NCSoft Incentive WTF?

[Strider]

I like everyone else I was really looking forward to this game being released over here in the West. Needless to say, like a lot of you out there I'm somewhat disappointed in the outcome. I'm not going to list all the things that caused me to stop playing for about two months since there's plenty of threads out there about this already. Lol

 

Anyway! Onto the point.

 

A friend of mine who played this game with me decided to stop playing around the same time I did and today he tells me he got an email from NCSoft offering him an incentive to come back and play. This right here I will admit really got to me. Not hating on my friend either as he quit mainly due to hackers in arena, bots in arena, rng boxes and probably won't come back even with the bribe.

 

NCSoft sen him an email offering 7 days of premium, a free 'weapon' upgrade (whatever the hell that is), exp soups, not ONE but TWO hongmoon hexagonal gems (35 AP Diamond and 3 AP 200 LD Amethyst) and some other random stuff. WTF? Seriously? I know the community is split between the whole P2W thing (which caused more than one person I know to leave this game) with the RNG boxes and how gems/mats came out of them but it comes at a price as we all know, cash $$$. Giving out free gems as an incentive to people who have left the game pisses me off in all honesty and it should feel like a slap across the face to all of those people who have stuck with, grinded, defended, and for lack of better words put up with how NCSoft is doing things.

 

Given, I took a break and don't consider myself one of these players but the unfairness of it just doesn't sit right with me as they're giving away what others have worked really hard to get to those who decided this wasn't the game for them in hopes of bringing them back. Instead of rewarding their loyal player base with whatever, they're trying to temp the ones that left and again in my opinion are basically insulting the ones who've stuck with them so far.

 

Forget the cries for solutions the current player base wants, let's get old players back and give them what our current players are striving to get.

 

It's so stupid it's laughable.

 

Great move NCSoft, your thought process leaves me stupefied yet again.

 

P.S.

I got a 7 day premium status (I already bought a year -.-) and Penguin Pet as a Thank You from them for being part of their community... Woohoo....

 

P.S.S

We all know they just want a larger player base so more people fork over their hard earned money buying cash shop items. Lol

[Alysha Hawkeye]

The content of the Care Package:

Quote

 

7-day Premium Membership

400 Hongmoon Coin to spend in our Hongmoon Store

Weapon Upgrade Box

10 Double-XP Traditional Hongmoon Dragon Soup

10 Repair Tools

10 Hongmoon Unsealing Charms

10 Hongmoon Keys

1 Hongmoon Brilliant Cinderlands Key

1 Hongmoon Brilliant Moonwater Key

1 Hongmoon Pentagonal Diamond

1 Hongmoon Pentagonal Amethyst

10 Festival Experience Charms''

 

Where is the +35 AP Diamond and +200 Life Drain Amethyst? You would need SPARKLING HEXAGONAL for that.

 

The most valuable thing from this package is the Fiery Nebula Stone from the weapon upgrade chest, which allows to skip ENTIRELY an upgrade stage up to Awakened Oathbreaker (equivalent to True Pirate)

 

The stuffs are for returnee to have easier time to catch up with players who stick to the game longer than them.

 

Sound like someone just get jealous cuz some people gets free stuffs.

[Jem]

1 hour ago, Strider said:

 

 

NCSoft sen him an email offering 7 days of premium, a free 'weapon' upgrade (whatever the hell that is), exp soups, not ONE but TWO hongmoon hexagonal gems (35 AP Diamond and 3 AP 200 LD Amethyst) and some other random stuff. WTF? Seriously? I know the community is split between the whole P2W thing (which caused more than one person I know to leave this game) with the RNG boxes and how gems/mats came out of them but it comes at a price as we all know, cash $$$. Giving out free gems as an incentive to people who have left the game pisses me off in all honesty and it should feel like a slap across the face to all of those people who have stuck with, grinded, defended, and for lack of better words put up with how NCSoft is doing things.

 

????????

 

7 days of premium, yes, but thhe hongmoon gems aren't even the one's you mentioned.

 

They're crappy 19 AP diamond and some 120 life drain amethyst. They are worth like 10~15g for the diamond and even less for the amethyst.

