Should we restrict F2P to generate more subscription revenue?

yup. english kicked french. now it's language of international communication (as esperanto)
"If you don't like it, have someone in your native language build a game" - they have not done this for more than 20 years. why will they do it now?

never been to these countries
well..
can they fix their bizarre marketing?
1) when they removed CD from store, they slammed door in front of someone’s naze (when for three months they sold it for about half cost). Because someone was thinking about buying, and wanted to buy more than one package. But they removed it from store;
2) why have they not yet expanded the range of subscription offers? Could too sell subscription for shorter period than month. Someone wants to see what subscription is, whether this needs for him (- her). He (- she) has couple of days ahead for this and a subscription for few days would be quite suitable for him (- her) to see what it is.
if another is interested in game in long run, but this person can afford to play on weekend every week. This is four times month, two days a week, for total 8 days. why does he (- she) need 30-day subscription? It’s suitably for him (- her) to buy a weekly subscription for two days. think such person would agree to buy and 3-day subscription.
another got vacation for two weeks and has half month of free time, significant part of which it wants to spend on game. why does he (- she) need monthly subscription? He (- she) needs two-week subscription. Etc.
the insertion of subscription offers for shorter periods may stimulate purchase of subscriptions and for longer periods;
3) why didn’t they want to learn marketing from microsoft, which has been offering language localization packages for many years. Someone is just waiting for such a package to buy (number of those who wish can exceed entire subscriber base available to dbg). can sell localization packages separately for UI. And separately, more expensive, for miscellanies of extensions (updates) packages. Since now they are mainly engaged in newest package, what prevents first of all from localizing quests contained in it? Offer it as separate package for purchase. It is not need to ensure the maximum accuracy of translations into other languages. It's enough to follow rule to leave names of npc in original (in english) and names of quests also to leave in original. To avoid confusion.
However, stupid marketing is the main feature of many modern companies and the main cause of modern economic problems. Their main mistake is that they stubbornly don't want to be able to put themselves in place of another person. to look at what they sell through the eyes of the buyer. I have been seeing for over two decades that mass media advertising is aimed at making people refuse to buy, and not vice versa (and they cover advertising costs by raising prices). It's weird and even absurd;
4) Selling of possibilities. Opportunities to add fan content. Quests, items, options. Perhaps someone would like to spend a certain amount of money to see quest he (- she) invented for game. Someone - item, someone would like to add option. This all requires testing and therefore cannot be cheap (at first fan who paid money will be able to see this on test server, then on live, but after few years and on tle). In fact, this means an unploughed field of opportunities for obtaining money to finance game. And this is justly in relation to other players, because people paid money (perhaps lot of money) and thereby supported game (in addition to subscribing and buying extensions)
As for me, I already wrote before that I look at what I would like and could buy. In this regard, I am in standby mode for offers that are interesting to me. And think that there are also such players among f2p as I. Thank you for reading this

english kicked french. now it's language of international communication (as esperananto)

That is not correct it was between English and German when voting for the constitutional language in the USA, If i remember correctly it was 2 votes more for English.

I think you'll find that as a non american he was actually talking about the rest of the world through its larger history and not one small specific.

thanks, didn’t know. but I had in mind something other - english now replaced french in good old europe (before, europe was belly button of world, and not joined north american combined states)

Thankee!

Benito, your mind is already made up on this, you are just hoping to validate your beliefs through others. The game needs to find something else to make people want to pay to play, not add even more restrictions on a dying community. They don't advertise at all for the game. I have never seen an advertisement for EQ2. Everquest 1 had a short mention in the movie "The New Guy" which was in 2002 and EQOA had a string of them on TV for a short while. Relying on word of mouth or short mentions in a magazine article isn't enough and restricting players who aren't sure if they want to pay the monthly is too much.

I think the current model for free to play works, so it shouldn't be changed. I've been back less then 6 months. In my opinion what should be fixed are the following.

1 ) Quests: All quests should show up on the map, with info that works. Every zone. Coming back when I did I find the questing system very frustrating. Players currently have to ask friends/guildies/General chat every time they need help. For every quest. I have a popular add-on that most recommend, it's up to date and it rarely works. That add on isn't user friendly. Have to type in the quest exactly right without spelling/errors and you also have to hope that's how it was added in the map. If you type "Wolves" and the add on has it listed as "Wolf update" - your search on map won't show anything. So every time add on don't work you have to alt-tab out, pull up browser and search the net. Most popular site has videos/ads that play EVERY time you load the page. So you need to exit out of ad and read. Did I mention the ads slow down PC and bandwidth every time it's done? Yep. Questing is broke. Most of the low level stuff you can just skip and do something different but when you need to do "Stitch in time" etc, you can't just skip it. The game's called EverQuest. Quest system has to work.

