StationCash Marketplace Evolution In-Game Poll

Written by Feldon on . Posted in Daybreak Cash, Free-to-Play (EQ2X)

We’re a bit late on this, but on April 4th, a new in-game poll was added to EQ2 about the StationCash Marketplace, specifically some items that were previously only available on the Freeport (formerly EQ2X) server. This issue is being discussed on the EQ2 Forums. Here are the contents of that in-game mail:

Greetings, Norrathians!

Most players spend a lot of time exploring and soloing, or delving into dungeons with a mercenary. There are items that would be extremely useful for these activites that used to be available on the marketplace on the Freeport server. We’d like to hear your opinions about those items and there is no predetermined plan for them. We are asking to get a fair representation without forcing everyone to debate on the forums.

Safe travels,

~ The EQII development team

After the jump, the in-game poll questions about Self-Resurrect Items, Power Potions, and Health Potions.

Marketplace Evolution In-Game Poll

Self-Resurrect Item: How do you feel about selling this 5-charge item used solo only (and 5 minutes after quitting a group). It can resurrect you at the location you died every 15 minutes.

Strongly Agree | Agree | Disagree | Strongly Disagree

Self-Resurrect Item: How do you feel about selling the Self-Resurrect item if it also worked in groups or raids?

Strongly Agree | Agree | Disagree | Strongly Disagree

Power Potion: How do you feel about selling this 5-charge item used solo only (and 5 minutes after quitting a group?) It restores 100% Power and has a 5-minute recast.

Strongly Agree | Agree | Disagree | Strongly Disagree

Power Potion: How would you feel about selling the Power Potion if it could be used in groups or raids?

Strongly Agree | Agree | Disagree | Strongly Disagree

Health Potion: How do you feel about selling this 5-charge item used solo only (and 5 minutes after quitting a group?) It restores 100% Health and has a 5-minute recast.

Strongly Agree | Agree | Disagree | Strongly Disagree

Power Potion: How would you feel about selling the Power Potion if it could be used in groups or raids?

Strongly Agree | Agree | Disagree | Strongly Disagree

Commentary

It is easy to write a poll that confirms what you think you already know. Writing good questions that elicit honest, helpful answers requires critical thinking and challenging your own preconceived notions. Getting accurate customer feedback, and being able to act upon it is something that companies like Apple, Zappos, and Disney spend millions on. I myself have struggled writing polls for EQ2Wire that produce a minimum of bias and collect useful information. SOE has repeatedly demonstrated an unawareness of what its customers want, feel, or need, but maybe these polls are a small first step in the right direction.

It is important to recognize that these are “polls” and not “votes”. Popular demand won’t necessarily dictate the development, marketing, and support of EQ2, but it will make EQ2 designers, developers, and producers aware of customer opinion. To quote Piestro:

Understand that if [it’s] really what players want this will be taken into serious consideration. Hence we are asking the playerbase altogether through a poll rather than relying just on the forums. We really do care what you folks think about this topic, that’s why we are asking. Forum feedback is useful in this regard too, because we get answers of greater depth here.

There is a significant different between a vote (i.e. decision) by the player base, and a poll so that we can make informed decisions. The poll will influence decision making, but it will not dictate it.

However the largest concerns that I and others in the fansite community have expressed is, without published data, such as a pie chart with percentage scores, it is hard to know what to do with vague responses like this from SmokeJumper:

To be honest, this first poll is for two reasons:

1) To prove that the polling system does what we want it to do. (In other words, have no bugs and be accessible and understandable to players.) So far…check. That works.

2) We already *know* what you’re doing in game. We can track everything. But we also want to know what you *think* you’re doing in game. To be honest, that’s just as important (if not more important) as the data about what you’re actually really doing. Your perceptions are critical.

Future polls will be much more “to the point” sometimes, but we’ll still do exploratory things like this on occasion.

The more truthful and honest you are with us on these polls, the better the job we can do for you in the future. Really.

Also, we’re concerned the poll results can be submitted by each of your characters. This presents the obvious concern that a player with 24 characters gets more weight than a player with just 3-4 characters. Piestro responded to these two concerns:

I’ll bring these requests to the team (more visibility into data from polls and polls by account not character).

Time will tell if EQ2 players are being presented with good questions that are carefully written to provide good data, or if we will be presented with “push” polls that seek to inform a decision that’s already been made.

Archive: We’ve saved a copy of the Tradeskill Poll and the original Player Poll

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Comments (18)

  • Lakoda

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    I’ve stopped caring. This decision either way isn’t going to help/hurt EQ2 in a meaningful way…the last few months have already mostly killed it.

    Reply

  • Someone

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    ..and there is no predetermined plan for them … sure. And tomorrow Raidcontent will be fixed.

