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Lord Whirlin
03-30-2004, 04:31 AM
Well, I wrote a nice letter to simutronics...

Let me first start by saying that I've been a loyal player of gemstone since it's roots on America On-line. I joined with my character, Whirlin, at the time when Simutronics was releasing it's first version of the wizard front end. Since then I'd dealt with the switch over to the internet, the introduction of charging for the game, an unjust arrest IG that cost me 80 million silver worth of equipment (which was declared a week later no longer an arrestable offense), the turmoil around the introduction of reallocation and Growing Pains, the long awaited change to Gemstone 4. I have been walking with Simutronics in all of it's major steps. I've made friends, I've made enemies, I've even gotten married in Elanthia, and I've met more people through Gemstone than anything else on the internet.
As a student at -edited- College, which my e-mail address should directly convey, I understand the costs involved with the upgrading of the systems and servers to gemstone 4, as well as the costs of the programming that went into the system. However, after the double-billing that occurred recently, and the current announcement of price increases, I can only fore see the downfall of Simutronics corporation as a result. I do not mean to come across sounding condescending, or bitter, but I merely feel that your recent call for financial help has occurred too quickly. I also do not wish to write a letter which contains the purpose of simply complaining about the financial burden it places upon myself, I wish to offer suggestions as well.
The changes that have been recently made to the premium membership are extravagant. The current price of the premium account does not accommodate for the amount of benefits they receive. Currently, a basic account, plus 10 additional character slots is equal to the price of a premium account. With a premium account, the account holder is allowed 10 character slots, therefore making the overhead cost of the account equal to a standard account, plus 1 character slot. Therefore, the difference in base cost between a standard account and a premium account is just the cost of the 1 slot. Under this pretext, the Simutronics corporation is stating that the in game ability to own a house, with customizable furniture, layouts, and actions; put extra strain on the server, by the utilization of extra typed lines ahead; having access to Frost Acres, which not only has a universal bank (making promissory note exchange rates obsolete) that gives an interest rate, but also allows players an easy way to transfer items from across Elanthia in a matter of seconds, using two mules; the access of special merchants, which the man-hours is then paid for by the corporation; plus other benefits that I am probably unaware of, having only been premium once for a month.
I do not preach for an increase in cost to premium members, on the contrary, I believe their costs are substantial enough monetarily. I believe that the biggest way to turn a profit out of this market would be to lower the allotted character slots per premium account. This would save a burden of data storage on the server computers, as well as increase the number of purchased character slots per account. However, there are other paths that can be taken.
Currently, I am unaware of any affiliate program or marketing done by the Simutronics Corporation. The only system that I know about is the buddy referral system, in which a member obtains a buddy point for each member that they refer. However, the buddy system is long past due for an overhaul. First, the rewards from being drawn in the buddy raffle are meager. Lets face it, alters are commonplace nowadays, and I don't think Simutronics has hosted a quest for players since the conversion to gemstone 4. Secondly, there are not enough names being drawn from this raffle, and not enough marketing of the events to cause an impact on the players. Lastly, the website has not been updated to reflect the current use of the buddy point system. The last recorded winners were in September of 2002. However, this can be fixed with a few solutions, First, to solve the rewards issue, I would recommend reinstating the 'replacement ticket' as a reward. I forget the official name of these tickets, but if my memory serves me correctly, it replaces 1 item that you've lost over the years, due to janitor, game crash, implosion, or any other miscellaneous act. Another option would be to have more unique items raffled each month as a reward, similarly to the raffles that occur at paid-for merchants. To solve the second problem of lack of publicity, it would be beneficial for the corporation to announce the raffles as they take place. A possible example would be to put it on the events calendar, and to set up a booth in the game, where people can look into the barrel and see how many tickets they have in there, and what the prizes are. Then they can watch as the names are drawn. As for the third problem, simply update the website as it happens, or write a quick program to copy the results from the in game raffle to the website.
I believe that if the Simutronics Corporation wishes to achieve the highest level of professional success, then it would be prudent to spend time searching for solutions to the problems at hand, before deflecting the costs onto the consumers.
I thank you for your time, and I hope that I have opened your eyes to alternatives and solutions.



