Feel the Wind Beneath Your Wings with the Aerakyn Player Race!

Not sure what to say here. Could I pay these prices, well sure. I happen to be fortunate enough not to have the money issues that others may have. Will I? That's the big one. I don't think so. Not because I don't feel that you can do whatever you like with your business but because what is going on is hurting the game as a whole. It hurts the game by the loss of customers, and I feel you will be losing paying customers. It hurts the game as all the discontent comes out in general chat. It makes being here not as fun as it use to be. Do I spend my dollars here and put in my time just to watch it all fall apart? I have no crystal ball, and maybe there will be enough who don't have to worry about the cost to make up for the loss but in the long run its going to make a lot of us take a look around and see if maybe there is another choice. I already spend less than I use to, not because I have lost interest, I love this game. I spend less because what has been happening with the pricing is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. I spend less because the player base is not happy. I spend less because everyday I see more and more discontent.

This is a game, its suppose to be fun, but when you have a lot of players that are unhappy because they wont or cant pay for the content its not so fun anymore. Some may say well you don't have to buy this stuff to play the game, but when you set it up for the haves and haves not, it just feels to much like the real world and not the one I come into to escape all that.

I have been a subscriber for quite some time and have bought each expansion year after year. I pay for 2 subscriptions and pay for expansions. These kinds of things should be included in the 200+ dollars a year that I pay to play per account.

I will not be purchasing the expansion at all for my two accounts now. You've stretched the value too thinly.

They are. You get 6000 SC a year with your sub. more than enough to buy the Aerakyn if that's what you want.

First off everything I read, both versions fly at lv 85. The noble ones just get the jump and glide abilities as they hit the appropriate level. Also no we were specifically told the new race was not part of the expac. It was said it may be released around the same time but was not a part of it.

If 3 new heroic zones connected to the lore of this expansion came out next month and each was 2000 SC to unlock, would you defend that too? They wouldn't be required to play, but could (and SHOULD) have been included in what is being paid for.

But, hey, even if I'm wrong to feel the way I do, that's on them. This is simple. They make a product and I pay for it if I feel the value is right. If customers stop paying for the product because they no longer feel it's worth it, you can present all the evidence you want to the contrary...it's still not the players' fault. You can say that this new race will change my life and cure cancer. It doesn't matter.

If the player base is dwindling, there's clearly something being done wrong by SOE. And here I am explaining how I feel so that maybe, just maybe, it'll help. When players leave, everyone involved here loses.

Wasn't interested when announced, not interested now. Saved money! Whoot.

If the 3 new zones were completely cosmetic, I'd be absolutely ok with it. I'm totally ok with all the cosmetic zones they release every year for housing or all the cosmetic dungeon maker stuff. I don't buy most of these things, but I'm glad they're out there for people that want something else that's pretty or whatever.

I certainly don't want to be paying for the developement of too much of these cosmetic thigns when i don't take advantage of them, so I think that charging SC and targetting only the people that actually like this stuff is an appropriate way of financing this.

As far as non-cosmetic extra zones being added and being charged for, back when they game first launched, EQ2 did exactly this. They released "adventure packs", which basically had a small story and a couple of zones. Those cost a bit extra and I was happy to pay it.

edit: and just fyi, having playing through the entire AoM storyline - there is absolutely nothing having to do with Aerakyn in the AoM lore that i recall. Aerakyn are more connected to last expac's lore than this one.

I think those whining about us having negative feelings need to get a reality check. Your thinking were all so stupid as to not get that we don't need or have to buy anything is a bit special itself.

Do you guys not get that whether we NEED something or DON'T NEED something SOE does NEED its player base to be buying things. There is a reason SOE games have went F2P and it isn't just because they wanted a piece of the cookie or saw that other TRUE F2P games had a good thing going (those games like Guild Wars were built from the ground up for it and frankly do it far better in many ways, and not talking Aeria games here either) for them.

SOE overall has been knocked off its Altar of MMO King a long time ago and its games have felt the brunt of that, an if your to naïve to realize that memberships alone were longer paying the bills (you can only lose so much of your sub base before you can't even break even to pay for basic server costs) then I really don't know what to tell you.

So your type can keep insulting us "Negative Nancy's" all you want while thinking that everything in SOE land is rainbow and sunshine, but at the end of the day it comes down to there being enough income that there isn't yet another server merge. Then again maybe when all that's left is Antonia Bayle and Freeport (possibly one or two other servers) maybe, just maybe, you will see what we the "Potential Cash Flow" into the game are complaining about.

