Feldon 
The first two Premium Guild Halls were introduced this Tuesday at eye-opening prices of 35,000 DBC ($350) and 40,000 DBC ($400) for the Highhold and Skyshrine zones respectively. Thus far, data analysis tells us that four guilds have acquired these halls — one Skyshrine and three of the Highhold halls.
If you prefer to acquire your Premium Guild Hall through gameplay, well then Good News Everybody!
From Kander on the EQ2 Forums:
Just FYI. We do have other guild halls [different new guild halls] that will be being added to in-game content only coming soon. One just around the corner with GU 101. The plan is to regularly have ones that can be earned through game play in the future.
To be absolutely clear, he is not talking about the Highhold or Skyshrine hall which are available through tickets on the Marketplace. He’s talking about another popular zone which will become available as a Guild Hall which players can then acquire through gameplay. Perhaps a quest series or some token grinding.
Commentary
Daybreak has the right to set whatever price it wants on Marketplace items. And industry trends have shown that a very small group of customers, less than 0.1%, can buy enough items to support an entire game. My concern is, for a small short-term financial gain, the news of this $400 pricetag spreads like wildfire and leads to a lot of player rage and chants of “cash grab”. It’s the summer time and as is tradition players are kicking the tires on other MMOs and other forms of entertainment and evaluating whether they want to stick with the choice they’ve made or consider alternatives. Players are thinking long-term, and I think Daybreak should be too.
I’d pay 400 bucks for the guild hall from Fairy Tale! (With Happy plushie!)
IMHO they would have been better off addressing additional market value they can squeeze from prestige guild halls by
1) selling prestige GHs for $40, expensive for a prestige house, but with guilds there are more people that can contribute to the product purchase.
someone with budget constraints could put in $1, $5 someone with more money could put in $10 or $20 in tickets or one person could buy one straight out for $40.
In the end someone with money can buy one themselves and a group of guildies can putt a few ‘pennies’ into getting the hall here and there, while you are not excluding low income persons who can’t pay out $100s of dollars like it’s change.
2) adding a reforge amenity for all GH, but making the prestige ones get it by default with no upkeep on the prestige reforger and adding other bonuses that don’t affect combat.
3) adding special player title for all guildies when the guild has a prestige hall and a specific player particle effect for guildies that is specific to which prestige hall they use.
with this many types of players can be attracted ot getting the halls and the only barrier is the ability to pay even in a slow trickle of funds to get the hall.
What’s the size of Guilds in EQ2 these days? I’m the only person in my guild to have logged in this calendar year so it’s hard to tell.
In one of my GW2 guilds, however, there are more than 400 members and the majority of them log in daily. I don’t think a $1 per member contribution there would be seen as much of a problem. Obviously, though, if guilds are averaging 40 members not 400 then the price tag will seem less reasonable.
As an occasional casual player who just hasn’t had time lately but kept my paid membership active, I was motivated to go ahead and turn off my auto-renew with this news. Never been a fan of the whole pay to play but $400 for a stupid guild hall just hits preposterous level with me. Lots of luck DBG with the greed model you’ve embraced!
They also might be a bit better served by dealing with some of the other glaring problems of late. Also by not poking folks in the eye who got screwed out of a couple of days of gameplay recently; I know it wasn’t their fault, but some kind of good-faith effort might have been appreciated.
Me, I’ve been sniffing out Black Desert Online lately. Not bad at all.
Seems more like damage control now that they saw the backlash this has created. And it’s only getting worse. That thread is atrocious. RadarX has no business in customer service. Time and time again he has shown that he has no skill whatsoever in interacting with players. It truly amazes me that someone, somewhere in Daybreak believes he is the best choice for the job. Frightening.
As simple as it may be, a staffing mistake like him has and will continue to cost the company paying customers.
I love EQ2. There are devs that clearly have passion for the game and its players. He’s not one of them.
I’m drawn to options — DBG can obviously conduct their business however they wish, but I’d prefer guild halls that could be both bought with real cash -or- eaned in-game, as opposed to those that are exclusively one or the other.
As a lost customer to DBG, (I played EQ2 for years, since launch under SOE), it continues to sadden me that they are just milking the EQ franchise to death. Being an old-school MMO player, I long for a game that has an entry fee (a sub), and everything past that is earned IN GAME, through game play. The worst thing to ever happen to MMOs is F2P.
I am playing another MMO, and will never return to Norath in it’s current games.