ANOTHER Expansion! EQ: Dragons of Norrath

[Mystrice]

They have ANOTHER expansion due out on Feb 15, 2005 called: Dragons of Norrath. Aren't they coming out with these expansions a little to fast? A lot of the content is interesting though, they have a new guild hall where guilds can go to get ready for a raid. Still say they are coming out with these expansions WAY to fast, I haven't even gotten used to OoW. GoD is still halfway unexplored. blah

[Verdandi]

I believe the system at this point is two expansions per year.

My personal feeling is that given the number of empty or nearly empty zones, especially in the wake of the numerous big, new games that have been released recently, there is absolutely no need for new content right now. My guess is that the reason for continued, regular expansions is the extra revenue. Personally, I would much rather just pay more per month. I would do so quite happily, in fact, if it meant a guarantee that expansions would be kept to one per year or less.

[Maevenniia]

NOO! Verdandi don't give them any ideas, NO increases in monthly fee, plskthx~

[KyrosKrane]

The sad thing is that to get new features, Sony has this idea that they should be bundled as expansions. Witness LoY: the five new zones were nice, but pretty much everyone agrees this was a feature-based expansion, not a zone-based one. On the flip side, Sony marketing sees it as the all-time best-selling EQ expansion, so go figure.

While I agree that we should only get one zone- and content-based expansion per year, I'm hardly a defining perspective on the issue. What about the top end of players, who blow through the main content of an expansion within a couple of months? What about moderate players who could use the new features, but may have no interest in the zones?

I don't think Sony could justify a cost increase for EQ right now. There are too many other games out there, competitively priced, and EQ1 has to fight for its once-given market share. A price raise would be too risky for them, possibly costing them too many customers.

An expansion, on the other hand, is a relatively safe way to generate a revenue boost. It's not forced upon players like a monthly fee increase would be; players can choose to simply not buy it. The reality is that most players will buy it, but if someone is in a cash crunch or doesn't feel they would get good value from it, they can skip buying the expansion.

So long as an expansion is reasonably priced, provides a good mix of usable features and content, and integrates well with EQ, a typical player is likely to buy it --and yes, I know that the criteria are very subjective. Ultimately, it's up to each player to determine whether the expansion will make sense for them.

[Dunthor Warsmith]

NOO! Verdandi don't give them any ideas, NO increases in monthly fee, plskthx~

I was looking over comparative costs, noting that a number of my recurring subscriptions total to ~$150 each; things like a year of WoW, a year of the magazine New Scientist, etc. Started looking at other MMO prices out of curiousity, and a cursory glance seemed to land a number of them around $150, too. $100/year for EQ was looking cheap by comparison (5th Anniversary reoccuring rate). Then I remember expansions - none of the other MMOs I'd looked at as samples had had any paid expansions in the past year or upcoming, but EQ had the normal two, at around ~$22-$29. If you add that back in, EQ comes out even with the rest, at around $150 a year.

If you're someone who buys every expansion, raising the subscription rate while reducing the number of expansions/year could hold your costs constant. If you didn't buy the expansions though, then it would be a cost increase.

Personally, I'd like more focus on dealing with what's already here. I'm several expansions behind in terms of content consumed, so I've got plenty of places to go and things to do - I don't need another expansion's worth of content any time soon. I buy all the expansions (for one reason or another) so it could be the same cost for me (if they did this pricing strategy) either way, but for some people it would be a net cost increase which could be a problem :/

[Furyrpied]

Quote:
Personally, I'd like more focus on dealing with what's already here. I'm several expansions behind in terms of content consumed, so I've got plenty of places to go and things to do - I don't need another expansion's worth of content any time soon

I can not agree any more! My druid is level 66, is not in an uber guild so i don't see 70% of the OoW content and find myself getting frustrated that there is so much old content that is still broken and needs to be fixed.

i would rather pay for a CD that patches and corrects/fixes all the game glitches, broken quests, missing drops for tradeskills and quests ect. than pay for yet another expansion that makes it virtualy impossible to play a new character without twinking or powerleveling due to all the two boxed twink pl bots out there or ebayed accounts... /sigh

/rant off (for now)

[Moraganth]

What they should do is raise their subscription rate slightly, then release all new content as free downloads. Income will be slightly less to even, but then everyone will have the same contet.

The absolute WORST thing Sony has done with EQ is charge for things that are basic to the game, that everyone should have. It show's exactly how concerned they are to milk every penny they can, at the cost of the game itself.

With the new games that are actually big games, that will maintain a market share, and with other games coming in that will do the same (think: Vanguard), the best thing Sony could do is change it's philosophy reguarding costs to players.

[Myrron]

My guess is that the reason for continued, regular expansions is the extra revenue.

To go further with this idea, there is another possible reason why management has been rushing a new expansion right now, despite a rather large outcry from the people still playing. While there's no official release date announced yet, WoW is expected to be released in Europe soon, within the next month or two. They began Final Beta last December. Sony is probably worried, with 600,000 copies of WoW sold so far in about 7 weeks. They're trying to keep their Europe players by giving EQ players another expansion around the same time WoW comes out.

--Myrron Lifewarder

[munwin]

With all the players leaving for other games, a new expansion titled "Dragons of Morrath" is just what Sony needs to draw back its old players.

People LOVE killing Dragons, always have, always will. One of the biggest gripes about Luclin and Up expansions is No new Dragons to kill.

Give the people Dragons to kill and they will return.

Now that said, i dont agree with an expansion every 6 months. I hate it. I am in a top end raiding guild, Have seen every zone, every monster, and killed them(Except Tunat, and whats left of Anguish)
It all still comes out too fast for me im not a power gamer so im still way behind on AAs. I work full time and have a family so raids are about all i can log in for. Id love a year to catch up...but then again lots would leave from boredom.

Anyway, Im looking forward to killing Dragons again instead of Space Monsters and Demons from the Twillight Zone. Or being the patsy of the Wayfarers.

Munwin

[Ironoak]

This should be a patch.

I read their write up on the new expansion. It should be a patch. Unfortunately, people will buy it, Sony knows people will buy it and therefore they will take advantage of that fact. What they don't seem to realize is the fact that they are getting more competition. People are leaving them. I hear WoW is quite nice. I am not happy at all with this so-called expansion. Now they will spam all of us to buy it for the next few months. So much for "fast" login.

[Nolrog]

I believe the system at this point is two expansions per year.

I don't know if they changed, but the last year or so has been more like an expansion every 3-4 months. Two a year would be a much better pace, IMO.

[Verdandi]

Id love a year to catch up...but then again lots would leave from boredom.

That's possible. But it's also a fact that lots of people are already leaving because they're tired of the breakneck rate of advancement required to keep up. I need more than all my fingers and toes to count the number of friends I've lost in the last couple years, who left because they're tired of falling further behind the longer they play. A good many of them were loyal players from beta and shortly after release, many with 2-3 accounts apiece all the while. If you want to experience high level content before it's two expansions old, you simply have to play so much (usually in just a handful of the latest zones with the best exp) that for many of them it turned into work rather than fun. Otherwise you fall behind and feel less and less enthusiastic about each new expansion. Eventually you dread them, but buy them only because of some little token feature put in to suck in the people who really don't want the durn thing but who'd hate to be without that little feature.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if more people could be retained by slowing down the pace than would be lost. It's impossible to say without seeing some numbers, of course, but I think it's certainly a possibility.

I'm not trying to be all gloom and doom. EQ is still an excellent game. This upcoming expansion at least seems like it's in a much more interesting direction. I just wish they'd reconsider the pace....