EQ2U: Browse the Marketplace Anywhere
When EverQuest II added the StationCash Marketplace, beside all the discussion and debate about the merits of Subscriptions vs. Pay-as-you-Go gaming, slippery slopes, and so forth, I had another question on my mind:
If SOE is betting the future on microtransactions in the Marketplace, shouldn’t EverQuest2.com’s flagship feature be an online catalogue of every item up for offer?
But year after year, we have yet to see any such website materialize, likely due to the work required to build and then maintain such a site.
Dethdlr and I have been very fortunate to be involved in Census right from the beginning, both in giving reams of feedback and suggestions to improve the service for all fansites, as well as using it to build our own EQ2U site. Over the last 18 months, the EQ2 team have continued to add more data to Census which allows us to make EQ2U even more complete, but in any business, resources have to be justified. So what better way to reinvigorate interest in Census within SOE than to add a highly visible feature like the EQ2 Marketplace?
Start Browsing the EQ2 Marketplace @ EQ2U
2 weeks ago, I built a working mockup with hand-entered data for approximately 50 items. I showed it to an EQ2 dev and inside of an hour, Marketplace data had been added to Census. Since then, I have been building a web version of this feature for EQ2U. The first version had almost 20MB of code, so it has taken a lot of optimization, but I hope those of you who are interested in the Marketplace (not every reader of EQ2Wire, but you’d be surprised) will enjoy this new feature.
So far, there are over 1,900 items, and to show previews of each one requires that I find a screenshot, or take one of my own. Thus far, there are approximately 350 items pictured, and I hope to add about 100 a day until I have most everything covered. If you would like to help contribute screenshots, please shoot me an e-mail here at EQ2Wire.com.
NOTE: The Census data for Marketplace is “live” which means any time items go on Sale or Rebate or other changes are made, the data reflects it. However, at the present time I have to run a script to update Marketplace. I will be automating this in the near future!
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Comments (13)
Ruatta
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Looking forward to the new feature. I’ll look into forwarding some “paperdoll” screenshots featuring Marketplace Gear.
This should prove to be an interesting method of getting your virtual faces out there for other players to see when they browse the catalogue.
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Feldon
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We’re live!
http://u.eq2wire.com/marketplace
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Rijacki
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Brilliant!
The Census is a great feature from SOE and EQ2Wire makes phenomenal use of it!
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Zijan
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Please don’t take offense to this but, What’s the point of this feature? You cannot buy from there only view items. I mean it looks cool but….
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Feldon
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Who knows, maybe some day we’ll be able to sell MP items, but that would require a lot of support on SOE’s end.
But in answer to your question, it’s equivalent to:
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Drona
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As I don’t log into the game very day, I think the sale tab will be useful to me. Quick check via the web and if they have some good deal log into the game and buy it!
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Antonia Bayles bit on the side
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Yet another great job Feldon & Deth, you do EQ2 and the EQ2 community proud with all your hard work, I’m amazed there hasn’t been some sort of micro site on the EQ2 site for the marketplace stuff. Hope the advertising you have on the sites generate at least a bit of good coin for you, you deserve it for your efforts, and I don’t think anyone would begrudge you for doing so. Next step quests and tradeskill recipes??? /drool
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Feldon
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I’m hoping we get data for Quests and Recipes soon. Then we’ll need to find out which Quests you’ve done/gained progress on a character, and which Recipes you’ve scribed.
We’re also working on Loot but the data is extremely complex.
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Antonia Bayles bit on the side
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Excellent stuff, sounds good! Being one of those nutjobs in the 5000+ quests club, I shall look forward to that one especially!
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Dethdlr
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With this, I can browse around and check out what’s available without needing to be at my gaming machine. I browser from work on my lunch break. I can browse from my iPad while waiting on an oil change for the car. Then if I find something I want to buy, I snag it when I get home.
Also, I’ve found things through this web interface that I never knew were available in game.
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Rylaar
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Is EQ1 marketplace data available on Census?
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Feldon
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Sorry, but none of the EQ data is available in Census. Maybe this will help give a push. 😉
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Feldon
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If you are submitting photos for the Marketplace, please:
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