Discussion: Get Bonus Game Time!
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Posted on: 2010-11-22 13:42 in News, Events and Announcement Discussion
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I would love it if it went to the Guild Wars model.|
Originally Posted by MoonlyteShadow
game wont go f2p
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We would actually pay for content then and thus encourage development of more better content rather than "stretching out small bits" to keep people subscribing as much as possible.
It's also hard to pay a recurring concrete subscription knowing my ability to pay fluctuates and I ever get the same amount of use out of every month.
It would be better to just pay for what I can when I can and still love the game and enjoy what I already paid for rather than not being able to play at all until I pay again.
I actually hope DCUO and CO(under their new pricing model) bring some competition to force a change to City of Heroes for the better.
The Guild Wars model, which Guild Wars 2 is set to share, is just better for everyone, the company and the customers both.
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I'm guessing, because of all the other stipulations with financial stuff between the US and Europe that seem to get in the way, Europe has some laws against defrauding customers that come into play here because NCSoft can't guarantee service for longer than 6 months.|
Originally Posted by Scarlet Shocker
Cute
Too much to hope that somebody would actually try and explain this inequality to us I guess.  |
European laws probably don't let customers pay up front that far because they recognize that it is far too easy to take advantage of customers that way.
I'm guessing NCSoft also doesn't want to put the money and time and effort into working within European laws to make it happen either.
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Shipping costs are too high to get those free months across the ocean to you!
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Originally Posted by Scarlet Shocker
Cute
Too much to hope that somebody would actually try and explain this inequality to us I guess. |
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No such restriction. We can purchase longer term subscriptions in many product fields. The WTO would deem any such EU ruling as unfairly competitive.|
Originally Posted by T_Immortalus
I'm guessing, because of all the other stipulations with financial stuff between the US and Europe that seem to get in the way, Europe has some laws against defrauding customers that come into play here because NCSoft can't guarantee service for longer than 6 months.
European laws probably don't let customers pay up front that far because they recognize that it is far too easy to take advantage of customers that way. I'm guessing NCSoft also doesn't want to put the money and time and effort into working within European laws to make it happen either. |
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Originally Posted by Emberly
Shipping costs are too high to get those free months across the ocean to you!
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Thelonious Monk
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Well then, what do you think is the reason?|
Originally Posted by Scarlet Shocker
No such restriction. We can purchase longer term subscriptions in many product fields.
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I've seen so many "contest open only to residents of the Us and Canada" and "offer not valid in Europe" or whatever that seems to point to legal issues.
Maybe it's something with tax laws.
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Learn to read the thread before posting. People have already said if you're prepaid you can cancel your subscription but still have access through your prepaid time. Then after the 29th resub to get the free months.|
Originally Posted by T_Immortalus
This deal sucks and I'll explain my reasoning:
1) Anybody who gets the deal now, at least the one year with 2 free months deal, will be screwed out of the deal at this time next year. Because.... A) Next year they will be on the 2 free months when the deal comes around again which means they can't cancel to get the new deal because it will remove at least one of those free months if not all remaining time past the 12 months. B) They'll still have the same question next year of "how do I get this deal since my account expires after the deal ends?" and "can I get this without canceling my sub?" and apparently no company representative will bother posting to clarify these points, maybe because they like confused customers because they spend more when they don't need to. 2) You can't cancel your subscription before it is up or you lose the free months. I'm betting this means they will bill you for the next 12 month cycle when the twelve months are up then give you the 2 free months with no way to change to another plan. You're essentially locking yourself in for 2 years and 2 months in order to get 2 free months. Maybe it's just that the wording of this deal is completely screwy, but I don't like it. If you're going to do this deal give people the free month(s) up front and they'll still be locked in until the 7 or 14 month period is up and they can change the subscription at any time if their financial situation changes. I can't afford such a long plan myself because I have to watch my finances month to month to be sure I'll have enough for necessities, let alone a game. It just makes more sense to make these deals better for the customer to keep them coming back rather than to line your pockets while cheating the confused customer out of a deal. |
IE, my prepaid year ends in March. I canceled my subscription but my account is still active until March, I've already paid for it. After the 29th I will go in, re-subscribe with the new deal and in March my account will renew like normal except I'll get the extra months along with my year.
