I used to have maybe $20-30 of bonus credits that I "lost." When I asked ED why, they said because I didn't use it and so it "expired."

Thankyouverymuch, ED!

Which I would say is a rather smart buisness model... not a nice, fan friendly buisness model I grant you, but they aren't running their company for the greater good of the flight sim community... altogether now..."The Greater Good*"

* Hot Fuzz reference in case your wondering

No no no, Troll's obviously smarter than us. He's got this all figured out, there's no way he's actually losing money on trying to use bonus money instead of just waiting for a sale.

it may not be the best bonus scheme ... but ED are the only software company ..(that I know of) that has a bonus scheme

How valuable is the bonus scheme given;

- there is a sale almost every other month

- you do not receive bonus funds when purchasing sale items

- you can only use the bonus funds on full price items

- bonus funds can only be put towards 50% of the full price item

- bonus funds can only be used on selected items

- bonus funds expire and DCS development is notoriously slow meaning new store content is infrequent

....It all points to bonus funds not been very useful at all hence the reason many people have them in their accounts and just let them expire.

Troll, you only get bonus points from buying full price items.

Work out how much you had to spend to get 50% off your Mi8 ($125).....then add the $25 you had to add even though you used the max amount of bonus possible. ($150)

Now compare all your expenditure to what it would have been had you bought in the regular sales (I think I got my Mi8 for $15). You've potentially spent 50-100+% more using the bonus scheme.


Admittedly, waiting for sales doesn't fit everyone, and new modules/terrain don't always appear in sales too - I guess the point is that the bonus scheme isn't that brilliant especially given how frequent the sales are. The last newsletter which didn't give any progress updates and was titled (DCS Bonus Spectacular) isn't very spectacular at all hence my first post.


Edit: I just checked my account. Mi8 was $19.99 Another example being the SU27 Campaign which you can put $5 of rewards to and pay another $5 towards it....or just buy it for $3 in a sale.

Absolutely yes it is......



You can't get the Mi8 for $25 when it's priced at $50 without spending $125 on other content first. That is the absolute minimum that you would have had to spend to be in a position whereby you get such a magnificent discount. Given that each full price module/terrain is priced at $50 and would only give you a $10 bonus you still have to buy a minimum of 2.5 full price modules to give you the 'reward' of a 50% discount on the Mi8 together with the 'opportunity' of only having to pay an additional $25 for it. Read that carefully.....that isn't really a reward, nor is it a bonus by any stretch of the imagination.

It's not really worth answering the rest of your post because because you're making up stuff I haven't even said or suggested. Nowhere have I said what you should or shouldn't do....I spent $20 on two campaigns yesterday and put $10 towards it from my own 'bonus' - how stupid am I? But then again, because I do question some of ED's planning/announcements and delays I'm still only a 'detractor' and allegedly don't like DCS and don't support them one iota!

If you want even more of a giggle at my expense.....how's about me spending $107 to get to the end result of a single copy of Blackshark 2, we live and learn!

I think you're forgetting how you generate bonus funds though.....because they aren't given to you free of charge by ED, you are effectively paying for them. Your own argument exposes the ED bonus funds as completely worthless or the ED sales with 30-70% discount completely worthless. Which one is it? In fact, I offered to give my bonus to someone else in another thread the other day....that's one way of properly saving a bit of money outside of the sales because if someone wants to entertain that it's me that has paid for the prior content in order to generate the bonus and not the individual who has the opportunity to pay $25 for a module still priced at $50.

As you seem to like the bonus scheme, can you elaborate on what makes this 'spectacular' as detailed by ED in the newsletter. http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/news/2016-02-12_Bonuses/

As I side-note I'm giving away a free Lamborghini Aventador with every £300,000 packet of crisps if you're interested?

Troll, basically, what we're saying is that you spent X amount to get Y bonus. You then added Y + Z (cash) to buy a new module. Let's say you purchased 8 modules for a total of X and that's how you accumulated your Y bonus. Then you purchased a new module (total 9 modules now) by using your Y bonus plus Z (cash).

However, someone who waits for sales would only have to spend N amount to get the same 9 modules, and N would still come out cheaper than your X + Z amount.

I hope that clears it up. What you find "worth it" or "I can't wait for it" is irrelevant to this argument as those are subjective. The point being argued here is the total $$$ cost of the modules, the end-value of the bonus program, and the amount of "content" you get for the first two.

Obviously the bonus scheme is a discount over not having it. I just feel that the hype is not in proportion to the utility of it.

Yep, and when you get discounted purchases, you get reduced bonuses. You still only get a fifth of the outlay of whatever you spend therefore to generate your $25 of bonus you still have to spend $125 on other content.



