SOE finally sold out EQ

[bigdogchris]

http://www.station.sony.com/stationcash/



Of course, I love the 'point' system they use, so people quickly and easily lose track how much real life money they've spent. Reminds me of Xbox Live.



I'm glad I quit this game years ago.

 

[doox00]

I loved eq, years ago, pre pop. no mmo has given me that same feeling since. had some great times in that game.

 

[ojax]

It seems like they are allowing certain perk items to be bought and used in game... From what I can gather, you cannot buy any item you wish... Correct me if I'm wrong. EQ is a slow leveling game, not to mention you are required to group if you want to get anywhere.. I think these perks are for players wanting to enhance their gameplay, and at this point when EQ is getting quite old, I think its a good idea...

However, I've never paid money for items in a game, and wouldn't use this service if I was still playing either game. For those that do, at least its just a bunch of bonus items that don't give a huge advantage to those willing to pay...

 

[mikelish]

I loved eq, years ago, pre pop. no mmo has given me that same feeling since. had some great times in that game.

agreed

 

[Technoob]

Haven't they allowed sales for years now?

 

[Everett1]

I remember my dad buying me EQ as a Birthday gift. That game basically introduced me to the MMORPG concept/genre.

Hell, I still have the original CD of EQ and EQ 2 as well.

Speaking of EQ2, I liked when Pizza Hut did this promotion - http://everquest2.station.sony.com/pizza/

doox00 summed the reply quite well.

 

[hdawg06]

That cash is kind of expensive. I looked at it and it is showing $5.00 for 500 is the exchange rate. Well, a double experience potion, at least that is what I am assuming the adventurers potion is(was the same name in legacy promotion) for 1000 units or $10.00.

 

[Trimlock]

i don't see any problem with this...

 

[Gott]

It seems like SOE is moving towards a different approach. I know in SWG they have their trading card game where you buy packs and you can obtain in-game items from those packs.

 

[CJRP]

This was my first MMORPG as well. Many great memories with it. This is an interesting idea for Sony, and I think at this point in the game it is ok.....but those prices are atrocious. No thank you.

 

[Ritorix]

XP potions for money kinda sounds like buying a powerleveling service.

I thought it was kinda interesting that the KOTOR mmo will also use these sales. At least that wont have a monthly fee though.

 

[phobic]

I loved eq, years ago, pre pop. no mmo has given me that same feeling since. had some great times in that game.

Same for me as well. Once Planes of Power was released, I knew it was time to move on. Still, I haven't had a gaming experience like the early years of EQ.

 

[CJRP]

Not to turn this into an EQ nostalgia thread, but yes....the early years of EQ have ruined the rest of gaming for me. After I quit, I couldn't find another game I enjoyed for years because nothing compared to that. At this point, I would never play another MMORPG again, but damnit it was a good time back then.

 

[sparks]

well I got talked into EQ2 when it came out by some friends that were EQ nuts. Max levels and all that stuff.

I was amazed at the environment. then the nerfs started. NERFED THE NERFS when I quit playing. It was crazy. I guess I played about 5 months.

again the environment blows away a game like wow. But they killed the game play for me.

sony would sell their mother and yours for a buck. They will lie cheat and steal anything.
Wait is that sony or the US senators we are talking about?

 

[doox00]

well I got talked into EQ2 when it came out by some friends that were EQ nuts. Max levels and all that stuff.

I was amazed at the environment. then the nerfs started. NERFED THE NERFS when I quit playing. It was crazy. I guess I played about 5 months.

again the environment blows away a game like wow. But they killed the game play for me.

eq2 was alright.. played it a little bit after release.. have not played in years though. I guess its completely redone from what I hear. Its still nothing like eq live, old school eq was just awesome.. I had high hopes for vanguard.. but that ended up failing.

 

[dajet24]

Old school EQ was the single greatest gaming experience of my life no game can ever give the same feelings of community achievement and sheer aww of the game world then those years did espeicialy the velious and earlier years. game was a great thing for those who had the time and chance to enjoy it back in the day.

