Feldon 
ZAM Managing Editor Cyliena recently interviewed EQ/EQ2 Creative Director Akil “Lyndro” Hooper and Holly “Windstalker” Longdale about the new Aerakyn race which will be available for purchase on November 11, 2014. She got the inside scoop and plenty of details about the new race and the different pricing tiers which will be available.
As previously announced, the Aerakyn race will not be included in either the Standard or Collector’s Editions of the Altar of Malice expansions, but is instead being sold as a a standalone item. From the EQ2 ZAM article:
Aerakyn will be available on the Marketplace [on November 11, 2014] through several purchasing options. They are:
- 2000SC – Aerakyn: The Aerakyn have vestigial wings, but are of a lower caste and can’t use their wings for travel. Includes 4 appearance wing types that unlock upon reaching Adventure or Tradeskill level milestones. The Aerakyn will use wing attacks when unarmed.
- 4200SC – Noble Aerakyn: The Noble Aerakyn is set apart. With its wings offering benefits as you achieve them by reaching Adventure and Tradeskill level milestones. Includes 4 wing mounts unlocked at level milestones and include run speed, leaping, gliding, and flying. They also have an appearance weapon that allows them to use their wing attacks while wielding weapons.
- 2200SC – Upgrade to Noble Aerakyn. This upgrade adds the ability to earn the 4 mounts on leveling and includes the appearance weapon.
- 4800SC: Discounted Noble Aerakyn Bundle with Character Slot
- 7700SC: Discounted Noble Bundle that includes a Heroic Character Bauble AND character slot
Continue reading “The Aerakyn Are Coming” at EQ2 ZAM
to read the interview with Akil and Holly.
Massively also covered this news in their report here: EverQuest II’s Aerakyn race is spreading its wings November 11th
£32~ for a race w/ benefits. Sometimes I want to throttle whoever is in charge of coming up with these prices at Sony. I’m sure there are people out there that will pony up for this but this is fluff for the price of ANOTHER full game?! Hell, I could actually buy Alien Isolation for that much. Why would they ever think that’s a good idea? I just, they… I don’t.. who would.. gah.
Wow, after all the recent obvious attempts to get money from us, this just takes the cake. So, this month I can expect to spend $80 for the collectors edition, and then another $42 for the version of the new race that actually flies? I’m so glad I’d resolved to save money this month!
all I can say is SOE has gone off the deep end. I say boycott the race and the CE. Tell them where to stuff it. I won’t be buying this crap from SOE for sure.
How much?
Think I’ll be happily sticking with my Ratonga with wings (‘Batonga’) – they fly well and look much cuter )
Batonga? I tend to think of mine as the “flying monkeys” out of Wizard of Oz. but I just love the appearance. Aerakyn leave me cold.
Nope…not for me. Are players really willing to pay these kinds of prices for perks that should have been included in the xpac?
Some people will buy it but I think that the majority will just keep with their current character.
Though you also have to remember that for an All-access player that’s only a little more than 8 months of stored up station cash that they get for free. And some of us have a lot of stored up SC left over due to not buying much. Or at least my brother and friends do, I spend to much on fluff appearance gear to make my characters look cool.
/snort
No, or at least, not many. It’s like they saw that “game whales” video and missed the point completely and said “Hey! Lets cater to the dozen or so rich players per server!”
WTF Sony
The only reason I can see them thinking this is a good pricing is based upon the freeblood. Originally the unlock for the freeblood was 2000, might be wrong on this one but going with it. The weapon unlock is 450 and the freeblood mount is 1950. Giving these, the total is 4500. This doesn’t include the fact that this racial mount includes all four types of mounts with it, I’m sure further increasing the value according to SOE. Given this, 4200 to them seems like a bargain.
I’m not defending their pricing merely showing how they could justify the price.
If I remember correctly, it was part of the pre order for DoV, which was somewhat different from other pre order bonuses in that it was spread out over the months before DoV release. If you preordered DoV, Freeblood was cheaper.
The “Velious Winter Rewards” were the name.
Those who were not around for the pre-order of DoV didn’t get freeblood for free. It was 2000 sc.
So then my math does make sense. Making 4200 in SOE’s eyes a bargain compared to the last time a race was added to the game.
Freeblood were released in the marketplace in December before Velious was released.
Preorder had nothing to do with it, just a continuing sub during the promotion and buying DOV by certain date (I think it was Dec after it released). They were free for those that qualified for it though.
Thank you for correcting me.
No.
Just…no.
(So much for going the grumpycat route…)
It’s almost like they’ve become a parody of themselves with this level of nickel-diming.
I’m sure you know this, Feldon, but it’s clear why you don’t get the same treatment that these other news sites do. (Like with SOELive)
You report to us EQ2 news and present both sides of an issue, but at the end of the day, you’re a player. Just like us. And when you see something that’s clearly against the best interest of the players, you say something. You voice an actual opinion, as a player and they don’t like that. They wine and dine the idiots who praise their every move and report exactly what they want them to report.
