Originally posted by Ginaz

Originally posted by tillamook

Originally posted by Ginaz

Reading all of that over on the soe forums, its obvious no one is actually playing the card game itself.  All they're interested in is the loot.  Soe would be better off just selling the loot items straight up instead of wasting everyones time with the card game crap.

 

true, but could they make more money?

  Maybe, because then they wouldn't have to waste any money making the card game itself. 

Ah, but see. RMT is only allowed on "exchange" servers. So, in order to sell loot to the non-rmt servers, they make a "card game".

I am stunned how many people actually believe that the 5 booster packs provide to them are free of charge.

Originally posted by Ginaz

Reading all of that over on the soe forums, its obvious no one is actually playing the card game itself.  All they're interested in is the loot.  Soe would be better off just selling the loot items straight up instead of wasting everyones time with the card game crap.

Why get rid of the card game?  They are paying for the CHANCE to get an item.  The majority of the time they are paying money for items they don't even want. 

SOE is getting money for nothing and creating repeat business.  Selling the items straight out is a one time deal and they can't pretend the card game is the real reason for this project.

SWG players are so starved for content of any kind I doubt they will blink an eye at this type of thing.  Even negative attention [loot cards] is desirable at this point.

Originally posted by Daffid011

Originally posted by Ginaz

Reading all of that over on the soe forums, its obvious no one is actually playing the card game itself.  All they're interested in is the loot.  Soe would be better off just selling the loot items straight up instead of wasting everyones time with the card game crap.

 

Why get rid of the card game?  They are paying for the CHANCE to get an item.  The majority of the time they are paying money for items they don't even want. 

SOE is getting money for nothing and creating repeat business.  Selling the items straight out is a one time deal and they can't pretend the card game is the real reason for this project.

SWG players are so starved for content of any kind I doubt they will blink an eye at this type of thing.  Even negative attention [loot cards] is desirable at this point.

 

 

Selling the items outright may cause future legal issues for them since it would give the items real cash value instead of a secondary market value thus providing the opportunity for the items to be declared real property.

Originally posted by Ginaz

Reading all of that over on the soe forums, its obvious no one is actually playing the card game itself.  All they're interested in is the loot.  Soe would be better off just selling the loot items straight up instead of wasting everyones time with the card game crap.

If the incompetent, bumbling, idiotic fools at SOE wanted to actually add some gameplay elements to their Star Wars MMO, all the actual game additions from this stupid card game should have been readily available in-game.

Especially to the crafters as schematics.

But then again, we are talking about the idiots at SOE.  They HATE crafting with a passion.  They hate crafters enough where they made great strides in making them irrelevant to the game.

They hate crafting, especially the kind that existed Pre-CU, where highly skilled and resourceful crafters could make the best items in the game, far better than any loot, except a handful of "legendary" weapons.

You see, this bunch at SOE can only add stuff to games via obsoleting yesterday's "leet" loot with more "leet" loot, powerful crafters compete with that and destroy that paradigm.  SOE sells the new "leet" loot in EQ via expansions.  In the NGE, via an expensive gambling scheme.

that's funny... i agree, but i will not be trying SWG again was a BETA tester, and played through NGE for a month and quit... it's crap and all we have to look forward to now is TOR in 1.5 years...

The major problem is just one guy: John Smedly

He just needs to go. Period! Time for him to retire and be replaced with a more competent person.

The reason EverQuest 2 is still doing well, is not because of John Smedly, but because of bunch of great devs wich have put their soul and heart into this game.

John Smedly is just a dissaster for the company and will ultimately run it into the ground due to his arrogance and stupidity.

cheers

Originally posted by Guillermo197

The major problem is just one guy: John Smedly

He just needs to go. Period! Time for him to retire and be replaced with a more competent person.

The reason EverQuest 2 is still doing well, is not because of John Smedly, but because of bunch of great devs wich have put their soul and heart into this game.

 

John Smedly is just a dissaster for the company and will ultimately run it into the ground due to his arrogance and stupidity.

cheers

Smed is the luckiest man in the industry.  He just happened to ride Brad McQuaid's one actual good idea (EQ) into a cushy exec job and big paychecks.  Everything else SOE has done has been a failure, SWG of course was converted to a failure after success.

He's already run SOE into the ground and for some reason, Sony keeps him on so he can continue digging the hole.  This says something for how awful a shape Sony must be in that Smed's incompetency doesn't blip the radar.

The most fun I ever had was when I finally unlocked my second slot on intrepid ( pre-nge) I prefered combat toons, never seen the interest in making a crafter but with my unlock I took a risk and made myself a weaponsmith. I was suprised..I actually had fun, what I did was create an item and then put it up on a vendor at a minimal price...just enough to cover costs of materials and low end weaponry would go up for a few K of credits, I was a bargain bin seller catering to low levels but the materials were quality. I sold everything this way and felt I was giving something back to the community, but one of the most fun things I used to do was have little guild PVP matches were they could only use weaponry that I had made...fights used to go on for a very long time and skill would win through rather than the uberness of your weapon

So to me the most fun class in SWG ended up to be the crafter. I'm sure a lot of you can say the same, I just wish SOE would actually open there eyes and see that the step in the right diection for SWG would be to make crafters more kin to what they used to be...rather than taking more and more away from them instead of giving the love to a bolt on mini game.