/sheds a tear for OC

 

[Tyrsis]

It's just an evolving market. I would expect future MMO's to be free, with microtransactions (there's some speculation on how Bioware's Star Wars MMO will be at the moment) and people need to deal with it.

Stop by the EQ/EQ2 forums and read the nerd rage. They really need to calm down!

 

[pfunkman]

Haven't they allowed sales for years now?

They have for EQ2 (At least i think so)

SOE sold out EQ about 5 years ago this is just icing on the cake. Pretty sad how SOE can destroy even the best MMOs and take great ideas and turn them to shit.

 

[gamer1drew]

I think its been out long enough that its not a big deal.
On a note with the others:
I had an amazing time with EQ that I couldnt never seem to find with WoW or any other MMORPG. I dont know if it was just me being 13 when it came out or if it was the game itself. Thinking of the music that played at the character selection screen still gives me shivers, I loved that game so much.

 

[ServerKing]

i wish all mmo's had this because i hate spending so much time to grind. I wish some of the more popular mmos would have stuff like double xp for certain amount time for x dollars. Hell I would make items like mounts and stuff like that buyable as well for a price because some people want to play but not waste 300hrs to get somewhere.

 

[Archer75]

SOE is trying out new business models. They also have an MMO coming out that is free to play but will make money through micro transactions.
Ultimately they want to remove the $15/month fee from all their games.

 

[Tremulant]

Amen to doox00's post. And a big 'I agree' with CJRP and dajet24, I don't think we will ever see that again in our lifetime. I still think about the game and my guildies after these few years away from it.

 

[Firebot]

EQ was the pinnacle of MMORPG gaming in what I would call the golden age of MMORPG's. There never was a game which brought in adventure and fun like this game, even if the 'fun' was trying to hopelessly get back to your corpse. I still remember being a total newbie in the game, and being a human deciding to hunt in Nektulos Forest. I was blind as a bat and walked blind when I went splash only to see a big piranha chomping me down. I never got that corpse back . I loved the fear of walking into Kithicor Woods as a newbie and trying to make it to the end before nightfall, since very powerful undead would rise up and would rape you if you lingered in the forest for too long .

No game will ever capture that feeling again.

 

[NKDietrich]

People spend upwards of $200 a month, or maybe a lot more, on single-player games which they buy, beat, and then let rot, or maybe get 10% of their money back on selling it used. (Until the game companies crack down on that.)

Yet, somehow, its a huge problem that someone may want to spend more than $15 a month on their MMO of choice? Hypocrisy abounds.

Also, I was a big EQ player back in the day, but the reason people are so fond of it is not because it was the greatest game ever. Lets face it, if most of us had to sit down and play through that tedium again we'd go nuts and throw the thing in the trash bin. It's just nostalgia. For many of us it was the first 3D MMO we had played, and the first of such scale. Ultima Online was my first MMO I suppose, but it didn't have nearly the same impact. I just didn't feel immersed playing a little isometric window. Firing up EQ at 1600x1200 on my TNT2 Ultra on the other hand, was breathtaking.

The gameplay was, honestly, crap. MMO gameplay today has come a long way. But EQ has that nostalgia factor that makes it seem better than it really is.

Nostalgia is a huge problem for PC gamers. It is what makes us so hard to please. Developers not only have to one-up the classics, they have to one-up our nostalgia-inflated perspective on them.

 

[CopyThat]

Asherons Call wiped the floor with EQ

 

[4saken]

Asherons Call wiped the floor with EQ

funniest thing i have ever read.

 

[Eiolon]

Looks like Blizzard is charging real money for character customizations. My guess is they will go the same route with WoW, perhaps making servers where people can purchase items. They've already been doing it in a way by having the trading card game give rewards.

