MMORPG.com Columnist Jamie Skelton takes a look at the concept of "premium customer service" for players who pay to play a game and discusses the sometimes second tier treatment that "free" players can experience when they are met with an in-game problem.

I was playing a freemium style MMO the other day, and was subject to an interesting discussion. A player had gotten stuck in the environment, sent in a petition to the GMs and waited five minutes before beginning to complain to general chat that he had waited too long. An altruistic player tried helping the situation by pointing out that subscribers to the game receive priority in the customer service queue over free players. The player responded, "If they treated me better as a customer, I might pay for the game." Naturally, a flame war erupted, one side claiming free players weren't entitled to anything from the game company, especially free customer service.

It seems pretty simple; paying customers have a part of their subscription fee go toward the salaries of customer service staff. Free players, who have not paid anything to the game company, do not pay these same salaries, and therefore are not entitled to any customer service - or at least a limited amount. As the argument goes, if you play for free, you can't complain if you don't get something -- you're not a paying customer and therefore not entitled. Case closed.

Read At The Back Of The Line.

Wow another good topic and an excellent column.  Congrats Stradden, I think you have found a gem here in this columnist.

I play some of the fremium games occasionally and I don't expect a level of service the paying customers do, but many of the f2p games have such reduced support as to be almost non existent.  I tend to try to avoid those.

I will comment on being stuck though, all MMO's I have played to date offer some portal mechanism to get out of such.  I think your example shows a very spoiled free player not using the tools provided him.  So he probably deserved all the flames he got.

But I do agree that good customer service will win converts.  I would much readily spend money on a game that had such.  Blizzard is a good example of this, they have one of the best support staffs in the business and it helps maintain their popularity.

NCSoft on the other hand is well known for not supporting their games with adequate support staffs, hence my reluctance to try out Aion. 

Not to sound callous, I do agree with the idea that paying players should be afforded better service. That reason alone is why people who can afford it stay at the Wynn in Las Vegas rather than Circus Circus, you pay for better treatment.

While your points about free players are correct  look at it this way. If you have to queue up customer service the game compaany is already in a losing situation. Someone isn't going to be happy and given that who would you rather make mad a paying customer or a free player potential customer?  

In fact given that the free player is probaly already mad about needing customer support there's a good chance you've lost that sale already.

Nice article.

A little to much wonderland for my taste, but yeah i can agree with most of the ideas showed here. But, as in everything in life, you will always get all kinds of people playing the game (not referring to pay or not pay players). There will be those who understand that the game was given to them for free and will be decent enough to no get pissed off because of problems like costumer servicer, but there will be always a bunch of people who will complain and demand everything, even when they don't have any rights to ask for such things.

Originally posted by Zarynterk

Not to sound callous, I do agree with the idea that paying players should be afforded better service. That reason alone is why people who can afford it stay at the Wynn in Las Vegas rather than Circus Circus, you pay for better treatment.

That pretty much sums it up...

Originally posted by sonicbrew

Originally posted by Zarynterk

Not to sound callous, I do agree with the idea that paying players should be afforded better service. That reason alone is why people who can afford it stay at the Wynn in Las Vegas rather than Circus Circus, you pay for better treatment.

 

That pretty much sums it up...

i second that

The way I see it that "free player" can wait. In your example, 5 minutes isn't anything. If they had left them stuck for 2 or more days, then yeah, I can see an issue. As it is, that "free player" is costing the company money in bandwidth in addition to taking paid employees away from paying customers. What happens when a paying customer has to wait because CS is helping that "free player"? There's a chance the paying customer leaves. So, a "free player" that is only costing the company is left.

I'd have to think too, that the majority of "free players" don't become subscribers or spend all that much in item shops either. I have to hold onto the saying of you get what you pay for. Problem is which the the values being taught by children to children these days we have a society that for the most part thinks they are owed everything just for being on this planet.

The more I think about it, the more it's looking like the movie Idiocracy is in fact coming to be.

Originally posted by Khalathwyr

The more I think about it, the more it's looking like the movie Idiocracy is in fact coming to be.

Brought to you by Carl's Jr.

While paying players should be given better service, it doesn't mean that the free players should get little to none.

Think about it.  I don't know about you, or anyone else, but if I play a game that's "fremium" I want to see that the game is fitting for me.  Several factors come into play.  This includes the ability for customer support to solve problems.  If I have an issue, and contact customer support with no reply for hours, what is drawing me to play?  Obviously I'm not getting any attention as a player, and while that may be fixed for being a paying player, that means that the people who are playing are also having a lot of issues.  Do I also want to play a game with a lot of bugs and holes?  If there are so many support tickets JUST from the paying players that the free players cannot be assisted in any way, that means the game has some problems.

