EQ2 Gold, All Access to Get Rewards Instead of Free StationCash
An announcement intended for tomorrow morning briefly appeared in the EQ2 Forums RSS feed and then vanished, however a few players brought it to our attention. As you likely know, EverQuest II Gold and SOE All Access accounts currently receive a monthly allowance of 500 StationCash.
Starting the first week of February 2014, in lieu of this StationCash allotment, all recurring Gold and All Access customers will be able to login to EverQuest II and buy one item (up to a value of 2,000SC) per month for FREE. If you are All Access, you’ll also be able to login to EQ, Planetside 2, and DCUO and get something similar.
Who will see this as a Bad Change — Players hoping to continue stockpiling StationCash for EQNext or EQNLandmark, or buy plat will likely see this as unwelcome news. This also impacts players who tend to buy small items, rather than a single large items. The most desirable items — Service items like server transfers, AoD features, and 280 AA baubles, will likely be excluded.
Who will see this as a Good Change? — Players who use their free StationCash to buy items off the Marketplace will likely see this as a nice change and significant premium over the standard Gold subscription.
UPDATE: The official announcement has been posted on the EQ2 Forums…
Dear EverQuest Gold Members,
We regularly evaluate our offerings at SOE to ensure we are consistently delivering great games and products, while also offering exceptional value to our players. Given that we just started a new year it seemed like the perfect time to add more value!
The week of February 3rd, 2014 we will be making a very important change to the Gold Membership level in EverQuest The current benefit of receiving 500 Station Cash (SC) monthly will be replaced with a new program that allows you to select one single item valued up to 2000 SC each month. Nearly all items within the games’ Marketplace will be available for this selection. Players Studio, bundles and additional exclusions may apply. This new benefit must be claimed each month that you are a member as it will not carry over to subsequent months.
We appreciate our customers, especially our valued members, and therefore are excited to bring you this additional value.
Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to seeing you in game soon.
Please help us consolidate feedback by keeping discussion and comments to this official thread.
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Comments (46)
Tholin
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Yeah, this basically loses SOE money from me. I’m assuming there are other players like myself as well. One of the few (and its REALLY hard to justify) reasons I pay for gold is because of the 500SC. There’s nothing in the store that interests me. Its just nice to have some cash laying around for merc slots, spell research time boosts, and instant travel/revival. Without that, I can’t see myself paying $15 a month for an AA slider
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Finora
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Who will see this as a Good Change? – Players who use their free StationCash to buy items off the Marketplace will likely see this as a nice change and significant premium over the standard Gold subscription.
Actually, it’s not at all better at all. Anyone who regularly purchases small items is going to get the bad end of the deal here. From a player prospective it has nothing to do with stockpiling for a game we don’t even know is going to be worth it yet or not and everything to do with feeling like we are being cheated.
It removes the choice players previously had in how they spent their gold perk SC. If we wanted to save for 3 months or more & buy a prestige house or other larger purchase, we could. If we wanted to buy huge numbers of tiles & buildingblocks, we could. Now, we get our one item, whether it’s a mount or a stool & that’s that.
It’s the people who make small purchases regularly who will be shafted by this. There’s only so many high ticket items one player is going to be interested in & no one will feel like they are getting a deal getting a 250 SC pet with their “up to 2000 SC cost” a month allotment.
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Mentin
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I think it is time to drop the gold sub soon, at least on secondary accounts.
While I rarely buy things with my free SC, this will even further reduce the value of a gold sub. Currently the primary reason to have a gold sub is the double etymas, if that goes away as announced in February there is not much reason to pay gold subs really.
As EQ2 has been made ever more f2p-friendly, Sony do have a major problem justifying the price of a gold sub.
I should not complain about playing the game for free, though 🙂
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Caela
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Double alternate currency (etymas) are now permanent – they won’t be going way.
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milliebii
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If that is true, and I am not sure it is, then I will stay gold the SC was not a tipping point for me. But take away the 500SC and the double rewards and I will definitely go F2P.
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enotirab
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Caela is correct. I believe they confirmed tat double alternate currency is in fact permanent right here:https://eq2wire.com/2014/01/03/double-currency-now-permanent-more-loyalty-rewards-coming/.
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Golur
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Well, as a Brit player who will be forced to join P7S for EQN, it’s no big deal, as my SC will be useless there anyway.
Whether or not I want to join P7S for EQN, or just abandon the EQ worlds after so many years – well, that’s a different question, and one that most of my Guildmates and I are pretty clear on – it’ll be bye-bye EQ/EQ2.
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Golur
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Just to add – there are two items that may be handy: the 280 AA potion is luckily priced at 2,000 SC, so that’s an Alt a month, or a bundle of Reforging ‘things’ at 1,500 SC – and considering how much I’m paying for reforging at present, that’s a fair bit of Plat 🙂
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Seffrid
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The 280AA potion may be currently priced at 2,000 SC, but what are the chances of it being raised above the monthly coupon limit come February? Pretty high, I’d have thought.
