The Daily Grind: Does SOE owe you in-game compensation?

Personally for how Sony has handled this whole situation to even let this happen to a well known name I'd say they owe some big compensation. I'd say the things that are ok to give out are..... free game time, Increased experience and/or drop rate of items. The hardcore vets might do some complaining but they are probably a very small number. Sony has to fix their rift with bigger slice of pie. Hell I have played MMO's where things go down for a day or 2 and they do everything they can to make it up. Like 2 extra free days on your account subscription and exp events and sometimes drop events. Now if the game is Free To Play by Sony then they don't owe you a damn thing. You aren't paying for anything so you deserve nothing.

I don't think so. Only extra days on their account for the days they were down for monthly subs.

Anything extra is just being nice, like and xp boost week or a free item or something.

You know what WOULD be funny. If PSN Home or one of Sony's MMOs made an in-game t-shirt that said "I survived the PSN outage" on the front with "and all I got was this lousy t-shirt" on the back.

Personally I think something like a couple of "double exp weekends" or the like seem in order. The out of game compensation is already pretty decent. (I have to admit I am actually downloading Vanguard right now and I haven't SUBBED to the game since near launch.) I'm awaiting my identity theft protection activation key and will be taking advantage of the service. A year of a premium protection program for every account holder? That's way better than in-game compensation . . . your real life is, after all, more important!

Because SoE is mostly a paid service, I'm more inclined to say "yes they do owe us something." I don't feel like they owe us much though. The free game time is enough, anything beyond that is just a bonus.

I'm... not sure they owe anything, other than an apology, as much disclosure and explanation as they can give without causing further problems, and an assurance that they're beefing their security right up. (Before anyone starts, I'm affected too. I empathise. I'm just looking at this as objectively as possible.)

That said, I definitely see the need to lay out the olive branches like they have. There's a lot of people potentially harmed and definitely stressed by the hack. While the blame belongs to the hackers, SOE are the ones who need to please their customers. Being blameless doesn't mean they have no responsibility, nor were they without fault in the matter.

As for the lost leisure time, well, everyone gets the missed says and an extra 30 of subscription free, and Lifetimers get a little something extra instead. Opinions may vary on the Lifetimer bonuses, but us subscribers are fairly well recompensed. No one got left behind due to the downtime, because everyone was equally unable to play. Those who've ragequit and don't get the bonus aren't going to be pleased anyway, so they're _objectively_ unimportant.

Of course, I'd like more than they're giving, because who doesn't like free stuff, especially when you've just had bad news? Despite that, I don't care either way about what they're doing enough to let it sway my opinion of whether to play their games. They appear to be doing enough to meet their responsibilities, and anything else is gravy. I'll play their games based on whether I want to play their games.

I don't think SOE owes anything for this beyond reimbursement of the game time lost (and then only if their EULA states a certain amount of up-time). Anyone can be hacked at any time, no system is perfect, you just have to hope that those with the necessary skills don't decide to target you.

Their welcome back package is good, it covers all their games for both existing and former players.

I'm content, I get 45 days of free subscription time for some great games and changing my credit card is just a simple phone call, not really a big deal.

In game maybe not so much, but definitely need lovin for the sub fee's.

The free game time is enough IMO. It got me back to subbing to EQ2, after all. Having not played for months, I decided to play during the 45 days free time, and am enjoying myself so much I went out and got the latest expansion.

They owe us Planetside Next already.

When Xbox Live was down for over 2 weeks I didn't get anything. And I PAY for Xbox Live.

I have a PS3, PSP, and accounts to SOE games.

I don't know how good the ID theft service is going to be, nor how they could have the resources to suddenly take on another several million customers and still maintain effectiveness.

Anyway, I think they fairly compensated the players if the services they provided actually work. Anything above that demanded by the masses is a reflection of our world's problems with entitlement; This includes the ridiculous class action lawsuits being generated.

@Alex Oglitchkin: I think the free players shouldn't be left out. Some "free players" can actually contribute more cash to the game than a subscriber. I know I personally pay in a decent amount for in-game store items, which makes me a paying customer. I think offering the ID theft protection to ALL of their customers was the right thing to do. The in-game compensation is just a nice perk.

Not gonna use that compensation they sent me , I mean there is a reason why Vanguard , DCUO, and EQ subscriptions are canceled in the first place and it wasn't because of 15 bucks a month.

I mean what am I gonna do with free game time play pirates of the burning sea?

C'MON

yes