Expansion Price

Hissyfit@Oasis wrote:

Well, almost. DoV will be required for most future zones.
That's the main problem with AoD not including past Xpacks. Returning players would need to purchase both AoD and DoV.

I think you people are missing the point.

All of this "Free" content they release will be so broken and buggy that no one will kill it. Drunder zones are horrible. The encounters are over tuned/rediculous and only accessable to what 5 guilds now? Imagine if you all had paid for these zones, umad? I thought so. By the time this free content is released those 5 guilds will be one guild. Gratz free content that will be so bad it made the last 30ish raiders quit.

Paying for untested, broken, rediculous, not enjoyable content now in hopes people can clear it before the next non-expansion drops is crazy. The shape this content is released in should be free because we are all beta testing it every time we log into servers.

Here's what I think about the price of this money grab expansion: I cancelled boht my pre-orders and then cancelled both my accounts. SOE gets not one single penny from me for the rest of eternity. F2P *HAS* killed this game. Goodbye, folks.

I really strongly feel, and reiterate the already stated opinion, that the features of this coming expansion should be split into two purchase options:
1. buy as a bundle for 45-50$. Those who want all the features of the xpac will just buy the whole thing.
2. buy feature by feature, through station cash, ala carte style.

• Some folks will shell out 20$ in a heartbeat for a new class to play 7 years into the game.
• Not everyone will care either way about the Dungeon Builder, while some of us may really get into it. I can see a group of people being really turned on by generating their own game content, and those people will want to buy it and try it out. It even *sounds* better to me as a stand-alone feature that people can opt in to purchase. Want to play Dev? 20$ for the Dungeon Builder.
• Unlock Mercenaries & Tradeskill Apprentices 10$ each (still pay in-game to use them)
• AA upgrade - Free
• Reforging - Free or 5$

It'll still be cheaper to buy the bundle, but someone who only wants a couple of these features can spend less, or wait for a double station cash weekend to buy the rest. Others have the option to just buy it and see. Cumulative price of ala carte over time, if people do what people do and "impulse buy" in the moment: 65$.

I think that giving people the choice of "take it, leave it, or take some and leave the rest" will smooth things over considerably on the price issue. There are downsides to it, of course: for one, those that have extra SC hanging around will just use it and no "new" money will be spent, so as far as profits, it will be a "freebee" in some respects, but I think it is worth it in favor of ongoing subscriptions and PR. Also, if the dugeon builder takes off and people find this is a really exciting route for creativity,* they may want to buy it after the fact. (I suggest now adding another section to the forums - a Homeshow for DIY Dungeon Masters)

And, I honestly doubt the lure of a new class to explore will take too long to lure some others in. People jumped the gun and bought vamp packs before their vet rewards just to get them, so I don't see that being too big a hangup, really.

More options and choice are big selling points SOE is pushing with the F2P angle. This will only accentuate that feeling of "I can pick and choose the game I want to play and how I want to play it" without doing anyone any harm.


*If it is possible, I'd suggest doing a Dungeon Hall of Fame, if that isn't already in the works. Then, winners in the Hall of Fame have periodic "Dev Picks" that are then copied and perma-placed on every server as official content. Players will literally have a chance to "play Dev" and have their work shown off to everyone. Not only this? EQII becomes partially open source, and you have new content being generated for free, supplementing "stuff to do" between xpacs and LU's. Additionally? You're training players to help forward the franchise - who isn't going to show off their work?
I so love this idea. You should use it, then send me a box of yummy cookies (donuts? haha ok not donuts**) as a token of appreciation.

**there should totally be a box of Smedley's donuts as an Easter Egg lootable item somewhere in-game.

I'd also like to know how they make out that $40 US = £30 GBP, when it ought to be more like £25, especially when it's so much harder for Euros to buy station cash cards

I'm about 50/50 on purchasing it at the moment

Cyrdemac wrote:

Europeans are getting the shaft again...

I think charging $40 for this so called expansion is insulting. No new solo, heroic or raid content. No new aa trees or revamps. Personally I have no desire to play a beastlord and I'm definitely not going to shell out $40 for a few more aa and item reforging. Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but it seems to me we got more content in the past from free Live Updates. I would have paid $10 for this. Possibly $20. For $40 I'll do without.

I have been playing since launch. And have purchased every expansion. Most of them have been the CE's. But I simply can't justify spending money on this one. Unless the aa trees are going to be expanded . For me even that would be a waste. A few more in tradeskills. Is nothing to get excited about. I was looking forward to the beastlord until I found out that it was going to be a scout class. Don't like playing a scout. Don't need a mercenarie. I have soloed to 90 without a problem. Reforging and tradeskill apprentices, not worth $40. I have at least 25 homes that I keep poking around getting decorated. So designing a dungeon would just be another job unfinished. And all the fluff stuff, well if you could see my houses and banks, I have enough fluff items for ten players.
I will continue to pay my subscription . Simply because I love this game. And its not a problem for me to pay for the expansion, but common sense tells me this expansion is a waste of $40.
Now I know that others think its worth their money. And I say to you go for it and be happy. But for me this just does'nt rate as a quality product , I am really disappointed in SOE . This does'nt really surprise me tho. All companies are doing it. You still pay the same price or higher and you get a product that is less in quality.
I have heard people on here say don't buy it , that will send a message to sony. That is a good thought in theory. But it will never happen. For the simple fact that for everyone of us that don't buy it. Their will be two that do. And sony will still be laughing all the way to the bank.

