The Last Scream of a Dying Era
Starseeker is another new contributor to EQ2Wire and wanted to share a viewpoint on the aftermath of EQ2’s F2P announcement.
This is my commentary on Free to Play. I have to get it off my chest.
EverQuest 2 is an old game, 6 years, that is a long time for an MMO. I have been playing this game since launch. I remember the days when you would have spirit shards, and experience debt that would take away XP instead of just give you a % penalty. I remember when your guild could lose levels, and when there was heroic content in overland zones.
Things change. It is the way of life that nothing can stay the same forever. EverQuest 2 is no exception. It has changed and morphed and gone through its trials and tribulations.
The rest of the article after the jump…
I started this game as a solo player with a friend. We played that way up until the Echoes of Faydwer expansion pack, and then we got into raiding. Our raid guild wasn’t that great — a casual guild with alot of problems — but it was always fun to log in on a raid night and joke around with 24 other people. To banter in teamspeak, to have duels before the raids, in which some folks would get feared off the islands and we’d all have a good laugh.
Currently, I am in a different casual raid guild that I lead. Being a guild leader gives you a different perspective on how things affect the servers, the game, and the community.
As the expansions went on, and the days went on, the game changed. It became more about loot, more about stats, and min/ maxing. The gear became inflated, but it was and still is a good game. Just not the game it was originally.
They made leveling easier, they made raid mobs harder. They came out with more instances, and less overland zones.
Now they have changed the game again, to free-to-play. It is understandable why they have done it, they need subscriptions. However, all of those memories I mentioned above, that are experienced by the new player when they first wander into EQ2 will be experienced on a new server. With new support, new people, and a different rule set. A server that tells them that they do not have to work for their game play experience. They only have to spend a few dollars, and they’ll have everything at their fingertips.
One of my best memories of the game, is when I finally earned 4 platinum, to buy myself a horse. Even though it was ugly, and looked like a blob, I rode that thing everywhere. It took me nearly a year of saving. Now for $12.50 you can buy a mount at level 1. Have I bought the station cash mounts? Yes. I like the look of them, but for a new player, who doesn’t have 3 accounts, and 8 toons over level 80…perhaps earning things would make them stay in the game longer, like it did for all of us.
It saddens me that the game has been reduced to this level. When free-to-play was announced, the outcry from players like me — veteran players — was like a death scream of an era that only we remember. The outcry was loud, fierce, and largely unheard. Our words are twisted. We now have a gun to our heads that basically is “accept the SC marketplace or watch the game that has gotten you through 6 years of your life die slowly.”
What choice do we have? Quit?
I imagine that is the route a lot of people are going, several people I have known for a long time have gone this route. I have also canceled my extra accounts. I’m holding on to that last one with hope that something will save us, but I think the boat has left the harbor. We are now in a “conform or die” stage of this game.
The veterans remember what the old game was about, and what it has become. This knowledge, this “lore” so to speak, will be lost on the new servers. It will be lost with more and more people canceling. Eventually, perhaps no one will remember the plague that took over Norrath, or when the gods came to us, or when avatars were present. It makes me sad and disappointed.
It will be a different world, one where you can buy your way through. One where you can purchase access to the things you want.
EverQuest was supposed to be an escape from real life. A fantasy game with no limits. Now the limit is your wallet. A lot of us are wondering — where will our next escape come from?
Tags: free-to-play
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Comments (32)
Revekk
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The best moments in my memory are the moments of triumph over adversity. Without the challenge of hard obstacles there’s no real “high” when you advance your character. The horse is a good example. Wow did I feel good when i could finally afford one. I also think back to the epic quests we’d all do together where we had to camp mobs or whatever and that’s when you really made your best friendships and had your most fun! Now quests are mostly solo or part of a chain so there is no incentiove to group.
I still like the game but now when you log in you have all the items you used to have to work together for as a team all geing advertised to you in SC or even more pervasively in the server loot channels where everyone can be fully fabled just buy spending plat that they might have earned soloing. In fact tyour toon can be high end geared and you never even need it to be. yeah you got all the aweseome gear but are you having fun? I don’t get it….
