Members+ and beyond?

[BCj]

The reason why is so that someone can't pay 1 3 month membership and get all the resources that others have been paying for with their membership for much longer.


Think of it as more rewards for longer membership.

I understand that it wouldn't be fair if someone paid 4x3 months for 14 dollar each (56 dollar total?) and a year+ member whom only paid 42 would get the same content. Imo a year+ buyer should get 9 months worth of resources since it's basically the same value, but oh well, can't have everything

 

[Shinma]

It's typical of all business practices to pay less for a longer subscription. This goes from everything from retail to MMO's.

 

[mlogan]

I understand that it wouldn't be fair if someone paid 4x3 months for 14 dollar each (56 dollar total?) and a year+ member whom only paid 42 would get the same content. Imo a year+ buyer should get 9 months worth of resources since it's basically the same value, but oh well, can't have everything

Ummm, no. The $42 for the year is getting a discount for paying for a full year at a time. A lot of companies do this. A small part is because it takes more effort to bill and collect payment every month or 3 months or whatever. It's not an uncommon business practice at all.

 

[Candacis]

That has been asked a lot of time before, and as I said above Degica intends to make old M+ available in the store - but appearently there are some complicated steps that need to get solved before the old resources can be made available again.

For several months the answer has always been "we want to make the store packs, but there are things remaining to be solved before we can offer them".

Ah, so, I hope after month of work on this, we can see store packs with member+ stuff soon

I still think, it would be nice if member+ got offered a new pack and an old pack every month. That way, even if  you are a new member+ you still get to see everything eventually, if you stick long enough with it.

 

[Sharm]

I don't know how much of the behind the scenes stuff I can talk about but I can tell you that it's not the sort of problem that we chip away at until it gets resolved and that releasing old packs has the exact same problem that putting a Members+ collection pack in the store does. There is a very real possibility that there is no solution but we're all stubborn people and we all really want to find one.

 

[djDarkX]

Adding to what Sharm said, from the explanation I've seen in the M+ forums, it makes perfect sense why they can't just piled up all the previous releases and sell them, but only time will tell if it's indeed possible.

Despite my being bothered by the fact that I don't own all the previous bonus material because I'm quite the collector most times, I don't let it bother me as much because the reason for it is sound and I can abide by that.

 

[Matombo]

What weird license could that be? (Really wanna know, i don't really have a clue about licencing problems xD)

 

[Sharm]

It's not a licensing issue, it's accounting.

 

[Matombo]

Like: how to splitt the earnings between the artists?

 

[BCj]

Ummm, no. The $42 for the year is getting a discount for paying for a full year at a time. A lot of companies do this. A small part is because it takes more effort to bill and collect payment every month or 3 months or whatever. It's not an uncommon business practice at all.

I know that's why you get a discount. It's not what I was talking about..

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

It's a promo, to make getting a straight 1-year subscription than getting 3 months each more enticing... If ur thinking of being a member+ for a year, you should really just get the straight subscription.

Imo a year+ buyer should get 9 months worth of resources since it's basically the same value, but oh well, can't have everything

Then why call it year+ if you only get 9 months? 0.0


It's a 3-month resource incentive for those who vow to have a straight subscription. INCENTIVE. INCENTIVE. INCENTIVE. Basically they're telling you to get the straight contract rather than buying the tri-month one if ur gonna do it for a year anyway...

 

[BCj]

It's a promo, to make getting a straight 1-year subscription than getting 3 months each more enticing... If ur thinking of being a member+ for a year, you should really just get the straight subscription.


Then why call it year+ if you only get 9 months? 0.0


It's a 3-month resource incentive for those who vow to have a straight subscription. INCENTIVE. INCENTIVE. INCENTIVE. Basically they're telling you to get the straight contract rather than buying the tri-month one if ur gonna do it for a year anyway...

Because it would be fair for the people that couldn't afford a yearly subscription but did manage to scrape a 3 month sub together for 4 times. 4x3 months = 12 months resources (56 dollar), 1xyearly = 9 months. (42 dollar)


And with that I am talking about access to PAST resources, not future.

 

[EternalShadow]

Like: how to splitt the earnings between the artists?

Most likely.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

And with that I am talking about access to PAST resources, not future.

Well, no one has access to those resources...

 

[Scythuz]

The member + resources are bonuses.  They're a nice little extra that we contributors put together for you every month.  The main features of member + are the store pack discount, being able to preview upcoming packs earlier, being able to post blogs and of course having your own special vip lounge style forum area where all the cool kids go.

The resources are only one small part of member + and they're treated as a special reward for people who stay subscribed to it.  Think of it as a long term incentive to stay subscribed.

About the subject of putting m+ resources in a store pack or a similar format, there are all sorts of complications.

Accounting, format, licensing, tracking people who take part.  It's actually really complicated and I don't even know the full details behind it and how you could make it work.  Every solution I've seen proposed or mentioned so far has pretty big downsides. 

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Yeah, I haven't really even downloaded the M+ resources for the last few months... And I just renewed membership last month for another year. XD

 

[Lunarea]

To chime in with the official answer...

There are two things at play, here. There's the convenience for the customer - that's those of you who want to buy the resources. We don't want people to feel like they can't or shouldn't join Member+ because they haven't subscribed from the very start. We also realize that some of you want to only get a specific resource/resource set and that you would rather pay for just that. And we want to support that.

But there's also fairness to the artists. Although they are paid a commission when the resource is released, it wouldn't be right of us to continue to profit from their resource via sales without giving anything back. So, I'd need to figure out how to share the income from these sales - which is not an easy task. All of our contributors are talented, but they don't all contribute the same amount every month. And not all contributions will be useful to everyone across the board.

I am working on it, still, and trying to figure out how to organize it in a way that's fair for both users and artists. Believe me, none of us want to just let the resources go to waste. But we need to approach it in a way that makes everyone happy.

 

[whitesphere]

I don't know if it would be ridiculously complex (It sounds like it might be), but what if there were a Member + Archive Pack site, where users could purchase resources individually, in, say sets of 20 resources? At least it would be clear which artist would get what.  I understand the latter is probably the most difficult issue to determine.

 

[Lunarea]

Two problems with that...

1) Huge amounts of set-up, support and upkeep required, which not only requires quite a bit of money to pay the staff, but also quite a bit of our time. And there's no guarantee that people would buy enough to justify the costs or the time investment.

2) Our packs are a team effort, sometimes collaborative and meant to flow together. If we separated everything into individual resources, it might start to feel a bit like a popularity contest with some people getting more sales than others. And that's a kind of crummy feeling for the artist who feels their work is ignored.

 

[whitesphere]

Yeah, I see what you mean.  No wonder it's so difficult to find a solution to selling old Member + packs --- if I were an artist I'd hate feeling my work was ignored (and I got paid less as a result to add salt to the wound).  And I've no idea of the accounting and legal morass that any solution entails as well.