We Paid for These Paragon Points, Mr. Positron

They're delivering stuff weekly

MMO publishers and developers want to make money!!!!

News at eleven.

Well my renewal date is the 4th, but that is only because I started May 4, 2004. I had been hearing for weeks about this cool new game from friends who where playing it and figured it had been out for a few months. Turns out they were in the open beta at the end and had been talking about it so I only started 2 weeks after launch. Not 2 months like I had figured I was going to be.

The issue was whether or not they would do weird things with obfuscation pay structures etc to maximize profits or if that was merely paranoia.

I don't think anyone questioned that they want to make money.

The Electric-Knight ______ Malfaz _____ Zox'Oculox

@Zethustra

"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan

www.pauldamonthomas.com - Original Music

And that's bad because? That's just smart business. What, do you honestly expect any for-profit business to hand you your free money and then go "And also, here's some new content you can buy with that money!" Of course not. That's not evil, that's just logical. No-one is forcing people to buy anything. If people lack the self control to not be wasteful, then that's their problem.

---

Is that what Freedom will be like? A new Icedrone every day? Because it'll make the forums a lot less interesting.

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.

not me, had a friend telling me how good the game, was, but to heck with that, mmos stink...i joined up on june 22...and never left.

No. Impulse buyers will not purchase anything unless they are invited to do so. That's why they put candy and trash magazines next to the cashier in the supermarket. Marketers use the psychology of impulse buying to position their product in a way that encourages the impulse.

Microtransactions, multiple currencies, and 'technical glitches' are all tools that can be used to pry a customer's impulses open.

Whether Paragon Studios is doing that intentionally or not, I don't know. I am only stating that they are building up a record of shady decisions.

I hope they're doing it intentionally. It means more money from them, and less of it from me.

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.

I know it is a shock that they want to make money. Best thing I can figure is you have to hide your wife/partner, child and pet or they will some how make money off of them.

After all no one would want to make money would they?
















Oh wait I do. I want to make money the more the better.

The problem is that the whole conspiracy theory in this thread is way to much work to be real.

Really way to much work. Particularly since they are releasing new stuff every single week.

What conspiracy theory is any different? That's the stupid thing about it. If I wanted to, I could invent a conspiracy theory for how pasteurised milk is designed to make me buy more socks. You can ascribe nefarious hidden motives to anything and then just use "That's what they WANT you to think!" as a circular logic justification and appear to make sense.

Also, have you guys noticed that the Eye of Horus on your dollar bill is the seal of the New World Order?

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.

Don't you get it?! That's part of the plan, man! They release stuff... EVERY WEEK!! And that keeps you from keeping track of points, man!!! Then they get all the points!! It's what they were after all the time!!! ALL THE POINTS111!!

Ahhh, is that all?

I'd say merely paranoia then.

That was easy, what's for dinner?

The problem with your theory is that it is way to much work on their part with to little real return.

First the delayed point delivery only effects players whose account renewal is between the 1st and the 10th of the month. Everyone else which is a huge chunk of the players get their points on time.

Second it only effects those players who logged in and played during the VIP head start whose accounts renew between the 1st and the 10th. Again if they didn't login during that time they receive their points when they should.

For your theory to be viable it would need to effect everyone and not just a small weird subgroup of the player base.

Last they would have to only do new releases on the first Tuesday of the month and not on every Tuesday of the month like they do.

So really your theory doesn't pass the does this make sense test.

They're also releasing more than 400 points worth of new stuff each week, which is forcing even the VIPs to buy more points.

Actually, if I had to have one complaint about Paragon Studios' "market stuff" release schedule is that I suspect the pressure to release more often may be leaving their releases underdeveloped and light. I'd honestly prefer to wait a little longer for a release than to have another CoT set.

However, the question of quality vs. quantity really doesn't work well within the frame of a conspiracy theory.

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.

I c wut u did there.

/looks over at pile of unopened bags of socks and fridge stocked with milk.

sonova.....

Thank you! I really needed that

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.

Hmm. My billing date is the 27th. So I will not get any points between Sept. 14 and October 27 (Assuming the points hit right on time.) which means I will be missing almost a month and a half of sales. Boy they are really screwing me, I want those points NOW so I don't miss any sales!

It doesn't matter if they extend the sales to 2 weeks. There are people that have billing dates throughout the month, and thus will be receiving their points through out the month. The only way they could be certain to have a particular sale on for everyone is to have them last an entire month. But that would probably require they have less things on sale, since they don't want to have too large a proportion of their products on sale at once.

The Reward Tokens are tied to the Vet Reward system, they need to make changes to that system to get the token moved to the beginning of the month. No news on how long that will take, if it is even possible.

I like this! I want! Can I get it on sale?

Your heart is in the right place. But they are actually Reward Tokens, not Reward Merits. Reward Merits are the ingame stuff, for buying recipes and such.

The Electric-Knight ______ Malfaz _____ Zox'Oculox

@Zethustra

"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan

www.pauldamonthomas.com - Original Music

HAHA! That is hilarious!!
I did know that... Going to edit that real quick, lol!

The Electric-Knight ______ Malfaz _____ Zox'Oculox

@Zethustra

"Now at midnight all the agents and the superhuman crew come out
and round up everyone that knows more than they do"-Dylan

www.pauldamonthomas.com - Original Music

It'll be available on the 15th.

This would make so much sense. If only reality didn't kick it in the [PANCAKES]. You know. The fact that they are actually releasing new stuff every Tuesday. That means 4 or 5 times a month, not once a month just to catch the folks who are caught by this "glitch". And the weekly schedule actually matches up well with the fact that there are people with billing dates through out the entire month.

And for the really long term players, who have shown the most loyalty and the largest propensity for spending money on the game, the end of the month would make more sense than the 15th. Since that is when a large number of use would have their billing dates. Unless they are like several people on this thread and they didn't start for a week or so and thus are at the beginning of the month, so the release should happen then.

Really, way too much trouble for too little return for them.