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Starseeker
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Exactly. Due to this announcement people I have known a long time are considering or have quit the game. I most likely will too once another game comes along to replace it.
The best times were when you actually did something that was hard, I remember spending months doing claymore with my friend and her husband…every sunday for months we’d spend 9 hours on the quest, before non named were accepted, sure it sucked to camp and I hate camping but I got to hear some great stories in teamspeak while the guild hung out and we camped
Back then it felt like we earned our keep, we worked for our rewards…even as recently as ROK, my guild I lead, we started from nothing a bunch of non raiders and semi casual raiders, and raided our tails off. We were able to go from PR, to VP to get our myths in about 6 months with no outside help. The night we got our myths we did all of vp in two nights staying longer to help the monks and SKs get their myths from phara dar. Sure the game started to nose dive around the ROK expansion, but that night was magical. We haven’t had a night like it since..now its more like “oh we are going to go kill this raid mob…alright.” when it dies theres no cheering no whoo hoo it’s dead…just loot and move on to the next.
I think new players help the veterans remember what the game can be. I think veterans keep the player lore of the game and give it to the new players. By separating them…not only are you damaging the existing servers and the millions of arguments out there about that, but your also loosing something special between that new player and the veterans, about discovering what the game is about. With SC you won’t have that…they won’t have to ask the community for help as a newb to get MC armor…they can buy it, there won’t be a problem with money, they can buy the rares and sell them on the broker… I mean really there’s nothing to work for in the f2p game.
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Lodey
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Yeah, and I remember playing games when I was a kid without cheat codes or walk-throughs, doing a level 50 times to try to beat it. Things change. Thanks Zynga for the F2P model as they are raking in 2 million a day on all F2P games. It is what it is, but I think you’re being a bit dramatic here, or maybe too nostalgic. I agree, it sucks, but I don’t think it is the apocalypse you are making it out to be.
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Blockhead
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Thanks, i really enjoyed that read. I walked into EQ2 at launch a solo player and wasn’t very mmo experienced.
My first fond memory was in the Blackburrow. I’m in there attacking some mob near the front and see a non aggro mob coming my way, cool no problem, i keep pounding away at my target and then OMG this mob starts attacking me, I’m like weird man that’s weird, another player comes in and helps me with the add (game was tough back then) thank goodness or i would have died.
I do the formality thank you, he “np” reply. I get all geared up and go to take another mob, same thing happens, I’m like “WTF man why are these mobs attacking me” i said to myself (i actually thought the game had a bug). This guy comes and helps again, then asks if i want to group, i say sure. So we proceed and right away our first fight he says to me, “Bro stop using AOE”, I’m like “Huh?, Wha?” LOL (maybe you had to be there but to this day i still crack up when i think back to that night)
We became really good friends for almost two years, played every night, the good times we had, groups we joined, camping for mobs, and the timezone that tore us apart. Another night, our first time in Splitpaw when we finally realized after two or three hours you could blow up walls. We both started drinking beer over chat celebrating our discovery, LOL. Legendary times!
After a couple years of that we both decided to take a break, we basically decided to part ways over email due to the 3 hour timezone. I came back about 6 months later, i already knew he returned about a month before and joined a guild, we kept in touch but found myself pretty much alone again.
Thought i would never make a friend that good again but, boy was i wrong, i joined a guild in my timezone after grouping a few nights with this band of 2 couples and one guy. They took me to levels and experiences i didn’t even know could exist in an mmo. They had other couples in the guild but the six of us would mainly be in the one team. The other team and us pulled off some incredible stuff, like the carpet around 52 (must have died a hundred deaths for that but when you finally pull it off, well, you know, nothing comes close to that feeling) we went down the grotto tunnels and beyond to places in the game i would never have known existed if it were not for them.
