As first revealed by the ProSiebenSat.1 EQ2 website, this weekend is a 50% Instant Rebate weekend for nearly all Marketplace items.

From EverQuest2.com:

This weekend the EQII Marketplace will be featuring an Instant Rebate sale where you’ll be able to get deep discounts on most items in the store. With minor exceptions* all Station Cash items in the Marketplace will receive at least a 50% rebate.

How does a rebate work? Once you purchase one of the items eligible for Instant Rebate, you’ll receive a refund of 50% of your Station Cash used to purchase an item moments after the transaction!

Need Station Cash? Visit the Station Cash page for information and learn how you can purchase SC online or from a retailer near you.

This sale runs Friday 6/28/13 – Sunday 6/30/13 (ending at 11:59 PM PDT).

*Excludes experience items, services, and new items added in the past 30 days. Does not affect in-game currency costs. Excludes expansions, memberships, Krono, and any other items not available for SC.

EQ2U Marketplace Browser

Can’t wait until you get home to see what’s on rebate on the Marketplace?  Now you can browse the Marketplace in your web browser.

Browse the EQ2 Marketplace @ EQ2U

According to ProSiebenSat.1’s new website for EverQuest II, this weekend will be a StationCash Marketplace Rebate weekend. We don’t have any official confirmation if the event will include the US or only apply to Europe, but the ending time for the event is certainly suggestive. 8:59am CEST just happens to be 11:59pm PDT Sunday night…

This weekend the EQII Marketplace will be featuring an Instant Rebate sale where you’ll be able to get deep discounts on most items in the store.

The sale runs Friday, June 28 – Monday, July 01, ending at 08:59 am CEST.

The Instant Rebate Sale includes many in the Marketplace except for example experience items, services, and new items added in the past 30 days. It excludes expansions, memberships, and other items not available for SevenCash.

I’ll update the EQ2 Marketplace Browser at Noon and see what happens. 😉

If you are a member of a Guild, then over the last few months, you’ve gained the ability to pay your rent on all of your houses, visit them with one click, and also visit the houses of friends and guildmates, all without having to venture beyond the confines of your guild hall. Now, these abilities have come to those who are between guilds or simply prefer to adventure on their own.

With this new window, you can travel directly to any of your houses anywhere in Norrath as long as you are within a city zone. You can also pay rent upkeep, and view stats about your house. When you are inside your house, you can of course rename it and take up to 2 screenshots which will appear on Housting Leaderboards for others to view.

Typically, SOE does such a great job marketing their StationCash deals that they don’t need my help, however for those looking for the best deal on StationCash, this might just be the best yet:

From Friday, June 14th through Sunday, June 16th, 2013, GameStop and EB Games locations will be offering $5 off any SOE $15 pre-paid game card.

* Offer valid from store opening on June 14, 2013 through store closing June 16, 2013. Valid on SOE pre-paid game cards purchased at participating GameStop and EB Games retail stores in Canada and the USA only.

UPDATE from Ashlanne:

Our Retail Partner in Canada, EBGames, has experienced difficulty in giving customers this discount and we are therefore extending the promotion through store closing Monday, June 17th, to give our customers the opportunity to purchase.

Doing the Math

This probably doesn’t sound that special until you do the math. $30 buys you 4,500SC which triples to 13,500SC when redeemed on a Triple SC Weekend. Compare this to the Walmart 1500+500SC cards which triple to just 12,000SC when redeemed on the correct weekend. It turns out that the GameStop/EB deal is better:

– Morgan “Number Cruncher” Feldon

From EQ2’s Twitter today:

Congratulations! We reached our goal of 2,000 YouTube subscribers. The Meatbeast will be available this weekend! ow.ly/m1bN6

— EverQuest II (@everquestii) June 14, 2013

Specifically:

The Meatbeast will be available from 3:00 pm PDT on Friday, June 14 through 11:59 pm PDT on Sunday, June 16.

on June 3rd, this promotion was announced on EQ2’s Facebook:

Are you missing the Meatbeast? When we hit 2,000 subscribers on http://www.youtube.com/eq2videos, it will return to the Marketplace for a limited time! Subscribe now and check out lots of great EverQuest II videos! [Dexella]

EQ2U Gear Report V1.1

I’m happy to report that the next version of the EQ2U Gear Report has just been pushed live and we have some new features that hopefully folks will appreciate!

