By the way, when the "exclusive" bonus items came out on the Gamestop, STEAM, etc, Cryptic said, before that happened, that they had full intentions of putting that stuff in the C-Store.
no they didn't. they said "may be offered", that is not the same as "will be offered"
if something is said to be exclusive now and then "will be offered" later, then there is no need to buy it now, just wait.
if something is said to be exclusive now and then "might be offered" later means "if you buy it now you will definitely have it now but might never have it later, but you might also have it later"
not the same thing at all. i have yet to see anyone post anything by cryptic pre-launch that says FOR SURE that they would definitely be offering exclusives later in the c-store.
You couldn't be more wrong. We value you all immensely. Not only have you heavily invested in us early, but you also form a core group of players which we need to work just as hard to keep playing as people on recurring subscriptions. If you all leave, we've failed.
Not feeling "valued immensely", instead feeling rather more ripped off, and taken advantage of.
You offered the MU uniforms as an incentive to buy CO lifetime subscriptions, because Cryptic thought they'd get more money than if they didn't.
You've now put the MU uniforms in the C-Store because you figure you've already got my money, and putting them in the C-Store costs you nothing, as you've already done the work, so you get more money.
In my particular case, it's cost you a future customer. I can't imagine a scenario right now where Cryptic will be getting any more of my money. I'll keep playing the games I've paid for, but I don't see why I ought to be giving more money to a company that "values" me in this fashion.
Not feeling "valued immensely", instead feeling rather more ripped of, and taken advantage of.
You offered the MU uniforms as an incentive to buy CO lifetime subscriptions, because Cryptic thought they'd get more money than if they didn't.
You've now put the MU uniforms in the C-Store because you figure you've already got my money, and putting them in the C-Store costs you nothing, as you've already done the work, so you get more money.
In my particular case, it's cost you a future customer. I can't imagine a scenario right now where Cryptic will be getting any more of my money in the future. I'll keep playing the games I've paid for, but I don't see why I ought to be giving more money to a company that "values" me in this fashion.
Indeed, as a life time subscriber, I get to continue to play the game for the next year or so (maybe) and not pay ANYTHING.
Considering this decision, I won't be spending ANY MORE MONEY on STO. So, awesome job! What you've done Cryptic is sell out those individuals who where your biggest initial supporters, and who coincidentally you do not have any guarantee about getting any more money out of (but you can be sure will continue to play the game and thus use your resources) - for a couple bucks per transaction.
I will, however, spend the roughly 1800 points I was GIVEN as part of the EXCLUSIVE OFFER tied to my copies of STO and buy the Galaxy X when it comes out.
It's a situation where we really can't make everyone happy. This time, without a doubt, many more players are happy with the decision we made to release these items on the C-store.
Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of injured feelings of some other players. It is not our intent to injure the feelings of those of you who are upset. That makes no sense for us to do. It does make sense for us to try to please as much of our player base as we can however. Which is what we always strive to do.
I don't know how it works out for your budgeting, but if the number of preorder lifetime subscribers is small compared to the number of other subscribers, perhaps this would work:
You're going to be providing a steady trickle of new C-store items all the time. Can you afford to occasionally give them away free to this group of players?
If so, you can do this on a rolling system: every 4-6 months, the preorder group gets a new free bonus, and the *previous* free bonus is released for purchase in the C-store (or where appropriate, put into the veteran rewards system). A kind of continuous exclusive early access, where the exclusive item changes from time to time, but the preorder groups always have something special.
Disclaimer: this post is motivated by my desire to get free stuff.
Comments
no they didn't. they said "may be offered", that is not the same as "will be offered"
if something is said to be exclusive now and then "will be offered" later, then there is no need to buy it now, just wait.
if something is said to be exclusive now and then "might be offered" later means "if you buy it now you will definitely have it now but might never have it later, but you might also have it later"
not the same thing at all. i have yet to see anyone post anything by cryptic pre-launch that says FOR SURE that they would definitely be offering exclusives later in the c-store.
Not feeling "valued immensely", instead feeling rather more ripped off, and taken advantage of.
You offered the MU uniforms as an incentive to buy CO lifetime subscriptions, because Cryptic thought they'd get more money than if they didn't.
You've now put the MU uniforms in the C-Store because you figure you've already got my money, and putting them in the C-Store costs you nothing, as you've already done the work, so you get more money.
In my particular case, it's cost you a future customer. I can't imagine a scenario right now where Cryptic will be getting any more of my money. I'll keep playing the games I've paid for, but I don't see why I ought to be giving more money to a company that "values" me in this fashion.
Indeed, as a life time subscriber, I get to continue to play the game for the next year or so (maybe) and not pay ANYTHING.
Considering this decision, I won't be spending ANY MORE MONEY on STO. So, awesome job! What you've done Cryptic is sell out those individuals who where your biggest initial supporters, and who coincidentally you do not have any guarantee about getting any more money out of (but you can be sure will continue to play the game and thus use your resources) - for a couple bucks per transaction.
I will, however, spend the roughly 1800 points I was GIVEN as part of the EXCLUSIVE OFFER tied to my copies of STO and buy the Galaxy X when it comes out.
Regards,
I don't know how it works out for your budgeting, but if the number of preorder lifetime subscribers is small compared to the number of other subscribers, perhaps this would work:
You're going to be providing a steady trickle of new C-store items all the time. Can you afford to occasionally give them away free to this group of players?
If so, you can do this on a rolling system: every 4-6 months, the preorder group gets a new free bonus, and the *previous* free bonus is released for purchase in the C-store (or where appropriate, put into the veteran rewards system). A kind of continuous exclusive early access, where the exclusive item changes from time to time, but the preorder groups always have something special.
Disclaimer: this post is motivated by my desire to get free stuff.