Except the price will be the same before and after early access. There is no difference other than you paid early, which allowed you to play early. They did launch early access as scheduled, and most people have played, technical issues aside.
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Teknina while consumer laws do vary what you said isn't true. The company that gives you a product is expected to hand you a functioning product at the time of purchase. In the case of the xbox we have already established that the xbox became part of the purchase (really part of the contract but that goes into too much depth) unless it is readily understood by both parties that the product is not functioning and the seller better be able to prove that was understood.
Move that here, the EA was promised as part of the purchase as we previously established. The EA currently does not work, now if it was extended until Thursday and release was pushed back then its a different story but as of now they are facing people who have been unable for the vast majority of time (I would estimate less than 25% of the time they have been able to get in) which is where it gets opinionated, a judge would need to decide where its acceptable or not. (Not saying this is court worthy)
As such legally the only right as a consumer is for a refund as in the US digital laws are lax. EU has better digital laws and may be entitled to compensation? I am unfamiliar with EU laws but consumers can choose the law that most benefits them since they can claim their country laws OR where the game is based out of, in this case the US since the servers are there. )At least that is what my reading showed and also what steam says. (The bonus I have dealt with before)
Well its true that we did accept it.
However their ethics would be questionable if they didn't provide something to player who payed to get the amount of playtime.
Truthfully when we purchased this game we didn't pay for the client itself. It was the playtime. And if i cant get into the servers i am the one at loss for $.
So I would believe the title says it all. Compensation for lost time...our time. People were lead to believe by SE, that they would have the ability to play the game during these days of early access. For quite a number of people, this would be at best a half truth as the number of maintenance periods, inability to retrieve NA/EU server lists, various stuck errors, and login prevention issues makes it nearly impossible for someone to actually play the game unless they are constantly devoting a LOT of time simply to try and log in.
There is a saying that time is money, and there is a lot of truth to this. There is an opportunity cost for every person's time, and if you wanted to get into the math of it, could actually be assigned a dollar figure based on people's salaries and income earning potential. Regardless, our time is valuable, and while no one is forcing us to try to play the game during all of these issues, the lack of communication from SE about actual resolutions is stringing people along in the belief that the problems will clear up soon, so people keep trying. In other words, they are wasting our time, and as has been said, that time is valuable.
So yes, compensation could be completely valid, even if people have not paid a single cent of monetary currency, as anyone here on these forums has already invested some of their time into it.
No SE is expensive as it is. And this game is probably the only game left they have long-term that will keep it from going bankrupt, but the way it's going, it's pretty bad. SE hates the US lol, They complained about Tomb Raider not selling well when I believed it sold, a million or 2 at launch, now it's sold 4 million worldwide. SE just wants it more on JP standards.
Wow, some really great opinions and point of views in this thread...
My question still stands, will SquEx compensate people for this lost time? I've been through some pretty rocky launches, and I can't recall any one of them not compensating the player base for not being able to play.
Why is it that every discussion on the subject of lost time instantly turns into a discussion over whether or not people have payed and are consumers and are entitled to anything? I would have thought it was less a question of entitlement and more a question of good faith.
SE showed good faith in reconstructing the game at a loss, to make it playable and enjoyable. As I understand it, they even showed good faith by continuing to update the old game before they finally got rid of it.
Lately SE has been losing the trust of its playerbase, what with the recent connective troubles and most of all the atrocious LACK of COMMUNICATION.
(Whether that only applies to the EU/US playerbase I don't know, as I don't speak Japanese.)
At this point, it would be wise on their part to give the players a reasonable token of apology. Even something like a week of 'free' playtime added to the 'free' month that everyone purchasing the game gets would go a long way to mending the rift that's been forming between them and the many, many customers who haven't been able to play during P4 or the early access. This would promote the return of a good atmosphere between them and their potentially loyal customers, and would make sense from a business standpoint, particularly for a game that relies on ongoing subscriptions.
It's not about whether we're entitled to anything, and it never was.
It is, however, about whether or not SE values its customers. At the moment, a large chunk are thinking they don't, and if they don't want to lose those customers, they need to reach out to them. It's that simple.
To those who have said anything similar to the following:
"You aren't gonna be compensated for time period you aren't playing for."
See this thread:
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...-Orders-in-PSN
Where later in the thread I saw one person confirming from a Sony rep that they are getting their copy of the game refunded. Which apparently was a message told to more than a few people.
Argue the definition of early access, bonus etc. as you will but they've already valued two days of lost early access time. Apparently it's $60. In a manner of speaking.
I would like to think that those of us who have similar issues (worse in fact, theirs was fixed) like having an EU PS3 code would get similarily compensated and I have faith we will. They can only put out so many fires at once.