SOE put in RMT as cash shops claiming they would only sell "fluff" and XP potions.

the opinion is divided in 2

ones who do not mind and who said that one is not obligated to purchase and others who are totally against it. I think i have found what separates the two. (though i may be wrong but this is a theory) i am certain that if it was only "fluff" armor and weapons and capes and hats that have same or worse stats than in-game easy to acquire items no one would mind, but there are the xp potions and this is where my theory comes in.

solo players do not mind this because they play alone. They do not care about others, they rarely group with people they play by themselves with themselves. So what has changed in their life? Nothing, since if they choose not to buy it then fine, they don't play with anyone else so what would it matter that others buy it?

group/guild players, competitive players PVPers and do mind. a competitive player worked hard to get to that level when a rookie with a lot of money can get to that same level in no time. Thus devaluing the actual worth of the time spent. What is worse than a dominating guild to have its title challenged by rookies who took 1/2 the time to get the same level and more often. For that matter why not put a 500$ item "orb of the gods" that gives you max level upon use. Rendering completely useless the need for low lever areas or mid level areas and make the game into a diablo 2 instanced raid game...

P.S. I have boycotted ALL sony products (not only SOE) they have bad business principles. i just bought a e-book (pdf reader) for my dad for x-mas and it didn't even come with its own power supply nor with the USB adapter. i went back to the sony store (thinking its a mistake or something) and they told me the adapter is sold apart for 70$ WTF!!!!!!!!! so yeah, that pdf reader was the last thing i will ever buy from sony or SOE.

I take pride in my achievements solely because I achieved them. I don't care how anyone else did it.

It doesn't bother me to consider that someone paid for what they have...I still feel the pride of accomplishment and ownership for what I did.

XP potions matter for solo'ers too though. XP in SoD (EQ) has been abysmally low. Drawing the link between nerfed XP and the introduction of XP potions isn't that hard to do.

Also, it's just the general feeling players have about integrity and how one treats a consumer, especially with a game like EQ which has been around for so long.

Then there's the fact that this makes EQ and EQ2 the most expensive games around. Having both a cash shop, P2P and very expensive expansions.

It's not just one reason, it's a whole bunch of reasons why this decision was totally uncalled for.

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Originally posted by Squal'Zell

P.S. I have boycotted ALL sony products (not only SOE) they have bad business principles. i just bought a e-book (pdf reader) for my dad for x-mas and it didn't even come with its own power supply nor with the USB adapter. i went back to the sony store (thinking its a mistake or something) and they told me the adapter is sold apart for 70$ WTF!!!!!!!!! so yeah, that pdf reader was the last thing i will ever buy from sony or SOE.

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Yeah, Sony is a company that you shouldn't trust too much with anything important, *cough* they ARE good at making viruses though */cough*

oh don;t get me wrong i am totally against having BOTH RMT and P2P. its either/ or ... not both.

i also agree that its stupidly (if thats a word) expensive and SOE is treating their playerbase like the thing i just scraped off my boots this afternoon.

but the reason why people like or dislike the actual RMT in EQ and EQ2 is the type of player they are.

I think if they must sell something, they should sell a 2nd form of in-game money, (which might kill off the gold farmers)

But that's just my opinion.

You meant there actually are solo players in EQ2? They usually quits very fast, the game is very grooup oriented.

My theory is: Smedley sat brooding in his lair, he thought to himself "-I need bigger bonus, we must make more money.- We could off course make the games better so more starts to play them but that takes time and money. -I need money now". And then he got the brilliant idea to sell stuff to the already paying customers. My theory about Legends of Norrath is kinda the same.

SOE was hoping that few or no players would quit and therefore they make a lot of extra cash with minimum of work. But I am a cynic so I might be wrong.

Originally posted by ianubisi

I take pride in my achievements solely because I achieved them. I don't care how anyone else did it.

It doesn't bother me to consider that someone paid for what they have...I still feel the pride of accomplishment and ownership for what I did.

 

  But in the whole context of the game it takes something players can earn or earn together and make it trivial trampling on gameplay overall. You may not acknowledge the situation only paying your character attention,but a lot of people don't.

  These micro purchases are no different than these penny auction sites. It's nothing more than disgusted gambling in that it plays to the same impulses that gambling does in human nature. To an impulse buyer/gambler these micro payments systems soon add up into an amount that soon exceeds what a standard monthly sub will be for a MMO.

  In society it's more common to find people who just fail when it comes to keeping track of their spending in any given month. When they see the monthly final total they're always shocked at the cost. It's these types that fall victim to these micro payment systems leading to the same financial issues of gamblers, only in this case it will mostly be angree parents pissed off at their teenagers who used their credit card for their pixel crack, you just have to look at all the fuss Maple story made in the news this year.

  These are dark times for gaming innovation ahead as developers jumping on this bandwagon using their time to think up way to make players part with coin rather than create content they can enjoy to earn it.
 

In a PvE game, what does it matter?

Originally posted by Squal'Zell

SOE put in RMT as cash shops claiming they would only sell "fluff" and XP potions.

the opinion is divided in 2

ones who do not mind and who said that one is not obligated to purchase and others who are totally against it. I think i have found what separates the two. (though i may be wrong but this is a theory) i am certain that if it was only "fluff" armor and weapons and capes and hats that have same or worse stats than in-game easy to acquire items no one would mind, but there are the xp potions and this is where my theory comes in.

solo players do not mind this because they play alone. They do not care about others, they rarely group with people they play by themselves with themselves. So what has changed in their life? Nothing, since if they choose not to buy it then fine, they don't play with anyone else so what would it matter that others buy it?

group/guild players, competitive players PVPers and do mind. a competitive player worked hard to get to that level when a rookie with a lot of money can get to that same level in no time. Thus devaluing the actual worth of the time spent. What is worse than a dominating guild to have its title challenged by rookies who took 1/2 the time to get the same level and more often. For that matter why not put a 500$ item "orb of the gods" that gives you max level upon use. Rendering completely useless the need for low lever areas or mid level areas and make the game into a diablo 2 instanced raid game...

