Feldon 
EverQuest II’s in-game mail has been put to good use by the company to alert players to significant in-game revamps, refund Items and Tokens, announce the return of Seasonal Events, conduct In-Game Polls and Surveys, Gauge player interest in Crafting, Heroic, and Raid content, and so forth. Now however, it seems that the in-game mail service is being put to a new and somewhat questionable use.
Yesterday, EQ2 players both free-to-play and with an active subscription received an in-game Marketing mail blast which cannot be deleted until the player clicks the misleading “Receive Gifts” button which whisks them away to a website, specifically the EverQuest II expansion page scrolled down to the $29.99 “Gateway to Adventure” pack. For the record, this pack offers:
- Journeyman’s Boots of Adventure – these boots will grant you an additional 15% movement speed boost that stacks on top of your current run, mount, or flying speed!
- Journeyman’s Rucksack – 66-slot Appearance Bag
- 1 Potion of Vitality – this potion causes your combat and tradeskill vitality to return to 100%
- 2 Guild Status Potions – these potions raise the amount of status contributed to the guild to 25% for 1 hour
The button says “Receive Gifts”. Apparently being whisked away to a sales website is now a “gift”.
Commentary
Requiring a paying customer to visit a marketing website before they can remove a message from their in-game mailbox seems like a bridge too far and so far, player reaction has been decidedly negative. We now provide this unrelated image…
Yeah, a total PITA to get rid of this in-game mail on 16 toons! I already bought the most expensive version of the XPAC and feel like I should get these extra perks for free without paying more than I alrready have….just saying!
I predict we will only see more of these in the future, all it takes is a few idiots to buy the item and it will be totally justified. Speak with your wallets, join me in the growing ranks of the “banned from speaking on the official forums”!!
I am still playing because my friend won’t try any other games, even though they aren’t happy with all things EQ2. Also, that sub deal they did last year for $71.99 helped ease the pain. Friend or not, if they don’t offer the same sub deal again, I probably won’t renew. I can’t imagine paying $14.99/mo for the train wreck this game has become.
I really hate feeling this way tbh, but its hard to avoid. 🙁
I have already decided to cancel also at the end of for year sub if it is not offered again
1 Character was fine. But all 30 of mine really needed this?
If they put 1/4 of the effort into marketing EQ2 that they put into pushing DBG cash sales on existing players they might make some subscript money. EQ2 was NEVER marketed beyond initial launch….and we the players pay the price for all the failed marketing xpac after xpac.
That message will sit in my mailboxes forever.
Call be a doomsayer. But, I honestly think this behavior is their last grasp. They did it with EQOA as well as Landmark. Offering/pushing high purchasable items to a degree they never have before.
I really liked the game and had for a long time 2 subs. I switched from wow since eq2 started first in europe and stayed with eq2.
But since I have no faith in the game after they canceled eq next and landmark I switched fully to wow and have a blast. Buying a mount and use it on all characters on up to 8 accounts feels like a good investment compared to the greedy eq way.
Rift is the same with mounts.
This does hot a new low. That message will sit in my inbox until I have time to look up the chat command that purges your mailbox regardless of the status of the messages in it. No way and I going to be bullied into visiting a sales spam site.
It does worry me that Daybreak feels the need to resort to more aggressive sales tactics to pry more money out of the player base. Their ethical standards could be declining, their financial performance could be shaky, or maybe both. Or maybe they are just trying to get existing players to fund their new project.