| Author |
Thread Statistics | Show CCP posts - 6 post(s) |
|
CCP Guard
C C P
C C P Alliance
2928
   |
Posted - 2012.10.29 14:12:00 -
[1] - Quote
The buddy system has been a great success and lots of buddies have been invited to become important spaceship pilots since it-¦s birth. We've now added a whole new dimension to the buddy system with the "Open buddy invites"!
To learn more about this, please feast your eyes on CCP Delegate Zero's new blog.
And as always...leave your questions and pondering right here.
Yeah, buddy!
CCP Guard | EVE Community Developer |-á@ccp_guard |
|
|
CCP Delegate Zero
C C P
C C P Alliance
37
|
Posted - 2012.10.29 15:35:00 -
[2] - Quote
Let me answer a few of the arising questions.
Rewards
The PLEX reward remains as an option, alongside 30 days of game time, whenever a buddy upgrades their account using an eligible payment method other than a PLEX.
As a note, if it is not clear, if a buddy upgrades their account using a PLEX the 30 days game time reward is still available to the inviter.
Direct invites
The direct, one-to-one, invite option remains available and operates on the same terms as the open invite as regards rewards: PLEX upgrades will only make the game time reward available.
Affiliate Program
The affiliate program is a completely different scheme and is unaffected by changes to the Buddy Program.
Thanks for your feedback so far, we'll continue to monitor this thread and clarify any points as necessary. Also do feel free to make suggestions for additions and improvements to the program in the future.
CCP Delegate Zero | Content Editor | Twitter: @CCPDelegateZero |
|
|
CCP Spitfire
C C P
C C P Alliance
1614
|
Posted - 2012.10.29 15:51:00 -
[3] - Quote
Arydanika wrote:This is and interesting change. I don't really feel it's good or bad, just a different way of doing things. I can see how this can be good for players who just want to put an advertisement up and get people in to the game. The free game time will be good for them. The removal of PLEX-for-PLEX is understandable with this a single unlimited link (and also if CCP wanted to nerf 51 day accounts  ) , but I'm not sure if it's the best course of action for all. I say that because I have a fan site. Having a image link where people who are interested in Eve and want to try it is great. I don't have to worry about individual links and can just set it up and not worry about maintenance and other annoying crap. The flip side is, as a fan site I have no need for free monthly game time for the account that link will be linked to. That's already one of the benefits for being a fan site. The Plex was a great option for fan sites because they can used as prizes for events and contests I hold. While there is certainly a benefit for CCP and new players, the benefits for my listeners and I have been removed. In retrospect of typing this post I suppose I could route the link through one of my alts, but they're pretty much taken care of as well. I'd rather have a way to convert that time in to something else that would benefit my fan site. That was one of the great things about PLEX-for-PLEX (and the 51day alts). I hope the community team will takes the time to revisit this change and provide other benefits for fan sites.
While I agree that the fansites could use some more love in this regard, what about the affiliate program? Would it work for you the way it is currently set up?
CCP Spitfire | Marketing & Sales Team
@ccp_spitfire |
|
|
CCP Spitfire
C C P
C C P Alliance
1614
|
Posted - 2012.10.29 17:34:00 -
[4] - Quote
Arydanika wrote:And now that I have read the Affiliate Program information I have more things to post.
First, this looks absolutely great. The payouts are incredibly generous and the commissions are way more than what most Time Code Affiliate Program's pay out. The brackets seem a little unreasonable when coming from the perspective of small website sites, but it's a 100% payout with a starting payout of 50% which is just stupid to argue over for reasons already mentioned.
Secondly, please consider a non-cash option. For US residents the site owners would have to put in W2s and pay taxes on our revenues. Cash affiliate programs can also get us in to copy right trouble depending on how their fan site is setup; if we use Creative Commons material, music rights etc. The legal ramifications cash incentives produce may cause some fan sites to not to participate in the program. A non-cash payment option would be nice and it allows CCP to keep those revenues so we can have more iteration, ships and other cool non-jesus features.
Third, please make the Affliate link a little more visable on that page. I hope CCP will link it on the Fan Site pages of the Community and Evelopedia sites.
Lastly, with the above comments in mind, CCP did well by adding PayPal as a payment provided. PayPal does create tax forms for those in the US and it such an easy handling method when it comes to things like this.
Point taken.  I'm hoping to make some changes to the affiliate program in the not-so-distant future, so please send the feedback my way -- it's most appreciated! (you can use the affiliate program email for that: affiliate AT ccpgames.com).
And now I'll stop derailing the thread. 
CCP Spitfire | Marketing & Sales Team
@ccp_spitfire |
|
|
CCP Alice
C C P
C C P Alliance
110
|
Posted - 2012.10.30 15:43:00 -
[5] - Quote
Rob Crowley wrote:
Another slightly buddy program related thing:
The community website (community.eveonline.com) doesn't have a proper link to Account Management anymore. AFAICS the only thing linking there is a litte picture that says "Upgrade trial to paid subscription". I'd like to have a link either in the support menu or get that dropdown menu on the top of the page back.
Getting that fixed ASAP!
CCP Alice -á
Web Architect
"There is no knowledge without unity" |
|
|
CCP Delegate Zero
C C P
C C P Alliance
42
|
Posted - 2012.10.30 19:15:00 -
[6] - Quote
I wanted to get back on some further points that people have raised and give a little insight into some of the changes that went live yesterday. There are a few issues to answer, so bear with me.
Rewards Selection
It's been mentioned that the rewards available are not outlined on the invite page.
Currently the only rewards available through the program are 30 days of game time or a PLEX item. We are looking at how the rewards selection might be broadened as part of the ongoing development of the Buddy Program.
We have also changed the point at which a reward is chosen and claimed to when a buddy trial is upgraded. The main driver for this change was the open invite. It makes little sense to choose the reward in advance with a one-to-many invite as this locks the invite into only one type of reward. Instead we wanted let people choose their reward for each upgrade. This will become more important if and when the rewards selection is expanded.
The feedback on the information as currently presented is very useful and we will be looking to act on it in the next round of improvements to the pages and functionality of the program. The work on those improvements is already underway. Please continue to give us feedback and ideas for such improvements.
Listing Buddies for Open Invites
With Buddy Program open invites we wanted to make the functionality available as securely as possible. Because of the, well, open nature of the open invite we can't identify people who take up the invite automatically to the inviting player. There is an obvious case for enabling a connection between the two parties though and we are looking at ideas for how that can happen. If you have some ideas in that regard, again, do let us know.
The end of PLEX-for-PLEX
We understand the concerns of players who found the PLEX-for-PLEX option useful and convenient. We recognize that it had some positives and was legitimately used by many to enable buddies to enjoy their introduction to EVE.
Unfortunately the option had some negatives and over the time since its introduction has increasingly come to be abused for various purposes. As well as the chaining of zero cost alt accounts, the option also led to farming of gifts and other incentives, in addition to some RMT activity associated with PLEX-for-PLEX accounts.
These abuses and the fact that negatives of the option had come to outweigh the positives, particularly from a development point of view, resulted in the decision to close the PLEX-for-PLEX option. The decision was not taken lightly.
We know and in fact value the legitimate use cases for the option. We will look to see how those needs can better be answered in an improved Buddy Program. We believe that removing the PLEX-for-PLEX option allows us to positively explore better options and develop a better experience for all users of the program, experienced and new players alike.
Again, please do use this thread to make suggestions in that vein.
Thanks,
DZ
CCP Delegate Zero | Content Editor | Twitter: @CCPDelegateZero |
|
| |
|