Readjustment of Expectations.

hmm- isn't this kind of like griping because we have cars, planes and trains that can get us across country 50 times faster than the horse and buggy days? i for one love flying- kind of makes up for not having the lev i enjoyed in eq1

glad that boiler plate template is nit used in any financial education classes

This thread is about whether the current expansion is worth buying or not. Not about if you think SoE should go back to the way they ran it before F2P. SoE could get more business if they put actual effort into thier product, or charged less for it.

worth it or not is a personal decision, one that you ultimately make on your own. Personally I believe it is which is why I ordered the standard edition for all my accounts, the CE had nothing that was worth it.

One other thing to remember - if you don't purchase TOV you will be stuck at 92, COE is required to go to 95 and it is no longer available separately.

I didn't read this thread, just wanted to say that I agree 100% with the OP. To take it further, I played this game since day one and starting a year or 2 ago I started to feel like Sony was more interesting in taking my money then developing and growing an interesting game that naturally would produce revenue. I quit EQ2 back then and haven't come back. Do I want to play EQ2 Sure, it still has a lot of awesome but the problem is that Sony has turned it into a circus focused on getting into my wallet.

For example, instead of being pumped about a new expansion and getting my characters prepared to get in and hit the ground running.. all I see now are questions about price. How much does it cost, what is included, how much does DoV cost now? It's now broken up, how much does that cost? How much does silver cost vs gold, how much does it cost for items in the mall, how much does it cost for character slot, what if I want to transfer how much does it cost? Name change cost? Level 85 cost? New house cost? LoN cards cost? ******* hell are you serious... what is the game and what is not the game?

There is something to be said about buying a game and actually getting the game. I want to play a game, not focus my time shopping like I'm at the mall. I don't like Black Friday, it seems to me that Sony is focusing on the type of player that likes to get up at midnight to go get a deal.

I have a question about this. I have recently come back to EQ II and I do not have Age of Discovery or Chains of Eternity expansions. Does ToV include both of these, or only CoE? If I buy the ToV CE, will I have every expansion then?

ToV, like other expansion packs, will probably include any past expansions not included with the free game. I read that they were planning for that to be everything before CoE. However, Aod was not intended as an expansion and now all of the regular components found in it are available on the marketplace. It will not be included in any expansion pack

Just to add, unlike previously as soon as you make the pre-order you have access to COE features and zones

Anyone remember Age of Discovery when we changed over to paying for features and getting content updates for free?

Smokejumper:
"We *like* giving content away for free. We like it as players, and we like it as developers. Our job is to entertain you. More content does that job well. So that’s why we made the switch.

There may come a day when we decide to charge for area and quest content again. But we would prefer to not do so. We’d rather find other ways to sustain the business and let you guys just keep finding new stuff and enjoying the game. We know that this is an original concept in our niche of the industry. Certainly, none of our major competitors does this. Maybe that’s not a good reason to try something, but it does mean we’re breaking new ground. And we like that. So we’re finding new paths."

http://eq2wire.com/2011/12/01/smoke...-age-of-discoverys-status-as-expansion-value/

To be more clear, the answer is actually no. The AoD expansion/features whatever you call it used to be charged at 40 dollars, that is not included in the ToV expansion. Rather, they split it up, put it on station cash and it now costs you more than 40 dollars to buy the features separately. Only Sony comes up with this stuff.

The previous expansion did not included all the previous expansions/or content.. whatever you want to call it. So saying that it was like any past expansion is incorrect.

Ya, I remember that. Talk about a huge slap in the face. Here, we are going to charge you 40 bucks for an expansion/feature but we are going to give free content away in the future. Oh wait, let's charge another 40 bucks for an expansion right after that. The best part is the AoD expansion/feature wasn't even close to being worth 40 bucks.

look again you can also buy off of it for 40.00 worth of station cash. Besides ala-carte is always more expensive then bundled. Actually the majority of manufacturer's and vendors have the same issue - try car shopping, add each individual item that you want up and it is a lot more expensive then ordering the bundled - even if it has some things you don't want

It's not really the same, since flying never fails without some imposed barrier.
I came up through eq1 enjoying the challenge of climbing things. It was a fun diversion during some downtime. I climbed ToFS as far as I could in EQ1. When I got to EQ2, I did it again. When flying went in a couple weeks later, it was like "eh. I guess that's no fun anymore". Being ground-based for most of my MMO years, I also dealt with a lot of strategic movement through zones. There was a sense of accomplishment in getting from A to B. That's gone here.

