Why is there such a huge jump in price between editions? Why are there more"one per account" claims compared to a few years ago? Why aren't the goodies (the one-per-account in particular) available for purchase in the marketplace? Where on the sales page does it say what is one-per account? I was extremely disappointed when I bought the last expansion. I have at least one character on each server, but I had to choose which server got the travel item. It was not a pleasant surprise. With the huge price jump, you'd think each character would get a transport item, at least.
Go to the page for the new expansion. Scroll down toward the bottom, there is a chart that lists what is included in each version of the expansion. It clearly tells you what is one per character and what is one per account. As for the travel item I believe it was one per character in BoL. The new one is one per character.
im fairly new back to the game about 2 months ago after a 6 year break, i am disgusted with the price difference on the different versions of the expac!
When you consider that A LOT of accounts have 20 to 30 characters on them the price they are asking is not unreasonable. This will use the mid priced xpac $89.99 (LESS 10% IF Member) You get a Merc (past xpacs gave us fabled merc) the mercs on the store is a chance at a merc and you can get any level. But say they put the fabled merc up and asked 2000 DBC for it ... then say the same for familiar and mount that would be 6000 DBG if you have 10 toons that is 60000 DBC to get the 3 on all 10 toons. 10000 DBC is 85.00 and that would not get you these items on 2 toons. To get it on all 10 would be $510.00. And that is for 10 toons $1020 for 20 toons. You get it for 89.99 for all the toons on your account. Now look at the next level you get 2 mercs, 2 familiars and 2 mounts per toon. Yes you can only use 1 at a time but you get them so if you had to buy them with DBC it would total $1020 for 10 toons or $ 2040 for 20 toons. You get them for $139.99 again less the 10% off for members. So IF you have 6 or more active toons on your account you save money in the long run with buying the mid level xpac. If you have 10 or more active toons then the higher level xpac is the better buy. The above does not take into account the level boost, houses etc. The pricing on EQ2 xpacs has remained fairly constant for 3 years now.
Blood of Luclin: Ever Portal was one per account. Not sure why you think I'm wrong. I claimed it on my account, it said one per account, it was not claimable on any other characters. If you had one per character, please let me know so I can see if they can fix it on my account. The BoL page is gone now and I can't find any information on it. I bought it recently while it was on sale. If you know of one archived somewhere, please link it? At the bottom of the new expansion page it says * Available to claim on Time-Locked Progression servers** Available for claim at the launch of the expansion ⁺ Delivered 72 hours after purchase ⁺⁺ Available to claim at the launch of the expansion or 72 hours after purchase, whichever is later. Along with a few "Buy Now" buttons. I did find the space between sections of one pre character vs one per account. It's in the middle and easily scrolled past, being a slightly darker space between two dark grey rectangles, slightly wider than the same color space between the individual rectangles. You know, if there's one thing I hate, it's when someone says "Well it's been this way for this amount of time" like that is a legitimate reason for something... about as healthy as eating leftovers that have been in the fridge for months or years.
I'm curious why suddenly people have problems with the pricing. Do you guys say something every expansion & I just miss it? And not liking when people make these comments doesn't change it's truth. The pricing for expansions hasn't changed since at least Thalumbra and the standard edition price is lower now than it was back when Altar of Malice released though the collector's edition has been priced at $89.99 for several expansions prior to that. There also hasn't been a pre-order discount in years (I think Tears of Veeshan was the last one that had a pre-order discount). The last collector's edition that wasn't priced at $89.99 without discounts was Sentinal's Fate, which had less in game stuff but a couple of cool RW items (retail only) and was the last physical copy expansion I think we could by. Part of the reason we seem to get more items that are one per account is because we also actually get more in the CE now than we used to. The only things that have ever been for all characters has been the house items, mounts, & fluff items. For example, AoM had a crate with some potions and some of those gems you socketed on the armor in that expansion that were 1 per account then 4 items (2 house items, a merc, & mount) that were per character. That's it. This expansion there are 7 items per character & 4 that are per account. They have made what I consider mistakes or at least not customer friendly choices in the past. I'm happy to see in this expansion they have made the teleporter for every character again instead of being the stupid single claim from last expansion. They did that before with the buff statue from the second Kunark expansion. As for the items being on the marketplace, several of us have asked for years for them to put at least some of the CE items on the marketplace, even if it's only past expansions not the current one. I don't think I've seen any yet unless you count them using a clone of the Age of Discovery CE mount as the mount for some of the early herioc characters.
