Veteran Rewards Recalculated to Account Start Dates, Regardless of Subscription

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Commentary, EQ2

“Is nothing sacred?”

In an unexpected (and undocumented) change today, it appears that players are now receiving Veteran Rewards from their account’s opening date, rather than actual time played as it has been calculated for many years now.

This means that players who rolled a character in November 2004 and have not played a lick since may stand up and be counted along with those who have been actively supporting the game for 10 years, dutifully paying a monthly subscription. It’s a puzzling change to be sure, and the motivation may have been a genuine hope to attract returning players, but it seems to this reader as ill-considered as selling Titles on the Veteran Reward vendor which were originally granted for defeating specific event-related enemies.

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Comments (25)

  • Miragain

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    They have done this before, I returned after giving up on it during one of the win back promotions and recieved full credit for the time I was gone.

    Reply

  • Jrral

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    I think it’s because with F2P it’s becoming too hard to calculate active time. Without this change they’d have to keep track of account age from the time the account was created until F2P went global separately from the time since then, and they’d have to factor EQ2X and the Freeport server and all-access accounts into the calculations as well. I shudder to think of trying to work out all the possible combinations and code to handle them correctly, and that’s not even going into getting management to agree on a definition of “correctly” that’s amenable to being coded (BT,DT,GTTS).

    Reply

  • Bashem

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    I remember answering in a thread about Vet rewards which I stated that they should use the starting date for your char as the starting age and was surprised after the patch on 27th when I saw message that I have 9 and 10 year awards to claim. I was so real happy they changed that as I was like 8 yrs and 4 months before the patch now 10 yr 2 months. Congrats to all that just got there new Vet Rewards.

    Reply

  • bhagpuss

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    The simpler it is the better, I’d say.

    Reply

  • Inarie

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    I think its a welcome change. Like someone mentioned previously, I think its because of the F2P. I mean, now you dont have to pay to accumulate Vet rewards( because of F2P ) and you can also earn Vet rewards from loyalty points, so why not?

    Ive been playing the game on and off since launch and I have many accounts, most of the accounts are at least 6 years old but I didnt keep all of them active through that whole time, its nice now to have more vet rewards on those accounts. I really havent seen anyone in my guild or my personal friends who have been upset by this change, I think its a good one and am happy they did it.

    Reply

  • Inarie

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    Also, they have done this before, in the beginning. You accumulated Vet rewards based on the account age, then they changed it ( from that point ) to be from your paid time. THEN they changed it again for F2P. As someone else said, its probably much simpler this way.

    Reply

  • Loch

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    So few people are coming back from 5 – 10 year breaks from this game. If there were 100 players that took breaks that long and decided to return now, I would be amazed.

    This change alone just isn’t enough to convince a player to come back to a game they haven’t played in so long. If they’re coming back, it’s for the option to roll an 85 instantly, or get 280 AAs instantly or maybe, just maybe, it’s because the new content interests them.

    That being said, I can’t really get fired up about this change. I didn’t get any extra time added to mine, and I’ve been paying gold since I started my account up 4 years ago.

    Reply

    • amuller

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      maybe But I had a 3 year break in my second acocunt when I was cutting back on expenses. So I was wondering why I dinged 4 5 & 6 year vet awards all at once this weekend… Just saying there are some of us and like most things in MMO’s if one group gets a benefit the other group will ask why

      Reply

  • Mrrshaw

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    I think this is a good change. You either keep it since you got your account and payed for it or get added time. Heck, everyone with an account from 2008 or newer already had this… just fair its across the board for people who got accounts 2004-2006 or what not.

    The only thing i can complain about is that a friend of mine *lost* 2 years on their account – for some reason it changed the date of creation on everything – GG SoE.

    Reply

  • FireSmed2014

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    It’s Sony.

    Reply

  • Kauko

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    “but it seems to this reader as ill-considered as selling Titles on the Veteran Reward vendor which were originally granted for defeating specific event-related enemies.”

    I’m glad I’m not the only one who saw those titles for sale and thought, ‘Really?’. The entire point of a title is that you did whatever was required to earn it. Without that it’s meaningless.

    Reply

  • Miragain

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    Speaking of the titles, that makes little sense and am I the only one that thought they might finally put the dragon’s up for sale given that there’s maybe a half dozen left in the world?

    Reply

  • Anaogi

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    Just as a reminder, this is effectively returning to the original method of determining vet reward eligibility. Not accruing time when not subscribed was put in…I’m thinking during Sentinel’s fate.

    Reply

  • Caela

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    I played (and payed) on the EQ2X server (Freeport) when it first launched until the entire game went F2P – and I lost that time (despite putting in a petition and they claiming it was correct). So this is welcome news. I’ll finally get the time I’ve put in.

    However, I don’t have a 10 year in my claim window.

    Reply

  • Prrasha

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    Fine.

    Now let me link my accounts, so my (slightly-older) two-box account can have full vet benefits along with my main account. (They’ve both been paid ‘gold’ accounts since they started; the main one in Dec 2004.) That’s a heckuvalot more cash than most of the grandfathered-in “10 year vets” have given them…

    Reply

  • Necromancer

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    I don’t understand why anyone would have a problem with this. With the game going F2P it’s hard to keep track of subscriptions now so the only fair way for the veteran reward system to work is by doing this change.

    Reply

  • Moose

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    I agree go with account start date. Yes it kills me to say it. 🙂

    Reply

  • Searat

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    Yes this is the original way it was done, and its not like these rewards.. cough 10 year is even remotely worth the 10 year sub

    Reply

  • MJ

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    Its not like you can’t buy most of the veteran rewards with Loyalty tokens now anyways!

    Reply

    • Arsonance

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      Still waiting for the CoV to be put on it. (I cant complain, my main account has it, and the one my mom gave when she quit, both have it.)

      Reply

  • Cellinaire

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    That doesn’t bother me, but ya imho there should still be rewards vets can get early based on ‘pre-f2p subscription history’ or ‘number of expansions bought so far’… 🙂

    Reply

  • griffonlady

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    The 10 year reward is pretty much useless any way. XD ( I dunno, maybe there are some people can keep from pulling aggro off a merc tank?)
    Pretty nice of them to give everyone the benefit of the start date, IMHO.
    Looking forward to seeing what some new fellow decorators do with all the 7 year vet houses. ^_^

    Reply

  • striinger

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    They make you log in to claim stuff like SC and LON cards. This shouldn’t really be different imho. Check the old authentication logs (I wouldn’t be surprised if they had them back to launch. Credit each month they logged in if the vet bonus is about playing vets as opposed to a money or a ‘I rolled a toon first’ thing.
    I’d reserve the titles for people like that then let people earn the rest of the stuff with tokens. You might get a free item up to 2000 tokens per year of authenticated service. LoL

    Reply

  • Tabri

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    I have been on this game 9 yrs 5 months but took a 10 month break which put me behind on vet rewards because I wasnt subbed during that time. I now have that time back so its great in my opinion I just got my 9 yr vet reward going on 10 now.

    Reply

  • Kruzzen

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    10 yr vet reward is a waste anyway, so who care if more peeps get it at this point. I don’t use all my vet rewards as is. Nothing all that great anymore. 🙁

    Reply

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