Blaugust the 19th: Most Valuable Players, Revisited

Today, I got involved in a discussion of Wildstar's loyalty program, apparently called "Cosmic Points." I guess people have gotten and will get 3000 CP for each month they subscribe in the traditional sense ($15 per month). In addition, those that purchase CREDD (at $20 per CREDD) in order to sell it for platinum, the in-game currency, on the exchange will get 4000 CP for each CREDD purchased. Those that have purchased, or will in the future purchase, that CREDD on the exchange for platinum and redeem it for a month's subscription status will receive 1000 CP for each CREDD redeemed.

This strikes some folk, like Gracie, as unfair to those redeeming the CREDD. They are, after all, faithfully playing the game and supporting the market by providing the platinum to the CREDD sellers. However, as Belghast points out, those spending time and effort in the game to purchase CREDD with platinum are, in fact, a feature themselves, providing a livelier environment for the paying customers. Meanwhile, CREDD redeemers are guests—playing for free—despite protests to the contrary. That sounds harsh, but sadly, it is the truth.

While I agree with Belghast, I can sympathize with Gracie. I, myself, was very riled up in the spring of 2012 about BioWare's ham-fisted approach to keeping folks from canceling rewarding valuable players. (That situation was slightly different in that they failed to reward many people who actually were loyal, paying customers. I may have forgiven, but I have not forgotten.) I was iffy about CREDD when I first heard about it. I thought that Free-to-Play with an optional sub was a better system. I guess we'll get a chance to find out.

~~~~~~~~

If you're interested in joining the madness (Vloggers are welcome, too!), Belghast has a set of rules for qualifying for any prizes at the end. Your second stop should be the Blaugust Nook, where Bel is keeping track of everything and community members are sharing encouragement and ideas.

~~~~~~~~

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.