I don't want a level change, unless they got rid of focus degradation. I just said that if it's not going to be a level raising expansion, then I really won't be forced to buy it, if I want to continue playing. I'm pretty much done with eq, was just hoping that the new expansion would inject some life into it for me. The only fun I have now is buying and selling gear, gearing up my characters, but the actual game really isn't that fun for me anymore. I just think it's kinda crazy to charge the price of a full game, for a part of an expansion. I'll save my $$ and buy a ps4 in a couple months for the price it would cost me for the expansion and one month paying for my accounts. A 14 yr old game should not be this expensive.
To the OP, a couple of things, 1 account, this game is not expensive; it becomes expensive when you play as you have with ___ # of accounts. That has nothing to do with SoE. When a 14 year old game continues to produce new content at the same rate (actually faster) than it did at the beginning, it is very much deserving of charging the price it does. The price it charges now is actually significantly cheaper than when SoE did 2 expansions a year. All that said, it sounds like you have admitted EQ is not really fun for you anymore. Taking a break may be a good thing.
Ok, so you don't really know what you want. And even a free expansion won't be enough to please you. /thread
Really stupid statement. Seriously. Do you understand that this is a business? That they pay salaries to employees? That they have administrative overhead costs like insurance, rent, etc? That they either house or pay for servers run by someone else? The fewer people playing this game mean less money they make now compared to prior years. General inflation means they are paying people more for the same job year to year. In what universe should the age of the game have anything to do with the production of a product and its cost? If you don't want to access the content, then don't buy the expansion. That's the long and short of it. Complaining about the cost is ridiculous, as the cost per unit time of entertainment is lower than just about anything else that isn't free. Maybe you think every year the game is out the devs and staff should take a pay cut because its "an old game" so that you can save 50 cents on a sub or 5 bucks on an expansion?
They dont have the staff that they had years ago. Hardware costs are much much cheaper now, bandwidth is much cheaper now. The game engine hasn't been really upgraded in years. Did you see T4 RoF zones?? What $10 am hour intern created those? I just think they should include these mini expansion sand features with the subscription price. Whatever, I'm not very concerned, just asked a question and got sucked into defending my opinion. Enjoy.
They also don't have the player base either. Cost vs income. I'm sure they aren't hurting however they are still a business and need to make a target in order to keep going...or none of us will be playing. When was the last time you went to a store, paid for something and some dude was at the front door saying "Pssstt...he man, you paid way too much for that, have a partial refund." Sounds pretty ridiculous doesn't it? That's because it is. You want to play, you gots to pay. That's how it works...end of story. I like a deal as much as the next guy, however without money feeding this beast, it'll starve and die out faster than it already is. So suck it up buttercup, either you pay or you don't. No one is pointing the proverbial "pay me or die" gun to your head to play this extremely cheap pastime.
You are implying that SOE's costs have gone down. You may be correct. You might not be. The only way to tell is to look at SOE's Financial Statements over the last 15 years. You give examples of how costs have gone down, but your examples are flawed. "They dont have the staff that they had years ago." This may be true, but that does not mean that personnel costs have gone down. Pay increases, restructuring, changes to the various tax codes, contractual obligations and more could easily cause an increase to personnel costs even with a reduced workforce. "Hardware costs are much much cheaper now, bandwidth is much cheaper now." While it is true that on a per unit basis, hardware and bandwidth is cheaper, SOE's hardware requirements and bandwidth requirements have also changed. Again, the requirement of today may have actually increased costs. As for your comment on the T4 zones. Just what the hell did you think the inside of a giant purple crystal would look like? London, England?
