now they are also giving away the content that we got to keep for free as part of the season pass updates 43,44,45, & 46 which helped give the season pass the extra value over just VIP.

ive also bought every adventure pack in the game so how much have i lost out on when i could have got everything for free. I think its great that people have been given stuff and its a really nice thing to do, but they need to value there long term players who have supported the game with their $ and have spent $300 on a pass that is vastly loosing in my opinion its value.

free to play and Premium players did not get vip benefits given to everyone. they got quest access. no class, enhancement, bank space, character slots, 10% xp bonus, movement speed, gold rolls etc etc. we premium players only got access to all quests. Maybe you enjoyed some extra xp because of more people playing as a result of this.

relax and enjoy the game.

[stengdog123]

Dear SSG,

You know I have been a vocal advocate for going VIP since before F2P. And I do think that making the non-expansion quest content F2P will be a good thing overall, however, I also feel that a minor buddy bonus is not an equivalent exchange for having the non-expansion quest content from my VIP sub. Looking around the forums and talking to people in different stream chats I know I am not alone in my assessment.

I come with a suggestion to balance the math and not just a complaint.

VIPs no longer have chest ransack. Ransack is a feel bad mechanic in the modern DDO environment and would be closer to the equivalent exchange of non-expansion quest content. I also feel adding No Chest Ransack as a VIP bonus would have the side advantage of encouraging sells of raid timers and shards.


If you don't like mine, there are other good ideas floating around use one or a couple of them. But as is projected today, I am likely to not renew my sub when it rolls around again in 11 months (my yearly sub just re-upped). As the math stands at the moment VIP status is no longer the best deal.

Todoodles,
Samius

I tend to agree with your post Samius, and I don't feel that the buddy boost is sufficient either. However, I hope SSG will look to the Player's Council for some guidance as to what else might be do-able for VIP subscribers like us to make this a little more "palatable" for some who may be "angered." I've been VIP off and on since 2010, and I actually just re-upped mine when Hardcore League Season 2 started. That being said, I really have no problem with this because it benefits me directly already. Like you probably do, I have alt accounts that are F2P, that I really never thought about spending money on. However, with content unlocked for free, I will definitely be spending some money on these accounts for my alts.

Also, after reading a bunch of posts, I will admit that we do get some benefits as VIPers that others may take for granted. Some of them have been mentioned numerous times already, such as:

Access to HCL
Weekly Gold Dice Rolls w/ the added free XP
Ability to open content on Elite and Reaper, w/o having to run it in Normal and Hard first
Free Shared Bank
Increased access to the Auction Houses

Those just name a few, where I will disagree is that I think this is actually very good for the health of DDO as a whole, and a savvy business move by SSG that will benefit the game community as a whole.

For example, our buddy Axel did a great video last week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_T-Ybzzp08 discussing the population growth since F2P started. It's almost double what it was before the pandemic. Now all of the new or returning players will be more likely to stay around as they can continue playing the content they had been enjoying for the past two months.

Moreover, with the new content available to others, that will benefit us all, even VIPs, as a whole. All of these newer players will be questing and will be more inclined to SPEND REAL MONEY in the DDO store on things like DDO points, i.e. to obtain bank storage, XP pots, Tomes, etc. The more additional revenue that SSG can generate from others, not just us VIPs who have basically been supporting the game or years, helps us out in the long run. It will allow SSG to continue developing content and remain somewhat successful.

Secondly, the coupon code is only good until August 31, and I'm assuming it will only cover/include content developed before that date and won't be "retroactive" to include any content developed after that date - but yet if people like us remain VIPs, we will be able to access it by only paying our subscription fees and not have to spend that extra money on points for it.

A final thought on this, and I'm not pointing fingers or being offensive in any way, because I love what you do and I AM one of your YouTube subscribers, but stop and think about how much you have benefitted directly since the F2P began - and will continue to benefit going forward. Since the F2P began, how many NEW SUBSCRIBERS have players/streamers like yourself, Strimtom, Axel, Voodu, Psychoblonde, Nimvynd, etc. gained on your respective Twitch and YouTube channels? I know Strimtom has said his numbers have gone through the roof, and I'm sure yours have too. And that's because more people are now interested in the game since F2P, and they will continue to stay interested (hopefully) with this little perk from SSG. You stand to benefit in the long run because many of these new players may hear about guys like you and Strimtom (from people like me) and might start supporting your channel(s) now, as well as the game.

