Veteran Rewards

Before you scream, "Starting a new thread on a locked topic!!!" please read on.

I've been trying to figure out how the general veteran rewards system works in a number of SOE games, mainly as I play more than one and I do get a number of vet rewards (no, I'm not complaining that we don't get them here, keep reading...)

From what I can tell, the rewards system is based on the time your account is physically active and not your amount of playtime. I say that as this account is a Station Pass one, as primarily I play here and SWG (a bit). Now, when the whole Pirates of the Burning Sea came onto the pass, I was naturally happy, which is why I got involved in the beta and have been playing there ever since, happily paying the same amount regardless.

My question is, is how that system works right though? For example, I never played EQII in my life before I was given the all-in-one box by Ashlanne, yet the first time I go on there I had buckets of vet items. So in that case, it's more rewarding me for being a vet of SOE rather than the game itself. It's a similar thing for SWG, as I haven't played anywhere near the vet reward times on there, yet I have loads of them.

Equally, I'm assuming all of this stuff must be saved on one server or linked together with the games in some way, as otherwise the whole thing of how Station Launcher can tell you if your friends are online on any of SOE's games, regardless of character... the only way I can think of it doing that is through the account. Unless I'm missing something...? I can only assume though that this is going to be one of those "added bonuses" for having a Station Pass

I know this is a bit random but I was reading NT's post about how they'd be implimented here (as it was the last one in the locked thread about the vet rewards going to vanguard) so it got me thinking about the vet system generally. The above is what happens when I think about it but I'm now curious on specifics

I would like to see vet rewards... I would not like to see something that unbalances the game...

I think it should count when you activate the account, if you have to take a break for whatever reason shouldn't be hold against you.  Not everyone can play the whole year around and not rewarding them would seem a little unfair if it was out of their control.  No one is going to start an account, then come back 12 months later to play with their Veteran rewards, people will be putting the effort into their character if they end up with a Veteran reward.  A definate no no on rewards going on /play time, I have a /play time larger than some Beta players (Students ftw!) and... well that wont go down well if I am playing with more Veteran rewards than a Beta player because they have a job :|

Also, I also think the Veteran rewards should be for looks, not buffs.

The Leo wrote:

I would like to see vet rewards... I would not like to see something that unbalances the game...

Off topic already.  Tsk. 

Granted this isn’t the military, but as an example, it’s hard to beat in comparing to this. The military doesn’t consider someone a veteran from the time they’ve been in. If you are a veteran, then that means you served during an operation or action, such as World War II or the Vietnam Police Action.

Which is why having those special abilities like Mobius Code were originally so important. But I digress. . .

What makes a Veteran of MxO? Man, that answer is going to vary as widely as there are individuals in this game.

In my opinion though, I would really hate to see it go to /play time. There are a lot of players that I know who have been here since Beta but don’t have high /play times. Likewise, there are players who manage to play all day for weeks on end, yet haven’t been here a full year yet.

I’m fairly confident in saying that /play time does not indicate a level of contribution to the game or the community. Hell, if that was the case, you might as well make it about who has the most $info.

I wonder if some nice maths would be in order...

As you can see from the above comments, there's thoughts for doing it through what would be physical playtime and also just off account active time.

I'm guessing that those who were here since beta would prefer it to be based off account time, others who just missed it would prefer it on play time.

As SolidRevolver said though, you'll get some people with massive playtimes over the beta players, so should you punish them for that, or give them rewards based on that.

The obvious thing would be to do one of two things:

1. Create some sort of ratio between playtime and account time to give a total value and provide vet rewards off that

2. Create 2 different bunches of rewards based for those who play more and those who have older accounts (which brings on the subject of what you give as you'd get fights breaking out)

I dunno though. It's hard to understand the use of many rewards, as you'll find a lot of them are based on giving items out for peoples in-game houses (EQII pic ftw) and then some Exp boosters, even the largest of which give me a 30% boost on EQII I think.

The thing about that then is realistically, you have to wonder the point of having them in this game, as what on earth would you give? We don't have personal houses or anything and those exp boosters are only useful for new characters... anyway, I'm going off-topic in my own thread when I said no-one would

Anyway, as you can see from what I've written above, there's flaws with existing vet systems anyway, although I'm admittedly not complaining for having it in games where I still need to level!

Having thought about /play time rewards, I think it would be inethical to encourage large /play times.  We have heard about those who get addicted to MMOs and reward people for playing MxO for hundereds of hours would be wrong, in my eyes at least.  It would also encourage anti-AFK macros and people spending all day jacked in buggering the the already aged servers wouldn't help anyone. 

So yeah, I think it should be from when your account is activated.

Yeah we do need some account time awards but is it traceable for the old Monolith people? I was active way before the transfer. and i still get the Joined: Aug 18, 2005 thing

I was the MXO veteran reward...