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I do not understand Funcoms new subscription model...

RudedawgCDNRudedawgCDN Member UncommonPosts: 507

 

I have been subscribed to The Secret World on the recurring 30 days plan.

Will my plan now automatically cancel?

Or will I continue to pay the $14.99 per month subscription fee?

Thanks!

Comments

  • FromHellFromHell Member Posts: 1,311

    subscription is now called membership I believe, but it´s optional. You can keep the new benefits with membership(XP boosts, FC store points and monthly items,...) or cancel. I prefer having the benefits since I like the outfits and pets from the store and quicker XP

     

    Also the next Issue DLC will be an extra FC points purchase, you receive the necessary points with the membership.

     

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  • EmeraqEmeraq Member UncommonPosts: 1,063
    I would imagine that you'd have to cancel it yourself, as most games that go F2P still have subscriptions, and generally monthly rewards for remaining subscribed.
  • ShadinShadin Member CommonPosts: 294
    Like most MMOs with sub, you will be billed automatically every month I'd imagine, until you actively go into your account and press 'cancel'.
  • OrtwigOrtwig Member UncommonPosts: 1,163

    Here's the FAQ if you want to read up on all the details:

    http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=62789

  • BrianshoBriansho Member UncommonPosts: 3,586
    I read the site info and I'm a bit confused. Did they just reword it so instead of subscription it's now membership? Will you still get charged each month or is it like Guild Wars now?

    Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!

  • OrtwigOrtwig Member UncommonPosts: 1,163
    Yes subscribers are now members. Members get 1200 points (plus other perks) per month to spend on DLC packs or in the shop as they wish and are charged per month. Non members are not charged anything.
  • L0C0ManL0C0Man Member UncommonPosts: 1,065
    Originally posted by Briansho
    I read the site info and I'm a bit confused. Did they just reword it so instead of subscription it's now membership? Will you still get charged each month or is it like Guild Wars now?

    Basically this is how it works.

    It is in a way like guild wars now, basically you can cancel your sub if you want to, you'll still be able to play the entire game and all content added up to now (meaning, up to issue 5) for as long as you want without paying anything else. Any new content you'll have to buy in the item store, they intend for them to be priced somewhere between 5 and 10$. New content might or might not be monthly.

    If you keep paying your sub, you're considered a member (so the sub is now called membership), price is the same, and you get 1200 points a month ($10 value), an item of the month (I think first one was a hat), 10% discount on anything on the item store that isn't new content and a time accelerator that increases XP gained from killing monsters by 100% for an hour, with a 16 hours cooldown

    So, the way I see it, if you're interested in the other stuff of the membership deal (the item of the month, time accelerator, and so on), then it's worth to keep subbing. If you're not interested in them (for example, already have your wheel filled or want to fill it at the regular speed, not interested in cosmetic items, and so on) and only want to get the new content, then it's probably better (AKA cheaper) for you to just cancel your sub and buy the mission packs as they are released, since Joel has stated both on the TSW forums and here that the points given to members will be more than enough to get all future content, and that's $10 a month.

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  • OrtwigOrtwig Member UncommonPosts: 1,163
    They've also recently sweetened the deal for members and lifetimers  -- lifetimers will never be charged more than their monthly points for a DLC:
    http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showpost.php?p=1496306&postcount=761
  • MMOdad72MMOdad72 Member Posts: 93

    I'm highly leaning towards this being my mmo until ArchAge or EQNext comes out (may try relaunch of FFXIV but not sure about that).

    Have enjoyed brief time in it , just not really thrilled with the points I buy being expired in 6 months. 

    As in if I dont want to buy much of anything in the shop I should be able to stockpile what points I do buy for  a year , two , whatever as long as the game is open.

    Think its a fairly stupid decision on their part to expire points you buy in 6 months.

  • Po_ggPo_gg Member EpicPosts: 5,749
    Originally posted by Ortwig
    They've also recently sweetened the deal for members and lifetimers  -- lifetimers will never be charged more than $10 for a DLC:
    http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showpost.php?p=1496306&postcount=761

    That sounds cool. I still haven't decided to get the GM pack, but it's even more tempting now :)

    On the other hand, the planning of DLC bundles (probably on sale too) is a big + for the non-member way, so if a non-member can live without a DLC a few months, he/she can buy it later and cheaper in a bundle.

  • VikingGamerVikingGamer Member UncommonPosts: 1,350

    Depending on how much they charge for  DLC, the benifits of membership are a little slim but not bad. You do get $10 in points which makes the rest of membership more like $5 a month, but it only benefits you if you wanted to buy something from the store anyway. You do get 10% off but again, that only helps if you were planning to spend money on the cash shop. Plus, you would have to spend more than $50 to save more than the $5 it is costing you. So again, you only save if you spend in the first place and in this case spending a lot month after month. So what do you really get for your $5? The monthly item, the xp booster and now the guarantee that DLC will only cost 1200 points and access to veteran items. The value here will depend mostly on what they give us for a monthy item, what they offer as vet items and how often they try to sell DLC for more than 1200 points. Otherwise the only item of guaranteed consistent value is the xp booster. If you play consistently and use it most every day that might be worth $5 by itself.

