Feldon The new Freeblood race has a special “Ferocity of the Freeblood”, as well as access to housing “Freeblood Lair” and “Swarm of Bats” mount/buff. The details of how these are unlocked and what issues players will face if they change race have been addressed in different posts over the last 24 hours. Here are the highlights. Also inside, a glimpse of something we have heard rumors about before — that some new feature is coming to EQ2 housing with the release of the Destiny of Velious expansion.
From SmokeJumper‘s announcement on the EQ2 Forums:
The Freeblood vampires are now available in the Marketplace!
I’m posting this FAQ about them to hopefully answer as many questions as I can in advance:
They’re found within the Race Packs section of the Marketplace.
You have to purchase the “Unlock: Freeblood” to get the basic Freeblood race unlocked so that you can create Freeblood characters or change an existing character into one with a Race Change Potion.
When you make a Freeblood character, you’ll gain a whole host of new abilities, including things like “Reveal Inner Self”, the ability to reveal the inner demon within to your foes, and a racial passive ability that drains health to repair your own damage while you’re in combat. You also get a set of new unarmed combat animations to let you show your savage side during melee.
Once you create a Freeblood character, there are other options within the Freeblood Race Pack category. These include the Vampire Deed (a Mistmoore house of your own to use as a lair), the Cloud of Bats ability (changes you to a cloud of bats and gives you Slowfall along with mount-like speed…and which, once you unlock flying mounts in Velious, also gives you the ability to fly), and special effects to add to your new unarmed combat animations.
Freeblood accessories are available as an Accessory Pack, and also available a la carte.
When you start your Freeblood character, you’ll be able to personalize appearance, of course…but you can also customize your “Inner Self” illusion (demon face). Do this after initial customization by going to see any Barber NPC in the game. Turn on your Inner Self illusion, and then purchase a “Shave and a Cut” item from that Barber. As long as you’re in demon form when you do this, you’ll be able to customize your inner self’s appearance this way.
And lastly, a quick word about the Winter Promotions campaign. The February reward grants all qualified participants the “Unlock: Freeblood” ability.
I’ll check this thread sporadically during the break and answer any questions that come up. Enjoy!
and other followup posts in that and other threads:
Vampire accessory items can only be seen on the marketplace by a character that is currently a Freeblood vampire. They’re also NO-TRADE.
The Vampire Lair is only available to Freeblood Vampires.
How do you customize the Inner Self appearance of your newly purchased Freeblood vampire? SmokeJumper has an announcement on that:
Just a quick post to let folks know that you *can* customize the “Inner Self” appearance on a Freeblood Vampire.
Here’s how:
- Go to see any Barber NPC in the game.
- Turn on your Inner Self illusion.
- Then purchase a “Shave and a Cut” item from that Barber.
As long as you’re in Inner Self form when you do this, you’ll be able to customize its appearance this way.
on the subject of changing race afterwards:
Yyou would be able to keep the lair. However, the attacks are specific to the Freeblood form and thus can’t be used while you’re not Freeblood, and the Cloud of Bats ability can only be used by a vampire. So they would be unavailable until you change back to the Freeblood race (although you would *not* have to purchase them again).
and whether the Lair, Swarm of Bats, and Ferocity of the Freeblood accessories are per-account or per-character:
Aaccessory items are “per character”. So each would need to buy their own.
What about players with both EQ2 and EQ2X accounts?
Unlocking the Freeblood race on one service *does* unlock it for the same account on the other EQII service also.
and:
Freeblood are part of a marketplace-only category of Prestige Races…we just have no current plans for when/if we’ll ever roll out another Prestige Race or not. They’re not included in the Platinum (EQ2X) purchase and we’ll make that clear on the matrix in the near future.
As to why Freeblood are not available in a SOGA version:
There’s only the one set for Freeblood, like other specialty races that only have one model set.
On whether we might some day be able to try out the Freeblood race on the character customization screen prior to buying it, Rothgar had this to say:
Not a bad idea. We can look into making this change.
We’ve noticed that the Freeblood Lair is quite a bit smaller than the Mistmoore Crag Estate which was the 7 year anniversary reward. SmokeJumper tantalized with this post in response:
You will see that the house is a really cool thing when a feature due in January rolls out. I can’t unveil that exact feature at the moment, but I think it’ll make you look at this house differently when it does.
You know, when I logged in last night on AB, I was seriously shocked at the amount of chatter in 80-89, 1-9 and crafting about people excited to get the new race and then the annoyance of being stuck in a “pending” queue for purchase. There was more chatter going on about that stuff that my chat window was scrolling very fast, which it hadn’t done in months.
When I logged off for the night, I did a /who all vampire, don’t recall the exact number but was over 80. I just shook my head and went off to watch sportscenter before bed.
I guess blogs like this, flames, mmoquests, etc one we only hear the negative side and tend to agree with each other. But man, there is a whole other faction of players out there that eat this stuff up from SOE and want moremoremore.
Rick, I call those people Sheep. I was fine getting the race for free once the expansion came out, but I’m really starting to get a bitter taste in my mouth about eq2 as of late. I have two accounts, and have been playing since the game launched. I have purchased SC items. I haven’t minded the SC stuff in the past. But these days it seems as if SOE only wants to nickle and dime you to death, and doesn’t care if you stick around or not. Then again why should they care about vets who have played for 6 years. They have sheep throwing money at them for a chance to lick their boots, and give them a reach-around.