No need to exaggerate to back up your argument....no-one is 'blaming' ED for anything other than saying quite rightly that this is flawed system to try and make people spend extra money under the quise of a reward scheme.

It's simple, the 'bonus scheme' isn't really a bonus at all. In a nutshell, you pay for the discount, and you then pay again to actually use it...just as you did to get the Mi8 for $25. The alternative if you can be patient is to wait for a sale - because then you don't pay extra just to get a 'bonus' and then you don't have to pay to use it AND you get the product cheaper than the bonus scheme discounted price anyway. Bravo.

Maybe you're not understanding this because you're only seeing this from your point of view.....lets flip it on its head.....

I paid $19.99 for the Mi8 without needing or using any bonus funds and I wasn't forced to buy other content at full price to get a discount.
The one caveat I had was only to wait for the sale.

Perhaps you can explain why you have the better deal by paying $25 for the Mi8, only after acquiring the other $25 bonus by spending $125 on other content and also being reliant on a spectacular deal that allows this to happen?

Is your argument based solely on the amazing offer ED are giving you whereby they are letting you utilise 50% of the price with bonus funds instead of the usual 30% ?

I'm aware my explanations have spanned multiple pages now so I'm going to stop. 'Scrim' explained it in a single paragraph on the first page.

Perhaps you should be practicing this into a mirror..?


..but do we, do we really..?

I seem to remember Wags saying, some time ago, that we would not be seeing the deeply discounted sales anymore. So occasionally allowing us to save up to 50% off using our "bonus bucks" is as good as it gets now.

They could keep charging the same prices and not give any "bonus bucks" at all: would that be preferable?

They could but they would not. The market dictates the prices too. If they would ask 200$ per module they would be forced to lower the price by the drop in sales to a reasonable one... like 50-60?

The purpose of sales is to increase market so more people at least try and talk about it... this can bring in even more people, to grab people that are on the fences and would buy only at a lower price o when price seems lower, to stop/deter piracy.

I have a bit over 80$ in bonus points and no module (worthy) to buy. I would use them on C101 or Hawk but only if those modules would be sold on bonus points only.

So for me is not like I have to buy x modules in order to have a discount (although this is the basic of loyalty schemes in any shop... ) for me is a lack of modules to buy. Luckily delays are for free :P .

This is very simple Troll and you're now attempting to change your argument to save face.

Re-read the topic from the start. From page 1 you're insinuating you saved money by generating bonus funds and then got a 50% reduction on the Mi8.

You didn't save money at all.....you actually paid for the discount yet that's also acknowledged in your last post. It's only on page 4 that you change tact, admit the scheme isn't saving you money and try and make out that having bonus funds resident in your wallet is the start point for discussion and want some sort of justification with regards why you shouldn't use your bonus points - that hasn't been disputed or argued against by anyone other than multiple people saying you have paid through the nose to arrive at that point.

I even said myself I bought 2 campaigns with my bonus points. I'm ripping myself off just to be part of the 'loyalty scheme' - mainly through boredom because I've had the points for ages, there's nothing I want and the points would have otherwise expired (buying something cheap resets the expiry clock by 12 months)

It looks like we're all finally in agreement. The scheme doesn't save money and there is nothing spectacular about the 'February Bonus Spectacular'. Why didn't you just agree on page 1 (that's rhetoric!).

Not everybody waits for sales.

He can get a discount on the RRP on the module he wants.

If he's prepared to wait for a sale, he might get a discount there also.

He could get a discount now, or rather wait for a sale.

Those that don't want wait for sales, still accrue discounts with the bonus system.

I can't see what is nefarious about this, or illegal (LOL) as somebody else mentioned.

Nate

That's just it, your 10th cup isn't a "free" cup. You paid MORE for your first 9 cups to cover the cost of the 10th cup. What you've just said is you paid in advance for the 10th cup. Your tenth cup, the helicopter, cost you $25 plus the advanced moneys you put on the other 9 "cups". You're saying "pay in advance and use that advance money before it expires" because it does expire. If there is nothing to buy within the timescale of one's bonuses then one basically paid the extra money for nothing!
Hardly a ringing endorsement of the bonus scheme is it. Better of waiting for sales than putting advance money down on future products in the hope they'll be released before your money expires

You had no option but to buy the expensive coffee? ED had a gun to your head?
The only "no option" is to use ones bonus points before they expire. I would say you had no option but to buy your "10th coffee" before your rewards ran out. Whether it was the flavour you wanted or not.

My face just left a profound imprint on the top of my desk. Palm just did not suffice.

I feel sorry for your desk, Sobek.

You should, it is a fine desk...