Canceling your subscription doesn't cancel your already paid for time. It just cancels your renewal. Which you can add again at any time. So long as you re-add it before your account runs out of time you won't lapse.
The difference is if you pay with paypal it will take out the money for the year right away. But it'll just add the months to your existing paid time. Credit cards won't be charged until the subscription runs out of time.
Edit: Also realize this is a holiday week for the US. Its highly likely that staff may be quite short right now for Paragon Studios for people who took the whole week rather then just Thursday and Friday. So we may not get an official response until next week. The deal doesn't even start until Monday, but I did this myself last time they offered this deal and was able to get the free time as others have said.
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I was talking about the fact that canceling, if you have the previous deal for a year and 2 free months(under the rules above), would screw people out of those 2 free months if they wanted to take advantage of the same deal this year.|
Originally Posted by ransim
Learn to read the thread before posting. People have already said if you're prepaid you can cancel your subscription but still have access through your prepaid time. Then after the 29th resub to get the free months.
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Canceling before you have used all the time from the deal, both this year and likely last year with the same rules, means you lose the free months of the deal.
Therefore, people who got the deal before can't cancel in order to take advantage of the deal again, which is stupid.
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You seem to be working on a slightly faulty assumption, as we don't currently pay for content.. other than the boosters and the expansions. Our monthly subscription fee affords us access to the servers, only. This has been reiterated by Red-Names time and time again. Technically they could release zero free content and still be within the bounds of their contract, by allowing us access to the servers.|
Originally Posted by T_Immortalus
We would actually pay for content then and thus encourage development of more better content rather than "stretching out small bits" to keep people subscribing as much as possible.
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Please let me point out that I don't think it would be wise, it would be a terrible business decision to do so. Ceasing all free content would cause a lot of players to quit immediately, so I don't think it's something Paragon Studios or NC Soft would pursue. However, all current free content is just that: free. Your monthly fee doesn't pay for it.
As someone in another thread pointed out, you can cancel your subscription for a year, come back, and all the free content that had been released within that year would be available to you. Thus proving that you don't pay for free content with your subscription.
Personally I'm very happy with the current model, and would be distressed to see City become purely a micro-transaction environment. I know it works as a business model, but I like knowing roughly what I'm going to spend per year (just under $145 for subscriptions, and probably $20-30 on boosters/other perks) as opposed to having no idea what my annual expenditures will be. Especially because in my case, I would buy all of it, as I do with all of City's paid content, because I'm a collector and a completist.
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O_o|
Originally Posted by T_Immortalus
I was talking about the fact that canceling, if you have the previous deal for a year and 2 free months(under the rules above), would screw people out of those 2 free months if they wanted to take advantage of the same deal this year.
Canceling before you have used all the time from the deal, both this year and likely last year with the same rules, means you lose the free months of the deal. Therefore, people who got the deal before can't cancel in order to take advantage of the deal again, which is stupid. |
What you are saying makes absolutely no sense.
I got this deal last year. My sub was extended. I canceled my re-subscription and my account is still valid until March. So explain to me how I lost the free months I gained last time?
Last year I resubbed my account for a full year in January. I then go February and March for free.
I canceled my re-subscription so that on Monday I can take advantage of the deal again, and my account says it is valid until March 2011. So I did not lose the two free months I got last time.
Let me reiterate this. You do not lose any time by canceling a re-subscription on an active account. That time has been PAID FOR already. You own it, its yours, they aren't going to take time away because you decided not to re-up your subscription when it ends which is what canceling means.
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Originally Posted by ransim
Let me reiterate this. You do not lose any time by canceling a re-subscription on an active account. That time has been PAID FOR already. You own it, its yours, they aren't going to take time away because you decided not to re-up your subscription when it ends which is what canceling means. |
Is this not in direct contradiction to
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| If you cancel the subscription prior to the end of the payment period you signed up for, you forfeit the free month or months. You cannot stack multiple promotions. |
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I'm pretty sure you're on the right track here. Contests made available to Canada almost always are "prohibited in Quebec." Quebec has a unique civic legal system, based on Frances Napoleonic code. I suspect it's rather easier to simply exclude Quebec than attempt to make a contest comply with regional laws covering an area of only about seven million people.|
Originally Posted by T_Immortalus
Well then, what do you think is the reason?