Agree with both of you. The game we used to know is gone and slowly turning into something else. I was never nostalgic about Velious from EQ1 and always thought I’d quit before it being released here in EQ2. My guild started to change my mind on it but its starting to go back towards quitting once more.
One month of beta, nothing being announced about it (flying mounts was never something i remotely cared about), can’t even pre-order it yet. But info after info about new station cash items, doublespeak by the senior poobah, and just tons of nonsense. I’ve already ran beta for 2 of the big mmo’s supposed to hit this year but while they are nothing to write home about either, I’m looking for one of them to take me away on release.
Then again, I advertise in game to buy game cards for plat so been playing for free since late summer. If I had been paying my own $15/month, not sure I’d still be playing.
The question I have is will the version we get which we pay for with monthly subs and expansion costs be account level or only 1 toon. I don’t care if peeps want to pay to get it early. If you have the money it is yours to spend in the new EQ2.
Kruzzen,
The item we will get for qualifying for December 17, January 14, February 8, and buying the Destiny of Velious expansion is the Freeblood: Unlock, which unlocks the race for your account. You have to buy any extras on your own though.
Rick,
Aside from the CheesePirate comic, I think I’ve toned down the rhetoric compared to how negative I was a year ago. It’s clear that a lot of people buy StationCash and StationCash items. I just don’t think Vampires really fit in with the game, and the reasons we’ve gotten in the past for removing unique race abilities was ‘balance’. You see, when you start adding StationCash stuff, the player base looks at every decision you made in the past under a microscope.
Do you notice how in the last year and a half, players generally DO NOT give developers the benefit of the doubt anymore, but see motives everywhere?
Fae/Arasai not being able to fly — previously we just saw it as a technical limitation. Now, it’s “What are they holding back for the ‘pay’ race?”
Sentinel’s Fate armor being reskins of old armor — previously it was “That sucks that they couldn’t out the staff on it to get some nice armor”. Then it became “Clearly Battlegrounds and StationCash get all the nice armor and we get table scraps.”
The negativity practically writes itself. Maybe it’s time to do another EQ2Wire survey. I want to write what readers are interested in.
“Rick,
Aside from the CheesePirate comic, I think I’ve toned down the rhetoric compared to how negative I was a year ago.”
Sorry if I implied anything negative against you Feldon but its not what I meant. I generally agree with 99.9% of what you write and come to this blog multiple times a day during work for info since its one of the very few eq2 sites not blocked.
All I think I was trying to say is a lot of us (the sites I listed) feel the same way about the direction the game has gone and from SOE’s pov, we’re being negative but then again, these sites are one of the few places us readers can go to vent. Some may overdo it (cough *Vortex*) but for the most part, I think you speak for the long time EQ2 player. We’re a dying breed and gonna be extinct soon enough. I was just comparing what we feel about the game today and being amazed with what I witnessed in game chat last night about 100’s of people falling over themselves to be the first to get the vampire junk.
Didn’t mean to criticize you in any way and apologize if it came across like that.
Hey, I was just trying to put some urgency into what was going on. I don’t play anymore, and simply wanted to make sure people knew it wasn’t going to end anywhere or anytime soon >.>
I’ve been playing for four years, and honestly it’s your own money if you choose to buy something from the marketplace or wait for the free unlock. You make the game what you want it.
My thoughts here.
TL;DR version: It’s just another scout/mage race. No OP racial abilities (though the lifetap proc looks kinda nice, especially if in the higher levels it will be crit-able and subject to potency/crit bonus), and the other stuff is just fluff.
I had points sitting and waiting to be used, so this was as good a thing to spend them on as anything. Not sorry I did, but not particularly thrilled about it either.
It’s not our game anymore. When they directly introduce methods to circumvent their own timesinks…
Is it that hard to realize a passive point of view is the exact point of view they want of the people who aren’t purchasing Station Cash?
If you just take anything thrown at you with that point of view, it will only get worse.
It’s a subjectivist fallacy.
It’s not just a matter of opinion, the game is degrading, the staff isn’t doing what they used to, the direction has changed.
i agree with vortex
its only going to get worse. this game is going down hill fast .
i just read eq2 wire to keep up in some lame attempt to keep hope alive. well hope dies last i guess. i have not played in like 5 months .things don’t look good for the future.
Yep, I agree with vortex and joseph. Game has already been going downhill fast for a while and it’s just getting worse, since SOE won’t listen to veterans. I know a guide who hasn’t played aside from his guiding in months because he doesn’t agree with the direction SOE is taking. I still have an account and log on for special events but it’s hard to even get excited for those any more.
For heaven’s sake, Guild Wars doesn’t charge a monthly fee and has probably 20 items in their cash shop after years, most of which are available in game or purely cosmetic. Yet it seems to be doing ok, and even has the money to throw at a sequel without having to set a release date. They accompany all class balance updates with detailed explanations of why they changed what they did. There’s a studio that cares about its community. Seeing the stark contrast between ArenaNet and SOE is what made me realize how much better it could be in another game.
“The negativity practically writes itself. Maybe it’s time to do another EQ2Wire survey. I want to write what readers are interested in.”
Well said Feldon. I think the community has shifted. A lot of people who refused to accept the changes have moved on and taken much of the negativity with them. Those that remain by and large have either accepted it or chosen to simply ignore it.
