Originally posted by nhavas

If i already bought the complete series, right through Shadow Odyssey, will I have access to those races in Extended since it's tied to my Station account?

 

Does anyone know the answer to this? it's been bugging the crap outta me.

According to the matrix they used, I would say yes. It says specifically that all entitlements from any previously purchased expansions will carry over to EQ2X, but the only confusing thing is most of the races were a part of the original release - not 'entitlements' based on an expansion. I would like to think they will give us access to it, but the odd thing is that new players could buy regular expansions without getting most of the races from then on, since most of the races aren't listed specifically tied to any of the expansions. DDO did not allow you access to previous entitlements, as I had created a monk on a subscription and was subsequently locked out of it as soon as the F2P of DDO arrived. Hopefully SOE won't handle it the same way, although worst case scenario means I will only be able to play the full game while subscribed just like it is now. Not a big deal to me.

Edit: Actually, I take that back about races/classes not being tied in to expansions. Every instance of expansion content I see advertised lists a certain amount of race/class combinations under the features, so they should be including these 'entitlements' for all current subscribers transferring to the EQ2X servers. They could technically pull the "Content is subject to change at any time" from the EULA, but that'd kinda suck if they did. I just wouldn't be interested in the EQ2X servers if that were the case, which might be a good thing because a lot of people would have ample incentive to stay on the EQ2Live servers instead.

Originally posted by jayanti

 

I think this is great news, as a long time EQ2 player.

I can continue to play on my server with my friends, where there is a very nice friendly mature playerbase, and everyone there has earned everything they have, and the game gets a nice new cash injection by way of opening a set of casual servers, which costs very little for the company. In addition, F2P games traditionally have to keep adding new and exciting content to keep those casuals coming back - which in turn they also apply to the live servers, boosting the game for subscription players.

Those who are complaining that it's not 100% free to play on the new casual servers - why should it be? This is a business, just like all MMO companies, and they have found (potentially) a way to allow me to play the way I want, and to make money without increasing my subscription.

Do I care that someone new who isn't paying a subscription is playing on another server, and that person is able to buy items and characters, or not? No. Not at all. In fact I welcome it.

Why? With lots and lots of new people coming to play it, comes all the increased internet support in the way of databases, websites, guides and so on that would otherwise be withering. With it comes increased pressure on the development team to support and update the game on a rapid basis. And should it prove to make money, with it comes the potential that other games like Vanguard will go the same way.

I only see this as a positive for the game, and for MMO's in general.

Great way of looking at it IMO. Change is inevitable, but it's nice that we have a choice this time instead of how they handled SWG. This is SOE making changes for profitability and growth, while still allowing us to keep the 'classic' servers and preferred subscription model. Maybe they are learning after all.

Originally posted by Lateris

I feel really bad how your community is getting gouged. 200.0 a year or no support. 4 characters and if you want more you have to pay. 25.00 mounts.  Free to play should be renamed . I am really sorry for you guys and gals who committed so much time.

Originally posted by teakbois

Originally posted by Lateris

I feel really bad how your community is getting gouged. 200.0 a year or no support. 4 characters and if you want more you have to pay. 25.00 mounts.  Free to play should be renamed . I am really sorry for you guys and gals who committed so much time.

 

Try to not be a complete idiot. If you play for an entire year, the $200 is CHEAPER because it includes the expansion.

 

I swear the average IQ of people around here is below 30. Ive seen people say this model is worse than Lotros. You can not do much in Lotro past lvl 20 with their system. This system you can do almost everything from 1-80.

 

And omg $25 mounts. What kind of moron would complain about extra game funding for a completely optional, cosmetic thing? The biggest reason why SoE has such a bad rep isn't because of NGE. its because people are stupid. If this wasnt the case where is Lucas Art's bad rep? NGE was their doing as much as SoEs. Wheres Blizzards bad rep? They lie to their customers, charged $25 for mounts first, and dont develop nearly as much content for their game as SoE. I think SoE clearly has its issues, but not to the level that people make it seem. They are no worse than any other company, and actually listen to their customers a lot, although that usually gets them in trouble (see EQ1 changes that people asked for, they implemented, and now people hate)

Please read this and tell me where he is wrong.

http://blog.weflyspitfires.com/2010/07/28/everquest-2-extended-a-deceptive-rip-off/

Well, he neglects to mention the additional expansion, and that the extra 60 dollars, from 140 to 200, pays for the 500 SC per month.  I'm somewhat surprised they backed off the 20 shared slots so quickly - I'm willing to be that comes back later on as a perk.

