What to do if you're frustrated with PSU/Sega

[Dire]

If you are no longer actively playing PSU, cancel your account. Do not leave the auto-renewal enabled as you wait for new content to be released. Sega has shown a lack of interest and enthusiasm towards their non-Japanese players. The only thing that could change their attitude would be a significant decrease in income. Canceling is not a hassle. It took a ten minute call for me to cancel my account as well as my girlfriend's. For the 360 the phone number is 1-800-469-9269 or 1-800-4MY-XBOX.

Why would Sega even consider putting out content more quickly or giving the non-japanese audience any interesting events/themes if nobody is willing to cancel their accounts due to the current lack of content/interaction? They wouldn't. Like most things in life, put your money where your mouth is or nothing will ever happen. This means you. If you decide to cancel, you can always restart your subscription with no problems - your items and characters will still be there waiting for you.

It's only with numbers that we can send a message to Sega, and that starts with you.

EDIT: Inappropriate language removed.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Ryna on 2006-11-27 07:25 ]</font>

[Dire]

As an aside, this exact post was actually deleted from the official forums. I find it interesting that they don't mind simply locking the numerous threads of players mindlessly bashing the game, but post a thread with reasonable advise for change and it was deleted in less than 3 minutes. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_lol.gif



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Dire on 2006-11-27 00:36 ]</font>

[AlphaMinotaux]

how is US being shown a lack of interest?> as far as i know the release for updates have been close to japans. we'll actually see if thats true this thursday

[Lashiens]

On 2006-11-27 00:34, Dire wrote:
If you are no longer actively playing PSU, cancel your account. Do not leave the auto-renewal enabled as you wait for new content to be released. Sega has shown a lack of interest and enthusiasm towards their nonjap players. The only thing that could change their attitude would be a significant decrease in income. Canceling is not a hassle. It took a ten minute call for me to cancel my account as well as my girlfriend's. For the 360 the phone number is 1-800-469-9269 or 1-800-4MY-XBOX.

Why would Sega even consider putting out content more quickly or giving the nonjap audience any interesting events/themes if nobody is willing to cancel their accounts due to the current lack of content/interaction? They wouldn't. Like most things in life, put your money where your mouth is or nothing will ever happen. This means you. If you decide to cancel, you can always restart your subscription with no problems - your items and characters will still be there waiting for you.

It's only with numbers that we can send a message to Sega, and that starts with you.



I'm willing to bet that it was probably deleted not because of the content of the idea, but maybe because of the possibly perceived as (maybe I'm wrong) inflammatory references to japanese players, pointed out in bold up top there.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Lashiens on 2006-11-27 00:46 ]</font>

[FenixStryk]

But what if we still want to play? The game's still got enough online content to live by. 3 major bosses, many mini-bosses, and more than 4 areas. That's more than the original PSO had.

[Dire]

On 2006-11-27 00:40, AlphaMinotaux wrote:
how is US being shown a lack of interest?> as far as i know the release for updates have been close to japans. we'll actually see if thats true this thursday




Japanese Updates:

Update 1: Oct. 5
Update 2: Oct. 14. 9 days.
Update 3: Oct. 19. 5 days.
Update 4: Oct. 26. 7 days.
Update 5: Nov. 9. 14 days.
Update 6: Nov. 16. 7 days.
Update 7: Nov. 22. 6 days.
Update 8: Nov. 30. 8 days.

American Updates:

Release: Oct. 24th
Update 1: Nov. 17th. 24 days.
Update 2: ????

[Lashiens]

On 2006-11-27 00:54, Dire wrote:

On 2006-11-27 00:40, AlphaMinotaux wrote:
how is US being shown a lack of interest?> as far as i know the release for updates have been close to japans. we'll actually see if thats true this thursday




Japanese Updates:

Update 1: Oct. 5
Update 2: Oct. 14. 9 days.
Update 3: Oct. 19. 5 days.
Update 4: Oct. 26. 7 days.
Update 5: Nov. 9. 14 days.
Update 6: Nov. 16. 7 days.
Update 7: Nov. 22. 6 days.
Update 8: Nov. 30. 8 days.

American Updates:

Release: Oct. 24th
Update 1: Nov. 17th. 24 days.
Update 2: ????




