The fantasy MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online eases the conditions for the loyalty program. As a result, players can still purchase attractive rewards before the system gets discontinued.
With the switch to Buy2Play in a few weeks, the “loyalty program” will disappear. It promised special rewards to TESO players if they just managed to scrape together enough playtime.
The big 300-day loyalty reward, a rideable big cat, had already been made “purchaseable” beforehand: Players did not need to have spent 300 days in Tamriel before receiving the mount, but only had to have paid for that amount of game time in total. Otherwise, hardly anyone would have received the big cat. After all, the 30 free days did not count towards the total days – and without them, TESO would only have been “paid” playable for just over 300 days anyway.
Now, they have reconsidered and come to the decision that this “purchase is enough” rule will also apply to the rewards for 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months. This is to ensure that players have the opportunity to receive these rewards if they wanted to.
From now until we retire the Loyalty Program, you’ll be eligible for loyalty rewards based on the time you’ve purchased (instead of time that you’ve already played.) That means you’ll receive the Mask of Cheerful Slaughter as long as you’ve purchased nine months of game time, even if you haven’t spent nine months subscribed yet. Since we’re ending the program, we want to make sure that more folks have the opportunity to get the rewards. This goes for the three- and six-month rewards as well.
Mein MMO thinks: As one can imagine, not everyone agrees with Zenimax’s decision. The main problem is that a player who has stuck with the game for 10 months now stands on equal footing with a player who logs in fresh today and buys 10-month game time cards. What is generally understood by “loyalty” rewards is certainly something else.
However, from an economic point of view, it makes perfect sense to entice players to buy game time right now. And with “exclusive rewards,” The Elder Scrolls Online has a rather difficult past.