First up is Crit Bonus and Potency have had an amicable breakup and are now just going to be friends in their own separate columns. This should help melee-focused Priests and Mages going forward. Previously, only one of these stats was shown, biased towards certain Archetypes.

Second, we’ve got a new Tooltip when you mouseover the White, Yellow, Red, and Green adornment summaries which shows you exactly which equipment slots are missing adornments. This feature required a new Javascript file, so you may need to hold down Ctrl and press the F5 key a couple of times to get it to load the new file.

Third, it’s been suggested that we show, at-a-glance, which equipment has yellow or red slots. This can be helpful to distinguish between two 183 stat items, one of which might be an old HM drop vs. a brand new heroic item. I hope to add a simple checkbox on the page to hide/show these dots as they can be a bit distracting if you are wanting to look at just the numbers.

From EverQuest2.com:

During E3, we’re offering a 30% discount on experience consumables in the Marketplace! You’ll find them in Consumables under “Experience” or in the Sale category. Stock up now!

Sale starts Tuesday, June 11 at 9:00am PDT and ends Thursday, June 13 at 8:00pm PDT.

Time Zone Conversions

• PDT: June 11 @ 9:00am until June 13 @ 8:00pm
• EDT: June 11 @ Noon until June 13 @ 11:00pm
• BST: June 11 @ 17:00 until June 14 @ 4:00
• CET: June 11 @ 18:00 until June 14 @ 5:00

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

We’re a tad late on this one, but if you miss the Qeynos and/or Freeport neighborhoods which were gobbled up by last year’s Revamps and wish you could make a home of them, there’s an in-game poll you might want to give your input on.

A few years ago, travel within EQ2 was only slightly arduous. Players often had to travel to Nek Forest, Thundering Steppes, or Moors of Ykesha to then bounce off to places farther afield. EQ2Wire even published a World Travel Map (and gave away copies at Fan Faire) which suggested the easiest means of travel.

Then over time, recast times on Guild Hall and Call Home spells got shorter, and travel restrictions lessened. Then came a major streamlining which eliminated all bells (and carpets) in favor of a single universal World Travel Bell on almost every dock which will take you almost anywhere in Norrath.

Eventually, players were able to purchase stacks of five Portable Globe of Swift Travel that allow us to summon a World Travel Bell anywhere. If you thought the streamlining was finished, you’d be wrong. It looks like those portable globes are about to undergo “point of need” streamlining. On Test, you can now click on your Map and travel, for a fee.

From the EQ2 Test Forums:

Greetings Testers,

Today’s Test update brings instant travel! You can now click on your map, click on the Quick Access Teleport button in the upper-right corner, and choose where you want to go.

This feature will cost Station Cash once it hits the other servers but it is currently free for you to check out on Test. Please play around with it and give us your feedback!

Thank you.

EQ2Wire Comment: Undoubtedly, the introduction of this feature will coincide with the removal of those Portable Globes, so I’d stock up now.

UPDATE from Ahma:

To clarify this, instant travel will only allow you to go to existing travel locations (druid rings, wizard spires, and bells). Beyond those, you will not be able to choose a specific location within a zone.

If the 48 slots afforded [eq2u]metallic reptile hide backpack[/eq2u]s just doesn’t cut it and you need a full 50 slots to carry your worldly possessions, then head to the Marketplace this Mother’s Day weekend where you can acquire 50 slot bags. This offer is only valid for THIS weekend.

From EverQuest.com.

At long last, Item Unattuners have come to the Marketplace.

In 2010, these became available in a three-pack from an ultrarare Legends of Norrath loot card. Prices on trading websites were upwards of $100 for the opportunity to unattune three pieces of armor, weapons, or jewelry and pass it on to another character.

Then with the introduction of the Goblin Games last August, players could play the repetitious games (which were necessitated by anti-Gambling laws) for tokens which could be exchanged for individual gear unattuners.

Today, players are able to purchase these items directly from the Marketplace:

• [eq2u]Item Unattuner[/eq2u] — 350SC

• [eq2u]Item Unattuner Bundle[/eq2u] (7) — 1,960SC

Read more about the Item Unattuners, as well as Siren Plushies on EverQuest2.com.

