New ZEN Race & Founder’s Packs Lead to Former Buyers Pushing for a Free Upgrade

You would think that upgrading outdated packs on the ZEN market is generally a good thing that’s widely lauded by the community. But that’s not the case with the reworked ZEN Race and Founder’s Packs that received a substantial “buff” in Module 15!

Let’s start with the good though. The devs decided to finally tackle some packs that had been around forever. The original Founder’s Packs like the “Hero of the North” had long lost their appeal and were vastly overpriced shelf warmers. The same applied to some of the packs that included premium races. So the devs reviewed the pricing and also adjusted the packs’ contents to better fit the current state of the game. Overall this led to the reworks below, definite upgrades to their former versions. The most extreme example is the “Hero of the North Pack”. As “Renegade Drow Race Pack” it now comes with extra goodies and costs [sc name=”zenicon”]6,000 (down from [sc name=”zenicon”]20,000).

Buyer’s Remorse

When player’s found out about the new packs, their first reaction wasn’t overly positive. Former buyers rightfully brought up that they feel screwed over, because they did spend more ZEN on the same or even fewer content. On both the official Subreddit and Arcgames forum players therefore have started inquiries about the possibility of getting the upgrades in case you’ve bought the old packs. But so far the developers haven’t answered while support rebuffs requests as well.

[su_quote cite=”PWE Support” url=”https://forum.arcgames.com/neverwinter/discussion/comment/13069057/#Comment_13069057″][The packs] contain essentially the same items, with more emphasis on the races, which you have already purchased. I apologize for the inconvenience, but your account will not be able to purchase the new packs because you have already unlocked all the races. Unfortunately, there is no one here that can assist with your inquiry. The developers decide on what goes into the packs and there is no direct line of communication to them. We appreciate your feedback on packs, but that is not something that we at Customer Support can assist you with.[/su_quote]

Many players have pointed out that you shouldn’t expect free upgrades just because something you own gets reworked. On the other hand however, players that already bought the race packs are unable to buy the new ones anyway. So upgrading the old packs to the new ones doesn’t mean PWE is losing any money. It would be an easy gesture of goodwill for loyal players and customers.

Legitimate or Hypocrite?

You will probably find as many players that call this rage hyperbole as there are that think this is a legitimate claim. Since you can’t re-buy the packs we feel like upgrading the old ones would be the logical choice. But four weeks without an official answer doesn’t bode well. In any case reworking the packs but then lock out former buyers is kind of weird. Some players even seem to be willing to re-buy the “Dragonborn Race Pack” thanks to the account unlocked Mount and Augment Companion, but there’s simply no way to do so.

We think reworking the packs was long overdue, but it could have been handled a little better. Now all we can do is hope for an official statement in the corresponding discussion threads. We’ll definitely monitor that and report any progress.


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11 thoughts on “New ZEN Race & Founder’s Packs Lead to Former Buyers Pushing for a Free Upgrade

  • December 16, 2018 at 10:55 pm
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    That’s a fair enough response from support, except for one thing: the packs do not contain “essentially the same items, with more emphasis on the races”.

    They contain “essentially the same items, plus extra items, at a greatly reduced cost that you can’t have”.

    The only “more emphasis on the race” is in the TITLE of the pack, which is irrelevant.

    Instead of “Knights of the Feywild Pack” we have “Moon Elf Race Pack”
    Instead of “Dragonborn Legendary Pack” we have “Dragonborn Race Pack”

    And, really, an account-wide companion and mount, just like the Knights of the Feywild, which was always much cheaper than the Dragonborn Legendary pack anyway? People complained at the time the DBL Pack was way too expensive considering it didn’t even have a mount or companion.

    The right thing to do would be to update all these packs so the additional items are there when we reclaim the packs at the Rewards Claim Agent. They already did it with one of the packs, so it’s not impossible.

    ~

    Those players with their lips and tongues surgically grafted to Cryptic’s sphincter would be comical if they weren’t so sickening, trying to turn this into “greedy players crying over something they can’t have”.

