customer-loyalty
Latest
A look at RIFT's 2.6 update additions
If you're a loyal subscriber to RIFT, you probably can't wait to see what's around the bend for patch 2.6. And you'll be rewarded for that loyalty with a variety of new features... and a brand-new loyalty tier. RIFT Junkies has put together an extensive preview of new features, achievements, and rewards currently available on the game's test server, as well as a look at what players can get for the new "black" loyalty tier. Among the major additions is the new Bloodfire event marking a major invasion from the Fire plane directly into Telara. The event also appears to tie into the new Air Saga achievements. There are also new squirrel mounts gained from Unstable Artifacts, allowing players to summon a variety of new elemental critters to serve as transportation. So you'd best head on over to the preview for all the details you can get about these new events before they go live.
Should WoW have a customer loyalty program?
Every time this pops up on the forums, I mull it over - should World of Warcraft have a customer loyalty program, and if it did, what should it entail? Part of my difficulty with the concept is, I would probably benefit from it - I've been playing WoW pretty much non-stop for its entire existence. Even when I stopped playing I didn't unsub (probably should have, but hindsight is gloriously incapable of altering the past) and so, if a customer loyalty reward of some kind was implemented myself and my wife would probably get something out of it. This has me wondering if it would in fact deter new players - the last thing you want is a system that makes people just picking up the game envious or feeling as if a reward is forever out of their reach. After all, you can't go back in time and start playing in 2004, If there was (say) a special mount or pet or transmog item that people who'd been playing five or more years got, then it would by definition exclude players who hadn't been playing that long. And a lot of people tell me they started playing in Cataclysm nowadays - that's a significant number of people who would have to wait at least another year or two before they could get that hypothetical reward. I'm not opposed to the idea, mind you - like I said, I have been playing forever, so if it got implemented, I'd probably get something cool, and I'm sure you could work it so that it didn't feel like something so far out of new player reach that they felt like it wasn't even worth trying to get. I'm frankly more curious about what you think, friends - is a customer loyalty feature a good idea, or more trouble than it is worth? How should it be implemented? What should it do?
The Mog Log: The Legacy rewards and what they mean
So, who here remembers the Final Fantasy XIV launch? I certainly do; I was there and I've been here since, after all. And who here remembers how the game launched to critical acclaim and overwhelming popularity? Yeah, okay. I liked the game at launch, but that was more because of the underlying philosophies and approaches, not because the whole thing was polished to a fine shine. It was almost two years ago now, and the game has had to go through a lot of growing pains in that time, fixing a lot of elements that didn't work and adjusting stuff that was almost there but not quite. It's been a long process of hammering out fixes and improvements, one that included a long stretch of no subscription fee as the game cleaned itself up. We're nearly at the end of that process now, but Square-Enix is trying to show everyone that the company appreciates players who have been around during the game's teething troubles. That's the Legacy program in a nutshell -- a chance for players to signify having been around for an extended period of time. A badge of honor, a show of loyalty, and arguably another little bit of bait to get people to subscribe now instead of later.
Hi, remember me? I've been here since 2004
Hello. Let's do a brief math exercise, just for a moment. I've been playing World of Warcraft since some point in December of 2004, as illustrated by the screenshot above. This is March of 2012, which means I've been playing WoW for roughly 87 months. Actually, I'm going to subtract three months, because there was a point where I cancelled my subscription and took a three-month break from the game -- so 84 months of gameplay or thereabouts. Each month of World of Warcraft is $14.95. Multiply that by 84, and I've paid Blizzard $1,255.80 over the past seven years of gameplay. That doesn't include the Collector's Editions I've purchased or the pets or the mounts I've nabbed via the Blizzard Store, and it also doesn't include my second account, which I've had since 2008. It also doesn't include the money I've thrown at Blizzard for pretty much every novel under the sun, the comics, and the other assorted merchandise I've picked up over the years. I like World of Warcraft. I like it a lot. I like it so much that even though I took a little break, I've never, ever quit. So where's my mount?
