62 replies to this topic

[Guffrus]

Hopefully someone has already pointed this out to you, but that lost time thats ticking away and being wasted is already factored into the cost of the time when you buy it, if you remove the waste you will just increase the price, the net result will be that you lose more than you gain in all but the most extreme senarios.

Its a bit like complaining that you arent getting the full use of the house you are renting while you are at the office, what is it you want? hookers working out of you house to save some coin?

Or you arent getting the full value out of your rental car while youre sleeping, ok fine i will take it away and bring it back in the morning and that will cost you £200 a day but you will save 50p on the over night rental.

I have loads of premium time banked and I never activated either because i didnt want to waste it now i dont need the time because i have all the cbills and exp that i need, so actually not activating the time was wasting it, the ticking away while i wasnt playing part wasnt the issue, it just seemed like it was at the time.

So if you need the boost, turn the boost on, if you dont then it doesnt matter anyway.

Guffrus

[Peace2U]

I appreciate your opinion, Guff, and agree that if the economics of 'PT' were changed to be active only while logged on, the price would likely go up.
However, that being said, knowing that your 24hrs of 'PT' would actually be 24hrs of game play would provide you with exactly what you are paying for, therefore, the value of the product will increase, and a (reasonable) price hike would be acceptable.

Finally, I'm sorry to report that one of your examples inspired me for another 'PT' is like - - - -
Premium time is like - - paying the escort agency to hire a 6' blonde, blue eyed female 'companion' but they sent over a 5' balding, overweight fellow to keep you company.

Sorry Guff, had to have a little fun with this.
Peace All

[Spare Parts Bin]

Peace2U, on 26 March 2018 - 02:46 PM, said:

I appreciate your opinion, Guff, and agree that if the economics of 'PT' were changed to be active only while logged on, the price would likely go up.
However, that being said, knowing that your 24hrs of 'PT' would actually be 24hrs of game play would provide you with exactly what you are paying for, therefore, the value of the product will increase, and a (reasonable) price hike would be acceptable.

Finally, I'm sorry to report that one of your examples inspired me for another 'PT' is like - - - -
Premium time is like - - paying the escort agency to hire a 6' blonde, blue eyed female 'companion' but they sent over a 5' balding, overweight fellow to keep you company.

Sorry Guff, had to have a little fun with this.
Peace All

Great analogies.

[knight-of-ni]

Tasteless examples aside, I agree with Gruffus that this would just give some bean counter at PGI reason to up the price.

An alternative to worrying about your premium time ticking away is to just buy a whole year of it for $50 when they run it on sale each new year's eve day. Spend $50 less on mech packs and buy that premium time instead.

[Peace2U]

You are absolutely correct, Knight.
The price for premium time will likely go up if they were to change it to being consumed only while logged on.
However, please remember that the value of 'PT' will increase along with the price, since you won't be wasting any of it. (and you won't have to wait for a year to get the cool 'PT' discount you suggested)

Finally, a note to all players:
Please vote on this poll - either for or against - so that PGI will pay attention to this issue.

Thanks to all who participated.
Peace

[Popcat]

Guffrus: Calculated in I'm sure. Yes the price could go up. But the time I play will be more valuable to me. Also I'd like to point out that right now the system benefits people that can play several hours a day as they pay the value accrued do to my wasted hours I am unable to sit in front of my screen. Also any game that charges a reasonable amount for premium time an lets me use all of it will get all my money.

Edited by Popcat, 28 March 2018 - 10:08 AM.

[Peace2U]

I would like to repeat a previous request:
Please vote on this poll - either for or against - so that PGI will pay attention to this issue.
Much of the feedback indicates the player base would like to see a change in the premium time economics.
And yes, there a few who feel the potential cost increase may be a deterrent.
Whatever your opinion or logic, vote.
Be honest and share with the community.
I would like to be neutral on this matter, but I find the premium time economics to be borderline unfair, and would like to see the mechanic changed.
To my sensibilities, it seems illogical to pay for something that you may only get a fraction of use, or value from.
If your opinion differs, feel free to chime in since your opinion is just as valuable as others.
Either way, VOTE, and let the developers know that we're paying attention to their mischief.
Peace.

[Jep Jorgensson]

I think the voting tally is quite clear as to what we the people want. The current system needs to be changed.

Edited by Jep Jorgensson, 25 May 2018 - 04:22 PM.

[catsonmeth]

HEY PGI, THE MORE PREMIUM TIME I HAVE, THE LESS I WANT TO USE IT, AND THE LESS I WANT TO GET MORE. SOUND LIKE A GOOD F****** BUSINESS MODEL?

Compromise between corporate greed and we, the consumers: use premium time by the day. It would be too much to ask for time to tick only when online unless it was reduced by 90%, but there's no way to use 9 days of premium time effectively if it's always ticking away once I activate it. It's just not worth the money.

I'm going to have days in which I can play a lot and days when I can't play at all. If I could activate 24 premium hours at a time and keep the rest banked, that'd be good enough. I MIGHT EVEN WANT TO BUY A COUPLE DAYS OF PREMIUM TIME IF I COULD DECIDE WHEN TO USE THEM.

