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Why should anyone get a lifetime sub now?
renegade0
Posts: 119 Arc User
I'm not being facetious. I'm genuinely confused why anyone should buy a lifetime after the change. The only thing that could make it worth it's $300 (sometimes $200) price tag worth it was the ability to gain a new slot when you reached level 40 and the ability to just make freeforms.
So if I have to pay 200-300 and then buy slots, why on earth would I do that? I know this subject has been talked about to death before the changes happened, I lurked on the board for about month or so reading almost everything. I just think it's ridiculous that they make it worthless for potential customers (people who have had it for years already and have their free slots are hardly effected unless they never took advantage).
At this point, The Lifetime sub should be the price of a regular game and then players can just purchase character slots. But actually charging $300 dollars for such an old game with no real content being added. And then expecting even more money for character slots? I'm not asking for infinite character slots. But something with a limit beyond 6 slots would be nice. I never purchased a lifetime sub because it's felt like that game could shutdown any moment for the last 2 years. Now, it's just way overpriced.
Maybe I'm missing something though.
So if I have to pay 200-300 and then buy slots, why on earth would I do that? I know this subject has been talked about to death before the changes happened, I lurked on the board for about month or so reading almost everything. I just think it's ridiculous that they make it worthless for potential customers (people who have had it for years already and have their free slots are hardly effected unless they never took advantage).
At this point, The Lifetime sub should be the price of a regular game and then players can just purchase character slots. But actually charging $300 dollars for such an old game with no real content being added. And then expecting even more money for character slots? I'm not asking for infinite character slots. But something with a limit beyond 6 slots would be nice. I never purchased a lifetime sub because it's felt like that game could shutdown any moment for the last 2 years. Now, it's just way overpriced.
Maybe I'm missing something though.
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LTS gets 16 slots. Free Form slots. ****, nvm... It is 6.
But, 6 Slots are worth of what? $120? Free Form ones that is.
Will those 6 Slots open your old Gold sub FF's?
You're screwed if you had something like 30+ FFs....
What if you go and buy all The Stuff separately?
Game has been shutting down past 9 years. Or so people have been saying.
But, taking the subs away was a ****move.
There are reasons why someone should get the LTS now. And why someone shouldn't.
I got LTS.
And playing by myself since Aug 2009
Godtier: Lifetime Subscriber
Well no, that was only 1 thing that made LTS worth it, and it has been effectively replaced by a feature that some people actually prefer more because it no longer requires you to level a character to 40, and that is the first one on the list...
- Freeform slots cost you 1$ because you can make Freeforms in the regular slots that cost 1$
- Like Finn mentioned, 6 FF slots upon purchasing it. That almost covers the full price alone.
- You can immediately convert all of your Archetype characters into FFs, so that's 30$ per character you currently have minus 1$ you paid for the regular slot so 29$ value per Archetype you convert.
- All the costumes you get in the Z-Store
- Monthly stipend
There's 5 very good reasons why LTS is worth it. If you don't care about costumes and you don't plan to make a lot of Freeforms, then LTS probably isn't a good value for you. LTS isn't for everyone, it might not be for you, and that's okay. When I bought it I immediately got more value than the amount of money I paid, and since then I've only been getting more value - that's a key aspect of LTS, the longer you have it the more value you're getting out of it.
LTS is well worth it at $300, and is a steal at $200. When it was on sale for $120 that was just nuts.
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Aside from that, LTS has full access to the Exclusive vanity store in RenCen and is now the only way to acquire the old Veteran subscriber rewards for those that haven't gotten them already. So if you're a costume junkie, there's that to consider.
After that, there's not really anything else. LTS is otherwise on a level playing field to anyone with the Premium Pack. Honestly, I think most people would be perfectly fine with the game just picking up a single Freeform slot alongside that new Premium Pack for a total of $35 USD rather than dumping an entire $300 USD on LTS. I do like me some altitis though, and boy does LTS still let me keep up with that.