Ahem, might I also point out, that you completely forgot the fact that they went an entire MONTH without updates, just like we did.

Does anyone else remember that PSU JP launched at the beginning of September? I sure do.

[Dire]

On 2006-11-27 00:52, FenixStryk wrote:
But what if we still want to play? The game's still got enough online content to live by. 3 major bosses, many mini-bosses, and more than 4 areas. That's more than the original PSO had.



Absolutely! I am by no means am trying to encourage anybody who is still enjoying the game to quit. The reason I wrote this message was that there seems to be significantly fewer people online based on the universe numbers coupled with the large number of "I quit" posts on the official forums.

However, I think a huge chunk of these people are simply leaving their account on auto-renewal and waiting for content updates. This message was geared exclusively for those people. I have little doubt that Sega would have quickly rolled out content updates if even a significant minority of those players had actually cancelled their accounts.

If you're still happy with the game then ignore this message. Or be happy about it - there's a miniscule chance it might result in you getting content more quickly. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wink.gif

[Dire]

On 2006-11-27 00:57, Lashiens wrote:
Ahem, might I also point out, that you completely forgot the fact that they went an entire MONTH without updates, just like we did.

Does anyone else remember that PSU JP launched at the beginning of September? I sure do.


The game went back to a beta stage after the initial launch failure. I listed only the nonbeta dates. I forget nothing! http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wink.gif

[Lashiens]

On 2006-11-27 01:01, Dire wrote:
[quote]
The game went back to a beta stage after the initial launch failure. I listed only the nonbeta dates. I forget nothing! http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_wink.gif



Elephant! http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

[mindelixir]

this is the worst advice i have ever heard. SO.... you want a company (don't forget that companies are motivated by profit) to spend money to get something done? so cancel your account and the income that sega gets goes down, money from psu goes down... and guess what? no more updates. why would a company spend money on a product that doesn't generate a profit? you want updates? convince your friends to get accounts, get more accounts yourself. "a significant decrease in income" is a good way to get updates scrapped altogether.

[Dire]

On 2006-11-27 01:28, mindelixir wrote:
this is the worst advice i have ever heard. SO.... you want a company (don't forget that companies are motivated by profit) to spend money to get something done? so cancel your account and the income that sega gets goes down, money from psu goes down... and guess what? no more updates. why would a company spend money on a product that doesn't generate a profit? you want updates? convince your friends to get accounts, get more accounts yourself. "a significant decrease in income" is a good way to get updates scrapped altogether.


The 'updates' are simply unlocking what is already available on the DVD. There is $0 of overhead involved.

That said, even if there were an overhead involved you would still be incorrect. You may want to do a bit of research into basic economics - particularly supply/demand. There is a direct analog for profit models in games like this. You could call it: player retention/overhead. If all players were like you, apparently content and even willing to encourage others to play with extremely infrequent updates, then there would virtually never be updates. If all players were like me - happily willing to quit without significant content/interaction then you'd see significant content/interaction provided.

Sega's goal is to make as much money as possible. If players aren't quitting when they only provide the most marginal of services, then they have no reason to provide anything more than the most marginal of services.

[Ruby-chan]

Admittedly if you want to get them to change cancelling would be the most effective thing. The problem with this is that Sega doesn't care. Let's be honest here, Sega made the money they expected to off the first month from everyone. They're not really shooting for longevity here. The servers are small and most likely hosted on machines piggybacked to connections for the website and other things, so the online money is all profit. When subscriptions get low they release an "expansion" or a "re-release" to get a brand new batch of one month subscriptions, rinse and repeat.

[PJ]

I like how everyone assumes they know Sonic Team. On a personal level.

[Saiffy]

Do us a favor

Cancel "waiting for content" but don't ever renew. Ever.

Retards.


Btw, ST knows you're gonna find something else to bitch about when all the content is released, so they'll just find something else to release. You know, theres a good reason ST makes a lot more money an hour than anyone here.

[KojiroAK]

On 2006-11-27 06:30, Saiffy wrote:

You know, theres a good reason ST makes a lot more money an hour than anyone here.



Erm, isn't it that way that Sega earns the money?

And i would say the reason why they gain more money then everyone in this board is because they are a bigger company while people here are single people.

[PJ]

That's the point. ST is succesful.

