Some New Ideas on Premium Membership

[OctavianAXFive]

Premium Membership: Rent-a-Swag?

I'm experimenting with a new style of tl;dr. Color code the essentials!

So this patch got me thinking.

Premium Members now get access to additional loadouts that disappear if they drop their membership. I wasn’t quite sure what to think of it, I was rather hoping we would all see a few additional slots without having to pay for them.

I decided that yes, I do want some additional free slots. But I think it is okay for SoE to charge for a quality of life upgrade like extra loadouts as it has little bearing on the gameplay itself.

What really caught my attention though is that the extra loadouts go away if you drop your premium membership. Of course, this is simply an incentive for players to get Premium Membership in a way that isn’t P2W.

Though the resource boost is causing a stir right now, I think with a new resource system it might go away again. The current incentives for Premium Membership are sparse at best and I really don’t see, once the resource bonus goes away (assuming it won’t be a problem in the future), how it will retain players without them withholding more quality of life features.

Then it struck me.

Give them the following and only the following:

Give Premium Members all of the cosmetics. Give them extra loadout slots, extra character slots, XP boost, queue priority, extra passive certs, and lastly customer service priority.

Here’s the catch.

It’s all rental. As soon as you stop being a premium member, you lose access to all cosmetics and all of the other perks (except character slots).
However, if you buy a cosmetic directly, it’s yours. Keep going with the Premium exclusive deals so Premium Members can purchase things if at some point they think they will stop paying for Premium Membership.

Alternatively: Premium Early Access store items may not be available for all premium members at first but for a small fee can be bought early (thus unlocking them permanently) so you can be the first one to wear the new badass Higby Hair Helmet.

Eventually the item would be unlocked and all Premium Members can wear it and all F2P players are free to buy it.

You could also install an “officer’s club” in the warpgate that is accessible to Premium Members. It just looks snazzy and has its own warp and loadout terminals. If you’re feeling crazy I don’t think it would be too much to link those terminals to their own vehicle queue and launch pads within the warpgate.

Lastly, you could make “Premium” cosmetic versions of certain weapons. For example: Only Premium Members may purchase the gold version of the NS commissioner.

The Free To Player Bill of Rights

Premium Members should NEVER:

Have early access to new weapons

Receive extra resources or have their resource pool expanded

Restrict access to cosmetics based on membership level.

Have access to cosmetics the normal player does not (the only exception being the special cosmetic weapons). I put this in because I hope to avoid jealousy that Premium Players get all the good stuff. Just saves a headache and why not let people buy almost everything? Only Premium Members might be willing to dish out for the super cosmetic guns anyway so I think that’s safe.

Be given access to a quality of life upgrade that cannot be purchased directly via SC by F2Players. As a matter of fact, it’s best to avoid these situations for the most part. Someone wants 20 loadouts? Charge ‘em. But give the rest of us plenty.

Hell if someone wants to buy access to the aforementioned officer’s club but doesn’t want the full premium, sell it to them.

Any other thoughts or suggestions? Like/dislike what I've said?

I think SoE marketing might have a heart attack at first but isn't the holy grail of MMO making an army of people pay $15 a month? This is the best way I can think of to tempt people into doing it.

[bpostal]

I'll take some of this, although I've always been opposed to renting virtual items.

[Mastachief]

Premium is only just worth it now, mess with it and i assure you lots of players won't renew.

[Shogun]

i would only subscribe if this gives the option to turn off the cosmetics all together, so i could tell apart enemies from friends again, and have the people look like future soldiers again, instead of manga-convention cosplayers.

i don´t care if camo buyers have put money into their camos and deserve to keep their advantage. because i would put more money into the subscription, so i have the right to counter this advantage. after all, the game is p2w now, with ressource and loadoutslot limitation on free players, so at least repair the visuals for paying members.

[KesTro]

I rather like premium as it is now. As for the cosmetics. They've got to make a buck somehow, I don't see them making as much money if every premium member was able to get the cool looking stuff with no extra cost.

They are after all a business.

*Edit* This game is far from Pay2Win, it's Pay2Benefit as it should be for the above reason.

[Chaff]

.
I have a major issue with PASSIVE CERT GAIN. Initially, it and the Queue Priority at WarpGates were Huge draws.

PASSIVE CERT GAIN should be a 100% independent & automatic feature. It should NOT require I log in daily. I should not be penalized if I play from 8pm to 11pm tonight, but tomorrow I only play from 9am to noon. There's a Damn 24hr timer which filters what % you get of your meager PASSIVE CERT GAIN. BULLSHIT.

