Celebrating Frostfell with Sales and a bonus!

Discussion in 'News and Announcements' started by dreamweaver, Dec 13, 2019.

  1. Dahaman Augur

    I bought a lifetime sub last December for one of my two box accounts. I subsequently started up a 3rd box in January because I was use to paying for two subs at that point. And I'm now buying bags on the lifetime sub account.

    Off me, they had their cake and ate it too... and there is icing on that cake!
  2. Herf Augur

    If there's no code to allow XP bonus restricted to certain servers, how about giving us some XP pots on TLP servers? Particularly Agnarr.
  3. Tanacious Lorekeeper

    I saw couple of people flaming this, and about the only reason I can see is that they are multi-box players that have pocket group configurations and overlay proggies to help them. In addition to that, they probably have much more time than the average person if they have all that set up.

    There is a lot of truth in this comment, it is very passionate too, but I will get to that in just a minute.

    For some reason, the mentality ever since about just prior to the DBG takeover is that if all the players are max level we will just all stop playing. This couldn't be further from the truth.

    Having been a player that was not only top 10 world ranked at one point, but also capped at max level for the longest time before the jump to 80, it took me 8 months of straight every day raiding/grouping and self progression to come within about maybe 2 or 3 months of having my character flagged for EVERYTHING and done with every progression type quest, and then the next expansion and cap increase to 80 came. That was back when I was just barely out of being a teenager and had much more time than I have now, along with having no offspring yet to distract me. On top of this, there were very few "shortcuts" like there are myriad of now, so yes, all done the "long" way.

    I also played the "off hours" with the Russians, Chinese, Romanians and all the other top ranked players, and they too were all very close to being completely "done", but not quite there.

    This also is with having a character that is almost old enough to walk into a bar and have a drink in RL, so the flaming trolls on here saying that what we are asking for is ridiculous, or we're babies or whatever, they seem to have no clue what it means to be fully progressed. Most characters in existence now are boxes that were all PL, non progressed up to 110 so they could support a main character. Sometimes even the main character is an empty 110 that started "heroically" at level 85. I still chuckle at that reference, "heroic lazy wallet warrior" is what someone humorously called it in game chat once.

    The reason why we ask for XP bonus is because AA's are easy to get, but that scale of "easy" is like taking a coffee cup to fill up an Olympic size swimming pool (300,000 gallons) from a sink right next to it. If it's a paid account, then you get a 5 gallon bucket to fill with, but it's still going to take a while.

    With an active AA bonus where we can stack a XP potion or 10 with it, we now have a garden hose we can screw to the sink faucet, and improved water pressure. It will still take a while, but at that rate you might get a decent amount of water in it.

    Sales are how any company temporarily boosts their income ratio, and I will get to more of that later on below.

    I concur with this also. Presently there are over 25 million games (Wiki stats 2018) in existence between all platforms that have some form of purchase within the game. That's A LOT of other "paint" stores. The online gaming industry is almost a 10 billion dollar industry now, in just a short 20 years.

    Prior to that the offline gaming industry of the mid 90's and before was maybe, and I mean maybe 10 MILLION. I'd have to go look to be sure, but it never did very well which is why a lot of companies were hesitant to dabble in games. It is now the complete opposite, and you have everyone down to independent developers making online games, usually with a form of repeat or micro transaction embedded into the game play.

    Legacy games, such as EQ, EQ2, WoW, Diablo 2/3, etc. etc. are a different kind of beast. Many online games similar to these have come and gone for a variety of reasons, but the originals have stood the test of time, whether through sheer "willpower" and taking their losses with their gains, or from being moderately profitable. (1 dollar profit with all costs covered is still profit.)

    But the interesting thing about legacy games is the player base has aged considerably, and therefore the offerings that once were popular are now no longer so. As with the analogy with the paint store, we as adults now let our children, some of them teenagers to almost fully grown (or beyond), play the games with us. Depending on your walk of life, you may or may not have the funds to purchase things for their account that you did for yours (where applicable) to increase their "enjoyability" factor of the game you grew up on. They then go check out another "paint store" because they don't have the "cool stuff" that mom/dad has.

    A BLAH% off sale has zero interest for me if not coupled with an XP bonus. I personally have always thought, even since the inception of the station/DGB cash, that virtually all but a few things for consumable (in one form or another) use items were highly overpriced and that Sony seriously missed the mark with this. DBG has not done much better in rectifying that situation because it seems they believe SOE had a functional working income model for whatever reason. (Either that or they are just too lazy/overworked to review and make changes, or don't possess the coding ability at worst)

    Millions of EQ players, both current and retired know that this isn't the case. Whereas there are some things on the store that are reasonably priced, there are other things that make zero sense when you equate it to real world cost. Graphical items, house items, and other cosmetic things really have ZERO value to any player, save for those truly bored and rich people, because they provide no benefit to your character with only a few classification exceptions.

