View Full Version : Petition to not wipe inactive accounts
As you have all read in MJS's latest DoY thread, characters on accounts that have been inactive for over 3 months will be wiped upon release of DoY. This means that people who are coming back for DoY will not have access to their old characters. This could be a major determining factor in whether many people come back. Personally, I think that if accounts were to remain non-wiped for at least 3 months after the release of DoY that at that point it would be appropriate to do it. The people who would have wanted to try DoY will have had plenty of chances and time to try it out.
Additionally, but on a seperate note, I think that a good marketing strategy would be to reactivate inactive accounts as a method of trying to get back old players.
*/sign if you agree please.
{MD}GeistDamnit
19-12-03, 23:46
Yep I agree ;)
I agree on keeping them for a short period. Send them all an e-mail as well to tell them that NC:BDoY has been released and their account will not be deleted for a short time to give them a chance to reactivate and try it out.
Originally posted by Scikar
I agree on keeping them for a short period. Send them all an e-mail as well to tell them that NC:BDoY has been released and their account will not be deleted for a short time to give them a chance to reactivate and try it out. Yeah.
"We will clean up our dbase: All accounts that, at the time NC:BDOY gets released, have been inactive for more than three month, will be deleted."-MJS
from http://neocron.jafc.de/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83797
I think giving them all a 10-day free trial would help, if there isn't logged in in those 10 days, delete the account.
But I can understand why KK wants to clean the dbase. And I won't object if they do it as planned.
SeXy Happy
19-12-03, 23:53
Agree
Spectra260
19-12-03, 23:55
i thought that all accounts that were inactive for 3 months were deleted anyways....
shodanjr_gr
19-12-03, 23:57
/me agrees.
5 *
Delete them all and let god sort them out! :o
Originally posted by Spectra260
i thought that all accounts that were inactive for 3 months were deleted anyways....
Supposedly yes, but they've never actually got around to doing it yet. :)
As for the topic: I'm ambivalent.
-Krll
THey should keep the accounts for about a month. If they haven't activated them by then they probably arn't going to come back. Need to remember that some people may not be able to get the expansion for a while.
Spectra260
20-12-03, 00:01
Originally posted by Krll
Supposedly yes, but they've never actually got around to doing it yet. :)
As for the topic: I'm ambivalent.
-Krll
so my friend who left 6 months ago might sitll have his account?
he might come back then if he does:D
Psycho Killa
20-12-03, 00:04
Not he migh he does... they havent deleted anyone account yet but they will come doy.
And I agree they should be given a short amount of time to reactivate or they willl say fuck it im not leveling up all again.
I suggest that they still wipe all the old inactive accounts out of the active database.
But they store all the old accounts in another database.
If someone want to reactivate an account inactive for more than 3 months, then they still can, but they have to pay an additional fee.
Three good things about this.
1) your character lives forever.
2) it removes inactive accounts and hopefully improves neocron.
3) kk makes more money that they can spend to fix bugs and add features (not more bling bling for Martin J. Schwiezer).
Psychoninja
20-12-03, 00:26
Yeah, there should be a grace period after DOY to reactivate. It would be a smart choice.
Shadow Dancer
20-12-03, 00:38
I agree. But it should be 1 mo not 3. :p
Vampire222
20-12-03, 00:52
yea, i agree with serve.. itd be shit for old players coming back at doy
I was also thinking that KK should send emails to inactive players and active players alike informing them that DoY was released, in order to inform those that may be unaware. Advertising on places such as Fileplanet and Gamespot may also be useful. Maybe stratics.com as well under the Neocron section.
rubaduckythug
20-12-03, 00:58
dosnt make sence not to keep the accounts for an extra 3 months after doy has been released, i vote keep them ^^
Agree 100% with your idea. *****
Disagree extremely strongly.
The DB is a mess and needs cleaning.
Also - as I said in several other similar threads on this issue this may be a precursor to upgrading to a real database platform. Something that should have happened a long time ago.