All in all, LTS is what you want to consider if you plan on having a lot of freeform characters. It will save you money in the long run that way.
And I will always be @DZPlayer122.
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If I were just discovering Champs now, the $200 price would still be worth saving up for, since it gives sooooo much stuff. I would not spend $300, though.
For the average player who likes the game, but isn't planning to make 10, 20, 50 characters, just get the Premium pack and a FF slot or two.
Not many games have such choices in price points.
Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.
If I was not an LTSer right now, the money required to make all my toons GOLD status would be...well...more than $500 dollars, closer to 1k than 500. And that is for unlocking them as gold toons. And that is not taking in account unlocking all the travel powers, archtypes (I actually have a few AT toons), and costumes. Overall price I'd have to pay is well over 700. 300 vs 700...which is more?
No, not everyone is like me. But, was it worth it? For me, it was. It might not be for everyone. But, to assume it is worthless, is asinine.
Edit: Forgot they changed the price on free form slots. It would cost me...somewhere between 500 and 600 to make all my toons gold status now. And thus over 600 for unlocking everything (unless I by that one pack for unlocking gold stuff). But, even taking in consideration that, 500+ is still more than 300.
Now, the obverse - why shouldn't they?
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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My super cool CC build and how to use it.
Wouldn't be the first time someone didn't get me. I stopped explaining myself long ago. I'm sorry if a caused any confusion.
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Why shouldn't they? Easy, they plan on playing only one toon and are not interested in the costumes in the C-Store they would get with going LTS. Total cost for a player like that, nowadays, is only...$30. Plus the one time purchase that can be bought to basically unlock things that LTS/Gold people enjoyed before. So, a $45 dollar value to that one person. Which in turns means that a $200-$300 price tag would be a waste for them. For people like me, it wasn't. So, it really depends on how many toons you plan on making/playing.
This right here.
What is Cryptic/PWE/Arc's long term for CO?
I'm already a Lifer for many, many years. IMO, money well spent for entertainment value, but if I were looking to spend 200-300 on LTS NOW, after monthly subs were removed, I'd be skeptical at investing that much cash into a game that had such a drastic and sudden payment method change with very little warning.
Actually, there was no warning. People complained and they pushed it back a bit... but it was being done, and done suddenly.
If a company is looking to get that big of a payment on a purchase they need to provide some kind of commitment as well that the product is a worthwhile purchase. You spend $200 at a store on a television, you have certain expectations of it. You're not going to watch it once, right?
We have already seen, with the removal of Gold/Monthly subs that we will face more quick and sudden changes. How much notice will we get that the game is closing? A month? 6 months? A year? MMO history has shown us, we players don't get a whole lot of notice...
So beyond the goodies included in an LTS there is a degree of uncertainty from a consumer standpoint.
Yeah cool, we get the pretties, but what about actual time to play with all that fun stuffs?
No game items are worth anything if you don't actually have time to play with them.
Paying $20 for 2000 Zen (the cost of a Premium Pack +500Z for whatever else) and only getting a month use out of it is a lot different than paying $200-$300 only for a sudden "Sorry, We're closing..." Again, a history of quick and sudden changes has been established by the company here...
Agreed.
At the same time, if something happens at that show... a fire, a weather cancellation, you're going to get a refund or a ticket exchange...
Just this season, I paid for an MLS ticket to see a soccer game and there was a weather cancellation.
Did they keep my money and say "Sorry, we don't control the weather, you took that chance and it was in the agreement you made with you bought it..."?
No... the game was rescheduled, I saw the game a month or so later... Acceptable Cost vs Risk vs Value.
Basically, you will get to see that show you paid for.
MMO's in general, and now specifically CO, quick changes are the norm and they have service agreements allowing them to make those changes. Quick endings to games are extremely common... quite often within a month. AND NO REFUNDS.
So let's math out those 2 hours a day mentioned, at 30 days a month we get 60 hours.