The fact remains that people still play eq2 because it offers something nothing else does. Perhaps something in the future will challenge it, but it remains to be seen.
Wouldn’t that be called a monopoly?
One thing I find kind of interesting is that there’s vets who complain (vigorously) about the marketplace, but they seem to forget that “premium” content has existed since about 4 months after the game was launched. And it wasn’t just fluff items. Wanted to run Tombs of the Night with your friends, or do the Vengeance raid? Had to pay for Bloodlines. Wanted to farm your way to greatness in Splitpaw? You had to pay? Wanted to raid Chel’Drak and take a shot at the server first for the tooth? Yup, out came your wallet.
Although all of that content is now considered part of the game, originally it wasn’t. People are complaining vehemently about the “prestige race”, but I don’t really recall people screaming about the fact that if they wanted to access to a high-end (at the time) raid zone and a chance at a mythical drop, they had to fork over money for it. If SOE did exactly the same thing now — put a new raid zone in the game where the boss would drop mythical loot — but you had to purchase access through the marketplace, the whole community would have a siezure. Except that it would really be nothing new.
So package up a new race as part of a $40 expansion, all good. Make it available separately, that’s bad. Make a new high-end raid zone available with uber loot and call it an adventure pack, that’s good. Make a new high-end raid zone available with a marketplace token? That would be grounds for a 200 page forum flamewar.
No wonder SOE doesn’t listen much to their playerbase, we’re schizophrenic.
I don’t know that it is a monopoly. There are other games out there, and some of them are similar to eq2. That being said, I DID buy the adventure packs when they came out. Why? Because they were an expansion. A mini-expansion. I would still pay for those. I DID pay for character slots.
But..a race? And all these other fluff things? I like some of the sc pricing. Some of it isn’t micro though.
I think it is a shame, where the game is headed though. I -hate- that the devs are making new geometry for furniture that isn’t available in game, I hate that art resources are being sucked up for it, and I despise all the bug fixes that aren’t being done while the devs are tinkering around with something that should be free.
I will still be playing my freeblood assassin in February, however. Not now. I really think that they did this wrong. Give it to the subscribers first THEN on the marketplace, like they did with the crag estate. the lair is just another version of the crag estate.
Mike… I like you, you have common sense. I would put my 2 cents in, but that be beating a dead cat… horse. I will say this though, for all that so hate whats happening, go play another game. I wont miss yeah.
I haven’t visited anything EQ2 or The Wire in quite a while now. Reason is i gave lotro a real chance and realized it’s a better mmo than i thought when i first tried it at release.
Anyway thought I’d pop in and check out the latest and honestly I’m not surprised to find nothing has changed, drama, drama, drama, EQ2 is good for that. lol
Years ago many players around me started quitting and practically verbatim of what i read here today. I went through the realization several months ago but i was lucky to have found lotro.
I was really looking forward to Rift because Scott Hartsman’s involvement and as many of us know that EQ2 heyday’s ended when Scott exited stage left. However Rift is really leaving me with a been there, done that feeling.
Well good luck to you all, hope you find an mmo to replace EQ2 like i did, the problem is letting go of 6 years of work and starting anew, it ain’t easy, but somehow SOE makes it easier and easier all the time.
I moved on to Guild Wars of all things and I find ANet to be a good company for listening to its players. I’ve done LotRO and it’s decent as well. Tried out the Rift betas, and sure, it doesn’t feel like anything new (except the mix and match classes and rifthopping, which are fun). But what Rift does, it does very well. It’s extremely polished with tons of features that some games still don’t have. I like the inventory search feature (which EQ2 could REALLY use), the class mixing is fun especially since you can swap specs in 2s out of combat.
I guess what I’m saying is, lots of us HAVE moved on. I keep up with EQ2’s changes because I still have a lot of friends in game, and if SOE ever starts listening to players again, I might come back.
@ Mike…
If you really can’t see the difference in paying for an Adventure pack versus small crappy overpriced items…
What we got for… what were the Adventure packs again, 15$?
Is magnitudes more than what we get in the marketplace, and we still had to EARN them.
Splitpaw was a large area with new quests, models, and weapons.
Bloodlines was a large area with an interesting story, numerous quests, and a lot of fun to do.
Fallen Dynasty was > All of them, the amount of untapped content there is laughable, almost every weapon from Fallen Dynasty was a new model. A lot of the recent new high end weapons are just reskins of those models because no one has really done it to see them.
The pricing is different (you’re certainly getting less for more with the marketplace items), but that wasn’t my point. My point was that *conceptually* SOE has been selling additional premium content for this game since shortly after its launch. The form of that premium content has changed, arguably for the worse, but it’s nothing new.
By the way, I never considered Splitpaw to be a “large area” by any stretch. It was mostly bland content (aside from the Harclave run) that catered towards those who prefered to just sologrind their way to 50. Bloodlines was essentially 2 zones repackaged and run over and over (and over, and over, and over). Fallen Dynasty was really the only one I would consider to be worthy of the “adventure pack” designation, but the irony is that it wasn’t even SOE that created it. IIRC, they basically had this dropped in their lap by the SOGA studio back when they were making the (failed) attempt to penetrate the Asian market with the EQ2 East project.