What did they end up doing after flying went in? They tried to compensate, putting the fortress of Zek annoyingly high up, then there was a dragon that knocked you out of the sky.

I accepted it and moved on. Again, I expect no change to come around. I just had to agree with the remark about the world feeling smaller since flight was introduced.

See, the problem is you're not understanding what's what in the case of content. Content is zones, quests, events, gear, spells, all that stuff. AoD is optional features that enhance your gameplay. They wanted to release feature packs from then on, so they could afford to produce all the content for free. They went back and released a content expansion the next year because people just didn't understand what was going on. To this day, even after much explaining ad nauseam, people still don't get it. AoD actually was worth the cost as they offered some added goodies (some that tied in with the features offered). Those are gone now.

Huge slap in the face:


Not a huge slap in the face:

Perhaps they would have stayed the course if the playerbase hadn't complained so vociferously about the lack of somewhere to go kill things in AoD. But since there was such a loud and thunderous outpouring of verklempt all over the forums, they decided to avoid having it happen again by going back to content expansions. And AoD's worth was mostly dependent upon how much of its features you used. If you only got it for the extra AA, then that is kinda like buying a sports car just to deliver pizzas - sure, it will get the job done, but there is a lot of its potential that is being wasted. On the other hand, if you bought it and used all the features that came with it (especially if you used them on more than on character), then $40 was pretty cheap for the value received.
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Regardless, what it boils down to is that you have to make a value judgement about whether the expansion (based upon what you've heard, or - if you're smart - based upon what you know from checking Beta out yourself) is worth your $40. If it is, fine, pay it and enjoy it. If it isn't, fine, don't pay it, and either send a PM to the community manager outlining your grievances, or make a post in this thread that merely states: this is why I am not going to purchase the upcoming expansion, and then put the reason(s).

Trying to finagle a lower price isn't necessary, and similar attempts in the past haven't worked, so there is no reason to think that a fresh attempt will have different results. Furthermore, by avoiding appeals to emotions, we don't invite this guy to the conversation:

Train to zone B!!!!

Train right!! Train right!!

Right, or properly?

I was once run over by a train in Siren's Grotto...I think that ranger had the entire zone on him. At least he came back on an alt and rezzed us. He didn't announce the train because I guess he figured the zone was empty. Saw a rather interesting profanity from him as he zoned leaving us in the mess Trains are fun...sorta...kinda...well, um, not really.

Not necessarily true. Those that did purchase CoE already will be able to reach 95 without ToV, and eventually CoE will be included with the F2P stuff.

And you're right, ultimately it's up to each person to decide if it's worth it or not. This thread was just a hope that SoE heard from those of us that didn't think it was worth it, and why. I'm not sure why some of the posters who haven't or won't beta test are on here defending the expac, but I did check it out, and nothing I saw was attractive enough for me to fork over any money. I'm glad they gave me the opportunity to try before I buy, and hopefully the next expac will have the same opportunity. I'm just hoping they dont pull the rug out from under us and decide they lose too much sales when they reveal their lack of effort before releasing the content.

the reply was directed at those that do not have it - and there are a lot of them. After all there are a lot of new F2P and previous F2P accounts that did not have level 95's and did not purchase the COE expansion, see it asked "I am 92 with 320 AA, why can't I level" COE is no longer available as a separate purchase.

Have run 7 characters through the overland zones of the new expansion (both crafters and adventure quest lines, working on the 8th at the moment - know the beta well and have submitted reports, if you raid, you will be left in the dust when your guild starts raiding tov content.

By the way "I'm glad they gave me the opportunity to try before I buy" is not the reason a beta server is up, it is to report problems and make suggestions, not take it for a test drive like you do a car.

Thanks for the reply. When I Googled an expansion list, AoD was listed as an expansion, same as all the other expansions, and adventure packs were listed as, well, adventure packs. Personally, I wish I could still just buy the entire package, but I guess I'll have to check the SC store more closely.

I don't mind paying for expansions, and I will buy them even if I am not there yet, because it means we are getting more content, and the game is still alive if it rates new content expansions. I have been on the 'other side' of that curve, and no new content is never fun. So I will continue to sub and buy expansions, since I am back here to stay for a good, long time.