If your playing 20 or even 10 toons, I don't know what to tell you. I can barely get enough done for 3 or 4. Your nuts and have nothing but time the way I see it. Between the weekly's, raiding, Daiku and Sol Eye runs, how in the world is there time for more.... My goodness!
Where is the truth in "It's been this way, so this is how it should be."? You are confusing truth with complacency. I believe there was a civil war based on one side saying "This is not how you treat people!" and the other saying"But this is how we've treated them for generations!". Yes, the price of a game is an insignificant thing in the world, but that attitude of "this is the way it's been, so this is how it should be" is an attitude that should not even be in existence. There is always a better way. I actually haven't played in a couple years. I remember people not liking the price every time it went up. I guess I've missed the original price hike. It's just particularly annoying right now because the job I was aiming for when I finished university is still shut down, and I imagine there are others a bit more in monetary trouble too. I did pick up the last two expansions on sale so I didn't miss out on the recipies and houses. I was a wee bit upset ever since the digital version cost more than the retail version, back when there was a retail version. Losing the pre-order discount was also a bummer. Not sure where you live, but where I live, SE collector's edition was $69.99 retail. I still have the little pewter cat mount. Take a look at competitor prices. (Oddly enough, most of them have the word "Shadow" in their titles...) WOW Epic Edition $79.99 Heroic Edition $59.99 Base Edition $39.99 FINAL FANTASY XIV: SHADOWBRINGERS™ STANDARD EDITION $39.99 FINAL FANTASY XIV: SHADOWBRINGERS™ COLLECTOR'S EDITION $59.99 Star Wars the old republic, Wizard 101, and others have free (or buy a zone at a time) expansions with subscription. I'm not fond of that method since being too poor to pay a sub sucks, but then you can't even escape reality because you are locked out of the subed zones just kinda rubs one's face in it. The pricing for EQ2's expansions doesn't seem very competitive... It does have the absolute best houseing in any MMO I've seen. I see they moved the Sales Crate that came with the expansions to a seperate pack for sale. Price stayed the same. IF the logic of "one per character is saving you money" then shouldn't not including an item also affect the price? Remember that one time they tried selling us an expansion with no content? It had beast lords, mercenaries, and a couple other things, but no content. Players raised a bit of a ruckus then too. I'm not saying businesses are evil, but they do, out of necessity, push boundaries. Sometimes the customers need to push back or nudge them in the direction that's more beneficial for both. Seems like people would rather just fight anyone that makes a suggestion of changing something. That attitude also frightens me. Both that and the "why change it when it's been that way for so long" just seem like mold on a civilization, and those attitudes are everywhere. When those attitudes are in a programed imaginary world that could be changed in a million ways, it feels like we're already on the coroner's table. I'm an avid decorator and I still buy the edition with the house to not miss out on the house and recipes, but I wait till it's on sale, and I only decorate a couple copies of the houses, not every single one. The one-per character houses used to be an amazing way to store furniture and not clog inventory, but now that's all the Dungeon Maker feature is good for, so I use that and houses are freed up. The extra houses are great for experimenting though, or learning how to use the editor. Having the option to decorate one house so many different ways is really cool, but there is a miniscule amount of people that would buy a copy of the house for more than 3 characters, so claiming that every one who buys the collector edition should be charged like they would have bought 4 or more houses seems... optimistic. The decorators I know love variety of different houses. There are mounts coming out of our ears, so I'm not really convinced that justifies it either. The one-per character is just something that makes customers happy and very few use the mount on more than one character, particularly if it's not their first collector's edition. A new player I could picture using it on all characters, since it might be the only mount they have. How often do we get new players though? And ones that don't play through the free content first? Putting one-percharacer is more of a public pleaser than a loss in selling mounts and houses. Happy customers are the kind of