In short, I think you’re vastly overplaying the “magnitude” of the adventure packs. And my basic point still stands — you were required to pay more, above your standard subscription fee, for special content that offered new spells, new raid zones and new top-tier loot. And I also maintain that if they did exactly the same thing today, offering a marketplace token that would give exclusive access to a raid zone with the best loot tables in the game, the entire community would have a stroke. Not because they haven’t done this before, but because it involves the hated marketplace.
I don’t really understand how you don’t see why the marketplace is total bunch of failure, but…
First of all, the pricing IS the main issue.
It’s just too expensive.
Second, it’s the allocation of resources and funding.
They’ve stated they don’t have a dedicated team and need to take out regular content development time to create SC items, that means less content than previous years. Also, because the funding from SC goes back into SC it does not help the regular game.
Yes, one day, perhaps, the funding will spill over and help the game, but the way the game is going now, it’s fairly obvious they will just put more funding into SC and attempt to milk the game for what it’s worth.
The point was for 15$ we got mini-expansions, in which we got real quantities of content, for a decent price.
The funding went back to SoE in the way it would our subscriptions and everyone was happy.
I was not happy knowing that any money from the marketplace didn’t equate to real gains from the consumer base who paid them.
Marketplaces are spiral engines in themselves, they set the games up for doom eventually unless the developer team itself is against the idea.
Obviusly, Eq2 is not against it.
It’s like going, well you can invest in our company, but we aren’t going to do anything that will actually benefit you the investor, and in all likelihood is detrimental to you.
That isn’t to say that everything SoE has been doing has been bad recently, but the direction the marketplace is taking the game is a dismal area.
@ Mike
honestly you could consider every expansion as “premium content” through your argument. the adventure packs were minor content expansions inbetween major ones to help keep players occupied when content gets old. it was a great idea, and IIRC the first 2 adventure packs were only $5 us, i wasn’t here for the release of fallen dynasty so not sure on that one. most players are fine with paying for an expansion worth of content be it adventure pack size or not.
adding a single race to the marketplace for $20 (65 if you wanted everything that goes with the race, or even $80 to get everything and turn one of you pre-existing toons into one) is in no way compareable to selling any form of playable content, that you still had to play. you werent handed that mythical loot in the game just from buying an adventure pack.
SOE has blatantly admitted to using devs who were supposed to be working on game content to design marketplace items. instead of working on “the game” in general they were designing items to sell for SC. honestly im shocked there aren’t more people angry at smokeblower and the marketplace in general. he keeps pushing the boundary, i dont even want to think what will be next…..
anyone else feel like we are getting sloppy 2nds waiting for the “free” unlock?
The reality is, the marketplace is here and it isn’t going anywhere. Enough people aren’t going to quit over it to make a difference unless they step WAY over the edge. If that happens, people won’t be quitting because of the slippery slope, they’ll be quitting because they stepped off a cliff. As long as they keep rolling stuff out slowly, it’s going to keep coming and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. It’s here to stay and that’s the reality of it.
If they put the stuff on the live servers and nobody bought any of it, it would have died a failure. That didn’t happen. Enough people bought the stuff to make it a financial success.
So now, those that have a problem with the marketplace have a few options:
1. Keep playing and live with it. Go on about your business, play the game, and ignore the marketplace as much as you can. Believe it or not, you’ll probably be happier.
2. Keep playing but continue to complain about it. It’s not going to change anything but at least you’ll get to feel like you know how to run an MMO WAY better than SOE.
3. Quit and move on. Go play something else and stop reading about EQ2 hoping that they will see the error of their ways. They won’t. It’s not happening.
4. Quit and continue complaining about it. It’s still not going to change anything, it’s just going to add to your frustration level.
The bottom line is, they tried out the marketplace to see whether or not it would be a financial success. It was. If it cost them X dollars to make items for the marketplace and people spent less than X dollars to buy them, it would have been a failure and went away. Since that didn’t happen, the war against the marketplace has been lost. It doesn’t matter how much we complain on forums/websites, people are countering that argument everytime they make another purchase on the marketplace. We may not like it, but that’s the reality of it. It’s here to stay, and it’s going to keep coming.
And the reality is that other games, sooner or later, are going to adopt this. The success that SOE is talking about with their Marketplace and EQ2X, as well as other games going F2P such as LoTRO aren’t going unnoticed by other game developers. Of course, the 800lb. gorilla in the MMORPG space is Blizzard, but if they decide to ultimately embrace it fully, then it really will be “game over” for those who hate the concept.
In-game cash shops are not only here to stay for EQ2, it’s clearly the direction that the whole MMO gaming industry is going; notably, it’s also making its way into other types of games where you can buy fluff (and non-fluff) for additional money. Oblivion being an example that immediately springs to mind.
It’s a brave new world.
Hmm, well a couple of things. Last time I logged into Guildwars there was a $50 buy every elite spell option there, so you could essentially get everything useful in the game for that price.
LOTRO, one of my old WOW guildies used to play it, the problem he found was it was so easy, they would 3 man group instances, its really just a casual game for LOR fans, or at least that was the state a couple of years ago, so unless things have changed it is not a realistic alternative to EQ2 or WOW.
Lastly, I joined up with my old WoW guild at the start of cataclysm (hit 85 and maxxed out a profession playing part time in a week (I was running instances in EQ2 at the same time). But what shocked me was two of them spent more on virtual services in that one week (race change, server transfers) then I spent on my EQ2 sub in one year.