I do think they should make every effort to get those people back before they do it though. I doubt they will though because... well... it's KK.:rolleyes:
Agent FunHead
20-12-03, 02:01
Good Idea Serve, I totally agree
The only point i see of removing old accounts when DoY comes out is to try to scare old players into reactivating their accs before DoY comes out to make the game look more popular to new comers when its released.
Surely for the NC community it would be better not to do this as any old players that either miss the launch or were not interested until after its release (read a good review on how DoY is comming along with proper continuing storyline events & new items etc) would be put off comming back due to having to start afresh.
BonG:eek:
I agree.
However, if there is a large influx of new players the time should be brought down to one month, so people with longer than 3 month inactive accounts aren't 'holding' names new people want to use.
Sign Here:
Tycho Celchu
--------------------
if they want to clean the database there must be a good reason that we should know before voting me thinks.
Agent FunHead
20-12-03, 02:35
Originally posted by Tycho C
Sign Here:
Tycho Celchu
--------------------
Tycho did u sign with a pen on ur monitor where it says Sign Here: ?
:p
Im stoneD as UsUal
BOnG
Give it a 9 month rule, I want the name drake and its been had by a 0/2 for over a year on pluto!
Definitely agree with this. Like everyone's saying, they should be cleaned out, but wait a few weeks or a month after DoY is released.
Fixing the DB before DOY may not only be a very good idea, it may actually be essential in order to deliver the promised improvements to the game.
While I can understand Jernau's concerns I for one agree with the basic idea of keeping inactive accounts on the database for a period after the release of DOY. Why? Because mine's one of them. I stopped playing because. to my mind Neocron had stagnated. If Dome of York is indeed the holy grail KK doubtless would want us to believe, or hell, just a good expansion I would most likely return -IF- my Character is still waiting for me.
If he isn't, then I would have to think twice before resubscribing. I don't want to go through all the leveling again. It took me months of casual gaming to get to the level I was.
The thing about second thoughts, is usually the second thought is "no".
I say just wipe out every character so the game is more interesting and better with all the changes.
Originally posted by PrizM
I say just wipe out every character so the game is more interesting and better with all the changes.
Dude...that's like the worst possible thing KK could ever do and if they did they'd lose 10x more people then they would gain.
ahh - is this the " i dont care a fuck about the game for 6 month but still want to have it all" thread ?
its kind of a good idea to send emails to inactive users when the doy fact list is out but they should see this as a last "warning" to come back and get the special offer or wait and see how NC:BDoY play and then come back with nothin.
this isnt charity
EDIT: to get a clear fiew on this picture it would be cool if you add a active/passive to you post. ;) what good is a thread of 500 pro wotes if they all come from inactiv accounts :o
Hasnt it always been 3 months period? I've heard that if you've cancelled your account and not reactivated it before 3 months they will delete your chars (waste of space)
no, they haven't got around to doing it yet.
Originally posted by Vid Gamer
Dude...that's like the worst possible thing KK could ever do and if they did they'd lose 10x more people then they would gain.
From what I've read, KK would disagree with that. They've said there's going to be a shift in focus from relying on the existing long-time playerbase towards pulling in new players. That to me sounds like they expect the new players to far outnumber the existing players, else there'd be no shift in focus/reliance.
Originally posted by Breschau
From what I've read, KK would disagree with that. They've said there's going to be a shift in focus from relying on the existing long-time playerbase towards pulling in new players. That to me sounds like they expect the new players to far outnumber the existing players, else there'd be no shift in focus/reliance.
With so many different MMORPGs out now adays, there really is no way to estimate how mwany people will be rejoining neocron or joining anew. Which is one of the reasons that it is so important that these players accounts are kept intact for at least a reasonable ammount of time.
Think of Anarchy Online for example, it sucked ass for about 5 months, and 5 months into it, without an expansion or anything they allowed inactive players back for a month to try the game out again. Now look at it, they've regained the ammount of players that they lost and retained many old players.
@serve - I'm inclined to agree. Just saying, y'all need to convince KK of that.
And I may have entirely misinterpreted whatever it was I read (lost track of what thread or member of KK's staff it was that said it), so could be completely wrong in the first place.