customers you want if you want your company to keep making money. Things like changing to one-per account when it's been one per character, or suddenly deciding the harvesting ponies won't go any higher level, removing things from the game, not having a crafter signature quest in an expansion, making things not count toward guild level or no EXP, eliminating xp from collections too different a level... not the makings of a happy player base. Remember when the 500 SC/DBC you get per month was automatically put on your account and you couldn't just miss a month or two? And don't even get me started on most of the videos they put out. Remember that time a dev read a question and threw the paper the question was on? Or said they wish they had a golden toilet, but...? This game needs help, not stubborn refusal to change anything (which seems to be the attitude any time someone suggests anything could improve). The bovich video though, that one was amazing! XD I rewatched it a few times, shared it with people that didn't even play the game, and put it on my Facebook page so people could share it and get a giggle. THAT is what EQ2 needs! Good vibes! If getting something cheaper than previous editions doesn't give you good vibes, you have too much money! XD And what do you do when you get a great deal? You tell people so they can go get the same deal! More than enough game for them to try before they buy. Maybe I'm just a bit in shock at how difficult it's been to get the PQs done for Hero's festival on the largest population server... It just seems so sparse compared to when I left 2-ish years ago. Remember the "recruit rewards" program? I couldn't get a single person to try the game for free. I even offered to craft any thing they needed for free. (I even left flyers on college campuses with my character's name and guild hall location, telling them to ask me for absolutely anything crafted!) Yah, a lower population that would explain the prices... but shouldn't getting more players be the priority? Making it affordable? Or are they saving up to do an overhaul of the whole game to make it play on lower end PCs (again, making it more accessible to a wider audience)? That I could understand, since it'd cost a fortune. I seriously doubt any higher ups would consider an older game worth the cost (It did work for a while for Dark age of Camelot, and FF14 did amazing after the reboot). My PC is a bit old but it has an AMD Radeon HD 7700 and I still can't run at maximum graphics. XD Shadows off, fabric simulation off (things go flapity all over!) , and I still get clunky camera turns. (And yes, I put the station cash on alt accounts just so I could get that white lion mount and world bell house item. It was the christmas/birthday/anniversary/valentines gift from my hubby. A bunch of SC cards to fulfill the Recruit Rewards levels. Not sure why they ended that. Seemed like a money maker. It had some really nice items, and people who didn't or couldn't participate didn't miss out on any thing that really mattered. That is a relief that the new travel item is one-per character again. Heck, even the items i received as pre-order one-per character items on the older expansions have disappeared from claims on new toons. I can't remember all of them, but two cloaks I remember the appearance of have not showed up for a while (I have a toon I delete and recreate to get the beginner level furniture from Kelethin and Neriak). The travel items (when there were any) were one-per character till BOL. Or were you including that in the house items? The buff item was one per character for a while, then one per account, and I don't think there was one with BOL. I've been told that while I wasn't playing, there was some sort of vault they opened that had some CE stuff from older expansions. Not sure if that's why they made the travel item in BOL one-per account or if it's arbitrary. I guess my point is, they are digital items. Cheaper = happy customers and a higher likelihood they convince their friends to join. The money the company makes is from people ordering the expansion and, if a player chooses to do so, an extra character slot or race change potion for the new race. Things that actually affect the game like the 0% broker fee sales crate, character boosts, armor stat boosts, etc... I can understand one-per account, but travel items, houses, and house items becoming one per, and charging like they are individually made... seems like a bit much. They tried one house per account once during a beta. Luckily they didn't release it as one per account. There was a ruckus. I guess they are lucky so many people find it easier to just lay back, take it, and/or tell off any one who thinks things could change.