    Overall I think the membership is fairly priced but doesn't really give you any must haves for the game. Paying once for the client and then buying DLC later in bundles or on sale looks like it will be a completely viable way to play the game. On the other hand, if you know that you will be buying all DLC and you want to always get it on time then why not pick up the membership. It seems to me that they did a fairly good job making the choice to get a membership a matter of preference. Both pricing models work equally well. Just choose which one suits you.

    As for the Grand Master membership. $200 is actually a pretty reasonable price point as far as lifetime memberships go. Of course you are gambling that the game will be sucessful enough going forward that Funcom will continue to release content regularly and that you will be subbed for at least 14 months. Just over a year? Thats not bad at all. Even if you buy yearly subs, the lifetime membership is like getting $40 off the second year and everything after that for free. If you have the cash and you really like the game then this is probably the way to go.

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  • BrianshoBriansho Member UncommonPosts: 3,586
    Thanks for the info everyone. Now I'm tempted to give this one a try! I'll decide tonight!

    Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!

  • TalulaRoseTalulaRose Member RarePosts: 1,247

    Cancel the sub/membership. The perks you get aren't worth it.

    Its better to just buy the points that do not expire they can be used accross all the Funcom games.

    The ones you get as part of the membership expire in 6 months and are limited to TSW only.

    And they only give you $10 worth of points for your membership.

     

  • OrtwigOrtwig Member UncommonPosts: 1,163
    Originally posted by TalulaRose

    Cancel the sub/membership. The perks you get aren't worth it.

    Its better to just buy the points that do not expire they can be used accross all the Funcom games.

    The ones you get as part of the membership expire in 6 months and are limited to TSW only.

    And they only give you $10 worth of points for your membership.

    Keeping my sub for a number of reasons:

    • Auto pay ensures I always get the DLC without even thinking about it -- whenever it shows up, there it is
    • Membership guarantees I'll always get the DLC at a max of 1200 points, no matter what the charge is to non-members
    • Perks on top of the DLCs include discount in the cash shop, item of the month and extra points left over any DLC purchases
    They are rewarding players who actually play the game as opposed to those hoading points.
  • MMOdad72MMOdad72 Member Posts: 93
    Originally posted by Ortwig
    Originally posted by TalulaRose

    Cancel the sub/membership. The perks you get aren't worth it.

    Its better to just buy the points that do not expire they can be used accross all the Funcom games.

    The ones you get as part of the membership expire in 6 months and are limited to TSW only.

    And they only give you $10 worth of points for your membership.

    Keeping my sub for a number of reasons:

    • Auto pay ensures I always get the DLC without even thinking about it -- whenever it shows up, there it is
    • Membership guarantees I'll always get the DLC at a max of 1200 points, no matter what the charge is to non-members
    • Perks on top of the DLCs include discount in the cash shop, item of the month and extra points left over any DLC purchases
    They are rewarding players who actually play the game as opposed to those hoading points.

     

    Not really sure I get the logic in the "hoarding points" bit.

    It's not a tangible good anyone can show up and suddenly say , I'm here to pickup all your inventory today you owe me.

    It's a non tangible , virtual number , that someone has paid for.

    Honestly , after reading the official TSW forums , I'm starting to agree with the posters who say there's zero reason they have to make them expire other than a pure money grab.

    And that's the one question I see the devs have ducked the most , not giving any actual answer on why virtual points you have paid money for have to expire in 6 months.

     

  • OrtwigOrtwig Member UncommonPosts: 1,163
    Originally posted by MMOdad72
    Originally posted by Ortwig
    Originally posted by TalulaRose

    Cancel the sub/membership. The perks you get aren't worth it.

    Its better to just buy the points that do not expire they can be used accross all the Funcom games.

    The ones you get as part of the membership expire in 6 months and are limited to TSW only.

    And they only give you $10 worth of points for your membership.

    Keeping my sub for a number of reasons:

    • Auto pay ensures I always get the DLC without even thinking about it -- whenever it shows up, there it is
    • Membership guarantees I'll always get the DLC at a max of 1200 points, no matter what the charge is to non-members
    • Perks on top of the DLCs include discount in the cash shop, item of the month and extra points left over any DLC purchases
    They are rewarding players who actually play the game as opposed to those hoading points.

    Not really sure I get the logic in the "hoarding points" bit.

    It's not a tangible good anyone can show up and suddenly say , I'm here to pickup all your inventory today you owe me.