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Wurm
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I play using Krono, so I don’t care personally, but I agree 100% with Finora’s comment above.
I just wish SOE would stop pretending they are doing anyone any favors in their spin.
And @ Golar, “and additional exclusions may apply.” I doubt you will see the 280 AA potion or reforging scripts included for sale
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Wurm
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Oh and my next bet is that the free LON cards go away.
Last month Goblin Gold
This Month Free SC
Next Month Free LON
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sompet
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I guess this is to remove cross financing between SOE games, because of the separate SOE and PSS1 SC wallets. This way we won’t miss the SC transfer between SOE and PSS1 account when EQN is released.
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Dauvien
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Well, I was holding a gold sub for stockpiling SC to use in Next/Landmark and I rarely used it for anything on the current market. If they decide to keep the double token bonus in place for gold members I’ll stay with it, otherwise I’ll go silver at the end of Feb when that ends.
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pox67
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Seriously?
You can buy twice to three times as much SC with the money…or visit Ebay for cheap PS2 SC!
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Pipsissiwa
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I second all that Finora says above.
With 500SC you can buy multiple items – especially useful to a decorator. As has been said – you want to buy a ton of building blocks or tiles it will take years this way. One item a month completely ruins things for decorators. It’d be nice if it was multiple items up to the value of 2000SC, or even up to the value of 500SC would be better than this if they insist on taking away the SC itself.
They just want people to buy more SC rather than getting it for free. After all, the Marketplace items cost them nothing – its a virtual item that once made can be resold an infinite number of times. SC itself, on the other hand, has an actual monetary value, so SOE want that cold hard cash from us.
I also wish they’d stop trying to sell this rubbish as being somehow better for the player, and an improvement.
SOE really don’t want anyone subscribing any more do they?
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Kittaene
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Agreed, especially on the decorator items. You always run short of building blocks & it may be months before that City fest comes around again. Not paying 18 plat per tile. SC is easy…I’ve done that many times.
Large purchase: If I want a new mount, I pull out the CC. I use my SC piecemeal.
This change holds zero benefit for me.
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Loch
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For those of us who just use that 500 for fluff junk like mounts, houses, etc. this is actually going to save some money. I only bought SC during double, triple sales when they still had them in order to make buying that fluff worth it.
But I can definitely see how it would hurt those who spent it on the cheaper items in bulk.
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Sony Online All Access Changing In February | MMO Fallout
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[…] (Source: Eqwire) […]
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Station Cash Take Back | The Ancient Gaming Noob
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[…] As reported over at the EQ2Wire, SOE has announced that they will no longer be handing out a 500 station cash stipend every month to Gold or SOE All Access subscribers. […]
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Kruzzen
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LOL, 11 pages on that thread already and SOE has not even arrived in the Office yet. Sometimes I really think they are out of touch with there consumers. Oh wait, not sometimes, all the time. :/
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Anaogi
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In the wake of the ongoing Channeler Epic kerfluffle, I’m starting to wonder of some of the better judgement was let go in the layoffs.
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Enrico
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If they change it to prevent cross-game perks, that’s cool and more than fair. The restrictions you anticipate really annoy me, on a hypothetical basis. If they restrict eq2-specific purchases and add so many rules that you can’t even spend the bonus, then it is no longer a reward for being a gold subscriber. But double etyma makes up for it til the end of February.
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Benj
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My big gold perk right now is the double etyma. I occasionally used my 500 SC per month to buy small things like item unattuners and merc unlockers. I did buy one prestige house, but I’d already saved up months of SC. This change will hurt me, but I didn’t use SC much anyway. I may drop the gold sub once the double etyma wears off.
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Benj
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Another (minor) feature I’m paying for with gold … Master spells. F2P can’t use Master spells. But that’s ok. I can unlock my alt’s spells using the SC I’m receiving on my main account. Oh wait … I can’t anymore.
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Froak
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IMO more of a F**K you guys we want as much of your money as possible than we need to change this so we are not losing money in next/landmark. the free SC is technically not free, they are still generating revenue off it. its not like they are saying here F2P players have 500 free SC a month.
if all else fails, and you pay $15 a month for your sub and want to keep getting the SC, just buy walmart SC cards instead. because that makes sense financially right? soe definitely makes less than $15 off that transaction but still has to pony up the extra SC. they will probably disappear as well…..
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Pipsissiwa
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Not much help for those of us outside NA, sadly. SC cards don’t exist in Europe and US ones can’t be redeemed on Euro-flagged accounts. 🙁
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Elderon
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I also only used my 500 SC per month on multiple small items like unlockers, unattuners, small house items & such… and if i had a little left over at the end of the month, it would roll over into the next month. Now, i get to pick only one item per month and nothing rolls over. I’ve been a Gold member for 6 years now, and unfortunately the only thing that still keeps my paying for my subscription is the Double Etyma. Unless something else is offered after that is gone, I just really don’t see any benefit to being a Gold member. Maybe that’s what SOE wants?