You could buy DoV in stores; my dad has (or at least had) a copy he bought later at Half-Price Books to get the paintings or maybe it was a cloak. Don't remember any cool doodads for the shelf though. And yeah, every year *someone* has a problem with the pricing, or something in the various packs (I hated that beautiful statue in KA being one per account myself and said so, still hate one per account house items..)
Or maybe we just don't have a problem with the pricing... (you complain about people giving you a hard time for complaining about the cost, but you just did the same thing to the people who don't have a problem with it) One way road eh? Cost of living goes up, wages go up along with everything else... Back when the pewter "dire bear" was in the collectors edition was sold for 69.99 cost of things were cheaper... Times change... Truly it doesn't matter whether anyone agrees with you or not... There is not one person on these forums that can change how much it costs... Sure if it did we would all jump for a cheaper price... But then again that won't keep the lights on in the studio...
***Going ahead and apologizing to everyone for this massive wall of text. Not complacency. I stated simply that they have charged $89.99 for collector's editions for not quite a decade. It's not surprising. Nor particularly outrageous. It's one of those things, either you pay or you don't. And really...comparing a digital expansion of an online game to slavery? Just going to say I paid $39.99 for Echoes of Faydwer way back in when it released in the store. The price of the standard expansion hasn't increased in a really long time. I do remember paying $29.99 for something (maybe was the first expansion?) but it's been a long time. So I guess you've been away more than a couple of years, or are misremembering how much you paid or possibly got some discount I didn't have access to. I do understand that many folks are having various levels of financial distress, but it's still a choice on where you are spending what extra cash you have. This expansion isn't going anywhere for probably a year, so you can save some money and pick it up when you have it, wait for it to go on sale, or just decide it's not worth it and move on. As I said in my post, Sentinal's Fate was the last collector's edition that I recall that wasn't $89.99. I even mention the cool RW items you got with it. Compare the lists of what you get in the WoW expansions versus what you get in EQ2 ones. And compare how often WoW gets expansions to how often Eq2 gets expansions. Those things do make a difference. And they put it out as expansion editions, but we all know we are just paying for the items that we want just in a different manner than normal marketplace purchases. As for the sales crate, people complained about it being part of the expansions (specifically the higher priced ones, it was never offered in the cheap expansions) because it gave people with more money to spend on expansions an significant permanent in game advantage. And apparently someone at Daybreak decided that was a fair assessment and they put it elsewhere for a lesser price. Ah, the "expansion" from the days of Smokejumper the Experimental who claimed expansions of the future would only deliver features & all new actual content would roll out free in updates. I don't think anyone "liked" it. It did so poorly, I think I ended up paying like $10 for it on a secondary account. And eventually not only did they cave on it and offer the parts of it a la carte on the marketplace, several of the features were either given as free content or rolled into later expansions. Definition of a failed experiment. It's less about buying a house for 3-4 characters and more like buying a mount with actual stats+ mercenary+ familiar+ house +level boost for an alt(new vah shir maybe? ) + some potions. It goes back to either it's worth it to you, or it is not. If having the house and recipes available is THAT important to you, then pay the money. Otherwise, do not pay the money. Money talks /shrug. Personally the mount will be nice. Looks neat enough I'll use it as appearance on some characters and it's stats are likely to be better then what I'm using now since I do not group much or raid at all these days. And I am a fan of the ant familiar. I like the house enough I'll probably decorate it on one character. So as you can see, I felt it was worth it to me. I'm not even sure what you are saying here. Daybreak & SOE before them have made plenty mistakes over the years. They try things that don't work. Sometimes they leave them anyway for whatever developer/whatever reasons they do it (original stat smushing). Sometimes they eliminate them or revert them (yay ponies do what we wanted them to do again!). I don't think anyone who has been around their games for long thinks they are infallible. The game is completely free for anyone to try through Altar of Malice anyway. I understand wanting a good deal but they already have done that, just with the edition of the expansion that you don't want personally. It even still comes with the 120 level boost and at it's price, it is essentially buying a level boost and getting the expansion free (110 boosts sell for 3500 DBC). So that's a deal for you. Really? We didn't have any issues on HoF server other than the puppets dying too fast sometimes and the timers getting all wonky & overlapping, at least until people got tired of them or the group split up instead of all working together on a puppet. Could be a time zone problem? 