This is especially true for something that can be solved in two simple ways.  1) Create a "I'm stuck command" that alerts in Game GMs that people are having issues, or 2) Create a Return spell to warp back to your save location, or a nearest town.  Every MMO should have one, or both, of these.

At least that's how I see it.

Originally posted by Polantaris

While paying players should be given better service, it doesn't mean that the free players should get little to none.

Think about it.  I don't know about you, or anyone else, but if I play a game that's "fremium" I want to see that the game is fitting for me.  Several factors come into play.  This includes the ability for customer support to solve problems.  If I have an issue, and contact customer support with no reply for hours, what is drawing me to play?  Obviously I'm not getting any attention as a player, and while that may be fixed for being a paying player, that means that the people who are playing are also having a lot of issues.  Do I also want to play a game with a lot of bugs and holes?  If there are so many support tickets JUST from the paying players that the free players cannot be assisted in any way, that means the game has some problems.

This is especially true for something that can be solved in two simple ways.  1) Create a "I'm stuck command" that alerts in Game GMs that people are having issues, or 2) Create a Return spell to warp back to your save location, or a nearest town.  Every MMO should have one, or both, of these.

At least that's how I see it.

I see your point as far as the in game issues are concerned. However if I am having to contact customer support more than once or twice in a game...that won't be a game I will be playing for long. In the 7 years i have been playing mmos I have maybe had to contact customer support 3 times total... and yes thats including SWG lol. So I don't believe it to be as big an issue as it may seem.

Wow, I'm really disappointed with this article.

If you are not paying for something, you're getting it for free. It'd be like someone getting free food and then complaining that their free food isn't as warm or as well-prepared as the person who paid for it. Uh... duh. The fact is, you're not supporting the company... you're leaching off of them for as long as you're not paying for the game. You're taking up space on their servers, you're bitching and moaning after being stuck in a spot for five minutes (as it was with the moron who the author thinks is somehow in the "right"), and then whining about why you're not getting serviced by GMs who are being paid for by OTHER people.

Suck it up. Just because you're a potential buck doesn't mean you're a buck, nor does it mean you should get the same rights as someone who is actually putting their money where their mouth is. It's like a hobo walking into a restaurant just to use the bathroom, and then complaining because he was directed to the "public" bathroom that had a line outside of it instead of the "customers only" bathroom. Pay up, wait in line, or go take a dump somewhere else.

Originally posted by Polantaris

While paying players should be given better service, it doesn't mean that the free players should get little to none.

Think about it.  I don't know about you, or anyone else, but if I play a game that's "fremium" I want to see that the game is fitting for me.  Several factors come into play.  This includes the ability for customer support to solve problems.  If I have an issue, and contact customer support with no reply for hours, what is drawing me to play?  Obviously I'm not getting any attention as a player, and while that may be fixed for being a paying player, that means that the people who are playing are also having a lot of issues.  Do I also want to play a game with a lot of bugs and holes?  If there are so many support tickets JUST from the paying players that the free players cannot be assisted in any way, that means the game has some problems.

This is especially true for something that can be solved in two simple ways.  1) Create a "I'm stuck command" that alerts in Game GMs that people are having issues, or 2) Create a Return spell to warp back to your save location, or a nearest town.  Every MMO should have one, or both, of these.

At least that's how I see it.

I'm with you there ;D

Originally posted by streea

Wow, I'm really disappointed with this article.

If you are not paying for something, you're getting it for free. It'd be like someone getting free food and then complaining that their free food isn't as warm or as well-prepared as the person who paid for it. Uh... duh. The fact is, you're not supporting the company... you're leaching off of them for as long as you're not paying for the game. You're taking up space on their servers, you're bitching and moaning after being stuck in a spot for five minutes (as it was with the moron who the author thinks is somehow in the "right"), and then whining about why you're not getting serviced by GMs who are being paid for by OTHER people.

Suck it up. Just because you're a potential buck doesn't mean you're a buck, nor does it mean you should get the same rights as someone who is actually putting their money where their mouth is. It's like a hobo walking into a restaurant just to use the bathroom, and then complaining because he was directed to the "public" bathroom that had a line outside of it instead of the "customers only" bathroom. Pay up, wait in line, or go take a dump somewhere else.

No, but that means I will never become that buck.  If you don't show me your game is worth playing, it never will be.

Originally posted by Zarynterk

Not to sound callous, I do agree with the idea that paying players should be afforded better service. That reason alone is why people who can afford it stay at the Wynn in Las Vegas rather than Circus Circus, you pay for better treatment.

I assume you don't run a business.
Hotels in Vegas are a very bad comparison. You are taking a Wynn hotel, known throughout the world as a quality brand which caters to business travelers (and those with large pocketbooks) then comparing it to Circus Circus who caters to families and family budgets. They are two different animals, apples vs oranges! That is like saying that a Lexus should work better, and have a better factory warranty than a Kia. They are different products, marketed to different groups of customers.

