2014 Membership Benefit Update

Well considering they never said mounts were excluded, and am pretty sure I read some where that they Would be included, counting the number of mounts in the shop, there are at least twelve I will be getting as soon as I can. If feature unlocks such as mercs is allowed, that will probably be the very first thing I get, assuming I do not spend the forty dollars to get the feature pack that includes mercs and beastlord when i buy the xpac.

I never understood the whole EQN/EQNL thing, seems to me EQNL is just an empty version of EQN as we are supposed to be able to build and destroy in eqn just like we can in landmark.

I think the budget thing you mention is why a lot of the community is unhappy with the change.

I have been following this thread and reading the majority of the comments, and I have seen some wonderful ideas once I filtered out the rage quitters that only stopped in to say I hate this I quit and did not offer any feedback as to why they hated it.
The negative feedback I have seen has all had very good arguments, some I believe are a bit skewed due to confirmation bias, but they were good points non the less.

I feel like I am the only person in this thread that likes this change. So my question to all of you is this.
If SOE went back to the original subscription model and did away with the marketplace and the free to play model would you still play the game if the only way to access it was a subscription fee? If there was no marketplace but there was a free to play access like now, what sort of perks would be required to get your subscription? pretend there was no station cash, no marketplace, there was only gold subscription and silver access, what would make this game worth the money to you?

Pipsi, do you have an account that was existing before all that Pro7--deal went down in Jan. 2012 (if memory serves)? I seem to remember a Smedley Tweet, or Twit, or Tw@t, or whatever it's called, around Oct. 2012 that said, in effect, that "any existing accounts anywhere can continue to pay SOE, but any new accounts made in the affected areas have to go with Pro7/Alaplaya." Now, was that a lie on his part, did it only apply to US servers (which would be a bit pointless, other than allowing us to play on EU servers still) and I'm misremembering, or was that something he reneged on later? Or did your account "lapse" and was considered a "new" account, or...? :-/

Uwk

We should not be insulting, either. There are folks here who do have serious, and what they feel are legitimate, concerns regarding this.

Uwk

As Pips has said its all to do with the PSS deal. Bizarrely if this is a concern that we'll carry all our carefully hoarded SC across to EQN they need not concern themselves about the European players. We'd be forced across to use PSS and therefore have to use SevenCash or whatever their equivalent is.

As I have no intention of ever using PSS I won't be therefore playing EQN or taking my SC (or an equivalent 7C amount) into if, however that's getting perilously off topic for this thread and so will stop there.

If the game was 100% subscription only then the sub would be well worth it. I've subbed quite happily on a recurring subscription since launch - access to the game is well worth it (to me at least) without perks, assuming there is no other way to do it. I'd be quite happy if they did this, but they won't - its an old game, no new players would bother. It is why ESO is so appealing when it arrives tho - I much prefer the simple sub model.

As for as it is now, but with no Marketplace/SC I'd mostly be in favour of restrictions on silver than perks to gold. If there was a decent difference that couldn't be made up for by buying one off unlockers - like no shared bank, broker, housing, mail all that stuff. Its a hard question as it is purely academic - SC and the Cash Shop sadly aren't going away.

in a heartbeat.

Yes I'd love to play how it was "in the old days" without marketplace and free to play and I'd happily pay a subscription for it. The introduction of marketplace and F2P was a slippery slope that I wish SOE hadn't gone down, however the genie is now uncorked...

In terms of your gold versus silver question, thats a bit too broad a question to answer. I'd have to say that the differentiator has to have percieved value and that varies individual by individual. Thats basically why this thread has lumbered on like it has.

For me personally it would be no nag screens and complete freedom and no restrictions in game. If that hypothetical situation included the grant of SC I'd want to spend it as I liked, when I liked and on whatever I wanted. No item exclusions or time bars.

It wasn't a lie, if you add an All-Access before the PS7 mess you were able to keep it and play any All-Access games through SOE, if you only had a EQ2 sub you still can play EQ2 through SOE but you can't upgrade your account to All-Access if you're European.

Truthfully, my spending habits might change. I might actually START buying SC instead of just hoarding my "free" SC for months at a time, like I've been doing up to now. Why?

I've compared it to how I play The Sims 3. I know it's not an exact comparison, but it's similar in the matter of deciding when and if to buy virtual coin or items offered via a marketplace.

The Sims 3. I love that game. The base game costs $40 or more, depending if you buy a CE. Each expansion is the same, $40 or more. Then there's Stuff Packs. Smaller add on packs that have themed sets of furniture, clothing, hair and sometimes premium items with added gameplay. Those usually run $20 but sometimes more. Then there's Worlds, where you get a new town, new NPC Sims, premium items, and venues where your Sims can interact with more activities, such as roller coasters and Gothic mansions and scuba diving, etc. Those run from $20 to $45.

And then there's the Sims 3 Store. A marketplace you can access via the website or in game where you can buy themed sets of clothing or furniture, or individual items like home decor, architectural building elements, landscaping -- an endless variety -- and there's compilations of combined sets. These items can run from a few Sim Points to thousands of Sim Points. 50 cents to $40+ dollars. The conversion is 100 SP = $1.

And The Exchange. The market where player-created items are exchanged -- for free. It's on the website. Players upload items they've altered using the in game Create-A-Style or Create-A-Sim feature, or items they've created themselves, using various mesh mods, etc., and other players download them into their games. They are rated and the best are often featured items on the main site page. Some external sites sell high quality meshes and mods for cash.

There's also an opportunity to earn up to 50 free Sim Points per day by watching sponsored ads.

I have bought all the Sims 3 expansions and Stuff Packs. I have bought almost all of the Worlds and Venues and I plan to buy the rest. I have bought hundreds of dollars worth of sets and compilations from the Sims 3 Store. I watch the ads to get the free Sim Points. I spend $20 to $40 per month -- and sometimes more -- on the Sims 3.