Like cancelling your GL will make them go bankrupt. Besides, whining DOES work; read PSO:BB, North American Edition.

[KojiroAK]

On 2006-11-27 16:37, PJ wrote:
That's the point. ST is succesful.

Like cancelling your GL will make them go bankrupt. Besides, whining DOES work; read PSO:BB, North American Edition.



Actually my post was more heading to, that you can't properly compare Sega to People.

And if people would cancel their account, could make Sega think about their "unlock politics".

At the moment Sega makes this unlock all month some little stuff to hold people at their server to earn their money.
(o.k. they call it longevity, but that means less the longevity of the game, then more the longevity of how long they can earn money with PSU)

[Ruby-chan]

On 2006-11-27 16:37, PJ wrote:
That's the point. ST is succesful.

Like cancelling your GL will make them go bankrupt. Besides, whining DOES work; read PSO:BB, North American Edition.



Actually.. no it's not. ;p Sega as a whole hasn't been doing well for a while. There's a reason a big chunk of Sega is now onwned by Sammy.

[PJ]

Well, better off then when they were making consoles (Well... where they left off, anyways)

(Poor DC :C)

[Dire]

On 2006-11-27 03:11, Ruby-chan wrote:
Admittedly if you want to get them to change cancelling would be the most effective thing. The problem with this is that Sega doesn't care. Let's be honest here, Sega made the money they expected to off the first month from everyone. They're not really shooting for longevity here.

While I have no way to prove you are incorrect, it is my opinion that Sega is relying on the monthly subscriptions for a large chunk of the revenue. It's the only reasonable explanation for their decision to cripple online mode and offer updates that correspond with monthly renew dates.

There's also the intereting fact that something in my original post led to its deletion from Sega on the official boards. They do not normally delete posts such as: "OMG - this game sucks, you should all quit!" Yet they did decide to delete mine. I'm not sure what you can take from that - but it's interesting all the same. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

[pracer]

When I called and canceled my account the xbox rep told me that he had handeld somewhere between 200 and 250 cancelations in the past week and half. People are droping like flies. And why shouldn't they? This game simply doesn't have the same "magic" that pso did.
Maybe its because games have evolved. Maybe WoW really did change the way we look at online rpgs. ... I don't know. I REALLY wanted to love this game. I tried very hard.
But in the end, I found nothing to keep me playing. I beat story mode. I sunk 100 plus hrs into online, I have put about 25hrs into extra mode. In terms of gaming for the money spent, PSU doesn't owe me anything. Worth the purchase. But I am done. Very done. There is no draw for me anymore. I log on and get bored and get angry. So I canceled.
As for amount of content, yes they need more. I think it is stupid to just unlock content . That is not an expansion. Not and update. It is a slow leaking of game content that was included with the game purchase. If we were going to get truely new content, it would make more sense. Anyone that has played WoW knows what I am talking about.
As for gameplay. This is s touchy topic for me. I feel photons ruined gameplay. it forced my froce to play with a handgun and one handed wand. It forced my ranger to also play with a handgun and one handed saber. Because you have to play with one handed weapons so that the photons can charge when in the offhand. I feel that drasticly changed the way the game should be played. IMO forces should NEVER need to use a handgun. And likewise, when a ranger uses a melee close ranged weapon(saber). Forces use spells, rangers use guns. If not you have three chars that play almost exactly the same. Hence boring.
Repetitive gameplay. Is and isn't a problem for me. PSO was very repetitive, but to this day i still like to play it. It reminds of Tetris or Pacman. In that you do the samething over and over but it is a fun thing to do. I would play a force, and duck and weave in and out of mobs, never getting hit, and laying down "room bombs" left and right. Going back and forth between the different types of Ra-spells. It was pure bliss. I could zone in the same type of way I could zone in playing a good 2D shooter. Hard to explain, but i am sure some of you get it. PSU doesn't even come close. It just gets repetitive. No "magic" zone, no bliss.
In the end I am not mad, not looking to flame anyone. And could care less if ya flame me. I prolly won't log in that much anyways. PSU is like a flat soda. Once upon a time it was bubbly and tasted good. Now it is just flat. You can set in game goals for yourself, and you can reach them. If that keeps you going, great. But ask yourself ... is it still fun?
Not for me it isn't.