Feldon If you’ve been wondering just what percentage of StationCash is spent in EQ2 (and FreeRealms) on Mounts, vs. Appearance Armor, vs. other consumables, SOE has released a rare infographic laying out some of these details. We first picked up this story from Massively.
Also on Massively this week, Karen Bryan looks ahead to “phase two” of EQ2. Now that the Age of Discovery crunch time has passed, we are cautiously hopeful that the team can step back for a moment and take a look at the bigger issues in the game which are really holding it back. Basic mechanics like Pathing, Line of Sight, Stats Imbalances, Itemization, etc. have to be right before you can build on that foundation.
Here’s that infographic:
Not sure I believe that last graphic or not. If that is the case hardly nobody is playing in United States or in Canada. Unless they are just using one flag per country.
Side note about the station cash, it what i been saying all alone folks are buying it in droves and using it. It is the bread and butter for soe. They don’t need subs as long as folks are willing to buy extra stuff from the store.
Kind of sad to see all the efforts of the dev teams working mostly on store content instead of fixing a broken game.
Pretty sure it’s 1 flag per country.
I doubt that SC cards were being used for stocking stuffers … my guess is players stocking up on SC for later use.
I have a second account that is only silver, right now — and I see how it can nickle and dime you. I didn’t realize you had to buy broker slots, for instance, or couldn’t mail an item to yourself.
Our game has certainly changed in 2011 … but I am still hanging in there.
Also, what is up with the 7000 character name changes per day? I would be looking into that if I were them … has to be gold farmers or something, can’t all be legitimate reasons. Call me cynical.
Ok posting again, sorry for the repeats, but after reading the other massively article congratulations Feldon for the shout out from Smoke Jumper!
“When you think about how long EQII has been around, it’s amazing how long the prominent community figures have stuck around as well. Players like Naimi, Feldon, and Jethyl have been around for years…”
Nice! Glad he recognizes how important you are! Hopefully that translates into more press stuff for you, Feldon.
Here’s a classic SJ quote on itemization:
“I’m almost torn about this one because I’m so used to quirks with itemization, I’m not sure what I’d do if things were smoothed out.”
And if you think itemization is a priority, think again:
“The team has said that itemization’s still on the list, and it’s understandable that the expansion and game update nudged it to the side for a bit. Hopefully now that things are quieting down, itemization will once again be a priority.”
Hopefully? Nudged to the side, yes, I would agree. Getting fixed any time soon, doubt it.
This graphic details my primary concern with EQ2 and SJ as it’s producer. SOW has taken a great franchise and have /are reducing it down to fantasy version of FreeRealms.
It is not one flag per country …
For example in my guild we have people from Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, UK, US, Australia and I am sure I am forgetting someone 🙂
@Kwill: >>I have a second account that is only silver, right now — and I see how it can nickle and dime you. I didn’t realize you had to buy broker slots, for instance, or couldn’t mail an item to yourself.
Or, you know, pay $15 a month.
In the end it costs more to be a “freeloader” than a paying customer. Sony is raking in the cash thanks to that total misconception.
Yea that graphic is way wrong, I know we got folks in Brazil playing eq2. So soe cant even get that right. As Melrakki was saying they left out other areas as well.
@Teralle yes I agree. I been saying for a long time that we been going down that slippery slope with more and more fluff added to the store. It must be working every time I turn around I see somebody on a new station mount. Honestly the games become keep up with what the other kid has from the stations store. It seams to be the bread and butter now, and that worries me about what kind of content were going to get in the future,if they are all of making more and more mounts and crud to go in the store.
That graphic is awful it looks like it was made by a 5 year old at their first art class,surely SOE should be able to do better than that.
As for the future of the game its only a matter of time before there is proper game changing stuff on the store? for me its the way of the game now sad to say.
@skippydippy: I think the graphic reflects the corporate idea that they are producing fun, fluffy games that appeal to the FreeRealms audience as well as the new FTP EQ2 audience. FreeRealms is targeted to the teen audience (and the female market, if I remember correctly from some discussions a long time ago), and that graphic reflects that emphasis. I agree it’s rather breathless and excited.
Correct me if I am wrong concerning the FreeRealms target market — I don’t follow the game.
@Kwill i agree with you,but i still think it looks woeful,hehe,call me cynical but when “corperate”tries to get down with the kids it fails horridly that graphic sends a message that they’re trying far too hard to push the F2P thing,it works to a point with Free Realms becuase it was built from the ground up with that pay plan in mind,sadly EQ2 has been it’s been it’s test bed over the years as we now know.
I don’t think its far to reach to say we’re looking at EQ3’s payment options in the graphic becuase that too will surely be F2P from the off indeed i wouldnt be surprised if they dont use a similar engine to Free Realms’s in the end either going for the widest audience.
@undead dolphin — my main account, with lots of characters, is gold. The silver account was so a friend of my son’s could try out the game, since I don’t have an extra character slot and I wanted her to make her own character.
I went to silver because bronze was ridiculous, to put it mildly. $5 was worth it to at least give her a flavor of play. It was still more restrictive than I realized.
I have been playing since launch, when the game came out, so I am used to all the perks for $15 a month (in fact, I had All Access until the change came about). The new system does take some getting used to when you have to pay for each individual feature.
@skippy — I didn’t like the graphic either, I thought it was very condescending to the mostly intelligent gamer base that EQ2 attracts. What are people really buying, ok mounts are 22% of the sales – where’s the other ~75%? Name changes? Potions? Furniture? Not much info there.