Its a sobering look at what people are prepared to pay, my red line here is that I don’t want to buy power on the marketplace, this race is optional(*), if it didn’t exist I wouldn’t care. I’m not entirely happy with the way its released, I think the winter rewards should have been the mount and unleashed inner demon with the expac unlocking the race itself, but this way will probably get more money.
In the end I’m not sure really what the state of SOE is, I know my sub has been dropping in cost in real terms for years. If all this money they are earning keeps the game being actively developed as a lead title then in the end I’m all for it, as while I may not like what Smokejumper is doing it appears it is effective without going full RMT which would effect my game.
I just hope he is as good as game designer as I think he can be with Velious, so far at least his instincts have impressed me in the few gameplay changes he has done, but most of his effort though does seem focussed on SC, with Velious he’s got to deliver on the gameplay.
(*) SOE made a serious faux pas releasing all the items at the same time allowing people to say its $65, I bet most people won’t bother with the house, and many will skip the mount too. Personally I’ll earn the reward, but stick with Frogloks 😉
I only see one Guild Wars pack that sells elite skills, and it’s PvP only. You can earn them in-game as well. Anyways I guess the point of your post is more about what people are willing to pay. I’d be willing to buy stuff like adventure packs (at modest prices, since not many will have them it will be hard to find players to do the content with), costumes, extra storage slots (provided there are a good number for free), etc.
Basically, I will use my wallet to support companies that show they care about their normal customers. I won’t support SOE’s marketplace because they’re ignoring and lying to customers, taking dev time away from paid subscriber content updates to make the items, overpricing their items, making items one per purchase instead of one per character, and investing the money they make from it back into the marketplace instead of in the actual game.
“It’s like going, well you can invest in our company, but we aren’t going to do anything that will actually benefit you the investor, and in all likelihood is detrimental to you.”
Seems to be a lot of that going around these days…
And in any event, I’m split on this. On the one hand, there’s nothing game-breaking here…yet. Everything of consequence is no more than equal to things you can get by playing the game…aside from the animations and that rather problematic tease about the housing.
On the other hand, it’s continual baby steps. We all see where this is going.
It’s about the community for me. If my guild evaporated, I’d be gone tomorrow. Until then, the friends are enough…for now.
A lot of people here act like SOE doesn’t listen. Know what? They listen to a lot of people. A lot of people that spend money on station cash and use that on the marketplace.
Know why else station cash works well? Because people get gifted station cash all the time. I know countless EQ2 players that give other EQ2 players station cash. Because there is some neat stuff in the marketplace and they choose to take advantage of it. Its not wrong of them to do so.
I’m not defending it. But SOE listens to one thing only. People’s wallets. If you are a veteran and don’t understand this yet, you are sadly deluded. The train has already left the station, and there is nothing any of us can do about it.
Personally, I quit playing for a while, then came back, because I’ve accepted it and stopped caring. I still have fun playing the game. There is still nothing out there that I find nearly as entertaining, despite all of SOEs flaws. Like other posters have said, its the community that makes it and there is no equivalent community.
“It’s like going, well you can invest in our company, but we aren’t going to do anything that will actually benefit you the investor, and in all likelihood is detrimental to you.”
exactly
it looks like they are selling a lot of free bloods. which will encourage them to pull more stuff like this. i don’t know how you cant see the hand writing on the wall. this is just the beginning .
now people say hey if you don’t like it leave.. well it will get worse how much will you put up with till you quit?
as a customer for them to pull this on us in a pathetic money grab for content is really revolting.
From a business perspective: A) Design a product to sell B) it sells well C) We don’t lose any (or enough) customers for it to be a concern . . .
Why WOULDN’T they do it again?
The ONLY thing that is ever going to stop this, all complaining aside, is if either of 2 things happen: 1) These items stop selling and/or they aren’t making enough to warrant the time for design/testing/implementation or 2) They lose enough of a customer base that they realize, “Okay, our players aren’t going to put up with this, we have to stop.” . . . or both
I don’t think it’s happening now. Will it happen in the future? /shrug This isn’t QUITE enough to get me to stop subscribing . . . not with an expansion so close (I AM curious to see what they do). AFTER the expansion, if the expansion is not to my liking or I find it dull, boring, or frustrating, that will make me quit. THIS marketplace decision . . . it IS a straw . . . but the camel’s back hasn’t broken yet.
We (and they) will have to wait and see how many more straws they can add before that telltale *CRACK!* of a spine snapping in two . . .
For me the problem with the marketplace has always beebn that
A/ SOE overprice most features
B/ SOE start creating more new content to sell piecemeal than they do for the paid for expansions
If they just dropped the prices and made sure to have more apearance styles within the expansions i fully expect the majoroty of station cash moans to disapear.
I tend to agree with Twisted above. SoE tend to overprice their SC items. They also produce too many and they don’t always think through the implications of the things they out in the store. I have no problems with the concept of the Store, but the implementation could be better.
That, however, applies to EVERYTHING SoE have ever done. They are my favorite MMO house by a very long way and I’ve played most of their MMOs for over a decade and and will continue to do so, but they have always suffered from muddled thinking, directionless management and slapdash implementation. Station Cash/EQ2X etc is just more of what I expect in terms of foot-shooting and baby/bathwater interfaces.
In the end, though, I don’t believe that the choice for EQ2 was ever between a “traditional” sub game with everything included for a single payment or the “pay-as-you-go” piecemeal system we have now. I suspect it may have been “find a way to get more money out of players or close the servers down like Head Office in Japan are demanding” and I’d rather have them up.