 

[lamil]

http://www.thegrouchygamer.com/?p=157#more-157

If there was any doubt that greed rules the day over in Irvine, or that the who…, er, executives there have round heels and a flat back, that doubt was removed today when this story hit on videogaming247. Basically the gist of it is that someone was poking around in Lich King’s data files found a graphic for a button that said; “Paid Character Customization.”

Looks like the Billion-dollar-baby isn’t satisfying the execs at Actiblizzard, so they have been directed to exploit, er, take advantage, I don’t know what to call it, other than get still more cash out of their golden goose franchise. Here is the heart of the article;

When asked to expand upon a button found by sifting through the Lich King beta’s data files named “Paid Character Customization,” Brack initially hesitated to give any answer at all. Several questions later, he went back to the matter, saying that he could, in fact, confirm that World of Warcraft would eventually have some form of paid character customization, though they themselves hadn’t yet worked out any details.

Now, this is their cash printing machine, and they are welcome to do whatever they want. Again, it shows the value of fandom to a company, and how they can monetize that fandom. For me, it’s a bridge too far. I’m now more sure than ever I don’t want to have anything more to do with WoW. I don’t have the nostalgia for it that I do for EQ or even SWG at this point. Some of us can only eat so much before we throw up.

Me, I’m full.

blizz getting ready to go for it too?

edit - didnt see your post =P

Looks like Blizzard is charging real money for character customizations. My guess is they will go the same route with WoW, perhaps making servers where people can purchase items. They've already been doing it in a way by having the trading card game give rewards.

 

[Spare-Flair]

Instead of chinese farmers powere levelling you, might as well buy direct from the source.

 

[obs]

Looks like Blizzard is charging real money for character customizations. My guess is they will go the same route with WoW, perhaps making servers where people can purchase items. They've already been doing it in a way by having the trading card game give rewards.

All the trading card rewards are purely cosmetic. The character customizations are once again, purely cosmetic. Your slippery slope theory doesn't seem to be panning out.

 

[Eiolon]

Cosmetic, for now, perhaps. They are just testing the waters and seeing the reaction...

 

[kamxam]

You can't really blame the companies for doing it. People and players of these games have been selling characters and items for years. It's about time the developers and companies wised up and got into it. I'd rather have the companies themselves doing it than a person who may or may not give you what you asked for.
Kind of bad for people to accept that people can profit off it and not the companies that make the games. And the main fact, is you don't have to buy it if you don't like it or want it. People will buy this stuff no matter what people say.
As for EQ1, i went back to it but the outdated graphics drove me off. After gaming in EQ2 at 1900x1200, it's very hard to take..lol
EQ2 has changed alot since it's launch aslo. A lot easier to level and quite a few changes. It's totally not the game that it was when it started playwise.
Although, now that video cards have caught up, you can play it at pretty decent quality levels now.
Just my 2 cents....

 

[Tyrsis]

I'm really not understanding the sort of hatred for this sort of thing. They're not selling stuff that is integral to the game, so you don't have to buy it if you don't want to.

It's not affecting you when someone else has a +20% xp potion, what's the big deal?

 

[bigdogchris]

One of the best quotes is the one from that Rytann (sp?) dev, who in June said micro transactions would hurt EQ and they have no plans to ever bring them to EQ.

I really don't like Smed. He's just a bad CEO and puts money before players. Always has, always will. MT's are a bad idea because when you start putting them in the game, you have to start balancing the game around the people who spend $100's a month on that crap. That gives normal players a disadvantage. A flat monthly fee to put you in the game with the same opportunity is the best method IMO. After that, it's all about your time investment and skill to be rewarded. MT's will mean more money. For every 10 players that don't subscribe or don't buy anything, there will be that guy who spend $300 a month.

In the end SOE makes more money and the players who don't buy items are underpowered because the game is tuned around those most powerful who buy MT items. I've followed EQ a long time, they balance the game around the most powerful, and that's the way they will always do it.

