Vote On Selling VETERAN Rewards

[Petra Fyde]

I have not voted on this poll, the reason being, the decision to sell or not sell anything is a commercial decision made by EA. My opinion is of no consequence whatsover. It would not be taken into account, nor would I expect it to be.

I will give you my interpretation of events leading to the inclusion of a version of the teleport tiles in the Spring collection, though it's sheer conjecture and guess work on my part.
The teleport tiles are a nice, convenient way for people with more than one house to link the together. So far so good. Limited usefulness, low expected need. But then some bright spark of a player (Gareth I think?) had the idea of using them to form hubs, linking player towns all over the shard. A popular idea highlighting and enhancing the 'community' aspect that is so unique to UO. However also an idea needing far more of these items than are likely to be possible through 12th year vet rewards if it spreads to all shards.
How to facilitate this very popular and worthwhile plan? By making them available by other means. Or at least a similar, but slightly diminished version of them.
The downside of course is players who planned to make a killing selling the items for extremely large amounts of gold will be disappointed.

 

[LordDrago]

Popps argument: limited items that can be sold for millions of gold are unfair and should not be allowed because this is "unbalancing"

Facts: Teleporter sets are limited to 12 year vets, and are being sold for millions of gold.

Popps: Teleporter sets should not be available to all through EA sales.

Fact: They are available in quantity from third party sites. By NOT selling them, EA is losing out on sales.



Popps argument: People are willing to pay a minumum of $120 per year in order to keep extra accounts open to have vet rewards, and will close them if vet rewards are sold by EA.

Fact: All vet rewards are currently available through 3rd party sites, for much less than paying $120 each year.

Popps counter argument: But what if there are only 2-3 months before a new reward could be claimed?

Fact (apparently beyond Popps scope of comprehension): There are 12 months in each year. Even if there were 2-3 months until a reward could be claimed, there will be 1 months until the next anniversary.

Fact: Most people who play UO can do simple math. Most can figure out that paying $120 per year in order to have an item is more expensive than paying $35 for the item.

Fact: Most (and by most, I mean virtually all) people with multiple accounts do not hold the accounts open for the vet rewards, but for the multiple houses and characters.




Conclusion: Once again, Popps makes and argument, which:

1. does not logically follow previous arguments Popps has made
2. Is not based in facts, but instead on Popps perception of reality
3. Popps cannot defend against counterarguments, which Popps then conveniently ignores


There mere fact that teleporter tile sets (and all other vet rewards) are already available for sale on third party sites negates any arguments you have, Popps, over people keeping accounts open for the Vet rewards or that tile sets are a prestigious item that denote any sort of account age "honor".

 

[popps]

There mere fact that teleporter tile sets (and all other vet rewards) are already available for sale on third party sites negates any arguments you have, Popps, over people keeping accounts open for the Vet rewards or that tile sets are a prestigious item that denote any sort of account age "honor".

This pretty much sums up, IMHO, the core of the argument.

To my opinion, since their inception, Veteran Rewards should have been limited exclusively to the use of the accounts that claimed them and, most importantly, they should have been usefull items, appealing to players (i.e. desireable...), though not much unbalancing, and with no equals or similar in the game. I do NOT mean mere eye candy, but items with an actual in game usefullness though not ground breaking unbalancing. Definately usefull and nice to have, though.......
Not tradeable.

Cool items, usefull but not unbalancing and such that players, in order to get them, they would have had to wait the account active time to build up.
No work around, no faster way to get them, only time and active account age building up.

I hope that for future items to be listed among the coming Veteran Rewards we will see more of these although, the current news about buyable House Teleporters hint to a different approach.

I have no idea how others see customers' loyalty to a brand/product. Personally, I think it a rather important thing, and would appreciate it being valued more.

 

[UOKaiser]

The downside of course is players who planned to make a killing selling the items for extremely large amounts of gold will be disappointed.

50-80 mil is not extreme amount of gold. That's 5-8mil in siege. For there usefulness they should be at least 300mil gold that's 30 mil in siege.

 

[Lord Gareth]

I will give you my interpretation of events leading to the inclusion of a version of the teleport tiles in the Spring collection, though it's sheer conjecture and guess work on my part.
The teleport tiles are a nice, convenient way for people with more than one house to link the together. So far so good. Limited usefulness, low expected need. But then some bright spark of a player (Gareth I think?) had the idea of using them to form hubs, linking player towns all over the shard. A popular idea highlighting and enhancing the 'community' aspect that is so unique to UO. However also an idea needing far more of these items than are likely to be possible through 12th year vet rewards if it spreads to all shards.
How to facilitate this very popular and worthwhile plan? By making them available by other means. Or at least a similar, but slightly diminished version of them.
The downside of course is players who planned to make a killing selling the items for extremely large amounts of gold will be disappointed.

Thanks Petra just blame me. I already got my tongue cut out are you going for my fingers now? (Jokes with Petra) I am not sure how thrilled EM Dudley or EM Vladimere will be with me but to pay for the hub we made out of teleport tiles I sold EM items (Lowers head)... I know... I know. But I sold them to a museum on the Chesapeake shard where they will stay if that makes any difference.

I actually was contacted by Baja (Such a diverse and wonderful group of players there by the way.) To ask me how it has worked out on Chesapeake and I am proud to say that many, many players just love it and use it on a daily bases.

 

[LordDrago]

Thanks Petra just blame me. I already got my tongue cut out are you going for my fingers now? (Jokes with Petra) I am not sure how thrilled EM Dudley or EM Vladimere will be with me but to pay for the hub we made out of teleport tiles I sold EM items (Lowers head)... I know... I know. But I sold them to a museum on the Chesapeake shard where they will stay if that makes any difference.

I actually was contacted by Baja (Such a diverse and wonderful group of players there by the way.) To ask me how it has worked out on Chesapeake and I am proud to say that many, many players just love it and use it on a daily bases.

Even though I am a renegade (not associated with any player run towns), this is a very clever, and appreciated aspect of the Chessy shard. The shard owes Gareth a large thankyou for this. It enhances the community, RP, dynamics, and overall fun of playing on Chessy.