500 Bonus Station Cash Starts Friday!

[Zatozia]

<h1>500 Bonus Station Cash Starts Friday! </h1><p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.soe.com/images/community/promotions/ecomm/scbonus/500bonus_banner.jpg" width="500" height="344" /></p><p>Starting Friday, buy any SOE Pre-Paid Game Card at your local retailer and get 500 Bonus Station Cash when you redeem from June 8th through June 10th*! Who doesn't want 500 more Station Cash?</p><p>Click <a href="http://www.soe.com/gamecards/retailers/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #ff9900;">here</span></a> to find a retailer near you!</p><p>Redeem in-game or at <a href="http://www.soe.com/gamecards/"><span style="color: #ff9900;">soe.com/gamecards</span></a></p><p>*Redeem between 12:01 AM PDT 6/8/2012 and 11:59 PM PDT 6/10/2012</p><p>**Bonus Station Cash is only given on redemptions of SOE Game Cards for Station Cash currency.</p>

[Tempted]

<p>DO NOT BUY IF YOU PAY FOR YOUR ACCT WITH STATION CASH.</p><p>They have removed the option to pay your sub with SC.</p>

[EQ2Templar]

<p>The ONLY reason I bought a card was for the subscription.  Now that it has been removed, I guess my sub will end as well.  Double whammy to the SoE coffers.  This was really a bad move in my opion.  Oh well...</p>

[alaplayer]

<h3><a name="section_10">Can I pay for my monthly subscription with Station Cash™?</a></h3><p>No, at this time, players will not be able to purchase monthly subscription or game time with Station Cash™ in <strong><em>EverQuest</em> or </strong><em><strong>EverQuest</strong> <strong>II</strong></em>. Station Cash™ is limited to in-game items only.</p>

[Raferty]

<p>I'm usually the one to defend SOE. They are a business, and they need to make money. However, removing subs and announcing a sale without stating that subs have been removed is deeply underhanded. You all should be ashamed of yourselves. That is flat out thievery.</p>

[alaplayer]

<p><cite>Raferty wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I'm usually the one to defend SOE. They are a business, and they need to make money. However, removing subs and announcing a sale without stating that subs have been removed is deeply underhanded. You all should be ashamed of yourselves. <strong>That is flat out thievery</strong>.</p></blockquote><p>No it isn't thievery in any way, BUT it is a very deceptive thing to do, and to lock a thread where a post was made informing potential purchasers that the game had changed makes it even worse.</p><p>Is anyone there even the least bit concerned about the image of the company any longer?</p>

[Dale Burnz]

<p>WOW,   I have 4300 SC and I was so excited to go buy a  couple cards this weekend but my account expires on the 26th.</p><p>KARMA to those who made sure this info lived.  Would love to get my money back <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/2786c5c8e1a8be796fb2f726cca5a0fe.gif" border="0" /> </p><p>Hope its worth it Sony,......and after all that time I CAME BACK!.............well,  back to Iracing</p>

[Anestacia]

<p><cite>EQ2Templar wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>The ONLY reason I bought a card was for the subscription.  Now that it has been removed, I guess my sub will end as well.  Double whammy to the SoE coffers.  This was really a bad move in my opion.  Oh well...</p></blockquote><p>You can still use it for the subscription.  You just have to put the code into the website as a pre paid sub card versus using it as Station Cash.</p>

[alaplayer]

<p><cite>Anestacia wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>EQ2Templar wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>The ONLY reason I bought a card was for the subscription.  Now that it has been removed, I guess my sub will end as well.  Double whammy to the SoE coffers.  This was really a bad move in my opion.  Oh well...</p></blockquote><p>You can still use it for the subscription.  You just have to put the code into the website as a pre paid sub card versus using it as Station Cash.</p></blockquote><p>That was what I thought but that is not the issue. The issue is making a major ninja change like this, and people could NOT use these cards in the manner that they thought, or at least might not have been able to. If you want to avoid confusion, avoid panic and unnecessary backlash you announce your intentions, you explain the changes, you DON'T ninja them in unannounced, make a change to the FAQ, and take the time to post in another thread for a different game confirming the change then neglect to come to the other game and make a post in the COMMUNITY section where it SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE in both games at the moment it was removed.</p><p>Before the WalMart cards could have been used to purchase 2500 station cash, using 1500 for the game and leaving 1000, now no one knows how those cards will pan out.</p>

