2014 Membership Benefit Update

Dear EverQuest Gold Members,

We regularly evaluate our offerings at SOE to ensure we are consistently delivering great games and products, while also offering exceptional value to our players. Given that we just started a new year it seemed like the perfect time to add more value!

The week of February 3rd, 2014 we will be making a very important change to the Gold Membership level in EverQuest The current benefit of receiving 500 Station Cash (SC) monthly will be replaced with a new program that allows you to select one single item valued up to 2000 SC each month. Nearly all items within the games’ Marketplace will be available for this selection. Players Studio, bundles and additional exclusions may apply. This new benefit must be claimed each month that you are a member as it will not carry over to subsequent months.

We appreciate our customers, especially our valued members, and therefore are excited to bring you this additional value.

Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to seeing you in game soon.

Please help us consolidate feedback by keeping discussion and comments to this official thread.

RadarX Ninja Edited on me.

So now my only question is when will this take effect? When will i be able to use this benefit?

I was wondering the same.

There won't be a difference between All Access and Gold Membership in regards to this change. This will take affect the week of February 3rd.

Are services going to be on the 'excluded' list?

Hm. At first I was tempted. 2000 is more than 500. So cool. Then I thought about my sc spending. It's not usually on one big thing. I buy player made things, furniture, odds and ends, item expanders, that sorta stuff. Not a lot of that is close to being 2000 sc, I'd basically have to buy a winged mount per month to get the full benefit of this offer. As it is, I'd feel badly buying a 800 sc item, I'd in effect waste 1200 sc, as it's on only one item a month.

That's not a great incentive for me. For others it might really thrill them. It doesn't fit my spending habits or desires.

I do have to agree as I just told the Test Server about this and their reaction was unfavorable to this change. Most would rather save up for 2-3 months and control what they are buying rather than essentially being given a coupon that expires every month.

Overall, I think this is great. The way I figure it, even if I did buy that 800 SC item, I am still 300 SC ahead of where I would have been with the free 500 per month.

My only reservation is just what items or services are being excluded? That worries me the most of all. If the list of exclusions is very short, then great, but if it is too extensive, then this could be bad.

It isn't quite as good as the 500SC a month to spend as you please. BUT it prevents SC inflation as it were. It's along the same reasons that they no longer do double/triple SC weekends. AND it is still pretty good. What will be nice is if they start putting things like appearance/house items things in bundles that ARE accessible via this promotion.

Even if they don't do that, you can always get a really nice prestige house or as you said a shiny mount.

And don't forget the things for the new/returning players, like AA Baubles, or feature upgrades like mercs.

I can't say I'm liking this at all.

If I collected mounts or something, I suppose I'd be thrilled, however as the purchaser of small items, this is disappointing.

There often isn't anything on the marketplace I WANT to buy even with my 500 SC. So I save it & buy when there is actually something I want. I even occasionally buy more SC when what I've saved doesn't cover it. This certainly isn't going to entice me to spend more on SC & definitely isn't much of an incentive for me to continue subbing on alternate accounts. =(


Is there anyway we can get a choice? Either claim one 2000 SC or less item as our freebie or claim 500 SC?

I do see your point, my pause being that a lot of our cool items are less than 500 sc. The gnome works stove, for instance. If I buy that as my one item, I'm not ahead any more. :/

I do see where you are coming from, I just don't need a lot of high priced single items. And if services are excluded then yeah, it's really got no appeal to me.

The one item costing up to 2000 is a kicker too.. can't get a bunch of building blocks, for example.

Well as someone who has 9 TS toons I play and 4 95 adventurers atm I am never buying big ticket items but a lot of small thing like merc slots, pots and such so now I will have to play more money to play and cant think of how this will be considered a better way to go. IMHO this is seems a way to get people to pay more for the game again as someone who bought a year sub I am not happy with this new setup.

I have to say, I'm not loving this either. Most of the people in our guild aren't loving it either. I understand why it is seen as being a better deal and the shiny mounts sound like a good idea... but it takes away our freedom to spend it on what we choose.

I think it would be best to give us the option of one or the other. Have a box popup once a month that gives us the option of 500SC or the one time item we can choose. I was considering paying for an entire year of gold, but after this... I wonder if my money is better spent elsewhere...

Well, the gnome works stove is a player made item, and RadarX indicated that Player Studio items would be excluded. Which is very unfortunate, but also understandable.

I wish I could say this isn't a big deal but it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth and makes me regret buying a year of gold in October. We just had a really good time blowing through the 4k in station cash we both had saved on a bunch of small items during the rebate sale. It was like a black friday shopping in EQ2. With this new change that will never happen unless we sink yet more of our money above the sub into this game.
Hopefully they will let those of us with year long subs get a refund on the time left after February since they changed the nature of the gold program. That freedom of choice on the 500 per month was a part of the benefit of the gold sub.

all i have to do is think of the station cash sales and it tells me all the good stuff will be excluded, services, xp potions etc. i guess its a way to make sure we can't save SC for EQ Next.
to be honest, i am wondering about the future of EQ and EQII....all the changes kinda look like a bad omen.
the 500 SC a month is actually one of the bigger gold member perks to me, i could even accept that the 500 SC are only valid for 60 days and if you don't spend that amount in that time you loose what you didn't spend of the 500.

I wish it would be an option also. I have several alts all maxed with tons of mounts and outfits and houses.As others have already said it's the small things I buy.
And the same with my fiance and sister and her hubby as well, the only mount I have bought is the reindeer on one account, the rest are usually little things.
Even if we got to spend up to* the 2000 in one haul would be better than one thing.
I'm gold now, but not liking not having the 500 to save and spend how I like, sad sad Fae here.

Count me among the members who are not excited about this change. I prefer the option to save my 500SC and use it where I see fit, as I see fit. Considering the 100SC cost to unlock a single mercenary, I might want to use my 500SC to unlock mercs. You're taking that choice away. I might want to save up and get something big. That's MY decision. You're taking that away.

While I agree that the benefit system needs to be revamped, I don't think this is the direction to go with it, UNLESS you include an option to claim a set amount of SC (let's say 1000, half the max value offered) as the monthly option. This way you can change the system the way you're suggesting, and ALL the members are happy either way.

There is not much that I want when it comes to SC. The 2 prestige houses I got, I saved for it. Last night I bought about 7 things that ranged from 50 to 100 SC. If I want something big I rather continue to save the 500 SC each month or use cash to purchase SC, but I rather not be forced to use it or lose it with this up to 2000 SC that expires.