Feldon Is it time to just rip off the Band-Aidâ„¢ and be done with it?
Unannounced in this week’s additions to the StationCash Marketplace were the addition of in-game merchant-bought arrows (no great shakes compared to woodworker-made ones) to the StationCash Marketplace. When prompted on the EQ2 Forums, EQ2 Senior Producer Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson had this response:
They’re just the basic arrows you can get from merchants. It’s a convenience thing for folks that run out of arrows in the field.
and later in a similar topic in the Tradeskills forum:
It’s pure convenience. Some players are willing to spend a buck to avoid leaving a raid or dungeon to resupply with arrows.
Player response has varied from “Get this crap off the live servers and put it back on EQ2X“, to “if my group/raid expects me to buy items from the Marketplace to stay competitive, I’ll tell them to pound sand” to “Why not just rip off the Band-Aid and put RMT on the live servers, since that’s where we’re headed anyway.”
UPDATE: In response to player concerns, these arrows have been removed from the StationCash Marketplace. From SmokeJumper:
We never intended to start a fight here, folks.
They’re removed.
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I think SOE have demonstrated a lack of self-discipline in what items they will add to the Marketplace. They’ve continued to push the envelope, seemingly until players will accept full RMT on the live servers. Is it time to just rip off the Band-Aid and go full RMT on the live servers? Most of you probably clicked delete on this weekend’s announcement that Pirates of the Burning Sea is going full RMT/Free-to-Play. I read it with interest, because it’s like a pair of binoculars (or a spyglass and sextant, if you will) into the future of EQ2, EQ2Next, and beyond. |
I dont post much on any of the websites. I dont have a name that people recognize in game. I dont flame or beta or test copy or….. But, I do log on and play 5 nights a week, and have done so for the past 10 years. Eq, then eq2, with side trips to swg, matrix, planetside, daoc, coh, cov.
I never really cared if soe sold items in game, as long as I could also attain the same items playing the game. I love appearance fluff, house item stuff, and the quriky things that make you go huh. I am not mad or upset, or even especially invested emotionally in gaming. But, I am actually starting to look for a game that does not have this particular business model ( if such a game even exists after last years E3). I was looking forward to the new star wars game, but I am afraid that it will so filled with RMT incentives that I dont think I will get it. Its a dilema for which I have no answer.
What is the big deal? If I understand well it would have simply been another convenience for those who want it, you could skip the thing entirely if you don’t want to pay to buy arrows. If they were arrows that sell at the merchant NPC’s how would it affect artisans?
It affects artisans because some people would just buy the merchant arrows from the SC window rather than ‘waste time’ by porting home to buy them and then getting back out to the group/raid.
I should hope it wouldn’t affect artisans, IIRC the merchant-sold arrows are horrible damage compared to crafted.
*sigh* If being boo’d off a stage isn’t enough to tell them that this crap is not popular to the existing playerbase then I don’t know what will. The only things i ever buy on SC is appearance clothes. That’s all i think should be up there anyway except XP pots and other appearance items. You know, to encourage players to actually play the game and get the items themselves so they can have some pride in an accomplishment. Now i know with arrows theres no accomplishment. Wee i bought 6 stacks off the broker… But still i would rather pay a player to make them.
If somehow EQ2X does merge with EQ2Live and all of the SC items become available on Live, they better not stick me with gold membership or anything less. I didn’t play this game since beta to be screwed out of items i had all along.
Funny i thought we where told weapons would *never* come to the marketplace,yet here we are my fingers close to the cancel button boys
Eschia’s point cannot be understated.
When Smedley mentioned EQ2X at Fan Faire during the opening ceremony (which originally there wasn’t going to even be one), the booing was incredible. Smedley said there would be panels about it to express yourself. 😉
The issue is not really that they’re putting arrows on the marketplace. It’s that they seem to be “working” on us. Pushing the envelope. Let’s see what we can add, and then back off, and keep trying to see what sticks. There are some threads, public and private, which have solicited player feedback on what items *should* be put on StationCash. There are some great suggestions there, but instead they’re adding items which make crafters nervous. *rolleyes*
I disagree with your points of views, and especially with how you seem to equate your “oldschool” perspective with all the eq2 live player base. I dont’ share your feelings. I feel that the SC items are for a minority of the player base anyway, and should not hinder your game experience in any significant way. It’s wrong to say “us” and bundle every one of your server in. The “us” is a very vocal part of the player base that doesn’t like the newer MMO Business models, we get that.