[DobriyStefan]

<p>  Last time I tried to redeem a 30 day card it got converted as 1500 SC, forcing me to then navigate within the SC system to buy a non-recurring membership, which is not deleted from the viewed list of options within SC.</p><p>DOES ANYONE KNOW FOR SURE THE 30 DAY MEMBERSHIP CARDS ARE *NOT* auto converted to SC, and thus useless for gold membership?   This has got to be the show stopper of the year for me.  My bank in Bulgaria refuses to allow me to use my Visa electron card (debit) for SOE; perhaps we still have SOE red-flagged as a hack risk.  I thus buy cards from online retailers; the 30 day card and 1500 SC cards were different sku's but they both redeemed for 1500 SC regardless of which I used.</p><p>  I'm nervous the 30 day card will just become another (useless) SC card.  It's a pity I bought (2) SC cards yesterday, thinking I may as well get some side value from my Gold renewal.  Sorry I don't read forums hourly, else I would have saved money.  I have 3 accts; I turn on gold every few months on 2 of them to catch up on masters and crunch AAs, and one I keep buying gold each 30 days.  Unless SOE gets off the red list my bank will never allow me to use direct payments to SOE; the bank thinks I must be a pirate or criminal to even attempt to pay (from my own card!) to a red list site.  This kludge kept me going since Christmas; I spend an *average* of $75 USD per MONTH on SOE, so it's not like I shouldn't expect some sort of trivial courtesy.</p>

[alaplayer]

<p><cite>DobriyStefan wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>  Last time I tried to redeem a 30 day card it got converted as 1500 SC, forcing me to then navigate within the SC system to buy a non-recurring membership, which is not deleted from the viewed list of options within SC.</p><p>DOES ANYONE KNOW FOR SURE THE 30 DAY MEMBERSHIP CARDS ARE *NOT* auto converted to SC, and thus useless for gold membership?  </p></blockquote><p>There was probably something that went wrong or you may have mistakenly selected the wrong option when redeeming that card.</p><p>The 30 days cards will not be auto converted they will still be good for game time, you just will no longer be able to buy a 30 day card redeem it on a double or triple SC day and use it for purchasing a membership with SC.</p><p>See SOE this is where the problem is when you do this kind of garbage. You cause confusion, you make customers angry and then there is no one from there that isn't too busy at E3 or playing with that stupid SOE-Emo to clean it up and answer questions. Of course the playerbase has grown accustomed to this behavior from you and instead of letting these people be confused all weekend, and allowing this to fester like everything else we are trying to quell the storm.</p>

[damondusk]

<p>SOE I strongly suggest you go back and do the market research that you clearly skipped on this move. If you take a look at my history for adding SC to my account you find that I have bought numerous cards and used every single one of them for non-recurring membership. I'd be willing to bet that this is the trend for MOST people purchasing these cards.</p><p>A promise from player to provider: the memberships I've purchased will be my last if this goes unchanged. I've got a job, wife, kids, other games to play for fun and do not HAVE to allow anyone to be underhanded with me in order to keep myself entertained.</p><p>Shame on you, SOE. Again......and again........<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/e78feac27fa924c4d0ad6cf5819f3554.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Moldylocks]

<p>So, they:</p><ul><li>Ninja a change to subscriptions that many people were using.  Yes, Piestro's excuse was the opposite of this, but really, they changed it because people were using the triple SC days and whatnot to get an ultra discount on the sub model.</li><li>Did not inform the playerbase here.  At all.  In fact, they locked a thread where non-insulting, constructive information was being given to the community, by the community because the Community Managers haven't said anything.</li></ul><p>I mean, seriously folks.  Why must everything boil down to a clown show over there?  You must have a secret stash of players that you keep in the wings to buffer the ones that drop you like a hot potato when you pull stuff like this.  In the General forums, someone stuck their nose in and asked the community if it was worth it to come back to the game.  One of the players simply linked them to the Recent Topics page to to some reading and decide for themselves.  He hasn't re-subbed.  </p><p>Psst:  This is really bad form.  (in case someone had to tell you)</p>

