/claimFollow

I think it is in regard to your purchasing LDoN or PoP - For buying one of the two expansion packs, you will get a spiffy weight reducing backpack in your inventory. I cannot remember the other item.

Well, in talking with people in bazaar, pretty much everyone had that message pop up. I certainly haven't installed any new software lately, either. I'm somehow thinking this is related to GoD, and if you buy that on CD you will get a backpack, like with LDoN or whatever. Probably just put the command in too early, like they did with the message about free beta in EQii with purchase of Lords of EQ. ;-)

Thanks!

Nobby wrote:

Yes it's a 'freebie' for buying an online expansion (in this case, GoD)

I (like several other players in PoK thias pm) typed /claim, was asked to confirm that I really want the gift on this toon (1 gift per account). Clicked 'Yes' and Hey Presto!

Nothing

Exactly the same happened when I bought LDoN. Anyone else?


Actually, it's a reward for NOT buying the online expansion. Think about it...SOE wants to sell their expansion direct to you via online downloads. They ALSO want to sell it to retailers who will sell it to you (probably through mass distributors.) In essence, they are competing with their own customers.

Retailers and distributors HATE this practice. This is the case with just about any company that used to sell through retailers that makes the shift to selling direct. (I know this because the company I used to work for, who made digital projectors, attempted to shift to a direct model and ran into many of these issues, and it nearly destroyed the company because they didn't have the direct customer base and advertising structure the retailers did, and the retailers no longer wanted anything to do with them.) Sure, in selling direct the manufacturer can increase his profit margin by cutting out the middle man. But the middle man doesn't WANT to be cut out, because every time the manufacturer sells direct, he is taking money that the retailer could make in his SuperStore, and if a manufacturer is going to attempt to straddle the fence and sell in BOTH channels, the middle man is going to make him pay for it.

Thus was born a pattern of throwing a little "bonus" into products sold via retail that the consumer doesn't get if she buys direct, like the /claim rewards. If you buy direct from SOE, it's very nice and convenient. For the 6 weeks prior to release day, you get your files in dribs and drabs, and on release day, whammo! They're active. Buy from the store, you have to haul your lazy backside out of your desk chair and into your car and down to the local Best Buy or whatever and actually purchase the damned thing, bring it home, install it, activate it, etc, etc, etc. So your "bonus" for buying direct is sheer convenience. In order to balance this out and preserve their retail channel, the manufacturer has to include a bonus in retail-purchased items which might, just MIGHT, make it worth the hassel of quitting playing long enough to go buy and install a CD.

Long story short.../claim isn't gonna do you a bit of good, because you are direct downloading your expansions. You have to weigh the benefits of the direct download against the uberness of the bonus gift.

Ambrya

I should clarify...I bought two copies at Best Buy...not online. I did not know about the /claim bonus until I got home and read it in the manual while the first was installing. Each copy also came with a cool keychain that my kids nabbed.

But, as I said...no /claim reward. Thanks for nothing! ;-)
Prolly some +1 save vs fire 2 ac wrist item anyway.

There's a message on the Main EverQuest Site about why it popped up today...they were trying to fix the problem where people who should have gotten their bags didn't, but the fix didn't work, and then they tried again and supposedly it works now.

I'm kind of annoyed about the bag too...I didn't know about it, but I had those Best Buy Rewards so I almost picked it up in the store when I was there before Xmas. But then I found out that it wasn't stored on your Rewards card, but you had to wait for certificates in the mail. So I didn't buy it. But when I got home that night, a bunch of my friends had just bought it so I figured, "what the hell", and bought it online. Then I found out that I missed out on the bag. So I was pretty pissed off at myself for not just getting it anyway, so what about saving the $3, at the time I had no WR bags at all...

Game on,

The Oneiromancer