Personally, my own account for NC has been inactive for over 3 months by now and if it were wiped it'd likely take a new (as in, no existing chars) server to get me to rejoin. Though depending how much "more than just an expansion" BDoY is, I may actually want to start from scratch for it. I'm guessing not, though.
Originally posted by Breschau
From what I've read, KK would disagree with that. They've said there's going to be a shift in focus from relying on the existing long-time playerbase towards pulling in new players. That to me sounds like they expect the new players to far outnumber the existing players, else there'd be no shift in focus/reliance.
Please provide a link to that. I've not seen anything to that effect.
/edit - I'm not saying they didn't. I wouldn't put anything past KK anymore and we all now about their communication skills. :rolleyes:
Originally posted by jernau
Please provide a link to that. I've not seen anything to that effect.
/edit - I'm not saying they didn't. I wouldn't put anything past KK anymore and we all now about their communication skills. :rolleyes:
As I say in the preceeding post (possibly written as you were writing yours :p) I've lost track of exactly where it was I read that. I was able to find something similar, though it was saying they'd not only be focussing on existing playerbase which isn't quite the same thing. So not sure if I read that and misunderstood or if someone said something else earlier/later.
The one I did find was here (http://neocron.jafc.de/showthread.php?s=&postid=1091732#post1091732). I don't *think* this is the one I originally read, but can't really be sure. And don't care sufficiently to do any further digging :)
Originally posted by Breschau
As I say in the preceeding post (possibly written as you were writing yours :p) I've lost track of exactly where it was I read that. I was able to find something similar, though it was saying they'd not only be focussing on existing playerbase which isn't quite the same thing. So not sure if I read that and misunderstood or if someone said something else earlier/later.
The one I did find was here (http://neocron.jafc.de/showthread.php?s=&postid=1091732#post1091732). I don't *think* this is the one I originally read, but can't really be sure. And don't care sufficiently to do any further digging :)
"We will clean up our dbase: All accounts that, at the time NC:BDOY gets released, have been inactive for more than three month, will be deleted."-MJS
from http://neocron.jafc.de/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83797
Psycho_Soldier
20-12-03, 20:37
I dont think they should be wiped at the time its released, that would be stupid I think. Maybe 3 months after its released.
(Yes I already know it was suggested)
Originally posted by ServeX
Additionally, but on a seperate note, I think that a good marketing strategy would be to reactivate inactive accounts as a method of trying to get back old players.
Yeah, like this email I got recently...
Greetings!
Revisit PlanetSide Free for up to 10 Days!
Experience once again the thrill of battling with old adversaries and bring glory to your Empire. We have reactivated your closed account for a period of up to 10 days so that you can engage once again in online combat for the domination of Auraxis™
With the recently launched game enhancements, now is the best time to return to PlanetSide!
The Lodestar
Recertification
This offer begins on December 12th, 2003 and ends on December 22nd, 2003. Just log into your old account; it has been automatically reactivated during this offer period.
Psycho Killa
21-12-03, 03:01
Kk definately needs to do something like that seven... if they dont we might as well quit our accounts now because most of the people i expect to come with doy are old members of the community. Either that or they need to advertise enough so atleast the guy at the store should know what im talking about when i ask if they have it in.
Definately! KK should send out an email to all people that have inactive accounts at the moment and offer them a special price to purchase DOY and reactivate their account.
I think many old people may come back if they did.
I agree but uhmm if all these accts and shit are wasting server resources no offense but...purge 'em.
90% of those old accts will never be used again, lets face it.
You may be right g0rt. But if even 10% come back its worth using up that extra server space. Thats 10% more people playing Neocron. 10% more people paying for KKs servers. And 10% more people hopefully helping KK put more content in. 10% more people who may increase neocrons playability and conflict in the gameworld.
Without players an MMORPG is nothing. We need those 10%.
I don't think anyone is suggesting that the inactive accounts be kept forever... Just a month or maybe 3 months at the most, then be deleted.
Like ServeX said, if even 10% of those accounts get reactivated then its worth it having used that extra space for a little bit.