    Reply

  • Borar

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    I noticed how they worded the poll to only allow comment on the items possibly being introduced, not how we feel about having them introduced via Station Cash rather than just introducing the items into the game.

    “Yep, we’re gonna fleece ya, how do you feel about these items?”

    Reply

  • Eschia

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    I saw this coming the day they removed those items when they merged eq2x.

    Reply

  • Taka

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    @Eschia… there was comment when they removed that they might be back.. and the majority of the comments or “perceptions” was that the majority of people knew they would be back..

    I played on EQ2x freeport. Its what bought be back to the game. I can’t tell you how like hot cakes rez scrolls, runes of devastations, and wands of obliteration were selling. People still played the same game but people with lots of $$ just played a little bit faster with less inconvenience.
    They generally had feedback that these items were were generally unpopular with the rest of the “Live” servers. Now that everyone can buy stuff through marketplace and free to play(your way??), that poll is testing, in my opininon, the “perception” of the player base (now accustomed to small time-saver items from the dungeon maker) to see if they still “think” or “perceive” selling health/mana pots or rez scrolls is unfavorable.

    I like ’em and I use ’em.

    Reply

  • Tarb

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    Im with Lakoda, i also have stopped carring about it, SOE is obviously going more and more towards pay to win and I would not be surprised to see these potions, gear and raid type items on the marketplace at some point this year. That being said I will be done with this game and SOE the day GW2 goes live. Despite all SOE’s issues 12 years is a long time to be with a gaming company that does things half a$$ed most of the time.

    Reply

  • Doffon

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    He who has the most money WINS! What a joke to real raiders!
    Way to go Sony take any skill out of the game. : (

    Reply

  • bhagpuss

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    I very much like that the poll can be taken per character not per account. I answered all the polls so far “in character”, giving a variety of different answers.

    In this poll, for example, some of my characters were in favor of these convenience items and others opposed, depending on the class and outlook of the character as I see it. In the crafting poll my answer varied quite widely, depending on whether that character crafts and if so what their craft is.

    The polls really need to have a “Neither Agree nor Disagree” option, though. Quite often I feel that the question simply isn’t relevant to any of my characters.

    Reply

  • Anaogi

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    I have 16+ toons. Hit ‘Strongly Disagree’ on every. Last. One.

    Reply

  • Breanna

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    well I did this poll too and said no thank u but i am sure they will show up on sc 🙁

    Reply

  • Flatley

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    Silly thing to add. It’ll appeal to the “me now” mentality, no doubt. And yes, pay to win > play to have fun.

    As long as we supply $med$ with $’s, the more simplistic the game becomes; next we’ll know, we’ll answer “abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz” to an answer to a level one quest and get insta-Drunder equipped persona with 92/92/3 bazillion or whatever… and the title “I finished EQ2”.

    Reply

  • Cristamir

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    Bend over, here it comes.

    Reply

  • badcat

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    Lol @ cristamir, he he.

    We all new that when SJ pulled these items out they would come back, and they will bend the data to show that folk want them.

    Get ready for pay to win items in game, as long as folks have the sc they will buy them.

    Frankly I canceled my sub, gave up all the free sc i had coming my way. Just adds another reason not to worry with this game. It has just become another free to play game with an item shop.

    Reply

  • Kwill

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    It’s hilarious to me as a person who made a living writing surveys that they let each character take the poll. And that they didn’t really see a problem with that. I guess I would have been out of a job if I suggested that we give multiple surveys to various people, and asked them to fill each of them out, depending on how they felt that day. Some people, I would give 16 surveys to; some people just one. And then I would simply tabulate my results, and see what “everyone” thought. ….

    It is not possible to get meaningful results that way. Way too many variables — as Feldon pointed out.

    And, as Feldon also pointed out, the survey was designed apparently to be meaningless, but just an exercise in data collection. Really? What a waste of time.

    Reply

  • Eschia

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    Yea I agree, too many variables if you got multiple characters. I think only 1 should be able to receive the mail to take the survey, and it should be first logged in first serve. If the mail system isn’t smart enough to know you took it already, then lets stop relying on it for the delivory method, and use something else, like buy the survey for 0SC in a special category, or put the survey in claim rewards 1 per account.

    Reply

  • Jay

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    Anaogi: “I have 16+ toons. Hit ‘Strongly Disagree’ on every. Last. One.”

    I have 21, just to annoy you I logged in to each and hit Strongly Agree, cancelling your vote and adding a little more weight to the Pay2Win fire.

    Have a nice day.

    Reply

    • Feldon

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      Jayden gets better at trolling [27/450].

      Reply

  • Taka

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    Lol@Jay & Feldon.

    Reply

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