Good Morning, AllaK's - 6/4/07Follow

Good morning, happy campers.

IN-LAWS! Had the wife's family up here for a visit this weekend. As such I didn't get much gaming in. Rocked out on some Mario Party and some Mortal Kombat, but that was about it. I did get to log in early on Saturday, but that was mostly just to check broker sales. I accomplished nothing of significance.

As always, in lieu of a gaming update I have a discussion question for the class: Would you pay an extra fee on top of your normal station account fee for access to "Gold Service" game servers or customer support? I'm talking maybe an extra $10 to $15/month. These servers would have a response team dedicated to them that would have 24/7 live support, GM's in-game always for assistance at a moment's notice, and other benefits. Instant enforcement of naming policy and the PNP. Unstuck in from geometry in seconds. Service level agreements with regards to outages and downtimes. Basically, "do you want to call a taxi when you get to the airport and wait for it or do you want to have a limo waiting for you"?

I personally would be willing to pay extra for a higher level of support. I'm at a point in my life where my time is more valuable than it used to be and I'm willing to shell out a little more to make my in-game experiences more enjoyable. Sort of like my servers at work. Sure, I could go with the standard support that everyone gets when they buy a computer. But that's not the level of service I expect anymore. I pay thousands of dollars a year just so that if say a memory chip goes bad or a power supply blows out, that I have a guarantee that someone from Dell will be at my site with a replacement part in under 4 hours from my call. I'd like to see the same thing applied to my game experience. When I /report "Phatlewtz Rapeurmomlol" I want to see him disappear from gamespace and pop back with a changed name in seconds. When my character is stuck on a table in someone's house and my call is down, I want to /petition and get unstuck immediately. I want GMs to be at my beck and call and I am willing to pay a premium for the privilege. How about you?

How was your weekend?

Edited, Jun 4th 2007 10:41am by Stugein

Actually, IMO the customer service has really improved. At the Community Summit in February (the focus was Community Relations) that was one point that came up time and time again, customer service and communication, and at least from my standpoint they're doing a pretty good job.

Also I see potential for GM griefing that could potentially backfire on them. Could you see that ONE player who thinks a GM should hold his/her hand all the time abusing that?

What I'd like to see is pay-per character slots. Yeah, I know we just got an extra one or two slots (depending on the type of account), but would you pay $2/month for another toon?

first, I will say that I agree with others responses to Stu's question. While it would be nice (and I would take advantage of it if they had it), it could potentially backfire on them. Good idea on paper, would require a delicate touch to implement.



To answer Calthine's question...OMG!! my alt addicition would get out of control. I would have 24 character slots and have an alt of each class. I swear, SOE needs to start up an "Alt-aholics Anonymous" group :-P

and finally, on to my outstanding weekend. let's see, where to start. finished Staff of the Observers on my SK (all HQs less than or equal to 50 are finished so I can start leveling again). took my mystic from 10 outfitter to 20 tailor. took my inquisitor to 20 provisioner, 23 (almost 24) inquisitor, finished the first 4 AQs on him (man, I like the new solo AQs from FP). Took my Illusionist to 31. dinged 48 on my carpenter.

I think that's all. nice little summery of my weekend.

Edited, Jun 4th 2007 11:45am by Qwash

so to answer the question. No, I wouldnt pay an extra fee to "Gold Service" customer support 24/7 within the game.

I honeslty dont use the services availible to me enough to be willing to pay more. I dont petition a lot, and I hardly ever complain about bugs. I simply /report the issues and when they get fixed, they get fixed.

I know EQ1 had Stormhammer, a "Gold Server" where they had GM's on 24/7 with live events weekly, custome titles, different items, and such. It was a completely different game on that server, and people paid the extra bucks for it. I MIGHT consider paying for that. But really dont care to have someone answer my technical questions at random.