Originally posted by salvaje

They hate crafting, especially the kind that existed Pre-CU, where highly skilled and resourceful crafters could make the best items in the game, far better than any loot, except a handful of "legendary" weapons.

You see, this bunch at SOE can only add stuff to games via obsoleting yesterday's "leet" loot with more "leet" loot, powerful crafters compete with that and destroy that paradigm.  SOE sells the new "leet" loot in EQ via expansions.  In the NGE, via an expensive gambling scheme.

 

Agreed. The target audience is also 'loot' oriented, so most of these self-absorbed players couldn't care less about the impact the TCG loot on the traders, or any other profession, as long as it doesn't effect them directly. It will be a whole different story when a new Jedi crystal, cape, etc. comes available only via TCG. The items wouldn't have to actually be 'better', just different, and it will still cause an uproar. Only then will some of these SWG/TCG lemmings acknowledge the very real direction the TCG is taking the game. In the mean time, the Smedster reels in serious cash and awaits the next cash-grabbing expansion.

Just when I thought mothing could be more destructuve to the SWG than the NGE, along comes the TCG. I hope they whittle down the target host server list more than they have - I am sure more players will end up cancelling over this fiasco.

Originally posted by Valeran

Originally posted by Daffid011

Originally posted by Ginaz

Reading all of that over on the soe forums, its obvious no one is actually playing the card game itself.  All they're interested in is the loot.  Soe would be better off just selling the loot items straight up instead of wasting everyones time with the card game crap.

 

Why get rid of the card game?  They are paying for the CHANCE to get an item.  The majority of the time they are paying money for items they don't even want. 

SOE is getting money for nothing and creating repeat business.  Selling the items straight out is a one time deal and they can't pretend the card game is the real reason for this project.

SWG players are so starved for content of any kind I doubt they will blink an eye at this type of thing.  Even negative attention [loot cards] is desirable at this point.

 

 

 

Selling the items outright may cause future legal issues for them since it would give the items real cash value instead of a secondary market value thus providing the opportunity for the items to be declared real property.

Nice point - and one that is of increasing interest to lawyers.

Well, they are now selling items outright now...  In EQ/EQ2...

For those of you thinking you are going to find a safe haven in the Bioware SW MMO...

Have fun.

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/43446/Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic-Using-Microtransactions

"Macrotranscam" is the new fad replacing the "Wow clone" as the path to MMO millions it seems.

I have absolutely NO interest in RMT games of any kind, unless it's capped at $14.99.  I am only interested if it comes to being an optiion for people who choose to go that route have an option to pay LESS than full sub price, not pay full sub price and get wallet raped beyond it as well.

Given the reaction to the TCG, etc, I don't think this sort of model is going to work.

Originally posted by ArcAngel3

Originally posted by Superman0X

Originally posted by Ginaz

Originally posted by Superman0X

I am going to guess that most of the people in this thread have had thier head in the sand for the last few years, and have not hear of 'free to play' or microtransaction based games.

What SOE is doing is taking a page out of thier book.. and getting the best of both worlds. They are charging a monthly fee, and making microtransacton based sales. If you looked at the rest of the games that SOE is putting out (FreeRealms, TheAgency, DC Universe) they are all targetted at the free to play market. This might be considered market research on a hybrid system.

Producers (i.e. SOE) provide marketing, support, and operations for a game. Thier goal is to maximize the revenue for the life of the game. If anyone cares to look, you would find that SOE has been making a strong and steady income, even when the rest of Sony is not. You may not like thier methods, but they do thier job, and make the money.

Some of you may have also noticed that SOE was rolled into the console gaming group... not so that the console gaming group could help SOE, but so that SOE could help the console group. The three games that I have mentioned are also planned for both PS3 and PC launch...

So the reality is that Sony, who has bet the company on the PS3, has come to SOE to help make sure that they get the returns on this product that are needed to keep Sony alive, and well. You figure it out.

That may be true, but the fact is people who play swg (and the other soe station pass games) already pay a monthly fee. 

 

There is no rule excluding microtransaction sales in ADDITION to a monthly fee... in fact, even blizzard is exploring this combination with its latest expansion.

This is simply incorrect on a number of levels.  First of all, you talk as if people are purchasing RMT items, like they do in free-to-play games.  They are not purchasing them in SWG, they are paying real money in a game of chance.  They pay only for the chance to win something.
 

According to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, it is in fact illegal to run a game of chance in an online video game that is not free-to-play.

People keep making comparisons to "free-to-play" games.  These are invalid.  People then keep making comparisons to RMT games where you purchase items.  These are also invalid.  SOE is doing none of the above.  They are running an online game of chance for real cash in a fee for service online game. 

To address a specific quote above, there is in fact a rule (law even) against running a microtransaction lottery in a subscription based game.  Either you don't really know the difference, or you seem to be pretending there is no difference, when quite clearly, there is.

i believe it is online gambling period that is illegal not necerarely on a pay to play game only.

Unlawfull online gambling law (youtube video)

not only that, many subscribers are minors, has that ever occured to anyone?