The magic of this time was we real, when we were all switched on, tuned in and focused, everything was clicking, it was like no other feeling in the world. Like we became one, we could predict each others moves, barely spoke a word, anyone who has experienced this knows exactly what I’m talking about. I guess after you are playing with people 3 to 5 hours every night of the week, yes all 7 and longer on weekends i guess it’s going to happen but i still in our endless discussions believe it’s part chemistry.
We would swap people in and out from the guild when people could not play for a bit and this one women from the guild joined us in Sanctum for a month or more. Her husband played electric guitar and he was good, the music from sanctum and hearing her hubby playing riffs over vent, can’t even begin to tell you how cool that was.
There are so many good memories from that time i really don’t even want to go on talking about it anymore. Was pure magic. But eventually super late nights got to all of us and we decided to slow up for a while, take a break; but that was it, some return, some not, back on and back off, we were never able to recaptured that magic again.
The wife of the guy i made pretty much made best friends with, popped on about 4 months ago, and we talked for a while and when i was about to leave she said to me. “This may sound weird but i really miss those times, like an empty spot in my heart.” i said back “Me too, you may not know how much.” she said “Oh i do, we all feel a little bit of emptiness”. That’s how impactful that time was.
Heck, I almost get misty thinking back to those times and i started my “Last Scream of a Dying Era” a few months back. SOE has done in any chance for any of us to ever get that magic back, and that is why this is so very, very sad.
I like to solo don’t get me wrong, but i’m sure people whom are primarily soloers and are doing a happy dance over all these changes wouldn’t be if they could have just one night of what i had the extreme honor of experiencing for years.
The game was designed back then for this type of play, it was tough, you needed tight precision machine like groups, there was no AA for quite awhile and maybe being older and a different lifestyle, well maybe this may never happen again for me, but SOE has guaranteed that none of us will never be able to have that pleasure ever again.
/sniff 🙁
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Grugg
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What the heck are you grumbling about? EQ2X is separate from EQ2.
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Kruzzen
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I feel your pain and understand all to well. This does feel like the death knell and I know for me it is the end of an era. SOE is pushing people like us out and I don’t want my kids playing this Play to Pay model. I hope that on the death bed things will cahnge, but if not, they will see another retire from the SOE era.
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Adam
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This article could not be farther from the truth. Free Accounts have MANY restrictions to them. I do not think that people playing with a FREE account really want to choose the MARKET PLACE as an alternative… they might as well subscribe and get the FULL games benefits than pay for crappy novelty items on Station Cash… Free Accounts can’t even wear Legendary or Fabeled gear for crying out loud. Before you post an article maybe it should be accurate eq2wire.
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Melanore
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Starseeker, I do agree with your post, but we have to keep in mind that they stated items with stats you can by on the SC will always be weaker than items you’ll find in dungeons and quests! They do not want to remove the interest of quests and content. So, it’s not all about SC. What is really sad, is that they spent energy in doing this SC stuff rather than keeping this energy to give us more solid content! And it’s sad that the most beautiful items for the look are found on the Marketplace … For us who are paying an account, it’s content that should be offered, as a veteran reward.
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Lomax
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I think too that its coming to an end for me, I started late in the game when Rise of Kunark came out.
But from where I came from it did feel epic, but it was the production quality of it that bowled me over, the motion captured animations, life like water and the realistic feel of the world. Today so many MMO’s go for a “style” instead, and I think that’s sad because for me since EQ2 they have always felt cartoony and false.
I took 26 days played in all in my journey to the then level cap, and I wasn’t in a hurry at all. It seemed like every group I joined went to a unique new place, the world was so big. Even when I did reach the level cap I remember some epic dungeon romps through Guk, that place was so hard, but the atmosphere felt so melachony and eerie it was beautiful.
Now it is drawing to a close unless the plan to end free trials from the live servers goes ahead, instead the RMT servers will take over and it will no longer be about adventure and danger, but power brought for real money and loot.
Its very sad its come to this end, EQ2 is the most RP feeling MMO I have ever experienced, I keep holding out that one day someone will create another, but with the bar set so high with EQ2’s production values I’m not sure that can ever be.