They overprice them, but constantly run double SC deals. So that is something you need to take into account. A lot of the services actually are on par with other MMOs(WoW charges $25 for a transfer). And there are some great things finally on there, like extra char slots. Even the most jaded person can’t lament the existence of the services, only the cost.
As for not wanting the marketplace to be successful, that’s a losing argument, since money with the marketplace will lead to them being able to hire more devs. More devs means more content. The full effects of the last few months won’t be seen for years.
Personally, I could care less about new models debuting on the marketplace. I don’t play EQ2 because of the pretty items. An important thing is that we aren’t being microed to death for actual content, which the adventure packs did. So I am happy having armor models debut there. And I’m willing to wait and see if those models actually get incorporated into later expansion packs.
Also, as a long time player, I’ve looked at the features and look of freebloods in game and I find them incredibly underwhelming. They are dark elves with bloodletting and an illusion/racial mount. Pretty lame actually I think. I’m actually glad they are a paid race in hindsight, simply so that there are less of them in game. I think if they were free they would probably annoy me even more. But really, they are fluff at best.
If they start releasing things on the marketplace that compete with raid/instance gear, then I’ll start worrying. Until then, I don’t see any reason to persist with the fearmongering. There isn’t any content on the marketplace that I lament not having.
Its hit the point now where SOE have to say “screw you guys you go home” to the non f2p players and make the game fully f2p to keep seeping this in is just causing more hassle for what few players are left.
I think 2011 will be the year that EQ2 goes F2P fully if i’m honest if only to get a headstart on blizzard who surely will at some point adopt the model.
I wouldn’t say we were MICROed to death with the adventure packs. To say that, with only three adventure packs in total with all the content is a bit of a fallacy . .
One, they were only $4.99 for the first two, and I believe $7.99 for Fallen Dynasty. We got a lot of quests and content for $5 to $8 bucks. Fallen Dynasty had two (albeit small) overland zones. It had a contested zone with epic x2 mobs. Epic x4 contested mobs, a once-a-day group zone which was fun and very challenging for its time, two Epic x2 raid zones as well as an Epic x4 raid zone and also daily solo and heroic missions. And that’s just the one adventure pack.
To say we were MICROed to death with all that content for a total of $18 dollars . . . I for one kinda miss it. The “FREE” content they’ve added has been lackluster at times (ZUA comes to mind. Four floors with some named in it? IF it weren’t for the good loot I don’t think anyone would go. It seems they just mailed that one in . . ) And the update before that? No content at all.
However, when they remove “combat damage” abilities from all races for “balance” . . . then add it in to a race that, even if we get the race FREE, we still have to buy the ability . . . That I take umbrage with. Will it make me quit? No. Straw on the camel’s back? One.
It’s clear that SOE are banking on replacing every diehard veteran who thinks the game should begin and end with the $14.99/month subscription with customers who will make impulse buys well in excess of $15/month, or “MMO tourists” (thanks Atan) who will come into EQ2, drop $50, play for 2 months and quit.
And they’re banking on players who are used to games with minimal or no expansions and much less established content who will find the amount of content in EQ2X to be “awesome” and gladly empty their wallet for things we are used to paying less for.
So everything is looking up, with blue skies and rainbows, except for veterans, but I think SOE have forgotten something important. They’ve forgotten the intangible — word of mouth — which is the only thing selling EQ2 these days. When you burn up your marketing budget in the first 6 months on crappy ads that don’t sell the product, then you have to hope and pray that your product attracts enthusiats who will get passionate about the game and bring others in. Just ask the folks at TiVo. Totally blew their marketing budget the first 6 months and would have gone out of business if it weren’t for passionate customers and patent lawsuits.
I don’t think any of the new people EQ2X is attracting will be top promoters of the game. I think they’re here for today and gone the moment someone else has more checkboxed features on a spec sheet.
EQ2 is stronger than the sum of its parts, and its demise has been foretold many times now. Even Georgeson has made reference to this. It’s too bad he missed the point. People play games because of the feeling they get playing the game. The memories of the fun they had is what brings them back. EQ2X and slapping more StationCash items out don’t help build that core customer audience.
I predict we’ll see some key departures from the EQ2 team in the next 6-12 months as the ethical concerns about the direction EQ2 is heading get impossible to ignore.
Well, the MMO genre goes mainstream and that might be hard to accept. What is happening is that MMOs are a hobby for more and more people, not a “lifestyle” it is something that people do because they like it, like fishing. If you like to fish you need a fishing license/card/permit (depending on where you live in the world) but you can do very well with your old rod, reel, lures and lines you do not need the fancy stuff, at the same time there is a huge industry supplying the latest rods, reels, lures and lines and most of the new stuff most likely does not make you a better fisherman. But I have never seen anyone demanding that the sales of new fishing rods should be limited because it is “unfair”.
MMOs is a hobby nowadays and people will buy whatever accessories they like or think improves their enjoyment of the game, if it is “needed” or not is not really important. Many of us remember the “fringe” start of this hobby and have more or less strong feelings about what is “pure” MMO’s, be happy that you saw the beginning of a new hobby, if you still have the time to get things in game the oldfashioned way you should be happy for it because at one point in your life that time will not be there.