Honestyl, I've a hard time trying to understand:
- Why they decided to launch those features as an Xpac?
- Why haven't they kept with they philosophy to go Free-2-p(l)ay and offer each new feature for sale on the Market Place?
This would have allowed players to play "Their Way", buying what feature they want and it would have fit their new philosophy.
Anyway, something wrong with this Xpac. Called "Age of Discovery" and for the first time, we do not discover anything.
We are stuck in Velious (wich was a good but unfinished Xpac) and we start to be stuffed with it. Not enough places to discover. Honestly, it's hard to believe EQ2 is still a Role Playing Game with so little place to explore when you reach 90. I'm talking about big open spaces (remembre Rise of Kunark). The content you bring is undoable by casual players anyway (Drunder, Element's of War), and I wonder when will you understand that HEROIC content should be designed for a 6 NON RAID GEARED players group. SO now it's time to bring some Epic feeling in Everquest 2, by adding cool lands, cool continent to explore, with real life in them, not only mob parks and small camps here and there.
A friend of mind, who has stopped playing EQ2 a few days ago because of all this, said me that he has the feeling to be appart of the story in EQ2. He has the feeling that each quest is related to the past, that he is an archeologist and come AFTER everything happened.
We've been promied more dynamic content such as Public Quests, but unfortunately, we are still stuck in those 2 "rinse and repeat" boring PQ. Nothing dynamic at all because they are stuck in the same 2 places, starting at defined hours. Do you think it's dynamic?
I'd have prefere them to come with something new, new places to go and players would simply have been happy with that.
Even if Velious: Part-2 would have been a 40$ Xpac, I wouldn't mind. But such basic features we are given in AoD simply don't worth it.

ShamusOB wrote:

already did that, when slot purchase became available I puchased the slots needed on the 2 accounts and condensed 6 accounts down to those 2 then canceled the oterh 4 accounts. On the fence as is AOD will be purchased, could care less for most of the "enhancements" and are in this feature price, especially the new class - cannot stand the class

Wingrider01 wrote:

^^ LOL ... how many characters did you pay to have transfered off of accounts that could have been turned into Free subs? Even assuming you only 6 boxed and moved as few as 4 characters, as you described, that's still 4 paid character transfers to avoid a Free sub... Of course that assumes those toons would be allowed to be played under the Free restrictions.
You're really sticking it to them with that one!! Paying them now, so you don't have to pay them later, brilliant!!

Bronadui wrote:

VAT

Do I have to buy DoV and AoD for my kids to play with me? or will AoD include everything?

i agree, for a feature pack, it is overpriced. i'm undecided as to whether or not i will buy it. i certainly wont need it right away. the 25 AAs wont help me very much bc they arent raising the cap. it might be nice to make a beastlord or try out the other stuff but not for $40. maybe i'll wait until it shows up on amazon for $20. i dont think it is worth $40 but it would be worth $20.

Dreamaria wrote:

if you bought dov you will have access to all the updates to that content free. you dont have to buy aod if you dont want.
you wont be missing any content since all content is going to be given free in GU's.
you dont want it or dont like the price of it ? dont buy it , you wont be missing out on any zone content at all.

yohann koldheart wrote:

My problem with the price tag is its more than what I paid for Velious.
I paid 30 for that. And I'd pay 30 for this. Not 40.

@panbin AOD will not include all past expansions like the last few, only DoV will. If you have Dov the only thing they can't do is make a beast lord or have crafting apprentice/merc etc... no gameplay content will be taken away or limited at least foretold for the next 2 years.
Still seems like opening AoD w/ little content-over priced, is really bad timing, especially pricing at the same as all previous expansions. Seriously the new Starwars game comes out at the same time..... (double ouch) and every time i log in to EQ2.Zam its just Riftwar wall papered... ack.
Like others have said since launch our family of 4 accounts will not purchase it for preorder for the first time - purchase it at all??
But how will this affect future expansions, or will there be any?
Maybe they only start making each future step a feature pack through SC. Or will a new expansion come out where you get more levels / AA but not unless you bought this expansion for the few extra AA?
Curious.
ps... took me 2 hours to fill my anniversary hero's poster quest up loggin into every zone on Guk.... (10 people... was early in the morning though but still...)

ShamusOB wrote:

I haven't seen the AA change announced. Do you have a link to where this was said?

feldon30 wrote:

Yet the price for the collectors edition is £38 when $60 is ... £38 at todays exchange rate. One of those prices strikes me as being wrong, especially as on the email they sent me to confirm my preorder it says the amount "Plus any Applicable Taxes". Which is normally how SOE do it. Odd that they should include sales tax in one price but not the other but still say taxes arent included.

I'll give em 10 bucks to play beastlords and the extra aa, they can keep the rest of it.