EVERY TIME YOUR AURAXIUM ACCOUNT HITS IT's MONTHLY RENWAL DATE ADD ALL THE PERKS - IN ONE LUMP SUM.
Get rid of the "daily" Cert thing.....it's BULLSHIT economics.

Players paying for a 12 month Premium Sub (or whatever) should not have to log in EVERY DAY to "get what they pay for". They should not even have to log in once a month. If your account is PAID-UP, every month (on your renewal date) SOE should "Deposit" one LUMP SUM PAYOUT of your CERTS & Station CA$H.

Sometimes you can't play every day. Or, you don't want to. It's good to take a break from things. Certainly I don't like being pigeonholed into having to play AT THE SAME DAMN TIME EVERY DAMN DAY so I can get 48 lousy Certs (Passive).

Please, don't get hung-up on any number I throw out here, it's the overall approach I want SOE to change on their Subs - especially their Premium Sub.

EVERY MONTH. Whether or not you log in daily or only once a year .... if your account is current ALL of your Perks/Benefits arrive AUTOMATICALLY into you account. If they choose to do it on your renewal date I believe it will better aid in account retention.

If Paying Memebr "SEE" 1,500 Passive Certs & $500 of Station Cash hit their account every month on the same day -- well, for me it would help VALIDATE I have an account with TANGIBLE VALUE. Psychologically, it reinforces that every MOnth your account renewals - THERE IS A BENEFIT ....which the customer can easily "see".

I PAY FOR MY PASSIVE CERTS. I should NOT have to do ANY work to get them. I should NOT be penalized if I go out of town or freely choose to take short or long breaks from PS2.

They need to think about RETAINING PAYING CUSTOMERS.

Perhaps instead of "giving away all cosmetics", they could just give bigger Permanant Discounts in the Cash Store depending on your Subscription level.

PERHAPS, they could offer "Perk Packets" customers could add on to one cheap monthly Sub, but then there's perhaps as many as 5 or 6 additional Perk Packers which add more to their account - and each Perk Packet adds $5/mo on top of the Basic Sub cost.

Or, just make a Tier Sytem;

$5/mo........gets you 10% off in the Cash shop
$10/mo..... Sub gets you 25% off in the Cash shop and Queue Priority ahead of F2P players.
$15/mo..... same as above, but 30% off in the Cash Shop + 1,500 Passive certs & $500 SC ea month.
Queue Priority before anyone else - except the group below.
$25/mo..... 50% off in the Cash Shop. Queue ahead of everyone else. 3,000 Passive certs & $1,000 SC ea month.

My wife's account has no Subs or perks. I play her toons far more than my own, and have done so for months. I have no issues with Resources. What I "NEED" is a reminder to BUY CE when my Infantry Resources get back to 750 .... sometimes I'll run around for an hour or more with 750 sitting there. I coulda restocked CE a couple times in that time, but I get too caught up in the game.

The whole P2W vs F2P broohaha is primarily about Resource Management. And becasue it's not P2W, it certanly is PFC (Pay For Convenience). SOE needs to do MORE to attract & maintain paying customers. Without MONEY (paying customers), PS2 will cease to exist.
.

My Account is Auraxium. The fact that I LOSE Passive Certs that I'm paying for by not logging in ever 24 hours (almost exactly) is resaon enough to Rage Quit my Auraxium Sub when it expires. I can live with out the meager perks and i SURE AS HELL DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO WORK TO GET THEM it's sooooooooooooooo BULLSHIT. I'm so FRUSTRATED over the fact that I LOSE much of what I pay for - that I (often) play my wifes F2P account instead.
I have more fun with her toons - cuz I have nothing to be resentful over ..... I know how paying customers live ... and currently .... it's NOT worth the extra money & the frustration. The principal of LOSING what I'm paying for simply because I don't log in every 24 hours chaps my hide to no end.

ACCOUNT RETENTION is being neglected by SOE. Structure it so that is is NOT FRUSTRATIONG. Currently, it's NOT worth the money.
.

[OctavianAXFive]

Alright so maybe giving all of the cosmetics for $15 a month is a little much.

Addendums

The Passive Certs for Premium Members are able to stack for up to 1 full months’ worth of certifications.

What if:

I combined Chaff’s idea of a tiered system with rentals and other perks with the preexisting SoE membership levels.

Instead of all of the cosmetics, Premium Members had X amount of rentals they could choose per level of membership.