I'd wish that the SC in the Platnium level was a perk, and not a purchase, but it's balanced.

The entire issue, which is either danced around, or danced ON, is that you have access to the SC powerleveling tools that EQ2X will offer.  If you are player who can treat those purchases as Petty Cash (and, let's face it, there is ample proof of that subset of players existing) then it's ideal for your playstyle.  It's whether the implementation kills the existing Live servers in the process that's the big question - will the exodus happen, to EQ2X and/or the cancel button?

Originally posted by Rommie10-284

Well, he neglects to mention the additional expansion, and that the extra 60 dollars, from 140 to 200, pays for the 500 SC per month.  I'm somewhat surprised they backed off the 20 shared slots so quickly - I'm willing to be that comes back later on as a perk.

I'd wish that the SC in the Platnium level was a perk, and not a purchase, but it's balanced.

The entire issue, which is either danced around, or danced ON, is that you have access to the SC powerleveling tools that EQ2X will offer.  If you are player who can treat those purchases as Petty Cash (and, let's face it, there is ample proof of that subset of players existing) then it's ideal for your playstyle.  It's whether the implementation kills the existing Live servers in the process that's the big question - will the exodus happen, to EQ2X and/or the cancel button?

 

Excellent answer. . thank you.  This was the detail I was looking for.  The seperate servers will certainly make it more interesting. . also coming out before LOTRO goes live with F2P. . wonder if they will bump that up.

Originally posted by teakbois

Originally posted by Lateris

I feel really bad how your community is getting gouged. 200.0 a year or no support. 4 characters and if you want more you have to pay. 25.00 mounts.  Free to play should be renamed . I am really sorry for you guys and gals who committed so much time.

 

Try to not be a complete idiot. If you play for an entire year, the $200 is CHEAPER because it includes the expansion.

 

I swear the average IQ of people around here is below 30. Ive seen people say this model is worse than Lotros. You can not do much in Lotro past lvl 20 with their system. This system you can do almost everything from 1-80.

 

And omg $25 mounts. What kind of moron would complain about extra game funding for a completely optional, cosmetic thing? The biggest reason why SoE has such a bad rep isn't because of NGE. its because people are stupid. If this wasnt the case where is Lucas Art's bad rep? NGE was their doing as much as SoEs. Wheres Blizzards bad rep? They lie to their customers, charged $25 for mounts first, and dont develop nearly as much content for their game as SoE. I think SoE clearly has its issues, but not to the level that people make it seem. They are no worse than any other company, and actually listen to their customers a lot, although that usually gets them in trouble (see EQ1 changes that people asked for, they implemented, and now people hate)

What happens if you decide to step down from platinum service to gold service?  Sounds like you will lose access to any expansions that you have not directly purchased.   It sounds like you rent access to those expansions and lose access to them with anything but the platinum service, but I could be wrong.

I'm a little fuzzy on all the conditions of each free to play option, but I think you can earn most/everything in DDO (maybe lotro too) without spending money.  Both models have merit on their own so far, but neither have been stood up to the test of what players think.  Still to early to tell.

As for $25 mounts, SOE had a cash shop long before blizzard and soe promised the players RMT would never be in EQ/EQ2 in any way shape of form.  That isn't a promise blizzard ever made and they were pretty upfront about it coming (I still hate it), but Blizzard didn't pave the way for soe.  Soe was already heavily into microtransactions in the game.

Soe gets a bad rap, because of how soe runs their business and not something lucas arts did.  Take this issue for example.  The lead producer just a month ago said they were not changing the subscription plan of the game.  Sure it was stated in a very crafty way so that they can say "see we didn't YOUR subscription plan", but it was lying through omission.  These changes were already being planed and coded when he made those comments while he was decieving the players who asked if the game was going free to play.   It was a bullshit thing for the brand new lead producer to do. 

Dropping this announcement two weeks before it goes live also says soe doesn't care for the current players feedback.  If they did, they would have put this through a long extended beta (like turbine). On top of that why remove the free trial to the legacy servers and only allow transfers to the new free servers?  What message is that sending to the current loyal customers?

