GameAmp: Billing is about to start

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Phedre_D

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Billing is about to start

I just realized my first free month is about to expire. In fact, that will happen this Friday for me. And I guess that goes for everybody that started playing from day one. So to avoid being locked out at the wrong time I have already activated the recurring monthly subscription at $14,99 (+ 17.5% VAT for EU members).

I am still hopelessly confused over the 90 day free thingy we received with the special edition box. What did I get free exactly? And after the 90 days how do I make sure I won't lose this mysterious free thingy?

02/28/07 04:42

lani

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RE: Billing is about to start

Interesting :-)

Now if this were an NCSoft game, those 90 days would mean a time-card was in your box. With SOE, it could mean just about anything, from empty promise to completely integrated no-user-feedback three months of free play.

If you're really keen you could always try SOE support :-p

02/28/07 05:42

Tyrlien

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RE: Billing is about to start

The 90 day free thing is your access to the Vanguard Station Players site and info about your toon, all those stats, all those picture uploads etc. You normally pay a miniscule amount, 2.99/mth and get those features that include:
Vanguard Station Players Advanced Leaderboards

Vanguard Station Players Enhanced Media Services

Vanguard Station Players Advanced Character Profiles

Vanguard Station Players Advanced Game Data

Tyrlien Darkwynd
Skara Brae Guild - Co-Leader
Everquest 2 - Half Elf Swashbuckler
Vanguard - Half Elf Rogue

02/28/07 07:41

Phedre_D

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RE: Billing is about to start

I still don't really understand it. I can see all those stats and details even when I am not logged in. Which means everybody can see it. Even people that don't have VG/station at all. Do I need it to access our forum maybe? And where do I sign up for it? I still have two months, but when I updated my subscription there was no mention of it anywhere.

I think I will just let it expire, and then I will find out to what I won't have access to anymore. Thanks for the info though, Tyr!

***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***

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02/28/07 08:03

blackphoenix

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RE: Billing is about to start

I suppose I'm a bit confused too. Does that mean that you basically lose your ability to upload pics and make blog entries?

As cool as it is to be able to see my character stats and all that on the vgplayers site, I don't think I'd pay any amount for it. I'm just cheap like that.

02/28/07 08:19

Tyrlien

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RE: Billing is about to start

To sign up for it you would sign into your account, for example, at the Vanguard Players website by clicking on the My Account link at the top right of the screen. Check your subscriptions and View/Edit button by Vanguard will take to you a page that should have a Upgrade Station Players button, or something like that.

It is exactly like what we get for EQ2 Players. Search for Tyrlien, I'm on Butcherblock, and you will see what I have set available for public view, but you won't see whatever you need to subscribe to to see or what I have blocked.

No, you don't need it to access our guild's VG forums.

***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***

Tyrlien Darkwynd
Skara Brae Guild - Co-Leader
Everquest 2 - Half Elf Swashbuckler
Vanguard - Half Elf Rogue

02/28/07 09:55

blackphoenix

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RE: Billing is about to start

I think this is what you're getting 90 days free of, the $2.99/mo deal...

03/01/07 10:25

Phedre_D

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RE: Billing is about to start

Could post a link to that? I have been searching my subcription page like Tyr had said, but I couldn't find anything like that.

The GameAmp Noobz Household!

03/01/07 10:43

blackphoenix

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RE: Billing is about to start

First, go here:

https://secure.station.sony.com/eq2/account...ion/EditLogin.m

and log in to your station account. Once on your account screen, right under where it says "My Subscriptions", you should see Vanguard listed there with two buttons next to it. Click on the long button that says "Update Station Players Features". After logging in again, that will take you to your billing info page apparently. Once there, scroll all the way to the bottom and look for a button that says "Update Station Players Premium Features". Click that button, and it will take you to the page in the picture I posted above.

To get your 90 days free, I'm assuming they proabaly gave you a card in the box with an account key for it. In that case, you'd enter that key after clicking on the button that says "Enter Account Key" right above the button we previously mentioned.

03/01/07 10:55

lani

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RE: Billing is about to start

https://secure.station.sony.com/vanguard/accounts/Details.m

That's your "My Account", "My Subscriptions" page.
At the bottom there's links to "Station Players Premium Features".

Don't expect this link to work directly as SOE delights in making you log in 3 times in a row as a security measure that results in you putting all on "Remember me" and "Save password" :-)

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03/01/07 10:56

lani

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RE: Billing is about to start

QUOTE

To get your 90 days free, I'm assuming they proabaly gave you a card in the box with an account key for it. In that case, you'd enter that key after clicking on the button that says "Enter Account Key" right above the button we previously mentioned.

The system is usually to have the feature auto-activate and countdown. Then after the free-period is over you're hooked or at least gotten used to it and will think "what's 3 dollars a month?".

Personally, I'd be interested if the blog feature would allow me to enter text but as it doesn't I'll pass.

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03/01/07 10:58

blackphoenix

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RE: Billing is about to start

Mmm, I guess they give regular version a 30 day free trial of it and it seems mine has run out. Or they're just slow updating the info today.

Now, to decide if I'm still too cheap...

03/01/07 14:12

lani

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RE: Billing is about to start

Well, no-one's ever accused Sony Stations of being fast in updating :-) It usually updates every 8 to 12 hours or sometimes not for 24 hours.