[Juravael]

<p>I've had a the evening and most of the morning to think over what SOE has done and I still can not come up with any reason for me to continue playing this game any longer. I am still angry, very, very angry, but in the end there is not one darn thing that I can do to change things.</p><p>They have made the decision and they did not even bother asking the community how this would affect them. What happened to those polls that they were going to be using? What happened to having a producer that at least made a personal presence on the official game forums on a fairly regular basis? (Yes, I do thank you SJ for at least doing that). What happened to playing the game my way? What happened to communication?</p><p>It's been one thing after another from this company over the last couple of years chipping away at the playerbase and letting people fall from the game, one by one. Is this the end of EQ2? I doubt it. This will have a negative impact to the gaming community for sure though and people are leaving because of this stealth change, once again.</p><p>That is all that I have to say for now.</p>

[Gealaen_Gaiamancer]

<p><cite>Kenazeer wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>akin99 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>[SNIP]</p></blockquote><p>"The beatings will continue until morale improves!"</p></blockquote><p>I usually only see that line used at work, and it saddens me to have to agree that it applies here.</p><p>I would chip in my two SC on the whole "we only bought SC so that we could buy our subs and now we can't" but it's probabaly not "constructive."  Not in the MOD-hammer sense of being not constructive, just in the "this isn't a democracy so what we say only serves to vent our frustrations in here, and should not be expected to lead to any change in company policy."  My wife's reaction when I told her about the SC Subscription NERF last night ... can't be posted in here.  If Brasse wants something that SHE can't post, I'll tell her another time.</p><p>Then, when I get home, I'll take out my frustrations on assorted digitally rendered monsters -- but only for the next few months until my SC-prepaid subscription expires.  After that will likely be another inglorious end to yet another account from 1999 (EQ1).  I'll have to remember to come back and post something that'll really rile up the MODs at that point!  Har!</p>

[Gealaen_Gaiamancer]

<p><cite>Glenedhel@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Is this the end of EQ2? I doubt it. This will have a negative impact to the gaming community for sure though and people are leaving because of this stealth change, once again.</blockquote><p>Agreed.  EQ2 will keep running for a good while -- they haven't *quite* squeezed all the water out of that dish rag.  Still fun to play; just a bit (okay, quite a bit) more annoying to pay for, now.</p>

[Giallolas]

<p>I too have taken the time to think this over.  I have five gold accounts in my household as I have myself and four of my kids who play together.  We have a good time.  I was the only annual gold account until recently when we had our last triple SC day and I bought gold annual subs for all four of my kids.  Yeah, that was an expensive weekend, but how could I pass up the deal?</p><p>I am no fanboi of the game but I enjoy it more than my other options out there atm.  While I was purchasing those annual gold subs, I thought to myself how smart this was NOT on SOE's part to offer the subs to be purchased with SC.  They are now bound to give 100% gold product to its members for only 33% of the price.  I am a successful business owner and my mind had difficutly wrapping itself around their business model.  Now that this has been removed from the SC options, I'm really not surprised.  I would have done the same thing as well.  I don't think they anticipated that so many people might take advantage of the sub payments when we did.  I think they took a look at the numbers and asked themselves if they were nuts.</p><p>I'm not really disturbed at their decision to remove this.  I'm disturbed in the manner in which they did this.  I cannot enumerate the times now that they have "stealth" changed parts of this game and wondered if we'd even notice.  I also am concerned with the number of times they have "stealth" changed the game and we still haven't noticed yet.  Once more as a business owner, I would ask why in the world you would think that taking away this feature without explaining yourselves is a positive way to deal with your customers?  Most of us would understand if you just say something like...</p><p>"Hey players, in an effort to continue to offer bonus cash days on the SC store we are removing the non-recurring subscriptions.  We have some great ideas and items that will regularly appear in the SC store, but in an effort to manage business costs and expenses we find it necessary to remove the non-recurring subscriptions from the SC options.  We understand that many of you have used SC as your primary source of paying your subscription fees and wanted you to be aware of this decision as soon as possible.  We regret any difficulty that this may cause our wonderful community and players, but this is necessary in light of the continued economic difficulty facing the business sector.  Please note that you can still use your SC cards to pay your subscriptions directly.  Please contact customer support at xxx if you have any other account questions.  Be safe and enjoy the adventure!"</p>