1-2 am eastern HoF starts dying down a lot. I don't think the recruiter program worked very well, which is probably why they discontinued it. I think more people might have done like you and 'recruited' alt accounts to get the items. I was counting it, since it gets placed in housing to be used (like the paintings from Velious). You having missing claims sounds like a bug. I had cleared a slot for the Vah Shir I know I will be making so made a disposable character to check to see if any of my account entitlements don't show up. I didn't see anything missing. I even still see the Cloak of Pie from the old ConnectDING promotion, the ale-stained cloak of the gathering (soe live I think?), all the old pre-Velious subscription bonus claims, that journeyman cloak newbie claim they put in long ago, a couple of welcome packs, & the statue for participating in PVP testing. I don't see anything I recall missing. You can check at least some of it here: https://account.daybreakgames.com/authenticated/cam/subscriptionDetails.action?gameCode=EQ2 Shoot, if they did, I missed it too and I hope they do it again. I remember them opening a vault for retired Marketplace items though. No clue why they did that with the BoL item or the bird buff statue from KA. Seemed to be no reason for it. I guess my point is, they are digital items. Cheaper = happy customers and a higher likelihood they convince their friends to join. The money the company makes is from people ordering the expansion and, if a player chooses to do so, an extra character slot or race change potion for the new race. Things that actually affect the game like the 0% broker fee sales crate, character boosts, armor stat boosts, etc... I can understand one-per account, but travel items, houses, and house items becoming one per, and charging like they are individually made... seems like a bit much. They tried one house per account once during a beta. Luckily they didn't release it as one per account. There was a ruckus. I guess they are lucky so many people find it easier to just lay back, take it, and/or tell off any one who thinks things could change.[/quote] The only thing new they made 1 per account was the travel item for BoL & that pre-order buff statue from KA. They haven't made any expansion grant housing or house items other than those 1 per account at release as far as I've seen. They did do the 1 per account claim for one of the veteran rewards though. IoR house & item crates were just 1 per account. I assumed it was because it was a marketplace item. And I'm not "telling off" anyone or "laying back and taking it". Video game expansion prices are one of the few things I haven't seen go up dramatically in price. Especially since they have stayed the same price while offering more items. They are "just" digital items, however the labor to make the items was still done by humans, who I sincerely hope are getting paid more than they were the last time we had a price increase for expansions. I'm 'old' at this point from kids' perspectives and I've been playing these games a long time. You get a lot of value for the price you pay. I remember paying $29.99 for expansions to EQ1 before EQ2 even released. So a long time ago at this point and the price is only $10 more? I'm pretty sure I paid $19.99 for the original Rise of Kunark. For a new player that would have been top of the base game price since they weren't all in one back then. Yeah some of those old expansions were massive in content, but they still haven't raised the price much in at least 16 years. I'd love to get everything super cheap, or heck even free since I paid for the lifetime membership some time ago and have had my account through multiple games for 2 decades, but I am also a realist about some things. I realize you showed that WoW is offering cheaper versions of their higher tiered expansion, however they are offering less to a substantially larger player base. They are a behemoth (though less so than they used to be I guess) and Daybreak is very small by comparison. Since you like comparisons, it's kind of like comparing getting something super cheap at Wal-Mart versus going to a locally owned chain and paying a bit more. For now, I am content they haven't raised the prices like pretty much every other subscription service I have. I don't fault anyone who decides it's not worth it to them, but I don't see an issue with the current pricing. The way I see it, this is how it works out what you pay for: Standard $34.99 --buy a 120 booster get the expansion free or vice versa Collectors $89.99-- some fluff & some actual power boosts Premium $139.99 --all the things and stat givers & fluff Friends and Family -- I want the CE and am willing to pay extra for a bunch of tradable items. Then you look at what each one is offering for that price & if you find value in enough of it, you cough up your money. A quick look at the list and general knowledge of the marketplace pricing tells me that adding it all up for somewhat comparable items sold on the MP, the SE, CE and PE at least would be decent deals if you even use only part of it on a couple of characters. The F&F really is all about the tradeables I think, though looks like it would work out pricewise too.
