Free Game Time and a Tauntaun PetFollow

Linky, link, link.

Easier to read link.

Basics:

You get 30 days of free game time if, by today, you had at least 1 level 50 character, had not been banned, and had redeemed a game time card or signed up for a subscription.

You get the Tauntaun pet if you have all of the above, but the level 50 character is not required.


Furthermore:

If you do not have an active account, you can log in anyway from April 13th through the 19th. Will only apply, however, to accounts who had paid for at least one month, and the account must not have been banned.

If you resubscribe by the 21st, you will get the Tauntaun pet.


Genius move on BioWare's part. Of course, people are freaking out over it because the game time is only going to people with a level 50. Because they allegedly only care about people with a character at cap.

I disagree, because I think you are missing the point entirely.

This is a direct response to player complaints regarding lack of endgame content from launch up until now, and is probably linked to BioWare's decision to remove ranked PVP from this patch. Players who do not yet have a 50 largely don't because A. they don't care to or B. they are having more than enough fun with the leveling content.

In either case, lack of endgame content hasn't been hurting their TOR experience. For every moment they've logged on, BioWare has delivered a solid, enjoyable gaming experience.

This is very, very different for the other side of things. Granted, plenty of 50s have leveled alts, but there's a significant population for whom that isn't an interest. They got to level 50, but had relatively little to do. Add to the small amount of content small server pops, and their experience has been less than enjoyable. Many of them would go ahead and level an alt at this point, just because they're bored.

While BioWare has actually been releasing content at a praiseworthy pace, players still feel ignored.

This is an attempt to reward that sort of loyalty with something tangible. When one group of players is having fun during all the time they pay for, and another group isn't, but pays because they want to support the game, that's a big distinction. It doesn't make the endgamers "more important," it's because they suffered where the altoholics didn't.

When you complained to Blizzard's customer service and they awarded you some game time in response, it wasn't a sign of favoritism. It was an apology. That's what this is--an apology to the players who haven't had content.

You said yourself that free time should be issued when the server was down for extended period. But, in an odd way, isn't that essentially what has been the case with endgame players? Sure, servers were up. But there really wasn't anything going on they were interested in.

And then there's a whole other line of reasoning on the monetary side. This promotion has two important points. Its cutoff date was the launch date for the patch and it targets endgame players.

Anyone who came back to the game to see 1.2 (before the patch) is now going to get 2 months for the price of 1 to be convinced to stay. That's a HUGE increase in the time limit for BioWare to make their case. And ties right into the free week, and Tauntaun for subscribing bit. It's not about a preferred group, it's about targeting the demographic that left the game that they want back.

Furthermore, remember how much money we are already talking about. "Players who have a level 50 character" is almost certainly less than half of subscribers. So you are saying they should more than double the amount of money they are losing, to make things fair. But we are talking about $500+ thousand dollars in lost subsciption fees if they did so. Are you seriously going to be making that argument? Do you honestly think that choosing one demographic is so vile that it's warranted to demand BioWare sacrifice half a million dollars to give the same reward to everyone?

Remember, this is a calculated promotion. The hope is that, by losing one month of playtime for people who would have paid for one, they'll cement enough subscriptions to make it worth it in the long run.

Furthermore, realize that this promotion is meant to target, primarily, the players who rushed to 50, and then didn't leave. Yeah, some people were lucky enough to subscribe before 1.2, but the cutoff was deliberate so you couldn't just come back and take advantage of it. This definitely isn't just about enticing endgame players back, and has everything to do with apologizing the ones that stuck around.

It's frankly not insulting at all. You are attributing to the gift something that isn't a part of it (a distinction of relative importance), then calling discrimination for it. That's... crazy.

If you know why you did it, and that reason is as an apology for failing to provide endgame content, then you can't pretend like it's anything other than a reimbursement for their failure towards those players. They don't consider the lower level players less important. They just didn't fail them.

When any company receives a complaint that they delivered a sub par product, they'll usually replace it within reason. This is the exact same thing. Some players, out of the whole, received (from BioWare) an experience that was sup par. This is their way for making up for that lost time.

I see no problems there.

I definitely don't fall into the target demographic. I'm one of the players who has it by chance, realistically. But I'm positive it wouldn't bother me if I didn't get it, because I just don't see it as favoritism.

Maybe you're right and they should have given a free month out to everyone sooner. I never had those stability issues, so I honestly have no clue what other people were facing.

And let's be blunt, like all promotions, this isn't being done as a thank you. It's being done for the same reason a shop gives a little girl a new ice cream cone after she drops her--it's about future profits.



Potentially insulting language aside, this really says clearly what they are hoping this will do--help assuage the anger of endgame players by encouraging them to think more favorably about 1.2.

