How SE thanks its current player base

[Ryu_Hayabusaa]

so let me get this straight, you are mad at SE for trying to get more subs because golden saucer just came out? lol. "lets get mad at people trying to make more money". dumbest idea ever.

[Giantbane]

so let me get this straight, you are mad at SE for trying to get more subs because golden saucer just came out? lol. "lets get mad at people trying to make more money". dumbest idea ever.

No, but they're trying to promote it at a time when things are already too crowded. They could wait a week and let the initial rush die down a bit and it wouldn't be adding a burden on an already overburdened system.

Honestly I don't think it shows off their game in a very good light if all these potential new subs log in to try things out and get stuck with "sorry, golden saucer is full" or "reserving an instance"

[Welsper59]

so let me get this straight, you are mad at SE for trying to get more subs because golden saucer just came out? lol. "lets get mad at people trying to make more money". dumbest idea ever.

To be fair, it really is a bad time for very high population servers. Not only do they have a queue to log in, but they have a queue to get to the Gold Saucer, which is otherwise instant for most other servers. It'd be like a booked major hotel only having one operating elevator, but instead of adding more or allowing access to the staircase to help alleviate some problems first, they decide to throw out major promotional discounts or free stays to draw in more people and add to the existing problem lol. Bit extreme, but covers the general idea lol.

Otherwise, for the other servers, it's not a big deal at all. Leviathan isn't as bad as ones like Balmung, so I'm glad we generally don't deal with log in and access to Gold Saucer queues (yet).

This. While I am for expanding the population of the game, the fact remains that SE gives away a free month already and wouldn't have to offer such weekends if they managed to keep their content relevant to the point where the players actually feel like it's worth it to subscribe.

Free log in weekends are awful to the long term subscribers while they are happening. Heavy lag spikes makes most content unplayable, I get disconnected very often, and quite frankly, I see more than enough baby players when it's not a free login time to think that only two free login campaigns a year is enough.

That being said, the Gold Saucer is not enough content to suddenly make a veteran player be all like, "OMG! I need to resubscribe!" It's just not enough content, which is the main issue of why people leave the game. There's not enough to do besides gear based vertical progression that is grinding. Once the grind gets pointless, people leave.

And yeah, I'm not anti-social... I just prefer to play the game freely without any disconnects or lag spikes that's caused by an influx of people who KNOW they aren't going to continue to play.

Something you need to keep in mind about this is that when it comes to MMORPGs, the current method is that you don't necessarily rely exclusively on veteran players. As in, that's not your progressive financial source. It's definitely a part of it, but you'll know early on if the game will keep such veteran fans or not, hence the progressive part. Most players today are fickle with their dedication to just one game. Some may stay for days, others weeks, months or maybe even a year (or more). Those that leave may come back. They, once again, may not stay for longer than the mentioned days/weeks/months/years. They are the progressive income sources, since time dictates new and old players coming and going.

Mind you, this is not saying they look at forsaking the veteran players, as we all know that's NOT the case. But rather it's about the 2-way door that gaming is these days. We're not going to spend months playing every game we buy. We're not limited to just one or two good games like we were in the past. Thus, marketing and how business is conducted must change to cater to that lifestyle.