SOE 2014 Membership Update From John Smedley

Pricing for All Access will be lowered and Station Cash changes are being reverted.

Subscription for All Access is being lowered to $14.99/month, and the previously announced change to Station Cash bonuses for Gold Members is being done away with. The monthly 500 Station Cash bonus will stay in place with the only change being that members will have to actively claim it each month.

This information and more comes from another update by John Smedley (by way of the EverQuest Forums, by way of Reddit):

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the feedback. We listened.

Here are the basics of our revised plan. Please note - we have not had the time to do estimates of the work involved, and also we're continuing to listen. so this isn't baked just yet. Do not expect that this is all going to happen immediately. We plain don't know yet. we're doing that meeting tmw.

1) We're lowering the price of All Access to $14.99

2) We're going to make it so every subscriber to all our PC games an all access member. Basically there will be one SOE membership for our PC games. Please note there are some minor restrictions around our kids titles (simply put - if you're a 12 year old who signed up for FR you won't have access to the adult games so we'll likely leave the lower priced kids offerings as separate subscriptions for under 12 for the same low prices).

3) We're keeping the 500 SC included with the subscription instead of going to the "pick an item" system. We heard you. You didn't like the change. The only change we are making is that we're now going to make you claim it monthly. You can still hoard it though I realize this is a bit of a pain but honestly it's the best compromise we could come up with that solves the problems I mentioned in the other thread.

4) we are going to be giving our members a 10% discount in our marketplaces.

5) European players - we have an idea on how to include you in this but we need to discuss with our partners.We have a pretty good idea on this though. give us a bit of time to suss this out.

6) Nothing is changing with Player Studio items - you'll still be able to buy them with your 500SC.

7) Console titles - you'll notice I only mentioned the PC titles. Our goal is to include the PS3 and PS4 games that we have, but I want to be up front and say that isn't a done deal.

In a nutshell that's where our head is at.

As always your feedback is welcomed. Please do us a big favor and carefully think about #3. Our goal is to give you more value in the subscription to make it more attractive and making it simpler in the process.
I really feel like we're making a good decision going this route. It makes things simpler and gives more value to our players.

Thanks

Smed

Source: John Smedley's post on Reddit, January 6 2014.

Comments

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I'll tell you how it might effect me
# Jan 18 2014 at 10:44 AM Rating: Good
35 posts
So, I (like many others) got in on that deal a few years ago that happened when the servers went down for weeks, if not months. I an my hubby have 4 accounts between us and we ended up going from slightly discounted subscriptions to EQ1 for 3 months at a time to paying only $29.25 per account every 3 months. That's $9.75 per month per account when you break it down.

When the Gold system broke out, we dumped our paid subscriptions for our "secondary" accounts, keeping gold for two accounts. But, because we were grandfathered in (playing for eons, lol, we got to keep 10 characters per un-paid account. (Not that we play that much anyhoo).

Why on Luclin would I want to jump on the all access? How much would I pay for all access considering that I'm only paying $9.75 per month on my golds (For EQ1)?
EQN
# Jan 15 2014 at 12:59 PM Rating: Decent
38 posts
Might be tempting for EQN in the future. As of now I only play EQ1.
Station Cash
# Jan 14 2014 at 1:18 PM Rating: Decent
26 posts
Who cares if someone hoards the SC anyways, it doesn't effect me in anyway or anyone else so what is the big friggin deal if Hoardo the Ogre has 10000 sc because he never buys anything, big deal. You guys need to find something better than that to cry about. Why not the merc who won't fight or the merc that does not zone with you and only way to get back is to go to GH. Anyways I felt obligated to add my 2cp to this. Have a nice day
Clarification??
# Jan 13 2014 at 11:56 AM Rating: Good
17 posts
Isn't this statement contradictory?

"The only change we are making is that we're now going to make you claim it monthly. You can still hoard it though..."
Clarification??
# Jan 13 2014 at 1:04 PM Rating: Good
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362 posts
Eisfalke wrote:
Isn't this statement contradictory?

"The only change we are making is that we're now going to make you claim it monthly. You can still hoard it though..."


No. You'll have to log in once a month and claim the SC rather than it automatically banking. It is stilted in the way it's worded; I thought the same thing until I dug a little more on the official forum thread.

Edited, Jan 13th 2014 2:04pm by nekokirei
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Clarification??
# Jan 18 2014 at 10:31 AM Rating: Good
35 posts
nekokirei wrote:
Eisfalke wrote:
Isn't this statement contradictory?

"The only change we are making is that we're now going to make you claim it monthly. You can still hoard it though..."


No. You'll have to log in once a month and claim the SC rather than it automatically banking. It is stilted in the way it's worded; I thought the same thing until I dug a little more on the official forum thread.

Edited, Jan 13th 2014 2:04pm by nekokirei

Uh, goodness my gracious. Why can't we access Station cash like we always could? Like logging in on the website to look at our cash holdings and add cash if we would like. Add the option to CLAIM 500 a month. How hard would that be???
How will this effect Lifetime members of Free Realms and..
# Jan 08 2014 at 1:26 PM Rating: Decent
Wondering how this will effect previously subscribed lifetime members of Free Realms ?? Will we still have all access? And when are these changes aprox. suppose to happen?
How will this effect Lifetime members of Free Realms and..
# Jan 10 2014 at 7:17 AM Rating: Excellent
Empress of News
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2,350 posts
Maddy9 wrote:
Wondering how this will effect previously subscribed lifetime members of Free Realms ?? Will we still have all access? And when are these changes aprox. suppose to happen?

