Register your views on VIP perks

[Sqrlmonger]

If I don't experience satisfaction from something, does that mean that I am dissatisfied?

To the first:

sat·is·fied
/?sad?s?f?d/
adjective
adjective: satisfied

contented; pleased.

dis·sat·is·fied
/di(s)?sad?s?f?d/
adjective
adjective: dissatisfied

not content or happy with something.

As I said, as a matter of formal logic "A" and "Not A" are mutually exclusive. You must be one or the other. So yes.

As a matter of polling you are gauging human response. So if people don't feel that their view is covered by the options then, right or wrong, you simply don't capture that opinion. So in this sense there is more to it and there is always room to improve.

Besides, the result of this poll was clear before it was even posted. There is no point voting on it in any case.

I really don't agree. It is often very easy for people to assume that everyone agrees with them because the people they hear from agree with them. But there are often people who are not vocal (e.g. lurkers) who might click an anonymous poll but won't post about their view.

Further there is strength of opinion, even if you predict the lean of the poll you can't have known the percentage distribution within the options. Even assuming you do know, foreknowledge of the general result is no reason not to gauge the result in more detail.

[HoopleHeadMan]

Month 10...

Wow... hires last 12 more minutes...
.
... just...
... wow...

never mind that they last until you exit the quest, making that 12 minutes kind of pointless... but....
.
... wow...

[HoopleHeadMan]

So you don't play the game but still spend time on the forums, got it.

To be fair... I'd say a good 40% of the forum posters are people who don't play anymore but can't let go

[Stradivarius]

To be fair... I'd say a good 40% of the forum posters are people who don't play anymore but can't let go

That's a solid 40% out of thousands that are potential DDO returnees though.

[Sylvado]

That's a solid 40% out of thousands that are potential DDO returnees though.

It is one thing to read forums if you are considering playing again. It is totally different to login to comment about how bad a game is that you no longer play.

[Stradivarius]

It is one thing to read forums if you are considering playing again. It is totally different to login to comment about how bad a game is that you no longer play.

It means there's still a lingering interest in the game though. They care enough to login to their account and comment. Definitely a potential returnee if the mood and change in the game is right.

[Aelonwy]

I suppose one idea could be to take a different approach and use a 1 to 10 rating. Would that have been satisfactory? (ba dum tss)

Yes that would have probably worked for me, I can't speak for anyone else.

[Eantarus]

It means there's still a lingering interest in the game though. They care enough to login to their account and comment. Definitely a potential returnee if the mood and change in the game is right.

Only problem is a lot of the "potential returnees" want massive, sweeping changes to the game. Highlyunlikely.

SSG should be focusing more on convincing all us currently non-VIPs to go VIP(or return to VIP, in my case). And this lackluster offering does not achieve that.

[Tyrande]

Lacklustre.

Increase VIP XP from 10 -> 20% after 3 months

Throw in an "old" raid item mid-year

Throw in a "newish" raid item at end of year

Not sure you wanna skip "raids" and get raid items as VIP because raiding at level 30+ is kinda fun; and there is a raiding population in DDO.

As for the XP, there are currently a lot of XP options already; the various experience elixirs and Tomes of Learning/Greater Learning, ship xp buff, Voice/Epic Voice on top of the VIP XP.

Maybe the box/bag/bat of many things could be once per month.

here is an idea: one (1) sentient VIP xp bonus per kill as VIP with having a sentient weapon on the right hand.

[systemshaker1941]

Ugh I can't believe I logged in for this. Seriously lame.

[Eantarus]

Maybe the box/bag/bat of many things could be once per month.

Honestly the Box of Many Things being once per month instead of 3 per year would be enough to make the offerings attractive. Especially if they added some more things to it and made it once per server.

[Bartholomew456]

I'm not a VIP. I dropped 10 dollars for Sharn though, but its highly unlikely I'd upgrade to VIP as it stands. Seeing this confirms my choice.

What they should add to attract people like me (avid non-vip players)

Permanent discounts on stuff in the store (like permanent 50% off most stuff in the DDO store)
More storage (oh but everyone is saying this already)
A special VIP npc who can sell you stuff like jeweler kits or greater tokens or cosmetics for plat
A clicky that can teleport you pretty much anywhere, esp. places not covered by the guild airship (eveningstar, grove, etc)

Idk, but a lot of what's being proposed here is terrible. If the devs want people to subscribe, they need to make subscription worth the while. Anyways...

