The semantics of what constitutes "Pay to Win" aside, I think the really disappointing factor here is that among all the options they have to devote their design/coding/QA to they decided to do this instead of focusing on some actual in-game content or game improvements.
This is my biggest issue too. I've always been saying things like "the developers are doing what they can with their resources." Now it's harder to believe that when something like this shows up. Can't we have an additional zone? Or a mini zone? A progression item like the Rallos earring?
100% agree with this as well. All the time spent on this junk should have been spent fixing the server lag. Of all the things you "could" quit this game over it being unplayable due to server side lag shouldn't be one of them.
Couple things. 1) I doubt “this” took as much time/resources as it would to implement a new zone and all that comes with that. I’m sure this was more of a side project than anything. And this leads into #2 2). Gotta spend money to make money. I’m on the fence about this whole thing. Will I use it? No probably not. Am I upset about it being implemented and available to others? Definitely not. If spending the resources on this project brings in more revenue for EQ, that’s a bonus. More revenue usually means more things for the player base. So if this side project takes off and does well, it very well may lead to more/bigger/better zones. On the flip side though, could flop and be a complete waste of whatever resources went into it Gotta keep an open/optimistic mind
Not upset by these "perks" more the denial of EQ not being P2W. Also, it's the fact that they're missing the mark with these concepts. Sure, sell them as standalone features throughout the year but they don't effectively monetize their player peaks. Player populations peak at expansion and TLP launches, and EQ misses revenue opportunities. A smart business looks at their retention trends and figures out how to pull more money from those peaks. Create sales bundles for example: 1) 6 month subscription, perks, and base expansion marketed in Oct/Nov for pre-orders 2) 6 month subscription, perks, and bags marketed in April/May around TLP launch and Anniversary Nobody makes money better than Blizzard. They entice people with digital goodies like mounts or armor to buy a 6 months of game time, when they might only play 2 months. They capture that revenue from the player peak, before the interest fades. Now, they added perks which have a real world value and in-game value that can be used to sweeten the pot. This current iteration feels like going down to a Gamestop and they're trying to throw all these add-ons at you.
So what do you do to intice those who have lifetime accounts? There was a time when each anniversary there would be an email sent out to all accounts, sometimes with a months free subscription, also at this time there were anniversary subscription reductions for yearly payment plans. These days new anniversary content isn't worth than thinking a day about. Long gone are the likes of the 13th anniversary where you had days worth of content to work through, these days you are lucky if it lasts a few hours. They could do a lot with the expansion releases, the removal of the preorders freebie was a bad idea, the ability to do beta just doesn't have the same draw. How many more would order early rather than wait if there was once again a cool reward for doing so?
In 2 years time we all will be very happy when playing with the "Hand of God"-perk and the "You lucky bastard"-perk. *Hand of God: 5,99/month (when getting below 0hps, the hand of God will reach down slaying you opponent and healing you" *You lucky bastard 5,99/month (when a mob is killed you get to choose from its loot table"
If you think this P2W is bad, you should try LotRO, or SWToR. LotRO is now owned by DBG, and they see how lucrative P2W is in that game, so they are perhaps testing the waters in this game, though they should have offered better "perks" as bait.
As someone who constantly struggles with inventory space and runs fully stocked traders when I'm not actually playing a character on the account this is to say the least not how I hoped bigger trader bags would be implemented.
Far and away one of the worst things for DPG was when the previous owners did this. While great for players, it is only financially good long term if the game ends in three years. It is now three years plus, and new ownership now realizes there are thousands of players not giving them any money. You are correct, they are hoping to get something out of these "lifers"
The only consolation I have is that perks will inevitably go the way of /pizza, /gems, LON, shrouds, and every other bad idea they've had over the years.
This has now been increased to 2 additional inventory slots instead of 1, it is a better deal now than it was, but I think I'd prefer to pay for the extra slots outright and not have to worry about what happens to the things in those slots should I ever decide to cancel. In a few months time I'm sure many would forget it was tied to a perk and cancel without thinking about the concequences. What happens to things in those 2 lots when the perk ends? When the perk ends what happens to the access to the 12 slot trader satchels? What happens to the 12 slot trader satchels you are using? Do they just lose 2 usable slots or does the whole bag become unusable?
they just increased are inventory space by like what 88 slots roughly for only 2.99 , but wait there's more ...
