I've just published a short article about my opinions of the new service SOE just launched "Station Cash". What does everyone else think?
- Forums
- Cross Site
- General Video Game Discussion
- Station Cash or Station Crap? (was forum=4)
Station Cash or Station Crap? (was forum=4)Follow
__________________
Fly High Daevas,
Tamat ~ Andrew Beegle
Community Manager
Fly High Daevas,
Tamat ~ Andrew Beegle
Community Manager
WRONG FORUM N00b!!! 
"I started out with nothin' and I still got most of it left" - Seasick Steve
Offering tiered services or bought content in a game is always a business move and always at the expense of game play. How much harm is caused can be debated, but not that harm has been caused.
Stuff like this is a perfect example of why we should be able to rate admins.
Nobby wrote:
WRONG FORUM N00b!!!
^
|
|
An Joke
"I started out with nothin' and I still got most of it left" - Seasick Steve
-REDACTED-
Guru
6,786 posts
We also have a poll on this over in the EQ2 Forums: http://eq2.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=19;mid=12288473165185472;num=8;page=1
The reason they implemented it game-wide is most likely the temptation factor. Selling in-game currency is all well and good, however, making someone change servers to have the ability to purchase said vapor money most likely yielded pitiful results, and made it no fun to play on a server when certain people had the RL money to make themselves super leet.
Hence making it available on all servers increases their profit all around. People will always buy in-game currency. Cheat codes exist. People continue to exploit flaws. Making it legitimate simply lures time constrained mmo gamers into their 'casual' game.
Is it right/wrong? Who cares, people will be people.
Edited, Dec 19th 2008 12:57am by Paskil
Hence making it available on all servers increases their profit all around. People will always buy in-game currency. Cheat codes exist. People continue to exploit flaws. Making it legitimate simply lures time constrained mmo gamers into their 'casual' game.
Is it right/wrong? Who cares, people will be people.
Edited, Dec 19th 2008 12:57am by Paskil
Scholar
27 posts
I feel that any game that charges folks a fee to play has no right to add additional "costs" to that game. Hate it when more "real" money becomes involved.
'Nuff said.
'Nuff said.
Tedro wrote:
I feel that any game that charges folks a fee to play has no right to add additional "costs" to that game. Hate it when more "real" money becomes involved.
'Nuff said.
'Nuff said.
youd almost think you could enjoy the game just fine without buying this not necessary stuff..
Does this really surprise you with SOE? And since when did Sony ever do anything for the players? I have played Eq1, Eq2, and SWG and personally found SOE to just be a greedy company with little to no creativity. That is one of the bigger reasons I quit and went to WOW. I just wanted to get away from SOE. SOE just wants to churn out dull content every 6 months with new expansions. They add in a handful of must have features to force people to buy it, plus they usually have something that makes earning money/gear/exp easy for about 2 weeks. They then wait for everybody to buy the expansion then nerf the crap out of it.
How many players did they lose in SWG when they changed the combat system. Did they listen to the players while massive amounts of people canceled there subscriptions? Simple solution to that would have been to have some servers with the new system and some with the old.
Look at Everquest 2 and there creative thinking with it. Every new expansion is just bringing back Everquest 1 stuff. Shoot last time I played EQ2 the freakin GameMasters didn't even speak english! Since the day eq1 came out there customer server has went down and the monthly fee has went up. I remember when waiting more then an hour for a GM was considered a long time. I think I had a 3 day wait time when I last petitioned about something and I was just met with somebody who could barely speak English.
How many players did they lose in SWG when they changed the combat system. Did they listen to the players while massive amounts of people canceled there subscriptions? Simple solution to that would have been to have some servers with the new system and some with the old.
Look at Everquest 2 and there creative thinking with it. Every new expansion is just bringing back Everquest 1 stuff. Shoot last time I played EQ2 the freakin GameMasters didn't even speak english! Since the day eq1 came out there customer server has went down and the monthly fee has went up. I remember when waiting more then an hour for a GM was considered a long time. I think I had a 3 day wait time when I last petitioned about something and I was just met with somebody who could barely speak English.
Hi
People.. if you don't like it don't buy it.. and why be surprised? SOE is a BUSINESS everything is a money making monuever. Also, last several petitions i've placed were answered within a couple hours and they were very polite n grammaticaly correct n everything. regardless of what they are selling with their station cash it is not a "required" item to play, so if you dont want to spend real cash on it.. (amagine this!) don't! just wastes time with meaningless complaining about something you probaly can't change, and doesn't really matter. IMO of course, beleive what you want :)
All in all I don't mind the new service. I don't like the fact that someone who has the extra cash laying around can just buy their way around in a game of this scale, but then again that's no different than real life. We still live it, so in the game, we just play it, regardless. Right off I don't really see the point of buying any of the items. But maybe when I reach a challenge I need to overcome and no such luck from guildies or LFG, I may consider purchasing an item that may help me overcome the challenge.
