EverQuest has always been known as a pure game with its challenging gameplay and amazing social structure. Many of you have been involved with the game from the early beta phases through the most recent expansion. EQ has been fortunate enough to be a part of the early days of the 3D MMORPG experience, benefitting from both our developers’ hard work and amazing feedback from the players.
In recent years, we have been reaching out to our players via online polls and through surveys and interviews at our Fan Faire events. We have been asking what features the players would like to have in order to make their EQ experience more convenient and fun to play. Surprisingly enough, we received an overwhelming number of requests for item sales. We also are seeing so many other online games delve into this space to much fanfare – it’s exciting for us to see the MMO industry experiencing so much growth and once again paving the way for future online games. Therefore, I’m excited to announce that EverQuest will be introducing Station Cash, our new virtual currency and wallet system, which makes purchasing in-game items easy for those who wish to participate.
Here’s how we see everyone benefiting from it …
We know that the talk of selling items in game has always been a sensitive subject and, with that in mind, we evaluated what we could offer players that would hit the areas that I mentioned previously … better experience, easier to play and more fun to play.
Station Cash opens up new ways to play the game you love!
- Convenience – Station Cash offers convenience with buff and potions for Health, Mana and XP.
- Customization – Station Cash offers ornamentations to trick out the look of your weapons and spells.
- Fun – Station Cash offers pets as new companions for your adventures.
We also feel that the Station Cash offerings will appeal to every type of player in EQ:
- Beginning players looking to more quickly establish themselves
- Mid-level characters looking to advance more quickly to approach or achieve level caps
- High-level characters to more easily prepare for raids or starting alts
- Those looking to eliminate the “grind” for their main character or an alt
Our first and foremost concern is making sure that the items offered for purchase through Station Cash work in concert with all of the other item delivery mechanisms in-game. Balance in gameplay is essential to the longevity of EverQuest, and we have taken great strides to ensure that the items offered enhance the gameplay experience without disrupting that balance.
We will be watching the player feedback closely and tuning our offerings to make sure we give players what they want. This is your world now!
If you will, in fact, be “watching the player feedback closely and tuning [you] offerings to make sure [you] give players what they want”, take this as the first of many voiced opinions that purchasable xp potions are not what players want. Ilusions, bling and the like I could really care less about, but xp potions give a significant advantage to players with the money to buy them. This is not what I am looking for in a game.
Also, please don’t patronize us with assertions that this is what the players want and is for our benefit and convenience. I have never once heard a player ask for anything like this, and you must think us incredibly naive to not realize ‘Station Cash’ was implemented solely to make SOE money.
EQ has many purists who will be quitting in droves over this. These are people who have stuck with the game for the better part of a decade because, LoN notwithstanding, it has remained a game in which equivalent effort is rewarded equally. Now we’ll be guessing whether players are buying their way to the top, which will breed mistrust and resentment and, I believe for many, be the final nudge they need toward that elusive cancel button.
Please rethink this.
By: Tom on December 9, 2008
at 5:09 pm
I’ve paid for EQPlayers since nearly its inception. And to this day, it is still not fully functional. Whats the matter? Doesn’t bring in enough revenue to warrant any kind of response? Why should we believe you this is going to be any different? Why should those of us who have poured money into EQPlayers or Lon believe this scheme of yours will be better. If anything, you should credit every dime that people have paid into EQPlayers with the appropriate amount of Station Cash to show that your willing to make amends for the shoddy work and mistakes you have made in the past and have just tossed to the side in your strides to milk the playerbase of every dollar you can
By: i_love_peanuts on December 9, 2008
at 5:24 pm
“trick out the look of your weapons and spells.”
How does the tricking out the look for spells work? Did not see anything appropriate in the marketplace.
By: Ragbert on December 9, 2008
at 7:52 pm
And one more thing. How about being able to change the way your familiar looks? I would much rather have a small black cat than a green drake. I\ll pay 5 bucks too.
By: Ragbert on December 9, 2008
at 8:03 pm
I’ve played EQ since ‘01, and this is the first time I’ve ever been disappointed. The fact that this post was made under a generic ID instead of by Clint, Rytan, or a particular name means that many of the EQ devs are likely to feel the same way.