Example:

Free: No Rentals, XP bonus only through boost, Passive Cert Bonus only through boost, priority queue only through boost, public CS queue, normal daily deals, no free SC, 3 character slots, 5 loadouts per character. 12 certs/ day that do not stack (you have to log in each day to get your passives.)

1 Month: 6 rental cosmetics, 25% XP gain, 25% passive cert gain, Priority Queue, Priority CS, Premium deals, 500SC, early access, 3 extra character slots (permanent), 1 rental loadout (6 total)

2 Months: 8 rental cosmetics, 30% XP gain, 30% passive cert gain, Priority Queue, Priority CS, Premium deals, 500SC/m, early access, 2 rental loadouts (7 total)

3 Months: 12 rental cosmetics, 35% XP gain, 35% passive cert gain, Priority Queue, Priority CS, Premium deals, 500SC/m , early access, 3 rental loadouts (8 total)

4 Months: 18 rental cosmetics, 40% XP gain, 40% passive cert gain, Priority Queue, Priority CS, Premium deals, 500SC/m, early access, 4 rental loadouts (9 total)

5 Months: 26 rental cosmetics, 45% XP gain, 45% passive cert gain, Priority Queue, Priority CS, Premium deals, 500SC/m, early access, 5 rental loadouts (10 total)

6 Months: 36 rental cosmetics, 50% XP gain, 50% passive cert gain, Priority Queue, Priority CS, Premium deals, 500SC/m, early access, 6 rental loadouts (11 total), Officer Club in the Warpgate (snazzy area with exclusive terminals).

At the beginning of each month your cosmetics “reset” unless you renew the ones you had before. In this way if there is something new you want, you can let the cosmetics you had reset and then pick up new ones for the month.

If you stop paying Premium you no longer have access to a cosmetic unless you directly pay for it.

Premium Members still should never have access to a cosmetic F2Players don’t also have access to (unless it’s a temporary early access).

The Player Studio:

All items and enhancements sold through the player store are not eligible for Premium Benefits. Meaning only SoE crafted skins and armor are available for rental through Premium Membership. Player Studio skins and armor are available for direct buy only.

Additional Reasoning:

As time goes on, more and more players will begin to reach top rank. As that happens, the XP bonus and cert bonus will be less and less useful to Premium Members. By offering cosmetics as an incentive for Premium Members, this future proofs subscriptions by still giving veteran players a nice perk that does not involve extra resources that can potentially be viewed as “unfair.” Premium Membership should involve gaining quality of life enhancements in game. Adding rentable cosmetics is a way of keeping the benefits of Premium Membership tangible once more players reach max rank. The monthly 500SC would remain in addition to the rental cosmetics since weapons/Player Studio items use SC.

Also let’s face it. There aren’t often queues to get into PS2 or onto a continent. At least for now, the only really good benefits of being a premium member are the XP gain (unless you max out), the cert gain (unless you max out) and the resource gain (which is causing more trouble than it’s worth).
Thinking ahead, I think replacing the resource bonus players get with a handful of rental cosmetics would be a fair trade that will cause less of a headache in the future and keep players at max level paying.

[Chaff]

^

BRILLIANT.

It is impossible to make everyone happy. However, it is good to search for the most realistic & reasonable scenario possible which takes ALL players needs and interests into account .... as well as SOE's.
I think you're pretty spot-on with your overall approach.

I think you, and perhaps another reasonable-minded player or two should get together over a 6-pack or two, and you'd have this train-of-thought 99% pefected in a couple hours.

And yes. Absolutely YES. As you progress into the BR-30 range and above, Certs become less & less meaningful. The future in SOE revenue streams that will be sustainable long-term appear to me to be overwhelmingly in the Cosmetic arena. This is great, because it helps create a revenue stream to keep the game improving, yet does not in any way contibute any factual substance for the F2P crowd to cry about.

This game is SKILL-dependent, SKILL-driven, and SKILL-dominated. 1v1, it comes down to SKILL. Empire-v-Empire it's overall Pop & Strategy Dependent.
Everything else takes a back seat. If you don't have SKILL, no Sub currently offered in PS2 will help you in any way, shape, or form.
.

[OctavianAXFive]

I put up a refined version on Reddit.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/1i6oaa/newly_proposed_premium_membership_model_and_a/

Don't think it's of much interest to the folks over there. No traction on the official forums either.

I hope someone at SoE flips through this and rubs their chin in thought.

I'm quite certain I'm on to something here. But since talking about Premium Membership isn't as sexy or fun as complaining about balance it'll probably get brushed under the rug.