I missed an initial "quote" in there and noticed too late to correct it. This section was Griffonlady, not me. [/QUOTE]
Alrighty then. Everything is perfect, nothing should ever change, and the player base just keeps growing and growing. /shrug. If you say so mam. Not going to argue any more. It's a waste of my time. Oh, And thank you for twisting my words. I do LOVE it when people feel the need to do that. It was the attitude I was talking about, but if you want to blow it out of proportion and say I was comparing this to slavery, be my guest. I stopped reading your post after that.
There are other ways to bring in come to the studio. I love how people don't want to even THINK about other possibilities.
You said yourself you hadn't played in a couple of years. You have no idea what people have suggested or done during that time. You've made it pretty clear you just want the house and the recipes. Instead of complaining about expansion pricing(which many of us find perfectly reasonable for the amount of things you get), why don't you join all of us who have asked repeatedly over the years and will continue to ask repeatedly for at least some of the fluffier collector's edition things from past expansions to be added for purchase on the marketplace. Things such as the housing and recipes that you want badly. So that even if people have to wait until the expansion isn't current or those that don't join until the items are no longer available, can have a shot. Charge 1650 DBC for a past CE housing + recipes pack. Charge the standard 1950 for a no real stat look-a-like of past expansion mounts. Add the expansion familiars as a chance in the familiar crates. Same for those mercs. I sincerely hope that they add some version of the Vah Shir appearance armor that comes with the Premium Edition to the marketplace at some point. I could go on. They could even add that clothing in right away instead of waiting until there was a new expansion, since that is one of the 1 per account claims, & I know I can't be the only one who would buy at least 1 more. Mercs & familiars too since people only have a chance with the crates and a certainty with buying the expansion. No one has twisted your words. You can clearly see exactly what you said and so can everyone else. No sense in getting upset because very few people agree with your comments on the expansion pricing. If you had bothered to keep reading my post, you might have learned something helpful, since I gave you advice for one of the problems you were having. I recommend going back up and trying the link I posted if you are still thinking you are missing expansion claim items. If you don't see something there that you think you should be entitled to, contact customer service. I'm sorry you feel so offended by others opinions, but I honestly think that while Daybreak/Darkpaw has it's issues like SOE and Verant before them, expansion pricing really isn't one of them that seems to bother most people.
I'm going to say, up front, that I have pre-ordered the Premium edition. I subscribe and pay quarterly. Aside from the fact that I am supporting the ongoing maintenance and development of a game I have been playing on and off since the start, all that I have paid is still an absolute steal for the amount of time I am entertained by EQ2 over the year. I like alts and play on different servers and I *am* disappointed too at the one per account items. I don't really have a main and find it very difficult to choose who to give these things to. I'd prefer an option where you could top up with however many extra copies of these items for a *small* additional fee each. I would also like there to be an option to gift expansions via marketplace (with appropriate time delays to try and avoid fraud of course). I respect that other people feel differently about all this and have very good reasons why they feel the way they do, I just wanted to add my 2cp into the mix.
Oh i do THINK about it.... But you nor I have a clue to what they need to charge for things... So step off the high horse lady before you fall off it... and btw no one twisted your words... Your mad, your on a rant and nothing anyone says is going to make you happy... But no need to freak out on the rest of us because the expansion is 20 dollars more than it used to be for collectors..
Well my thinking is that a year or so ago DB offered lifetime subs for an up front cash payment of I think 299.00 So now if you think about it anybody that loves this game and had the cash they bought it.... That was cash up front. It is now less and less cash into the game a year or 2 later. So how does DBG make the cash off those people??? They do it with expacs and what they can get from them off the store.... If you love this game like I do then understand its about money and they have to give something to the people that bought a lifetime membership and they want them to pay..