    The only people who think the packs should not be upgraded never bought them in the first place. They are just crowing that they can get something us Old-Time “P2W” customers who have supported the game through thick and thin for 5 years can’t have.

    And before they come here with their drivel and gibberish, NO. It is NOT like the DVD player you bought 3 years ago begin offered at half the price with any three Boxed Set Complete TV series of your choice and we expect to get it free. You idiotic, intellectually dishonest imbeciles.

    It’s like three years later, you see this better deal, you go to buy it and they say:

    “Sorry, we cannot sell you this much better deal at half the cost you paid three years ago, because you already have the old version”

    x:

    • December 17, 2018 at 4:25 am
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      What this isk a kiin to though is other services (which MMOs are) and the deals for new customers, “you can get 6 months of (insert service) when you join. But long time customers can’t.” Or with regular video games, you buy day 1, pay for all the DLC to have the definitive edition come out 2 years later or so, your not going to get refunded for all that DLC you paid for or get any extra contet they added. I don’t fault people for being annoyed at this, I would be as well if I had bought the packs, but if you want to be an early adopter there is a possibility your going to get screwed somewhere down the line.

      • December 17, 2018 at 11:05 am
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        That might be true, KunraFett. However, it costs them nothing to simply make the upgraded/changed pack available via the Reward Claims Agent for those that already purchased the pack(s). In addition to that, it would buy them a great deal of goodwill from their existing customers, which is important and useful. Happy customers who have had good experiences are willing to be more patient in waiting for fixes and more tolerant of future mistakes. This leads to fewer people breaking out the pitchforks and torches when things start to go wrong, and that means having to do less moderation on the forums and less censorship on Reddit.

      • January 2, 2019 at 10:39 am
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        Yeah, I always thought those deals should be made illegal. I mean basically its discrimination against one group (current customers).

  • December 17, 2018 at 1:24 am
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    mistake it shows nero of the north not hero of north

    • December 17, 2018 at 1:31 am
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      Cheers!

      • December 17, 2018 at 5:24 am
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        I was going to mention that but forgot!

        A friend of mine who was a closed beta player said he got the “Zero of the North Pack” because, apparently, in those days Zen Mounts were single purchases, like companions, and were not Account-Wide unlocks. So he paid his £200 as was quite happy at the time, as all his new companions can get the Panther, Mount etc and he like the race, which does not have a broken racial bonus. And in those days packs were bundled with 500k or 2 million AD, depending on the pack. Then they made Zen Mounts account-wide. 😡

        I wish they had done it with companions as well, as I’d have bought that Black Dragon Ioun stone 4.5 years ago and wouldn’t care.

  • December 17, 2018 at 10:30 am
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    This is off topic, but does anybody know what a good ad rate for glory is? Looking to sell mine off to guilds but no clue what return I should look for? 1:1 10:1 5:2?

  • December 19, 2018 at 9:54 am
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    I dont get to go back to the dealer in 5 years and demand they give me all the features on the new years model because I bought one back then. I think every customer in every market would have a significant wishlist if this practice were to be successful.

    This doesn’t require a zero sum solution however.

    There is something that a customer can regularly do, especially where a business is seeking to drum up new business from old customers. Offer an upgrade path. The old is still good, but the new is better. Is it worth rebuying the whole thing for the few features? No. But from the other side are the new features worth 0 either? No, or the customer wouldn’t be interested. So offer an upgrade pack at a reduced price. Both parties get what they want.

    • December 19, 2018 at 11:16 am
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      Trying to compare getting an update to a physical object versus getting an update to something that exists only in software is a fool’s errand. The analogy will fail every time because a physical object is not easily altered to accommodate new attributes/features, assuming it can be altered for such at all. An “object” that exists only in software can be altered quite easily. Furthermore, the thread on the forums about this topic explicitly requests EITHER that the already-purchased packs be simply updated to include the changes OR that Cryptic offer an upgrade path for those who have already purchased the pack(s).

    • December 19, 2018 at 11:17 am
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      I want to add that I would prefer they simply update the already-purchased packs because those that have purchased them have paid more for them than is currently being charged at full price for the new packs.

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