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Swagems
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The question I have is why should I stay a gold member .What the different between gold and silver beside the double etyma and the 500 sc
I have been gold for 10 years. I guess I will lose my 11 year vet when it come out in a year .
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Arsonance
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Your 11 year vet only counts your play time. Not playtime as a certain type of subscriber. I have a friend who has been bronze for the past few years. They got their 11 year vet reward. ( whichever was the Mercs)
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Whilhelmina
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I’m betting that next month they’ll announce a new thing to be bought with SC: http://www.thenoobcomic.com/index.php?pos=441 ;p
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Anaogi
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Yeah, I’m getting a repeat vibe from last Bristlebane Day’s ubermount Charlie Foxtrot…
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Feldon
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Hahahahaha
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7rlsy
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SOE emailed this announcement to subscribers.
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Derek
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I’ve been a gold member for years and never got any free sc because i bought my subs till 2016 with sc. so doesn’t effect me, but this change seems pretty nice, could buy lots of unattuners.
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badcat
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What the *$%&^, look I hardly ever spend station cash but when I do I want to decide what to spend it on. Usually a potion, or a service, but I never spent 2000k on one single item. Leave it at 500 and let me decide what to spend it on, Telling me I can only spend it on one item, makes me feel like I had my teeth knocked out by a crow bar.
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Zyxram
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1.) Keep credit card on file so you can get crappy 2k SC fluff item and double tokens
2.) Hop in car, go buy Wal-Mart Cards
3.) Take 500 extra SC and do whatever your heart pleases
4.) Profit
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sompet
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I think the closest Wal-Mart is 7000 km away. That is 4300 miles if you like that way 😉
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abitterbeing
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Time to stop giving SOE any of the money i work hard every week for.
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Loch
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Being serious here…
If the 500 SC was the only part of the gold sub that someone was subbing for, then why not just go silver and buy SC for ten or fifteen bucks a month? You get much more SC and if the other perks don’t matter, then save some money, I say.
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Tholin
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Personally, I like to support the game and developers. To me, the game is already free. I support them monthly for $15, and they give me 500SC in return. That’s enough (just barely) for me to keep on supporting.
But without that, what reason exactly is there to give them $15 a month? I can just drop to silver, and buy $5 of SC a month (thats really more than i need for insta revives, merc slots, or spell research). They literally lose $10 a month from people like me by doing this
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Miragain
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Why not just flag it so you can only buy items in EQ2? That way they don’t have to worry about us using it on landmark or whatever new game they decide to add.
Additionally with the loss of double/triple station cash they need to reprice everything to be at least 50-60% less since I am pretty convienced things are as expensive as they are to kill the double and tripple cash that we saved up.
$20 for a virtual in game house, really? That’s not micro-transaction that’s a new game.
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Jrral
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Pretty much, yes. For scale, Photoshop Touch for a tablet is $9.99. That’s a full-on drawing and image manipulation program there. And they want to price houses and mounts and the like higher than that? On a par with or higher than a full month’s subscription? You betcha I’m going to think long and hard before spending that much on a purely virtual item. Because very very few virtual items are worth twice as much as Photoshop to me.
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gwen
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This is a bad change you normally can tell this by the “positive”spin companies put out towards it,there really is very little point to a monthly sub now surely?
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Filly67
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Had both of my posts completely removed and received inbox notice from the mod on the official forums. Never had that happen in 5 years. Someone had posted how we should understand that the thread was set up to allow us to discuss and suggest changes. I responded that once a plan like this was set there are never changes, no matter what. Pretty innocent. Ok, full disclosure it may have been my comment about SWG, lol. Oh well.
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Alcyonerose
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Well I used to leave my account gold whether I was playing on it or not, this won’t be happening anymore. I didn’t worry too much because I knew at least I’d be getting this station cash money. If my station cash isn’t piling up then I have no reason to leave my gold account open and give SOE my free money if I’m not even accessing their game. I think this supposed benefit is a crock of shit and it will backlash on SOE. Freedom of choice is much better than being told what we need to do with a supposed Gold member “benefit”. In my opinion SOE is fucked for changing this on us and advertising it as something that will improve our Gold Subscriptions. False! Truth is SOE hopes it will help their income. Sorry SOE I won’t be spending any more of my money, only less!
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striinger
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How much does a 2 to 3 hour new release movie cost to watch on demand? How much entertainment do you get from the game that plays a little different each time? If they aren’t on par maybe you should make a change.
Other than that the pissing and moaning about hypothetical scenarios is just a display of the love of drama.
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