Ibn, Multiple accounts, the xp pack & monthly fees

[Yinchi]

Ibn, I am assuming that anyone with multiple accounts will need to purchase one xp pack for each account. In addition to that, they pay $12.95 for each account.

Is there anything on the drawing board to help multiple account holders?

[MaddyFF]

would be nice, ditto for people that have AC/AC2 accounts. Once they take over billing it could happen.

[BillBraskey]

It would be nice. But how will they be able to tell who has multiple accounts and who doesn't? What's to stop my friend and I from caiming to be one person with multiple accounts?

[Dieter McBain]

It's a matter of economics. They would not do this as it go against the reasoning for being in business. Each account is tied to a cd and each account brings in income. As the poster above stated, they have no way to know how many you have.

It would be nice, but it won't happen. :(

[MaddyFF]

It would be nice. But how will they be able to tell who has multiple accounts and who doesn't? What's to stop my friend and I from caiming to be one person with multiple accounts?

That would be the killer. :)

[GKusnick]

But how will they be able to tell who has multiple accounts and who doesn't?Obviously you'd have to put them all on one credit card to get the discount.

[MaddyFF]

Obviously you'd have to put them all on one credit card to get the discount.

That doesn't mean the credit card holder owns both accounts, they are just paying for them.

[Lord-of-Light]

I'd assume that most people with multiple accounts (like me, I have 2) will only buy an XPack for just one of those accounts first, to see whether the XPack's fetures/dynamics justify getting additional copies for any/all of the additional accounts...just like I did when ACDM was released.

And, at first blush, I really don't see any reason for them to offer any kind of multiple account discount. After all, entirely aside from the potential abuse issue (and we all know that there would be some folks who would try to exploit such a discount if it were available), this XPack will have cost some serious dollars to put out (graphics upgrade, significant new additional content, etc.), and they won't/wouldn't ever really recover those costs from recurring subscription revenues (unless they raised them for XPack subscribers, which I don't think anyone favors/supports happening).

[GKusnick]

As far as the lawyers and bean counters are concerned, whoever pays for an account owns it. If somebody other than the registered owner (or an immediate family member) is playing the account, that's currently a violation of the Zone CoC, and I expect it will also be a violation of the Turbine CoC once the billing transition is complete.

[sylphia]

I suggested this several months ago:

Each CD should come packaged with X number of CD codes. Lets just say 3 for the sake of arguement.

The first CD code can be used to EITHER start a new account OR upgrade an existing account to a Throne of Destiny account. The 2 remaining codes could ONLY be used to upgrade existing AC: DM accounts to AC: TOD accounts. This means those of us who have multiple accounts could have a bit of a break on upgrading everything, without having to purchase multiple CDs, which would (1) cost way more and (2) remove those CDs from the shelves where potential NEW customers could be buying them instead.

The downside is of course that I could buy one CD, Upgrade 2 accounts, and give it to a friend to upgrade his account. But realistically, Turbine will make far more off of our continued monthly subscription than they would off of the sale of another CD. Especially if having to pay for multiple CDs would prevent us from doing so. The more accounts one has, the more prohibitively expensive upgrading would become if required to purchase one CD per account. The best way to guarantee the success of the product is to get as many current players as possible to upgrade to it, whle at the same time attracting as many new players as possible. Offering a "discount upgrade" in this manner to current account holders would serve to get more of us to upgrade, on more of our accounts--which would get more of us involved in the new content to spread the news of what you can see and do in the XP--and would keep the CDs on the shelves for the new customer to see what all the fuss is about.

And if it means that I purchase a CD and upgrade my 2 accounts with the 2 "upgrade only" codes, then hand it off to someon else to use the "new account" code, Turbine would technically lose out on the sale of a second CD to that player--but they would gain that player nonetheless, and his monthly subscription fees.

Also, the new account code in these examples should provide one free month of AC (so true new players can try it out risk free etc), but the 2 upgrade-only codes should NOT come with a free month, as they are going to accounts that are already existing. Only need one freebie month per CD :)

[Yinchi]

Actually, there are two issues here. One, buying the pack. Two, the monthly subscription fee. I have access to 25 accounts. I pay for about 10 now, the rest are dormant. Next month, I will drop all but 3, I can't afford $12.95 per account. If I buy the xp pack, I would certainly only buy one if there was no break for multiple accounts. The sad part is, I am a monarch, all these accounts are intertwined in some way, they hold the clan treasure.

or ....