To fix the issue, I suggest. Hiring real people that are in game to help everyone with quests only or making the map work right and show correct info in every zone. Do whichever costs less. They could even give a discount or benefit/buffs/super unique item to the people designated as "helpers". Give folks an incentive to help.

2) Re work Crafters. I love crafting in game but this one in near to my heart. Every crafter is the same, every level 20 armor piece with the same name, has the same stats. No one is unique. Are all people exactly the same in real life? Everyone make everything exactly the same? No.

My fix would be. Every person has a chance to loot a special new component in game. All raiders, all crafters, all people. All levels. No one is left behind. New item could be looted, harvested from a random node or obtained from a random raid boss. Etc. New item would need to be heirloom so it couldn't be sold on broker. The new component would be able to be added into any crafted item(s) as a sub component when made. When that item is made, it would have unique stats and or abilities and be sellable on the broker. This idea would give players the ability to be unique crafters. This could give everyone a level playing field.

- Sorry for the novel. Just my opinions/thoughts.
Oplisha of AB

Marketing is unlikely to help EQ2's revenue, as the game is so old now, it's practically impossible to attract new players to a game like this.
Returning and retired players though, getting them back, that's the key. And in order to do that, you need something worth them coming back to. I don't think we have that right now, and most players who return now don't last long when they encounter obstacle after giant obstacle in their way of getting back to their glory days. When they look at the effort involved, and the reward for doing so, it would take someone with considerable constitution or stubbornness to stick it out.
So if you ask me, if you want to increase the size of the player base (I don't believe this is desired at all), you need to fix the vast majority of the major gripes that we share (quality and quantity of content being the big one), along with a stat squish or redesign to make the game more accessible to those who return.
That should help them hang on to those who come back to see what they're missing.

But none of that is going to happen.

Did you finally read my OP?

My argument for new F2P restrictions is not merely punitive measure nor arbitrary punishment.

There's been more discussions about P2W/Pay to Shortcut and I am wondering if the cash shop (and, by implication, T1 raiders and subscribers) unduly subsidize the game for F2P. With that trend in place, and as subscriptions go low(er), a heavier handed approach may be taken by EQ2 to cash shop revenue.

We need to diversify revenue stream.

I am not suggesting major restrictions but one feasible idea, for instance, is to lock F2P out of the Overseer feature. (A previous poster argued that the Overseer feature must be purchased in the cash shop for any accounts who have not purchased BoL in the future but I am doubtful). Devs could also lock F2P out of merc and familiar access, and limit flight of mounts.

Just curious if you have tried to play the game as a f2p here recently? I have 2 f2p accounts and 1 paid account, its horrid.

Edit: And Limiting flying mounts is only viable until overland expansions really. As for mercs. Mercs have changed the way low level content is played and most low levels are alts with mercs and with no need for other players so that leaves f2p hurting even more.

Case in point.

Don't you brag about having like 100+ Kronos on Skyfire?

The fact that you run only 1 All Access account and able to stash a hundred or more Kronos shows how flawed the system is.

Basically, F2P is so generous you just need 1 main (raider) All Access account while you can gear up alts and enjoy the rest of the game on F2P risk-free.

EQ2 could do what EQ1 does: create two tiers of mercenaries. F2P could get access to a weaker mercenary which would help with lower levels but not latest expansion content's solos. Flight could be disabled for the latest expansion only.

It would be great if tooltips, maps, etc. were updated. I do have to point out though, that the add-on you refer to is not a product of the game developers. It's dependent on crowd-sourced updates from players, and while there are a myriad of things that could be fixed/improved with questing, none of the things you describe actually have anything to do with the game itself. What you describe sounds more like a walk-through on an in-game screen (apologies if that's not what you intended to portray). If it makes you feel better, "back in the day" walkthroughs were much more limited, and I don't believe the map mod was even available until several months after release (early-mid 2005, I think?). Quest help came from other players via various game chat channels, guild chat, etc., and some of the more involved lines took weeks if not months to complete.