SOE isn't the worse company out there, but they do have a long going trend of doing things that hurt them and cost them money, players, etc.

The days of subs are done, and more and more companies are figuring that out when after 3 to 6 months after launch they convert as a possible saving grace rather than just shutting the doors. Even then many have quickly went under, because they also made the same mistakes of over inflating the value of what is being offered compared to the reality of what players are willing to part with.

SOE (and the few others doing it wrong) did not make a move to "Micro-Transactions" they made a move to "Macro-Transactions" and that is not what made F2P games work. The whole idea of F2P was to make people think they were paying a little which in the end added up to a lot. Not hit them in the head up front with the price tag and make them actually stop long enough to realize that its EXPENSIVE or not a value worth paying for.

So SOE put all this time into making the new race (and other incoming content for cost) which costs them money to pay various teams for implementing, and if they don't make enough money on it it then becomes a loss. What usually happens when companies start having loses? Its all very simple economics.

SOE continues to do knuckle headed things instead of listening to players and only occasionally listening to what players want and then maybe implementing them. Most times way after interest has waned and players have left thus losing the market that just cost them the money to implement said thing in the first place.

Its one thing to have an opinion in contrast to someone else, but its entirely different when one goes out of the way with said opinion to try to discredit, intimidate, etc any and everyone else who's opinion doesn't match theirs.

If your happy with the way SOE does business and milks everything as of late that's great, but it doesn't mean everyone else is or should be, and in the end YOUR GAME is just as affected by those of us who WON'T make a purchase.

I was around for the adventure packs. They were like miniature expansions. But they certainly didn't release an expansion and at the exact same time release an adventure pack for sale separately.

And I'm aware that the Aerakyn aren't involved in this expansion lorewise. But additional race and classes have always come as part of expansions. They come as part of expansions in other games. This is sending a message to players that SOE believes they can sell you less for more money.

As a player who loves this game, a subscriber, and a purchaser of their expansions, I am saying that this behavior drives me away. As a company, they can do what they wish with that information. I'm certainly not the only one feeling this way.

SOE isn't milking money from me - or any of us. They can charge what they want, we can choose not to buy. No need to write freaking walls of text about how much their prices "hurt" you and "affect" your game. You don't want it, you don't need it, you can't afford it... don't buy it. My god the whining and raging just makes me want to dig my eyes out with my thumbs. Enough already.

I was having a discussion with a friend and reminded him, this is nothing new. Recall Freeblood? Something like 2000 SC for the race and 1950 for the special flight (bat wings), 3950sc total vs. 4200sc 4 years later. Many of us did get Freeblood for having an active Sub for 3 concurrent months. I was just re-reading the old posts with nearly identical arguments. https://forums.station.sony.com/eq2...he-freeblood-vampire-race-accessories.502479/

Just Say'in

All I see are players passionate enough about this game to post to the forum and state how they feel. If they truly didn't care they'd just uninstall and move on like so many probably have over the years.

At least this gives the EQ2 team something tangible when they're sitting in a meeting with marketing trying to figure out how to explain drops in subs and less than stellar sales of the collector's edition expansion.

Oh, and also I think if what another poster posted about Holly having said the Noble purchase is account wide unlock for all further Aerakyn then SOE needs to revamp the Freeblood to be on par with that new vision.

It has and continues to be BS that you can unlock them and make as many as you want, but then have to BUY the extended race item pack for everyone you make. It should have always been an account unlock /claim for each Freeblood for those additional fluff items, and they can easily convert the Freeblood house part to be a one time free /claim when paying to unlock the race the first time. If anyone really needs the house on every Freeblood that bad then make it an SC purchase past that.

Again though if this is true then the pricing part isn't really that out of line with how they introduced the Freeblood outside of milking players for every additional upgrade pack to them. Which would mean they learned something from how they offered that last time. Though that still does leave validity to those who are upset for how they started talking about the introduction of the race and then changing it (or choosing to quietly not disclose it from the start) to being more cost driven.

@Benjamin
The only problem with that is that those "few rich die-hard fans" that will jump and buy it without blinking don't pay for the cost of the initial production of the race/features. The idea should be that they price it to encourage MANY sales so they at least make back the cost of the various teams involved. Just remember to many loses on things people may want means less later and possible staff cuts.

