Undiscussed Major Flaw with Krono's Tokens -- F2P plat Cap

I agree.

Logic is not the best term. Logic does not predict the future. Logic doesn't determine income (in abstract). Logic doesn't determine available playtime (at all). FTP gaming is cheaper than a subscription if one doesn't play much over an extended time period. FTP gaming is more expensive if you play a lot all at once.

Hindsight is 20/20. A FTP player can look back over any given one, three, six, or twelve month period and say to themself, "Gee, I played more and / or accomplished more than I thought I would. It would have been cheaper to go Gold." Regarding EQ and it's blended subscription model, that potential risk avoidance is EXACTLY was FTP gamers KNOW they are paying a premium for.

Again, I agree.

This further solidifies the argument IN FAVOR of providing unlockers. How does one get a Silver account closer to Gold ... By spending money!

Granted, the OP was asking for an arbitrary change to plat limits; however, my point of view is regarding unlockers. I wholeheartedly understand the Gold objection to "gimme stuff for free."

I don't understand the Gold objection to "gimme stuff to pay for."

You don't need to predict the future, your example included a race and class unlock and then since you're talking about a new character you have a huge benefit from J1 over A3 merc for the first month. The only logical course of action would have been to pay for Gold instead of those unlockers. While Gold make Level 1 characters of every race/class combo you will likely want to play.

Now in the future you might decide you want an Iksar Necro and delete the Troll Shaman at which point logic would again come along and say, just buy another month of Gold.

I'm not objecting to plat unlockers being sold in the Marketplace, I'm simply explaining why they won't likely offer a plat cap unlocker and how to get around the plat cap limit for the sake of Krono or for any other reason.

but just buying another month of gold doesn't unlock race class combos if you drop back to silver. it say you don't make as much next month and have to drop your sub, that character is locked until you either unlock it or resub.

The same player if they just bought the unlockers has them forever on that character or account and can look like a bad investment yet a player like the one stated a that payed $112 in 3 months can get by not spending a dime for the rest of the year and still spend less than a recurring gold membership. and thats not taking advantage of any triple or double SC offers. or even the extra 500sc walmart offer either. so with walmart cards and a triple sc day you can spend $30 to get that same character in the same 3 months if you plan ahead. while the recurring sub in that same time would have been $45. so which one looks logical now?

for people with fluctuating income or playtime, ftp is a better option. pay more when you want to play more or have more to pay. and less when you want to play less or have less time.

Thats not true, I was not asking for that.

I was asking SOE to reinvestigate the way F2P players can purchase tokens from Bazaar or Offline Traders, since plat limits would likely make buying the Tokens impossible for the expected prices unless they were person to person trades. You made an assumption, which was wrong.

My entire goal here is to come up with a way, that Free to Play accounts, can make secure, unattended trades for the tokens, from Bazaar or Offline Vendors. Which make the purchases easier and will result in more sales and BIGGER revenue for SOE. I want SOE to make money as I stated before. This has nothing to do with expanding the plat limits for just the sake of getting for free. If you can come up with a better idea, that doesnt include banking cash on alts, buying stacks of tradables at a loss or some other method that prohibits one stop unattended purchases i and many others are all ears and certainly want to hear them.

This is why their slogan should change from "Free to play. Your way." to "Free to play. Sort of.".

It wouldn't make much of a difference if they just removed the plat cap. About the most expensive thing you can buy that you can equip when silver is Abstruse so silvers can't do much with any plat they amass anyway. May've missed something here. But I expect those whose idea the cap was may be missing something too: There will always be a way around the limit. Even some not mentioned here that I've seen. It's a vaguely obnoxious speedbump.

Simplicity in this can only help everyone. If freebies can't buy Krono with plat, that's less money to be made. Besides, having such limits on what can be bought and then equipt, even if people did hoarde plat when what they can buy/use is 'capped', being able to spend what they've earned and saved on things they can use will be more incentive to become gold.

Thumbs up, original poster.

Thom posted this on Twitter about an hour ago. Thank you Thom for putting this issue on the table and looking into a solution before this goes live

Thom Terrazas‏@ThomTerrazas

@everquest Regarding Krono and Plat limits, we'll take a look at that when we get closer to implementation to see if we will change anything

Hopefully the change will be another way to buy Kronos in the game or a decently high priced account wide or lower priced per character unlock.

Krono are live on the eq2 server. they can't be bought with sc. if you click on them, you are taken to another browser window in which you can buy krono for 17.99 - or you can buy larger quantities and get the price break. this is where the "or less" comes in. No, krono is not the most viable way to get your subscription. If the hold-back is real money for the ftp player, and plat is definitely capped with no way to lift that restriction without going gold, then krono is not the most cost effective way to pay for a subscription. If someone doesn't want a recurring subscription, they can buy game cards at the same price as a subscription and save money while being able to control what months they will be ftp and what months they will be gold.