The thing about a MMORPG is simply "Not buying it" does not mean it will not effect your gameplay. Its just like if you choose not to buy an expansion you will start to become limited to what you can actually do as others will want it. Also if you are in more hardcore of raiding guilds alot of times they will require you to have certain things in order to make doing certain raids easier (even if you don't actually NEED it some people get it burned into their heads that you do).
Hi
i'm gonna go with "station crap" on this one. instead of adding something worthwhile, they added something that will simply make them a little more money off the people who can afford to throw away real bucks for pretend toys. i'm just glad they didnt' go so far as to offer platnum in the ' marketplace'. that surely would have been the final nail in the eq coffin. where's the new content for new players? for the old players starting a new toon?
no where. people just PL new alts to maximum possible level as fast as possible and don't acctually PLAY at anything less than 60 anymore. and now with the new XP pots etc avail for cash, that situation is only going to get worse. they offer ' free trial accounts'.. but the only people useing them are people trying to get us to buy plat and aa etc from their website. real true ' noobies' have no place to go, no one to grp with, so they quit.
LOL.. kill the hot zones.. kill the tutorial... make a level req to get OUT of the newbie zones, instead of a req to get IN to higher ones. ( .. no.. i'm not serious on that last one.. but it's not a 100% bad idea.)
make the game better for the players, and they'll get the money they want and they can quit trying to come up with some desperate scheme to get more of our money.
this isn't the Kiss of Death for EQ like some people have said. however, SoE does seem to be putting on the cherry chapstick and practicing their pucker.
statoin cash gets my vote for the point that Eq jumped the shark.
no where. people just PL new alts to maximum possible level as fast as possible and don't acctually PLAY at anything less than 60 anymore. and now with the new XP pots etc avail for cash, that situation is only going to get worse. they offer ' free trial accounts'.. but the only people useing them are people trying to get us to buy plat and aa etc from their website. real true ' noobies' have no place to go, no one to grp with, so they quit.
LOL.. kill the hot zones.. kill the tutorial... make a level req to get OUT of the newbie zones, instead of a req to get IN to higher ones. ( .. no.. i'm not serious on that last one.. but it's not a 100% bad idea.)
make the game better for the players, and they'll get the money they want and they can quit trying to come up with some desperate scheme to get more of our money.
this isn't the Kiss of Death for EQ like some people have said. however, SoE does seem to be putting on the cherry chapstick and practicing their pucker.
statoin cash gets my vote for the point that Eq jumped the shark.
- Zanaabi Rumslayer
- 110 Kitty Shammy of The Nameless... I mean Druzzil Ro.. I mean Xegony! oops.. Test.
- We Dance With No Pants
" Where are we going? And why am I in this handbasket?"
- 110 Kitty Shammy of The Nameless... I mean Druzzil Ro.. I mean Xegony! oops.. Test.
- We Dance With No Pants
" Where are we going? And why am I in this handbasket?"
Scholar
22 posts
Well let me say this before I go to the Ops points.
I own most of SOE titles. I have played EQ1, EQ2, SWG and Vanguard at since launch of each game. I have been a paying subscriber for a very long time. So you can safely say I was a fan of SOE. Now where they went wrong with several items; First they change there games too much at the expense of alienating their player base. I am not talking about adding features; I am talking about fundamental changes to the game. Their hopes that adding such feature will grab new players, but what they are doing in shooting themselves in the foot, each time. I think SOE needs to look at what they have started with and stick with it.
Everquest 1 and 2 was hard when it first came out and fun, in my opinion. With the success of WOW they thought it was because the games was so easy, WOW was successful because the game could be play on any system.
Now for the Station Cash issue, I hate it. I feel like I am being nickel and dimed, I feel they are greedy. I know they are a business and they want to make money. But I have paid for every expansion in full and their monthly fees. These items that are virtual and should be for free in a expansion or adventure pack. They wasted valuable time and resources on a whim and more than likely items like this will NOT be added to future expansions. I for one will not be buying or playing any more SOE games for now on. I feel cheated and no one or nothing will be changing my mind. They have some serious making up to do. And don’t you find it kind of cheap to do it after a expansion.
Oh one last thing, I don’t pay for one game, I pay for 4, my own, wife’s, son’s and nephew’s.
I think I will just stick with EVE , since every expansion is free and I only have to pay a monthly fee. I am tired of being money milked.
I own most of SOE titles. I have played EQ1, EQ2, SWG and Vanguard at since launch of each game. I have been a paying subscriber for a very long time. So you can safely say I was a fan of SOE. Now where they went wrong with several items; First they change there games too much at the expense of alienating their player base. I am not talking about adding features; I am talking about fundamental changes to the game. Their hopes that adding such feature will grab new players, but what they are doing in shooting themselves in the foot, each time. I think SOE needs to look at what they have started with and stick with it.