Thanks for what you do.
Seconded!
Word!
I’m a player too. 🙁 <3 Feldon 😀
/hugs Cyliena
Cyliena is awesome and even though I talk a lot about Press sites, she plays the game and does writeups year round, not just when SOE comes-a-calling.
The big Altar of Malice reveal last week got coverage from exactly 3 major sites. ZAM, Massively, and MMORPG.
Some day SOE is going to wake up and nobody will be talking about their products.
Thank you for your help too. (And all of the eq2wire team)
I apologize for leaving anyone out. I just got to rambling and didn’t think too far into what I typed.
As much as Feldon/EQ2Wire deserves recognition and perks from Sony, I’d be concerned if they did. I like my Sony news unvarnished and free of paid shills, er media consultants.
EQ2Wire tells it like it is.
Ok, the EQ2Wire gang should get all expenses paid for ‘Sony-con’ events. Or at least dedicated wifi connection.
/*
“Keep up the good work”
Darkstar (1974)
They’re showing their real face recently. This is easily the worst of the many stupid moves SOE pulled lately. I won’t be buying the expansion because SOE is getting greedier and greedier. Sadly EQ2 is nothing more than a cash grab anymore. Everything is focused on milking the players. The worst thing is: I can’t even blame them. Why create worthwhile content when total dibshits are willing to shell out 40 bucks for a simple character skin. It’s players like that who killed the game even if a less opportunistic company maybe hadn’t taken the bait.
Something else i wont be buying from SoEs money hungry hands. 🙂 I really hate the way they are making things so expensive. Im telling you the day is coming where you can buy end game gear with station cash. That will for sure be my last day playing this game. until then its regular everything, no CEs, no new classes. no new anything. it kinda sucks really.
Cash grab…milking the players…I can’t hear it any more. The player base is (slowly) shrinking and when they cannot reduce the dev team size any further while still creating worthwhile content and expansions and still making some profit, the ARPU (average revenue per user) has to go up.
A new player race – this is as optional and cosmetic as it can get. No pay to win, not something you need, heck not even something that is “useful” in any way. Pay – or don’t pay, but know that if you pay, you are contributing to further development of the game and if you don’t pay – you don’t.
A new player race isn’t purely cosmetic – races can have features, stats, racial skills etc that can effect gameplay. Much less so than a class, but some nonetheless. Plus those who enjoy role-playing find that their race isn’t cosmetic – it’s a key component of their game style.
Don’t forget, a lot of us still sub. When paying a sub and you still have to pay a lot for fairly basic features (like access to all races or classes) in the game you pay to play, and in many/most cases paying exactly the same as those who are f2p, it doesn’t feel nice, hence some of the resentment – it isn’t that unreasonable.
So who is to blame for the shrinking player base? Certainly not the players?
I agree that a business exists to make money. But this new race not being required to play or pay-to-play is not the point. I think that most players want this game to be around for a while yet. We all want to see it grow and succeed. We pay a subscription fee because we feel that it’s worth paying to play it.
It’s feeling more and more like I’m being bombarded with ads for extra pieces of this game. The problem is, I pay for a new expansion each year. I pay a subscription fee every month. And yet, here they come yet again parading desirable new features that could have easily been included in one of those two things.
It’s a negative feeling that I can’t shake. Something that alienates me as a player and diminishes the perceived value of what I get for the $200+ that I pay per year to play this game.
Whether or not I am justified in feeling that way doesn’t matter. I am the player. I’m not pulling that card as if I’m entitled to anything. If I no longer feel that I’m receiving enough for my money, I stop paying. Right or wrong, my leaving makes that dwindling player base even smaller. And that hurts everyone involved.
Perhaps the player base wouldn’t be shrinking quite so fast if there were enough being done to retain paying customers.
Wow.
AoM is probably the smallest expansion we’ve had to date. And they can’t throw a race in to make it more worthwhile of a purchase?
Content-wise, I’m pretty sure that if you bundled up the three adventure packs, you’d have almost double the playable content of AoM. For half the price.
Really? I seem to remember being taken for a cynical grumpy old coot (which I am) when I suggested it would be a few months ago.
It seems to me either you are wrong or they were wrong.
I wonder if anyone will admit their mistake?
My apologies for the language, but this.. is bull shit.
I don’t know WHY SOE wants to drive away customers, but damn….
I call SOE out earlier and my comments get censored and yet GriffonLady can call bullshit and not get censored. Sorry Feldon but that isn’t right.
SOE aka *Marketing* is being a bunch of greedy f*ckt*rds. Between the screw job on the CE and price of this… well makes me once again glad I’ll be purchasing SE only and still looking for the files for EQ2 so I can run a private server.
I love EQ2Wire Feldon, but allow us to express our level of pissed offness freely or many of us will feel like we are on the official forums where they ban/delete because they can’t handle criticism.
