[MUD-Dev] Re: premium servers

[Talies the Wanderer]

At 12:06 AM 2/2/2002 -0800, matt <the_logos at achaea.com> wrote:

> Most of you have probably seen this, but:

>    http://legends.everquest.station.sony.com/showcase/dynamic.jsp

Funny thing about premium servers.  They've been tried before., and
two things always happen:

  1) A vocal minority speaks out against them, outraged at the
  concept that money makes someone "more special" (one of the
  reasons many people play fantasy games is the idea that only $10 a
  month can make us "equal" to everyone else...)  Demands for
  greater service for "regular" people are made.

  2) A non-vocal minority subscribes, quietly move their lives away
  from the rest of the "rabble," thus accomplishing the purpose of
  the "Howell" (*Thurston Howell III) servers - a small customer
  base willing to pay 3 to 4 times the going rate for additional
  consideration and better customer service.

Simutronics has been running a "Howell" service for some time now,
calling it "platinum service," which gives all kinds of special
services, like bumping to the head of the line on any "waiting
period" (like CS petitions, or special new content previews),
special platinum-only areas (other people's avatars get "tossed out
on their ears"), and platinum-only events and items.

Speaking from personal experience, the first time I ran into one of
these "platinum-only" doors, it was not clearly marked, and when I
tried to enter, I was summarily ejected.  While my character was
merely stunned for a few moments, as a player, I was offended and
outraged - how dare they exclude me from content, when I was paying
my $10 a month like everyone else!  Incidentally, that was the last
time I played DragonRealms regularly.  I joined the Everquest
community shortly after that.

My feeling as a player of EQ, however, is that this will work much
better for EQ than it did in DR.  "Blue" players (*regular server
players*) won't be slapped in the face at every corner by "platinum"
server content, or have platinum-level players dancing around
shouting how they're so much better than we are because they have
more money (yes, this *actually* happened - some platinum
subscriber's kid on DR).  As long as the EQ Customer Service team
continues with the improvements that we've already noticed in the
last few months, players will be satisfied.

Talies

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