    It's a non tangible , virtual number , that someone has paid for.

    Honestly , after reading the official TSW forums , I'm starting to agree with the posters who say there's zero reason they have to make them expire other than a pure money grab.

    And that's the one question I see the devs have ducked the most , not giving any actual answer on why virtual points you have paid money for have to expire in 6 months.

    There may be a good argument for not expiring the points.  Still, how hard is it to spend points you've received in 6 months, unless you're not playing at all?  You only expire one month at a time, so you'd never expire all 6 months at once, just the first month that spilled over into the 7 months.  I know they are still discussing the whole thing, but I don't really have a problem with it -- seems to me that if you're active in the game, this is not a situation that would come up.

  • MMOdad72MMOdad72 Member Posts: 93
    Originally posted by Ortwig
    Originally posted by MMOdad72
    Originally posted by Ortwig
    Originally posted by TalulaRose

    Cancel the sub/membership. The perks you get aren't worth it.

    Its better to just buy the points that do not expire they can be used accross all the Funcom games.

    The ones you get as part of the membership expire in 6 months and are limited to TSW only.

    And they only give you $10 worth of points for your membership.

    Keeping my sub for a number of reasons:

    • Auto pay ensures I always get the DLC without even thinking about it -- whenever it shows up, there it is
    • Membership guarantees I'll always get the DLC at a max of 1200 points, no matter what the charge is to non-members
    • Perks on top of the DLCs include discount in the cash shop, item of the month and extra points left over any DLC purchases
    They are rewarding players who actually play the game as opposed to those hoading points.

    Not really sure I get the logic in the "hoarding points" bit.

    It's not a tangible good anyone can show up and suddenly say , I'm here to pickup all your inventory today you owe me.

    It's a non tangible , virtual number , that someone has paid for.

    Honestly , after reading the official TSW forums , I'm starting to agree with the posters who say there's zero reason they have to make them expire other than a pure money grab.

    And that's the one question I see the devs have ducked the most , not giving any actual answer on why virtual points you have paid money for have to expire in 6 months.

    There may be a good argument for not expiring the points.  Still, how hard is it to spend points you've received in 6 months, unless you're not playing at all?  You only expire one month at a time, so you'd never expire all 6 months at once, just the first month that spilled over into the 7 months.  I know they are still discussing the whole thing, but I don't really have a problem with it -- seems to me that if you're active in the game, this is not a situation that would come up.

     

    Not bashing them by any means ,as I think they have done a decent job with the B2P conversion overall , so the expiring points thing just stuck out to me as the one bad PR and business decision they made with it is all.

    I think SWTOR's dead opposite , horrible handling of their conversion even helps TSW's be in an even more positive light.

    I keep waffling between this and Rift , and after a couple of nights of toying around in each , the community here might be the deciding factor for me.

    There were actual long conversations in general chat in TSW for 4-5 mins without a "Barrens Chat" style remark thrown in , and most completely ignored said troll and kept on chatting,

    Something I haven't seen in a long time and have really longed for again in a mmorpg , so currently researching some decent starting builds and hoping to find a friendly/casual guild to join up with. 

  • TalulaRoseTalulaRose Member RarePosts: 1,247

    There is nothing in the shop worth buying other than the DLC. They give you a ton of outfits ingame for free. You get more than enough xp from running dungeons and quests. They also don't add alot of items on a regular basis to the shop. 

    The best model for your $$ is to just buy the points when needed.

  • RocketeerRocketeer Member UncommonPosts: 1,303
    Originally posted by Ortwig
    Originally posted by MMOdad72
    Originally posted by Ortwig
    Originally posted by TalulaRose

    Cancel the sub/membership. The perks you get aren't worth it.

    Its better to just buy the points that do not expire they can be used accross all the Funcom games.

    The ones you get as part of the membership expire in 6 months and are limited to TSW only.

    And they only give you $10 worth of points for your membership.

    Keeping my sub for a number of reasons:

    • Auto pay ensures I always get the DLC without even thinking about it -- whenever it shows up, there it is
    • Membership guarantees I'll always get the DLC at a max of 1200 points, no matter what the charge is to non-members
    • Perks on top of the DLCs include discount in the cash shop, item of the month and extra points left over any DLC purchases
    They are rewarding players who actually play the game as opposed to those hoading points.

    Not really sure I get the logic in the "hoarding points" bit.

    It's not a tangible good anyone can show up and suddenly say , I'm here to pickup all your inventory today you owe me.

    It's a non tangible , virtual number , that someone has paid for.

    Honestly , after reading the official TSW forums , I'm starting to agree with the posters who say there's zero reason they have to make them expire other than a pure money grab.

    And that's the one question I see the devs have ducked the most , not giving any actual answer on why virtual points you have paid money for have to expire in 6 months.