If you want to sell ornaments, mount illusions (like the Worg bridle), or even the useless familiars that’s one thing, but 50% increase of exp for 2 hours? If you were to put it into a gameplay perspective, the double experience gained by LotD is 20 minutes worth of gameplay. The amount of experience gained by this $10 potion is an hour worth of gameplay.
Since you have now effectivly put a value on our playtime, does that mean subscription rates will go up too?
By: Innania_Gnomelauncher on December 9, 2008
at 11:30 pm
“EverQuest has always been known as a pure game”
It was until today. Not anymore. I don’t think you get the depth of feeling against ‘buying stuff for use in game’ thing do you? If the players who play EQ wanted this they would have moved onto the games that offered it years ago. Instead they stuck to EQ. Can you not figure out why? Its because microtransaction didn’t figure or have a place in that pure game you used to have.
By: Murril on December 10, 2008
at 12:00 am
In 3 to 6 months look for game altering items. Weapons, armor, food and drink, mounts and housing all with stats and such. SOE isn’t going to be satisfied with a bit of profit from fluff sales, and players aren’t likely to buy a whole lot. SOE is going to maximize their ability to profit from this. Their greed will be the death of EQ2 as we know it.
By: Olavf_of_guk on December 10, 2008
at 3:58 am
Well, I sadly saw it coming. I wish I could rag on you, but given that we’ve already had a WoW-ish post asking for a small black cat, I can’t see as I can.
The MMO community has, as a whole, gone down the tubes. It has become infested with mindless, idiotic zombies who think MMO’s are supposed to be happy-lolzorz time instead of any kinda of serious gaming or dedicated recreation.
We’ve lost touch with what used to make MMO’s so special amongst games, and it saddens me. Greatly.
By: VorAbaddon on December 11, 2008
at 3:25 am
“In recent years, we have been reaching out to our players via online polls and through surveys and interviews at our Fan Faire events. We have been asking what features the players would like to have in order to make their EQ experience more convenient and fun to play. Surprisingly enough, we received an overwhelming number of requests for item sales”
It would be interesting to see evidence of these “polls”, and how many of them were from Everquest Players, and not other games. As for the Fanfaire Polls, if they existed, how many of these were tainted and scued by all the attendees from the plat seller and cheating sites.
By: yaddab on December 11, 2008
at 12:02 pm
“We also feel that the Station Cash offerings will appeal to…Those looking to eliminate the “grind” for their main character or an alt”
…Mm…
“Balance in gameplay is essential to the longevity of EverQuest…the items offered enhance the gameplay experience without disrupting that balance.”
How are you going to offer fare that eliminates the “grind” for players and yet still tend to those players who opt *out* of Station Cash? Do you not see any conflict between these two ideals? It’s patently obvious that your new fangled business plan relies upon eventually increasing the power of items available for purchase once income from the outfit begins to fail…
“In recent years, we have been reaching out to our players…SURPRISINGLY ENOUGH, we received an OVERWHELMING number of requests for item sales.”
Ah, I see – yes, of course…*We* asked for it, don’t you recall? What an idiot I am, my apologies SoE…Seriously, Smedley;
“…it’s also [Station Cash] something that surveys are showing players are excited about…”
Good God, man – what players *have* you been surveying? Not the ones I play with, that’s for damn sure!
Honestly, the mind boggles at the sheer audacity…Eristic advance at the price of joy, and so behold – the death of EverQuest.
By: Tethrindaen on December 12, 2008
at 3:38 pm
I can understand the need for generating extra revenue and I do not disapprove of it tho.
What I think you should really look out for is to which extent micro transactions can be used in game. Personnally I think there shouldn’t be anything game-changing obtainable through station cash, an xp potion is an example of this.
If you don’t watch out, buying stuff in order to progress your character becomes the benchmark. When this happens all is lost.
So in short: micro trasactions nice for eyecandy and such but please reconsider making stuff that favors a player that spends cash opposed to a plyer who doesn’t available through station cash.
Other then that I think the name you picked for it is just a tad crappy. The name has a ring of ‘we’re_milking_the_community’ to it.
By: Occasus Numerus on December 15, 2008
at 3:25 pm
Well, to be honest, my response to EQ has been to build my own MMO. I am more likely to build the game I want to play then Sony building it.
