In this article http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/1...georgeson-on-the-business-side-of-the-eq-fra/ It says The last expansion (maybe) Next, Georgeson talked about expansions vs. regular updates. SOE has been trying to get away from doing large expansions and instead move toward smaller and more regular game updates. The problem was that over the past year, the team has been working hard on shoring up the core of the game, like revamping the PvP system tuning the Dungeon Maker. The devs can't charge for those, so they had to turn to an expansion as their revenue source this year. That means Chains of Eternity should be the last official expansion pack. Players will still get new content, but it will be as part of free game updates, and it will arrive on a more regular schedule than the yearly expansion cycle. In short, the goal is to give the content away for free and let you pay for the entertainment you get from playing. Will this be the same for EQ???? Does this mean that our subscriptions will be going up as they won't be getting the revenue from selling expansions? If its free content does that mean even those on F2P get it? This really doesn't sound like a viable practice.
I imagine it means you will get content free, but have to pay for features, so imagine more feature additions like Hero's Forge to replace the expansion costs (or instead of 40$ in one expansion they release 4 features a year, maybe 8 more bank slots for 10$ to cover the missing expansion price, etc) Keep in mind he also said they were still talking about it and it's not guaranteed, etc
In EQ 2 they are doing small updates in between for a long time now, so there are new things more often. I like this to be honest, it is better than beating an expansion and then farm for 6 month or even longer. And you do not pay for the small updates.
seems to be the way of the future, I know some of the other mmo's I play they tend to be going to monthly (or so) updates with maybe one or two new play areas and a few new events added... it is kind of nice as you get a constant stream of new things to do and not get the "well that expansions is done, now for a 6 month wait till the next one!" feeling.
Can we get this expansion for free and pay for the features No interest whatsoever in the agro meter or off line trader !
With as long as it takes to get some stuff done I'm not sure they have the resources to pull something like monthly content off.
this "Sounds" goodi mean if i get it right yould pay for the agrometter IF you want it but not for zones which is good but will ya have to pay for leveling to max ? shrug anyway id rather pay in chunks for stuff i mean a aggro meter isnt all that useful to me
They did say that EQ would continue to have expansions, from what I remember of all of the presentations.
I've always liked this model. Lineage 2 has done this forever. It does seem the way to run an MMO though. Trickle out the game feature updates quarterly to try to keep the player base there consistently instead of the game being a ghost town 6 months after an expansion hits.
I seriously doubt this happens with eq. The hard core of the population is going to shell out $40 a pop for expansion and on top of that often pay more for extra stuff. They are different games and a lot of the subscribers between the games do not overlap in terms of type of players.
i have seen a few posts that soe would like to get away from just making content that will be burned through in a few months. of the kill - loot - level grind. that re-invisioned EQnext will be "the biggest MMO" sandbox type game. following the ftp model and player controlled like EVE online. i just hope that it doesnt take another 2 years of waiting for something new. and that it will meet expectations and be a place that we would be happy to join. 20 expansions is a long and glorious run for a game and i look forward to continuing the adventure in an even better everquest.
Aye ever since convo was delayed I really thought this was a good idea. No matter how much they release at once it'll be eaten up in much less than a year. The idea of periodic updates would be nice. I know I'm always entertained by the anniversary stuff and that kind of thing. Updates along those lines would honestly satisfy me personally (although i'd hope they would be a little tougher raids sometimes).
Aggro meter is not something I'd want as an optional feature. Some people really need that and I'm not going to count on them paying cash for it. I expect some folks will continue to pull aggro even with the meter. Glad they're adding the feature nonetheless.
It will be interesting to see how much content the less than a dozen probably eq devs can push out. But yes, I believe this was talked about a while ago how they will do away with full expansions and put out updates and charge for features. BTW Numiko...where's Sumiko?!?
I am quite sure there will be a 20th expansion and most likely a 21st as well, after that who knows. As someone else alluded to, EQ2 has had adventure packs and non-expansion content patches almost since its inception, so for them this change is not that huge of a step. With EQ however, with the exceptions of Odus and Jaggedpine Forest, there were almost no content additions made that were not tied to an expansions launch or the lead up to it.
They've continually come out and said: As long as the expansions keep selling, they will keep making them.
The Hole, Warrens, Jaggedpine. Then wasn't Plane of Hate/fear put in midway through expansions and revamped hate as well? Epics came late into kunark as well iirc when the Hole was released. I don't remember exactly but way way back I do remember having a decent amount of stuff just pop into the game. of course all of that was like 10 years ago =b
I feel their should be a 20th expansion and then move to regular content releases, charge for services. This would actually give devs / coders more time to actually develop then trying to rush to release content in mass. I also think the 20th expansion or the 15th Anniversary of EQ should revamp all original EQ content zones for cosmetic updates to current graphics and coding so things can be added later on a whime. Taking into consideration of the time probably needed this wont happen but heres to hoping! (not like they did for freeport) If they do mini-expansions every 6 months that are around $10 to $20 people would jump on that pretty easily. I am a graphical person and I look at things with low polycount or low pixels and just go "ugh". Below are a list of the old world zones that either have not been updated or have and I just havent visited them in a long time. •Befallen •Blackburrow •Cazic-Thule •Clan RunnyEye •East Karana •Erud's Crossing •Everfrost Peaks •Gorge of King Xorbb (Beholder's Maze) •Grobb •Halas •High Keep •Infected Paw •Innothule Swamp •Kithicor Forest •Lair of the Splitpaw •Lake Rathetear •Lower Guk •Misty Thicket •Mountains of Rathe •Nagafen's Lair (Solusek B) •Najena •Neriak Commons •Neriak Foreign Quarter •Neriak Third Gate •North Karana •North Qeynos •Ocean of Tears •Oggok •Permafrost Keep •Qeynos Catacombs •Qeynos Hills •Rivervale •Solusek's Eye (Solusek A) •South Karana •South Qeynos •South Ro •Temple of Solusek Ro •The Arena •The Feerrott •The Forgotten Halls •The Jaggedpine Forest •Upper Guk •West Freeport •West Karana •Erudin •Erudin Palace •Paineel •Stonebrunt Mountains •The Warrens •Toxxulia Forest •Ak'Anon •Castle Mistmoore •Crushbone •Estate of Unrest •Greater Faydark •Kedge Keep •Lesser Faydark •North Kaladim •Northern Felwithe •South Kaladim •Southern Felwithe