    The easiest thing to do to change those classification/value of items would be to have ALL of them give bonuses to one thing or another, on a scale of accordant pricing. So if I buy this 5000 DBG cash house item, I get a portal that allows me to pick a zone to port to. If I buy the 3000 DBG cash one, I get a "stone-free" porter like the guild portal, and so on and so forth. This of course isn't limited to functional items, there could also be permanent xp bonus items or items that kick you out an adventure potion everyday, or basically anything else to give it the value of what you are asking for in DBG cash.

    Right now as it stands though, a "Sale" on DBG cash items means maybe a few potion or bag purchases, as well as a mount here and there, provided the player was already looking at purchasing the item, and has a paid sub account where the cash is provided monthly. They may or may not supplement their DBG cash supply, based on desire and how much they have saved already.

    I would be really surprised if DBG took in more than 100K a day in DBG cash sales from more than 20% of it's player base. Since they don't provide those stats, I am shooting some random numbers out there based on best guest estimations on what costs what from just the players I see and what they talk about. It could be a little more than that, but with 1 DBG cash = 1 USc, a thousand USD a day from 20% of the population would be the minimum DBG would need to operate semi effectively like it does presently.

    As I mentioned earlier, there are very few consumable or cosmetic items that I feel are worth a real USD in game. Even with my sub discount, that is still 90 cents for a 10% potion of adventure which won't do crap to help you level/gain AA faster, at least not noticeably. (Slightly bigger coffee cup?)

    The 4000 DBG (40 USD, or the cost of more than 2 Krono) will get you a 75% potion that will make it noticeable, or you could just buy and use the 2 Krono and get a 20% XP pot and get the same amount of EXP (or more) over time.

    So when we all say that a "sale" means nothing to us. This is why. A Krono discount might mean a little to those that buy to use for their sub account time, but mostly this sale will benefit Krono resellers in game that sell them for plat, and then buy more in game for less than what they sold it for.

    My suggestion, not that any Dev or anyone important reads this, is that you fix that issue. Make the items you sell for DBG cash worth the purchase, or reduce the price of the items.

    More volume of sales = more profit = more improvements to the QoL of the game = more players = more volume of sales.
    (DBG cash items are likely pure profit to begin with, when not considering employee/ digital maintenance wages)

    It's a pretty simple formula, and I have seen thousands of requests for it over the years, but it always seems that they listen to 10 or 20 "whale" type players that have no concept of what the average joe player wants. But I know that there are some of us out there that choose not to be these "whale" players also, as we don't believe in pay to win, we just want to enjoy our game we've played for a decent chunk of our lives.
    Pay to enhance, sure, for a modest price. But with the cost being what it is, I myself don't even see the point of buying an expensive bottle of champagne for doing something as mundane as laundry. This is akin to what buying a shared bottle of XP is in game right now. You have to group everyday to make progress, whether an organic group or boxed one. (I guess if you really like your expensive champagne while doing laundry, you go for it you lush you. LOL.)

    So to bring this back to my original post, yes an XP bonus would be greatly appreciated because it is something useful to just about everyone, and would probably also make those of us able to consider buying some xp pots or something else on sale because now there is added value to those purchases thanks to an existing XP bonus. We aren't going to quit when we get to max level, although there are players that do, but every business and industry has those, you can't make the rules after the exceptions. That is what lead to SoE's downfall, and what will lead to the downfall in many businesses, and has been a factor in business since ancient times. Well, that and being out of touch with what the main portion of your customer base wants. (And I mean the real ancient times, Eygpt, Rome, like circa B.C. ancient times, not the digital game ancient times.)

    But don't take my word for it. I only started a company on pocket change and willpower based on community feedback and complaints about existing businesses. In less than 5 years I put the horrible "competitors" out of business, have existing agreements with the rest to have them send jobs they can't or won't do over to me, and now run a multi million dollar corporation. I may have gotten lucky, as it's a crap shoot for starting a business anymore, but I'd like to think I at least know how to maintain and grow one. Maybe that's a little ego talking, but I did do all of that on my own because it was the logical choice to do so.

    By comparison, the money is there in the online gaming industry, if you aren't getting a decent slice of it, you have to ask yourself why, and what can you do to change that? Seems fairly obvious to me.

