I'm not sure what you are complaining about, active subscribers have a very good loyality programs, you get Funcom Points for your active subscriptions, as well as Veteran points.
There certainly are sure some things to complain about with how far in recent years Funcom went to grab more customer money. Namely having ingame advertising and monthly subscription, as well as Item Shop, when most games out there are either free to play with Item Shop OR subscription based, but not both.
But lack of rewards for loyal customers isn't one of them.
Ekarona 220/30 Female Solitus Engineer, long term member of Northern Star and proper "poor" gimp.
Ekaslave 220/low Female Solitus Trader, FLAT(TM) pricing TS, almost all can do!
Ekaros almost there/almost there too Male Solitus Martial-Artist.
Ekadv gimp/gimp Female Opifex Adventurer
Just an FYI, I am a 12 month at a time subscriber and when my account came due this month, I got the pet as well, just for paying for my new year. So, while I agree it would probably be nice to allow this or similar for everyones next normal pay cycle, it prolly won't happen. Just like someone else said about cable/phone/cell companies, I doubt it will happen.
Last edited by Anarrina; Jul 6th, 2011 at 05:08:44. Reason: fixed broken quote tag
Those are not rewards for loyal customers. Those are rewards for any paying customers... active or returning.
At this point, I see this situation going in the same money grabbing direction as the fiasco of last year's obsidian personal mech, which was included in a 12 month subscription or $30 from the accounts page. At least last year they listened to the complaints and removed the "limited time only" restriction. They made it available for 12 month subscription upgrades/renewals through at least the end of the year. I'm not sure of the date when that offer actually expired because I had already renewed all of my accounts by the end of the year.
On those mentioning cable company offers, that might be semi-valid for the subscription time a returning player gets, it doesn't apply for the heckler pet. Also, like Siahanor mentioned, if you want whatever the cable company promotion is, you can usually just call & threaten to cancel your subscription to get the promotion. Funcom is so used to threats of cancellation being followed through, making that threat seems to have no effect... as our current population clearly shows.
I just thought about something. If the mission IDs are attached to the character who pulls it, then maybe it could be possible to find out who pulled the mission that crashed the server. So... how about a special ingame T-Shirt for the guy who pulled the mission with something like "I pull missions that crash the server" written to it?
Lucky for your cable provider, they have competition to do that for you. No one else but FC runs AO servers so their market is captive. The businesses are completely different. Of course that's not to say that FC should treat customers badly, but the differentiating question here is what do you do if your cable provider treats you like crap and you want cable? You find another one. What happens if FC treats you like crap and you want to play AO? There isn't another option here.
If a company provides a unique product or server and you want it, most people will go to great lengths to get it, even if it means they endure some negative aspects of the provider. Maybe FC isn't always above board with their communications and their administration of the game has something to be desired as well but I don't think it's accurate for people to say the treat customers badly. I don't think that's being honest.
Last edited by Obtena; Jul 6th, 2011 at 03:29:52.
Awwww muffin, need a tissue?
The Independent Rubikans - The oldest Neutral Org on RK1! 10.5 years and counting!
Namiru - 210/30/58 Neutral Solitus Martial Artist, Advisor - Always accepting new students in the Art
Thalona - 199/25/40 Neutral Solitus Meta-Physicist, Veteran - Pondering higher thought
Weefleboy - 150/20/40 Neutral Opifex Fixer, Member - Wheeling and Dealing somewhere on RK.
Johnnysokko - 60/6/14 Neutral Solitus Engineer, Member - Still trying to twink that Slayer on.
Keepdafaith - 60/6/14 Neutral Atrox Keeper, Member - IR Temple Services
Powerbender - 100/6/14 Neutral Nanomage Nano-Technician, Member
Deleetful - 65/7/14 Neutral Solitus Adventurer, Applicant
Lumbergh - 60/5/10 Neutral Nanomage Bureaucrat, Applicant - "M'yeah, I'm going to have to ask that you go ahead and come into work on Saturday...that would be great..."
4.4 billion missions... I think that I personally blitzed 2 percent of those in my time with AO.
Lol.
"On the brink of the dark he stood, with only the dream of the cities, the million books, the spectral images of the people he had loved, who had loved him, whom he had known and lost. They will not come again. They never will come back again."
-Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938), Look Homeward, Angel
The only thing that annoyed me about the pet was that I increased my subscription by 3 months a couple of days before I got the offer E-Mail...
Had I got it earlier, I'd have subscribed for 6 months instead lol.
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The way I see it those higher level implants are a way for froobs to make some credits. Froobs spend a lot more time around mobs that drop implants, in missions where you can find implants in chests and as reward. To me it would seem that it would be froobs that would be hurt most if those implants became available from shops.