28 replies to this topic

[SnowdogJJJ]

I am sure it has been asked before but please bear with me and point me (or answer) in a direction.

I have 122 days of premium time accrued, is there a way to turn it on and off by the day, week , or month?

Or when I turn it on it runs its course until it is all used up in consecutive days? Which , by the way seems pretty rude on the companies part, since they have not added any real content other then 2 new maps and a few mechs in the past 6 months. OH yeah, the changed spawn points the other day.

Love the game and yes I have spent a bit of my hard (well not so hard) errand $$

[Rasc4l]

SnowdogJJJ, on 11 December 2013 - 05:47 AM, said:

I have 122 days of premium time accrued, is there a way to turn it on and off by the day, week , or month?

No.

SnowdogJJJ, on 11 December 2013 - 05:47 AM, said:

Or when I turn it on it runs its course until it is all used up in consecutive days? Which , by the way seems pretty rude on the companies part, since they have not added any real content other then 2 new maps and a few mechs in the past 6

Yes.

[Mike McSullivan]

1) No, the time, once running, cant be stopped
2) So, you have to plan when it makes most sense for you : hollidays = (+)...being away for your company for weeks= (-).

cheers

[Fut]

SnowdogJJJ, on 11 December 2013 - 05:47 AM, said:

I am sure it has been asked before but please bear with me and point me (or answer) in a direction.

I have 122 days of premium time accrued, is there a way to turn it on and off by the day, week , or month?

Or when I turn it on it runs its course until it is all used up in consecutive days? Which , by the way seems pretty rude on the companies part, since they have not added any real content other then 2 new maps and a few mechs in the past 6 months. OH yeah, the changed spawn points the other day.

Love the game and yes I have spent a bit of my hard (well not so hard) errand $$

Well, first of all... 122 days of premium? That's just nuts.
Secondly, I completely agree with you on the way that Premium Time works. It's a bit of a rip off that you can't pause it once it's started. Seems to me that PGI would have many more people purchasing PT if they allowed us to use it when we can - instead of just having the counter constantly ticking away.

Mike McSullivan, on 11 December 2013 - 06:02 AM, said:

1) No, the time, once running, cant be stopped
2) So, you have to plan when it makes most sense for you : hollidays = (+)...being away for your company for weeks= (-).

cheers

How do you plan for a consecutive 122 days that "make the most sense" for using premium time?

[Kotzi]

No wife, no work, no sunshine...

[o0Marduk0o]

This is how it works for every other game with "premium time".

On the other hand, some kind of pause-button every [7] days might be reasonable to please and convince customers to buy premium time.
Let's say something happens and you can't play for longer periods of time. Your bought premium runs out unused and you feel bad about it - not good for the customer and in the end for IGP because he would think twice to buy new premium.

Edited by o0Marduk0o, 11 December 2013 - 06:51 AM.

[Buckminster]

I'm in the same boat. I think I have about 120 odd days (90 from Overlord, 30 from Founder's, plus the occasional odd day from promotions), but I haven't wanted to start it up because I just don't play regularly enough to feel like I'm getting what it's "worth".

I generally only play 2-3 games in the morning, during the week. So I don't want to start my premium time for just 15 games a week. If I could use a day or two when I know I'll get a lot of time in then I'd be all for it. But until then, it's just going to keep on accruing.

Edit: Is there a way to know how much time you have?

Edited by Buckminster, 11 December 2013 - 06:53 AM.

[Rushin Roulette]

Buckminster, on 11 December 2013 - 06:52 AM, said:

Edit: Is there a way to know how much time you have?

You start the game launcher and press the activate button at the bottom of the window. You will then get a popup informing you about how many days you have banked and are asked if you want to activate or not... just press no and any time on there will stay banked on your account and wont start ticking until you go through that procedure and click "Yes".. from then on you are not able to pause or stop the premium time any more though.

Edited by Rushin Roulette, 11 December 2013 - 11:15 PM.

[Buckminster]

Rushin Roulette, on 11 December 2013 - 07:06 AM, said:

You start the game launcher and pres teh activate button at the bottom of the window. You will then get a popup informing you about how many days you have banked and are asked if you want to activate or not... just press no and any time on there will stay banked on your accoutn and wont start ticking until you go through that procedure and click "Yes".. from then on you are not able to pause or stop the premium time any more.

Thanks. I've always wondered how much I've had, but have never wanted to hit the 'Activate' button, because frankly, I don't want to activate it yet!

[NuclearPanda]

122 days isn't nuts. I still have 6 months worth of premium time to activate from Founders and Overlord. I'm not activating till some semblance of CW is released....

....
....
....

....... in 2015 I suppose.

[Mechteric]

Don't feel like you need to play 8 hours every day that your premium time is active. Its only there to make the time you do have to put into the game be 50% more productive, that is all.

[Fut]

o0Marduk0o, on 11 December 2013 - 06:50 AM, said:

This is how it works for every other game with "premium time".

This doesn't mean that it's the only way or even the best way to handle PT.
PGI should think outside the box here.

o0Marduk0o, on 11 December 2013 - 06:50 AM, said:

On the other hand, some kind of pause-button every [7] days might be reasonable to please and convince customers to buy premium time.
Let's say something happens and you can't play for longer periods of time. Your bought premium runs out unused and you feel bad about it - not good for the customer and in the end for IGP because he would think twice to buy new premium.

Exactly. It's not good for the customer.
MWO supposedly has a bit more of a mature player-base, people with full time jobs and family commitments. PGI should be taking this into consideration.