What other games are about that length in playtime?
I'd say most fall in the 40-80 hour range. Is that a fair estimate?
By comparison, how much do those games cost? I'd estimate $60-$80 as a new release... Fair?
CO is a 9 year old game... What do 9 year old games cost? Maybe $10? $5? A hand-me-down/Free?
Let's break it down even more... Let's say $80 for 80 Hours... that comes out more along the lines of $1 an hour... AND you can replay that same, old, content over again... so that $1 an hour works out to even less if you play a second time... even less on the third... How many alts do most people have here? How often are we replaying the same, old, content?
Star Trek Online by comparison... same company, same pricing plan, same LTS cost.
They get new content all the time. There is little fear of STO closing up compared to CO just based on how the game is cared for, how things are added.
Some of STO's addons are free and some are charged for... but they are getting that additional life added. Those additions ease shutdown fears. Less fear of closing brings more sales. New stuff also keeps current customers interested...
*cough*FOUNDRY*cough*
What has CO gotten by comparison?
We've gotten the Q-Warzone. Save The Earth. Vehicles. So we KNOW things CAN be added. They can even charge zen for some of that new stuff just like they do with STO...
500Z for another Q-Warzone or Vibora sized additon? Doesn't sound terrible... Another 500Z for an Orbital space-battle zone? I'm sold! Just random ideas...
*cough*Give us the Foundry*cough*we can do it ourselves*cough*
But there is little to no communication from those who run the game...
Discord? Meh... an outside app I for one don't have time for and have no idea what they talk about there.
My loss? Maybe... We have a message board here. They add patch notes every week. They post new AT or Lockbox info... But what have we heard about future plans? WHEN have we hear about future plans?
The speed in which the monthly subs were removed shows that when the end comes we should expect it to be quick and sudden. They've done nothing for us to expect otherwise... That also leads to less sales because there has been no effort made to show us CO will be around this time next year... not even next month...
On a side note... I'd HAPPILY pay another LTS fee to be able to run my own CO Private Server with everything in its current state.
Cost vs Expectations.
I guess I'm writing books now... #EntertainMe!
Same here with the pennies an hour portion. lol
Plus, if they were planning on shutting down the game, typically the first actual sign would be zero updates at all for several months in a row. I'm talking about even bug fixes or small QoL changes. But, this is not always the case. Sometimes, companies do shut down a game suddenly with no warning. But, with how this game has been for the past few years and the updates, I think it will be around for at least a few more years. But, that depends largely on us, the players, to keep supporting it. If we stop supporting it..they will pull the plug.
- David Brin, "Those Eyes"
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U dirty freeloder.
And playing by myself since Aug 2009
Godtier: Lifetime Subscriber
Some people might, but I sure as hell won't. If I go to a sporting event I know I'll get a few hours of... wait no, I'll get nothing, sports are dumb. A broadway show I'll get a few hours of entertainment.... if it's good. Probably not.. u3u
Eh, not true. The sporting event could be lame, as could the broadway show. They could be complete boring garbage and schlock. You won't know until you go there and watch the whole thing, and then it's too late.
The difference between a sporting event or a broadway show and LTS is that with LTS I know exactly what I'm getting, because I've already played the game and I know if I like it or not. I'm not buying a new game that I might not like, I'm buying more stuff in a game I already do like. By the time somebody is even thinking of buying LTS they should already know if they care about what it gets them.
If I want to experience a football game to see if I like it, fork over the money. If I want to see a broadway show to see if I like it, fork over the money. If I want to experience CO to see if I like it, that's free. That's why threads like these are a bit silly... why is somebody asking if they should buy a LTS or not? They've played the game, they already know if they care about what's in the LTS. The fact that they're questioning it likely means they don't, and they're just fishing for people to confirm and praise a decision they've already made.
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This right here is true. Only reason I bought LTS is because I had found I liked the game a lot. If I had not liked the game, I wouldn't have bought LTS.