Station Marketplace vs. Crafting

GrunEQ wrote:

Here's an argument that does hold water.
When SoE stars making more money from it's 'free' games than from EQ2, what kind of game is EQ2 going to become? A skeleton crew game like vanguard perhaps?

TheSpin wrote:

My "assumption" is that a portion of what is generated via a game is directed towards development and staffing and that portion would remain constant reguardless if other games make more money or not. OF course I don't work for SoE but to me this would be a fairly reasonable business model. SO if I am right (hey i can be wrong) then it wouldn't really matter if freerealms made 1000000x more then eq2 the amount of dev's on eq2 would be dictated by how much they make reguarly (I would normally assume things like LoN and SC would go to the coffers of EQ2 but unfortunatly I believe fairly strongly they are their own coffers and not given back to the host games).

You know, crafters threw fits back at lanuch when they discovered that some quests gave house item rewards.
That didn't break the game, neither will this.

Calthine wrote:

Game breaking? Nope.
Annoying as heck. Yep.
Hiya Ki!
Pathetica

It may not break the game, but it pisses a lot of people off. SOE is going to push the limit, and the community will be the ones to decide how far they will let it go before they stop supporting EQ2 or SOE all together. We should take bets to see how long before another boycott starts.

Vallestra wrote:

I don't think we have anything to say in how SOE runs the game. I'm not joining any boycotts. I'll continue playing as long as I enjoy the game.
The addition of these items to the marketplace is not quite game breaking to me. I have a sage, tailor, and armorer and leveled up a carpenter for a friend. Even before the marketplace I used my crafters only for my own toons. There just isn't enough to make that anyone wants to buy. I have a feeling that the market place does mean even less good recipes for my crafters in the future.
I will not buy household items in the market place. I enjoy decorating my house but I enjoy doing it with stuff my friend makes. I wouldn't be caught dead in any of the armor available in the market place now, but I'm afraid that is just the beginning. Once SOE hires Anne Klein II to design the armor, I might just shell out for one outfit for each of my toons
And when they put out mythical and master spells I will be first on the list to buy them. These would open up a lot of game content that is currently closed to me. My gaming friend and I play an hour to an hour and half each night. That is just not long enough to get involved in a group. But we like the game. I wouldn't break the game rules to buy the plat needed to buy rights to raid loot, but if the market place enabled us to get the gear we can't get by raiding, I would be quite happy to invest a bit more in playing.

Calthine wrote:

I fail to see your comparison here, even if through questing they were still available IN GAME through PLAYING the game, it was still included as part of our sub fees.
Totally diferent cimcumstances. And I do remember that the major issue was that the Wantia items were so much better than what you could craft at the time, not so much that they were quested, because again crafters could not compete with the shabby items they made in comparison.
If they put a number of different colors of the SC set in game and the only place you could get the white one was through SC then it woud be different (and fair), but as it is now carpenters get nothing and SC gets the best items.

TheSpin wrote:

Thing about live events & quests, the furniture there is either limited time only or the quest can only be completed once. And of course there is the time that has to be spent either aquiring the tokens one needs to get the items or to complete the quest in the first place. With stuff being on SC all people have to do is type in their credit card number. That makes all the difference in the world.
I don't think this alone will destroy carpenters, but it certainly shows what SOE SC people think about carpenters.

Calthine wrote:

Sorry Cal, thats an apples to oranges comparison. No one paid extra on top of their monthly subscription rate to acquire that content, it was simply a different mechanism to acquire it in-game. The Station Cash is an avenue of acquisition that requires funds out of pocket in addition to monthly subscription.
Will it break the game? Doubtful. Will it aggrovate people enough to stop playing, probably.

I'm a little surprised that Domino has not commented by now. I would have thought there would be some response or reassurances that perhaps crafters would or would not be getting better recipes to be able to compete with SC. Domino is usually pretty good about that.

GrunEQ wrote:

I'd only expect her to reply if in fact there was a plan to give crafters better recipes to compete with smedbucks. I'd expect her to stay quiet if that's not the case, as confirming that RMT items will continue to be better than crafted items would just stir up the community.