FI – I see you also do not mind being lied to. That’s fine really. Your willingness to be treated like nothing does not affect my game play in any way.
How long do you all think it will be until smokejumper or whoever is in charge of the EQ2X project and what goes onto the marketplace for live, will eventually just say “heck with them” and do what they wanted to do all along (make eq2live F2P with what EQ2X has on market)? If he is pushing the envelope, and he likes to claim we will like what his changes to the game, it’s only a matter of time before he says we will like this too. Sure there’s some people who wont mind it, but the majority will be very vocal about it.
Well I’m with you on one thing: now that they have EQ2X they should just stop fooling altogether with the Marketplace on live, and focus all efforts on EQ2X’s marketplace instead.
The slippery slope I have been talking about since Station Cash has been put in is finally become an avalanche.
In all honesty. I’ve beaten this subject to death on the forums since I realized the effect of Station Cash and the Marketplace on this MMO and future ones.
We aren’t going to see anything change as they continue to slowly push the line further and further away and we reach points months ago we never would have accepted.
Free to Play models cause degradation and stagnation within MMOs and severely hinder innovation.
P2PFL (Pay to Play For Life)
The day I lose the option to have a subscription to EQ2 is the day I press unsubscribe on all my accounts and never look back.
If all MMO’s go this way, I’ll stop playing all MMO’s. Keep pushing $0E, keep pushing. You’ll push all the mature, faithful customers you’ve ever had right out the door.
Then the ONLY thing that will matter, from bottom to top, right out there for everyone to see, will be money. It will no longer be about gameplay, story, art, teamwork or innovation. It will simply be about money. Pay to be Uber! All the cool kids are doing it!
The accountants will have won another war. All hail the mighty dollar!
Rip the band-aid off and build a better integrated subscription plan offering on Live. Keeping the existing subscriptions, with a ‘bronze’ lower tier offering should be sufficient.
Its not about the items themselves that are for sale, but its the whole business model.
With a subscription if SOE want to earn more money they need to put out content that attracts more players and retains more players.
With a virtual item RMT funded MMO to earn more money they need to find ways to get players to buy more items, so the gameplay slowly bends around the requirements of the virtual item store.
RMT microtransactions are not the way of the future, they’re a dead end. At this point they might as well just do what CCP does and effectively sell the gold, at least then it only adds inflation to the game and nothing else.
Just because they keep pushing RMT though doesn’t mean we should like it, if anything we should be pushing back. Take for example mounts, we should be pushing for those on the marketplace to be only appearance items now.
Exactly Murfalad.
Smokejumper is teasing us.
He is testing how far he can go without getting beaten from the community.
My advice would be to rap him on the knuckles every time he trys.
It will not serve the problem, but it buys us time.
Solving the problem would be for him to gtfo. 🙂
At the moment to me at least SOE and Smokejumper are acting like the rich kids who think they can do what they want now ok SOE have more money than me but i have a choice do i keep on taking these little pushes towards the full on RMT SOE desperately wants to use or do i stay and shut up about?.
Well given EQ2 is a game i love I’ll stay for now,though it has to be said rift does look good,but the sooner smokejumper buggers off and leaves this game alone the better it’ll be,Brenlo’s tenure was poor but this fellas making his time in charge seem like a golden age.
IT’s simple guys.. if people pay for the items on the Marketplace it will persist and grow. if folks on the don’t and won’t pay for it, it no longer becomes a viable business model. if half the live server member base cancels their acocunts or threatens to then SOE will stand up and take notice. They did a halfbaked job on the SF expansion, recooked mechanics in the wrong method to fix mistakes from the past and made them worse, and are now rushing the new expansion to try and appease the playerbase and AGAIN fix the mistakes of the past. With the marketplace they are selling content that SHOULD be included with a paid subscription. as far as stuff available on the marketplace, it should be appearance only with no affect on game or player mechanics at all, thereby making it optional for those people who want customize the look of their toons.