VIP Subscription Cost vs. Current Subscription Cost

You, justifiably, get an awful lot of mileage out of that image...

And even if it costs the same, will I be charged more or not. And even if I'm charged the same amount, will I have to pay the same amount. And even if I pay the same amount, will that cost me the same amount. And even if it costs the same... wait...

I am killing you with my mind.

Can we pawn them to surgeons or use them as skeet?

Already got you covered here.

I think the more pertinent question here, though, is how much that subscription will pay for as compared to what it pays for now. Because right now, my subscription pays for EVERYTHING, short of the occasional Booster, which is at most $10 every three months or so.

To put it another way, I know that my subscription for VIP status will remain the same as my subscription to the game now, but can you honestly give me a guarantee that my VIP status will not get a smaller cut of new content than my subscriber status does now? Can you go out and say that we won't be asked to pay more to get "everything" when Freedom goes Live than we are to get everything now?

*note* I exclude consumable repeatable services like character renames, server slot purchases, server transfers and such.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

As a percentage of product, I believe our subscription will be buying us less than it used to. As an absolute amount of product, I believe our subscription will be buying us more.

We will be getting more for our subscription money, but there will be more stuff we can choose to spend yet still more money on.

I discuss the same concept here, with visuals.

The city of franchise lost me when they put out that awful sideways turn into grindland known as "i20: the new incarnate fun time (grind it or else)"

Back at ya.

I'd like to see a red name say this, however. As players, we're really just guessing and fearing and hoping.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

As a player, I request that you not speak for me. The information provided to date has been sufficient for anyone not looking for something to "fear".

Well they have already stated the second part of my hoping. They have said, many times, that subscribers will be getting more for their subscription price. Whether or not you choose to believe them, is up to you.

I somehow doubt they will say the first part directly, as if they say anything like that it could be taken out of context and misused. So we will have to infer from their enthusiasm over the possibility of being able to offer us more options, more customization, and more freedom to choose our CoH experience, that they may be adding more optional booster pack AND expansion type content than we have ever seen before. I admit, it is possible they will include more of that as part of the VIP package than I believe, but I think even VIPs will have to buy some of it outside of their sub fee and I expect that they will be making enough stuff, that if we want it ALL, we will pay more than we did in the past.

I realize that cognitive dissonance allows a human brain to pretty much justify anything to themselves, but I seriously do not understand the part of a human brain that makes it think hanging around and posting on an MMO message board for a game that it no longer enjoys.

Hi Samuel, you might want to check out Ghost Falcon's post in this very forum. He lays out that the 400 PP's = US$5.00 and gives some sample prices from the store.

Interestingly he points out that VIP's get the 400 points, 1 free server transfer, and free access to the signature mission arc a US$5.00 value.

So from what they have stated we will be getting 1 story arc a month released along with regular booster pack level stuff along with regular issue releases.

So for my money I think we will be seeing at least as much content as we get now and probably more content released than we have seen in the past. But that is just my take on it.

I assume you're talking about this post? If so, then this would qualify. I need to get out of my habit of not checking the Dev Digest every day, as a lot seems to be happening there lately. That's all good stuff.

From what I've seen Ghost Falcon discuss, it seems like most of the extras may well be just cosmetic or otherwise consumable services, which is good. He did mention story arcs, but also did mention that those are part of the VIP package, which is even better.

I'd still like to see a list of the expected cumulative price of "one time only" purchases in a month and an estimated price for them, as compared to what VIPs will end up having to pay to get everything. Obviously, they can't tell us what's actually going to be in the Store come Freedom, but I'd like to see a general appraisal of what it might cost.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

They've said roughly this in many of their posts.

Yes, it's a goal, and not a guarantee. It is likely that they have "frontloaded" enough content that this goal will be met for at least the first few months after release. After that, it will likely depend on their success at generating new revenue. If they do, then they can continue to be generous to what VIP's get for free. If they don't, then we'd probably see things increasingly move to the market to help them remain in the black.

I will be invoicing you for a new keyboard once I clean up the mess and the
"soda pop through the nose" issues subside...

I'd take an equivalent number of Paragon Points as suitable compensation....


Cheers,
4


PS> Or to quote Larry the Cable Guy, "That's funny sh*t - I don't care
who you are"...