Honestly it feels like soe goes out of its way to piss their customers off, even when they are doing something right. 

I happen to agree not mmorpg should be 100% free to play because it indeed is business and as an AI student who has friend who may one day be working on games i'd like to see them make a living in the future.

Originally posted by Aethaeryn

Please read this and tell me where he is wrong.

 

http://blog.weflyspitfires.com/2010/07/28/everquest-2-extended-a-deceptive-rip-off/

 

 

1. He claims that the restrictions put in place by the item and spell restrictions are bigger than they really are. they are only big to people that have played it before. Those that havent wont notice nearly as much and will just have a more challenging, but still perfectly playable game. I *have* leveled characters with only adepts. You can do just fine.

2. He says an expansion thats list price was $50 now costs $20. he specifically used amazon, which I just looked at and it costs $36 new plus shipping. Obviously SoE is going to go off the list price as thats what its intended to be sold for, but well say its $40. So even if you dont go by the $15 a month and go buy the $140 bundle, the platinum is $20 more. BUT he also doesnt mention the extra 3 character slots you dont get on the live servers, or the $60 worth of station cash. he also mentions that you get an extra month from buying a new expansion + yearly plan when you do NOT. Free month is only available for your initial game purchase, not any expansion after that.

3. He doesnt understand the competition. He calls Lotro's model 'sensible'. So hed rather have to pay $8 to be able to quest in everfrost? Their inventory restrictions are harsher there and you also have to be your trait slots (per character as I understand it).

4. His one gripe that I fully agree with is no option for people to transfer from extended to live. Although if they allowed it people would complain endlessly about people being able to buy items and then transfer over to other servers.

5. He compares it vs. EQ2Live and not vs. the normal f2p market. Most f2p games make you buy content, or make the game centered around items that you cant feasibly advance without. EQ2 Extended does not do this. You could not pay a cent and have a AAA MMO game right in front of you with more content than most other games have for a monthly fee. You can pay a one time $10 fee and have a large portion of the endgame content doable,again more than you get with most p2p games. Its the best value on the f2p market that i can see, and by a large margin. I will challenge anyone to play eq2 extended for 3 months vs any other f2p game for 3 months and debate this.

Originally posted by Daffid011

Originally posted by teakbois

Originally posted by Lateris

I feel really bad how your community is getting gouged. 200.0 a year or no support. 4 characters and if you want more you have to pay. 25.00 mounts.  Free to play should be renamed . I am really sorry for you guys and gals who committed so much time.

 

Try to not be a complete idiot. If you play for an entire year, the $200 is CHEAPER because it includes the expansion.

 

I swear the average IQ of people around here is below 30. Ive seen people say this model is worse than Lotros. You can not do much in Lotro past lvl 20 with their system. This system you can do almost everything from 1-80.

 

And omg $25 mounts. What kind of moron would complain about extra game funding for a completely optional, cosmetic thing? The biggest reason why SoE has such a bad rep isn't because of NGE. its because people are stupid. If this wasnt the case where is Lucas Art's bad rep? NGE was their doing as much as SoEs. Wheres Blizzards bad rep? They lie to their customers, charged $25 for mounts first, and dont develop nearly as much content for their game as SoE. I think SoE clearly has its issues, but not to the level that people make it seem. They are no worse than any other company, and actually listen to their customers a lot, although that usually gets them in trouble (see EQ1 changes that people asked for, they implemented, and now people hate)

What happens if you decide to step down from platinum service to gold service?  Sounds like you will lose access to any expansions that you have not directly purchased.   It sounds like you rent access to those expansions and lose access to them with anything but the platinum service, but I could be wrong.

 

I'm a little fuzzy on all the conditions of each free to play option, but I think you can earn most/everything in DDO (maybe lotro too) without spending money.  Both models have merit on their own so far, but neither have been stood up to the test of what players think.  Still to early to tell.

As for $25 mounts, SOE had a cash shop long before blizzard and soe promised the players RMT would never be in EQ/EQ2 in any way shape of form.  That isn't a promise blizzard ever made and they were pretty upfront about it coming (I still hate it), but Blizzard didn't pave the way for soe.  Soe was already heavily into microtransactions in the game.