    In present context with an XP bonus flowing, we are far more likely to make a micro-transaction that stacks and boosts that existing xp bonus at full price, rather than only buy a chinsy xp potion at a reduced price. By base logic deduction, the likely hood is increased by the % of the sale (so 30%) that we would buy 1 or multiples (multi loosely based on individual player disposable income status) of said XP potion during an XP bonus boost. But the latter way you are "doubling down" on the offering being a multiple chance sale because you are twice boosting the value, both with a free offering of XP bonus, and then reduced price micro-transaction items.

    By contrast, a rare item drop boost, that is barely described at best as to what exactly the boost is to, has no factor in increasing the probability of a micro-transaction. We already have to kill a few million mobs or so to get to max lvl/max aa, so we will get the drops with increased boost to drops or not eventually. This is similar to taking a trivial repeat quest that you don't need. You are there to kill the mobs and grind, might as well get some alt currency/faction/quest reward xp etc. etc. at the same time, although not the primary objective of your "session". So unless we were given the option to purchase an unlimited clicky instant death-to-the-mob item, this bonus is superfluous at best and won't influence additional sales one way or the other.

    Don't get me wrong, I mean thank you for that bonus, and maybe something really cool like a Krono will drop, but the other "rare" items aren't really rare when you drop at least one item off a named mob every time you kill it. Sure you may not get the item you wanted, but you or someone else will kill the named mob every time it pops and eventually it will be your turn to kill it when it drops it. That's what gives the seeming "randomness" to an RPG. (Although I will definitely try to kill my Gnoll Brewer if I can so I can finally put that quest to bed after a decade or so)

    Hope that sheds some light on why I initially asked for it. And if nothing else will probably give a few more pages of argument...lol.

    P.S. To the last person that reported one of my posts to Dreamweaver.... if you can't handle factual based opinions, a bit of harsh reality, and some stuff flung right back with evidence and resources to support the rebuttal, you probably want to just message me next time. I freely share my knowledge & experiences, as I am a scholar first before a businessman or politician. I enjoy debate, and I would take the time to help you build up your skin a little bit. I always expect EVERYONE to disagree with me, and welcome factual retorts. After all, my posts are my drawn conclusions, not everyone else's. That way I am always pleasantly surprised when others agree too.

    I get it though. Some of us have 2 decades of money, emotion, and what have you into our characters and games. It's hard to remember it is a company being a business and remaining objective about it, and I am sure they appreciate your loyalty. But remember that in lots of historical cases, blind loyalty and faith ended in disaster. When you temper that loyalty and faith with objectivity and logic, you create both weapon and shield against oppression and inequality. In present text, I can appreciate both player base spectrum of desires, as well as business endeavors of DBG, although some actions by them more recently have left me scratching my head wondering why they are doing some of the same things SoE did back in the day. I sure others have wondered the same too.
    Enione and Herf like this.
  4. CrazyLarth Augur

    Their will be exp bonus in 2020 just like last year. I think the 1st one is around the
    Anniversary
  5. NemesisOfSeth New Member

    This is all fun and great and all, but last year you did life time memberships, which most of us weren't ready for. I paid for this account and added two additional accounts which i never pay for, nor would ever pay for more than a month to auto grant aa's to my boxes. Well this year i came ready i have 2,000 bucks sitting in my pocked and i was hopping to add my other 5 accounts which I would also never pay for, since they are just box's for added fun / support. With that being said life time was a great deal and i was hoping to use this money to add those 5 accounts this year. Please go talk to your higher ups before you respond. If your not going to open lifetime this year like you did last year then ill just go buy a new computer with my money. Thanks Hope you have a great Christmas! Long Live Everquest!

    Oh one more thing, if you guys want to make a little more money, fix some of the small things likw how ornamental gear looks like crap on Drakins. Invest time in creating more ornamental tings: weapons gear, & expanding housing areas. I know many don't care about housing, but for those of us who are a little bat-pooh crazy like me. We buy lots of things from DB store for housing. I would focus more on weapons and gear and housing last but, you get what i am saying. Those of use who have been around since 1999 beta or who come and go to and from this game love our characters and invest serious time and money into making them look as best as they can. Thanks for listening.

  6. Imukai Augur

    Add me to the seemingly growing list of people that want to see a new batch of lifetime made available. I grabbed 2 last year and have 2-3 this year in my household that I might as well make permanent at this point too.
  7. taliefer Augur

    well this thread spiraled out of control pretty quickly.

    i just want an exp bonus.

    if you cant see why they cant offer lifetime subs every year...just yea. that wasnt going to ever happen.
    Herf likes this.
  8. Saer-tse-tao Journeyman

