EVE offers can be click-bait and the game probably not worth returning to

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Hopefully I am posting this in the correct area on the forums. Forums aren’t something I use much, if at all. If I posted in the wrong spot, I apologize.

I have just returned to EVE after 10 years. I have been trying to get back into it. I even purchased a Galactic Zakura pack, thinking it came with not only the plex and 3 months omega game time but also the MCT. You do get MCT, but not as a certificate, which you can get it that way to resell in the the EVE store. Fine, so I have to use it myself. I had planned that the cost difference was worth it if I resold several items, that weren’t useful to me.

The worst part that was not posted about it, MCT only covers 1 month, not 3. This is how it is posted on the site “This pack contains 90 days of Omega, Multiple Character Training, 1100 PLEX, 250,000 Skill Points, Expert Cerebral…”. Why would you think it wouldn’t cover 3 months too??

Then I get click-baited again. I had hoped to purchase a recent holiday pack listed on the EVE launcher app. 3 Months of Omega and this time it actually included 3 months of MCT, which I will now use, since I have the 2nd character already being played that I started with the previous pack. Offer is still being posted even as I type this. Turns out when I attempted to get it earlier today, I missed the deadline by 30 minutes. Fine, I messed up, because I didn’t see the note about game time. But then even after it’s gone it’s still posting that it is available all day long with “last 24hr” mark on it… That’s just wrong.

If this wasn’t a closed system where there were advertisements from other companies, etc. they would be held to standards. One being, don’t offer something that is no long available. I could even understand an hour being off. but all day? That the offer is now 24 hours after being over and it is still being posted on the EVE launcher - wrong and misleading!

I brought both of these items up and opened tickets on them, when they occurred. The GM was very helpful and apologetic - noting of course that I had no recourse. I did state that they should at least let someone know so that hopefully another player doesn’t feel they get taken advantage of, as I feel I did. All it would take is a minor modification on the Galactic Zakura pack, which is still being offered, to include something about it being 30 days for MCT and removing the offer that is expired from appearing on the launcher.

I returned to EVE because I had heard it had changed and was better then ever. Sadly I’m finding out it is more frustrating and does what I consider slimy business practices. Ethics in life and business seem like such a difficult concept for most to grasp. Why is that? The basics of it, just treat others how you yourself would want to be treated and be dealt with. That doesn’t seem all that difficult to me, but sadly I guess it is.

I have been keeping a running list of negatives compared to positives since returning. Sadly the negative have quite a few more on the list then positives. Fun is still on the positive side but it’s starting to lose it’s luster. There is probably a good chance I just quit playing again after my Omega time runs out.

If you’ve read this, thanks for listening to my rant. If you happen to agree with how EVE is handling their marketing - TELL THEM! It’s only going to get better and fixed if enough players make them aware of the issue.

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Simply dont buy anything from CCP except (maybe) your sub.

Their “deals” have been stinky for at least a year now, and often overpriced.

I dont think they are literally trying to con anyone, but the usual CCP Absence of Information certainly has helped confuse a number of people.

I went Alpha 6 months ago, and have been waiting for a reason to resub, but financially they aint given me one yet.

Edit: I was going to when Salvage Drone IIs came along, but on aggregate, it wasnt reason enough to be Omega on its own.

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thanks for your feedback. It’s nice to know I’m not the only person who feels there is a lack of info in the offers. Also sad though to know that CCP/EVE feels they don’t have to do better.

Have noticed that the offer finally was removed from the EVE launcher. Still it was 26 hours after it had already expired, but at least it’s gone and won’t continue to P*** me off every time I see it. LOL

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There are several Zakura packs, only one of those gives 3 months sub. Are you saying that exactly THAT Zakura pack, the Galactic one with 3 months omega, has ONE month of MCT and NOT three?

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Yep, exactly. The Galactic Zakura Pack that offers 3 months of sub/Omega only includes 1 month of MCT.

Side note it also applies it directly to your account instead of giving you a certificate, which I believe is what you get if you purchase MCT in the New Eden store. I had hoped for the certificate as I was going to sell it in-game like I plan to do with the Cerebral Accelerator.

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That’s not been the case for a while now and it didn’t state you’d get the mct, it stated to give you training time.

But more importantly:

That is weird because I bought it when it was on sale and it shows me to have 3 months of MCT. Go into your account management page, then click account info and then transaction history, see what it says there.

This is what I see:MCT2

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That offer was different from the Galactic Zakura pack.

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it’s the same base price, so it should be similar. If anything we can establish an expectance here where one could reasonably have assumed it to be 3 months. I’m not trying to prove him wrong, I’m trying to figure out the facts and details.

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the item you are showing from transaction history isn’t the Galactic Zakura Pack. That was the offer I had tried to purchase this morning that had already expired but was still showing available on the launcher until about 30 minutes ago. The Galactic pack was $99.99 and is still available I believe for purchase once by an account.

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3m Omega + 3m MPT is an unrelated bundle compared to the one-time purchases. They also offer completely and totally different things: instead of those two months of MPT, the Zakura pack tosses in PLEX, SKINs, and apparel. This is where players have to assign either a subjective consumption value or a ISK resale value to those items. (The PLEX can, of course, be used toward getting MPT.)