Soe gets a bad rap, because of how soe runs their business and not something lucas arts did.  Take this issue for example.  The lead producer just a month ago said they were not changing the subscription plan of the game.  Sure it was stated in a very crafty way so that they can say "see we didn't YOUR subscription plan", but it was lying through omission.  These changes were already being planed and coded when he made those comments while he was decieving the players who asked if the game was going free to play.   It was a bullshit thing for the brand new lead producer to do. 

Dropping this announcement two weeks before it goes live also says soe doesn't care for the current players feedback.  If they did, they would have put this through a long extended beta (like turbine). On top of that why remove the free trial to the legacy servers and only allow transfers to the new free servers?  What message is that sending to the current loyal customers?

 

Honestly it feels like soe goes out of its way to piss their customers off, even when they are doing something right. 

Of course they dont care. They are going to do what they want to do and tell you how good its going to be for you and the game. Turbine did the same thing. When both companies said that the game wasnt going F2P what they meant was is wasnt going F2P until it does.  Ive never in my life hoped for a game to fail but I truly hope that LOTRO and EQ2 both go down the tubes in record time.

Originally posted by Daffid011

Originally posted by teakbois

 

I'm a little fuzzy on all the conditions of each free to play option, but I think you can earn most/everything in DDO (maybe lotro too) without spending money.  Both models have merit on their own so far, but neither have been stood up to the test of what players think.  Still to early to tell.

As for $25 mounts, SOE had a cash shop long before blizzard and soe promised the players RMT would never be in EQ/EQ2 in any way shape of form.  That isn't a promise blizzard ever made and they were pretty upfront about it coming (I still hate it), but Blizzard didn't pave the way for soe.  Soe was already heavily into microtransactions in the game.

Soe gets a bad rap, because of how soe runs their business and not something lucas arts did.  Take this issue for example.  The lead producer just a month ago said they were not changing the subscription plan of the game.  Sure it was stated in a very crafty way so that they can say "see we didn't YOUR subscription plan", but it was lying through omission.  These changes were already being planed and coded when he made those comments while he was decieving the players who asked if the game was going free to play.   It was a bullshit thing for the brand new lead producer to do. 

Dropping this announcement two weeks before it goes live also says soe doesn't care for the current players feedback.  If they did, they would have put this through a long extended beta (like turbine). On top of that why remove the free trial to the legacy servers and only allow transfers to the new free servers?  What message is that sending to the current loyal customers?

 

Honestly it feels like soe goes out of its way to piss their customers off, even when they are doing something right. 

 

In theory you could buy stuff in DDO without spending money,but as I understand it it requires repeated grinding through quests, deleting a character, grinding through the same quests again, and so on and so on.

As for the microtransaction thing, Blizzard did pave the way. their trading card game was a big success strictly because of the ultra rare mounts. I know of no one that plays the TCG, but know of lots of people that buy the packs. This is even worse than mts, this is mt gambling.

SoE saw this, and ran with it. They thought outside of the box and created it as an online game, and people actually do play it (though most people buy cards just for the mounts and times as well).

Then SoE entered the mt game, and yes before blizzard. however, its been going on for what, 2 years now? theyve kept to their word, its only cosmetics. people may hate the principal, but no one truly hates the impact its made on the game.

And the big difference between SoE and blizzard with this is that SoE spends far more of their resources developing the game than Blizzard does. Blizzard release an incomplete expansion every two years and filters out their raid content over time to let people think they are getting updates all the time. Yes, they release a high quality product, but for two years between expansions they arent enough. They make 2 billion a year from wow, can make a couple million with limited effort (see sparkle pony release day), yet cant hire more of a development team? Oh but they are too busy working into their social network crap that most people do not want. How about making a game where account hacking is to the point where its *common* for a guild member to get hacked, even with a fully protected computer, *more safe* instead of *less safe*. But no, lets make everyone use their email address to log in with as opposed to a created account name.

Basically, Blizzard is a company that has seemingly just as little respect for its people as SoE yet doesnt get its bad rap. people dont reach to blame Blizzard for faults that arent their own to the extent they do with SoE. If you want to hate SoE and refuse to play their product, thats a reasonable choice. but to go off and play another MMO is in almost all cases just 6 of one, half dozen of the other.

---

Originally posted by teakbois

 
In theory you could buy stuff in DDO without spending money,but as I understand it it requires repeated grinding through quests, deleting a character, grinding through the same quests again, and so on and so on.
 