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Starseeker
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Thank you for your replies to my post, I know some don’t agree with me, and some do. The point of the post wasn’t about SC items appearing on live servers, although honestly I think they will. Or we will get Pay to play dungeons because our argument was SC items having stats…if they have a SC dungeon, then the person paying for the dungeon would still have to work for the item no? it’s just a mind set. it’s gotten to the point SOE has gone from what can we do to make this experience better for ALL of our players, to what can we do to make a buck.
This post was about both the eq2x and the live servers. I know the free model has limitations, but so does the eq2x subscription. You still have to use marketplace to get all of the races (37.50 btw), you can buy master crafted armor instead of working with the community. need a rare? $15.00 and you can get 5-t9 rares.
Yes this isn’t on the live servers, yet, but soe is breeding a culture on those servers by segragating them from the current community, they are telling NEW players it’s ok to buy things that may be difficult to obtain. There are many things that I am against here, but the main thing about this article is that they are creating two separate cultures in 1 game. We are all playing everquest2, but after this goes live we will be two separate cultures, and the new one will not have the knowledge, or the memories of the old one, sure some people may transfer. But IMO, you cannot just hit “RESET” on a 6 yearold game which is basically what they are trying to do. You loose something there. You loose the player lore, and the flavor of the game. if everquest 2 started as a f2p mostly solo oriented game, I don’t think that anyone would care. But 6 years down the road, they are trying to make it something that it’s not.
The game has steadily gone from the grouping game that it was to more of a solo game. As several blogs out there have put it. Eq2’s free to play is based mostly on solo content because you cannot wear group rewards(legendary/fabled) if they find a large influx of people from f2p, they will increase whatever content is giving them money…so if they are getting alot of people coming into f2p, then the solo content will get a boost and that is what will be focused on.
I know that every game on the market is eyeing the f2p market, and there is nothing wrong with that. There is something wrong with the way it is being implimented in eq2 however, and that was my point.
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Sigtyr
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I have mixed feelings for this, I started late 2006 and me and my wife had wonderful times and great fun up to the high 60s, lots of grouping, fun dungeons and lots of things to do we even did several of the KoS raids. But at 70 Soloquest 2 hit us and we where casual (and the Soloquest 2 thing is boring) we came late to 80 so we never got a TSO instance group as we where not geared enough, we never saw WoE and now we face another long boring soloquest to 90 and then we can do soloquests to get marks and then maybe we will get a group and do something fun, that is maybe.
I think SOE had a horrible retention % of casual players in EQ2, of all the casual players that I have had on my friends list since I started none are playing now. The game has gotten elitist and the idea that new players to 90 will get invited to groups and learn to raid by the existing players is simply naive, it may happen in some guilds and on some servers but not enough of it (and this is of course more of a community problem than a game design one, although its bad design too)
SOE totally dropped the ball on the casual players, by making the game ultra easy they made it ultra boring and then what non solo content is in there at 80-90 is not casual friendly at all. EQ2EX might be SOEs way of trying to build other server communities for casual players, I am sure there may have been other better solutions than this but this is what they chose. We will probably move to EQ2EX as we might get to do something fun there, if we can buy TSO T3 armor we might even get a group!
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Karith
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Sigtyr, there are over 3 legendary rewards of good quality while solo questing in SF. In addition to that you can fill 90% of the rest of your slots using the faction legendary gear from the faction merchants you just quested for. You should be able to jump right into grouping as soon as you buy all your faction gear.
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Flaming Homo
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So what is the point of Feldon adding a new commentator to EQ2Wire when all you’re doing is telling us that you’re quitting because, and I quote you, “waaaaaaaahh”. Quit; quit now and be done with it.
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Eschia
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This same kind of stuff can be said for the original EQ. There are many players who were around when the game launched, used to buy/sell in E-commons, had to travel everywhere by foot, and had actual boats to ride which took hours to reach their destination rather then port gnomes that get you there in the blink of an eye. When bronze armor was the shiz. I hear people talk about this stuff a lot. I sympathize with them because I too have felt the nostalgic feeling of what a game used to be like before the devs decide to take it a different direction. I am one of those like you who started EQ2 on launch week. I remember the thrill of wondering into the qeynos sewers for the first time as a “bard”, killing bats and skeletons. Sure we can still relive that, but with how the devs have pushed the newbie zones so much, i doubt anyone with a account less then a couple years old has even been to the sewers, much less the crypt or the catacombs.