[-Spectre]

Ultimately, hiking the price to have it only active when you are on, sound great to those people who can't play consistently, but for those who play a lot, the price change would end up in a net increase in cost. A good compromise, like catsonmeth mentioned, would be to provide the option to activate it in increments. They don't have to make it 24 hours at a time, if they feel like that would cost them too much, but make it activatable maybe a week at a time? I feel like that is a good compromise between the two positions. It allows PGI to make money (the reason they exist), and it allows players to decide to activate their PT when they know they are going to be on a lot. It would be even better for the players to be able to do three days at a time, so we could activate it over the weekend, but I would understand if PGI didn't want to do that.

[Doomich]

In this case, you will get an incredible rise the premium time price, and it will definitely not in favor of most players.
"No"

Edited by Doomich, 21 June 2018 - 09:35 PM.

[Mechwarrior1441491]

Nothing like opening a bag and getting premium time and then not being able to control when you use it. That is complete and utter trash.

I am fine with it ticking even when not online. It would be stupidly expensive for it to only tick when online.

Think of your premium time like an MMO sub. That sub ticks no matter if you are online or not.

Edited by Mechwarrior1441491, 25 June 2018 - 07:07 PM.

[D V Devnull]

Mechwarrior1441491, on 25 June 2018 - 07:05 PM, said:

Nothing like opening a bag and getting premium time and then not being able to control when you use it. That is complete and utter trash.

I am fine with it ticking even when not online. It would be stupidly expensive for it to only tick when online.

Think of your premium time like an MMO sub. That sub ticks no matter if you are online or not.

Actually, it ain't that expensive for a company. Plus, there are companies that have decided to pause things like Premium Time when you're offline. If you don't believe me, just go searching, and you'll find some.

~D. V. "Not all MMO subs work the same way..." Devnull

[Dr Angst]

Just joining this discussion because I just got ripped off my premium time almost completely.

I backed this game so I have a "Veteran Status" so you guys know for how long I've been playing this game.

Bought a shitload of mechpacks and thus I have (had) a lot of Premium time in my "Bank".

Always added 30 days at a time when activating my premium time and so far it has worked well (even though I also think that it should only count when playing but, meh, you can't have everything in a Free to Play game).

Took a break for a couple of months due to other games coming out (Apex Legends and Anthem).

Came back to participate in the lates event (the Big Mood event).

Played one game and noticed in the after-report that I didn't have Premium time activated.
So I figure I'd log out and go to the website to activate 30 days.
To my horror I see that I only have 120 hours left (about 5 days) when last I checked I had 200 days or more left.

Sent a mail to support and this is their reply:

Quote

GM Patience (Piranha Games)
Mar 11, 11:56 PDT
Thank you for the follow-up, it could not have been activation of full banked time as you still have 120 hours left.
My apologies I am not able to help more this time.
Regards,


GM Patience
Senior Customer Support Rep
Piranha Games

I guess I won't be playing anything these guys ever produce again.

Was fun but now I'm leaving this house.

Edited by Dr Angst, 11 March 2019 - 11:29 AM.

[Bistrorider]

Voted "yes", but I opt for other solution mentioned in this topic. All premium time (also from events) should be consider banked premium time with option to activate 1 day premium time, 2 days, 3 days, 100 days and so on. As I heard right now you can activate minimum 30 days of banked premium. So if you have like a week of premium it will be activated whether you want it or not. Let the player choose how many premium time he want to activate and when.

Edited by Bistrorider, 07 March 2020 - 02:05 AM.

[PocketYoda]

Of course i had hundreds of days forced premium time and i took a break came back to 14 days..

Edited by Samial, 21 December 2020 - 09:25 PM.

[Cichol Balor]

you act like the current pricing doesn't take into account that people don't play 24/7.

[randomxtc16]

How about being able to turn on/off premium time instead at ones leasure? Simplest solution, a no brainer really...

Or

Premium time only being used during a played match. Not ticking off while in the mechlab...

[Ghoja]

It's been a long time, but I'm pretty sure premium time was auto-banked and had a way to use it in day increments. It was changed because people ended up having 6+months of time banked. Ok, so it ticks off even when not playing, that has always been that way. Without trying, back when clan invasion started, I had around 240 days of premium time banked. I still have 39 days banked. I'm sure some people had years banked. It was usable in day or week increments. And, if I remember correctly, you could turn it on and off. If you want it changed back to that system, forget ever seeing premium time being a reward for any of the non-stop events, and a hefty increase in the cost of it. They got rid of it working that way because it hurt their bottom line, it just wasn't sustainable. MC and Premium Time are about the only things this game has to make money on that doesn't cost dev time, and they've been giving both hand over fist in events. It was abused early on, and they changed it, so the odds of it going back are next to nothing.

[VectorStrike]

Absolutely. In fact, every subscription-based or premium time-based software should be like that.