Loyalty Scheme and beta for GR

The announcement about the loyalty scheme and GR beta access was made whilst the boards were down.

Now I may be getting all confused with the new boards (hey - I'm a Euro... we had slightly different organisation) but I couldn't spot any threads about this, so here goes:

What do people make of the announced scheme?

For those that haven't read the announcement yet, it's basically:
Keep your account in paid up subs between August 15, 2009 and November 15, 2009 and get an (exclusive?) in-game badge for your characters and early(ish) access to the GR beta.

The timing of this looks suspiciously like an attempt (and a good one imo) to minimise loss to a certain other hero MMO game that may be launching soon.

Heck - we know that people wil go and try CO - but let's at least persuade them to keep their account active whilst they do. And when they return to us we'll try not to mention their brief affair with another game...

I'm fine on that. But I wonder about the ingame badge. Partly because I wonder how many badgers will feel that extra pressure to keep up payments even if they had been planning on a short break for whatever reason. I also wonder if that sets a precedent for future badges for cash...

NC have also announced a repeat of the subs bonus time scheme they ran just before Christmas (iirc). Effectively buy 6 months and get a 7th free.

A great offer if you were already planning on subbing for 6+ months.

As a final note:
The first wave of GR beta will be for "City of Heroes Veterans with 60+ months of paid time".

Is that actually people with 60+ months of paid time or people with 60+ veterans reward??

The former would mean that time bought counts from when it is purchased - so I buy 12 months now and that 12 months counts from now. The latter that it needs to be purchased and expired, so I but 12 months now but it doesn't count until it's passed.

And does the announcement mean it when it says 'paid' time? Does the 'free' months with game boxes/packs count (as it does for Vets rewards) or not (as it isn't actually paid for).

Pretty sure that any way of counting won't see me in the first wave of beta (unless you can buy 2 years in advance) - but I was wondering what measure was to be used.

If it's 60+ months vets badge that counts then it looks likely that only people playing from before the EU launch will stand a hope of getting in.


Bit of a long post, but: any thoughts?

Not sure about the beta access procedure, but going by the dates for the loyalty program it seems unlikely that Going Rogue will launch this year if closed beta access for some players isn't granted until after half of November has passed.

Well, I'll have 60 months by the time the promotional period is over, so I'm in for the beta. It's all good by me!

Here I thought the most interesting part of that announcement was the suggestion (however faint) that GR Beta could happen as early as mid-November... or maybe December/January.

I know it doesn't say that... but to me the suggestion is pretty strong that we're going to see a GR beta sooner rather than later. Say, Q1 2010 at the latest, rather than much later in 2010 or even 2011 as a few have suggested.

Basically, I'm probably dreaming that GR could be out by Christmas 2009... but they've left open that possibility for me to dream about. And I'm sure they're well aware of it.

A. Yes the scheme is intended to keep people subscribed who might otherwise quit for at least a month or three to check out some other unmentioned game. That's obvious, and it's a decent counter if you ask me. Not that I had any intention of dropping my subscription anyway.

B. Good offer but I don't think I took them up on it last time around.

C. I read that as anyone with the 60 month vet badge. 60 months of paid time = 60 month vet badge. But I could be wrong I suppose.

60 months paid time huh? Well that exclused about 90% of the Eu players. But that doesn't really surprise me either!

Not overly impressed.

The EU got offered 'buy 6 months get one month free'

The US players get 'buy 6 months, get one moth free, OR buy 12 months get 2 months free'.

Differential treatment why, exactly?

So far as the GR Beta goes, until February the 4th next year, nobody who started playing when the EU launched will qualify for beta. So it's effectively US players only, but doesn't mention that.

There are a few people on the EU servers who'll qualify, (Master_Zaprobo, for one) by dint of using the transfer that was offered way back, but the majority of the 'Loyal' EU players who've subbed since EU launch seem to be getting shut out.

PS, the .sig's there for a reason...

Well they still could mean "you have the 48th month badge and you've already paid for the next 12 months" too.

Anyway they're talking about the first wave of Beta invites, you're not exactly shut out if you don't get in on the very first wave.

Early beta's not a big deal to me either anyway. Which is good because I'm only at 48 months...

If CO manages to woo me, I'll be on CO. I may remain on both MMOs for a month while I wean myself off Paragon.

If CO doesn't woo me, I'll stay on CoX.

This is a nice bonus, and assuming I stay behind, I'll be in the GR beta. So in conclusion, either way, I win.


All that said, this is a patently transparent attempt to patch up the hull of a ship leaking subscribers, if indeed it's leaking at all. It's still in the air whether or not the Other Place will be all that. They still have a month of beta.

60+ months of paid time means exactly that, I think. If you've *paid* for five years of City of Heroes, you get to pop in on the first wave.

I have almost 36 months of time on City of Heroes, and I've paid up for 42. If I bought another 18 months, that's one six month prepaid time non-recurring subscription through paypal, and another 12 month prepaid time non-recurring subscription through paypal, I'd have 62 months paid time (thanks to the additional months free) and would qualify for wave 1 closed beta access.

That's how I read it anyway.

I'll be game for this. No 60 month vet here, but I was definately planning to keep my subscription running this whole time, so no biggie.
I may even go to the plaync store and buy a few months in advance, just to make sure.

If CO was a better game, maybe they would have something to worry about.

*shrug* Speaking strictly for myself, I'd qualify for the Going Rogue closed beta on at least two tiers, so that's no value to me as a loyalty bonus. I have so many badges now, that another badge isn't any great novelty either, unless it's got a really cool or unusual name.

"Vigilant" doesn't do anything for me. I don't hate it or anything, it just doesn't tickle my taste buds.

Since this is an obvious ploy to bribe people into keeping their CoH accounts paid up when Champions launches, I need a better bribe. A costume piece. An inherent power. A special IO. Something tangible.

This just smacks of marketing having a meeting over donuts and coffee and kicking around the question "What can we do to try and hold onto subscriptions when CO launches that won't actually cost us any time or money?"

Frankly, I'd question the whole idea of a loyalty bonus. It implies that the marketing people don't have faith in their product and feel that bribing players is the best way to hold onto them. If they're going to bribe me, then the bribe ought to be a pretty good one and not just a throwaway like a new badge.