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Evrett
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I dont like the f2p move at all..but I think much of the reaction to it is silly..you are going to quit because someone else can buy their gear? How does someone else having a different experience than you matter? People have been buying goldseller level accounts and gear for ages and you didnt quit then..now that its “offical” your gameplay is suddenly ruined?
This is the eq2 community being lazy and selfrightous..something bothering you? Instead of doing something about it you just walk away.
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Starseeker
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There is something else that I’d like to add to my commentary here, and I do understand that everyone has their own feelings, stances and opinions on this, and that’s cool. This is my take on it.
SOE has taken a bit of a knee jerk reaction to our “feedback” in the feedback thread. There are tons of questions gone unanswered. If I was a business making a game changing business decision, I would have had answers ready for my customer base. A lot of us forget that we are customers as well as players, we pay our subscriptions to them so they can develop a game for us. it’s a partnership. The current feeling is that we play by the courtesy of SOE, where I feel it should be more of a partnership between developer and playerbase. At the moment it feels like a total disregard of our concerns.
Several dev posts lately have been kinda a “we’ll get you answers when we have them” or “it’s all speculation so we don’t want to hear it” in flavor. Several issues such as the UI color, f2p, RMT, rewards for playing on the legacy servers, how to get new players on the legacy servers…etc have been answered in this fashion. if it is speculation why don’t they have a reason why it is speculation. I don’t know, I would just think that you would have answers to the commonly asked questions, a way to soothe the distrust and panic that some of these issues have caused. SOE has done nothing in that arena that I can see. And they have made no effort to call back or retain disillusioned customers who are leaving. That is the second part of what this is all about.
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Dreiden
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I don’t see how this will help the current subscriber based game in the long run.
What I think they should have done for a F2P model would be to let a F2P account have a limited number of character slots, with reduced inventory and bank slots, no access to broker, limited use of public channels, and level cap of 50. Put them on servers that we use and have nothing else different.
Then if they want to nickle and dime they can add rental fees for extra bank slots or inventory slots like runes of magic does. Or one time fees to unlock additional character slots up to what live servers have. But still make sure that lvl 50+ stays subscriber only. The F2P should encourage new players to come to the game that exist today not encourage current players to leave in disgust.
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Blockhead
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Agreed Starseeker, it’s clearly evident they have not given allot of thought to this. I’m sure they have an ultimate arterial motive and that is to move forward with F2P type servers and let the old ones die out.
You can tell they haven’t thought this out; a good example is a post about how they are going to combat “boxing gold farmers”. Smokejumper’s response is oh ya i guess we should look into that. He actually responds with an OMG that could be a real problem. Yep can see allot of thought went into this.
You see the good times i had above. This is for those who think, what’s the big deal, the big deal is; do you think i would have ever had those experiences if the game was this dumbed down and you could buy stuff? The game before was designed in a way that brought people together so they could share common goals to achieve character improvements. I’m sorry but you can’t buy those experiences on station cash, I’ve looked and i don’t see them for sale there.
Now speaking of character improvements. I really feel SOE has taken the wrong path in their set up. No, this is not a rage thought either, i truly feel thier set up is flawed.
My reasoning is based on people who want free to play model as this is what is going to bring them to the game. They don’t want to arrive to discover you need to pay monthly fee to get any real value for your character.
What is the prime mechanic that keeps us playing? i feel it is Character improvement.
OK, if i want true character improvement then i have to sub. OK not going to happen for someone who wants free to play. Yes i have tons of content and I’ll simply work within my limits, since i cannot really improve my character then i don’t need a broker, i wont need anything from SC either because i can’t do true character improvements. I’ll simply continue to play for free and prolly have fun with all the content. Excellent deal for F2P players, very bad for SOE.