Everquest 1 and 2 was hard when it first came out and fun, in my opinion. With the success of WOW they thought it was because the games was so easy, WOW was successful because the game could be play on any system.
Now for the Station Cash issue, I hate it. I feel like I am being nickel and dimed, I feel they are greedy. I know they are a business and they want to make money. But I have paid for every expansion in full and their monthly fees. These items that are virtual and should be for free in a expansion or adventure pack. They wasted valuable time and resources on a whim and more than likely items like this will NOT be added to future expansions. I for one will not be buying or playing any more SOE games for now on. I feel cheated and no one or nothing will be changing my mind. They have some serious making up to do. And don’t you find it kind of cheap to do it after a expansion.
Oh one last thing, I don’t pay for one game, I pay for 4, my own, wife’s, son’s and nephew’s.
I think I will just stick with EVE , since every expansion is free and I only have to pay a monthly fee. I am tired of being money milked.
I think the fact Everquest 1 is in fact too hard now is a major part of the reason people don't play it anymore. People want to be able to solo not sit in Plane of Knowledge begging for a group. Yea get a guild right? Not everybody can jump right into a super best friends guild that groups at regular times. Most guilds I have been in usually have a handful of members who do everything while the rest get ignored. Either that or guilds that just do nothing. I played EQ1 on and off for years and I don't think I ever was max level.
Far as Everquest 2 goes I don't think it was ever too hard and I remember playing it fairly early on (before they required you to attune gear I remember the stir that patch created). I actually played it off and on 3 times. First time I leveled a mage to 50 and was bored to death waiting for expansion. Tried it again with a paladin and got bored to death about 57ish. I found Desert of Flame to be the absolute most boring expansion ever! Ran about every instance there was only to find crap loot and crap loot. I think I had a full set of Cobalt which is what every plate class used basically. So I quit and I tried it one more time later on with the release of Echos as a Necro. Once again got myself up to 78ish when Kunark was out and got bored. I don't know what makes it so boring but it just bores me. EQ2 players talk about WOW being too easy but fact of the matter WOW is really more difficult at higher levels. Dungeon bosses are alot easier to wipe to as they actually do more then random AE's and hit hard. Only thing harder about EQ2 is keeping interest and actualyl getting people to group. Seems like people get higher lvl they are scared to death to PUG. OMG might have to spend a couple of gold on repair, much better to just not run at all huh?
I tried SWG when it first came out and I couldn't stand the leveling system. I couldn't figure out at first how to lvl. I mean the only quests I remember being able to find required a group or high lvl stuff. Game also ran like crap on my PC and according to RECOMMENDED stats my PC should have ran the game perfectly (I was well above). I quit and once again gave the game a try after they changed the leveling system. At least the new leveling system was more basic but the game still ran like crap on my even more powerful PC. I got to lvl 10 and lost interest.
So now I play World Of Warcraft. Plenty of things to do at max level and even as DPS its not entirely painful trying to get into a group to run something that will reward me well.
Far as Everquest 2 goes I don't think it was ever too hard and I remember playing it fairly early on (before they required you to attune gear I remember the stir that patch created). I actually played it off and on 3 times. First time I leveled a mage to 50 and was bored to death waiting for expansion. Tried it again with a paladin and got bored to death about 57ish. I found Desert of Flame to be the absolute most boring expansion ever! Ran about every instance there was only to find crap loot and crap loot. I think I had a full set of Cobalt which is what every plate class used basically. So I quit and I tried it one more time later on with the release of Echos as a Necro. Once again got myself up to 78ish when Kunark was out and got bored. I don't know what makes it so boring but it just bores me. EQ2 players talk about WOW being too easy but fact of the matter WOW is really more difficult at higher levels. Dungeon bosses are alot easier to wipe to as they actually do more then random AE's and hit hard. Only thing harder about EQ2 is keeping interest and actualyl getting people to group. Seems like people get higher lvl they are scared to death to PUG. OMG might have to spend a couple of gold on repair, much better to just not run at all huh?
I tried SWG when it first came out and I couldn't stand the leveling system. I couldn't figure out at first how to lvl. I mean the only quests I remember being able to find required a group or high lvl stuff. Game also ran like crap on my PC and according to RECOMMENDED stats my PC should have ran the game perfectly (I was well above). I quit and once again gave the game a try after they changed the leveling system. At least the new leveling system was more basic but the game still ran like crap on my even more powerful PC. I got to lvl 10 and lost interest.
So now I play World Of Warcraft. Plenty of things to do at max level and even as DPS its not entirely painful trying to get into a group to run something that will reward me well.