[Alanstar]

• 400 Hongmoon Coin to spend in our Hongmoon Store
• Weapon Upgrade Box
• 10 Double-XP Traditional Hongmoon Dragon Soup
• 10 Repair Tools
• 10 Hongmoon Unsealing Charms
• 10 Hongmoon Keys
• 1 Hongmoon Brilliant Cinderlands Key
• 1 Hongmoon Brilliant Moonwater Key
• 1 Hongmoon Pentagonal Diamond
• 1 Hongmoon Pentagonal Amethyst
• 10 Festival Experience Charms''

I haven't gotten any of these things above me. I only got 7 day premium and pet penquin which I turned into a upgrade shard.

[Jem]

14 minutes ago, Alanstar said:

• 400 Hongmoon Coin to spend in our Hongmoon Store
• Weapon Upgrade Box
• 10 Double-XP Traditional Hongmoon Dragon Soup
• 10 Repair Tools
• 10 Hongmoon Unsealing Charms
• 10 Hongmoon Keys
• 1 Hongmoon Brilliant Cinderlands Key
• 1 Hongmoon Brilliant Moonwater Key
• 1 Hongmoon Pentagonal Diamond
• 1 Hongmoon Pentagonal Amethyst
• 10 Festival Experience Charms''

I haven't gotten any of these things above me. I only got 7 day premium and pet penquin which I turned into a upgrade shard.

Only those who were inactive from the game for over a month got that stuff.

[TooNoob]

SERIOUS IS THIS FOR REAL, IM GONNA QUIT FOR A YEAR!

[Nixonld]

Almost all games do this. If they don't make money the game shuts down. F2P model is terrible, they should have gone the pay to play route to start, just like they did with all the other regions. 

[Deshadi]

Are people seriously salty over that shit? LOL. I quit 4-5 months ago when hackers and bots were more prominent. I was deciding to come back and see if they were mostly gone considering I knew there was going to be a huge player-base drop.. so I randomly checked my email a day before and realized I had 2 emails. One email was for being inactive for so long, and another was for signing up to the newsletter a long time ago.

 

The reward for being inactive is:

• 7-day Premium Membership
• 400 Hongmoon Coin to spend in our Hongmoon Store
• Weapon Upgrade Box (Fiery Nebula Stone 3x)
• 10 Double-XP Traditional Hongmoon Dragon Soup
• 10 Repair Tools
• 10 Hongmoon Unsealing Charms
• 10 Hongmoon Keys
• 1 Hongmoon Brilliant Cinderlands Key
• 1 Hongmoon Brilliant Moonwater Key
• 1 Hongmoon Pentagonal Diamond
• 1 Hongmoon Pentagonal Amethyst
• 10 Festival Experience Charms

 

While the reward for the newsletter sign-up is:

• Black Penguin Pet

I noticed when I was asking in-game if it was worth it to ditch a character that had all this stuff, people were whispering me and being salty asking where I got it and "wtf"s everywhere. I lvled a SF to 23 and realized I didn't like the class at all, the only thing that made me think about not deleting the character was the Fiery Nebula Stones, since I didn't really know how good they were/are. I ended up deleting the character with everything on it in the end anyway, because I just don't care much about the things listed here besides premium lmfao.

[TheHumji]

Wow seriously? That's too much man. I know most of the MMO give out certain packages to drag the inactive players back to the game. But still, they are giving out friendly newbie package as well so the new players won't be left out.

 

I mentioned friendly newbie package, whatever it is, so long to helps will do, be it some silver for weapon upgrade or imba temporary buffs so that we are able to solo some green dungeons easily. PS, temporary not permanent. 

 

Am I asking too much? I don't think so. But guess what, in here, we new players, get the green dungeons removed from cross server. How are you supposed to find a stupid fking party in a ghost town? Not to mention it's solo able at that current level for some breakthrough. I shouted over and over again at the faction chat, and guess what, nobody gives a Shyt about lowbies. NO help, NO team, how am I supposed to progress? 

 

Well, you might say you can just skip them, find whatever loots and equip them, come back at the higher level. Oh it's so easy isn't it? Come on, I have been keeping all the loots from mobs just for the upgrades and guess what, I can't even breakthrough it and those items messed up my inventory bag.