With Chains of Eternity, Research Reducer potions/totems were removed from the Marketplace in favor of an “Upgrade Now” button directly on the Research tab. While there has been some debate about slight changes in pricing, the end result of being able to peel days or weeks off of Spell Research right from within the Research tab has been a simpler, more streamlined experience.

The old way — digging through the Marketplace to find the correct consumable with the right duration that best matches the number of hours/days left on your research — was less than intuitive. Further, consuming a Research Reducer without the Research window open didn’t provide much feedback of what was actually happening.

With Game Update 66, the ability to Unlock gear on Free-to-Play accounts right from within the Equipment tab by right-clicking items and unlocking item-by-item or choosing to “Unlock All” was added. Tomorrow (May 8th), this will become the only way to unlock gear as the [eq2u]Equipment Unlocker Pack[/eq2u]s are being removed from the Marketplace.

Once again, the fine details of cost are being debated on the forums. For players who wish to unlock all their gear (up to 22 equipped items), this is clearly a more streamlined approach. But those players who prefer to individually manage gear unlocks, this takes away those options. Some players have also pointed out that the individual unlocks through the interface are 35SC each, while the Equipment Unlocker 5-packs worked out to 30SC each. Streamlining is good, but longer term, players wonder if the new “built-in Unlock” feature will enjoy the periodic discounts and rebates that the Unlocker packs used to.

If you live near a 7-11 (they used to be widely popular in the U.S., then mostly pulled out and moved into Europe, and are now slowly trickling back into the U.S.), then this StationCash deal may be of interest to you. We have not been able to confirm if this deal applies cards bought from European 7-11 locations (or if they carry the cards). While there are nearly 500 7-Eleven stores in Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), I’ve confirmed that they do not carry the cards.

Stock Up Now!

Buy a SOE Pre-Paid Card at 7-Eleven and redeem it for Station Cash this weekend only to get Double SC!

Offer valid on redemptions from 12:01AM PDT April 27, 2013 to 11:59PM PDT April 28, 2013. Cards can be purchased in advance but must be purchased at 7-Eleven stores.

Time Zone Conversions

• PDT: Saturday April 27 @ 12:01am ~ Sunday April 28 @ 11:59pm
• EDT: Saturday April 27 @ 3:01am ~ Monday April 29 @ 2:59am
• BST: Saturday April 27 @ 8:01 ~ Monday April 29 @ 7:59
• CET: Saturday April 27 @ 9:01 ~ Monday April 29 @ 8:59
• AEST: Saturday April 27 @ 5:01pm ~ Monday April 30 @ 4:59pm

UPDATE: Looks like SOE has figured out a way to add days to months as their original headline said Double SC at 7-Eleven ran until 4/48.

These updates are all Marketplace-related. First up, a number of House Items are being reduced in price. From Ahma on the EQ2 Forums:

Greetings Norrathians!

While making changes to housing for Game Update 66: Scars of the Awakened, we decided it was time to make some changes to housing items on the Marketplace, too. As a result, you’ll find that many items in the Housing category have gotten some hefty price cuts. This includes:

• Building Blocks: Individual tiles and blocks now cost 10SC instead of 50SC
• Building Blocks: Sets of 10 tiles and sets of 10 blocks now cost 80SC instead of 250SC
• Many items in the Furniture category now cost 50% less
• Significant price reductions on many House Pets and House Plushies
• Items in Windows & Curtains are 50% off or more

On Friday, a hilarious video of Tom Tobey and Christopher Atkins introducing new Meatbeast mounts and house pets was released. The video was extremely well-received and I and many others ran out to buy the new mounts and pets and galloped all over Norrath mooing all the way.

But today, it seems the EQ2 team may have pushed the April Fools joke too far.

As was announced on Friday, a pink version of the Meatbeast matriarch mount is available TODAY ONLY (April 1st). What has players stunned is the price: 5,000SC. If you stocked up on StationCash over the weekend from Walmart, that works out to $18.75. If you didn’t, you’re going to be dropping upwards of $50. That’s more than an expansion!