And that free-10 day trial reactivation thing Seven brought up sounds like an awesome way to get people re-addicted :)
It's not just "space".
It's load, corruption, fragmentation, optimisation efficiency, complexity, seek times, select sizes, transfer time + cost if they move platform, etc.
I'm sure I can't be the only person on here with enterprise-level DB experience but I can assure you that no DBA worth his day-rate will advise you to put un-cleaned data into a new system.
Of course if KK aren't dumping mySQL then my initial point is somewhat moot and they can do the purge/clean-up later. They may need to take the whole game off-line for a week to do it of course which won't look good for all those new customers.
Originally posted by Netphreak
Definately! KK should send out an email to all people that have inactive accounts at the moment and offer them a special price to purchase DOY and reactivate their account.
I think many old people may come back if they did.
i really dont think inactive ppl should get the gift of the special prize. they may send the reactivation mails when the feature list is out and then ppl may chose to come back or wait for retail of BDoY.
Originally posted by msdong
i really dont think inactive ppl should get the gift of the special prize.
Why not? Not saying they should, but curious as to why you think they shouldn't?
Is it because you don't feel it'll benefit KK (in terms of money gained/lost overall), that you think it'll actually hurt them, or just a personal feeling that where you've stuck with the game and they've not they don't deserve it? Or something else completely?
Originally posted by Breschau
Why not? Not saying they should, but curious as to why you think they shouldn't?
...
to make it clear again. they should have the chance to join again BEFORE BDoY.
on the point why inactive accounts dont get the special prize: in my opinion the special prize is for the playerbase that accompanied Neocron a long time. tell me one good reason why someone that left neocron 5Month+ ago get a reward for being a "Customer"?!?! i never sah this enywhere else ?!
worst on this thread is that KK now gets kind of trouble because the where kind enough to not use their on policy of deleting inactive accounts o_O
btw this is inly for accounts that are inactive vor 3 or more month. even if you quit now you have a lucky chance that you char is still there for with BDoY.
HELL PPL, THIS IS YOU BONUS. YOU CAN REJOIN NOW/NEXT MONTH AND YOU STUFF IS STILL THERE AND YOU GET THE EXTRA PRIZE.
Originally posted by msdong
tell me one good reason why someone that left neocron 5Month+ ago get a reward for being a "Customer"?!?!
Ok :)
It may well produce more money for KK.
I'd elaborate on why, but it strikes me as a lot of typing for something that's relatively self-explanatory.
This of course comes with the disclaimer that it might not produce more money. That's something for marketting and accounting people at KK to worry about, not me.
edit: one thing to bear in mind: The discount, regardless of how it is presented, is *not* a reward for loyal players. It is an incentive to get them to play the expansion (or just plain keep playing, if the expansion is non-optional). It's a means to (attempt to) extract the maximum cash possible. KK's a business, and businesses don't give gifts or discounts out of their goodness and appreciation, they do so to try to ensure future profits.
Fuck peeps that are not here we all read the rules right?
I know I hit the button that said so if you didnt then dammit to bad stop hacking
I say delete them all now before this stupid petition can take the attention of some frigging person at KK HQ and release the names for new players there the ones that really matter NOOBs are better than quiters
well first of all a lower prize for players are costs. shure they do it to keep the playerbase but if they offer EVERYONE that ever play the game a cut off prize with old chars they get allmost nothing back. ppl might try the game again but only a low count will stay. thats less money for KK and the publisher = bad deal.
well i think we go a little offtoppic because its all about the chars in this thread ;)
just my 2 €cents
Originally posted by msdong
well first of all a lower prize for players are costs. shure they do it to keep the playerbase but if they offer EVERYONE that ever play the game a cut off prize with old chars they get allmost nothing back. ppl might try the game again but only a low count will stay. thats less money for KK and the publisher = bad deal.
well i think we go a little offtoppic because its all about the chars in this thread ;)
just my 2 €cents
Well, the way I look at it, there's two possibilities regarding discounts for or not for previous players.
In either, the money brought in by currently active players, or newbies who've never played, is the same. All that changes is the previous players.