Hi
I simply don't jive with those complaining that they are being "nickled and dimed" by SOE. Station Cash is in no way needed to enjoy the game. If you don't care for that aspect of the world's greatest MMO then simply do not launch it...I think that's pretty damn obvious.
Sure, there will be those who have purchased XP potions and out-leveling you, but there will always be people who out-level you, as there always has been. So what if someone wants to buy a snake familiar that does nothing for his character. I just really wish people would stop whining. I'm not referring to the original article, but to those who post 1 or 2 lines of "snippy" commentary.
Personally, I think SOE is great. They have given us a wonderful venue in which to play as little or as much as we want. Someone commented on SOE's creativity level in a negative light. I think they've been pretty damn creative over the years. Sadly, there seem to be few actual role-players left. We are a dying breed. I'm saying here that SOE has catered to both the role-player as well as the hardcore hack-n-slash level monkey. There's room for both types of gamer in what I see as a fantastic virtual world. Is it flawed in some ways? Of course! What game isn't?
I bothers me to "hear" so many people complaining about SOE's level of customer service. Each of my many petitions has been answered in a timely manner and by a friendly/helpful GM ((Thanks GM Zekil!!!)) each time. Is SOE (Sony) a money-making machine? Yes, of course it is. What do you think they're in business for...fun?...friends? No, money fuels Sony's engine, just like it does the company you work for, your local grocery store, and your dentist.
Bottom line is SOE will never be able to please everyone, 100% of the time. To think otherwise is foolish. So, stop focusing on the those aspects of the game that you needn't come in contact with...LoN, Station Cash...and enjoy the game. Send /feedback about what you like as well as what you don't like. I'm certain the GMs/devs tire of receiving negative comment after negative comment.
I would also like to point out that the GMs/devs answer to higher powers within the corp. Keep in mind that those at the top are pulling the strings in order to maximize profit. Has anyone considered what it's like being a GM with some shiny, bright ideas to take to the table only to have them trashed by, I dunno, someone higher in the food chain? Must suck. Then, to be bombarded with /feedback and /petitions over which the GM has little or no control. Must suck worse.
Lastly, to those of you who enjoy the game as much as I do: Send in your positive /feedback. If I complete a quest that I really liked I let them know. If I like something about the latest expansion I let them know. And sometimes, I simply thank them for a job well done. I encourage you guys to do that same. ((The old saying is "You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar")). 'Nuff said.
Peace.
Sure, there will be those who have purchased XP potions and out-leveling you, but there will always be people who out-level you, as there always has been. So what if someone wants to buy a snake familiar that does nothing for his character. I just really wish people would stop whining. I'm not referring to the original article, but to those who post 1 or 2 lines of "snippy" commentary.
Personally, I think SOE is great. They have given us a wonderful venue in which to play as little or as much as we want. Someone commented on SOE's creativity level in a negative light. I think they've been pretty damn creative over the years. Sadly, there seem to be few actual role-players left. We are a dying breed. I'm saying here that SOE has catered to both the role-player as well as the hardcore hack-n-slash level monkey. There's room for both types of gamer in what I see as a fantastic virtual world. Is it flawed in some ways? Of course! What game isn't?
I bothers me to "hear" so many people complaining about SOE's level of customer service. Each of my many petitions has been answered in a timely manner and by a friendly/helpful GM ((Thanks GM Zekil!!!)) each time. Is SOE (Sony) a money-making machine? Yes, of course it is. What do you think they're in business for...fun?...friends? No, money fuels Sony's engine, just like it does the company you work for, your local grocery store, and your dentist.
Bottom line is SOE will never be able to please everyone, 100% of the time. To think otherwise is foolish. So, stop focusing on the those aspects of the game that you needn't come in contact with...LoN, Station Cash...and enjoy the game. Send /feedback about what you like as well as what you don't like. I'm certain the GMs/devs tire of receiving negative comment after negative comment.
I would also like to point out that the GMs/devs answer to higher powers within the corp. Keep in mind that those at the top are pulling the strings in order to maximize profit. Has anyone considered what it's like being a GM with some shiny, bright ideas to take to the table only to have them trashed by, I dunno, someone higher in the food chain? Must suck. Then, to be bombarded with /feedback and /petitions over which the GM has little or no control. Must suck worse.
Lastly, to those of you who enjoy the game as much as I do: Send in your positive /feedback. If I complete a quest that I really liked I let them know. If I like something about the latest expansion I let them know. And sometimes, I simply thank them for a job well done. I encourage you guys to do that same. ((The old saying is "You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar")). 'Nuff said.
Peace.
Recent Visitors: 95
All times are in CST
Anonymous Guests (95)
- Forums
- Cross Site
- General Video Game Discussion
- Station Cash or Station Crap? (was forum=4)
© 2024 Fanbyte LLC