[Aelonwy]

free to play and Premium players did not get vip benefits given to everyone. they got quest access. no class, enhancement, bank space, character slots, 10% xp bonus, movement speed, gold rolls etc etc. we premium players only got access to all quests. Maybe you enjoyed some extra xp because of more people playing as a result of this.

relax and enjoy the game.

Well said.

I have one friend that came back recently and he had only ever been VIP, even with free quests he re-upped his VIP because he couldn't access most of his characters, the majority were premium classes or races, and I doubt he had ever played without access to Shared Bank because he complained bitterly about that inconvenience. He was extraordinarily delighted with the crafting storage though, he must have left before that existed.

[wraxzz]

I will agree that this is a nice move by SSG, however as mentioned in other parts of this thread this does not do much for premium players who paid up front for this content. I have not read the entire thread yet and will return to reading it to see what the dev's have to say, but I am a long time premium player and have purchased all the content, expansion packs (the majority of them as the collector's editions) and this is sounding like it may do nothing for me personally and probably a number of other players. Hoping that this may draw more players back to the game by giving them access to more content to experience the joy that is this game and its occasional frustration of lag and odd quirks.

Anyway back to reading.

So I just read through the thread in its current state looking for dev responses and saw only 2 more from cord. This is a good thing, but I will iterate once again it does nothing for players like me and I do not think I am alone in this. I have all content (adventure packs), classes, expansions, and universal trees. From what I have read it appears that players like me will get nothing. The VIPs get an additional exp boost, and if they have not purchased any of the the packs or a few, they can get all the packs added allowing them to play everything should their sub lapse.

Now for those that mentioned concern about the expansion that contains the epic trees and destinies that is not that much of an issue. The pack that contains that content will be on sale for 99 points. All a player has to do (free or otherwise) is run quests (speed farm or otherwise) and get 200 points which can be achieved by completing the harbor, korthos and borderlands on elite. Then you can purchase both expansions and have permanent access to the epic content as well.

Will continue to watch this thread to see what other things the Cord may reveal in the next day or week about what the entire community can look forward to in regards to this generous gift they are offering.

This applies to me. I just tried my first month of vip so far and I can't even tell its there at all. I've been premium since forever (still have the DDOWarforge account name from pre-f2p) and over the past 10+ years acquired all adventure packs afaik, bought all the expansions save for a sharn coupon I won, so this move by ssg brings nothing new for me, absolutely literally nothing. Good for new players yes, i'm not bitter everyone else gets free content, it just brings more people to the game, but personally, my gameplay isn't particularly enriched whatsoever. Premium players who've purchased the packs are definitely not the people ssg are thanking here for anything.

Making all packs free and virtually free expansions does however devalue everything I've spent money on to next to nothing. Makes it feel like a poor investment spending the tens of thousands of ddo points on collecting all adventure packs of which some could've gone to borderlands ce, +8 tomes, races (missing half-orc, dragonborn), classes (missing alchemist), shared bank space, permanent bag upgrade for my 10 year old character, etc. With this promotion, I can make a 2nd account and it will be in exactly the same position as my current decade old account except for ravenloft, sharn, which will be acquired quickly with the first favor boosts. I see no worthwhile benefit to paying for VIP, premium-purchases have become on par with free users, there's definitely no further need to spend money on ddo going forward, thats for sure.

[Fedora1]

By demanding a refund,

Okay I stopped reading right there because you are obviously "hard of reading". I have only posted maybe 4 times in this thread so far. Go back and dig up the one where I demanded a refund. Hint: You won't find it anywhere.


If you can't keep track of who said what, please stop responding randomly. If you would like to discuss this issue with me, fine, but get your facts straight. If you don't want to discuss this with me, stop quoting me directly and then claiming I said something I didn't say.

And when you stop to think about it, the coupon does benefit everyone. Even if you already owned every adventure pack, you'll have an easier time grouping

Okay I lied, I skimmed a little more and found AGAIN that you are quoting ME while ignoring things I actually said. One thing I said was that I solo exclusively. So you miss stuff I DO say, and make up stuff I don't say. So your "reasoning" and "lecturing" are going to be completely ignored by me. Like I said, I have only posted a few times here, it would take you about 5 minutes to go read them all, and then discuss this with me. But if you insist on tilting at windmills, I will insist on calling you "hard of reading".

But hey, I guess, based on your rants, that you're a member of the "Me First, Me Only" generation.

OMG! Rants? Me? You haven't read my posts at all. Why are you even quoting me? lol

[Zwentibald]

People complaining about thing they have, isn't that just awsome?