As for the microtransaction thing, Blizzard did pave the way. their trading card game was a big success strictly because of the ultra rare mounts. I know of no one that plays the TCG, but know of lots of people that buy the packs. This is even worse than mts, this is mt gambling.
 
SoE saw this, and ran with it. They thought outside of the box and created it as an online game, and people actually do play it (though most people buy cards just for the mounts and times as well).
 
Then SoE entered the mt game, and yes before blizzard. however, its been going on for what, 2 years now? theyve kept to their word, its only cosmetics. people may hate the principal, but no one truly hates the impact its made on the game.
 
And the big difference between SoE and blizzard with this is that SoE spends far more of their resources developing the game than Blizzard does. Blizzard release an incomplete expansion every two years and filters out their raid content over time to let people think they are getting updates all the time. Yes, they release a high quality product, but for two years between expansions they arent enough. They make 2 billion a year from wow, can make a couple million with limited effort (see sparkle pony release day), yet cant hire more of a development team? Oh but they are too busy working into their social network crap that most people do not want. How about making a game where account hacking is to the point where its *common* for a guild member to get hacked, even with a fully protected computer, *more safe* instead of *less safe*. But no, lets make everyone use their email address to log in with as opposed to a created account name.
 
Basically, Blizzard is a company that has seemingly just as little respect for its people as SoE yet doesnt get its bad rap. people dont reach to blame Blizzard for faults that arent their own to the extent they do with SoE. If you want to hate SoE and refuse to play their product, thats a reasonable choice. but to go off and play another MMO is in almost all cases just 6 of one, half dozen of the other.
 

---

As for the blizzard card game, go to any hobby store and you will most likely find card games or tournaments there. I was surprised by how popular it is. However, soe was already deep into live gamer and station exchange before blizzard. They were already reselling the base game to SWG players with super perks of instant travel items from anywhere. John smedley was already posting about how he wanted soe to have 50-90% of its revenue come from non-subscription fees five years ago. This has been the long term gameplan from soe for years now.

Also soes RMT is not only cosmetic. Mounts have stats, potions offer xp perks, virtual card loot offers exclusive zones with quests/stat item rewards, etc. No they did not keep their word, but that isn't something new. Just look at this thread.

Saying soe spends more resources developing the game is a joke. Right now soe is spending the development time of the subscription game to develop the free to play game. Think about that for a second.

Yes blizzard takes forever to produce content, but when they do make something they do it right. The same cannot be said for soe. Their goal of quantity over quality is one of the main reasons their products suffer so much. You really want to complain about blizzard expansions after the last eq2 expansion? Nothing says quality like a developer using a random number generator to fill in stats for the items and not understanding why players complain about itemization. How much development time do you think is coming out of the next xpack to make this free to play system? Think about that.

Reputations are earned for a reason. Look how poorly soe is handling this free to play change for a shining example of that. They looked their long term customers in the face and told them nothing was changing, even though they were secretly working on the change and only announced it 2 weeks before it goes live. On top of that they are trying to deprive the old servers of new player by removing the free trial there.

No, it means:

Why pay for another month of a MEH game when I can play the other MEH game for free.

See what I did there?   I REMOVED my paid subscription and added the FREE one.  With NO intention of buying anything from their game.  See, see it?

Originally posted by Aethaeryn

Please read this and tell me where he is wrong.

 

http://blog.weflyspitfires.com/2010/07/28/everquest-2-extended-a-deceptive-rip-off/

 

this guy said something that is very QFT.

"My issues start though with the fact that both Bronze and Silver come with huge restrictions on them that would make it impossible for anyone to play competitively and the necessary upgrades cannot be purchases individually."

SoE offers almost the entire game content for free but with a lot of gameplay restrictions,for exeample you can raid at endgame if you are Free or Silver but can't wear the raid loot, in fact  if you are not Gold no raid for you.