This debate about SC contains a lot of “people should play the game my way or not at all” and that is actually a very elitist way of looking at it, I recently bought a 65% speed mount for my Naggy toon and that improved my enjoyment of the game immensely, now I COULD have grinded status and plat and bought a mount in game but this way (and with my limited playtime) I could actually do things I enjoyed instead. The vampires are overpriced indeed but that is another issue, do not buy them.
And as I wrote in another thread somewhere “people are strange they want what other people has” for those of us that does not have the time to get the raid gear or the instance gear, the constant regurgitation about the greatness of soandso gear makes us want it even more, so raid and instance gear will be sold at one point in time probably sooner than later and that is due to the fact that there are probably more hobby players than any other kind of players. The exodus of players from that may hurt the raiding guilds but it probably will not hurt Sonys income in any significant way.
I think SOE do geniunely want both user bases, both the hardcore long term players, and the MMO tourists for EQ2.
EQ2X is setup purely for the latter, although lately they seem to have caved in to demand and given too much of the game for too low a price, that is the problem I believe when they try to sell virtual items and services instead of content. At the top of SOE though it does look like Smedley has no interest in chasing hardcore fans for new games being released.
I’m not sure how this next year will play out though, quite a few of the EQ2X crowd were fantasists who believed they were buying EQ2 for life for just a couple of purchases (reeeel them in, and then change the deal, the only other alternative would be to go bust). But the problem I see is how to advertise live to keep it alive at the same time as advertising EQ2X.
Personally I think they would have to turn EQ2X into the RMT flavour of EQ2 with a higher level cap for free, and EQ2 as having an endless trial. ALthough I expect another year of floundering around trying to please both markets at the same time.
Its all moot for me though, as the gameplay is the key thing I think that’s going to keep players, unless they can refresh it as promised (after Velious) then I can see people getting bored quickly and just dipping in and out of EQ2.
well said feldon.. i hope the current devs read all these comments.
@sigtyr The fishing analogy only works slightly. To fish, you pay a 1 time fee for a license + your basic rod and reel. Yes in your example it does work for the “needed vs upgrade cool stuff” argument, but the problem I think comes in that SOE is charging for the licence (box fee) + a monthly fee + station cash. And now things that were on that license (box fee) originally now have to be bought on top of the license (box fee).
So yes, while this is a hobby, those of us veterans who seem to be mad over the SC and racial prices look at it this way. I am paying $15.00/month ($180.00/year) + 49.99 (69.99 if I want the CE) for the expansion so over 220.00 a year for the basics, in past years we got races with the expansion, see EoF.
Now not only do I pay for a sub, and for the box, but I have to pay extra for a race, where as in the past I did not.
So it is alot like they are trying to double dip. And it just doesn’t sit well with me. I feel that the race should have been included in the box for everyone who spends the 50 bucks for the expansion.
Or alternatively the velious rewards version should include all the extras that cost for the SC version (mount/claws etc) since technically for 3 months of subs = 45 bucks + another 50 for the xpack it will cost you 95 bucks for the race with velious rewards. 🙂
Just I get stuck on them charging subs, box price, and sc, that’s all.
@ Starseeker
Yes it is expensive and over the top but it will be interesting to see how many they sell, the Vampires are overpriced and I do not defend that. But the US price index have increased with 16% percent since 2003 (13,8% since 2004) and there has not been any change in the subscription (should be about $ 17 nowadays if you follow the index) so the sub has got relatively cheaper, the whole thing with SC is a huge move away from the sub model to something else and where we wind up no one will know, it is likely that the sub model will be gone in all new (non blizzard) games in a not to far future though.
There will always be a game that utilizes a subscription model.
Because some of us are so fed up with the entire overdone and ridiculous spam creation of crappy cash shop games and that everyone seems to want to join the bandwagon.
Boo Hoo!
Sony is doing what many other MMo’s are doing. DDO..LOTR.
I was playing since a month or so after launch and I have a bigger problem with the continued simplification of game play than with cash bought items. This game pretty much has a solid base and still seems to be doing well. Live with it.
regardless i felt this has been a very productive debate and i for one learned a lot from everyone.
i think and hope the devs read that the community is not a bunch of rubes mindless consumers who take whatever they give us, and that we are a smart and vocal community,
the devs will not listen to these discussions, as they havent listened to any from years past. they are going to do what they want to do in the first place, and/or what the suits make them do. they implement what they want, then say “the players demanded it. you may not want it, but some other players did.” no they didnt, but its an excuse that works because it cant be disproven.
More Station Cash revenue means more devs? That’s the argument posed in that 200+ page thread on the official forums, and instead, they had layoffs.
They planned the next expansion using a cookie cutter formula of X overland zones, X dungeons, etc. which always makes for the best artistic development.
I realized that I get nostalgic for the game I knew years ago, so I probably will be fine with the EQ2X game once in a while for that fix. I’ve seen my guild virtually vanish along with most people I knew, so I don’t have that to keep me involved. If this expansion is a lot of repetitive artwork like KoS, that’ll probably be the final expansion for me as new content is the only reason for continued support and if that is no longer a priority…
It has been one month now since my subscription ran out and almost two months since the last time I played EQ2 and I don’t regret quitting at all.