    There may be a good argument for not expiring the points.  Still, how hard is it to spend points you've received in 6 months, unless you're not playing at all?  You only expire one month at a time, so you'd never expire all 6 months at once, just the first month that spilled over into the 7 months.  I know they are still discussing the whole thing, but I don't really have a problem with it -- seems to me that if you're active in the game, this is not a situation that would come up.

    Actually you will be able to setup your account in a way that it autobuys the monthly/whatever content packs from your stipend(they also guerantee that the cost for those will never go above your stipend).

    So really its a moot point since about the only problem with the 6 month expirering points would be coming back after 12 months and not having 12 months worth of points you need for the content.

  • NacarioNacario Member UncommonPosts: 222
    Just to c that i understand this: i bought the lifetimer pack at release, meaning no subs (or future costs?). This is the same eigt withxthe new system?
  • ScalplessScalpless Member UncommonPosts: 1,426
    Originally posted by Nacario
    Just to c that i understand this: i bought the lifetimer pack at release, meaning no subs (or future costs?). This is the same eigt withxthe new system?

    Yes, and you'll get cash shop currency for free.

    Originally posted by TalulaRose

    There is nothing in the shop worth buying other than the DLC. They give you a ton of outfits ingame for free. You get more than enough xp from running dungeons and quests. They also don't add alot of items on a regular basis to the shop. 

    The best model for your $$ is to just buy the points when needed.

    This is the conclusion I came to, as well. The Time Accelerator is a nice bonus, but it's not a big one, especially because it only gives double XP from monsters. As for outfits, I had trouble spending my 1200 bonus points on them, because most of them are too weird or recolors of the same thing.

    It's the same problem GW2 has. They've got an item shop and want you to spend something on it, but there's nothing in the item shop worth spending money on.

  • OrtwigOrtwig Member UncommonPosts: 1,163
    Originally posted by Scalpless
    Originally posted by Nacario
    Just to c that i understand this: i bought the lifetimer pack at release, meaning no subs (or future costs?). This is the same eigt withxthe new system?

    Yes, and you'll get cash shop currency for free.

    Originally posted by TalulaRose

    There is nothing in the shop worth buying other than the DLC. They give you a ton of outfits ingame for free. You get more than enough xp from running dungeons and quests. They also don't add alot of items on a regular basis to the shop. 

    The best model for your $$ is to just buy the points when needed.

    This is the conclusion I came to, as well. The Time Accelerator is a nice bonus, but it's not a big one, especially because it only gives double XP from monsters. As for outfits, I had trouble spending my 1200 bonus points on them, because most of them are too weird or recolors of the same thing.

    It's the same problem GW2 has. They've got an item shop and want you to spend something on it, but there's nothing in the item shop worth spending money on.

    Will aso get the item of the month and discount on any items in the shop.  Agree, though, they need to add more stuff to the shop.  I could see pets becoming a thing, and lots more clothes....

  • NacarioNacario Member UncommonPosts: 222
    Originally posted by Scalpless

    Originally posted by Nacario
    Just to c that i understand this: i bought the lifetimer pack at release, meaning no subs (or future costs?). This is the same eigt withxthe new system?

    Yes, and you'll get cash shop currency for free.

    Originally posted by TalulaRose

    There is nothing in the shop worth buying other than the DLC. They give you a ton of outfits ingame for free. You get more than enough xp from running dungeons and quests. They also don't add alot of items on a regular basis to the shop. 

    The best model for your $$ is to just buy the points when needed.

    This is the conclusion I came to, as well. The Time Accelerator is a nice bonus, but it's not a big one, especially because it only gives double XP from monsters. As for outfits, I had trouble spending my 1200 bonus points on them, because most of them are too weird or recolors of the same thing.

    It's the same problem GW2 has. They've got an item shop and want you to spend something on it, but there's nothing in the item shop worth spending money on.

     

    I think thats a shame though, many bougt the lifetimer and it will backfire financially on funcoms part with that one time purchase from us :/
  • RocketeerRocketeer Member UncommonPosts: 1,303

    In all fairness all the advise given up to now is a waste of space.

    The game has been B2P not even a month, and we have no idea how frequent or expensive DLCs might be. All we know is that they are not supposed to cost more than the stipend for members, which kinda implies they might be more for non-members. Also we have no idea if that rule works "backward", for example if i sub in a year from now and had to buy 10 DLCs to get up to speed, would that cost me 10x1200 or would it cost me 1x1200 + 9xnormal store price. Does the price cut members get apply to the 1200 before or after they get fixed down to it? Will there be future expansions, how will the be sold, and how frequent will THÈY be? 

    All of that will influence wether or not a subscription is worth it or not, talking in absolutes about 2 weeks into the relaunch of this model ... you get more info out of reading tea leaves.

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