I've seen so many "contest open only to residents of the Us and Canada" and "offer not valid in Europe" or whatever that seems to point to legal issues. Maybe it's something with tax laws. |
Likely something similar is happening with the 12+2 promotional offer not being extended to European players. Of course, this is pure speculation. Whatever the reason, it rather sucks for the Euro players.
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Okay, in the past (which admittedly might not be the case here) the deal worked like this:|
Originally Posted by _gohan661_
Is this not in direct contradiction to
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Example #1:
Say my annual subscription date was Feb 12th, and the deal was on during December. I could, in the past, cancel my subscription now, but still play until Feb 12th. If I took the 12 + 2 deal, then when my time expired on Feb 12th my next subscription renewal would be April 2012. If I cancelled during January to change my payment plan, then I'd forfeit the extra two months.
Example #2:
Let's say the last two of these 12+2 deals and a couple of retail editions that I found cheap bumped my subscription date to December 20th, but I still had a 12 + 2 deal waiting for that date. If I cancelled to try to take advantage of this current deal, I would only have a single year + 2 months, not two years and 4 months. I would not have 2 consecutive 12 + 2 deals.
Now this is how it has worked in the past. We could be dealing with something different, but that is something for the Community Reps or Marketing to clear up.
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There have been some questions regarding this promotion that I'd like to take the time to address.
Q1) If I have time remaining on my subscription, how can I take advantage of this offer?
A1) Starting at 9:00AM EST, on November 29th, 2010 through 11:59PM EST, December 13th, 2010, log into your NCsoft account management page. There will be a clickable banner ad promoting this opportunity. If you click on it, it will take you to a page where you can change your payment plan without cancelling your account.
Q2) When will I be charged for the new plan?
A2) This is a payment plan. You only pay when the billing cycle comes to renew again. So there is no payment required to select the promo payment plan.
Q3) If I’m set to auto renew in between the dates of the promotion, will I get the benefit?
A3) No. However, during the time of the promotion, you can reselect your billing plan and get the bonus time.
Q4) What are the steps we should take if we want to take advantage of this deal?
A4) See Question 1. There is no URL beforehand that you can go to.
Q5) If I got the bonus gametime during the last promotion, am I eligible for this new promotion?
A5) Yes, you are.
Q6) Do I need to cancel my plan in order to take part in this promotion?
A6) While the bonus gametime promotion is active, you do not need to cancel your subscription plan in order to take part in the offer. Clicking on the banner ad in your account management page will allow you to select a new plan without cancelling your subscription plan.
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Thank you so much for the clarification. Especially on this point.
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Originally Posted by Black Pebble
There have been some questions regarding this promotion that I'd like to take the time to address.
Q1) If I have time remaining on my subscription, how can I take advantage of this offer? A1) Starting at 9:00AM EST, on November 29th, 2010 through 11:59PM EST, December 13th, 2010, log into your NCsoft account management page. There will be a clickable banner ad promoting this opportunity. If you click on it, it will take you to a page where you can change your payment plan without cancelling your account. |
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So, as someone who began an annual subscription in September, I can change to this? Or does that mean I'd be buying another year in addition to the year I already paid for? I'm not 100% clear on this |
Originally Posted by Black Pebble
There have been some questions regarding this promotion that I'd like to take the time to address.
Q1) If I have time remaining on my subscription, how can I take advantage of this offer? A1) Starting at 9:00AM EST, on November 29th, 2010 through 11:59PM EST, December 13th, 2010, log into your NCsoft account management page. There will be a clickable banner ad promoting this opportunity. If you click on it, it will take you to a page where you can change your payment plan without cancelling your account. |
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Thank you for the clarification!|
Originally Posted by Black Pebble
There have been some questions regarding this promotion that I'd like to take the time to address.
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Originally Posted by Psyte
So, as someone who began an annual subscription in September, I can change to this?
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Originally Posted by Black Pebble
Q1) If I have time remaining on my subscription, how can I take advantage of this offer?
A1) Starting at 9:00AM EST, on November 29th, 2010 through 11:59PM EST, December 13th, 2010, log into your NCsoft account management page. There will be a clickable banner ad promoting this opportunity. If you click on it, it will take you to a page where you can change your payment plan without cancelling your account. |
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Originally Posted by Psyte
Or does that mean I'd be buying another year in addition to the year I already paid for?