Now look at LOTRO, they allow complete access to major systems and character building. You can put care and pride into your Avatar. I love my build, i love my character but about level 2x i start running out of content. I can still access all zones for free to check them out, kill mobs but the content i need to buy. OK a zone that i like I’ll buy the entertainment, and only buy it when needed or wanted, this is a one time unlock fee.
The difference is SOE you need to pay a sub and anyone who is after free to play is not going to do that so they will play within their limits and no love will be going into their Avatar, it’s just a vehicle to all the free content. Great for F2P players, bad for SOE’s bottom line.
LOTRO, You are buying more ENTERTAINMENT for the Avatar you have put allot of care and love into. Awesome deal for players and excellent for Turbine’s bottom line. No-one has a problem paying for good entertainment.
I tried to look at this from a free to play mind set and the above is what i believe will happen.
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foozlesprite
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For me, the thing that makes this such a bad thing is that the server I play on *already* has a dying, low population. When F2P happens, it won’t encourage people to start up on the dying servers. I certainly don’t want to pay to transfer my army of alts to a F2P server and play with the skill-less people that buy their way to 90 just because SOE keeps refusing to merge legacy servers. For many people, it’s easier to look for another game than wait around for their server to die, but it’s a matter of personal choice.
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ninmah
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Im quitting too soon after this announcement 🙁
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neren
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I don’t understand why all the chicken littles are coming out. F2P is going to be on different servers so you never have to come into contact with the people that choose to buy gear instead of farm it. It’s not that much different from the Live Gamer servers we have now. You can already buy gear, plat, toons, everything on exchange server, the only difference is that sony is selling it. Just think, if someone is thinking about trying the game and they go to the eq2 forums, eq2 wire, and eq2flames, they are going to read on this topic that its going to kill the game and they aren’t going to try it anyway. very rarely do i read any useful feedback. If it keeps new people coming to the game and keeps eq2 alive then I’m for it. If they push f2p onto my server then im going to look for another game. but I’ll be damned if I’m going to cry that the sky is falling just because of speculation.
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Siks
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Wow…a pretty dramatic response. Do you enjoy the game? Play. Do you not enjoy the game? Then don’t play. I have been a sponsored player in multiple FPS games and I loved them. I played them hardcore, like I played EQ1 hardcore in a raiding guild that was top in EQ1. I have quit all of them not because of changes they made, or some insulting affront towards me, but because they stopped becoming FUN. If your desire to quit is because of an addition and change to a game that makes is less fun and enjoyable, right on…do your thing; It’s a game you are paying to play. But to use THIS as an excuse to quit the game? Stop being such a martyr and respect the fact that Sony doesn’t OWE us a thing; we pay 15.00 a month…wow…woop-dee-doo. They owe you your 15.00 worth; they created a gaming environment that many of us have played for years, and have enjoyed, where’s the shred of respect, thanksgiving or any appreciation for that?…
I don’t smell that anywhere, all I see are people throwing tantrums, masked in intellectual blog postings and responses.
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Rangband
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Well said, Siks. We heard the same outcry when Station Exchange servers launched. I know half a dozen people that are going to play again and play for the first time when eq2x goes live.
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Yerkich
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I am a veteran player who has played since beta and release day. I quit playing about 6 months ago and the announcement of EQ2X has me quite excited and looking forward to playing again.
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Lodey
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Totally agree Siks – it is a business, they are not doing it to make a magical world for everyone to enjoy, they are doing it to increase shareholder value.
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Blockhead
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“they are not doing it to make a magical world for everyone to enjoy”
You nailed it Lodey, that is why everyone is po’d and quitting. Imagine if they did make a magical world for everyone to enjoy, they’d be richer than anyone could possible imagine.
But your right they “are doing it to increase shareholder value” and their greed is driving everyone away. Imagine that? I can’t believe people getting fed up and leaving, how dare they, they should just stay, shut up and have an intravenous hose connected straight to their CC for SOE, the nerve of people, honestly, i do declare.