That's really all it is. It's not about their favorites, or loyalty, or anything else. It's a calculated promotion to address the issues of a specific group.

Not saying those with stability issues aren't an important one, either, but that's definitely a small minority of players. Of course BioWare isn't going to give everyone a free month for that--it would be losing a ridiculous amount of money for nearly no return. Plus, you do realize it's somewhat insane to group players who couldn't play because of system issues with those who get a free month, right? That's actually MORE insulting.

And since they have no way to target just those players, it won't happen. Blizz never did it, and I doubt BioWare will either.

[EDIT]

There was an issue on their end where some players downloaded a patch on Wed night that was improper, and borked the game. So you'd have to reinstall. They gave them all 3 days of game time. I have no clue if this is the first time they've done something like that, but it's at least a sign that they care about stability problems that are their fault now.

Edited, Apr 13th 2012 9:32am by idiggory

Free game time has always been targeted in WoW, though, so why's it so surprising here? Yeah, they never just gave it to endgame players, but I can only think of one or two times when they gave free time to everyone to make up for the stability issues that weren't universal. And those were extremely significant minorities.

I think they should have just done it where anyone who has had a paid subscription for over 3 months would get 30 days or something like that. I mean, I get the days because I have a level 50, but I easily could not have one if I decided to level one of the other classes a bit more. I've leveled multiple character to 40+, several more to 25+ and I've been playing since pre-release. I'd be pretty peeved if I didn't qualify.

I think the problem is twofold, being part discriminating and part insulting:

1. It's discriminating that players are rewarded based on their playstyle (completionist vs altoholic).
2. It's insulting that the players rewarded are regarded as more valued players by BioWare.

I'm all for apologizing and handing out some gifts to those who were wronged over the months, but this is not the way to do it. They've effectively just told every non-50 player that they're not valued. Might as well have told us to piss off.

Edit: The pet is nice, but I'd rather have a monetary reward than a pet (or title) I won't be using anyway. When I read your OP the first time, I actually thought the Tauntaun required a level 50 as well. Hence the beating of a wall to death.

Editedit: If I had a level 50, I'd probably be more excited about the content in 1.2 and a formal apology than a free month. I chose to not rush to level 50, partly because I wanted to experience the stories, but also because I knew end-game wasn't fleshed out yet. I don't need an apology for that, but I don't need an insult either.

Editeditedit: Also, rewarding players for not rolling alts in the "celebration" of a patch that promotes rolling alts is funny.

Now excuse me. I need to go spacebar my way to 50 so I can qualify for any future promotional offer. Unless they intend to reward those who haven't hit level 50 yet in the future. That would be hilarious.

Edited, Apr 13th 2012 4:59pm by Mazra

I don't consider myself a "slow leveler," but I have a tendency to restart characters if something about them annoys me. This is obviously the primary reason why I haven't hit level 50 on a character yet. It's not like I stop at level 20 because I'm afraid of end-game. There just hasn't been enough time for me to hit level 50. If you'd switched server four times and rerolled every character twice at level 10, you'd probably be in the same boat.

All of this is irrelevant, though, as I don't really care about someone with a level 50 getting a reward. It doesn't (or shouldn't) matter what you've done in the four (five) months the game has been out. What matters is how long you've been subscribed to it. BioWare is calling players with a level 50, regardless of how long they've supported the game and the company, for their most valued players. The rest of us are belittled because we chose to spend our time differently.

Again, I don't care that they're getting $15, I care that BioWare has a messed up definition of "loyalty."

Edit: Ineptitude can be insulting.

Edited, Apr 13th 2012 5:47pm by Mazra

Not rumor now, at least, because a Dev confirmed that at least certain areas were unintentionally rolled back.

Sucks--I was planning to play TOR all day...

I'll agree that BioWare used bad wording. They were trying to appeal to a specific demographic, and forgot to consider how the rest would take it. But it's certainly not the case that they value endgame players more than others--they've put a lot of energy into making TOR as casual-friendly as possible because they don't just want to cater to the hardcore crowd.

I think that they may not have chosen the best filter for who gets the promotion and who doesn't, but I'm also guessing that it was the result of various statistical testing as to what had the best reward and expected influence on the game.

Losing your hardcore crowd is actually quite painful for an MMO, because hardcore players are the best for free advertising. They're likely to talk about the games online, or in person, which is exactly what you want. Casuals don't. They also are more flighty with subscriptions. While you are going to have far more casual players than hardcore players, you'll gain a much stronger population (and have a much better general social atmosphere in game) overall when the hardcore players are happy.