Month 1: Very solid. Always fun.
Month 2: The box itself doesn't seem great. Sentient XP is solid and a mirror of glamering is nice but that's all I see being useful. I have never seen the need for a raid timer reset. The servers aren't full enough that you'll actually ever need that.
Month 3: Given the focus on building PL and the like, this is reasonably pointless.
Month 4: I wouldn't even pay 25 DDO points for this. Completely and utterly worthless. 80% reduced item wear maybe. But if you repair your gear whenever you exit a quest you should be fine.
Month 5:
Month 6: Cosmetics are nice. Devs need to take a page from other MMOs and realize that the people long for 'metics.
Month 7: Lmao also terrible. 10% is peanuts. Maybe 80% more crafting xp would be okay, but still not good.
Month 8:
Month 9: Even worse than month 4. There are many abilities that make ammo returning, and (pretty much all of these) are greater than 10%. More insulting than simply *not* having anything there at all. If you wanted to keep something in this theme, maybe make all ammo 90% returning, but that's still not good enough.
Month 10: Useless. Once again, just spend a minute going to the vendor to buy a hireling.
Month 11: Looks decent, but you need to wait *11 MONTHS* to get this. Not worth it. Maybe if they had one every month, that would be nice.
Month 12: It would be better to permanently have a new mount, and to not wait a year to get one.

[thegreatcthulhu]

I spoke to this already in another thread, but as a VIP I find it "barely satisfactory". The biggest nitpicks I have:

- Fletching and Reduced item wear are both borderline useless IMO.

- Box of Many Things could be better (put things in it that are exclusive to it).

- Cloud Mount could have a competing option; I don't know about everyone here, but I would rather have something in addition to the cloud, just to increase the variety.

- Hirlings lasting 20% longer IMO would be of great value if it gave hirlings also some kind of stat buff. My biggest problem with hirlings isn't their duration, it's how quickly they feel like dead weight in elite and reaper.

- Additional Character Slot is useless to me since I keep mine at two and don't see myself adding any more anytime soon.

[CSQ]

I think the general problem with the proposed perks is the same problem with, say, Bigby's Hands being in dice tables: Who wanted these?

Some of these, like bonus DDO points, are just universally useful. Others, like the chests of many things, are tentatively useful but also full of stuff that will probably just end up as storage clutter or could be easily replaced by a bit of farming or just objectively aren't worth all that much. 12 hours of 50% experience isn't bad, but when I'm sitting on a lifetime supply more or less of 30% experience potions, it doesn't move the needle for me. Some of these, like months 4, 9, and 10 are just "hey we need something what do we put here" to me. Ammo returning is... fine? But I also haven't played a ranged build that couldn't conjure ammo in a long time. Pretty much the only hirelings I use are gold seal, so the duration is meaningless, and 10% gear durability protection just saves me a bit of plat now and again, which really doesn't matter. The only time I need to repair durability is when I zero IQ swing at oozes with metal weapons, it feels like. I guess it can help some builds like stick monks who often have weapon durability issues but that's just fixing a problem which TBH is because of a bloated, unnecessary mechanic (durability mechanics in games are just anti-fun, and you can't change my mind. They don't boost immersion, since you just click through a dialogue window to get it fixed, and it doesn't present a meaningful challenge except to make certain enemies annoying for the reason that you can't hit/get hit by them, not that they're actually meaningful, it just forces you to go to town once in a while to fix... once per TR, maybe.)

The months I think are strong are probably month 1, and as much as they are kind of inventory clutter I can't say the chests of many things are worthless, just not necessarily my cup of tea. An extra character slot is neat but not like "Guess I need to keep my subscription for this" neat- if you were already considering not subscribing, you would already lose character slots and probably not care, I don't think one more is much of an incentive or disincentive. Months 6 and 12 are cosmetics and yeah I guess that's fine but it does to some extent depend on the quality and execution of the cosmetics. Not all DDO cosmetics are created equal and not all are as good of an incentive as they're presented to be. I'd consider month 11 to be the best, because while hearts are not hard to farm for, they do have value, particularly the +20 heart, followed by the lesser chests. 500 points doesn't go that far in the shop, unfortunately, so while it's a nice sentiment, for real lifers 2000 favor worth of points is not going to be a huge incentive, especially since a lot of the QoL items that appeal to long time VIPs are quite frankly overpriced in the shop.

I feel like they just brainstormed some perks and slapped them in a table and said "How about this?" It's just kind of depressing, I think. It feels like there's very little regard for what players would consider as value for VIP, or even useful in terms of gameplay. It really does feel like the developers aren't playing the same game we are sometimes, and so they suggest and highlight things as "perks" that we just don't really care about as players. Where I have friction with the DDO experience is usually QoL stuff, as I'm increasingly finding places where there were decisions (like durability) that were made not for the player experience but because *it could be a system*. If every item has individually tracked durability values rolling checks or incrementing every time you hit a monster, wouldn't you reduce the amount of math and communication performed by ditching that system? Making that system less painful to players is moot because its already only painful when its implemented in frustrating ways.