Further, players couldn’t help notice that the original price is marked as 50,000SC 5,000SC. Players are not seeing the humor in that price markdown and instead wondering if the mount will jump to that price the next time it’s offered. We’ve heard from a few players who were so excited to purchase this mount that they grabbed one without double-checking the price, and are now out 5k SC. Thus far, EQ2 mounts have hovered between 1,950SC and 950SC.

Further, players have expressed shock that it’s not a Leaping mount, nor does it offer any bonuses to runspeed, beyond other mounts. You’re literally paying for a re-color of the Bovoch mount added on Friday.

Bovinasauros Rex? Cetaceans!

Raph Koster wrote an article which has been heavily quoted on MMO sites about Free-to-Play and the existence of Whales or customers who will buy big ticket items on game marketplaces. Is this SOE’s first foray into this category of high dollar items? Are they seeing a marketplace trend and simply getting on board with having a few rare items which are at a price beyond what most players would consider a sane purchase?

This is being discussed (raged) on the EQ2 Forums:

• Berry-Fed Bovoch Mount is April Fools’ Joke
• New Marketplace Items: Bovochs and Bristlebane
• 5k SC for a Mount. Seriously?

Oh. My. God.

When Beastlords were added to EQ2, the first thing an alarming number of people wanted to tame was Bristlebane‘s very own Bovinasauros Rex or the Meatbeast! Inexplicably, a month later the Meatbeast was taken away and there were rumblings that not all on the EQ2 team were quite so excited about the idea of players running rampant with them. We thought that was the end of it, but the Walter Bishopesque love for the Meatbeast in the EQ2 community just wouldn’t die! After a year of players clamoring, the Meatbeast was once again available to Beastlords and all was once again right with Norrath. We celebrated, smiled, and moved on. But not the insane evil genius EQ2, Senior Animator Tom Tobey and his cohort Christopher Atkins, Character Artist.

Just in time for the April Foolishness of Bristlebane Day, they have given us a full quart’s worth of hilarity. I could describe it, but you’re better off just watching the funniest video SOE has ever released. If you don’t die laughing, then I don’t know what to say…

Today, Meatbeast baby pets in five different colors are available for your house, and more importantly, you can now get a Meatbeast mount either a Cow or Bull for 1,950SC. I’m logging in right now!

Read More on the EQ2 Forums

P.S. for ONE DAY ONLY (April 1st) if you really must, you can get a pink Meatbeast mount.

From PC Games N and Planetside-Universe:

Starting this Friday, and running through till Monday morn, all Station Cash…will be doubled.

Time Zone Conversions

• PDT: Friday, March 29 @ 12:01am ~ Sunday, March 31 @ 11:59pm
• EDT: Friday, March 29 @ 3:01am ~ Monday, April 1 @ 2:59am
• GMT: Friday, March 29 @ 7:01 ~ Monday, April 1 @ 7:59 (BST)
• CET: Friday, March 29 @ 8:01 ~ Monday, April 1 @ 8:59 (CET)

Important Notes

• StationCash is an SOE-wide currency so when it’s doubled in one game, this applies to all SOE games.

• European times above reflect Daylight Savings Time starting on Sunday, March 31st. America has been on DST since March 10th.

• Times above have been confirmed but are subject to vary (always erring on the side of running longer not shorter).

• The addition of Snow in the banner above is my own embellishment.

UPDATE: Here’s the link to the official announcement.

There are a lot of StationCash items in EQ2, and the question on the EQ2 team’s mind is: Are people not buying ‘service’ items because they don’t want them, or because they can’t find them?

To find the answer to that question, next week we’ll see the [eq2u]Forgiveness Potion[/eq2u] disappear from the Marketplace and in its place, a button directly in the Character window and all Menders that allows you to repair your equipment right on the spot for StationCash.

As you can see in the screenshot above, the Point of Need button appears in the lower left corner of your Character window if your equipment is below 50%. It allows you to repair your equipment immediately using StationCash.

From the EQ2 Forums:

Whether you’re just swinging by The Bar of Brell or getting ready for The Great Brewday Pub Crawl, Player Studio Artists Stormyheavens E’Clipse and Lyranny have created cloaks perfectly suited to your barroom Brewday pursuits!