The gist of it would be is the money lost on giving people who'd return at full price a discount greater or less than the money gained from people who will only return at a discount. This all depends on a) how many people will only return at a discount, b) how big the discount is and c) how long those people will return for. ie, will the extra subscription fees and extra payments be more than the money lost through a discount to people who'd have paid full price.
I don't really feel either of us is in a position to say which would be greater as neither of us know what the discount will be, or how 'good' BDoY will be (so how many people would stay once they give it a try).
And yeah, s'a bit off topic, so I'll leave it at that :)
Whether chars should be wiped immediately or given a grace period for the previous players to get back in the game should depend, imo, on the stuff jernau has been saying - will it affect the improvements they plan on making or not. If not, I'd say there ought to be a grace period of a month or so, simply because it increases the chances of people coming back, which means more money, which means more chance of neocron getting a better playerbase and future improvements. If it would, then at the very least you want a comprehensive list of what BDoY will bring along with warning emails before the wipe happens so previous players can make a semi-informed decision about whether to come back (I'd not be inclined to renew my account without knowing what BDoY will actually involve beyond "polished" and "more than an expansion").
edit: and yeah, stop hacking, folks.
Dade Murphey
21-12-03, 15:18
Maybe they should just wait out the first month after DoY...and then all accounts innactive for 3+ months be deleted...atleast that would/should give everyone who's coming back enough time to come back...though I think most people who have been inactive 3+ months anyway will be rerolling due to changes and what not...but it's the thought that counts right? :D
Originally posted by Martin J. Schwiezer
We will also send out an announcement to everyone who has ever signed up for a full account or just for a beta account,
From this (http://neocron.jafc.de/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83867) thread.
The way I read this statement:
these people who are in "jeopardy" of losing their chars should know about the release of NC:BDoy before it happens and as such should have plenty of time to do something about their chars. They should already be aware of the 'existing' policy to delete inactive accounts and should do something about it or risk losing their chars.
If so many people here are so worried about everyone that cancelled their account not wanting to come back if their accounts are deleted with the release, then why don't you send them emails if you have their details, maybe even from the forums if they had accounts here.
In any case, if everyone who has ever signed up for a full account, this would include all those poor souls who canceled their accounts, is going to be contacted, as well as all those who signed up for beta, I have no doubts that there will a lot of people eager to pay for at least one month to see what's going on.
I would like to know if Jernau is right.
Is the database "cleaning" necessary to fulfill the promised improvements? Is the database in for an upgrade?
/edit
There are some nice suggestions here, though. I like the free 10 day trial offer to bring people back. If the database cleaning is not necessary for the improvements, then it doesn't really matter all that much, but a good cleaning of any database is always a good idea.
IMO, the best time to do that would be with an 'upgrade' like NC:BDoY.
Don't get me wrong, I would like to see some of the old folks come back, but I'm not going to cry or complain if they can't or don't.
After 14 months of inactive account, i returned to daoc and my account was still as I had left it. Most people switch mmorpg all the time, and more often than not people return to old mmorpg they used to play after various improvements/changes/expansions. It would be a big shame if KK wiped inactive accounts after such a short period of time imo.
Even though the chances of myself or other ex neocron players coming back maybe slim, its still a possibility. And i tell you this, I for one would not return if i had to redo what took me a solid year of gaming to do to get where i was.
/signed.
Nah, wipe them... we don't want to come back.
MayhemMike
21-12-03, 22:58
Ya Serve, in the old game that i played, Wolrd War 2 Online, They would reactivate accounts for about 14 days just to see if you would want to renew our subscipition... Which was a very good idea if you ask me. It made me reactivate for 4 months.. I played that game for ever 2 years before i quit :D. Any way, i would suggest that MJS reactivate all old accounts for about 2 weeks to see if they would like to come back to NC.. :D Those are my 2 cents.
thewarrior008
21-12-03, 23:02
good idea mikey dude
KK donot delete the accounts .. who knows maybe ill get bored from partieng, making out wit girls , racing cars, and chiling wit my freinds ,,, then maybe ill come back to nc to chilax and kil everyone again :D so... u get me ;)
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