    Please clarify the Dark Elf Heritage Crate and Golden Armor "bonus". My questions are:
    1. These can only be bought between 12/20 and 12/26? This might be a silly question, but I do not understand why theres a limited window?
    2. This is not meant to troll, but I feel it should be said: How is offering something for sale a "bonus"?
    3. Will any info be available regarding these two items? If so when?
    Other than that I think these are fantastic bonuses! I really am happy with the Krono discount as this is the first time I have seen them included in any kind of sale.
    Always a fan of increased rare spawns. I like to complete everything I can and this helps a ton when going back to older content (Not to mention meeting all req's for the gloves!) Would have been a lot nicer to offer the marketplace items during the sale though!!
    Last note, DBG has certainly addressed the customer relations and communications side this year. It is something many including myself have complained about. While its certainly not perfect it is much better and gratifying to see a company listen to its customer base. So KUDOS to DBG this holiday season!!
    -Saerza, Enchantress of FV
  9. dreamweaver Community Manager


    The Dark Elf Heritage Crate and Golden Armor being sold are more of a sale, since they go up for purchase at limited times.

    The bonus is the Rare Spawn increase.
    Saer-tse-tao and Jondalar like this.
  10. Saer-tse-tao Journeyman

    The bonus is the Rare Spawn increase.[/quote]

    Nah the true bonus is the vast improvements to customer relations this year!:) Thank you Dreamweaver!!

    -Saerza, Enchantress of FV
    dreamweaver likes this.
  11. Corwyhn Lionheart Guild Leader, Lions of the Heart

    He is being responded to and corrected because he incorrectly flames DBG because they aren't giving him an exp bonus.

    Now for the record I am pro exp bonus and have been for every exp bonus this year up to and including the last one and I have been max aa and level exp for half the year. But regardless of me being maxed I think exp bonuses should still be given.

    Ranting about a marketplace discount because it doesn't have an accompanying exp bonus is just ridiculous.

    And just like marketplace sales may have no interest to you because you want exp you can also see that exp bonuses may not have any interest to those who are maxed in exp.

    Exp bonues are good. Sales bonuses are good. Bonuses should not be rated or ranted on based on any one individuals needs. Its a bonus. Use the bonus or do not use the bonus. Just don't whine about the bonus. Please and thank you.
    Skuz and OldCa61 like this.
  12. Kevron Journeyman

    No bonus XP is quite disappointing. I stockpile my potions for these bonus times and was looking forward to grinding while I had time off work. Please reconsider.
    Herf likes this.
  13. globeadue Lorekeeper



    So what is it?
    +50% Rare spawns as you updated your original post here from +50% Rare Item Drops
    or
    +50% Rare Item Drops as posted/referenced from the release email that just went out today with subject "Torment of Velious Out Now!" that pointed to this url that states Item Drops...
    https://www.everquest.com/news/tempting-treasures-eq-dec-2019
    Herf likes this.
  14. dreamweaver Community Manager


    It should be rare spawns it looks like the email was not updated along with the article. The post is the correct bonus.

    Thank you for pointing out the post, I will edit.
    Saer-tse-tao likes this.
  15. Risiko Augur

    No bonus experience this Christmas just means I can spend more time doing non-Everquest stuff I guess. Disappointed, but really I have a stack of games on the shelf in my backlog of games I need to get to at some point. This just encourages me to see which ones I can complete instead of playing EverQuest.
    Herf and Yallgottadobetter like this.
  16. dreamweaver Community Manager


    When you come back let us know which ones you were able to get through! I always love backlog stories.
  17. Risiko Augur

    The list is insanely long at this point >.<

    Just off the top of my head, I still need to complete Red Dead Redemption 2 (PS4), Persona 5 (PS4), Pokemon Sword (Switch), and Witcher 3 (Switch).

    Then there's the whole pile of games I bought and never actually played. That list is longer than anyone would ever want to admit to having lol.

    Also, there's the new Stardew Valley update that I need to download and play through on the Switch. I truly LOVE this game. Anybody that hasn't played Stardew Valley before is missing out.

    Last but not least, there's the new games I will be getting (er buying for myself) including Luigi's Mansion 3 (Switch) and Links Adventure (Switch).

    In fact, if y'all could hold off bonus experience, releasing new expansions, opening old expansions on TLP servers, and, of course, opening new TLP servers for... let's say... two years, I could maybe kinda possibly get through half of my game backlog list. /sigh...
    dreamweaver likes this.
  18. dreamweaver Community Manager


    I'm not sure I can hold it off that long, but good luck! That backlog is filled with some amazing games.
    Saer-tse-tao and Grove like this.
  19. Groans Augur

    This is what you reply to with 50 post irate over no XP bonus...... Great community management here its like we arent being heard at all Holly 2.0 in charge here.
    Herf likes this.
  20. Benito EQ player since 2001.

    Will the 30% off member marketplace sale apply to expansion purchases?

    I know it probably won't but worth asking. :)