Vet Costume Unlocks

How is keep subscribing not an answer? That's how I earned them, that's how anyone else who has access to them earned them. We didn't unlock them any other way or earn them on our own schedule, we earned them by subscribing as long as we have. There was nothing we could do to earn them until our subscription vet time had come.

It's a loyalty reward for sticking with the game for the amount of time that we have. Loyalty programs are out there everywhere in the business world as I pointed out. This is just a loyalty program for players of this game. You want the wings, gloves, etc, then show your loyalty and subscribe the amount of time required. You want a free flight, then fly a particular amount of miles required for a free flight, it's that simple.

It's not a matter of fair or unfair, it's a matter of loyalty and dedication. If the game did go doom and die soon would it suck that someone who just picked up the game doesn't get access to these things, sure, but is that any reason to hold it against those of us who've been here a long time and experienced the game through thick and thin, not just when it's shinning at it's brightest?

I'm not here trying to pick a fight. As I said if they did away with vet rewards whatever, it doesn't affect my game play experience that much. But to think just because something is in a game means you should have it doesn't sit right with me. That's console gaming thinking to me where you can find everything, get everything, and do everything to show that 100% complete status in the game. Online games such as this one don't have that option, they shouldn't have that option, and people wouldn't play them if they did. Heck I'd be willing to bet that outside of testing and development the devs don't have any toons that have experienced 100% of the game content or recieved everything there is to receive in game. That's the beauty of MMOs in my opinion, there's always something new to do, something new to gain.

I just feel that the Vet Reward progam is a good program and rewards those of us that are veterans of the game with a little something something as a way for the devs to say thank you for your loyalty over this time. It's a loyalty program, at least that's my take on it. Everyone has their opinion on it and that's fine with me. Either way, through thick or thin, I plan to be on this game until the day it actually does go Doom and Dies for good.

You know, I've read through this thread and like most people, I feel the need to toss in my two cents.

Vet rewards are fair.

As has been said, everyone earns them at the same schedule. I have to wait the exact same amount of time as everyone else to earn City Traveler. There is no way possible(As of this moment) for me to get the ability to choose a travel power(Fly, Super Speed, Super Jump, Teleport) sooner than anyone else. Or later even( unless you want to argue time that you canceled your subscription for..) We all earn this at the exact same pace.

Vet rewards are unfair.

I started playing CoH because I had a friend who played. Actually it was CoV, back before they were one in the same. So she'd started playing about... 9 months before me if I recall correctly. Once she'd earned Sands of Mu, I had the same "Hey, how is she using Flurry before level 6?" moments that have been brought up on this thread already, every time we played together until I finally asked.

I couldn't wait to get this power, and every time she got something new from the vet rewards, I could only sit there and wait. Over the two and a half years I've been playing, she'd unsubscribed her account a few times due to money issues. I did everything I could to keep my account active, so I could 'catch up' to her. Maybe someday even surpass her. I'm three months behind her now.

Why? Because it's not fair that just because she started playing before I did, that she gets access to cool things before me. Some of you say the vet rewards are mostly "fluff". To you, maybe.

Sure, it probably sucked at first when the game first came out and you couldn't even have a cape. I remember when I first started that I thought it was dumb you have to wait till you were level 20, and had to earn the cape. Now it's not a big deal to me if I wait a few levels before running the mission. But just because you went through those times doesn't mean you were suffering. I certainly don't see the time before VEATs were made available as suffering. Or the time before AE. I wanted to have both of those things, and I kept playing regardless of whether or not they'd come. But honestly, who's to say I wouldn't have gone through those early days just like the 63+ vets if I had either known about the game sooner, had money to pay for it(Not every kid gets an allowance), and had a computer that I could play it on.

I don't begrudge anyone who's played longer than me anything. But don't tell me I shouldn't envy you just a little. It may not seem like much to you because you have it already. Especially to those who have been playing since day one, because you at most, have to wait a few months before you get the new vet rewards that are announced. I have to wait years.


In summation.. if one day they decide to do away with the vet rewards system currently in place, as long as they don't make it impossible for me to achieve everything from that system, I'll be happy. If they make no change at all... I'm going wait, and be patient.

Thank you.

It seems people are gettin hung up on something...

This is about Veteran costumes...NOT POWERS...

The powers are a nice way for the Devs to say thank you and i totally agree that they should stay the way they are, which im sure ive said...many times...



Energyman, you are obviously blinded by your love of this game(Dont get me wrong i love this game as well but im being realistic) for you to not be able to see that eventually it will go c*** up and die, it for sure wont happen this year or next year and mayb not even the year after but it is inevitable that the game will shut down.