DDO offer only 1/3 of content for free but atleast you can join a Shroud and craft your Greensteel if you bought the Vale Adventure Pack,you don't need do be VIP.

the classes and races are very limited for F2P,DDO have 6 races where 5 are free and 11 classes where 9 are free(counting Favored Soul as Pay because is impossible reach 2500 favor with the free quests)

in fact Bronze and Silver options are extend trial there no way to enjoy the better part of the game without going gold and gold still limited btw(7 char Slots 4 races)

SoE need to rework that F2P system

1-allow silver to buy acess to higher spells tier,Raid gear,and gold limit

2-Remove Platinum membership

3-change Gold membership to give acess to 10 char slots all races + 500 SC month

4-Merge EQ2X with EQ2(35 bucks per char that you want transfer from EQ2 to EQ2X thats a joke right?)

Originally posted by NovaKayne

No, it means:

Why pay for another month of a MEH game when I can play the other MEH game for free.

 

See what I did there?   I REMOVED my paid subscription and added the FREE one.  With NO intention of buying anything from their game.  See, see it?

yes i saw it the first time round. 

but that is not taking advantage of any "system". or in other words you are not making SOE loose money because of THEIR decision.

if you wanted you could have dropped the MEH game VG months ago and gone to MEH F2P games lotro or DnD or whatever.

Originally posted by Mouls

4-Merge EQ2X with EQ2(35 bucks per char that you want transfer from EQ2 to EQ2X thats a joke right?)

A very, VERY bad joke. Go back and read that part again, more closely: that $35 only gets you an incomplete copy, missing most possessions and all money.

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Originally posted by natuxatu

F2P is suddenly becoming the 3D of movies it seems.

I do not approve of F2P that have other content in the cash shop. I would hate nothing more than to walk up to a dungeon and be stopped to have to purchase the content. HOWEVER if it's done in the way Guild Wars was done an a few other I'm sure (maybe LotRO is doing it the GW way) then I have no problem with it what so ever. I think F2P is great. But hate how some games try to implement it. You can actually end up spending more money in a shorter time than a constant 12.99 over the course of a couple years.

I assume this is so the delvopers can get more money now since you will probably leave the game after a few months or a couple years at most. Still it all depends on how it's done... I don't like how Sony is doing it from what I'm reading.

To be fair, the casuials have been paying for the hardcore for decades. Now, the hardcore would be required to pay for what they consume.

"In a subscription based game, you are overcharging half your playebase, and undercharging the rest".

NM

Originally posted by Mouls

in fact Bronze and Silver options are extend trial there no way to enjoy the better part of the game without going gold and gold still limited btw(7 char Slots 4 races)

SoE need to rework that F2P system

1-allow silver to buy acess to higher spells tier,Raid gear,and gold limit

2-Remove Platinum membership

3-change Gold membership to give acess to 10 char slots all races + 500 SC month

4-Merge EQ2X with EQ2(35 bucks per char that you want transfer from EQ2 to EQ2X thats a joke right?)

 

Yes that is exactly what it is, an extended trial, a game bigger than WoW,as a free or $10 Trial. 1. Keep in mind this is not the same server, the prices wont be inflated tot he same extent of the regular servers. silver membership gives you 16pp at level 80. You do NOT in any way, shape or form need spells higher than expert to do 95% of the content. 2. I dont see why people are so up in arms about this. if you have an issue, then just move over to the live servers, pay by month, and do what everyone else does. 3. SO make gold membership even better than eq2 live? Really? 4. No. No. No. This will force the extended item mall to live servers, which they DO NOT WANT. It will also give the bronze and silver members the same economy thats on live servers. Here is what they should do, IMO. Allow at least one bronze and Silver only servers. There will be no division between the have (gold and platinum) and have nots. Allow an EQ2E to EQLive service. Any gear bought with station cash gets removed. $60 per character. The first character would enable the SF expansion plus one free month, any subsequent character would just be the flat $60. This is to prevent people form leveling on extended just to bring over to live. However, the current system is not bad at all. Its less greedy than the item mall games like RoM, and really less greedy than LOTRO. The only real big thing is requiring you to pay for a year up front for the platinum membership, but again, its not like you have to do so. Theres always the regular servers. Show me one game where you can do as much in eq2 for just $10 bucks without spending most of your game time doing something tedious to get stuff for 'free'. People spend too much time comparing eq2e vs eq2live and not enough time comparing the actual content of eq2e to any other f2p game.

Originally posted by Daffid011 Their goal of quantity over quality is one of the main reasons their products suffer so much. You really want to complain about blizzard expansions after the last eq2 expansion? Nothing says quality like a developer using a random number generator to fill in stats for the items and not understanding why players complain about itemization.