But that's a serious problem for MMO devs. You can't bias your dev plan in favor of Hardcore players, because you need to be sure to provide content for the significant population. However, hardcore players absolutely have an entitlement complex. If they feel you are catering too heavily to casuals, they will complain. If they feel their specific concerns aren't first on your list, they'll scream. And if the game doesn't give them content at an acceptable rate, they'll move on.

The best compromise is actually to balance your development as you see fit, but skew your language slightly in favor of the hardcore crowd. You want to defend casual content, without a doubt, but it's probably in your best interest to allow them to maintain their egos.

That's what this promotion looks like to me. Poorly done, perhaps. Too strongly skewed, perhaps. But it actually, even with the outcry, an ingenious business move. I guarantee you that this deal will make the game healthier overall. Yeah, it would have been better to figure out a way to do it without angering the casual base (which is also starting to develop its own ego), but yeah. That's the issue for tomorrow's MMOs.

They NEED the hardcore crowd to feel entitled for the game to stay healthy. It's just fact. They can piss off fifty thousand casual players to the point where they'd quit, but if ten thousand hardcore players are happy, the game will probably prosper far more in the long run.

If they changed the promotion to "subscribed for 3 months" they were more likely to leave out a chunk of the demographic the promotion is there to appease (for the good of all, realistically), and losing the "Valued" connotation defeats the purpose entirely.

I can't bring myself to believe this was a bad move on BioWare's part. The very worst I can say is that they could have used slightly softened language. Everything else about it was calculated to specifically invest in one sagging area of the game. Giving it to everyone wouldn't have had nearly the same level of effect, because they NEED that demographic to feel important for the desired result to come about.

Losing the casual population hurts a lot, but they aren't generally the risk factor. Losing casuals won't destroy your hardcore base, but losing your hardcore base will cause you to lose the casuals.

And, regarding that thread, it's kinda my point. Before now, casual gamers were generally quiet, because they didn't have any kind of collective ego like hardcore gamers did. Now, they are developing one. This really means that PR is about balancing the casual and hardcore ego, where before it was largely about not pissing off the hardcore gamers while trying to attract casuals.

Primarily because hardcore players actually advertise the game, which is incredibly important for growing your subscription base to include casuals in the first place. Once you have a deep-set population, like with WoW, they aren't going to leach away that easily. But, while TOR has a sizable population, BioWare needs to work to keep that going.

Hardcore players are usually the ones that keep MMO economies running and, without them, it tends to stagnate surprisingly fast.

They are generally the source of educative materials that casuals make use of. Even casuals will go to elitist jerks for build advice. They won't, however, take part in TCing.

Hardcore players are guaranteed subs for the company, where casuals bounce back and forth even month to month (more likely, for instance, to use game cards than Hardcore players are). This makes hardcore players more valuable on a one to one basis.

Casuals, as a rule, are more dependent on the server community than hardcore players (SOLELY due to the fact that endgame guilds generally evolve into largely self-sufficient microcosms). A loss of a hardcore base keeping various activities moving is a big, big loss for casual gamers. Quick example: Weekly raids in WoW. How many of these were led and organized by casual players? Very few. How many casual players took part if they could? Definitely a decent number.

Casual guilds generally don't exist to help service all their member's needs. You'll have occasional PVP/PVE activities, not regular ones. You aren't sure to have skilled crafters, or a stocked guild bank, or representative players for every class. You probably won't have people to help teach you, or a highly active player base.

And I say this as someone who has played MMOs casually for years. Granted, I'm closer to the hardcore demographic than most casuals, but still.

We are generally great money for an MMO, and hugely important for keeping it going. But the loss of the hardcore playerbase definitely spells slow death for an MMO, particularly if its so close to launch. This is essentially why the F2P model is doing well now. Pretty much every game that goes F2P failed to gain and keep a sizable hardcore player base, which made life hard for the casuals that weren't so critical. The F2P model lets you play without paying, but includes a huge number of options that essentially let you customize your experience, via cash. That attracts back many hardcore players, but more importantly allows for a money-based replacement for the services typically dependent on them (like a stocked economy, if they let you buy goods directly).

The two groups DO maintain a symbiotic relationship. Losing either is disastrous. But losing the hardcore group is much easier.

In other news, the unscheduled maintenance seems to have ended, some three hours before the ETA.

Time to make that $15 count!

At least we're all getting a free day of sub time. Luckily I was at work so I didn't even have to suffer any inconvenience for it.

Why not? We all know why they're really giving away free game time. It's not like it's a mystery why that specific group of players received it and others didn't. By disguising it as a "show of appreciation" for being "loyal, supportive and a valued player," they only managed to conjure up a PR sh*tstorm of unprecedented proportions.

Lying to your customers is always a bad idea. The truth eventually comes out, usually because, believe it or not, we're not idiots.