 

[Visec]

Also, I was a big EQ player back in the day, but the reason people are so fond of it is not because it was the greatest game ever. Lets face it, if most of us had to sit down and play through that tedium again we'd go nuts and throw the thing in the trash bin. It's just nostalgia. For many of us it was the first 3D MMO we had played, and the first of such scale. Ultima Online was my first MMO I suppose, but it didn't have nearly the same impact. I just didn't feel immersed playing a little isometric window. Firing up EQ at 1600x1200 on my TNT2 Ultra on the other hand, was breathtaking.

The gameplay was, honestly, crap. MMO gameplay today has come a long way. But EQ has that nostalgia factor that makes it seem better than it really is.

Nostalgia is a huge problem for PC gamers. It is what makes us so hard to please. Developers not only have to one-up the classics, they have to one-up our nostalgia-inflated perspective on them.

I agree with alot what you said but EQ is still 100x better than WoW will ever be. I don't agree with your nostalgia completley for a few reasons.

Everquest items and gaining levels in EQ weren't just handed to you like wow. Living in Norrath required you to be CAREFUL actually think be smart AND group if you wanted to rake the best xp. Thats how it SHOULD be. If you want to reap the best experience loot and rewards, you better scurry up a tank healer some sexy DPS, a chanter, go to that holy spot where mobs and adds are no joke and go cash in. Risk vs Reward..remember that?

WoW is just a solo noob-fest virtually extinct of any difficulty trial or challenge EQ-type mmo's had. Blizzard basically said 'screw it' just give anyone full epics who is a paying customer.

Remember terms such as 'controlling agro' and 'crowd control'? These things don't even exist in WoW. Part of what made EQ special was it took effort coordination a bit of dedication and work to be the best and if you did it paid off.

You claim 'the gameplay sucked' in EQ, and granted, warrior only had 2 buttons taunt and kick, but this 'simple' aspect also provided group dynamic and made each class distinct from other players you felt 'needed' when you got into that upper dogs group because every class wasn't just a jack all-in-one class like pretty much every class in WoW.

I remember being part of awesome EQ groups the setup was so perfect people would NOT want to leave but with WoW it doesn't even matter what class you have, every class is basically a hybird that can do anything other classes can do.

It's possible to argue Everquest gameplay being more 'boring' is part of what made gameplay better because it put the focus on 'teamwork' and on group and raid environment, compared to WoW where the focus is on soloing with groups and raiding the afterthought.

 

[Rydawg5143]

couple years ago SOE was talking about exing out all the plat farmers and account sellers buy doing it themselves, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
I loved EQ, quit end of 07, been thinking about playing but then i play tf2 or l4d and forget

 

[pfunkman]

I agree with alot what you said but EQ is still 100x better than WoW will ever be. I don't agree with your nostalgia completley for a few reasons.

Everquest items and gaining levels in EQ weren't just handed to you like wow. Living in Norrath required you to be CAREFUL actually think be smart AND group if you wanted to rake the best xp. Thats how it SHOULD be. If you want to reap the best experience loot and rewards, you better scurry up a tank healer some sexy DPS, a chanter, go to that holy spot where mobs and adds are no joke and go cash in. Risk vs Reward..remember that?

WoW is just a solo noob-fest virtually extinct of any difficulty trial or challenge EQ-type mmo's had. Blizzard basically said 'screw it' just give anyone full epics who is a paying customer.

Remember terms such as 'controlling agro' and 'crowd control'? These things don't even exist in WoW. Part of what made EQ special was it took effort coordination a bit of dedication and work to be the best and if you did it paid off.

You claim 'the gameplay sucked' in EQ, and granted, warrior only had 2 buttons taunt and kick, but this 'simple' aspect also provided group dynamic and made each class distinct from other players you felt 'needed' when you got into that upper dogs group because every class wasn't just a jack all-in-one class like pretty much every class in WoW.

I remember being part of awesome EQ groups the setup was so perfect people would NOT want to leave but with WoW it doesn't even matter what class you have, every class is basically a hybird that can do anything other classes can do.

