When will CoE and AoD be merged for a single purchase?

Actually you can't skip expansions, battle chest contains the original + the next two expansions, you still need to purchase cataclysm before you can add Mists of Pandaria

Now they give you everything up to but not including DOV and don't even require that you pay a monthly subscription, pretty good trade off

Dulcenia, you are correct.
WoW Battle Chest = $17 (Amazon), Mists of Pandaria (Amazon) = $28. Total = $45. Not sure if any of those include 30 free days of play (I'm assuming the Battle Chest does). If this is the case, then WoW is half of the price to play of EQ2 with access to full content. Also let us not forget Gold membership is required to gain access to legendary and fabled items, or have more than 7 character shots. Wow doesn't have this limitation - but it does require the same cost monthly subscription.

Cataclysm is $8.20 on Amazon.

Correction - a rational WOW player would be aware of the fact that absolutely NO previous expansions are included with the purchase of Mists of Pandaria, you need battle chest and Cataclysm before you can install Mists.

As far as when, patience is virtue that is sorely lacking in todays I want it now world

Only includes free 30 days if it is a new account, EQ2 new account or upgrading account has no 30 days since the FTP model came into being

Again I ask why bother to pay for any upgrades when you are already planning to quit and come back in a year or two? Earlier I called this game a hobby and I think many of us feel that way. It is something we love. Some get angry over changes some want more, some are happy to go with the flow, but we all stick around because we truly enjoy the world (digital though it may be) that we have built for ourselves. Even the people who have gotten burnt out on what can be a demanding past time and come back probably love it, else why come back. But what you have described and demonstrated is not coming back it is a drive by taking shots as you pass.

Actually for a new player it is zero cost. You do not need AoD or CoE or even a sub to play the 1-90 game. And if you are someone who is committed to seeing end game enough to level to 90, knowing no one when you got here, learning the mechanics as you go then you are not a new player anymore. And by then you probably have learned to care about the game enough that the investment seems as minimal to you as it did to me. I have been playing Sony games off and on for 13 years but for the purposes of this discussion I am a new player. Less than a year into EQ2 and I work blue collar and hard for my money. I do not have a ton of discretionary income, but I did what I said I found I enjoyed this game and the people I met and a month in tweaked my indulgences and set aside what I needed no complaints, because I found value for my dollar. For me though I liked the mounts and houses as well as all the other little goodies so I bought collectors editions of both CoE and AoD so $160 and still no complaints. Again I understand your point better as you are a returning player, don't agree but I understand.

Also we are not defending something Sony said. According to them everything is just expansions and everything included in any expansion is called a feature. New zones? feature. Raised level cap? feature. No it is perhaps more precise to say it is we as players who have the sense to look at it and say (with some exceptions) it is not content, it is features. if those two descriptors bug you then perhaps a change in nomenclature is in order how about function and fluff? Function expands the game world physically (or class wise), balances game play, or introduces absolutely essential functionality. That said lets look at AoD and see what is function and what is fluff. Beastlord said it earlier should be available to all function, 20AA function, mercenaries useful but not essential fluff, dungeon maker hmmm making dungeons fluff using them function (guess what Sony lets you do without AoD oh yeah use DM dungeons), tradeskill apprentices (and I have 7 max crafters) nice but fluff, and reforging a highly desirable function but really only useful for 5 1/4% of the game and really only once you get the drops for 92 from CoE so even less than that. More fluff than function, and not absolutely essential so it falls under fluff. I said it before we expect function we pay extra for fluff and AoD is overall fluff.

As for Sony breaking up the 6 pieces of AoD and selling them piecemeal it IS about profit. They are counting on you (the consumer) to be stupid enough to say $20 for a merc and 20 AA that isn't too bad, then a month later say oh I am 90 I need to reforge $15 bucks that isn't bad, and once you realize that at 95 you want alts and it is nice to be able to make what they need oh a tradeskill apprentice $10 not bad. I would hazard a guess that once you get all six features a la carte the cost will be closer to the collectors edition at $70-$75 and you won't even get the goodies.

Also the people who post on these forums who have come from those other games might indeed say the cost is prohibitive to them, but they also say they left those games because they were shallow and unfulfilling, and that even free EQ2 has a depth of lore and gameplay that puts all the others to shame. So WoW is $45 to be current and Eq2 $80 maybe because one is worth more than the other.

this ^ people seem to think that when they break up AoD it will be cheaper and id bet 1kpp that will not be the case at all.

I find it funny the people who defend spending MORE money than we spent in the past for the same features and content delivered to us. I completely don't get this. It's almost like they are getting paid to say this.

Heh I had to go to work so I finished in a hurry. I just wanted to say you are better off buying it now because I would also hazard a guess that once the pieces are offered a la carte the expansion will be unavailable for purchase and the pieces will probably run $10-$15 bucks a pop maybe more if they think that we really want it. Mercs, reforging and those 20 AA come to mind It would suck to have to spend more for those three things than the whole expansion costs now wouldn't it?

And if I am one of those you are referring to Jacck I am not getting paid, but if Sony has an offer somewhere I will shill for plat not in game plat, real platinum. Got to be easier than what I do now hehe.

But if the individual parts are available for SC then you would be able to buy them with double/triple SC and possibly a rebate.

Who says they'll be for sale for SC? Technically expansions and kronos are in the marketplace

the never said anything about it being for SC they said only market place.
so it will prob be something on the market place for 0 SC ,when you buy it it opens a window to their site where you will buy the parts for RL money.

they learned putting content on the marketplace for SC was a bad idea long ago. there are still people playing on a gold sub with time they bought before they took that ability away.

Nah, if they are breaking it up now, it doesn't mean "OK, we are giving in to the player requests to make AoD cheaper by breaking it into parts." It means "OK, sales for AoD have started to drop off, but I think we can milk some more money from it by breaking it into parts." I wouldn't be too surprised to see the individual parts add up to 8000 SC. An extra mark up like that would cover the the double SC purchases ahead of time.

Probably more like 18k SC to make more money and cover the one Christmas time triple SC weekend, but possible.

I think some people might be forgetting conversion values for SC, where 1SC = 1c.

AoD has 5 main features. At 40$ for the whole pack, an even split on the features puts them at no more than $8 each (800SC). I don't see anything being higher than 1000-1200, if it's available for SC.

6 features.

• Mercenaries
• Beastlord Class
• Dungeon Maker
• 20 AA points
• Research Apprentices
• Reforging

OK. So it's even less.

I'm not blue collar and I have plenty of discretionary income and I'm telling you, Sony is ripping people off with this. I played EQ2 since release and have spent my fair share of money on the game. Never, never in the history of the game has it cost so much money to come back then it has now. It makes no sense to charge near $100 dollars for a player wanting to return.. on top of that they have all the station cash income that they are bringing in.

Sony has gone to far in this.. Yes, offering a free to play model allows for a small barrier of entry into the game, but that doesn't mean or should give Sony the right to put it to the long time players who wish to play the FULL game in the same manner that they always have. Those players Sony is giving a big middle finger to.

It's very frustrating because it is those players who have always supported Sony and alienating them through extreme pricing doesn't seem like the best course of action.

the freeblood race pack so 2,000SC would suspect that the beastlord class will be close to that.