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Siks
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LOL
Their greed?
Track A: Allow a game to continue to bleed out at the behest of not rocking the boat with change. Continue to kow-tow to a reactionary response mechanism designed to continue to slowly but surely cripple a game.
Track B: Take a risk, make some changes and be proactive in pumping some money into the game with a different way for people to enjoy the game, while not having a direct effect on the loyal masses already enjoying the game.
I truly don’t understand why people are so affronted by this; so…freaking…what if people can purchase things on another server?
Let’s say for example SOE makes hundreds of thousands, if not millions off of FTP merchandise. They funnel this money into hiring staff to balance fighters, fix servers and help in general? People will read that and scoff saying I am naive, but is it truly naive to have any sort of faith (instead of instantly rushing to the worse possible case scenario) in the people who have developed and sustained a game I have enjoyed for many years?
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Blockhead
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Siks it’s not the entirely the new server, it’s not entirely about pay for stuff either, it’s the way they are implementing it. I can’t speak for everyone but i see it as they are choking off the live servers.
New blood go to EQ2X invest time there and are told if you want to go live you’ll have to start all start over. They are not providing any vehicle for new players to move to live servers. One of their quotes is that if it’s popular we will start adding more EQ2X servers (hey what about live). This really means if it works out we are truly abandoning the old live servers, if its a flop they will go back to supporting live. Don’t you think that’s wrong on so many levels?
LOTRO are integrating F2P into their live servers and people are for the most part on board over there as it will bring life back into the servers that people have been playing on for years, a huge portion of the player base over there is completely for it. That’s a proper way to implement.
SOE is basically flipping the bird at it’s current player base with this move, and is why people are so upset. It’s the way i see it anyway.
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Starseeker
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There are three issues here, not just one. Everyone seems to be pointing out RMT wont’ be on our servers…and all I have to say is Yet. But here is the gist of what I’m seeing from those players who are “jumping to conclusions” and are upset:
1. They are routing all new blood to FTP servers eq2x. Sure someone can come to live and pay a subscription, but if you are brand new to eq2, and want to try it for free you have to go to the new server. You cannot transfer off of that server to live. So you have to reroll a toon on a live server if you want to do that…but since f2p has their own forums and community, why would they leave friends and community for some extra races and a few added bennies? Hense why everyone thinks that the current server populations are left to die off and get merged = Players poed because this DOES effect our play if we can’t find anyone to group or raid with.
2. The total disregard of our concerns, there are no answers coming, theres no “this is what we think” it’s “lets wait and see, cause we don’t really know either” theres no trying to get back the veteran players who are upset about this, it seems like a total disregard from the subscribers who have funded this game for 6 years and made it what it was (if we didn’t subscribe, there would be no game).
3. RMT. People don’t want it on their servers, at this point I think everyone can agree that F2p is a good idea, without the RMT, but SOE has married the two, so we can’t have one without the other. To accept f2p on your server, is to accept RMT. A lot of us who have worked for things, crafters, etc, are against RMT showing up on our servers in the form of MC weapons and armor.
Great for SOE if they make millions off of these new servers, and this new EQ2X, but where does that leave us? Having to pay $35.00 per character to get copied (not transferred) over to where the thriving game is? I think we are all upset at the way this was handled, and the way it is being implemented. And if you think that this won’t change the way the game is developed, well I’d say your more optimistic than I am, I see this becoming an even more solo centric game since that is what is going to draw new players in until higher level.
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Tarb
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Velious better be damn good LOL.
Im a long time EQer since 99 and i do think this sucks and agree it will effect live servers probably sooner than later, however im not quiting over it until the F2P servers start getting content that live does not, then IMO its all over.
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Tarb
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I have a feeling there will be alot of fireworks over this at fanfair, I hope its on youtube asap.
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Zerigo
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Very well put star. Sums up everything i been thinking. I think choking off the flow of players to legacy servers is the biggest concern. SoE didnt think this threw to well. And the think soe is going to add a dev to work on eq2x updates is a joke, just pulling more developers that we paid for off our game.
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