It's possible to argue Everquest gameplay being more 'boring' is part of what made gameplay better because it put the focus on 'teamwork' and on group and raid environment, compared to WoW where the focus is on soloing with groups and raiding the afterthought.

Played EQ for 4 years, switched to wow and will never look back. Just because EQ makes you grind for an eternity to get to a level where you can see any of the content does not mean wow "hands it to you".

EQ gameplay sucked because if you could not find a warrior or cleric you couldnt do shit. Yeah some classes could tank in a pinch and some could heal but you would be totally gimped.

The biggest problem i have with the the wow haters is the WoW takes no skill argument. Just because something is quicker dont make it easier. Everquest is far easier to play than wow its just that everything takes 10x longer. Somewhere along the line the remaining EQ fans have convinced themselves that because it takes longer that means it takes more skill. To play wow with any skill you actually have to think on your feet and its a far more involved process than playing EQ. You only have 9 spells at a time to be concerned with and its so slow paced you can just stand in place and cast, cast, cast. Thats not what i would call skill.

 

[doox00]

Played EQ for 4 years, switched to wow and will never look back. Just because EQ makes you grind for an eternity to get to a level where you can see any of the content does not mean wow "hands it to you".

EQ gameplay sucked because if you could not find a warrior or cleric you couldnt do shit. Yeah some classes could tank in a pinch and some could heal but you would be totally gimped.

The biggest problem i have with the the wow haters is the WoW takes no skill argument. Just because something is quicker dont make it easier. Everquest is far easier to play than wow its just that everything takes 10x longer. Somewhere along the line the remaining EQ fans have convinced themselves that because it takes longer that means it takes more skill. To play wow with any skill you actually have to think on your feet and its a far more involved process than playing EQ. You only have 9 spells at a time to be concerned with and its so slow paced you can just stand in place and cast, cast, cast. Thats not what i would call skill.

Being from one of the top raid guilds on stormhammer I would have to say I think your full of shit, eq takes way more skill than wow imo, You can only mem 8-10 spells (whatever it up to now, been a few years since I have played)... you need to choose which spells you need for a given situation, what role you are playing in your group.. how to use those spells most efficiently and beneficially. PoP raiding was incredible, awesome tactics and organization required to succeed to get fully flagged. There was actual fear in eq, dungeon crawls.. trains, death where you lose xp and required to get your corpse to get all your gear back (although they have guild halls and stuff now where you can pay to summon your body) Even in a normal xp group you needed skill to single pull (monks/rangers/necros, and using clerics to pacify to break mobs up) awesome crowd control with chanters, every class has a specific role to do and the best groups were made up of the right balance of classes in order to successfully and quickly gain xp.

To each their own though, but I would say eq is a more difficult game and skill based than wow. Of course you need to know how to play your class in wow and all that but I think eq is surely more tactical and skill required mmo. Not to mention the community in general is just much nicer to be around, the number of 10 years running around wow and acting 10 is enough to stay away

By the way these are my views of eq a number of years ago.. when it was really good.. I don't much care for the way eq went after the pop expansion, even some of the pop stuff ruined some aspects of eq. pre pop is still the best

I just started playing lotro and so far I am have a great time in it.. first time since eq I have enjoyed an mmo. time will tell though.

 

[Visec]

I was just reading today's WoW patchnotes : "Added over 60 new graveyards in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms."

There is already ZERO death penalty in WoW.. have to run 5 extra seconds if I die, wait, no.. dying is GOOD now actually since it puts me back at my corpse with full health for only running 6 steps. yay WOOHOO death!

Some will say retrieving corpses doesn't make the game more skilled but WTF, there should be SOME penalty to dying....Next expansion pack they'll remove death alltogether as a game mechanic at the rate they're going.

 

[bigdogchris]

I love the line some MMOG devs use, "We don't want to penalize you for dying, we want to reward you for living". Nice entry into the cheesy cliche one-liner, hall of fame.