I could buy one of the new games coming out and pay one subscription fee and drop all my AC accounts. ;)

[Schubaal]

The whole point is that people weren't originally meant to hold more than one account each... that HAS changed, but an account is an account, whether one person runs 25 accounts, 5 people each run 5 accounts, or 25 people each run 1 account... it's STILL all data that the servers have to store, whether it's used or not, it sucks up expensive server hard drive space... I'm guessing most people will buy one copy of the expansion, and then buy CD keys (which HAS to be fixed, it currently gives keys based on your account, so it's all fudged up for people who want more than 1 key) for the other accounts to update... also, don't forget that you're not required to buy the expansion for ALL your accounts... eventually (in like 4 years, or whenever the next expansion is... or when Turbine buys AC from Turbine [well, it _could_ happen, I mean AC/2 could seperate from Turbine and become a seperate company just for itself...], you know... one of the above =P) they'll bend over and give everyone ToD content for free, anyways :rolleyes: :D

[Kossuth]

Not sure what I will do. I have 4 fee paid up accounts and 8 I have slowly filled with characters but are intertwined with my monarchies rank structure and I only sub if I need to move people or I need accesss to that account. I suspect I will upgrade on the 2 most active of them who feed xp to my tinker crafter on another account. Financially the thought of upgrading all 12 is a non-starter but I'll see what the cost and advantages are and then decide when we know exactly what we get for our money. If the advantages to the 126+ set are overwhelming I'll convince myself to upgrade all 4 accounts I use constantly.

[Flynn]

I wouldn't get too worried about it just yet, the billing transition is scheduled to be complete long before the expansion pack is released, I'd be surprised if Turbine don't make SOME changes to the way accounts are handled, so it's probably best to wait until then before losing sleep over it.

[toxic]

You know what Turbine should really do? Make it so that instead of buying more accounts, you can simply add 6 extra character slots onto each world, and be able to have 2 of them logged at the same time, for an extra $12.95.

[Flynn]

I made the same suggestion myself a while back, but there's two additional issues with that- one, you'd also have to be able to own two houses on the same account to make it worth having one double account as opposed to two singles, at least for many people. Secondly, you run the risk of losing 12 characters instead of 6 if you get hacked, or banned.

[AnotherDude]

Maybe there is a way to price retail units as 3 for 2? or some such way?

[Lord-of-Light]

Part of the objective of the XPack is to entice new players to try the game.

Realistically, about the only way to have a shot at doing so is to have the XPack on store shelves.

And retailers aren't going to be real excited about giving shelf space to a game that offers 3-for-the-price-of-2, or that is otherwise heavily discounted...

And retailers also wouldn't be real excited to have Turbine be offering any such kind of deal online/direct to existing subscribers.

Finally, the only way that Turbine can expect/hope to recoup most of its costs in developing the XPack, and in also promoting/advertising it, is by selling XPack units...unless, of course, you would prefer to have the subscription rates raised yet again.

[Yinchi]

Turbine can't do anything now but ....

Turbine will have control soon. With all the new games coming out on the market, it would be better for them to make an advance notice if they do plan on price breaks. I know that multiple account holders may make a decision on how enticing a new game would be based on how the accounts are handled.

As far as sales in retail stores. Online games take up very little shelf space, realistically, stores are not interested in selling them, they would rather put games on their shelf that will be played one month and another purchased the next month. There are ways to buy computer games online for ALL games, this has been true for a long time. Some will allow a free month, just for trying the game. Giving discounts to players with multiple accounts would not effect anything.

Would it be better to give a discount or have the players drop several accounts?

[Palum]

Yinchi, why do you think you won't have the same problem in any other game you get overly involved in? No game gives you unlimited characters that you can log any number in from the same account at the same time... You're whining about paying 30$ for an expansion pack and 12.95$ a month when EQ2 special edition is 80$ and at least 15$ a month? lol.

Why do so many mule accounts need exp access?

You don't quest with mules.
You don't level mules.
You don't make mules on new hard to reach islands in the middle of no where. (if you ever want to use them that is)
You don't need skill credits for mules.
You don't need 32 bit textures for mules.
You don't need higher level display for mules.

