Biowraith

On the plus side it'll make that one First Ward mission a little less annoying.

Except the obnoxious part is more for the paying customers that want to use Help for its proper purpose and the subsection who dislike blind invites - for the free to players it'll still be an improvement over barrens chat

Unintended, but not even remotely unforseen. The other obvious side effect is there'll be a huge increase in blind inviting.

As far as I can see, EXALTED-UNITED (why full caps? why?!) remains the highest pop channel.

Don't think it really matters which channels end up in use though (besides possibly bruising a few egos), just so long as it's only 2-3 of them rather than 15-20 of them.

You should stop now if you know what's good for you. Lot of accidents can happen in a thread like this. I'd hate to think of something like that happening to you. In fact looking around, this whole thread is a flametrap; one careless match and the whole place could go up, just like that. It'd be a terrible shame if that were to happen to such a nice, respectable thread. Capiche?

This. Whether or not Nyx' information is correct about the pricing in this particular example, the wider issue is that VIPs are blocked from purchasing things that they may want access to when they go premium. Things that may be on sale while they're VIP, but go off sale by the time they drop to Premium and actually want/need them.

VIP's should be able to buy stuff that they'd lose access to as a Premium player. There should be a warning that they have access to it while they maintain their subscription, and a warning that they can unlock it via the rewards program, but the only time it should actually prevent a purchase is if they have already unlocked it for use under the Premium tier (either through prior purchase or via the rewards program).

That's how I picked the channels I'm on - I just typed "Exalted" into the channel search, sorted by 'Members' and picked the top 3 (or possibly 4, I forget) channels. I was unaware of the existence of VIP (or the apparently more populated Global VIP Network).

I do agree that there's too many global channels all trying to fulfil the same functions, though I suspect convincing people that their channel is the redundant one that needs to close down will be problematic. Hell, when globals were getting clogged with inactive accounts and so preventing new players joining, there were a lot of people who'd refuse to abandon "<servername> Badges" to move to "<servername Badges> 20xx" each time it got full - it was essentially the same channel, but they got really attached to "their" channel.

Well, it's a nice sentiment and all, and in theory it might even be the best course of action, but see the part of my post you didn't quote - that achieving that sort of control and coordination on an internet forum just isn't going to happen. When people disagree they're going to speak up, especially if whatever they're disagreeing with appears to be based on (what they perceive to be) a faulty logic.

Which brings us back to the general pointlessness of the whole thread, on both sides (including your own post edit: and of course, mine). But hey, it's an internet forum, 90% of the threads are going to be pointless (save the point General_CoH made about blowing off steam, which I'd expand to the desire to have opinions heard).

So if everyone disagrees with them on this subject, they're likely to stick to their guns. Ok.

Course, if nobody disagrees with them on this subject, there's nothing prompting them to reconsider their position either.

So I guess the solution is a carefully controlled number of people disagree with them, with a similarly controlled number of people agreeing with them? Except we're on an internet forum populated by separate unaffiliated individuals, so that level of control is not going to happen - you've as much chance of herding cats.

So this thread is pretty much pointless whatever we do? I doubt anyone has figured that one out yet...

Not that I expect it to change anyone's overall stance on the subject, but he actually has two attacks - his Tenebrous Tentacles does damage equivalent to e.g. Buckshot.

Ugh, no we don't, we really, really don't.

They are keeping to the terms and conditions agreed to and made clear when GR was purchased - you need an active and subscribed account.

They've simply added another option (Premium) with different terms and conditions.

So long as you continue to honour the terms and conditions that were in place when you bought GR (an active and subscribed account) you keep access to everything you bought - just as was agreed when you made the purchase.

If you choose to move to the alternative model you do so knowing it operates under different terms and conditions - and nobody forces you to make that switch (and you can switch right back if you dislike the new option).

(I'm loathe to use crappy analogies, but if you want a chair analogy it's more like previously you rented a chair which came with various extras. You could also pay a one-off fee to add recliner action (GR) to your rented chair. Now you're being told you can continue renting that chair - and keep any extras you added to it - as you've always done.. or you can stop renting and lose access (as has always been the case) but now if you stop renting instead of leaving you chairless they'll provide you with a basic model, without the extras, free of charge (Premium), and you can start renting your tricked out chair again any time you want (as has always been the case) - are you really saying you'd be annoyed at the shop that the *free* courtesy chair didn't include the things you'd added to your rented chair? Really?)

It's nothing like that. I'm not even sure what else to say; that analogy suggests such a fundamentally flawed understanding of what's happening here.

Premium players haven't lost anything that they paid for, they just maybe haven't gained as much as they'd hoped/expected to. They can still access the same deal that was available to them when they made their purchases.

You kinda had to subscribe to access any of its features.

I can't answer when you can switch to Premium, but if you cancel your subscription now you'd continue to be a VIP until your subscribed time ran out, at least.