That's actually a fading trend. Increasingly, especially in the B2P / F2P future of persistent gaming, parceling up content is significantly more common.

Take SWTOR's cross-eyed Space Kerrans, the Cathar — straight up buy-to-unlock no matter what your xpac or sub status is.

You've got to understand just how much art time it takes to create a new race, how much bugfixing and triple-checking and just generally huge investment it is to grant a new player race. It's so much more intensive than a random mob in an overland zone with like 6 total animations to worry about.

You can view this as "Sony is charging too much for the race I want to play" but it's not quite like that, it's more like:

• Sony can charge what they deem appropriate to recoup costs in lost art time for creating a new race
• Sony can just stop offering new races

That's really what it boils down to. If you dislike the cost, you're really saying "I'd rather Sony stop making new races and focus their art time somewhere else".

Which is totally legit, just understand that's the choice you're looking at, because developing this stuff costs a lot especially if you're not marketing the genre's current most-popular / top-selling games.

Really? SOE is selling you less? Humour me, name the other current MMOs that have 10 full scale expansions. I would love to know it what other MMO i can get nearly as much content as i get from EQ2. And out of those games (if you even find any) - in how many can you earn full sub priveleges free by just regularly playing the game?

Not rhetorical questions. i'd love to know what your basis for this "value comparison" is.

I really don't see the need to attack people for their opinion. Just as we have the choice to not buy it, you have the choice to not inflict yourself with opinions that you don't like and not read it. I don't see whining I see players stating how they feel about this. They have the right to do so.

Well, I've paid for all of the full scale expansions. You're talking about what free to play players are getting value wise? Yes, a generous portion of this game is free to play. It is a tremendously great deal to play for free.

Only, I'm not playing for free. I'm paying for a subscription (Even if I were to use earned Krono, real money is being spent.) and I'm paying for expansions each year. So we can get that part out of the way right now. Free content being free does not affect me. If the game was locked behind a sub, I'd still pay for it. Just like I always have.

I'm talking about value for purchases of expansions. They are smaller than before, which I understand the reason for. And now bits and pieces are being removed and sold separately in addition to the full price of the expansion. This was NOT always the case. That is what I mean by less now for more money.

It's not just SOE. It's trending elsewhere with things like Day 1 DLC being sold that ships with the actual game you purchase and then they charge you for it to unlock. Different than this, but still feels the same to a player.

I agree Indabuff people do have the right to voice their opinions. That being said, before you rage maybe you should do the math.
Unlocking the race is only 2000 sc that's not really that bad you could earn that in four months of being a memeber. the noble version is essentially unlocking the race and a mount for 4200. 2200 for a mount is only 250sc more than you would pay for a mount off of the marketplace and about the normal price for new release mounts for sc. Did you really think you were going to get a free mount with out some kind of cost? Not to mention you can buy it in parts. unlock the race on your account and later when you have another free $22 unlock the mount. Really 2200 sc for the ability to use a mount on all dragon kin you make sounds like a deal to me. better than 2200 sc every time you want one. Those are just my thoughts and opinions after viewing the prices of things already in game.
(Now this assumes that the unlocking price is like the Freebloods and it's a one time deal and you can make as many as you want based of which ever you unlock.)
So take a moment and breath. Be constructive and objective. And remember you don't have to buy the race to play the game/new xpac. It's fluff, albeit cool fluff.

Actually, this expac is quite a bit bigger than the last one. Possibly bigger than the one before that too. It's not quite double the size of the last one, but in a few aspects it is.

Actually if there was no new race whatsoever - paid or not - this expac would likely be better value than the last in terms of content alone. You get more levels, more zones, more quests, more raids, more tradeskill stuff, more prestige points, etc.

So i don't see how having an optional feature downgrades its value. There was no free race in the last expac, there is no free race in this one.

I was upset years ago when I went free to play and they limited me to 8 character slots slots tho I had bout like 3 or 4 this left 4 of my chars that I played locked and one of them was a character i played a lot. I played EQ for 7 years and not I have played EQ2 for eight. I left and went to Secondlife, I came back to landmark when they said I was going to be able to build things in the game (kind of like Second Life). I found the building tools hard to learn for the most part. I also like to adventure and fight, never been much of a crafter at all, to big of a time sink. Well back to Second Life or what ever comes next. Now if there was Adult content in Landmark or Next they would have a ton of people laying. just my 2 cents worth.