So. I spend $20 a month for the All Access, and I get to play multiple games and I have been getting bonus SC to spend however I wanted. Now, if I might want something more than 1 item a month for 2000 SC, or something that costs more than 2000 SC and I can't save up for it anymore, will I change my current spending habits in EQ2? Yes. I would definitely buy more SC to have what I want. I do it in other games, so why not here?

Link to an old post of mine where it restates his tweets (I hope)

https://forums.station.sony.com/eq2...en-for-eqnext-nope.538056/page-5#post-5985025

I've been a subscriber to Sony since mid 2001, just after the release of the first Everquest expansion and have played EQ2 since the beta. So 13 years, give or take, as a subscriber, and for a brief period of a couple of years
as an All-Access subscriber whilst Icontinued with Everquest and also played Vanguard deciding about mid 2008 to focus on EQ2.
To answer your question, yes I'd stay on a sub as long as there was a clear advantage to being gold v. being silver. Station Cash and the Market Place is here to stay, I accept that.
I think what frustrates me more than anything else is that I see my gold subs not being used to fund the game's development but to subsidise silver players and am I'm not criticising those that choose silver - why wouldn't they given the very slim difference between the two account types. More needs to be done to make Gold subs more desirable.
The harsh truth, at least as I see it, is that f2p was originally an incentive to get more players on-board and for a while was reasonable successful, but the devaluation of gold in favour of bronze and silver became an incentive to try to keep those players and development became more focused on the fluff rather than content. As a result the development of game content, performance of the game (lag spikes/drop outs), statflation and never-ending/unresolved bugs have become the norm rather than the exception. This game is in a holding pattern until EQN is released and I suspect EQ2 will eventually "wither on the vine". Unfortunately, as a UK player, I won't be playing EQN, as I refuse to give away my money to ProSieben- but that is another tale.

Aye, my EQ2 account is safely still with SOE. Its the last SOE game I'll be playing tho as I have no intention of signing with PSS1. I'm kinda grateful in a weird way as I avoid the problem of deciding whether to play EQN or not - decision taken away and my mind can think about other things.

Yes, in fact I did it for years (obviously this will never happen, the Djinn has been out of the bottle for too long)

Something like the DCUO model for F2P / subs would work for me. (Basicly, Xpacks are free while you're subbed)

Since when does a consumer have any obligation to explain why they are leaving? Blackberry owners just decided that an iphone or Android was better. Voting with your feet is the greatest weapon a consumer ever had and the most sure fire way to insure competition.

It is the responsibility of a corporation to understand the needs of it's customers. Step one would be to show them the respect that they know the difference between having something given to them and something being taken away.

Bingo. What a great way to sum up a lot of the frustration!

except from what i read you cannot add any SC to the voucher amount. the voucher is a standalone item.

I wonder how they deal with Gold accounts that revert to silver if you have purchased excess characters slots in excess of 7.

I'm imagining it just subtracts 3 from your total available slots (7 base slots for gold down to 4 base slots for silver).

So if you were gold and had 14 additional character slots (7 for base gold subscription and 14 puchased = 21 slots for example) then you would just drop down to a base of 4 slots for silver and still have the 14 purchased slots.

Meaning you would have 18 slots available to you and you'd have to make up the difference and just purchase the 3 additional character slots that upgrading from silver to Gold normally granted you. It'd end up saving you money in a month or two if you went that route.

I doubt all your purchased character slots go poof if you revert to silver membership but if they did that could also be basis for a refund or some sort of complaint. All I can reasonable see them doing is taking away 3 character slots you received as a bonus for upgrading from silver to gold.

I could wave my picket sign around with a huge wall of text, but people have already said what I think about it so I will just quote the obvious.

Exclusions are to be expected, as with all promotions there are exceptions to them.

I agree with you, I also pay the sub for the game not the bonus. I will still pay for the game monthly even if there isn't a bonus because I like the game as well.

My sentiments exactly.

I agree sir.

^ This

+1 to the changes SOE thanks for starting the ball rolling on new incentives, I enjoy this game, and glad to see you're still looking for ways to improve what subscribers get as extras. Most companies don't do that.

You can't stop wondering It works like that. Folks with very old All-Access subs might go from 12 to 4 tho (worst case scenario)

I like to spent the SC I gain due to my subscription in many different ways...

Sometime I buy or gift some/a lot of smaller stuff, then another time I safe up untill I can buy something bigger, then on other occasions I stock up my SC by purchasing additional SC.

Now being a decorator for example, the new 2000 SC for one Item is a slap in the face big time.

I had a discussion with a fellow player in an aaliance pug for heroics yesterday... He said gold will still be good due to the double tokens...

I replied, double tokens are only interesting while in need. After a short time you won't need them anymore. This did make him think.

So cutting of the 500 accumulating SC from the Gold will be the point my wifey and I would go silver, if not stop playing at all due to just feeling getting ripped of.

Like I wrote in another thread, even when on Gold Sub, there is this nagging, that you need to pay for too much in game while being on a subscription.

I would be sorry to leave, but to be honest... just cancel all gold accounts and go completely f2p, stop that nagging "upgrade" windows, so everybody is on the same level and there is no need for gold anymore.

Sure many would leave then as well, because playin the game they do like now will get more expensive, or for other reasons, but this really feels like another step to close down on gold members.

Losing the 500 SC for the subscription, that we have full control what to buy, when to buy, to stack up or put aside for something bigger to get this sorry excuse of SC that has so many downsides... Just having the post and market isn't what is worth 15€/$ at all.

my 10 cents...

Cheers
Anghammarad