 

And again, as a new player where the quest is giving out just coppers, the amount of weapon upgrades were almost 10-20 silver in total, not to mention it will reach the breakthrough stage. How are we supposed to squeeze out money? Well, dailies you say. Yes I did but dailies only once per day an it is not that much after all.

 

If you ask me I I were salty over the returning player package, yes I am and I am not hiding it.

 

What is it so hard to put back the green dungeons back to cross server which you ACCIDENTALLY removed? You say it's messy, put a tab, what are tab for? You developed game and you don't even know how to use a tab? Such a joke! Funny isn't it? You said green dungeons are solo able so no point putting them there. Seriously, look at the amount of threads regarding this issue, I pretty sure you are awared of it. Pride problem? Suck it up man, it's clearly your mistake in the first place. 

 

I know this post is offensive and I might get banned from it, well, whatever. I can't find any passion to progress more after all the obstacles. But before that, please use your brain and think on the mistakes you made, you are clearly driving off new players where new players are part of your source of incomes.

 

sorry for the rants as a new player.

[Lunakitty]

The package isn't really that much. After month or two pretty much any player could achieve that unless the player uses their gold on useless items that aren't needed without knowing what is good and what is not. The Fiery Nebula Stone only works until making True Profane if I recall correctly which basically doesn't upgrade that much but is enough to help through the storyline. The gems that comes with the package can pretty much be bought with the gold gotten from main story. Issue here is pure 100 % jealousy over not getting something for free. Are you guys really that greedy that you have to nag about someone who is left behind getting a bit of a boost?

 

What comes to the green dungeons I also agree that they made a mistake of removing them but it was not accident. According to them this was done in other servers but knowing the western mentality no one gives a *cricket* about helping others when the mentality is "me me me and only me". To be honest the dungeons can be done solo easily after you need the upgrade really bad. For example Darkglimpse I did not finish until I was level 31-34.

 

I think many players need to realize that this is still MMO where upgrading your items will and should take long time. It is not made to be finished in few weeks and everyone can then have legendary weapon. What comes to money you will get it from dailies in Silverfrost and if you keep saying that it is impossible to finish the storyline without high gear you are definitely doing something wrong with your character. Getting gold to be honest is least of the issues in the game.

 

I never bought gold from currency exchange and yet I managed to get my main to 636 AP and few 50+ alts with 494-400 AP alongside with some low level alts that I had no will or time to level up yet. Know what to do and how to spend your limited time here is the key.

[TheHumji]

But does that help in gearing up? It helps right, I mean even though it's very minimum but it still help right, if compared to new players where we get nothing but only depression. Thats what I meant, the package for returning players is like returning players need to catch up whereas they don't give a Shyt for new players and just let them die in corner and vanish by themselves.

 

Lets go back to your first para, my question is, returning players need a boost, yes I agree since they are lagging behind, but don't ya think new player also need a boost? Returning players might have the basic requirements such as gears, AP, money for them to progress to reach level cap and slowly upgrade gear since it's just 5 levels away (the last level cap was 45 IIRC, I joined after that so I not sure). And most importantly, it's late game so it's not ghost town. But new players? Man, they started from scratch at a ghost town, they have nothing but themselves and trying to progress but all they hit was a dead end. 

 

Yes I might sounded greedy but what I am asking is at least give us some temporary buff or maybe scale the difficulties according to number of players in team or whatever so that we can progress our gears smoothly without much hassle since it's ghost town 24/7. And the cost of upgrade should be reduced but that might be unfair for old players. So the solution is to increase the reward for dailies whereby whether new or old or returning players could benefit from there, win-win situation isn't it?

 

Not intended to start a war or whatever but sorry for the rants. PS, I grind for my life too,  I'm not that type of player who wanted to reach maximum gear within one week, and I've been through the ghost town era since I just joined a couple months ago. I felt the pain as a newbie and it's very unfair for them. Also, who doesn't like free gift anyway. 

 

Cheers!

