Loyal Subscriber Program - Would you support it?

[Deleted]

What ho,

With the end of each expansion, the subscriber numbers drop significantly for about a year before picking up again with the arrival of new content. As Blizzard has shown, there is little possibility for them to push out bonus content during this period, as all resources are going into the new expansion. This might sound trivial, but it is a loss of about 200-600 million dollars in potential revenue.

However, there are other ways to keep players motivated to stay subscribed. Little perks for the loyal fans, if you will. Just enough to slightly tip the scale over in favour of staying subscribed, rather than giving it a rest for a few months. They did this with the Annual Pass a couple of years back, but I believe that the concept would be more successful if it worked on an accumulative basis, rather than encouraging people to bind themselves for a year at a time.

Here's a very rough example, just to give you the general gist of what I mean...

World of Warcraft Loyal Player Programme

Long-standing Subscriber Perks:

120 months (10 years) - Receive the coveted Exalted Champion's Ring for your faction of choice! This is a real-life item to wear on your finger - similar to the sword, shield, and helmet given to long-standing Blizzard developers.

100 months - Receive the digital versions of all future expansions of WoW for free!

80 months - Receive an exclusive in-game mount and battle-pet - this amazing pair is yet to be revealed.

60 months (5 years) - Receive the in-game transmogrifiable item-sets: Horde's Edge and Alliance's Bulwark, in Plate, Mail, Leather, and Cloth versions!

40 months - Receive a discount on your monthly subscription to World of Warcraft.

20 months - Become a Blizzard developer! Unlocks access to unique development polls, player feedback discussions, blogs, and more!

12 months - Celebrate your first year in Azeroth with free copies of the game, including the most recent expansion, for two of your friends!

6 months - Receive a free Character Boost to Level 90!

3 months - As a thank you for becoming a citizen of Azeroth, receive a free mount or battle-pet of choice from the Blizzard Shop!

Months Subscribed During Specific Expansions Perks:

20 months - Receive a care-package to prepare you for the next expansion! Includes potions, bandages, and a basic set of quest gear appropriate for and only usable in the next expansion.

16 months - Receive a new title with each expansion - first up is 'Veteran of Pandaria'!

12 months - Receive a 25% bonus to reputation gained with all factions!

6 months - Receive a 50% bonus to experience gained on all characters!

Again, these are simple examples to showcase the idea. The actual perks could differ wildly from these.

[wych]

Nah screw that, the only incentive to stay subbed should be that there's enough new content to keep the player entertained

[Arrowstormen]

I think content should be the drive behind a subscription, not a game about being subscribed long enough to get some perks.

[Deleted]

I think content should be the drive behind a subscription, not a game about being subscribed long enough to get some perks.

I definitely agree, but Blizzard have made it clear that they cannot produce content faster than they are already doing it - so perhaps something else can do the trick apart from new content?

[Palemaster]

I like it, but I don't think it'll ever happen.

Giving away stuff that you might end up buying for real money isn't really Blizzard's MO.

[Deleted]

While they have the largest playerbase of all other MMOs combined, I don't see the need to such a program.

PS: Wow, all poll options are equal right now.

[Kaleid]

You know what I get for subscribing to the game? The ability to play the game. I don't pay for anything else, no reason to get anything else.

But, seriously.

I don't need any additional reasons to stay motivated to keep my subscription active. I don't think I would stay active just for the perks. Also, what about people that started playing in Cata or Mists? They wouldn't have a chance in hell at any of the higher perks. People that started playing in Mists aren't going to stay subbed for the next 5-10 years straight; and if they do, it sure as hell won't be for a mount and pet.

If you can't find any reason to play the game as it is, you should probably not play it. Right? Maybe. I don't know what pleases this generation.

[Deleted]

if the game is still as dry, soulless and boring why the hell should i stay subbed lol

[Deleted]

You know what I get for subscribing to the game? The ability to play the game. I don't pay for anything else, no reason to get anything else.

But, seriously.

I don't need any additional reasons to stay motivated to keep my subscription active. I don't think I would stay active just for the perks. Also, what about people that started playing in Cata or Mists? They wouldn't have a chance in hell at any of the higher perks. People that started playing in Mists aren't going to stay subbed for the next 5-10 years straight; and if they do, it sure as hell won't be for a mount and pet.

If you can't find any reason to play the game as it is, you should probably not play it. Right? Maybe. I don't know what pleases this generation.

I see your point, and I agree to an extent. But what I am trying to cover here isn't the players who will either play or not, based on the content. I am more after the large category of players who are sort of always on the fence around this time of year.

"Is it worth staying subscribed to hang out and do some raids with my friends, or am I done?"

Little things like these could be just about enough to tip the scale in one direction, and motivate players to keep subscribing even if there isn't a ton of things to do.

[Lemmiwink]

Nah screw that, the only incentive to stay subbed should be that there's enough new content to keep the player entertained

Word /10char

[Deleted]

if the game is still as dry, soulless and boring why the hell should i stay subbed lol

I see you haven't played Wildstar yet.

[Sarella]

If they fail to produce something worth paying for, why continue to pay?
The only reason Blizzard have these end of expansion periods is because it's financially profitable for them to have them. If they found it was costing them money, they would find a way to heavily shorten them, pushing a lot of things to the X.1 patch to accommodate the shorter release dates (things such as Garrisons, raids would all be pushed to X.1 instead of being available instantly).

Encouraging people to sub continuously for no product is the work of the company, it should NEVER be the work of the fans.

[Deleted]

I think content should be the drive behind a subscription

And where is that content?

[Lora]

Considering I'd get all of those badass products then fuck yeah.

[mauserr]

And where is that content?

I don't know, every patch and expansion? What a dumb fucking question, but this is MMO-C so there's lots of these around.

[Deleted]

I don't think these rewards should be given out in order to get more subscribers, but to give rewards out to players simply based on their loyalty to the game is a good thing. They could give out mounts as veteran rewards if they weren't too busy pushing them into the store.

- - - Updated - - -

I don't know, every patch and expansion? What a dumb fucking question, but this is MMO-C so there's lots of these around.

Yeah it's been 10 months since the last patch.

[Tastyfish]

It's not keeping me in FFXIV.. why would it work for wow? lol

[lawow74]

No, it's one more thing for people to whine and cry about incessantly.

[Mormolyce]

I've thought for ages that they need to do more of this sort of thing.

[Dundebuns]

Character birthdays in GW2 were quiet nice.Some transmog stones, level 20 character, chances at name and appearance changes. etc.