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Originally Posted by Black Pebble
Q2) When will I be charged for the new plan?
A2) This is a payment plan. You only pay when the billing cycle comes to renew again. So there is no payment required to select the promo payment plan. |
Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters
Could I do a one time payment now adding game time to my account and still take advantage of this offer, rather than waiting until my current subscription ends?
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BP,
Thanks for the clarifications.
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Originally Posted by Black Pebble
There have been some questions regarding this promotion that I'd like to take the time to address.
Q1) If I have time remaining on my subscription, how can I take advantage of this offer? A1) Starting at 9:00AM EST, on November 29th, 2010 through 11:59PM EST, December 13th, 2010, log into your NCsoft account management page. There will be a clickable banner ad promoting this opportunity. If you click on it, it will take you to a page where you can change your payment plan without cancelling your account. Q2) When will I be charged for the new plan? A2) This is a payment plan. You only pay when the billing cycle comes to renew again. So there is no payment required to select the promo payment plan. Q3) If Im set to auto renew in between the dates of the promotion, will I get the benefit? A3) No. However, during the time of the promotion, you can reselect your billing plan and get the bonus time. Q4) What are the steps we should take if we want to take advantage of this deal? A4) See Question 1. There is no URL beforehand that you can go to. Q5) If I got the bonus gametime during the last promotion, am I eligible for this new promotion? A5) Yes, you are. Q6) Do I need to cancel my plan in order to take part in this promotion? A6) While the bonus gametime promotion is active, you do not need to cancel your subscription plan in order to take part in the offer. Clicking on the banner ad in your account management page will allow you to select a new plan without cancelling your subscription plan. |
Thanks for the clarification
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AFAIK It's usual to see this type of thing with competitions partly as there's a fair bit of variation geographicically regarding what counts as a skill-based competition vs luck-based lottery/gambling (with associated tax-implications and age-restrictions). |
Originally Posted by T_Immortalus
I've seen so many "contest open only to residents of the Us and Canada" and "offer not valid in Europe" or whatever that seems to point to legal issues.
Maybe it's something with tax laws. |
And this can be made more harder if physical prizes/goods are involved (e.g. delivery costs and differering power/safety/interference requirements).
It's complicated enough that it's far easier for a company to just state that entrants from outside it's home territory aren't eligible.
But here:
- there's no physical items/goods.
- there's no contest/competition/lottery.
- IIRC there was a 12-month offer last year and, AFAIK, we can still buy 12 month subs without the bonus time.
- the offer is only for players/accounts on the NA servers, not the EU servers. A player physically located in the EU playing with 2 accounts on both sets of servers can take advantage of the offer on one account but not the other. AFAIK, if it was EU legislation restricting the sale this would not be the case.
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If your current subscription is going to end before Nov 29, you can pay for one month now to keep your account active, and then pay for the 1 year + 2 months next week once the promotion starts.
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Originally Posted by IAmTheRad
Could I do a one time payment now adding game time to my account and still take advantage of this offer, rather than waiting until my current subscription ends?
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Originally Posted by Nethergoat
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Originally Posted by Rajani Isa
yes and no - you will need to cancel billing then resub after the 29th for the deal you want.
For the others - you'd cancel and resub. There is no reason to believe it would work differently. For peoe who would rather pay NOW and not when your billing is up, you can cancel, resub, and choose a one-time paypal payment as your method - it will snag that money asap. |
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Originally Posted by Snow Globe
Actually the previous deal like this did not require you to "cancel and resub" if I remember correctly.
Edit: I could be wrong though. If it was like previous promotions of this type, if you had a lot of game time you cancelled your current type of subscription, selected the new offer, then you'd pay when your current amount of time expired. |
And considering this statement in the original announcement...
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Originally Posted by theOcho
If you cancel the subscription prior to the end of the payment period you signed up for, you forfeit the free month or months.
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My account expires in February. I prefer adding time to my account rather than making it reoccurring.
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Originally Posted by Chad Gulzow-Man
If your current subscription is going to end before Nov 29, you can pay for one month now to keep your account active, and then pay for the 1 year + 2 months next week once the promotion starts.
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Too much to hope that somebody would actually try and explain this inequality to us I guess.
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