Square adds customer loyalty, printable receipts
Mobile credit card transaction company Square updated its iOS app this week to include several new features for merchants and customers. Perhaps the biggest update to Square 2.2 is the ability for merchants to reward their regular customers with customized loyalty programs. The app now allows a merchant to define what a "regular" customer is (ie: five visits a week, twelve visits a month, etc) and assign an automatic discount to their tab when they check out. Another big feature of the latest update is the ability to print physical receipts. Now the app can communicate with receipt printers so the customer can walk away with printed proof of their purchase instead of having to rely on an email or text message. Plus, the app has added the ability to wirelessly open the merchants cash register when the merchant taps "tender" on the app -- a small but nice feature at, say, cafés where a person might pay by card but want quarters in exchange for a dollar bill to get a paper. The feature also makes it easier for the cashier to store paper coupons in their cash drawer as some cash registers will not open a drawer unless the transaction is tendered in-register. Additionally the 2.2 update also allows merchants to create a "tips" field on the checkout screen. Square recently surpassed US$2 billion in payments per year an usage by both customers and merchants is sure to increase as more people become comfortable making transactions on their mobile devices. Square is a free download from the App Store.
GameStop rewards program launching this May in 'four markets'
[The Master Shake Signal] Ever heard of a French gaming chain named Micromania? Yeah, neither had we until this morning's GameStop conference call, where the game retail giant's CEO J. Paul Raines specifically cited the (GameStop-owned since 2008) franchise for its member loyalty program ("MegaCart") and the success it's had in Europe. "We believe that the loyalty program at Micromania drove some of the highest sales per store in Europe that we've seen, so we think it's a very effective program, and that's the base for what we added to our existing loyalty program here at the Edge," Raines said, confirming the rumored plan to add a customer loyalty system at GameStop. When asked about when the new loyalty program would start rolling out, Raines stated that it'll be arriving this May in "four markets" (which could be anything from entire regions of the US to specific states or anything in-between -- we've followed up for clarification). So what can GameStop consumers expect from this new loyalty program? Not many details were given, but a few speculative ideas were offered. "Ours will have different rewards, it won't be purely a markdown program that gives you discounts once you reach a certain threshold," Raines said, adding, "It will also have unique rewards like tickets to shows and early entrance to midnight launch, etc." No mention was made of how this will effect those of you with current Edge card subscriptions, nor if this new rewards program will be separate altogether. We've contacted GameStop corporate for clarification and will update this post if we hear more, but for now you can read Raine's entire statement after the break.
Two more WoW-related iPhone apps off the App Store
Blizzard has laid the legal smackdown on two more WoW-related iPhone apps. As Double Bubble reports, both Warcraft Chest and WoW Realm Status have bit the dust, most likely after Blizzard's legal department sent them a cease-and-desist (that's what recently happened to the popular Warcraft Characters app). We don't know for sure that Blizzard went after them, but considering that Warcraft Chest was completely free, there can't be that many other reasons why it's not on the App Store any more.It's still not clear yet either why Blizzard is doing this -- originally, since they started off going after only paid applications, it was plausible that they just didn't want other people profiting off of their game (similar to the new addon policy). But they've taken down both free and paid apps here so far, and Double Bubble also has a list of both free and paid addons still up. At this point, we have to wonder what Blizzard's real intentions are here -- they're squashing valuable resources that fans have made and are giving away for free. If they were planning an Armory or realm status app of their own, that's one thing, but the only reason we can see so far is that their legal department has decided to act against the company's own loyal fans for their own interests. Not a great strategy for encouraging customer loyalty.And what about sites like Wowhead or the Firefox realm status addon? Why is Blizzard only targeting helpful applications on the iPhone? We can only guess that Blizzard will eventually go after the rest of the apps on the App Store, so if you're working on one or planning to release one soon, guess you might want to think again about how that time might be better spent.