I know it probably includes more grammatical mistakes and wrong words than I'd ever like to admit, but I believe the overall message remains. Did anyone else write letters to the corporation that they want to share? other than the cancelation notices?

-Edited because I don't feel like mentioning my college-

[Edited on 3-30-2004 by Lord Whirlin]

SpunGirl
03-30-2004, 05:24 AM
I think that was a well-thought out letter, Whirlin, and they'd do well to take into consideration your suggestions. I'm so tired of seeing "I HATE SIMU FUCK YOU BITCHES YOU CAN'T HAVE MY MONEY," this is pretty refreshing.

-K

Zeyrin
03-30-2004, 06:12 AM
Your letter had a lot of good points. I don't understand the price hike when it wasn't too long ago that at peak times, the most players on were around 500. Now, it's not uncommon to see 800 to a 1000 players online.

I hope Simu listens to you. I too see Simu in a downward spiral.

longshot
03-30-2004, 06:22 AM
I applaud your efforts. You didn't write out of spite or hatred, but out of geniune concern.


Originally posted by Lord Whirlin

....an unjust arrest IG that cost me 80 million silver worth of equipment (which was declared a week later no longer an arrestable offense),

80 X 15 = $1200

You stayed through that, and you didn't even get a text house!

Iriscience
03-30-2004, 07:56 AM
You think they'll actually read that?

fuck simu.

Electrawn
03-30-2004, 08:16 AM
I agree with some things. Perhaps you can condesne those thoughts via the Correction Path at this thread:

http://forum.gsplayers.com/viewthread.php?tid=5780

crazymage
03-30-2004, 08:23 AM
seriously stop hijacking threads.

Galleazzo
03-30-2004, 12:22 PM
Gotta go with Iriscience for once. No one's gonna read that. You're going to get the same "Thank you for your concern but we needed to raise prices in order to give you the improved functionality you've come to expect from all of us here at Simutronics, thank you for being a loyal customer" form letter everyone else will.

Mint
03-30-2004, 01:00 PM
I disagree. Simu will read it. Act on it though? I don't know but I can hope. Great letter. Have you already sent it to Simu? If not maybe break up the text a bit though to make it more reader friendly.

Lord Whirlin
03-30-2004, 01:58 PM
there are actual paragraph markers in there, they just didn't show up too well when I copied it over to this, and I'm not a big fan of double spacing between paragraphs, and yes, it was sent as of 4 AM this morning

Satira
03-30-2004, 02:40 PM
To who it may concern,
>
> I've been playing this game forever, and I'm finally at my breaking
> point. I've stuck by you with all the raises in prices, and turned my
> head when everyone else complained. Apparently it's my turn. Charging
> this much for just regular game play is insane.
> I moved my account up to premie not that long ago, just so I could
> experience the benefits, and now immediately I have to move down
> again. I'm considering quitting all together. I'm disabled and I can't
> work, and I take a lot of money out of what I have available to me to be
> able to play at the regular prices, let alone premium. 40 dollars for
> premium is outrageous. I'm not sure what makes this company think two
> raises in a single year is reasonable. I hope you rethink what you're
> doing, and I plan on having more people write you on this matter.
>
>
>Sincerely,
*ME*


The last price increase we had was April 2002 where we increased the basic
subscription by $2. Extra character slots were raised from $1 to $1 in
1998. Those are the only price increases we have had since moving to the
web in 1997. We did not raise rates in December, but changed the way extra
subscriptions were billed. Previously they billed in arrears, and starting
in December they billed in advance. The subscription prices did not change.

Thank you.



Beth Paddock
Billing Supervisor
Simutronics Corporation

Trinitis
03-30-2004, 02:44 PM
Yaknow..I feel sorry for beth. I bet she is getting HAMMERED right now, by emails filled with rage and hate.