[SOE-MOD-02]

<p>Please keep the discussion of membership in the main thread.  Thank you!</p><p><span style="color: #59666e; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=518979">Station Cash Marketplace? Non recurring subscription</a></span></p>

[Gealaen_Gaiamancer]

<p><cite>SOE-MOD-02 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Please keep the discussion of membership in the main thread.  Thank you!</p><p><span style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #59666e; font-size: 11px; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=518979">Station Cash Marketplace? Non recurring subscription</a></span></p></blockquote><p>Arr, sorry; saw this one first and got emotionally attached.</p>

[Rhymers]

<p>WOW, tricking people into buying SC by not telling them they can't go gold with SC anymore. That is an all time low for SOE. Sending this to all major news outlets to look at.</p><p>For the 1st time this has me questioning if I want to keep supporting SOE with my subs. I like playing EQ2 but after this I have to question what it says about me to keep supporting them.</p>

[DobriyStefan]

<p>I should update that I WAS able to get a month of gold out of a 1500 SC card today, going through the SOE website (outside of the game).  There was a point where it asked me if I preferred to cash the card as 30 days game sunscription or as 1500 SC.</p><p>I also bought today a 30 day game card WITHOUT the "1500 SC or 30 days" text on it and was told by the SOE site thecard had expired.  This was an online reseller PCGAMESUPPLY, which all told sold me 4 of the 1500 SC cards in the last 2 days (all good) and 1 30 day card (expired).  On memorial day (just a little over a week ago) I bought 3 more SC cards, all good, and the month before 3 more etc going back to Christmas.  On other months it didnt seem to matter which card style I bought.</p><p>  I mention this, as from the same distributor one type was now "expired" but the dual category 1500 SC/30 days card still worked.  Hopefully it wasnt an oversight by SOE, but that we are expected to be able to use the cards for something besides surplus mounts and appearance hats.   If so I may be able to continue my usual $70 or so a month spending on a game that frankly has me worried.  I wouldn't lose sleep over for example Star Wars old republic, so long as SOE doesn't own it; i DO prefer Sony consumer products over other companies.  I'm just a bit nervous regarding the stealth mode this was done.</p><p> At least the 1500 SC card DID work to get Gold membership, if you find the correct entry point for redeeming the card.</p><p>There are too many entry points and too little guidance as to which one grants gold membership.</p>

[Cyliena]

<p><cite>DobriyStefan wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I also bought today a 30 day game card WITHOUT the "1500 SC or 30 days" text on it and was told by the SOE site thecard had expired. </p></blockquote><p>I had this happen once with one of those cards. I took a picture of the card (with serial number showing) held up next to the error message on their site and submitted a ticket with the picture attached. They added the game time within a day.</p>

[Juravael]

<p>Yes, we can, and always have been able to redeem the cards for game time. That's not what has me so upset. What I am upset about is the fact that they removed the ability to purchase game time in blocks for a discounted rate, the same as if using a CC. The more time you bought the better the discount was. Also the fact that they took that away without telling us about it and there still has not been any response from SOE or the EQ2 staff about it.</p><p>Piestro was able to post about it on the EQ1 forums, why not the EQ2 forums?</p>

[cadrach]

<p>If I purchase 5 500SC cards do I get a bonus 500 on each card?  I can not find any information on this anywhere.  </p>