Luck of the Clover (by Stormyheavens E’Clipse)
Cloak of Good Fortune (by Lyranny)

If you’re inclined to kill a few monsters before attending Brewday celebrations, you’ll want this cloak by Vandrago:

Cloak of the Dragon Slayer (by Vandrago)

Continue reading on the EQ2 Forums for a number of new Marketplace items including Climbing Grape Vines, a Brewmaster’s Ship, Clover Garland, and a bundle of the existing Brewmaster’s Furniture.

Since the launch of the Player Studio program, EQ2 players exercising their hobby (or career) as gifted artists and 3D designers have deluged the EQ2 team with Cloak and House Item submissions. What was originally intended as a “maybe 4-5 items a month” thing has turned into a very popular program as these not-so-amateur designers continue to impress the EQ2 team with their creativity and attention to detail.

Perhaps no better evidence of this is today’s introduction of the first animated Player Studio item. Although Player Studio has not released any instructions on how to animate items, a player’s submission of a Tinkered house item must have caught the attention of the EQ2 team because they have added several right-click animations to it and even produced a video showing these animations.

Today’s Player Studio haul includes visually intense cloaks, a throne that would look right at home in a Freeport cellar, and the aforementioned Tinkered wagon. We can’t wait to see the Weapons and player Hair Styles people come up with when those categories are added to the Player Studio program.

From the EQ2 Forums:

These Marketplace items have all been designed by artists in Player Studio! Tim Mathews, Vandrago, and Cambrian Man created this week’s items.

The items created by Tim Mathews should appeal to those with a darker view of the world. These dramatic pieces are designed with the most evil Norrathians in mind.

Cloak of Dark Possession

I had every confidence that Player Studio would demonstrate the creativity and artistic talent of EQ2 players, but I continue to be impressed by what is being approved and added on an almost weekly basis.

From EverQuest2.com:

Four new cloaks created by a player — Lyranny — are now available in the Marketplace!

Halasian Wolfskin Cloak (Top Left)

Erollisi Courter’s Cloak (Top Right)

Golden Sun Cloak (Bottom Left)

Halasian Loyalist’s Cloak (Bottom Right)

From the EQ2 Forums:

Celebrate the holidays with Triple Station Cash! Buy Station Cash in-game, via your Station Account or redeem an SOE Pre-Paid Game Card and you’ll get Triple Station Cash! But hurry, this offer ends December 21, 2012 at 11:59 pm PST!

Plus, don’t forget to login to participating games throughout the SOE 12 Days of Holidays to see what the daily special offer, sale or activity is!

*Station Cash offer valid to 11:59 PM PST on 12/21/2012. Excludes mobile/SMS purchases.

P.S. Normally I would have posted this days ago, but I’ve been completely consumed with adding support for Spirit Stones (Green Adornments) to EQ2U.

From Dexella on the EQ2 Forums: There are some changes coming to the free pack program for Gold Members of EverQuest and EverQuest II. First, the old “anniversary date” has been completely removed. Starting with the launch of Debt of the Ratonga, free member packs will be awarded on the member’s first log in that month. Furthermore, each player MUST log in during a calendar month to get that month’s worth of packs. Packs will no longer accumulate from month to month. If you skip a month without logging in to Legends of Norrath, you will not receive free packs for that month. Any packs that have already been accumulated (but remain unclaimed) will still remain on your account; this change only applies to future months. The Choose-A-Pack cards awarded in December may be redeemed for any regular LON booster pack from sets 1-14.

Commentary

If, like me, you login to Legends of Norrath just to unwrap the free packs in the hopes of getting a Loot card usable within EQ2, this change will hit hard. I don’t check very often, since the vast majority of the items I get are paintings, house items, and the occasional standard mount which I understand some people are very happy with. Personally, I’m going for the Rare cards and have yet to get one.

Clearly, this change is intended to drive players to actually play Legends of Norrath rather than using it as an automatic loot delivery system. It will be curious to see if this drives player behavior or not. Also, I’m not sure if this is new, but at least for the time being, the free LoN booster packs will NOT include  the Debt of the Ratonga LoN expansion being released today.

From Twitter:

One Day Only Black Friday Double Station Cash offer for SOE pre-paid Station Cash cards, in-game and online purchases. ow.ly/fuboh

— EverQuest II (@everquestii) November 23, 2012