Sorry I just don't see why people are complaining about 'omg my 231 rank mule accounts!'

I own two and I plan on paying for two... I wouldn't pay for the second if I didn't play the characters on it actively.

BTW mule != tradeskill character. If you have 12 accounts full of those you have other problems you need to address.

[hippiechick64]

Becaue I Mule to mules. ALOT. Ima monarch, I have enough stuff to supply my alleg with anything they might need, armor to get a bod in, weapons for newbs, heck, I have an entire account, yes 6 toons, full of JUST salvage. Yes I can change chests around and mule in those instead. That would be no big deal. My concern is I have NO idea which account my son plays and which one is his mule account. Also I have 3 buffbots. He would have to worry that if he logs in he might take down my allegiance bot. And Id have to get up ever few hours to check to see if he took out my bot. We never thought to worry about it cuz we can both log in at the same time. And again, I would learn to live with it if we couldnt, just would be a lot better if they left some things as they are, we are used to them that way. I pay for 2 accounts on one credit card, the other two on another and I should be able to log them in at will. 2 People playing 4 accounts is NOT a COC violation in my view. I think what they are referring to is peeps who pay for ONE and use someone elses for a second. The 4 copies of the game that I bought came to MY house, were installed on MY comps, and are played by MY family. There are less people playing than accounts that I pay for so we are just saying that they need to take that into consideration. Ill tell you what my solution is, Ive decided that if we will no longer be able to log an account in on different servers that I am only buying the expansion pack for the main one or two depending on which one is HIS main. Might be the same one, either way they lose at least 2 expansion pack sales over it. If it remains as it is all 4 will be upgraded. There fodder to chew on, how much money will they lose if all the peeps who have multiple accounts do the same?
MJ
MJ

[Synnah]

I have 332 accounts! Give me Free Upgrades for ALL of them! :)

sorry, trolling for a moment... I've never really done that here.

uhm, real opinion: I have 2 active accounts, I'll upgrade one, play it for a while with the new content, then give in and buy the upgrade for the other. I don't even have to guess what my actions might be LoL

[Danilo Thann]

I think i will just buy 2 in advance. :D

*waves at Synnah* Ni!

[Synnah]

lol hey Dan :)

and that may just happen here, too... 2 active accts for hubby, 2 for me.. and we play both accounts a LOT... and we'll upgrade. sooner or later, ya know we will.

so to those that say things like "what if everyone gets rid of one extra account?" - I'm sorry but I've just proved there are at least 2 folks that won't be cancelling accounts at this point :)

[Yinchi]

I am a Monarch, a Monarch on two servers with a large clan on both. I have accounts for rank, we own a mansion, this is the only secure way to have one. I am also like the other person, I have mules with every thing that anyone would ever need, armor, weapons, salvage, etc. I have a tinker mules and alchemist/cook fletch mule. My accounts are all intertwined. If I gave up one, the rest would be fubared.

I am not asking anyone's opinion on whether it is right to give a discount, I asked Turbine if this was in the works, it was addressed to Turbine.

[Palum]

Again, what do accounts with mules have to do with expansion content? Mules sit at your mansion/villa/hometown and get loaded down with ****.

Some people have a dozen accounts with mules intertwined with played characters. That is your own bad planning... not turbine's problem.

I can understand people needing accounts for storage, I can't understand why mobile storage chests need access to 130+ only dungeons.

[Yinchi]

Palum, Ibn made a post that they were thinking about discounts but they could not do that while M$ had control. I was asking if it was still in the works.

[Palum]

Ibn, I am assuming that anyone with multiple accounts will need to purchase one xp pack for each account.

Sounded to me like you were concerned that your rank mules wouldn't have expansion pack access, sorry...

[hippiechick64]

I dont think peeps in this particular thread are as concerned about discounts, I dont want one anyway. Just saying that if you own more than one account you should be able to log into different servers on the same account as long as you own more or the same amount of accounts as the number of peeps playing them. The complaint is that if you own one account and have access to a friends and play it that you are in coc violation. But we are saying that if YOU own both accounts youre NOT in coc violation if you play ONE at the same time on different servers. And never once have I threatened to shut down and account or quit game over ANYthing Turbine has done. Ive said it before and Ill say it again. AC is THE best MMORPG out there in my opinion, I tried several and they couldnt hold a candle to it. I am here for the duration.
MJ