I understand that there's probably no one size fix all solution to giving VIP more value, especially from a business oriented perspective where you want to find a way to also sell more stuff to VIPs. But it also seems like the worst move is to make an incentive that no one likes or wants. If I wanted monthly perks and loot drops, I'd look at Twitch Prime. I want a VIP subscription that doesn't just keep stringing me along to the next month so that I can move up an artificial tracker to reach a higher tier to get a perk. I've played a few games that have that kind of "Subscription loyalty program" and it never makes me think more highly of them. Even when I was addicted to FFXIV, every time I saw that veteran reward program it reminded me that they were trying to string me into staying subscribed even when I wanted to take a break to get that next mount that looks cool that would never get used in game because of some other rare mount I earned.

I dunno, I've actually been playing DDO more lately and I consistently enjoy the game more, and I don't mind being a VIP (though my financial situation may necessitate me to cancel my subscription no matter what because life happens sometimes) to support the game but it actively makes me feel less wanted as a VIP when these plans get teased and stuff gets implemented which no one asked for, which just makes the game feel worse, and which generally makes my experience worse. I might just still be salty that the Sonic Blast change happened in the middle of a bard life I was on, but it seems like the point of a lot of changes isn't to make the game more fun, its to appease like five salty elitists who are angry someone else is having fun without having to grind 900 lives first or business decisions based on how to extract more money from VIPs (i.e. "Daily gold dice aren't financially sustainable" which definitely makes sense since items in databases are so expensive to mint you know... and I rarely bought anything that was in the tables, but I was often very happy or at least apathetic about the drops *when they weren't Bigby's hands*). It gets frustrating to see SSG make decisions that seem to ignore the majority of the player base, or exist for reasons that are never clearly communicated to the community, or which focus on things players don't care about.

The filler months on this chart might just be filler months that really are just there because a few of the months are seen as "good enough" and they just wanted to pad things out, and I guess I get that, but it sucks as a VIP to be like "What do I get this month? Oh, right, screwed!" But more importantly they communicate to players that SSG is either unwilling or unable to listen to and respond to what players want. I've seen a few, admittedly perhaps difficult to implement or just unreasonable in some cases, requests from the community that could be reasonable increases to VIP- permanently improved VIP experience, or party experience boosts shared by VIPs for each member of the party, for two examples that I find particularly compelling, especially the latter since it would be nice for grouping with non-VIP, though I do get the risk of "VIP ONLY I BETTER SEE THAT XP BOOST"- but some of these are just head-scratchers. Fletching? Durability protection? I have never seen a player ask for that, though I suppose maybe a few might not mind them. It just seems a bit like there was less thought put into what players actually want here outside of just "Players like hearts, right?" and "No one says no to free points!".

[mbartol]

I think the general problem with the proposed perks is the same problem with, say, Bigby's Hands being in dice tables: Who wanted these?

Some of these, like bonus DDO points, are just universally useful. Others, like the chests of many things, are tentatively useful but also full of stuff that will probably just end up as storage clutter or could be easily replaced by a bit of farming or just objectively aren't worth all that much. 12 hours of 50% experience isn't bad, but when I'm sitting on a lifetime supply more or less of 30% experience potions, it doesn't move the needle for me. Some of these, like months 4, 9, and 10 are just "hey we need something what do we put here" to me. Ammo returning is... fine? But I also haven't played a ranged build that couldn't conjure ammo in a long time. Pretty much the only hirelings I use are gold seal, so the duration is meaningless, and 10% gear durability protection just saves me a bit of plat now and again, which really doesn't matter. The only time I need to repair durability is when I zero IQ swing at oozes with metal weapons, it feels like. I guess it can help some builds like stick monks who often have weapon durability issues but that's just fixing a problem which TBH is because of a bloated, unnecessary mechanic (durability mechanics in games are just anti-fun, and you can't change my mind. They don't boost immersion, since you just click through a dialogue window to get it fixed, and it doesn't present a meaningful challenge except to make certain enemies annoying for the reason that you can't hit/get hit by them, not that they're actually meaningful, it just forces you to go to town once in a while to fix... once per TR, maybe.)

The months I think are strong are probably month 1, and as much as they are kind of inventory clutter I can't say the chests of many things are worthless, just not necessarily my cup of tea. An extra character slot is neat but not like "Guess I need to keep my subscription for this" neat- if you were already considering not subscribing, you would already lose character slots and probably not care, I don't think one more is much of an incentive or disincentive. Months 6 and 12 are cosmetics and yeah I guess that's fine but it does to some extent depend on the quality and execution of the cosmetics. Not all DDO cosmetics are created equal and not all are as good of an incentive as they're presented to be. I'd consider month 11 to be the best, because while hearts are not hard to farm for, they do have value, particularly the +20 heart, followed by the lesser chests. 500 points doesn't go that far in the shop, unfortunately, so while it's a nice sentiment, for real lifers 2000 favor worth of points is not going to be a huge incentive, especially since a lot of the QoL items that appeal to long time VIPs are quite frankly overpriced in the shop.