If they'd worded this as a "sorry, we promised rated warzones and you didn't get them, here's 30 days if you stick around" apology then I'm betting none of this would have happened. Instead they went the "we just think you're so awesome and amazing and totally not like those others guy who didn't level to 50, so here's a free month" route and unintentionally insulted a bunch of people.

I don't think it's a smart advertising tactic in general, but particularly in this case. Because BioWare wasn't in the wrong. They're trying to appease a signficant group of people who felt entitled to content they had no right expecting. BioWare's developing their endgame faster than WoW does post expansion, let alone a new game.

What does it mean, then, if they "admit" that this was an issue, and that it was their fault?

It means that they'll have pretty much have set that standard. Next time they release an expansion with a standard amount of endgame content, players will be angry and feel justified in being so. Patch is delayed a month? May god have mercy. Etc.

They are trying to appease an important group of people who are important specifically because the game is brand new. When we hit the expansion level, they won't need to worry about that--players will be committed. The goal right now is to attract that group.

It would be hell for them to set a precedence of it being a failure to launch with only lower-level endgame content available.

Just need to finish Chapter 1... when does Chapter 1 end again, because my Assassin is on Tatooine... Oh hell, it might be faster to just grind out those 20 levels. Signature has never been more true.

Sweet Jesus, the first chapter isn't done until level 35-ish? What the hell, how do they cram in two more chapters in 15 levels?

Edited, Apr 14th 2012 1:37am by Mazra

D'oh. And I suppose leveling up your Legacy rank takes a while as well - once you unlock it?

Screw it, I'm just gonna level up however I want. Not going to let $15 turn the game into a chore.

Edited, Apr 14th 2012 1:49am by Mazra

Wait, I'd have to level a single character to 50 and complete Chapter 3 to get to Legacy 6?

What's the point of letting people get the offer at Legacy 6 then? They'd hit level 50 before they'd unlock rank 6 anyway...

I had to jump servers a couple of times. I've currently got:

Trooper: 22 and 16
Consular: 28 and 21
Inquisitor: 31 and 11
Knight: 24 and 15
Hunter: 23
Agent: 20
Warrior: 18

And that's not including the ones I've deleted:

Warrior: 18
Inquisitor: 13
Knight: 14, 12, 10
Smuggler: 16 and 10
Agent: 11 and 10
Hunter: 21 and 12

Those are the ones I remember. Most of those were deleted due to lack of an in-game barbershop. I'm pretty OCD about my characters being the right gender, race and having the right face/haircut/eye color.

Had I known that Legacy wasn't unlocked until well into the 30's, I probably would have played my Assassin a bit more and I'd likely be eligible for the offer now. Alas, I didn't know.

Edited, Apr 14th 2012 2:20am by Mazra

So I'm @#%^ed regardless.

Meh...

Yeah, the objection was that the promotion was being denied to people who had played an equivalent amount but, due to the fact that they spread out their game time, they didn't have any level 50s. Making Legacy level 6 the goal essentially just means they added an "or equivalent" clause.

It sucks that you hopped around servers and never unlocked your legacy, Maz. But I definitely think this is a reasonable change.

I'd still write to customer service.

I'd still write to customer service.

Spoon would write the sternest of letters.

"Dear Sir/Ma'am,

Recently it has come to my attention that you have expanded the requirements for the free 30 days of subscription time to include players who are Legacy 6 or higher. While I greatly appreciate the widening of scope of the promotion, I feel that I have been left out, even though I have put in much of the same time as those who would qualify.

As you can see if you check my account history, even though I have not reached the end of Chapter One on any of my characters (in order to create my Legacy and begin earning Legacy Experience), I have logged quite a bit of playtime across many characters. I currently have 11 characters over level 10, including seven characters over level 20. And that is not to mention the many characters I've deleted to restart on, including at least one character above level 20. Most of those were deleted due to lack of an in-game barbershop. I'm pretty OCD about my characters being the right gender, race and having the right face/haircut/eye color.

Had I known that Legacy wasn't unlocked until well into the 30's, I probably would have played my Assassin a bit more and I'd likely be eligible for the offer now. Alas, I didn't know. Is there any way you would be able to extend eligibility to me, considering that I've put in as much time, if not more, than most regular players who would have their Legacy leveled to 6 by now?

As an appreciation for your time, here is a picture of Darth Vader riding a kitten.

Thanks again for your time,
Mazra"

Though, I'd actually post the picture. Unfortunately, my Premium ran out so I can't upload it.


Edited, Apr 14th 2012 8:58am by Spoonless

I like how you constructed parts of the letter from my previous posts. And the Vader on a kitten picture nailed it. What could go wrong, right?