It doesn't work. And even if it did, this is a super-hero universe, so she'd simply come back again and again and again...

Someone suggested that emotes/smilies cost 80pp each. Just sayin' - you could retire off of Golden Girl.

She's impervious to that, despite being Natural origin.
That also explains why she can fly and is bullet-proof and super-strong . . . um . . .

Angry people wildly flailing about looking for any target amuse me. I am sorry you do not like the trials. Maybe some of the Signature story arcs will be more to your liking. I hope you find fun again soon.

Actually, cognitive dissonance theory explains this behavior perfectly. People want their attitudes and their behaviors to be consistent with one another, in order to avoid cognitive dissonance. If an attitude is, "I hate this game," then behaviors that demonstrate hatred of the game, creating attitude-behavior consistency, are the most direct way to avoid any dissonance occurring.

I, on the other hand, am pleased with the direction the game has taken (in general) and therefore tend to engage in positive behaviors toward it. Dissonance avoided!

Understanding cognitive dissonance also allows wonderful manipulation of other human beings during situations like jury duty, but that's a topic for another day.

The lack of a real alternative doesn't help, considering this game doesn't exactly have able competition. Many times you'll see people display hugely negative attitudes towards providers of services that they need to survive, such as food and water, as well as high convenience commodities like heating and electricity. I happen to have access to precisely ONE electricity provider, and that provider's monopoly allows them to have crappy services and overcharge me significantly. And while I may be angry at them for it, I do want to have electricity, and that's my only option. The only dissonance occurring in these situations is wanting a service but not liking the only means by which you can acquire it.

I should also point out that I've mostly seen press releases and official letters speak about post Freedom game content, and they all use carefully-crafter phrases like "more value" and such that can have multiple interpretations.

I'm actually reminded of something Black Scorpion said before the launch of I19.5, that they are "looking into" adding a solo path for Incarnate progress. People immediately beat me over the head, saying "See? See? You are getting a solo Incarnate path in I19.5, they just haven't announced it yet!" Then I19.5 came, and nothing. Then I20 came, and nothing. Now I20.5 is around the corner and still nothing. And now that we know most of what's in I21, still nothing. So, no, that wasn't a promise, a fact which was clear to me from the moment I read it, yet it didn't stop people from honestly believing it was a guarantee.

When I say "I want a red name to say this," I mean say it in clear, unambiguous terms and say it specifically. In this very thread, Zwillinger took the time to say "Your monthly subscription price will stay exactly the same." One sentence, simple, direct, to the point. And I believe it, because there's nothing in there that could be misinterpreted even if I were looking to twist his words. "I worry that my subscription will cost more." "No, it won't. Zwillinger said so." And he did.

How much content we get for our subscriptions post Freedom as compared to how much we got prior to it is probably not as easy of an answer to give, considering there's no good way to measure content, so I don't really hold it against the development team how they're phrasing themselves. Clearly, they don't have all the content they'll offer pinned down and haven't finalised the prices, so giving us a full price list probably won't happen. But that, when you get down to it, is really the one true way to give context to the promises - tells us exactly what we'll get and exactly what we'll need to purchase.

That will happen in time, and my subscription isn't going anywhere in the meantime. At around I19.5, I said I'll give City of Heroes another couple of years, and I believe the game is still well within this time frame. Even if Freedom launched December 31st, 2011, it should still be well within that window. And if my fears and mistrust prove unfounded, well - I'll vote with my wallet and support the developers.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

A few things.

1. It is against the currently posted Message Forum Rules and Guidelines to make those private communications public without permission. I'm not surprised the post was removed if it was posted on the forums.

2. It is against the currently posted Message Forum Rules and Guidelines to discuss moderation actions on the forums. Yes, I'd expect your post to be removed as you surmised with your ps.

Likewise, I'd expect mine to be removed as well. Why remove yours and then leave mine that quotes and responds to yours? It would seem out of context if it was left even with the quote of your post removed.

Finally, those same currently posted Message Forum Rules and Guidelines have the following section:

So they can actually remove any post at any time for any reason (whether it breaks a forum rule or not) and there's nothing we can do about it.

Of course, the rules have been interpreted and enforced inconsistently since the forum were first put up. EDIT: Oops, that breaks rule #4 also. Ah well.

I see nothing in the rules against cartoon violence.


Reposting communication with employees is specifically disallowed.