I feel like they just brainstormed some perks and slapped them in a table and said "How about this?" It's just kind of depressing, I think. It feels like there's very little regard for what players would consider as value for VIP, or even useful in terms of gameplay. It really does feel like the developers aren't playing the same game we are sometimes, and so they suggest and highlight things as "perks" that we just don't really care about as players. Where I have friction with the DDO experience is usually QoL stuff, as I'm increasingly finding places where there were decisions (like durability) that were made not for the player experience but because *it could be a system*. If every item has individually tracked durability values rolling checks or incrementing every time you hit a monster, wouldn't you reduce the amount of math and communication performed by ditching that system? Making that system less painful to players is moot because its already only painful when its implemented in frustrating ways.

I understand that there's probably no one size fix all solution to giving VIP more value, especially from a business oriented perspective where you want to find a way to also sell more stuff to VIPs. But it also seems like the worst move is to make an incentive that no one likes or wants. If I wanted monthly perks and loot drops, I'd look at Twitch Prime. I want a VIP subscription that doesn't just keep stringing me along to the next month so that I can move up an artificial tracker to reach a higher tier to get a perk. I've played a few games that have that kind of "Subscription loyalty program" and it never makes me think more highly of them. Even when I was addicted to FFXIV, every time I saw that veteran reward program it reminded me that they were trying to string me into staying subscribed even when I wanted to take a break to get that next mount that looks cool that would never get used in game because of some other rare mount I earned.

I dunno, I've actually been playing DDO more lately and I consistently enjoy the game more, and I don't mind being a VIP (though my financial situation may necessitate me to cancel my subscription no matter what because life happens sometimes) to support the game but it actively makes me feel less wanted as a VIP when these plans get teased and stuff gets implemented which no one asked for, which just makes the game feel worse, and which generally makes my experience worse. I might just still be salty that the Sonic Blast change happened in the middle of a bard life I was on, but it seems like the point of a lot of changes isn't to make the game more fun, its to appease like five salty elitists who are angry someone else is having fun without having to grind 900 lives first or business decisions based on how to extract more money from VIPs (i.e. "Daily gold dice aren't financially sustainable" which definitely makes sense since items in databases are so expensive to mint you know... and I rarely bought anything that was in the tables, but I was often very happy or at least apathetic about the drops *when they weren't Bigby's hands*). It gets frustrating to see SSG make decisions that seem to ignore the majority of the player base, or exist for reasons that are never clearly communicated to the community, or which focus on things players don't care about.

The filler months on this chart might just be filler months that really are just there because a few of the months are seen as "good enough" and they just wanted to pad things out, and I guess I get that, but it sucks as a VIP to be like "What do I get this month? Oh, right, screwed!" But more importantly they communicate to players that SSG is either unwilling or unable to listen to and respond to what players want. I've seen a few, admittedly perhaps difficult to implement or just unreasonable in some cases, requests from the community that could be reasonable increases to VIP- permanently improved VIP experience, or party experience boosts shared by VIPs for each member of the party, for two examples that I find particularly compelling, especially the latter since it would be nice for grouping with non-VIP, though I do get the risk of "VIP ONLY I BETTER SEE THAT XP BOOST"- but some of these are just head-scratchers. Fletching? Durability protection? I have never seen a player ask for that, though I suppose maybe a few might not mind them. It just seems a bit like there was less thought put into what players actually want here outside of just "Players like hearts, right?" and "No one says no to free points!".

Fully agree. +1

[Eantarus]

I feel like they took what should be a 1-time reward for buying a year's VIP and stretched it out over 12 months instead of just giving it to you like a normal game.

Bottom line is its underwhelming, too little, too late, takes too long to be meaningful.

[Ereshkigal]

I feel like they took what should be a 1-time reward for buying a year's VIP and stretched it out over 12 months instead of just giving it to you like a normal game.

Bottom line is its underwhelming, too little, too late, takes too long to be meaningful.

the reward for buying it a year at a time is that it is cheaper. There doesn't need to be any further reward than that imo.

[cmecu]

It is one thing to read forums if you are considering playing again. It is totally different to login to comment about how bad a game is that you no longer play.

Not quite because I dont really play any more. Maybe once in a blue moon. The game has too many problems, and there are people like myself who keep tabs on the game for if they ever decide to fix stuff then it will be worth coming back.

Perfectly fine to comment on the game to let SSG know what is wrong with their game. Because if we didnt complain there would only be the fanbois who see no issues with the game and keeps going after the carrot dangling in front of them.