Veteran Reward changes - Big slap in the face for long time vets?

[Leowilde]

As a longtime vet, I don't care, really. The rewards are nice, but not my incentive to subscribe. I do that for the game itself.

[Altera]

I have played XIV since patch 1.15b, and kept subscription running nonstop from when they started charging for it in Jan 2012, and I do not care that others gets to enjoy these rewards earlier, as I have had them for a while already.
Plus 1440 days for a Squall costume, is waaaaay to silly anyway imo.
So yeah, not at all feeling as if my support of the game has been diminished as I pay to play the game, everything else is just a bonus and such to enjoy

[Hestzhyen]

Guess I'll get the Squall outfit a few months early. Yay? Sucks to lose the exclusivity but Zidane's outfit was the only one I really cared about anyway. I don't even have to spend all my hoarded achievement points either. So they're still useless for me, unless SE adds more things to spend them on. Which they may now that the "reward" system is based on gameplay instead of sub time that slowly becomes more and more ridiculous as the game gets closer to EoL status.

We probably won't see the end of XIV for a while yet. But as others have said newbies joining now wouldn't be able to get the Squall outfit unless they stayed subbed right up until the end of 2021. The game may well be in it's twilight years at that point.

[Alleo]

Reposting my opinions from the other thread:

I would be fine if they had decided to cut the amount of days for the last two outfits in half but to cut them down that much was a bit shocking. Also it seems that the veteran players truly dont have any kind of thank you anymore in the game and even though they dont need to do this, it was still a nice gesture for those that constantly subbed. The new reward structure seems to be that you need to sub a certain amount of days in a certain span of time thus it has nothing to do with veteran players or not. It is nice for the new players that want the costume and the last rewards were are bit much but its also not that great for newer players that dont focus much on achievement points..no matter how often you played the game and how many things you did you would always get all the items after a certain amount of time.

Now (if I understand it right) you will only get the costumes as reward and all the other items need achievement points to get them..seeing how a lot of points are behind boring grindy things I am not really sure if that is so great for newer players. (Only if they set the bar really low for the amount of points needed) They could have simply made a cut to the last two or three rewards and let the rest stay as it was..and do completely new things with the achievement points. Now some newer players might be in a worse situation since they might not play that much different content right now thus dont have much points and thus cant get the items (depending on how much they cost), and us long time players have no real incentive to sub constantly and we also dont get a fantasia or anything like that as a small "sorry for the chance but thanks for subbing".

I mean it does probably save some money for those that sometimes only subbed to get their rewards but isnt that kinda bad for SE? Now with the new model of certain time spans for rewards people might even sub less constantly than before because they simply have no carrot there. (I am not saying that the majority only subbed for them but I am quite sure that some might have decided to not let their sub drop if they did a bit of a break to not lose time for the rewards)

[Vaer]

I mean it does probably save some money for those that sometimes only subbed to get their rewards but isnt that kinda bad for SE? Now with the new model of certain time spans for rewards people might even sub less constantly than before because they simply have no carrot there. (I am not saying that the majority only subbed for them but I am quite sure that some might have decided to not let their sub drop if they did a bit of a break to not lose time for the rewards)

Nah, this is probably a calculated decision. Since the amount of people that have the squall outfit after 4 years is probably so low (I just got mine right before SB launched and I've been subbed since ARR launched) that even if they all just up and quit the amount of money to be made from new players having access to the new stuff was probably calculated to be a gain. They are replacing this with stuff like the falcon campaign which is basically veteran rewards but without needing all the previous stuff. I would not be surprised if there is a new campaign similar to the falcon one when the patch drops next week.

I mean for people who just subbed to get the cool stuff, this benefits them as well since if they don't like the item they can drop their sub and not fall behind like with the old system.

At the end of the day it's just business.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

it seems that the veteran players truly dont have any kind of thank you anymore

Veteran Rewards were never a "thank you." They were intended to incentivize a continual subscription, which lost its luster when new players would be waiting several years before seeing potentially their favourite character's outfits. The actual "thank you" has always been to Legacy players who have a permanent reduction to their sub.

[Alleo]

Veteran Rewards were never a "thank you."

