Changes to contest rules/policies

[Yinnyth]

The majority of players obviously disagree with him. It's difficult to tell if some people come here just to upset people or have an alternative agenda. Ether way a lot of players talking really bad bad/ignoring them because of the comments they make on these forums. Alhanelem really shouldn't try to defend this bad policy and screw with others who pay extra for the right to own multiple accounts. It just shows how rude and unsympathetic people are to others who pay money for as Alhanelem said "In game trinkets!" If those trinkets are so minor it shouldn't matter if everyone was allowed to win per FFXI account.

What effort would be involved in changing the system so these trinkets can be equally obtained-- not just by me-- but by my mule accounts as well? Because I have several mule accounts all linked to the same SE account, and they're all me behind the computer. I respect that you're ok with me entering these contests several times even though I'm just one person and I'm paying virtually nothing for my entry.

My concern is less about my increased chances of victory, less about your ability to share your SE account with other people while having seperate chances of victory, and more about how much effort is involved in changing the system. To the extreme, is it worth 10 trillion man-hours of work so 1 couple who linked their POL accounts to the same SE account can each enter contests seperately?

Obviously, these changes would not take 10 trillion man-hours of work. That's a ridiculous number. But people talk about these issues as though they cost 0 man-hours of work which is an equally ridiculous number. How much money would you be willing to accept SE sinking in to this project of changing their system?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying the OP is wrong. They raise a very good point, and they are getting screwed by the system. But how do you fix this system in such a way that it:

1. Doesn't screw over legitimate users.
2. Doesn't allow people like me with multiple accounts to enter contests multiple times.
3. Doesn't cost more resources than it's worth.

It's a tough question to answer because someone is gonna get screwed. It's easy to assume the devs can make these changes with the push of a button, but even if they listen to you and make these changes, it will cost them time they could be using to do something else. Something I care about, for example. If you can drum up enough support, good for you. I haven't been able to drum up enough support for any of my ideas, so don't be offended when yours gets turned down. There's thousands of us playing this game, and we all have our own ideas for what the devs should be spending their time on.

[Sarick]

What effort would be involved in changing the system so these trinkets can be equally obtained-- not just by me-- but by my mule accounts as well? Because I have several mule accounts all linked to the same SE account, and they're all me behind the computer. I respect that you're ok with me entering these contests several times even though I'm just one person and I'm paying virtually nothing for my entry.

You pay real money for each subscribed account. This game isn't free the contest aren't free. Even the so called free stuff trinkets aren't free. If you buy an item like a music CD and it includes in game content that isn't free. If you attend an event that gives away in game prizes that still isn't free even if you enter free. Why, because the game is subscription based.

Want to know how the accounts are separated? When I get a bill every month each of my accounts is billed separately. They the accounts aren't actually merged in game. They're only linked to a management system. These accounts get billed the same amount and not all items can't be transferred like main account mules. So even if I am one entity I pay for multiple separate accounts and each of those accounts should be allowed equal benefits.

We pay for the subscriptions, we pay for the expansions, we paid for the token. People here who agree that the policy is fine either don't maintain multiple accounts or don't want players who pay for multiple accounts to benefit from them. It's like having a limitation on you that you're being treated like you only own one account when your paying for multiples. The problem is the management system. Each account should be treated equally otherwise, they should let people separate them. Then get rid of the multiple account management issues they're constantly causing.

My concern is less about my increased chances of victory, less about your ability to share your SE account with other people while having seperate chances of victory, and more about how much effort is involved in changing the system. To the extreme, is it worth 10 trillion man-hours of work so 1 couple who linked their POL accounts to the same SE account can each enter contests seperately?

Obviously, these changes would not take 10 trillion man-hours of work. That's a ridiculous number.

I agree with this, the problem is the SE account is being used to manage contest not the character account. The contest themselves should be maintained inside the game world per account. When they use that web management page it treats the accounts as one paying entity even though each account is billed independently at full subscription rate.

As for me flaming, I never called anyone a name (though I'd like to sometimes) in the topic.