Historically, the one-time purchases have always included only one month of multiple pilot training unless it explicitly has “three months of” before it, or uses the word “and” to bridge the “three months of Omega” to apply to the pilot training as well. There was only a comma in-between, so grammatically speaking the three months does not apply to the MPT. I don’t agree with CCP shorting players like this this at all whatsoever, but this is how CCP has always approached the one-time bundles.

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Agreed with Ramona. Over the years I’ve picked up an EVE offer here and there because they were a good deal. They used to have some quite good packs and the occasional quite good pricing, although sometimes the better deals were through other resellers.

For the past year and a half, they not only haven’t offered what I consider interesting deals, they’ve literally been offering bad deals. Like, the current $10 Zakura pack is worth $5-$6 really.

Also somewhat agreed with the poster - CCP frequently is unclear just how the pack is going to work and they seem to expect shoppers will learn on their own how the packages now work differently than before. Of course, crappy communication policies is nothing new at CCP.

Sadly, there’s apparently enough suckers so invested in EVE that they’ll take any deal, even a bad one, so CCP doesn’t get their hands slapped firmly enough with this amateur marketing to teach them any different.

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I understand this but it doesn’t matter and isn’t my point. If an offer is VERY vague and is at a price point one could reasonably assume it to include 3 months of MCT then you have a legit case. And the offer IS very vague as it mentioned 3 months of Omega AND it mentioned MCT in the same sentence.

The whole MCT vs training time thing I don’t care about because you get exactly as how it’s worded (even if it’s worded poorly), people just assumed differently. But in THIS case you have a legitimate assumption of it including 3 months of MCT, meaning he has a point and thus a case.

  • it’s mentioned in the same sentence as 3 months of omega

  • the price is high enough for a customer to reasonably expect it to be included

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Tharvus, I agree that it should be this way about what is expected. I did bring it up to two different GMs. One was rude in response and the other extremely nice but both stated I had no recourse. I have told them that it was something that may cause me to quit after my Omega runs out and was told, at least by the nice one, that they’d be sorry to see me go but understood my reasoning but couldn’t do anything to fix it. I have let the Zakura pack thing go, as I purchased it about a month ago. Considered it as part of the learning curve of returning.

After not being able to purchase something when they are posting it as being still available as far as the 3M Omega + 3M MCT, that was today. After two incidents I wanted to post something here on the forums in the hopes that someone else won’t have the same experience I have had.

The kind responses of so many on here have made this a better situation already. Though CCP basically sucks at least I know the players are still some of the best there are. I just won’t make the mistake of purchasing anymore Omega time (at least not with real $$), it’s the only thing CCP/EVE may understand if enough players shut them down.

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MPTC’s and MCT’s could probably stand to have their names made sufficiently different so that no one assumes that they are the same thing. Moreover, they should make sure to specify what exactly you’re getting when you buy one.

I don’t remember if they included a date in the old ad (they normally do), but they should have if they didn’t.

If you feel like you got something you didn’t want, file a support ticket and ask for a refund.

Fourth, and finally, (1) I know for a fact that if you clicked on the ad, it would tell you for how long the offer was valid, (2) even as a newbro, I realized that MCT’s and MPTC’s were two different things, (3) and the wording of the Galactic Zarkura pack in no way insinuates that you’d get 90 days of MCT. In fact, I’ve never had a problem understanding when a deal expired or what I was getting. So, maybe the problem isn’t slimy business practices. Maybe CCP just needs to be more careful about spelling things out.

P.S. if you feel inclined to keep a running list of pro’s and con’s, there’s a good chance that you’re not going to stay. Perhaps you should spend your money on another game.

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In this specific case, were you really have a point, here’s what I would do:

  • make a NEW ticket and immediately ask it to be escalated
  • do NOT mention the fact that you expected the MCT to be items to sell, you WILL lose that argument and it will only muddy the discussion
  • specifically state the two things I mentioned: Mentioned in the same sentence, price is high enough to reasonably expect it to be included
  • they will undoubtedly parry with “but it has other items”, reply that the value of those is entirely arbitrary and that it’s not up to the customer to figure those out

As said earlier if/when CCP fcks up I generally assume incompetence over malice and in many cases it’s “buyer beware” and “learn2read” but in this very specific case you really do have a point.

Do we even HAVE an active posting community manager these days? anyone? Bueller? Any CSM willing to actually do something?

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@CCP_Aurora would be who you are referring to.

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It was rhetorical :slight_smile:

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yeah, there should be a specific duration added to the words “Multiple Character Training”. there’s no insinuation that it’s 30 days, but there IS insinuation that it’s 90 days.

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I looked at the galactus pack, and if you pick view details and look at what it fully includes:

Screenshot_20210105-091409
Screenshot_20210105-0914091080×2340 263 KB

Screenshot_20210105-091349
Screenshot_20210105-0913491080×2340 318 KB

Looking at that, I wouldn’t think it was 90 days.

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Really now.

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