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Why 21-day trial NOW? Everyone's missing the obvious...
Inhibitor
Member Posts: 45
Several people have been wondering why SOE has offered the 21-day trial now, before
the next patch, etc, etc.
They announce the 21-day "come back" trial at the SAME TIME that they start collecting
information through the Launchpad?
They're trying to gather more data from those who are no longer there...that's my theory.
As far as why some can log in on the trial and not others (I didn't receive the email, and can't
log in...never been banned, forums OR in-game)...well, I have a theory about that as well:
We're dealing with SOE here. Every time you try to log in for the trial on your old account,
someone else probably gets a 12-day bonus on their paid account.
the next patch, etc, etc.
They announce the 21-day "come back" trial at the SAME TIME that they start collecting
information through the Launchpad?
They're trying to gather more data from those who are no longer there...that's my theory.
As far as why some can log in on the trial and not others (I didn't receive the email, and can't
log in...never been banned, forums OR in-game)...well, I have a theory about that as well:
We're dealing with SOE here. Every time you try to log in for the trial on your old account,
someone else probably gets a 12-day bonus on their paid account.
Comments
exellent pont you make perfect sense those evil bastids
Even though I wouldnt put it past SoE to do what the OP is describing (and it is most definately possible), I tend to agree with Hax.
As I have stated in another thread (and I am sure to get flamed for posting it in this thread), next month is the NGE's 1 year aniversary. So far the NGE has been far from spectacular. They need more active subs by the one year mark to justify anything else (IMO). Even if those subs are free 21 day trials. That way they can show whomever is concerned all those reactivated veteran player subs (even though they were free) in Oct, and say that all the work that they did attracted even the disgruntled veteran players who had quit before. Wich in turn will only justify further progression of the NGE, and give them even further reason to NOT give the players any classic servers, or any type of a roll back because of the sudden 'success' of the NGE.
Could you imagine how much of a failure they would have called the NGE if people wouldnt even accept a free 21 day trial a month before its even a year old? It would have been a sure sign of failure if they couldnt even give it away.
A year is a enoungh long period to consider a project as a success or a failure in terms of showing results to 'the bosses'. In this case success or failure is measured by number of subscibers. In my opinion this 21 day trial is just a way of getting more subs just to give 'the bosses' a final number of subs in relation to presenting results. In other words:
Boss: Did we achieve our objectives after a year of the new project?
Devs:this is what we expected,this is what we have'
RESULT?................................
Boss: 150,000 subs! Really?
Dev: Yeah Boss.
Boss: You think I was born yesterday? Where's the cash?
Dev: ... (blank stare)
They can inflate sub numbers all they want. The boss will take 1 sub for $500,015 instead of 150,000 subs for $500,000 any day. FREE trials aren't gonna do it.
I realize I said I quit. I never said it was forever
Boss: 150,000 subs! Really?
Dev: Yeah Boss.
Boss: You think I was born yesterday? Where's the cash?
Dev: ... (blank stare)
They can inflate sub numbers all they want. The boss will take 1 sub for $500,015 instead of 150,000 subs for $500,000 any day. FREE trials aren't gonna do it.
/agree ^^ thay can give all the free trials they want but if the subs are down they are down and only a lie or "subjective maths" will say anything other than the truth and thats got to be the revinue is down
Tin Foil hats dont work.. its all a conspiracy
I realize I said I quit. I never said it was forever
my theory on some people not being able to get the free 21 day trial:
perhaps there are/will be investors or people from LA in game, and they don't want people who were banned
from the suckboards in game telling it like it is!
Does your theory involve that you never opted in on the email solicitations or that your ISP's spam filtering software is killing it or your own emailer for that matter?
Email is highly unreliable at the current time, building conspiracy theories on not getting a solicitation because they are out to get you is really just grabbing at straws.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
Does your theory involve that you never opted in on the email solicitations or that your ISP's spam filtering software is killing it or your own emailer for that matter?
Well, considering that I AM opted in, and DO receive the newsletters, no, it doesn't. But then again, I'm sure you have another baseless assumption you can use to try to shoot down something that someone says that you perceive as negative against SOE. This wasn't intended as negative; just offering an explanation for the timing of the trial, a question others had asked, not a conspiracy theory.
Email is highly unreliable at the current time, building conspiracy theories on not getting a solicitation because they are out to get you is really just grabbing at straws.
I get the newsletters; exactly HOW is email "unreliable"? And, for that matter, claiming that they can't even send out emails with a reasonable amount of success seems to be a fairly weak defense against a claim that we should expect technical and execution problems when dealing with SOE. Thanks for giving me another point to illustrate that with.
I am one of those people who won't use the 21 day free trial. I tried to like the NGE for 2 month and I know there is NOTHING ingame that would attract me back even with the changes since January.
EDIT: on a side note, are not SOE releasing the new box in Nov with all expansions included? I think they just want more players around so the newbies don't quit within their first month...
"There are two kinds of spurs, my friend. Those that come in by the door; those that come in by the window"
Just because you are getting the newsletter doesn't mean something in that particular email wasn't content blocked. I do not get the emails myself so I can't sit and look at it and see if it's from the same address and server as the newletter.