Plus, I have fun doing it, I recommend people like Math by building games, it has been very exciting. I build a 3D grid to test some of the vector operations and it helped a ton, Cross Product, Dot Product etc…. I’m working on Shadows now and soon plan to play around with displacement maps for realistic water. ( I already have the Terrain and animation code for walking in the world with decent fps. My network layer only supports logging in though and authentication + chatting.)
By: John Edwards on December 20, 2008
at 12:04 am
I think there are better ways to get profit,,,,like selling accounts and server moves. Don’t sell the game out by selling the gear you need to play.
By: george on January 6, 2009
at 2:20 pm
I have a better Idea,, Instead of always making an alt, ob buying your gear. How about multi classing. I am so sick of necros having all the power in the game. If you don’t believe me ask any one witch the would play, a necro or a ranger. Now mabe folks would play a ranger more if he could cross class with a warrior and have tanking abilities. Or cross class mage with a cleric so she can heal while she sits. Of course, there are going to have to be limits, like no armor with mage spells or no sword with heal spells.
By: george on January 6, 2009
at 2:31 pm
I feel… sad, seriously sad. Its not that it really changes everquest that much. SOE and this blog and everyone envolved on your side added experience potions for real life money.
We Spesficly asked you not you. i have not seen one happy post about this anywhere. EVER. and i am a forum troll.
So with 13 posts asking for its removal.
SoE will choose to be deff.
We asked you to take them away, and nothing conflicting about it.
They are still around weeks later. and no one is saying anything postive about them being removed. i feel cheated
and if you had any intrest in making it fair, there would be more quests rewarding in exp pots.
there isnt,
micro transactions have ruined a game i actually call home.
time to see what WoW is about…
By: benjamin on January 16, 2009
at 4:18 am
One thought i had about station cash, was how about a way to buy training points for use with the guildmasters. This would allow those of us really new to the game to develope our skills rapidly. and i do not think it would unballance any thing, as you would still have to pay for the skills but would be able to build them quickly. (sitting around hitting the beg button to build up begging skill is absoulty no fun), also what about the person (ME by the way) who misses a skill on the way up and has to spend a lot of time fighting with his bare hands to get his skill up
By: James Mikulecky on January 25, 2009
at 1:03 am
Tom: EQ has many purists that will in fact WHINE over this. Those purists are a weird breed of dumb and strange humans. Most true veterans will shrug at this change and view it as another SOE gimmick to absorb even more money from their customer base. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing at all. In fact, I welcome the station cash store.
However, SOE really needs to look at where they are going with the Station Cash. Devs, please listen.
If you are going the way of microtransactions (as many new online games are) then you must set a bar on what you are truly creating with each item you release. There is a point where games become more money-gouging than they do fun. This point is when players are able/forced to purchase items that allow true advantages, such as temporary or permanent statistical enhancements, or experience bonuses. May I bring Nexon into this for a moment: They only sell items through microtransactions that do not provide true statistical advantages over one another, unless they are too as readily available in the free portion of the game. Other than this, they only sell items that are purely visually enhancing, such as a new unique skin on a weapon or a unique character model. If they offered EXP bonus potions, they would also be sold in the normal store for the proportionate amount of GP.
As you may have figured out by now, what I am saying is offer these EXP potions for platinum in EQ, or else you will come off as a blatant money-gouger by all. If this is not done, you must take them out of the station store. SOE is in the midst of revamping their reputation (which has been scarred in the past.) Don’t let something like this ruin what trust you have gained among your EQ population.
I would very much enjoy a response email, thank you for your time.
By: Zithax-Cody on February 4, 2009
at 5:35 am
I would VERY much agree with Zithax on the fact that some or even all items in station cash should ALSO be offered for in game plat. I realize this puts a RL money value on EQ plat, but I believe there is one in existence already. I myself have been playing this game for a very long time and would really like something fun to spend my plat on in game. It only makes sense that the plat was earned in your game, why can it not be spent in your game. I realize this doesn’t make SOE any money, but in fact it does. It adds another facet to the game to keep interest and rewards those who have stood by you for so many years. If you however do not choose to do this, it seems it truely is just another gouge to the RL wallets of your faithful players and new ones alike.
I would also like a response via email to this post
Peace out
By: Kman on April 7, 2009
at 1:26 pm