Forbin_Project

Originally Posted by Rathulfr

Thanks for moving this thread to the appropriate forum. I do appreciate the assistance.

Although I must say that I'm a bit disappointed that it's buried in a section called "For Fun!". To me that implies that my concerns won't be taken seriously, nor be given significant merit or consideration. This might seem like a minor or trivial concern to some people, but it really is quite important to me, and I suspect it might be of interest to many others. Because I have reached the end of the line as far as I could by going through the Support Incident route, it seemed to me that the logical next step would be to communicate my concerns here on the forums. I am a paying customer after all, so as a VIP Subscriber I enjoy full posting privileges on these forums and agree to follow the Forum Rules and Guidelines.

This situation has left a bad taste in my mouth. It seems to me that NCSoft cares more about squeezing a few more bucks out of me than it does about satisfying me as a customer. It's such a minor thing, but it has such a major effect -- don't they realize that they'd easily get a few more bucks out of me if they keep me happy (I did mention that I shelled out $100 for points 8000 points already, right)? Instead, the harsh reality of it feels like a cold slap in the face. Consequently, I'd rather not give them another dime. I think I've paid quite enough for now, thanks. It's not that I haven't enjoyed the products and services for which I've paid: I have indeed done just that. But now that I more completely understand the nature of our business relationship, now that I know where the boundaries are, I'll be sure to stay well within them, as clearly defined by NCSoft, thank you.

So I decided to cancel my second VIP subscription (I am keeping my first one active), and I choose not to purchase any more Paragon Points. I will simply continue to accrue those incidental points and transfer tokens that come with the single VIP subscription, and use those to transfer and/or acquire the slots I want on Liberty. If that's how NCSoft wants me to play the game, then that is indeed how I shall play it.

In the meantime, it seems I now have extra gaming money to spend elsewhere. I wonder if SW:TOR is any fun?

Originally Posted by Rathulfr

Actually, I disagree with you: there is a point to all of this. The nut of the issue is that they're charging you twice for the same slot, the only difference being the server on which it is located. There's an initial cost/price for creating a character slot on a server in the first place. But then the question is there really any additional cost involved in moving that empty slot to a different server, versus creating an additional empty slot on a different server.

There's no "new service" involved in my request to MOVE one (1) single empty slot from server A to server B. There's no net gain in it for me, and no net loss in it for them. They deduct one empty character slot from server A, and add one empty character slot to server B: that's NOT the same net cost/price as creating a new, second slot on a different server. And that's not the same net cost/price as copying a created/equipped character from one server to another, either (that entails moving a significant quantity of actual data).

As a paying customer for years prior to CoHF, I paid for/earned a total of 17 character slots on Virtue on this particular account. We loyal subscribers were told that we would not lose anything we'd bought or earned when Freedom went live. And officially, technically, we haven't -- NCSoft has been true to the letter of that law.

But here's where that's become less than an ideal bargain, in this particular case. Yes, I still have 17 character slots on Virtue, as a VIP. But 12 of those come with my VIP status -- only 5 of them were bought/earned with veteran rewards or points. So when that account reverts to Premium, only 5 will remain available for me to play, and ONLY ON VIRTUE.

But I don't play on Virtue any more. I've made new friends and joined a new SG on Liberty. So I've got 5 useless slots on Virtue: I bought/earned them long ago, but now they have no value to me. I'm merely trying to salvage some value out of these slots: they do me no good on Virtue, but they'd be well used on Liberty.

Because I had nothing on Liberty prior to CoHF, I had no unlockable slots without VIP status. Consequently, I had to burn both of my 2 Globals and spent my last 400 points on 2 more slots (there's a sale), just to get a total of 16. Subtract 12 when my VIP runs out, and I'll be left with only 4 slots on Liberty. So on this account, I will never be able to play any more than 4 characters there *unless* I either:

(a) spend money to buy more slots on Liberty; or,
(b) spend money to transfer characters from Virtue to Liberty.

Is that technically correct, right, legal? Yes, absolutely, no argument there.
Is that ethically or morally right or acceptable? I don't think so -- that's my argument.

That's what's stuck in my craw about this whole thing. That's what's bothering me. For years I stuck by NCSoft/Cryptic/Paragon Studios. Yes, I've done my share of stone-throwing, but generally, I've been more supportive and positive than negative. I've always appreciated how NCSoft/Paragon seemed more sensitive and responsive to the players, unlike so many other MMO companies that we could all name with loud cursing and gnashing of teeth.

But here is one example of where it seems like NCSoft is acting *precisely* like those other MMO companies we all loathe so intensely, those whose primary concern is for milking as many microtransactions out of their players as possible, with little regard for their feelings or relationships or enjoyment.

Is it really too much to ask that players be allowed to move empty character slots to different servers? I mean, it's tedious enough as it is to have to have strip and delete characters to make alts anyways: isn't that sufficient enough a cost for the privilege of moving the slot to a different server?