Member of the Stoned Templars

{|-|} Easy Kills {|-|} A&TC {|-|}

Oh I don't doubt it will go away, I can face that reality. But as you say it's at least 2 or 3 years away. The people complaining about not being able to get the vet costumes are the ones that aren't getting that and are thinking the game will go away very soon. If they would think that the game's got at least 2-3 years left in it they'd realize that if they stick around that long then they would get those costume powers they are saying is unfair they don't have.

As to the mention of powers I only bring it up as it seemed the call for the vet system being unfair was soley on the basis of the costumes, which if anything I would think the powers should factor into that more.

I think CoH will still be here in ten years. Everquest is still running.

I still think the Veteran's Rewards are a bad thing.

Having played this game since the start, I like the veteran's reward system. Seems like us vets should get some sort of reward for paying/playing longer than the other players.

To the OP, if you want to be able to have shorts, I would petition for the devs to introduce some more costume pieces, not overhauling/changing the veteran's reward system. I think it's much more likely they add some more shorts than changing the rewards system. Changing the vet system would probably upset some people, whereas adding more costume options would not.

Not a ragequit.

People would feel no incentive to stay when bored. It's less "I HAET YOO AND WANT YOU TO DIE" and less "Meh, I'm bored. Won't lose anything by quitting and will save money, so plug pulled."

Speaking personally, I'm one of those that only plays occasionally, for fits and spurts. If there were no vet rewards, I would probably cancel during those month-long forays away from the game, and not really think too much about it, maybe even never come back at all or just drop by every few months when an Issue drops.

Vet rewards provide an incentive that causes people to forgo that kind of behavior. It retains the cashflow of players who enjoy the game and the rewards enough to not quit at the drop of a hat, instead of letting them sever their ties and roam off to other pastures, perhaps never to return.

Because I wouldn't want to keep subscribing if I get nothing out of the deal.

Vet rewards - costumes, powers, perks, and all - help keep players who are having waning fun levels from cancelling. You may think I'd lose nothing, but I'd most certainly look long and hard at my recurring billing during periods of boredom if/when I suspect that they'll kill the system, or even start gutting it a bit at a time (what you want them to start doing, from your posts).

Separate styles of things that are mildly derivative but not nearly the same? Go ahead. The vet reward pieces need to remain vet rewards, though, because that's the incentive to stay instead of just doing the drop back in for a month when issues drop kind of thing.

So, basically, you don't get it and from your conveyed tone, are unwilling to get it. That's fine, but say so.

I'm going to try to put my feelings into text, but I'm probably using wrong words, but I don't have a thesaurus and dictionary handy and it's late enough in the evening for me that my vocabulary is not going to be subtle. Bear with me.

I would mostly lose trust, I suppose. Considering how they've stated that the stuff in the vet rewards would remain exclusive to them, and that they had no plans of pulling the plug on it anytime soon, I'd most certainly feel like I'd been bait-and-switched considering that a lot of my plans to cancel even back when I was primarily playing other MMOs were shrugged off by the vet system: "I'll be back someday, and I can afford it. Might as well hang on to it."

It sounds like exaggerated gravitas, I think, but that's not the feeling I'm trying to convey. (I told you my vocabulary was hostile to my ability to convey my feelings. *laugh*) It's more like "Okay, so they don't care about the vet program enough to keep what they have flat-out said (direct dev quotes have said that vet program rewards would only be attainable through that system) would be exclusive, exclusive. What else gets removed next, or are they just going to kill the entire thing and take it away? Either way, might as well kill the sub for now. I can always start up again when they bring something new, and I won't miss anything anyway." (I also don't believe that they'd do this as anything except a prelude to dismantling the entire system, to be honest. And no, I do not believe they would hand out all the powers and the like to everyone in the process.)

People stick around for different reasons. For me, the rewards, and the fact that those rewards -are- going to continue in that vein, is a lot of it. If I don't really need to worry about the rewards, I don't see the point in maintaining a constant subscription and in essence, (joke and a smile goes here) helping to subsidize the dev time and patches for those who play a lot more than I do. And the fact that I do do that indicates the system works - to decide to start taking out the pieces and handing them out to everyone would indicate, to me, that they were going to kill it.

(In the most entertaining of fashions, I actually should, from a strict monetary standpoint, be on your side. ;p I'm mostly pointing it out from the NCSoft business standpoint and from the perspective of someone who actually -does- keep subscribed for the vet rewards. Your problem is that from where I'm sitting, the system does precisely what it needs to - it keeps people subscribed when they're at a point where they'd probably start cancelling and dropping in for new content, which was apparently a more common problem Back In The Day - people would buy the game, play for a while and complete most things, then subscribe only for a month when issues dropped. It was a lot of churn, but less retention during dull periods, and this is from a game with a really high retention rate.)

(Also, I think I said everything three or four different ways. This amuses me in only the way a man who is coming up on midnight can be amused. Also, this was about six times longer than it needed to be. I "talk" too much.)