Ah, that clears things up - obviously the zero dollars you’ve spent on subs for SWL is keeping the game afloat. 
I mean, let’s not kid ourselves that some grandmasters aren’t buying this anyway. I don’t agree with it but it makes perfect sense from a marketing standpoint to release this as is and say nothing about a future “GM edition” because there’s a significant amount of overlap between “people who’ll spend 200 dollars on a videogame” and “people who’ll spend 100 dollars on a videogame”.
Nah. Main reason is that Funcom’s answer to this question was “no”.
And I say that if Funcom would offer two bundles, one for 25€ without the 12 months and the one for 100€ as it is now, they would’ve ended up with more revenue in total for this.
But, screw decency and humility and go big instead, right ?
I’ve spent almost 5 grand on tsw and swl combined so you can shove your comments where the sun doesn’t shine. And @leogrim for as much as you wish to share a valid point you haven’t spent a dime on this game so that shows how well free to play is working out.
To further explain my point a large % of the consistent long term playerbase that keep logging in are lifetime subscription. Partly because this game doesn’t offer enough frequent content to keep the average subscriber or free to play player engaged.
I bought the bundle but Im on a monthly Patron payment. I want to cancel it for a year, to use up the time my $100 bought. The only option I see is to cancel my account. I dont want to cancel it, just stop making the credit card payments for a year. How do I do that?
Thanks to anyone who has an answer.
Your best option is to drop funcom CS an email - anything related to account payment isn’t discussed on the open forum (understandbly).
If you go here: https://www.funcom.com/help then you can message them about it.
thanks
Sounds like you can easily afford another hundred for some cosmetics then.
[citation needed]
On the contrary:
Anyhow my apologies to the OP for getting off topic here and falling victim to a classic forum troll. One business reason for not offering two seperate packages is that more none subs would have perhaps only bought the cosmetics disregarding the 1year subscription so I can understand that decision on there part.
It depends a bit if you use steam or not. In the case of steam it needs to be done from your steam account. That said steam should figure out on its own to pause the renewal i think. Finish your current 30days, use the 360days, then start up the renewal again.
Personally paused my renewal just to be sure
Well, I can only speak for myself, but when I saw the announcement, my first thought was, “Well, this is so SWL.”
It didn’t actually surprise me. I’m still waiting for the old TSW collector’s edition cosmetics to be released as SWL “Cosmetics Collector’s Packs” or whatever. New players can’t go buy TSW just for the cosmetics, so that’s money Funcom leaves on the table without any economically valid reason.
Here at least you have “it’s a special offer for current players and only current players currently willing to buy get it”. So the patron’s bundle cosmetics probably really shouldn’t be made available as a cosmetics only bundle. I would prefer I had a less stupid reason for saying that, though.
I’d much prefer actually seeing both collector’s cosmetics and lifetimer cosmetics deals, though. I think that overall, that’d make SWL more money than the current weird (non-)sales strategy.
TBH my first thought on this was “what kind of sucker would buy a year subscription on a game with no roadmap or any idea what content they plan to add in that year”. But I’ve always treated cosmetics as a distant secondary perk in this sort of package.
It feels to me a lot like the points sales they had on TSW just before the cutoff date for points transfer to aurum. If you know you’re not adding anything to the game, may as well convince people to spend $100+ now instead of aiming for a more reasonable $10 a month as it goes on. That way when they quit in 3 months you still have the money and don’t have to pay as much server upkeep.
It’s exaclly the same game, with tab-targetting removed. the bugs prove it.
What marketing? Any marketing dollars that Funcom deign to spend go to either Conan Exiles or the Duck Game.
Yes, and? That doesn’t really relate to the discussion at hand, unless you think the money from lifetime subs was stored in the game assets and is therefore still accessible now.
And again I say: “Yes, and?”. Even if that is true (and let’s be honest, you’re making it up) I’m clearly talking about the psychology involved in letting people think this is their only chance to buy something rather than the game’s advertising budget.
You know what ? Sadly that’s exacly what I thought about this matter and what is keeping me from buying the package.
Lets just hope we are wrong …
Ironically, if they had offered a lifetime subscription for €150 in the first month of SWL, I would have caved in and bought it. Instead I cancelled my subscription after 2 months because once I was done leveling, the patron benefits were not worth the €13 a month in my opinion. At this point in the life cycle of SWL, I would never pay €100 for a subscription, whether it be one year or a lifetime.
I do not know enough about marketing to make a broad statement about what lifetime does for the game. I just think that’s funny on a personal level.
As a lifetime sub from Pre-Launch, I was amazed that it actually carried over. It was only for The Secret World after all.
Honestly, I don’t feel my purchase back in 2012 is helping the game five years later (although it’s clear that I’m benifiting). Throughout TSW and SWL I have tried to make purchases when possible. It’s unfortunate that this cosmetic offer isn’t somehow avalible to existing GMs, but I do get the need to make the package exclusive.
If it encourages people to make a purchase then go for it. I can always find another suit to wear and there’s plenty of sprints. Let the people who can afford a 12 month sub have an exclusive shiny.
Seems some people misunderstood the topic here.
This is NOT about lifetime subs/GMs getting the cosmetics for free. In fact it’s not about us at all, it has nothing to do with our lifetime sub/GM status.
What DOES matter and what it IS about is having to pay the exact same amount of money for only a small fraction of the bundle’s contents.
Where on earth is paying for nothing reasonable?
And if your line of thought is: “Just be grateful your lifetime sub carried over from TSW to SWL!” then no, why should I? Having it not carry over could be considered a business fraud as SWL is essentially the same game as TSW. Just copy pasting and leaving the old copy to rot doesn’t legitimise voiding the terms of the lifetime sub over a technicality.
As for exclusivity and avoiding everyone just buying the cheaper bundle with only the cosmetics: make the cosmetics-only bundle exclusive to lifetimers, sort of like an “upgrade” alternative.
Anyway, just wanted to correct some faulty assumptions about the original topic here… 
You say that but then you immediately go on to complain that you should get a special bundle with just the cosmetics that only you can buy. How does that have nothing to do with your lifetime sub?
In any event, grandmasters aren’t paying for “nothing”, they’re paying to support the game. Whether you think that’s worth it or not is entirely up to you of course but that’s what the deal is (currently, at least).
There’s just one problem. The bundle isn’t available for GMs. Because it adds to subscription time and GMs have an ongoing subscription.
I agree that if the cosmetics are made available to GMs then they shouldn’t be charged full price. As it stands currently that is not an option so we’re not being asked to pay anything.