I’m not sure what comment you posted before that got censored as you have changed your username and e-mail since then so I cannot find it.
There is a massive difference between describing a situation as “bullshit” (a general statement) and describing a group of SOE employees as “f*ckt*rds” which is short for “f*cking ret*rds” (a personal attack). I don’t think I’ve ever kept a secret of my disdain for SOE’s inept Marketing department, but using that language isn’t criticism — it’s just namecalling.
Thing is Feldon, I hold a lot of respect to you, Domino, Brasse, Lindro etc. But my anger is pointed towards the puss infected twat waffles above them, who have this great idea of screwing over the players. That is what my F-tards comment is directed. I am one that calls it like I see it, and that is how I see them, does it get me in trouble, depends if it’s the truth. I don’t sugar coat anything, I have fought with Mods/Devs on the forums and taken a few bans, but in the end I was right and they were caught red handed.
Yes I am using a new Name and email as I figured out when I am on the mobile view things don’t work right (Not just your site, I have ran into a few others as well 🙂
I wonder if these prices are also pushed from SONY which is at a 1.8 billion$ loss still this year. SoE can be making money and so can Playstation but as a whole company =SONY they are losing their ass from Smart phones.
That said this is a BS move and I for one will not be buying any of it this time around, and I have bought every Xpac from EQ since launch and EQ2 launch. I know it is there finance department who is doing this and they take their orders from the higher ups, and they take their orders from Sony.
I remember the days when a new playable race or class was included in the expansion…
When i saw the prices i had to remind myself that there were times when races came with the standard version of expansions.
Fee/arasi with EoF and Sarnaks with Rok not to mention that you could unlock froglocks via an ingame questtline…
I try to defend SOE quite a bit, mostly the devs, but still, SOE in general as being a business. With recent PR & marketing decisions, however, I can’t see how they could POSSIBLY be so out of touch with their player base. It’s like they brought in the PlayStation network PR and marketing people and threw them at the PC gaming community (SOE).
Holly, Dave, Smed…IF there’s any chance that they are hearing their customers…they MUST do something. If their “secret council” told them the game is overdue a huge price gouge, then I think they need to swap out some folks (assuming they still listen to any players).
I’m just…stunned.
The price is one thing…the tactic leaves a horrible taste in my mouth.
As someone who was on the Community Council for 2 1/2 years (on two separate occasions), your comment got under my skin.
Community Council is run by Marketing. It exists so that Marketing can say they have a focus group that “listens” to players. With a few exceptions (EQ2 Free-to-Play, Krono), most of the information presented to Community Council members happens after all the decisions have been made and they’re just telling us so we are armed with the facts, not because there is any chance of a course correction based on our feedback. Also, discussions were SOE-wide and not specific to individual games (the game teams have their own insider groups which are far more effective).
The idea that someone at SOE asked the Community Council “hey do you mind if we increase the EQ and EQ2 CEs to $90 and the price of the race to $42?” and the members of the council overwhelmingly supported it is not just farfetched, it’s science fiction.
Also I’ll just add that if you posted lots of bubbly appreciation for everything SOE does, your position on the council was assured. If you were sharply critical (as I was), and deemed a “sh!t stirrer”, then you were not asked to return. They got rid of everyone who spoke their mind this year.
After following the link from Bhagpuss’ blog “Inventory Full” regarding Wildstar and had a read there at Glassdoor, I looked up the critiques for SOE. They commonly described gaps between management/marketing and development resulting in, among other things, negative effects on the player base and any potential expansion of that base. Not news to y’all, but it’s yet another batch of evidence confirming the saga of counterproductivity.
This helps to focus the mind wonderfully. Do I have enough SC to purchase the new race? Yes. Do I need to play another character when I already have so many I can’t remember half their names? No. I’ll continue to accrue SC every month and probably never spend it. I’ll get my Isle of Refuge home for free in 3 weeks time so another reason not to splash out.
Do I want the new expansion? Yes – I like to get my 9 tradeskillers to max as quickly as possible. Do I need the extras they’re screwing us an extra $50 for? Probably not. So that answers my main question. Unless they change their minds and add some extra value to the CE for the first time in 10 years I will only pay out for Standard.
I have SC stored on the store anyway from being an all access member if I want this race its pretty much free anyway per say. Do I want to level another character? no So it doesnt matter to me anyway. Does this affect my gameplay any? no Do I need all the goodies from the CE version of EQII to be able to raid(which is my main priority)? no
Do I have to buy anything at all in this game to function normally or do what I want to do at all? No I use a krono to pay for my account even.
Pay to Win thats hilarious. I will buy the standard edition of AOM and nothing else unless I want a fluff item for fun off the SC store for free.
This is what they call free to play. I’m glad to be back raiding but it was these practises that drove me away in the first place.
Just wondering if you can unlock the new race and then buy a race change potion to change an already 95 toon to the aerakyn race? I already have enough toons and don’t really feel like starting another one.
Can’t think of any reason why you couldn’t use a race change potion.