If you run a business, you cannot go handing out preferential treatment to a group of people (not including service industries that sell SLA based services). As soon as you give one customer preferential treatment, you degrade the level of service you give another customer. Treat them all the same and you can either strengthen the overall service structure, or relax it depending on the customer needs.

A free player that gets shafted is a non-player. The company loses the potential income of that player. A pay player that expects preferential treatment that does not believe they are getting what they pay for may become a non-player. The problem is that when does a paying player believe they have enough priority... no matter what you say, they may not be happy.

If you treat everyone the same, then you can acquire new players, acquire new paying players, and keep old paying players without having to spend a ton of time and money figuring out how much of a priority a player should have. Instead of re-inventing the wheel every time a paying customer complains about help taking to long, standardize the support department, make sure everyone gets gain support. You will gain more paying customers and minimize the loss of paying customers. Find other ways to get people to pay for your games... if you are not creative enough to make other aspects of your game enticing enough to get people to pay for it, without resorting to under-supporting free players… hire someone who can!

Originally posted by TheNitewolf

Originally posted by sonicbrew

Originally posted by Zarynterk

Not to sound callous, I do agree with the idea that paying players should be afforded better service. That reason alone is why people who can afford it stay at the Wynn in Las Vegas rather than Circus Circus, you pay for better treatment.

 

That pretty much sums it up...

 

i second that

Aaaand you're all wrong. :p

You're comparing apples and oranges.  Your analogy should have been staying at the Wynn in a room, vs. staying at the Wynn in a box.  You still get whatever amenities are at the Wynn that don't require payment by staying in that box - all the window shopping and free restaurant smells you can stand, any microtransactions you wish to make (slot machines or throwing $5 on a blackjack table as you walk by), but you don't get a warm comfy room.  You go into it knowing that you don't get those things.  But the building isn't going to collapse on you, where it wouldn't for a paying customer.

If a company is going to offer free-to-play mode, then it better be prepared to support those players.  I agree with the author 100%.  If the point of free-to-play is to let people try the game before they buy, the model will backfire on the company if they don't provide at least a minimum experience of what you should expect in a paying situation.  As the author pointed out, you can certainly say "Oh, you want unglitched?  That will cost you extra, it doesn't come with the free program, everyone who's glitched has to stay stuck", and you will get nothing but bad word of mouth from those customers.  There are certain things that you can't consider optional extras, and getting unglitched is one of them.  It's certainly reasonable to expect to pay to be able to join a GM-run storyline, but not to recover from bugs in the game.  FTP-players belong in the same CS queue as everyone who pays for that.  If not, then don't offer FTP, that simple.

Very Nice Article by Jamie Skelton,

This person really understand what Customer Service really means. And makes absolutely great points in relation to F2P/Freemium games.

Cheers!

You show me a company that's NOT ripping off consumers with overpriced virtual goods or services, and IS providing TOP SHELF customer service for non-paying players...

... and I'll show you a company that won't survive its own bottom line.

A well known business formula is:

Quality, Value, Service...  pick two.  All three is never possible unless you have no competition.

Ken

I disagree with this article.

To me this argument is potential customers versus actual customers.

Simply put. When you make an actual customer mad, you may make other customers leave and drive away potential customers.
Now should a potential customer be treated unfairly, no, of course not. But you never tick off you’re customers that are keeping you afloat.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Wow another good topic and an excellent column.  Congrats Stradden, I think you have found a gem here in this columnist.

I play some of the fremium games occasionally and I don't expect a level of service the paying customers do, but many of the f2p games have such reduced support as to be almost non existent.  I tend to try to avoid those.

I will comment on being stuck though, all MMO's I have played to date offer some portal mechanism to get out of such.  I think your example shows a very spoiled free player not using the tools provided him.  So he probably deserved all the flames he got.

But I do agree that good customer service will win converts.  I would much readily spend money on a game that had such.  Blizzard is a good example of this, they have one of the best support staffs in the business and it helps maintain their popularity.

NCSoft on the other hand is well known for not supporting their games with adequate support staffs, hence my reluctance to try out Aion. 

I have to disagree on the customer service from NC Soft. I have played CoX for years and when I have an issue they respond quickly and politely, and resolve my problem. When I decided to leave the game to go play Champions I was sent an email quesitonarre asking me for feedback as to what I liked and disliked about the game and why I was leaving. When I left Champions I got my money back after a fight on the telephone and nobody even cared why. When I came back to CoX I got a welcome back email, and all my toons were waiting for me just as I had left them, all my story arcs were still published. I really appreciated that.

I agree that Blizzard has great customer service right back from Diablo I & II through to WoW they have always been good.

