You can unlock TBM now...

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Sam Hyde, Dec 12, 2018.

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  1. Dythan Ban Lev in Plane of Fire guy

    I think zones are worth $8.34.

    Double that if lev is disabled.
  2. I_Love_My_Bandwidth Mercslayer

    If you enjoy the game, you should have no qualms about supporting (present tense) the game. The money you spent yesterday or last year supported the game then. If you continue to enjoy playing, pony up for the content you want to play in. Simple as that.

    I think the last free expansion should remain at TDS.
    Xianzu_Monk_Tunare likes this.
  3. Aurastrider Augur


    Where is your source that these expansions don't help the bottom line? Also lets look at inflation or at least here in the US. Minimum wage when EQ was released in my state was around 5$. So an expansion purchase would require 7-8 hours of work vs now minimum wage is over 10$ an hour and soon will be 15$ here. So yes the expansion sizes have gotten smaller but overall the cost per expansion and the cost per subscription has remained stagnant while the value of the dollar has gone down significantly. If they kept up with inflation and offered larger expansions but charged significantly more for the base expansion it would be no different than it was back in the day. Also add to this the fact that a lot of us were younger, made less and still managed to spend a higher percentage of our overall income on this game back in the day vs today I would hope that the majority of the player base has moved on from those high school jobs we had and into something a bit more lucrative. At the end of the day its a choice to stay and pay, stay and freeload, or leave all together. DBG is a business and needs money to operate.
  4. NeverPayForLag Augur

    hearsay, hearsay and hearsay...
    has anybody real numbers?
    It is interesting how many telepathic mind reading takes place if somebody wants to be righteous.

    How about

    a) how many players have all servers?
    b) how much gold players are active at average?
    c) how much are the micro transactions per month?
    d) how many employees are working for the EQ part and what do they cost
    e) what are the additional costs of the DGB for the EQ part

    As long as you have no clue about these numbers, every post is simply useless gambling and not even a close approximation.

    An if the numbers I have heard so far through 3rd party sites who are into economic business and approximation then the earnings go into the millions. That does not sound like DGB has much money issues but more that DGB has only a small budget because the core company who bought the whole SoE stuff sucks out the money like usual in these businesses.

    So ... only ... assumptions... and nothing real except fear, hopes and dreams..
  5. Tatanka Joe Schmo

    Completely true. And completely meaningless.

    How much time do you spend in-game? Come back and tell me your total cost (including subs) per hour you play, and compare that to pretty much anything else.

    $0.10/day for the expac, and $0.50/day for a sub, max. So, you're paying $0.60/day, per account, to have the latest expac and all-access. Even if you just log in 30 minutes a day to run a Lesson, and nothing else, you're paying $1.20 per hour for entertainment. That's pretty hard to beat.
  6. snailish Augur

    They could also determine that greater limits on F2P was the best profit move.

    They could even start locking more expacs. "Last chance to play EoK F2P before we lock it" and so on.

    If F2P isn't generating significant $ through some avenues (i.e., marketplace) what reason would they have to spend 2 minutes of development time on it aside from "goodwill".
  7. Iven Antonius Bayle

    Actually I did show a way how Daybreak could make even more cash with a revamped pricing policy that would be more fair to the players. This would be a win-win situation for Daybreak AND the customers. Also free or less expensive expansions would help the many players that are boxing multiple accounts alot as they have to decide to pay multiple times for new expansions OR not to buy new expansions OR to buy new expansions only every 2-3 years. The current pricing policy is unfair and does make things complicated. Personally I would revamp the marketplace prices completely too as they are very derailed. Lowering some prices does NOT mean that Daybreak will earn less money, it could mean that Daybreak can earn ALOT more money, this is why correct adjustments are very important.
  8. a_librarian Augur

    This is what a competent business would do. At the absolute most it should be 2 expansions behind, since the modern expansions all seem to be broken into two parts
  9. Febb Augur


    If they stop charging for expansions, how will the money be made up for lost revenue? And don't tell me that expansion sales doesn't make up a good chunk of money for them. It probably pays for several developers salaries for the whole year.
    Xianzu_Monk_Tunare and snailish like this.
  10. Cleaver Augur

    A better solution is to just sell previous expansions alone. Charge $9.99 each let people progress at there own rate and not forced to level to 110 or out gear content they have not completed yet. Why should a f2p player pay almost $40 for TBL when they may not even get to that expansion in the next year or longer. Let them buy TBM for $5-10 and EOK for $5-10.
  11. Zamiam Augur

    you do realize when they put the expansions on sale usually a month before the new expansion starts beta you can buy it for 17 bucks .. and get all the expansions accept the new one coming out..

    you are asking for a single expansion for 10 bucks oh ok 9.99 each , but you wont buy it when its on sale for 17 and get 2 or 3 expansions for that price .. you make no argument for what you are proposing ..
    pony up the dough
    Xianzu_Monk_Tunare likes this.
  12. Ceffener Augur

    Don’t charge for expansions and I’ll spend $0 a year in the marketplace. I earn my digital sparkles, not just buy them.