1. Doesn't screw over legitimate users.

Unless it lowers the chance of others winning who are legitimate paying subscribers its screwing over people who pay FULL subscriptions for unique characters. These items can't be transferred to other accounts so that account deserves rights to have the trinkets. Gil or transferable items is a different beast.

2. Doesn't allow people like me with multiple accounts to enter contests multiple times.

Why should this matter they are paying for each independently, I can log on and play both characters at the same time even though they are in the same management account. I pay a full fee for each account. The managment system is broken here because it's treating accounts like independent MULES. I wouldn't be paying for multiple accounts if you could only log on one at a time that's what the little content ID's are for.

3. Doesn't cost more resources than it's worth.

How is it going to cost resources? Unless I'm mistaken any in game generated item is a few simple bytes of data that can be copied over and over. The only limits are the data space they are stored in. The only real cost of the contest is managing/distributing the items.

It comes down to the RARE-EX items that can't be traded, not gil or stuff players can sell off. These things aren't going to break the game even if they're awesome because the character still has to be able to use them. They'll take up inventory space and can't be transferred or sold to other accounts.

[Yinnyth]

How is it going to cost resources? Unless I'm mistaken any in game generated item is a few simple bytes of data that can be copied over and over. The only limits are the data space they are stored in. The only real cost of the contest is managing/distributing the items.

I'm not saying the increased bandwidth of more player entries is the cost. Nor am I saying the increased number of pixels that need to be distributed to winners is the cost. The cost is the effort that SE would need to put towards changing a system they already have in place. What I was saying is that this change will cost some amount of man-hours that we can only speculate over how much it is, yet everyone is talking about it as though it will take no time, no effort, no money whatsoever.

As you later point out, attempting to get your accounts split to new SE accounts involves going through a lot of red tape. As with any large company, even the simplest actions can require comical amounts of work. So how much are these changes worth? Would you still support them if it required all updates to be pushed back an entire month?

[Sarick]

I'm not saying the increased bandwidth of more player entries is the cost. Nor am I saying the increased number of pixels that need to be distributed to winners is the cost. The cost is the effort that SE would need to put towards changing a system they already have in place. What I was saying is that this change will cost some amount of man-hours that we can only speculate over how much it is, yet everyone is talking about it as though it will take no time, no effort, no money whatsoever.

I think I pointed this out in post you quoted :P "The only real cost of the contest is managing/distributing the items." Still if a person is paying a subscription for a service that isn't free those efforts should be included with the package. If not its considered not supported. I could understand if the service was FREE but it's a paid service. When people joined the management system they wasn't made aware that it would restrict character in game opportunities every time they decided to make a contest.

As you later point out, attempting to get your accounts split to new SE accounts involves going through a lot of red tape. As with any large company, even the simplest actions can require comical amounts of work. So how much are these changes worth? Would you still support them if it required all updates to be pushed back an entire month?

I doubt it would need a lot of work. If it does it'd be because they designed the system wrong at the start to make it difficult to transfer. It's been done before on others. The red tape is actually getting someone willing to help. When I wanted a password reset the phone rep said it was impossible to recover the password or reset it. This was caused by SE spamming those orchestra events to the POL and main email accounts. It made the Icon blink constantly until I was able to delete the mail off the account!

On the forums I posted about it and someone mentioned the account management had a mail reset option. I went in there and FIXED the problem. The support options failed when the public knew more about a fix then the paid staff. The staff was incredibly rude about it when I ask to talk to someone else.

The issue I'm having here is to get both accounts equal access contest forums etc. We/I shouldn't need to separate character accounts into different management accounts just to access a contest for each of them. What set me off the most is some players support bad policy in a selfish way to try and block fairness changes. Contest policies are major complaints. Just like the one time recovery policy that is very restrictive.

As for updates being pushed back a month, I doubt the support staff, legal team, the web designer and the programmer are all the same person. I can see where you're coming from in a coordination standpoint but really setting the updates back a full month for a contest. The management system is just that it should be used to pay for the accounts. Frankly, I don't know why some unlock-able trinkets can't be unlocked in game using moogle codes.

I get it, things where done wrong the 1st round. Saying that it'll take a month to fix and set back the updates a full month implys you don't have much faith in the support/development team. I guess we can agree on a few things. ;D