 

P.S. I have boycotted ALL sony products (not only SOE) they have bad business principles. i just bought a e-book (pdf reader) for my dad for x-mas and it didn't even come with its own power supply nor with the USB adapter. i went back to the sony store (thinking its a mistake or something) and they told me the adapter is sold apart for 70$ WTF!!!!!!!!! so yeah, that pdf reader was the last thing i will ever buy from sony or SOE.

It is not necessarily the fact they they are using RMT, it is the fact that SOE and Smedley lied to us (the customers.  to me that issue far outweighs the fact that they are using RMT to begin with.  Don't get me wrong, I don't like using RMT to begin with.  I do play F2P games (such as Atlantica) which has an Item Mall.  I play those games knowing there are RMT services.  SOE told us the RMT would never be added to EQ or EQ2.  The fact that it is there now shows how little SOE respect it's customers.  I understand that SOE is a company and it needs to make money.  But going back on your word to your customers is not a good way to go about it.  If Smedley had said that they had no plans to introduce RMT but they would not rule it out altogether it might be one thing.  But he flat out stated that it would not be introduced. period.  I think this is what most people are upset about.  and as far as fluff items go, I will not be surprised to see non-fluff items on the market within 6-12 months.  It is just a matter of time.  And we already know that SOE is going to do what SOE wants to regardless of how its customers feel. Unfortunately, that is just the way it is

being someone who always groups with 2 or 3 people in EQ2 because they are guildies and we are all the same level, i can tell you, you are wrong. All 3 of us who are playing together, don't care about the RMT. We dont use it, we pick an area and run some quests, do some dungeon, and we are very happy with our casual and GROUPED gameplay.

As of right now the RMT potions and fluff have no bearing on our gameplay, and we don't plan on buying anything, cause frankly, none of it's worth it. IF they make gameplay directly impacted by the RMT (items, gold etc) then i will quit

Originally posted by Loke666

You meant there actually are solo players in EQ2? They usually quits very fast, the game is very grooup oriented.

My theory is: Smedley sat brooding in his lair, he thought to himself "-I need bigger bonus, we must make more money.- We could off course make the games better so more starts to play them but that takes time and money. -I need money now". And then he got the brilliant idea to sell stuff to the already paying customers. My theory about Legends of Norrath is kinda the same.

SOE was hoping that few or no players would quit and therefore they make a lot of extra cash with minimum of work. But I am a cynic so I might be wrong.

The game has more solo players than you would believe. Many of them are quitting now, because TSO offers not enough to get them happy. With station cash another wave of players are quitting and it might be accounted the one reason for the other. I did cansel my account because of the station cash (I hate RMT but I did it, because SOE lied again to us), many of the other players I know of quitting, do this because of the lack of solo content. In any case, TSO and station cash will earn them less money overall, but it will take them a year to regcognize, as always.

Originally posted by ianubisi

I take pride in my achievements solely because I achieved them. I don't care how anyone else did it.

It doesn't bother me to consider that someone paid for what they have...I still feel the pride of accomplishment and ownership for what I did.

 

The point being is that everyone else cares about how you achieved your character status.  Nothing worse than a player that bought his way through the game trying to play at the upper end where they don't have a clue what they are doing.

So you completely miss the actual point being made.

Just another little event to add to Sony's list of total frak ups.

- SWG:NGE

- EQ2/EQ RMT Service

- Removing real time from MxO, henceforth killing it.

- PS3

-Letting PlanetSide go kaput

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Originally posted by ianubisi

I take pride in my achievements solely because I achieved them. I don't care how anyone else did it.

It doesn't bother me to consider that someone paid for what they have...I still feel the pride of accomplishment and ownership for what I did.

 

 

The point being is that everyone else cares about how you achieved your character status.  Nothing worse than a player that bought his way through the game trying to play at the upper end where they don't have a clue what they are doing.

So you completely miss the actual point being made.

 So your point is slower leveling makes you a better player once you reach end game? Thats pretty weak. Players can already solo to 80 without a problem and have little experience with groups/raids as it is. Players can group/raid to 80 and still suck balls at it. This was happening before they introduced the cash store.
 

I would put the onus on your guild leadership and their recruiters if your getting crappy players in your guild not the rate at which the player leveled his toon.

I don't think you can really categorize who would use xp potions based on solo versus group play.  Many solo players I know don't care if they level fast.  Instead, they read the quests, immerse themselves in the lore and take their time.  Many of the solo players I know are completionists or collection freaks.  Some just log in after a hard day of work to blow off some steam.  And many of them don't measure their success by how they rate up to others in terms of gear or status.  They are just doing their own thing.

In contrast, I  have known group minded individuals that are highly competitive with others and are always looking for that edge.  Some of them are always wanting to duel you, or wanting to compare swords in trade....I show you mine if you show me yours.  So, for these people I could see where an xp potion would give them a leveling edge.

Personally, I wouldn't use xp potions to level faster.  Rest xp is good enough.  And besides that, if there is really a demand to level faster, maybe devs should offer servers with accelerated leveling beyond what is currently available instead of charging extra for potions.