 IF there were no other players in the support queue I would agree that not servicing the free player would be a bad business decision. If there was a single paying customer who might leave if not helped promptly standing along side a non-paying customer who might leave if not helped promptly the decision to not help the paying customer first would be idiotic. You complainers above have a point if any of the games you are talking about out-right refuse service to non-paying players.

To the OP, there is a reason why self-evident axioms continue to be used. A bird in hand is worth two in the bush. Its funny that sayings like that are little used today but their truth is undeniable and only complete ignorance would argue otherwise. I make my money in sales and out of a 12,000+ person sales force I have made the top ten among earners twice in the last year and  half. If you don't service the customer who comes to you with money in hand, you fail. My coworkers who gladly spend two hours at a pop with customers who have no intention of buying may indeed be the more honorable of us and might be better liked among the unpaying masses of people that come into our showroom simply to chat, but at the end of the month, the shareholders of our company make much more money from me than from these other salespeople. When companies get in the business of not making money, socialist ideas might be a little more palatable to the shareholders, but until then, money in hand must trump potential income because someone who has a track record of paying is nearly guaranteed to bring in more money in the future over someone who has never spent a dime. The balance only tips to the non-paying customer when there are no more paying customers left to service.  

If the game was any good it would have a /stuck command and the player would be teleported to a new location.   ^_^

I don't go to Walmart for the customer service, I go cause its cheap and so am I.

I don't eat the free samples at Costco with the intention of buying, Infact I have only ever bought the free sample item once (Taquitos) and I couldnt even tell you how many times I have snacked on the free goodies with never even a thought of purchase.

Its likely that alot of free players are not intending on paying for a game at all , but simply playing it because its free.

If I went to Macy's with the intention of buying I'm sure the service would be alot better than that of  Walmart.

You get what you pay for, there's no free lunch, and there's no free customer service in a MMO, or at least not great free customer service in an MMO.

I think alot of free2play games allow free players in simply as a means to fill the servers at the lower levels to entice the 10% who are actually shopping into thinking the game is busier than it actually is.

For me this artical lost me at he was complaining after 5 minutes, sorry but most active mmo's you can expect about a ten to twenty minute wait on anything you pettion. Even on the high priced premium servers like stormhammer on eq you had at least a ten minute wait on any petition, and that was a $50 dollar a month server. So to be fully honest I feel free to play people should get serviced but they need to be realistic in there expectations, as someone who has been a buisness professional for over twelve years I can tell you that when I give out a free estimate on work I can always tell from how people talk whoes the looky loo and who is serious. This may be cold but most often players doin the free to play thing are just there to bide time till something happens, or something else comes out they want to play.

A real player takes precidence over player X who is playing until something better comes out in my book, a paying coustomer takes precidence over suzy q's friend who is hanging out and talking with the staff. If I am just looking in a store I don't stand at the front of the line just talking, I get out of everyone who is shoppings way. It's common decency, don't expect people to wait on you hand and foot if you just there to look around and are not fronting cash.

Originally posted by duomenox

Originally posted by Zarynterk

Not to sound callous, I do agree with the idea that paying players should be afforded better service. That reason alone is why people who can afford it stay at the Wynn in Las Vegas rather than Circus Circus, you pay for better treatment.

 

I assume you don't run a business.
Hotels in Vegas are a very bad comparison. You are taking a Wynn hotel, known throughout the world as a quality brand which caters to business travelers (and those with large pocketbooks) then comparing it to Circus Circus who caters to families and family budgets. They are two different animals, apples vs oranges! That is like saying that a Lexus should work better, and have a better factory warranty than a Kia. They are different products, marketed to different groups of customers.

If you run a business, you cannot go handing out preferential treatment to a group of people (not including service industries that sell SLA based services). As soon as you give one customer preferential treatment, you degrade the level of service you give another customer. Treat them all the same and you can either strengthen the overall service structure, or relax it depending on the customer needs.

A free player that gets shafted is a non-player. The company loses the potential income of that player. A pay player that expects preferential treatment that does not believe they are getting what they pay for may become a non-player. The problem is that when does a paying player believe they have enough priority... no matter what you say, they may not be happy.

If you treat everyone the same, then you can acquire new players, acquire new paying players, and keep old paying players without having to spend a ton of time and money figuring out how much of a priority a player should have. Instead of re-inventing the wheel every time a paying customer complains about help taking to long, standardize the support department, make sure everyone gets gain support. You will gain more paying customers and minimize the loss of paying customers. Find other ways to get people to pay for your games... if you are not creative enough to make other aspects of your game enticing enough to get people to pay for it, without resorting to under-supporting free players… hire someone who can!

 

So to basically paraphrase your post... its not fair to give preferential treatment waaaa waaaa. Welcome to the real world son, happens all over. Get used to it.