I had high hopes when they added the marketplace. They would use (part) of the money they would make to add extra resources to improve the game for all their customers. But it felt as if the development of the game turned to a crawl. As a solo player with limited time to play the game I tend to level very slowly and I used to hit the level-cap right before the next expansion would be added to the game. Now, with a baby and even less time to play, I have been at the level cap for months without any real progress possible.
If they had turned up their production speed due to the market place they would have kept one veteran (just got my veteran house on the day that I canceled the game). Now I’m extremely happy testing Rift (I love the game!)and just look back with fond memories of the game EQ2 used to be.
@ the massive whingers…WOW! Better yet, go to WoW. ;p I love how so many write like they know exactly what goes on behind SOE closed doors, yet use logic that would never be tabled in a business. Few seem to take note that SOE is a BUSINESS first and foremost.
Do I believe that they are getting a bit too pricey…definitely yes. They are testing their pricing to determine the RIGHT price point. It happens a lot, and the RIGHT price point isn’t the point where people shut up and stop whining. It’s the point where profit is maximized (i.e. getting the maximum amount of income for the resource used).
There an acknowledgement by the EQ2 team that community is what builds loyalty to the game. But the idea they also have to overcome an absolute flaw in the current MMO model. How can you start a game with a set subscription (that will never increase) to sustain a virtual world with inflating real world costs? Power, direct wages, overheads, support software, etc. all increase. How many of YOU would stay in the same job for 6 years without a single raise? I wouldn’t! So there are two options….increase money coming in, or reduce money going out.
Reducing money going out can only happen so much…and with real world inflation it can’t sustain. Bringing more money in is the only sustainable model, but bringing in more money via more players means more expense to support them. So, how do you increase ARPU (average revenue per user) for a game where users are already complaining about the cost (which hasn’t increased since launch)?
Would you guys rather see an annual price adjustment (aka. increase) to the subscription if it meant keeping station cash at bay?
Wow! This post really drew out the non-playing trolls! You know who you are. I read the opinions but don’t really get why they count for much other than to try to convince others to quit too.
Doesn’t LOTRO or whatever have fan sites to troll? Come on folks…like it or not, gamers AND the games they play are changing (as they always have). If the change is too much then leave, but enough with criticism of those who stay.
If you don’t play then why do you care enough to waste my time?
@Striinger; Please keep playing the game if you still enjoy it. I would too if i still got enjoyment out of the game. As I mentioned I played the game since it came out of Beta and stayed with the game through all the bumps and problems. I just wanted to mention that the development of the game really seems to slow down and that is a pity. Where I a new player starting out at EQ2 I would enjoy it but maybe I just outgrew this game /Shrug
@Whingyabby: To be quite honest I would have preferred if they raised the cost of the game each year with the level of inflation if they would have kept the higher development speed. They could also have kept producing the adventure packs for added content and I would have payed for those extra area’s. My problem with station cash is not the fact that it is here but the fact that it does not add (extra) content but adds “fluff” items (no extra adventure but an extra set of clothing).
I would still be playing as well if i enjoyed the game. I had a blast, time of my life right from launch to about when Scott Hartsman left. What I believe at that time is you continue to stay hoping that it will make a turn for the better (or back into the game you fell in love with).
In addition you have invested so much time into it that you stay even though you know it’s gone to crap because all they really focus on is SC. The last two expansions have proved that and Velious is already proving to be no different.
Many of my friends saw the writing on the wall years ago and left, others such as myself take more time to finally let it go. It was an amazing few years, but you have to put your foot down and say enough is enough. Staying only proves to SOE that they can get away with whatever they want. Money talks your complaining(BS) walks.
Over the holidays i thought how f’in good it feels to finally have SOE and EQ2 out of my life. Wife says i look 10 years younger. /jk but honestly it does feel great to not have to worry what those bloodsuckers have up their sleeve next or what they are going to do next to Screw Over Everyone(SOE) or to be let down yet again with another craptstic Expansion.
Whoa-oa-oa! I feel good… (ya you know i’m singing that to James Brown).
@Whingyabby: You have a point, however, as admitted by SOE devs themselves, most of the SC money goes right back into the Development of SC. Sure the costs of games are going up. I would have preferred to pay 10 bucks more a month, than have the development cycles die, to have most of the creativity go into a paid market place, and to have lack luster expansions.
I don’t mind cash shops, my problem becomes when I pay for an expansion, pay for a sub, and still have to pay for a cash shop to get all of the content of the game. I figured it out, at one time I was paying over 1k a year to soe (3 accounts, one on station access, x3 expansions per year).
Now I have one monthly account I haven’t logged into for 2 months. And before that I logged into once and awhile to chat with friends whom I recently found are no longer there. There is no draw, it’s more of the same and that is the problem. Veterans know they don’t matter because they weren’t given a bone when f2p came out, they get this velious rewards for subscribing but later than those who paid for a sub, and don’t be surprised if you see that wolf mount on the market place too after feb.
I could write more about my thoughts on the game but I think I’ve said enough.
I’m having a great time playing rift, and I will pay them my subscription fees that SOE really stopped earning sometime in 2008.
Thanks Starseeker i read your “RIFT – Why Should you play, A long winded response.”
Immediately pre-ordered Rift afterward. Can’t wait now.
I was planning on waiting until it was out and then decide but after reading your response and the simple fact that EQ2 was the best is ever was while Scott Hartsman ran the show, his involvement in Rift should have been enough to put two and two together. The guy is talented at his craft.
Thanks for the nudge Starseeker.