I asked that same question of them on Twitter:

Quote:
Our understanding is special memberships will be honored, more details are coming & we’re still listening to the feedback. [Ash]

https://twitter.com/SonyOnline/status/420641348686213120
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thanks
# Jan 08 2014 at 4:59 AM Rating: Decent
21 posts
Thanks
different type of question ??
# Jan 08 2014 at 12:04 AM Rating: Decent
what do those of us with multi accounts and prepaid for year get? never have understood if this 500 sc a month thing happens or not when you pay a year?
different type of question ??
# Jan 08 2014 at 6:37 AM Rating: Good
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701 posts
bluedragonfire wrote:
what do those of us with multi accounts and prepaid for year get? never have understood if this 500 sc a month thing happens or not when you pay a year?


You get 500SC monthly for every month you are a gold subscriber. so if you subscribe for a year they give 500SC every month for each account that is gold.
____________________________
EQ acct
Rukkuss 71 Iksar SK 1.5 Epic
Mokkas 70 Halfling Druid 1.0 Epic
Turfidor 70 Barbarian Shaman 1.0 Epic
Simplid 71 chanter
Trembledon 72 ranger
Rumblesx 70 monk
Bertoxx server
thanks :)
# Jan 07 2014 at 3:48 PM Rating: Decent
Scholar
41 posts
Thanks for listening, guys...a much better proposal...
???
# Jan 07 2014 at 2:43 PM Rating: Default
Okay i get that your lowering your price on the All Access pass thing but um what does that got to do with what i pay now?? I pay 14.99 every month now is it suppose to lower my EQ2 from that price? Honestly we don't play anything but EQ2.
???
# Jan 07 2014 at 3:32 PM Rating: Decent
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701 posts
ravenclaw39 wrote:
Okay i get that your lowering your price on the All Access pass thing but um what does that got to do with what i pay now?? I pay 14.99 every month now is it suppose to lower my EQ2 from that price? Honestly we don't play anything but EQ2.


if your paying 14.99 a month already for EQ2 then you can 14.99 a month for all thier PC games.
maybe you didnt read it right? here is the quote. Note #2 listed

Quote:
1) We're lowering the price of All Access to $14.99
2) We're going to make it so every subscriber to all our PC games an all access member. Basically there will be one SOE membership for our PC games. Please note there are some minor restrictions around our kids titles (simply put - if you're a 12 year old who signed up for FR you won't have access to the adult games so we'll likely leave the lower priced kids offerings as separate subscriptions for under 12 for the same low prices).

____________________________
EQ acct
Rukkuss 71 Iksar SK 1.5 Epic
Mokkas 70 Halfling Druid 1.0 Epic
Turfidor 70 Barbarian Shaman 1.0 Epic
Simplid 71 chanter
Trembledon 72 ranger
Rumblesx 70 monk
Bertoxx server
???
# Jan 07 2014 at 7:32 PM Rating: Default
Great so now I have to pay for freakin games that i will never play nor want to play. Just give me back my 9.99 EQ2 its not that hard. and thanks Rukkuss for pointing that out i got ahead of myself and didn't get a chance to read all of it with my daughter wanting some daddy time. Nothing like trying to read this and play Skylanders.
???
# Jan 08 2014 at 3:09 AM Rating: Excellent
ravenclaw39 wrote:
Great so now I have to pay for freakin games that i will never play nor want to play.


You're not paying for anything you don't want to play. You're paying the sub for the game you play. As a bonus, they will let you play all the other games for free. Absolutely nothing changes for you.
Thanks for listening
# Jan 07 2014 at 1:27 PM Rating: Good
Scholar
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37 posts
I am one of these people who think, "Why complain. They'll do what they do." Thanks for proving me wrong. And thank all of you who stepped up to voice you're opinions for me. I am learning. Thanks for listening.
Wow, surprised but thanks.
# Jan 07 2014 at 9:07 AM Rating: Good
24 posts
Surprised at the rething but thanks.

I'm not entirely sure what the thinking behind the 'actively claim' the SC is other than to make people physically log in, thing is those people are paying a Subscription so does it really matter if the log in or not ?

Still a big improvement on the previous plan and appreciate the change of plan.



Edited, Jan 7th 2014 10:07am by Citraka
Wow, surprised but thanks.
# Jan 07 2014 at 9:27 AM Rating: Decent
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362 posts
~
The log in thing appears to do more with the esoteric field of corporate accounting, and also how state governments are steadily dipping their greedy hands into the cookie jar of virtual items with sales tax.

Which, when I got a better grasp on, makes sense as to why they need you to log in and at least claim those SC. I think the initial plan, once we cut through the BS of the PR dept spin-doctoring, was to dovetail the solution (ie 2k SC use or lose once a month so our ledgers are clean) while leveraging more store sales.

Anyway, this solution makes a shiatload more sense than the initial proposal.
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