You don't need any of these mounts to play the game. And you already have a random chance of getting one that looks the same through your monthly LON cards. The days of MMOs being subscription-only are gone. The only one that's likely to survive that way is World of Warcraft - everyone else has spent the past 10 years trying to be the next WoW, and it hasn't happened. Audiences are so fragmented now that the likelihood of another WoW coming along is probably nil. Not that every MMO company hasn't treid. They''ve made EQ2 easier, like WoW - didn't work. There's The Secret World, with its level-less system - small player base. Star Trek Online - huge fanbase of the series; has gone free-to-play. SWTOR - very solo-friendly, people complained it wasn't MMOy enough. They're merging servers for a reason, and despite all the complaning on the forums, EQ2 is nowhere near "pay-to-win". The closest it comes is the XP potions, and all those do is speed things up so the new player can play with his veteran friends sooner. Devs have to eat, too, and the price of free-to-play is microtransactions. Have you played Angry Birds 2? If you haven't, take a look at it. It's a perfect example of how not to do microtransactions. Unlike the first game, if you mess up with one bird, it costs a life to start the level over - which, after 5 lives, you have to wait 25 minutes for another. Unless, of course, you buy more. Candy Crush is the same thing - sure, there are those who are either really good at it, or just get lucky - but the randomness and the difficulty on it are set so high that you pretty much have to pay to win. Plants vs Zombies 2 is the same way - ramp up the difficulty so you have to buy the power-ups. EQ2 doesn't even come close to that with the Marketplace. As a subscriber, you can do everything in the game from crafting to raiding without buying a single item from the Marketplace. Even free-to-play players aren't that restricted anymore. If a mount in a video game isn't worth $25 to you, don't buy it. Nobody's forcing you to in order to play the game. You're not locked at level 99 until you buy one. But it's the people spending $25 on these mounts that keep the money coming in so that devs can continue to eat, maintain the servers, and create new content.
@Lera I think what the point most people were trying to make is if the micro transactions were actually MICRO, they would sell more and make MORE money so the devs could eat. Over pricing items reduces your customer base.
Three things that I want in game for my character: Rogues to be tagged as "neutral" Swashbucklers to be given some love (in regards to raid desirability) True black unicorns, so I can copy Voltaire's album cover:
It's actually pretty cool that you can customize your character so much in appearance. I'm glad my toons don't have to look like a clone of every other class at that level. Almost everyday I see a toon that is customized to look amazing. I don't have to instantly recognize their class and level, it's enough to appreciate the variety. Sometimes I have to click on them 4 or 5 times to get inspection to work, that seems to be bugged, would be nice if inspection always worked on the first try. But again, keep in mind that this is an old game and lots of armor appearances have already been used, might not be easy to come up with completely different stuff and not annoy some players who might claim it doesn't look like real armor or have some other game claim that it's too much like their armor and was copied. How many armor designs can there be?
Gone the way of the Dodo Bird, and good riddance! At least half of the armor that comes from quests and chest drops throughout the lower levels is impossible to make into a full set because all the pieces with the same graphics just don't exist. Wearing the pieces with the best stats ends up making your character look like a little raggedy-man, and that is not pleasing at all. I always hated that with a pure unbridled passion. Who really wants to run around in metal pants, green boots, brown breastplate, blue shoulders, and a pink helm?? Says who? What does it hurt? Belenos hasn't changed his look since about (level 20?--hard to remember!) Added a flyer at level 85 of course, but still uses his unicorn frequently too. Here he is at 40 and again at 96.
