Seeking clarification as to why I'm not a Premium player

Hi, all!

I bought Going Rogue right when it came out and played for the free month. I decided not to continue playing.

The City of Heroes site says We honor your commitment and experience! If you used to play City of Heroes, you automatically become a Premium Player.

I used to play City of Heroes, but I'm not a Premium player.

Should I get in touch with the devs somehow? How should I contact them?

Thanks!

You should indeed be a premium player, what perks are you missing? When you check the Paragon Rewards Program interface how many tokens do you have available and assigned? It should be two (one for having an account and one for having applied a retail code), if you only have one then something is funny, are you sure you're using your old account and didn't create a new one?

What exactly does the OP think he's missing that he he should be getting as a Premium account?

Without knowing that we really can't say one way or another if there is a misunderstanding, a bug, or if as Adeon mentioned the OP may have accidentally created a new Free account.

Obvious question first: Did you actually log in using the same account that was associated with Going Rogue?

Yes, I'm using the exact same account I made when I bought Going Rogue. I checked my e-mail to make sure. I received an e-mail when I applied the Going Rogue serial to my account, which is the one I'm currently logged into.

I seem to be able to make Praetorian characters, which (unless I am mistaken) means I've bought Going Rogue.

But when I checked my account type, I'm told my account is Free instead of Premium.

I don't want to get all into the game again only to keep butting up against a lot of unnecessary restrictions because my account is flagged as Free!

Here's something I noticed last week:

I have free accounts -- never spent anything on them. They have 1 reward token.

I have a formerly VIP account. This is one where I bought at the "try VIP for 1 month for $1.99 (or .99 cents, whatever it was). This account also only has 1 reward token, so the only difference between it and a free account is that instead of 2 characters total, I have something like 14, but all but 2 are locked. But I don't appear to have any extra reward tokens.

What's not clear to me is if starting an account with a GR code and playing for 1 month only would result in me having anything more than the 1 token that even a free account gets.

However, the difference between "free" and "premium" is only a difference in having potentially more reward tokens than 1. You can get that by dropping $5 on the market. But as far as I know there is nothing that the word "premium" actually grants you, it only matters how many reward tokens you have slotted.

Yeah if you can create Praetorian characters you have Going Rogue which by default means that you spent money on the game and in your case applied a retail code. I think the next step is to check your Paragon Reward Tokens. You need to do this in game but see if you have been awarded two tokens or one.

Do they actually differentiate between those two words (free and premium) in the game? Could it be saying free but simply mean "You are not paying a subscription at this time."

What does it say your reward level is, and do you have any tokens?

I have two tokens, already spent on Tier 1 and Tier 2. I think they were automatically spent since I don't remember doing it myself, but anything is possible I guess. :P

It's possible that Free and Premium players are lumped together as 'Free' on the Account page you can access from in-game, that's why I ask, I guess! Is there any fast way to deduce if I'm truly recognized as Premium in the game? Some of the Free restrictions look pretty...restrictive.

EDIT: Mystery solved! Apparently you can't whisper people on a Free account and I have that ability, so I guess I'm Premium! I do wish the Account page would say I'm Premium instead of just Free, though!

Thank you all for your help and patience with my numbskullery.

If you have 2 token then you're premium. And as I said, restrictions are based on your reward level, so being free just means you're at 1 token/tier 1 only reward level, really.

Restrictions at tier 2 are only slightly better though. I think it takes to tier 3 before you can use all chat channels for example.

Thanks Organica and everyone else, I can confirm that I'm Premium. I guess the Account page just says 'Free' if you're not a VIP.

As I recall, there actually isn't a 'premium' flag. You're either VIP or Free. but Free players get bonus goodies as they get more reward tokens and fill out the reward tiers.

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Paragon_Rewards_Program

this tells you what you get with each tier.