My point was just because you didn't get doesn't mean it wasn't sent. Maybe it was and maybe it wasn't.Email IS unreliable these days with all the spam issues. I manager several email servers and trying to make sure everything my company needs to get through is a real nightmare. I always have people coming to me with the wierdest filter issues.
And trying to twist this into some lacking in technical apptitude by anyone including SOE is really sad. Do you even know how email works? Once it leaves their servers they have near zero control over what your isp and every bounce in between does with that email.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
Does your theory involve that you never opted in on the email solicitations or that your ISP's spam filtering software is killing it or your own emailer for that matter?
Email is highly unreliable at the current time, building conspiracy theories on not getting a solicitation because they are out to get you is really just grabbing at straws.
If that was the case, then logging on would get you into the game no matter if you read the e-mail or not (There is no code or re-activation link). I'd be back in, which I'm clearly not.
The only people I know who got in were Jedi or BH. That's it. Stupid Stupid Stupid.
Shayde - SWG (dead)
Proud member of the Cabal.
It sounds great, so great in fact, I pitty those who canceled
I don't like it when you say things. - A Vanguard fan who does too.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
I think I misunderstood Inhibitor as well, I am sorry if I did.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
It is well known that the game is laggy and buggy, always has been. The Restuss fiasco and continuing complaints about it, cities, and even laggy spots out in the boonies are well known current (and many are also past) issues for some of the player base.
My theory - they're going to revamp the game somewhat to make it more "playable" on the types of systems players are playing it on. No tinfoil hats needed for this one. How? I don't know. But that is the only reason I can see for them to gather that kind of info. I don't buy into the more inventive theories for this move - I think they're trying to keep the current playerbase and part of that effort will be to reduce lag-related issues caused by high graphics requirements. I obviously doubt they'll be tweaking the graphics up, rather they'll worsen them somehow, and to what degree I can't say. However, since the original playerbase generally was composed of a high percentage of financially-independant and moderately affluent 35+ year old males, and the current playerbase is probably composed of a much lower percentage of the same and a high percentage of 15+ males who aren't quite so affluent nor independent, and consequently since the current playerbase generally will have less advanced computers, I think the graphic demands the of the game are getting tweaked down.
SWG Veteran and Refugee, Intrepid server
NGE free as of Nov. 22, 2005
Now Playing: World of Warcrack
Forum Terrorist
However they have mentioned this year a graphics upgrade for the skin. They did a small one already but I got the impression they weren't referring to that one. Something more along the lines of the Luclin graphic upgrade for EQ 1.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
If that was the case, then logging on would get you into the game no matter if you read the e-mail or not (There is no code or re-activation link). I'd be back in, which I'm clearly not.
The only people I know who got in were Jedi or BH. That's it. Stupid Stupid Stupid.
Ah you beat me to it about the Jedi and BH. There was a thread started on the suckboards that was asking why only some people got the free 21 day invite, and others didnt. I didnt follow the thread for very long, but everyone seemed to agree that BH and Jedi were getting the invite. Not any other prof.
soe offices after a year of nge, in a video
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8669142867840813798&q=career+builder&hl=en
Okay, I had a fairly long response typed out, and then deleted it. Instead, I have one question:
I'm not going to give SOE the benefit of the doubt? With the numerous bugs, examples
of broken code, etc, in the game's history (dating back to the very beginning, mind you...this isn't a recent development), the logical assumption is that something is going wrong in the execution. That, coupled with the fact that a thread in the Tech Support forum on the official SOE site says that the CS department said they had "a problem to sort out" with the trial, leads me to believe it's not just a blocked email.
Does your theory involve that you never opted in on the email solicitations or that your ISP's spam filtering software is killing it or your own emailer for that matter?
Email is highly unreliable at the current time, building conspiracy theories on not getting a solicitation because they are out to get you is really just grabbing at straws.
If that was the case, then logging on would get you into the game no matter if you read the e-mail or not (There is no code or re-activation link). I'd be back in, which I'm clearly not.
The only people I know who got in were Jedi or BH. That's it. Stupid Stupid Stupid.
I got in :P
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
LMAO, I have SOE on block sender
I don't give a shit if it's 3 years, it's still NGE
Boss: 150,000 subs! Really?
Dev: Yeah Boss.
Boss: You think I was born yesterday? Where's the cash?
Dev: ... (blank stare)
They can inflate sub numbers all they want. The boss will take 1 sub for $500,015 instead of 150,000 subs for $500,000 any day. FREE trials aren't gonna do it.
I would think the boss is VERY happy at the millions of $ collected from a game still in beta
From what I saw in the email, you have to log in by 10/31 to receive it. If they release the new box set mid november, that means that only those who waited until the last day will still be able to log in through the free trial. Even then, if the players on the free trial do not like it, they probably would have stopped logging in well before that. I don't think this is what SOE was intending.
Instead I think that they are counting on winning some vets over by showing how much the NGE has improved. Will it win everyone over? Not a chance, but even if it brings back 5% of those who left, it is still more than what they have now.