Premium Time should be activated on a day-to-day basis. Tonight I might have enough time to get a few matches in, the first time in weeks. It'd be amazing if I could use up 1 Day of PT without worrying that all of my PT will be used up in the next few weeks of not being able to play.

[divinedisclaimer]

o0Marduk0o, on 11 December 2013 - 06:50 AM, said:

This is how it works for every other game with "premium time".

On the other hand, some kind of pause-button every [7] days might be reasonable to please and convince customers to buy premium time.
Let's say something happens and you can't play for longer periods of time. Your bought premium runs out unused and you feel bad about it - not good for the customer and in the end for IGP because he would think twice to buy new premium.

Actually, it's worse! In Warframe, the moment you buy "premium time" you're forced to automatically activate it!

[Redshift2k5]

divinedisclaimer, on 11 December 2013 - 07:44 AM, said:

Actually, it's worse! In Warframe, the moment you buy "premium time" you're forced to automatically activate it!

Premium time IS automatically started. Unless you got it as part of a bundle (founder pack, overlord pack) in which case it sits in an Activate mode

The Op kinda brought this on himself for hoarding his premium time instead of using his banked time before adding more to his banked hoard and some sort of misguided urge to get "the most" from the premium time.

Truth is, even buying a month of time and only using it a few days a week is still more economical than buying days for when you think you might "get the most out if it".

[WarHippy]

Premium time is no different than a monthly subscription. You pay a certain amount and unlock a block of time in which you may play, or in this case get a bonus. If you were able to turn it on and off at will someone with 122 days of premium who plays 4 hours a night 5 nights a week would be able to take advantage of premium time without having to purchase more for 732 days(just north of 2 years). Not exactly a helpful revenue stream for the devs.

[Durant Carlyle]

Fut, on 11 December 2013 - 07:27 AM, said:

Exactly. It's not good for the customer.
MWO supposedly has a bit more of a mature player-base, people with full time jobs and family commitments. PGI should be taking this into consideration.

Premium Time should be activated on a day-to-day basis. Tonight I might have enough time to get a few matches in, the first time in weeks. It'd be amazing if I could use up 1 Day of PT without worrying that all of my PT will be used up in the next few weeks of not being able to play.

You CAN buy PT in one-day chunks. Or three-day, or seven-day, etc.

You just can't do that with the banked time you got from packages.

Think about it. You will never even approach 50% return on PT unless you sit at the computer for 12 hours per day, so there's no point in trying to wait for some mythical perfect time to play. Banked PT does you exactly ZERO good. Even if you only play for a couple of hours twice a week, you will gain 50% more C-Bills/XP by activating PT than you would by keeping it banked.

As for all of the "wasted" time you cannot play, remember that you got the packaged PT at a discounted rate (or free, depending on how you calculate the package price).

PT is MW:O's subscription, like WoW's subscription and TERA's Elite Status, and all of the other MMO Special Account stuff. Do you guys lament the time you paid for in other MMOs that you spend sleeping, eating, working, shopping, and otherwise living Real Life™ (a.k.a. not playing the game)? If you do, stop. Even after you retire, there won't be enough time in the day to do everything you want to get done, so you might as well get used to it now.

Any time you play this game without using the PT you have accrued is a waste of that PT. Hit the damn button already.

[NuclearPanda]

Durant Carlyle, on 11 December 2013 - 08:04 AM, said:

Any time you play this game without using the PT you have accrued is a waste of that PT. Hit the damn button already.

Nope! Not activating till CW is released and half of the other features they announced over a year ago. I still play here and there though. Nothing really I need to grind for so I'm not going to activate it yet.

[Fut]

Durant Carlyle, on 11 December 2013 - 08:04 AM, said:

You CAN buy PT in one-day chunks. Or three-day, or seven-day, etc.

You just can't do that with the banked time you got from packages.

This seems to be where I've been hung up. I've got a bunch of PT banked that I didn't want to "waste".

Seeing how we're all MWO buddies here, I guess I'll be completely honest with you right now.
The idea of simply buying 1 day, using it, waiting the days/weeks/months until I can play again, then buying 1 more day of premium for that moment - That idea has seriously never crossed my mind.

God dammit. I feel a wee-bit foolish at the moment.

Thanks for smacking me in the head with this.

Durant Carlyle, on 11 December 2013 - 08:04 AM, said:

PT is MW:O's subscription, like WoW's subscription and TERA's Elite Status, and all of the other MMO Special Account stuff. Do you guys lament the time you paid for in other MMOs that you spend sleeping, eating, working, shopping, and otherwise living Real Life™ (a.k.a. not playing the game)? If you do, stop. Even after you retire, there won't be enough time in the day to do everything you want to get done, so you might as well get used to it now.

Kind of...
I really enjoyed playing EVE. Spent countless hours mining and fighting, but slowly my free time drifted off and I was down to a few hours a week. This is when I decided that it wasn't worth my money to pay for a game that I hardly ever play.

This is what I find appealing about the F2P model. I can spend as much or as little as I want on the game without ever feeling like I'm wasting money.

Durant Carlyle, on 11 December 2013 - 08:04 AM, said:

Any time you play this game without using the PT you have accrued is a waste of that PT. Hit the damn button already.

Well, you know what?
You pretty much just convinced me to do so.

Thanks.

[Lusankya]

It would be nice if you could activate chunks of time from banked premium time but I don't think it will happen .

[Bront]

Fut, on 11 December 2013 - 06:32 AM, said:

Well, first of all... 122 days of premium? That's just nuts.

2 free days (one for the patch, one for everyone that starts the game), and 90+30 for the early bird Phoenix pack.