Something that you get out of it?

How about the ability to answer a friend who says, "I'd like to try the game, but don't want to pay out until I can be sure I'll like it" that their wish has been granted? As a lifetime subscriber, you have a bigger chance of convincing friends to join you in a game you felt confident enough about to pay for a lifetime's worth of access in advance.

Non lifetime subscribers do not, as yet, get that perk.

And let's not forget that, seen in that light, these three buddy codes are actually a surprise perk to the lifetime sub.

In short - I'm a lifetime subscriber, and I'm pretty happy about the deal.

I actually did think it was a bit odd that they didn't offer anything myself.

Do I really care? No. I'll still give buddy codes to the people who are at least partially interested when I talk about it. Rewards are nifty, but at the same time, I don't feel the need for them.

I find the conversation funny though... when there are issues with the game, people will constantly defend the problem by comparing it to other MMOs and such (how many times have we heard the "But it's a new game, all MMO's are like that at launch... in XXX, this happened" line), but people are on other people's backs about expecting something in return for referring a friend, when, using the same logic, most every other MMO has some sort of incentive for doing so. So if a person feels entitled to some sort of reward for doing so, that's because thats what the rest of the industry has ingrained in their mind is "normal".

Usually you are rewarded after the game has been out for a year or so. CO has been out for a month and is still trying to find its feet, and you're already whining about rewards for refering friends?

I'm surprised they've even handed out buddy codes.