The EQ2 Station players system would update my toons' information, but it wouldn't show me detailed information on gear e.t.c. or what my comparative ratings were. Given that those ratings included every character ever made on any server those statistics weren't all that impressive either.
The service is irregular in update speed and that makes its worth questionable imo.

Then again, a one-month included into the purchase of the regular edition sounds plausible.

03/01/07 14:55

brother seerko

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RE: Billing is about to start

so you have to pay for the game monthly

03/06/07 19:47

Phedre_D

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RE: Billing is about to start

Hi brother seerko, Welcome to GameAmp. Yes, Vanguard has a monthly fee of $14,99, but you get so much in return that it is actually a real bargain.

The GameAmp Noobz Household!

03/07/07 04:06

lani

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RE: Billing is about to start

QUOTE

Hi brother seerko, Welcome to GameAmp. Yes, Vanguard has a monthly fee of $14,99, but you get so much in return that it is actually a real bargain.

Greetings Brother Seerko, and welcome.
Yup it's $15,99 per month.

Here in the Netherlands, $16,- gets you:

One movie for two people, no drinks.
A week's worth of gas for a moped.
Three days of cigarettes (the filtered kind) or a weeks worth of rolling bacca.
One-point-five pizza delivered at your home.
One third of a reasonably new DVD
Two or three DVD's in the bargain bins
(that's 9 hours of entertainment max)
One third of of a stand alone PC game.
One forth the weekly shopping budget for two.
One sixth of a Console game you'll play for three weeks then never look at again.

If you play an average of one hour a day, 15,99 translates to $0,54 per hour. However, the average gaming time of a subscriber is 2 hours a day, making the costs a quarter per hour. Compared to most other forms of digital entertainment, that's pretty cheap.
The game costs $49.99 in the stores and that includes one month subscription.

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03/07/07 06:05

blackphoenix

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RE: Billing is about to start

To follow up on the vgplayers site question, it appears that the Faction and Stats pages are the pay for pages of the site.

After I cancelled my account and use a time card, it now no longer allows me access to those pages and gives me a purdy little message about upgrading my account. The main character info page, portraits, and blogs still seem to work and are viewable without paying extra.

04/03/07 15:05

lani

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RE: Billing is about to start

Are you sure about this?

Asking because I just discovered that it's quite easy to get a totally inappropriate "Access Denied" or "This player has set this page to private" error on a lot of pages.

To reproduce:
- Log in.
- DO NOT select character, but click on "Admin" right below your Station Name.
- Switch to any of the tabs, you will learn that you have no rights to "$character.name"'s pages.

I believe what you are really missing is the stat-details on items e.t.c. like with EQ2's Station extra's. I had those the first month, now it's bland minimal descriptions.

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04/05/07 05:57

lani

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RE: Billing is about to start

Waking up this thread again due to a reciurring one at Sony's support forums.

I'm wondering how much of a case people have.
Half the time when you see something like this happening it's a case of "I read what I wanted to read, not what was there.", but it keeps cropping up. And personally I'd be double-checking myself before going to the BBB. Not that I will, I'm not an American :-)

Anyone have a Collector's or Limited edition and a digicam?
I'd like to see a picture of the text on that box that's so obfuscated.

04/18/07 09:52

Tyrlien

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RE: Billing is about to start

This is one topic that drives me around the bend... people read into it what they want to or they rely on what salespeople tell them. There is a very lengthy thread about this on Silky Venom about that same issue of "90 days free time". There was at one time a screenshot posted of the box and it was quite clear to me what they meant when I read it. Going to the BBB is pointless in my opinion.

Tyrlien Darkwynd
Skara Brae Guild - Co-Leader
Everquest 2 - Half Elf Swashbuckler
Vanguard - Half Elf Rogue

04/18/07 10:23

lani

GameAmp Staff
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RE: Billing is about to start

Pfffff. 11 pages of a lot of venom and very little silk.
I think the picture you saw must've been in the thread that got cross-referenced but points to the general forum. These guys are all at pains to type over rather than show the evidence.

I would not take this to the Dutch version of the BBB had I been duped in a similar fashion.
I was brought up to accept the consequences of my own actions as well as to think about them before taking action. It's basically another case of folks not wanting to take the responsibility for their own mistakes.
Besides, Dutch laws and judges have the "annoying" habit of assuming you're capable of reading and using common sense. That's why we do not have "May contain nuts" stickers on nut-bars and peanut butter. :-)

I still would like to see the box/sticker though. I think Phe might be able to help out tonight. She has the box and a camera, I know...

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04/18/07 11:07

Phedre_D

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RE: Billing is about to start

I think the box was pretty clear. It said something like "30 days game access" and "90 days Vanguard Station Player access". It was very clear to me when I got the box. I could get you a picture if I can remember to take it, but it will only confirm that they didn't cheat there.

Where I do think they were slightly ambiguous was on their own online ordering site, and the info that was shown at play.com where I ordered it from. But I don't have links to either website. And since they are not up anymore it doesn't help much even if I had the links.

The GameAmp Noobz Household!

04/18/07 11:16

Lunar One

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RE: Billing is about to start

Nevermind I thought we were talking about something different =P

***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***

04/19/07 16:33

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