Again, the map mod you refer to is a community-driven project. DPG is not about to hire people to fix something they don't even produce/support (especially when they're cutting costs wherever possible, like customer support.) You can review the FAQ and how-to for EQ2Maps to learn how to correct/submit POI's as a "helper," though! (Also, I'm not sure how them spending more resources on fixing maps applies to the free to play model?)

Crafting is severely broken, no argument there. Itemization also has problems, and I don't believe the current system would allow what you describe without a major revamp. The overhead for every possible item / combination would be staggering, and beyond the limited resources DPG has available. It's an interesting idea; perhaps a way for the different crafters to create augments (outfitters create augments for Armor, Scholars create overclocked adorns or something, and craftsmen create... an armchair with never-ending cupholders? Or another house item that provides a minor buff of some sort?)

Again, I'm not sure how that applies to the F2P model, though.

Everyone is saying I shouldn't compare EQ2 to EQ1's subscription model.

However, that's the problem.

The current subscription model (between both games) gains revenue from boxing (running multiple accounts).

However, it is only EQ1 where this model is successful: individuals subscribing to multiple accounts (some individuals at 6 All Access accounts or more on EQ1). How many times do you hear an EQ2 player subbing on 3 accounts? Almost never.

EQ2's F2P model needs adjustments to encourage membership on multiple accounts (e.g. "next level of play" tier on EQ1).

Probably got a lot of flack from players, as well. Anytime an increase in sub is mentioned people come down from the mountains screaming. It happens every so often <grin>. AND the idea of an increase in the game right now when so many people are out of work, yes, we read about it daily, would NOT be a great idea on any point. Seriously, if the CFO is complaining, well dude/dudette, take a cut in salary and donate the difference to development. You KNOW you are making more than any developer. /my few cents

The amount of kronos I have or how they are used is not the discussion. I am paying for my account actually, instead of using kronos, even though its no business of yours.

My other 2 accounts were made to create my one man guild and are hardly ever played. I have one camped out outside of Nagafen's Lair for anyone needing to port down for the quest and the other isn't logged in, ever. One can only wonder why I don't sub the other 2 accounts with lvl 90ish toons...

The fact that people like you can sit on hundreds of Krono is at issue. That means the game's F2P model is so generous there's little movement in the volume of Krono (redemptions -> lower supply).

Edit: Your case is different than EQ1 TLPs where a few players have thousands of Kronos by monopolizing high demand TLP camps. Your case is like an EQ1 Live player sitting on hundreds of Kronos - which is almost never the case (because the Kronos are redeemed on multiple accounts).

You obviously have no idea how many kronos are actually purchased from their site and how many are moving around.

--- Thanks for the reply ---

My issue is...if players bring up the normal map, the quests they have should show up. Not only show up but are correct. No player should "have to" add any type of an add on to get help for a quest in game. The game is called EverQuest, lots of neat quests to do. Those quests should work straight off the bat. I'm aware of the add-on and it's a third party thing and DB isn't going to fix anything related to it. My point is … players shouldn't have to add on anything to the game to be able to do questing. When we hit letter "M" for map, BAM! Quests show.

- Crafting needs a major re-vamp. Totally on board.

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Out of curiosity, I'd like to know the numbers.

My suggestions if DPG were to consider revising the current F2P model would be:

• Level cap somewhere between 70-90: F2P accounts that currently exceed this cap are rolled back and given a 20-pack heritage crate bundle as compensation.
• Unlimited access to all chat channels: It's an MMO, communication should be encouraged, not limited.
• Restricted from owning any houses
• Change guide event/quest rewards to include the Prestige tag: This way players on F2P accounts (whether by choice or current economic circumstance) can still complete the quests and obtain rewards, that are then immediately available if they elect to go All-Access in the future.
• Change the harvest bag, Hand of the Maker, and similar items to have the Prestige tag: Again, F2P players can complete these quest lines, and gain the benefits upon becoming All-Access members.

I would also package this with a complete revamp of the marketplace (lower DBC costs across the board, increase All-Access "discount" to 20%), based on an independent projection of how the changes to the F2P model would affect All-Access subscription numbers. If you wanted to go really "hardcore," slap the Prestige tag on all flying mounts, too.

I think it's all pretty much moot at this point, and would probably fall into the "too little, too late" category.

If there is a large volume of unredeemed Kronos in circulation then we are waiting for the big sell-off. This would actually destroy subscription revenue as Kronos are sold for pennies. Kronos (7m on Skyfire) are probably as high as they are because of plat dupes. Therefore, it would be better to restrict F2P some to get redemptions moving.