I said exactly that to my husband last nite Grun. I am really surprised myself. Domino usually says something one way or another; whether you like the news or not. It seems that no answer is the answer. Which only serves to make me think the answer we seek is going to be a crushing blow to our crafting community. I hope that I am wrong, unfortunately, no answer has never meant 'good things are to come' in my recollection of these forums.

Uguv@Mistmoore wrote:

Meerah@Permafrost wrote:

Or she's just not commenting to keep from getting caught up in a subjective topic of quality knowing full well that when she's ventured to make her opinion on item quality known before she's been burned e.g. birdbaths.
There's a whole expansion of stuff coming that's currently in the planning stages. Even if she wanted to comment, what could she use that's likely not under a strict code of silence?

Deson wrote:

'zactly, besides, she might dislike the look/feel of that dining room set 'cause it wouldn't look good in any of the decorating schemes she's done or plans to do or she might like other looks better.
And, yes, there is the expansion coming in the Autumn which is likely to be announced at or near the time of Fan Faire with images and stuff available then. She might have some incredible stuff waiting to unleash but is under the developers' NDA.

GrunEQ wrote:

Well, beings Domino actually plays, and beings she is a carpenter, I think we should all give her a big pass on this as it is totally the fault of the greedy Station Cash folks.
Pathetica

Pathetica@Nektulos wrote:

Agreed. I do wish we had more devs like Domino.

It seems the only thing we can say for certain currently is that "IF" this is the new model for granting customers requests for additional content is to create and offer it at additional cost, it will certainly be a significant change to the game as we know it.

GrunEQ wrote:

Even Domino sometimes takes a weekend off from reading forums!
So, yes, the new Station Cash furniture is awesome looking (and there's a few more pieces too that haven't been posted which are just as nice). As others in this thread have stated, the revenue from Station Cash sales enables us to have an artist dedicated to making stuff like this. Without the funds that came from Station Cash, they couldn't have been made. And if people buy the furniture, then yes, it's likely there will be more furniture sold in this way.
But that said, there's also lots of cool furniture and house items to look forward to in the coming year, which will be available in game through live events and through crafting. It will be different from the items offered in Marketplace, but we're doing our best to make sure it's also good looking and includes items that people have been asking for. Haohmaru has been outdoing himself and showing me a few new tricks too, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what our home decorators do with the new items; I think it'll allow for lots of creativity and new decorating looks!

YAY!

DominoDev wrote:

Oh dear.
Domino, you have always had my respect as a dev for many, many reasons, and what I'm going to say is not directed at you personally, as it's not your fault.
You've just kicked the wasps nest quite hard with the simple comment
'...the revenue from Station Cash sales enables us to have an artist dedicated to making stuff like this. Without the funds that came from Station Cash, they couldn't have been made. '
So, basically, what's being said here, is that a graphic dev, who has been hired on the premise of making SC stuff as cool as possible, is being paid by selling such stuff, and the money - or at least a portion that isn't pure profit - is being paid back to the same guy, who in turn makes even more cool stuff for SC only.. etc etc.
Thus confirming what a lot of people have been suggesting; SC adds nothing to the current EQ2 Dev team; no extra devs to help with sub paying customers (you know, the vast majority of the consumer base in EQ2 - the guys and gals who pay everyone's wages) - so no new features available to the general player base without having to pay extra money for it?
I'm sorry, but when you run a huge game such as EQ2, you should be investing in devs to keep the game fresh and exciting - without asking players to pay even more for it. The ONLY time players should pay extra money for something they're already paying for, is when new content is added into the game - content such as new lands, new races, new classes and new skills.
I would be less against the concept of SC if it wasn't overtaking the things that most players can have in-game as a matter of course; introducing not only items which are unique to SC AND are items that really should be craftable by players (especially when the current item models are somewhat generic now) - AND that the funds from these are used to pay someone to make even more soley for SC just irritates me beyond measure.
I'm not exactly a business guru, but I know enough to say that alienating even some of your customer base is not exactly a great business tactic. Can't please everyone, no - but if SOE is having to resort to SC to help fund things... maybe they should take a look at their business model as a whole - and start asking questions as to why they need to pay someone to make things purely for profit.
And if the answer is 'we're fine, we just want more money'... then I feel very sad - for MMO's in general.