its not price of a full game for part of an expansion, its 40bucks (most games are 50-60 these days), and it includes all portions of the upcoming year's expansions and additions AS WELL AS the last 19, 2 of which you may already own and probably do since you like level increases as a purpose to play, but for the many that have returned in teh last year that have yet to get voa or rof at all yet, theyre getting 3 expansions for that 40. Also, go buy some stupid console game for your 50-60bucks and see how long it is til you beat it. oh a month later you're bored? hm. so in reality you just paid 18x as much for that game, $60 game lasts 1 month vs $40 game lasting a year (or 5 or 10 depending what you alreayd own or dont etc). the problem here is you choose to havem ultiple accounts, so do i, but i dont complain about the cost of the game multiplied times my accounts i pay for the main one and prioritize the rest for subs expansions and amount of use i get from the toons on it. the cost of the game is per account, if you dont like it dont buy or sub for multiple accounts and maybe it wont seem so expensive. yeah it's a bit crazy to spend 240bucks a year PLUS 90bucks A MONTH to play a game thaty ou apparnetly have zero itnerest in anymore other than to play the bazaar. when you go out and you buy your consoles and console games do you buy 6 of them? no. probably not. and thus to you it's cheaper, well stopped having 6 accounts even the most antisocial consummate alt afficionado boxer doesnt need 6 accounts anymore, 3-4 will more than do the job if its doable by 1 person at all. you choose your costs the game doesnt require you to have 6 accts, they dont even require you to pay for anything whatsoever, you choose what you want to play and pay for. yeah the motto was "free to play your way" but in reality yes it is "free to play our way, pay to play any other way you like we're not stopping you or forcing you" its not all or nothing here. you can buy or sub as many or as few as you want, and in reality you dont need to pay monthly for anything more than 1 month per toon til max the new aas, and you dont even have to do taht if you like playing the baz market so much then buy some kronos with your plat and save yourself 90bucks a month. expansions dont required you to be gold account to use, and the game has never required anyone to play 6 accounts at once. pick your poison, drinkem all, or dont drink any, its all your choice, not sony's fault you want them all they just provided the option..
You say you love the game...so do I. It is why I never miss a expansion. Hope you buy it like I will, it gives them a reason to continue to make more expansions. I always want more expansions and new content coming out and it being staggered is great. If they are coming out with new stuff all the time it keeps me busy and with something always to do or new to see. ps...40 bucks for a whole year of content...that is CHEAP.
I agree that 40 is rather cheap for 1 year content, but now when the content is released running over 1 year, lets say first part now in september, next part in January, third pard May, and something in July. Then it is suddenly that I actually dont get it all at once. You can kind of look like at it like you buy a car. What would you say there to that you pay for all of car with 8 cylinder + rest of the stuff now, and you then get the basic engine which uses 4 of the cylinders, wheels 2 seats first, then you get the 2 back seats + 2 more cylinders in February, 2 more cylinder in May, and rest of the car in July and 2 months later there is a new car out. Personally I would expect to get ALL the car when I pay for it.
Then I suggest that you buy the expansion when all the parts have been released then instead of buying something that you don't feel is satisfactory to your standards and it bothers you that much. Again, no one is making us buy this, we buy it because we love the game and the community.
Transparent vent about lack of level cap increase. But I have to agree with the OP: the carrot behind CoTF is bad, not because the content is bad but because in a game that's built around grinding levels, AAs, and gear, taking out two out of the three in the initial release is not productive. From what we've heard of CoTF - No level increase Side grades New spells and AAs, including Merc AAs Only the last one's worth working towards, but I don't see how it's going to keep people playing who are already at / next to the cap. My own thinking is that CoTF was made off of the survey they had us all do a while back, and the bulk of people in EQ chose the option to have new quests/adventures over new levels and gear, even though we all told them that it was a false dichotomy that they had setup, and that players wanted both. I don't know about other people, but I'm not going to camp hours on ends for a side grade. I don't mind having no level increase, but the same amount of progression needs to be offered via other venues. Past EQ no level increase expansions had tons of AAs and gear upgrades. Those that didn't - ie Legacy of Ykesha - failed to get people to play in them.
Everything is going up in price these day expect pay checks. For me...my expectations are higher than a expansion for 30 bucks. I want a better one for 40 bucks. I play enough that I want a good as good of a expansion I can get.
What is the monthly subscription fee for exactly? Your argument about the price covering the content for an upcoming year sounds like a yearly fee to gain access to the current and any new content for the next year. If the $40 is for a year access to the current content and any new content...why charge a monthly fee as well?
What is the monthly subscription fee for then if the expansion price is for a year of new content release?
Sadly, SOE doesn't have a F2P scenario...it is a F2Browse. What is the purpose of the subscription fee?