    I wish they had just made a trial and got rid of the whole F2P crap to start with.
  13. Iven Antonius Bayle

    Actually an expansion does cost $2.92 a month when the buyer is using it for twelve full months. 12 months all access do cost $9.99 montly. The average customer does also buy stuff from the marketplace, lets say for $4.00 monthly which is $48 a year. So monthly we have:

    $2.92 expansion = 17%
    $9.99 all access = 59%
    $4.00 marketplace = 24%
    ====================
    $16.91 = 100%

    As you can see in this example a full paying customer does spend about 17% of his total EQ budget for a yearly new expansion per account. A free player can hardly be motivated to buy a new expansion as it does not make much sense without also buying an all access membership for the new AAs and level experience so they should not count as much as all access players.

    An all access customer that is only buying a new expansion every two years, which are quite alot players, does spend about 8,5% of his EQ budget for new expansions. Either 17 or 8,5% is not much so the game should be able to live without that. But as I already stated in my first post this money is not lost for DBG as the players would spend it for other stuff like all access and marketplace stuff. Its important to understand that expansions that do cost money are a barrier that does prevent players to spend their budget money otherwise.

    A very negative side effect is that new and locked expansions are splitting the player community since years which is poisonous to a game structure (MMO) that is based on a healthy and united player community. A fact is that we have a player class system in this and other multiplayer games. The game companies use special internal terms for these customer classes.
  14. CatsPaws No response to your post cause your on ignore

    How to incorporate the $5 bonus DBC all access accounts receive? That's like free goodies in the marketplace.
    Xianzu_Monk_Tunare likes this.
  15. Aurastrider Augur

    You assume in your example that freeloaders are actually going to spend the money they save on buying an expansion and actually spend it in the store. That's a huge assumption. If people wont spend their money today on a product what makes you think they will tomorrow? Secondly veteran players eventually run out of useful things to buy in the store so now not only would these players stop buying expansions but they probably wont offset this with cash shop items. Plus in your example only 17% is huge in business. There are plenty of businesses that tank losing a much smaller percentage than this. Just imagine taking a 17% pay cut or all of a sudden paying 17% more taxes. A lot of people would be SOL.
    Xianzu_Monk_Tunare and snailish like this.
  16. snailish Augur

    For several years I was paying to not be F2P and see the popup window cheering me on to subscribe.

    I was on live, casually plinking away on low alts in old content. Literally none of the usual F2P restrictions would pinch me (wasn't even bothering to set up a baz mule). I totally could have saved that money.

    This was something like 2-3 years worth of paid subscription... so I wouldn't get pop ups (and I have a thing for being able to choose my starter city, but that really only requires 1 month of sub if you plan ahead). There are numerous more-valid reasons to just subscribe.


    Someone mentioned boxers... well you are either a serious boxer with the funds or in-game krono mojo (and desire to spend either) to play subscribed or you live with F2P. My guess is more current F2P boxers will sub than quit as the expansion gap widens. AKA Daybreak stands to make more money letting F2P become obsolete (or more like a trial if you prefer that wording) than by trying to update it.
    Xianzu_Monk_Tunare likes this.
  17. Mehdisin Mahn Augur

    pffft. they should just take F2P a free trial program. 30 days free to play up to TDS and then your account access is disabled until you fork over the $$$ for current expansion and a month of all access.

    remove the ability to process krono for accounts that are in their trial period too! Pay your monthly fee at least once and then you get the privilege of clicking an item in game to continue to play if you can get your hands on the plat. Forget to get a krono? you have to pay $ to get back in.

    darn entitled punks..... back in my day we had to run across the karanas and hope we could do it before SoW wore off! bah humbug!
  18. Turinbar Augur

    Would like to add my 2 cents. Real game developers, not armchair devs, Standing Stone Games ( formerly Obsidian Entertainment, who runs LOTRO use precisly the model to charge for various expansions. You can buy quest lines, expansions and what not piece meal through the in game store. Apparently the model works very well for them.
  19. Iven Antonius Bayle

    Good point this got overlooked by me. The 500 dbc bonus for all access could be reduced or even ceased. There are enough other benefits that all access does offer, especially with free new expansions and a strenghtened newbie friendly player community that does not get splitted by expansions like now.

    Yes, but not only in the marketplace. I predict that most of it would be spend on all access (gold membership). On live servers most players box at least two accounts and veterans often have up to 16 characters and even more, so there are alot possibilities to spend the money at.

    This is definetly something that has to be regarded. Adding more usefull and better looking stuff to the marketplace could not hurt. Even access to optional and instanced zones could be added there. Just imagine an adventure in the Butcherblock Mountains and other classic zones with mobs that scale with the group level... :D I think that currently there is not much real micropayment being offered in the marketplace as most stuff is way overpriced so that only a few players do buy it. The marketplace has alot potential for the future and also character customization which could be combined.
  20. Zamiam Augur

    lol I liked the part about "back in my day "
    however , I dont agree about getting rid of F2P (and no im all Access on 3 of my accounts) my other 9 accounts are f2p ..
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