[Lunakitty]

I would say the excuse for the package was that they can catch up but the other reason is to lure them back by giving them something for coming to play again. There are constantly ongoing events that boost you up which those players would miss out as they already left the game. I agree that some quests give poor rewards but there are still quests that are high in gold which helps players to gear up decently fast. Also they did recently higher rewards from some dungeons. As long as you aren't level 50 you will miss out from alot of the dailies that are extremely high in gold. And True Infernal/Awakened Profane is enough to get to that level and while getting gold gear up. The gold from main quest is enough to buy 25 AP gem which boosts ALOT.

[CheungRR]

Strange... A real life friend has his account inactive since Lv45 content, and he got only 7 days premium and black penguin...

[AmatsuDF]

On 6/29/2016 at 1:50 AM, Nixonld said:

Almost all games do this. If they don't make money the game shuts down. F2P model is terrible, they should have gone the pay to play route to start, just like they did with all the other regions. 

Only Korea is pay to play, all other regions are free to play and always have been free to play.

[Shintuan]

Realistically if they want to lure players back they have to fix the core problems. Insane grind, server ping, gameguard slowing the game down. etc. Which they aren't going to address any of these anytime soon.

[Lalilulelo]

So instead of rewarding players who support the game, ie. Premium members, they give out incentives to those who gave up on Blade and Soul for whatever reason (the grind, the community, the lag, the game play, the disconnects, etc.)... that makes a whole lot of sense.  It's not like they are giving a lot to the premium members in the first place.  I mean pay to use the wardrobe while it's free in all other regions and you call that a premium incentive?

[Nixonld]

On 7/1/2016 at 0:49 PM, AmatsuDF said:

Only Korea is pay to play, all other regions are free to play and always have been free to play.

You are incorrect, I know at least Japan started P2P. And the Korean version is the gold standard here, so my point really remains valid. I really don't care about any of the kiddies that's parents won't spring to pay monthly, they can go get a job like the rest of us had to do. P2P games enjoy a much better community and much better quality than all of this F2P crap that companies are spewing out.

[Jem]

Only Japan was p2p in the beginning but it went f2p on March 1st, 2015-- As with their other NCsoft games in Japan. It was p2p for a year until it went f2p. No reason was given but people speculate that their monthly service fee was way overpriced and not many people playing it.

[fuku]

21 hours ago, Nixonld said:

You are incorrect, I know at least Japan started P2P. And the Korean version is the gold standard here, so my point really remains valid. I really don't care about any of the kiddies that's parents won't spring to pay monthly, they can go get a job like the rest of us had to do. P2P games enjoy a much better community and much better quality than all of this F2P crap that companies are spewing out.

First off don't get me wrong I completely agree that P2P are usually overall better quality and by far have a way better community, but I'm not sure how well P2P would work for blade and soul. Most games that have been long running P2P are giants with huge audiences and extremely loyal fan bases. Examples would be WOW and FF14. Many MMOs That have recently come out over the past few years have tried P2P but they ended up having to conver to F2P just to keep from dying. Examples would be ESO and Wildstar. Neither are particularly bad games but still failed as P2P none the less. I feel P2P was more accepted back in the early to mid 2000s but is more or less shunned by today's massive casual audience. I personally would be fine with P2P but a majority probably wouldn't and the game would just end up dying even more.     

[Nixonld]

Thanks for making me feel old. :) I've been playing online since the days of MUD's on a 1200 baud modem. And while yes, it takes a good audience, that is basically what this game has, and then you sprinkle in the F2P kiddies that make the entire experience toxic. The game has other issues also, but I fully except NCSoft to figure those out eventually.

 

I played Ultima Online from 1998 until 2003ish, and I still check in on it once in a while, it's still going, and still a sub based game.

[WhoAmI1]

I really cannot believe that ncsoft can do this to punish people who stayed with them during the toughest times.

 

Really ncsoft? This is how you treat them, really?

 

 

[Nixonld]

It's not punishment, it's trying to lure old players back. I got the same thing from Neverwinter online, when they released mod 6, they lost a lot of people, including me. When they fired the person responsible for the mod, and brought in a sensible person, they offered all of us that had left incentives to come back. It's very common in all MMO games.

[882184_1452550488]

Yeah it happened in world of warcraft to for me, i got this scroll of resurection ( bad spelling ) but i guess lots of people know what i mean..

so i still think its a good move from them to send this out to alot of players that have left and maybe wanna give a new try.. 

alot of things have changed and improved.