Sean
03-30-2004, 02:46 PM
How do you raise something from $1 to $1.

Suppa Hobbit Mage
03-30-2004, 02:48 PM
Originally posted by LordAdredrin
Yaknow..I feel sorry for beth. I bet she is getting HAMMERED right now, by emails filled with rage and hate.

Why? Isn't it her job?

Trinitis
03-30-2004, 02:50 PM
Her job is to deal with billing problems, NOT billing bitches. Heh.

Satira
03-30-2004, 02:52 PM
From 1 to 1... I noticed that too.

Wezas
03-30-2004, 03:06 PM
Originally posted by Tijay
How do you raise something from $1 to $1.

And people wonder why they needed to fix their billing in December.

Artha
03-30-2004, 05:27 PM
Work on the structuring so it doesn't look like a giant wall of text. I didn't even bother with it.


Paragraphs are your friend.

Mistomeer
03-30-2004, 08:45 PM
Originally posted by LordAdredrin
Her job is to deal with billing problems, NOT billing bitches. Heh.

In case you've never worked in Customer Support, billing problems = billing bitches. I'm not sure I've ever encountered someone bitching about a billing problem that couldn't be summed up with "I'm not paying that much money for this little service. " So she has a cushy job for years and now she has to do a little work.

IcyPoison
03-30-2004, 08:50 PM
Originally posted by Artha
Work on the structuring so it doesn't look like a giant wall of text. I didn't even bother with it.


Paragraphs are your friend.

AMEN

Jonty
03-30-2004, 09:11 PM
The last price increase we had was April 2002 where we increased the basic
subscription by $2.

Also, they raised it by $3, not $2....

[Edited on 3-31-2004 by Jonty]

Celexei
03-30-2004, 09:15 PM
I agree, i'm not happy with the price hike, i think there should be alot of concern from ourselves, as paying customers, we are loyal, but we deserve the right to remain at the same pricing situation. All of Simu's jobs are secured, there more than likely not hurtin to bad on money, and there are like was stated, many more players now then there were in previous times, that extra boost alone should help the financial problems of Simu.

Hulkein
03-30-2004, 09:30 PM
Originally posted by Artha
Work on the structuring so it doesn't look like a giant wall of text. I didn't even bother with it.


Paragraphs are your friend.


Originally posted by Lord Whirlin
there are actual paragraph markers in there, they just didn't show up too well when I copied it over to this, and I'm not a big fan of double spacing between paragraphs, and yes, it was sent as of 4 AM this morning

Artha
03-30-2004, 09:49 PM
So? It still doesn't look like paragraphs. There's 6 major breaks...there should be a few more in the big paragraphs. It just makes it look less daunting, and makes me (and probably Simu) more likely to read it.

longshot
03-31-2004, 03:02 AM
Originally posted by Artha
So? It still doesn't look like paragraphs. There's 6 major breaks...there should be a few more in the big paragraphs. It just makes it look less daunting, and makes me (and probably Simu) more likely to read it.

This is true.

For any e-mail or inquiry where you can't print out the paper, you should never indent and skip lines between major points to help break up text.

One of the few things I learned in college.

Mistomeer
03-31-2004, 10:12 AM
Originally posted by Electrawn
I agree with some things. Perhaps you can condesne those thoughts via the Correction Path at this thread:

http://forum.gsplayers.com/viewthread.php?tid=5780

Why don't you post on your own forums over at gs4.org rather than advertising your forums here? I can't speak for everyone, but unless there's something I really need over at gs4.org, I'm not going to regularly visit a site that praises someone like Augie on the front page and the forums consist of Devishal and Soffia talking about how great they are.

Galleazzo
03-31-2004, 10:20 AM
Probably 'cause they got a tenth of the numbers here over there.

Mistomeer
03-31-2004, 10:33 AM
Originally posted by Galleazzo
Probably 'cause they got a tenth of the numbers here over there.

1/10 is generous. I get tired of the constant advertisting.