Yes the last few rewards where a bit too much, so decreasing them was the sensible thing to do. (The huge amount of it not imo)

Well even if it was not directly a thank you it was still a reward for staying with this game for a long period of time. Now this incentive will be gone and instead of that they will have those specific campaigns. I am just not really sure if SE realize that some might have constantly stayed subbed for the rewards and that this constant sub might fall away now. I mean its kinda good for the people since you could save some money but SE will lose money at the same time.

And like I pointed out, depending on the amount of achievement points needed this might even be bad for some of the newer players.

IMO its just strange how SE seems totally fine in losing sub money by telling people to take breaks if they are bored and by even taking away any kind of long time incentive to stay constantly subbed..

[BillyKaplan]

Now this incentive will be gone and instead of that they will have those specific campaigns.

Depending on how often they run them, it'll be the exact same thing, though. Sub for a period of time and get an award. Now it's a lot more immediate gratification than before where people likely lost hope at some point. If someone wanted the Squall outfit, and it needed 4 years, they wouldn't bother. But if it takes 30 days extra sub time to get a mount you kind of want, people are likelier to get it.

I am just not really sure if SE realize that some might have constantly stayed subbed for the rewards and that this constant sub might fall away now.

I feel like people completely forgot what's the primary purpose of buying sub time in this game. It's to play the game. And while I acknowledge a lot of people continued their sub just for the awards, that is not what people should buy the sub for, and honestly I doubt it's such a massive demographic. Furthermore, it's a demographic SE has limited motivation to invest in. Look at it this way - this is an MMO, who's likelier to bring their friends to play, people who actually pay the sub to play the game, or people who don't really play and only buy the sub for glamour? When you look at it in this way, it becomes obvious who's the demographic SE has more interest in keeping. And if you did pay it for the glamour... well you still want to play the game, right? You'll resub eventually, chances are.

IMO its just strange how SE seems totally fine in losing sub money by telling people to take breaks if they are bored and by even taking away any kind of long time incentive to stay constantly subbed..

Not really. If nothing else it skews their statistics, for one. It also encourages lowered strain on the servers. If you have a sub going and you just feel like hopping onto Balmung, you can (general example). If your sub ran out, that's at least one less person on one of the most congested servers in the game for a while, and as far as they're concerned, that's a really, really good thing.

[HyoMinPark]

Yes the last few rewards where a bit too much, so decreasing them was the sensible thing to do. (The huge amount of it not imo)

Well even if it was not directly a thank you it was still a reward for staying with this game for a long period of time. Now this incentive will be gone and instead of that they will have those specific campaigns. I am just not really sure if SE realize that some might have constantly stayed subbed for the rewards and that this constant sub might fall away now. I mean its kinda good for the people since you could save some money but SE will lose money at the same time.

And like I pointed out, depending on the amount of achievement points needed this might even be bad for some of the newer players.

IMO its just strange how SE seems totally fine in losing sub money by telling people to take breaks if they are bored and by even taking away any kind of long time incentive to stay constantly subbed..

If you have been paying ~$15 USD/month or whatever for a sub plan or game time cards just for the veterans rewards and not to, you know, actually play and enjoy the game, then you have been paying a subscription for the entirely wrong reasons, in my honest opinion.

And I actually don’t see an issue with SE telling individuals to take breaks and perhaps play other games or focus on other aspects of life. Although my tenure in FFXI was extremely short, I still remember, and am quite fond of, the message SE displayed upon logging in: to remember that this is just a game, and to not forget about other aspects and/or responsibilities in your life.

[Alleo]

If you have been paying ~$15 USD/month or whatever for a sub plan or game time cards just for the veterans rewards and not to, you know, actually play and enjoy the game, then you have been paying a subscription for the entirely wrong reasons, in my honest opinion.

Why is it always so black and white? I am not saying that people are just playing a game for the costumes (and even if those exit..why should I care why they play?) but that maybe if someone did not play maybe 2-3 months and would have not subbed for that time span, they might have changed that when they saw a reward that they liked and did not want to lose that months where they dont play. I am not talking about subbing for a year but not playing it but more smaller breaks. Those will be gone now since other than the campaigns (and owning a house..) one has no incentive to even stay subbed if they for a short amount are not playing the game. It might not be too much for one person but such sums can add up over time.