Krono, however, are a great way to make plat ingame. if you want the plat, do you really care who buys it? even game cards sold ingame are only sold to people who can give 150k for them - without worrying about f2p not being able to buy them. In eq2, considering that the money standards are hugely different than eq1, the lowest i have seen the krono are 500p. and no, a silver player isn't able to buy them.

I'm sorry but you are mistaken. Your accounts which went from gold to silver didn't have the plat you thought. I have had this exact thing happen and you do not in any way lose any plat. You simply cannot increase what you already had If you have plat in your normal bank over the limit or on your person over the limit you get to keep it fine.

Now the plat in escrow that maybe a totally different situation. The game would likely see it coming back to the player as new money and destroy it.

Point being that you do not lose plat you have when you downgrade. You are simply unable to acquire any new money until you are back under the plat cap.

As far as the conversion rate between plat to items to plat; there are some already in game which do have the same buy and sell values for those with 135+ charisma, but those items tend to be very low value and thus not good as a plat shelter. I think that the addition of a high value item like that would be what the F2P & Silver crowds have needed in EQ since we went F2P. The amount of plat in game is too high and bazaar prices have not moved down at all that I can see.

They were saying the person took the money out of escrow and it got destroyed.

I didnt know i hit the limit on one of my ftp until i went to sell out my bags, and started getting a message that i was getting shorted from the merchant.
Bought stack of diamonds that always seem to be on merchants in common areas, and banked it for a later day.

you are making a lot of assumptions. I was ftp on lotro for awhile. the reason i went gold was because it was cheaper than paying for all of the quest packs that i had to pay for even after buying the latest expansions. yeah, as ftp i could get the expansions, but not the quests. this was after i had paid for removing the gold cap, 2 new character slots, opening all of my bags, and in general bringing all of my accounts up to the same level as gold. but the quest packs were not sold by expansion, they were sold by zone. that got way expensive.

in eq, there are so many things you don't get when you are silver and there is no payment that can unlock them- such as bag slots, plat caps, etc. you can buy your character slots, and have access to quests through buying expansions. however, there are a lot of other items that a ftp player spends their money on. whatever their main objections to going gold may be, and for some it may be that they are unable to play as much as they would like rather than lacking money, i assure you that the reason soe went ftp was because it pays much better than subscription games do. they didn't do it out of the kindness of their hearts so that more people could afford to play. there will always be a few, like kids who can't get mom to pay for a subscription, who are really ftp or silver and don't buy anything,. but they are way in the minority. the sc bought by ftp alone will way outstrip subscriptions. money is money and no matter which way they get it, soe is in the business of making money. you are not subsidizing ftp, they are subsidizing you. without them and their created cashflow, sony would no longer be able to afford the game. before ftp came along, soe was losing customers, not gaining them. the influx of customers raised the cashflow.

the ftp model has become the biggest moneymaker gaming has ever had and that is why it is the preferred model in today's games.

what difference does it make how soe makes their money? green is green. a krono bought for 17.99 and sold to a ftp for diamonds, is still 17.99 in soe's pocket, which is higher than you pay for your gold subscription. the whole principle of it is that this is a way for soe to make more money. and in the process more people get to play gold because they don't have to pay cash for it. and even those who are already gold but not on a recurring subscription will see it as a way to get their subscription paid with plat, just as they did when buying gamecards each month and risking being scammed. so whether one person is paying for a gamecard or krono and another person is getting that item with plat, soe still got their money from the gamecard or the krono. what difference does it make who uses the item? it was paid for with real money to begin with.

there is something i really don't understand. i have heard gold players say repeatedly that ftp players hurt their game. how exactly do ftp players hurt the game? how do they adversely affect the game? isn't it a simple matter of preferred gameplay? if i choose to play my game my own way, how does that affect how you enjoy your game? isn't this a matter of a control issue? always wanting to control how other people spend their money, how other people play their game, etc. if joebob spends all of his money shopping for household items and you prefer to to invest yours, how does that affect you? and if i spend my game doing tradeskills with minimal leveling, how does that affect you? and if i choose to do leveling with no tradeskills? if i pay for my subscription with game cards or krono and yours is a monthly subscription, what is the difference? if i choose silver and you have gold, how is that any skin off your back? i simply don't understand why it is such a big deal to people whether someone is silver, ftp or gold. a game is a game. how we play it or what model we choose is our business. there is no sign over anyone's head saying silver or ftp or gold. the issue here in this forum is not whether this is a free country where people have a right to choose, but whether we can have a viable market for our krono to the silver and ftp crowd.

one misunderstanding on your part-- although i like your reasoning. krono can not be purchased wiht sc. you are directed to another site, where you buy it for cash - not sc,. so a triple sc day won't give you a cheaper way to buy krono. you still have to fork over 17+ for it plus tax

right on!!!

yeah and one way around it is to buy a house, put your money in escrow- it is there until you need it - assuming you log in once every 3 months- you just can't take the whole bit out at once or you will lose whatever is over your limit.

Yay post count!

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=523996