Come JUNE....

[Rewde]

Are you still going to be playing? According to this article, rates are going up. Not sure I am going to stick around after another rate increase. Yeah, I could pay for a year for ONLY $99 bucks, if I HAD it.

/sigh.

[Kahmon]

I ordered the 1 year for $99 since it gets you an additional veterans reward. The way EQ is decaying though I won't be surprised if June 2006 marks the end of Norrath as we know it.

[Trellium]

We will still be playing, but we are cancelling two accounts that we use mostly for bazaar traders. We liked having them up even while we play our main characters but that is something we will easily give up. The $2/month isn't much of a deal, until we look at $360/year just for two full time traders/mules. It hit our breaking point and we are cancelling the accounts today.

Overall, our EQ costs are dropping.

[Scuzz Zilla]

Last time they raised prices.
It was because.
According to them
The world was growing and in order to provide the same level of service for a growing number of customers, had to raise prices. ALA WE GOTTA HIRE NEW GM,s..

WELL..
Given that they just consolidated.. how many servers? At least ten less servers they have to pay for now.

I'm sure you dont need as many GM's since they dont have as many servers...

IT doesn't add up at all..

Here, pay us more because our population is down..
AKA you foot the bill prz?

I'm a bit cranky about this,
Prolly gonna post a few articles on it. see if i can get some attention From CRGaming. they seem to post peoples viewpoints.

[Yuliya]

Kinda makes sense

Although I hate it, it DOES make sense.

They know that most people still playing have multiple accounts and are not going to leave over 2 more bucks.

It's a way for them to make some of the money back that they have lost from other folks leaving. Also, they do it at a time when many servers have merged and many players have a least a somewhat renewed feeling about playing because of all of the new folks on their server that they can group with and join in guilds and such.

They didn't make as much money over the years as they have by being dumb. Even though we posters often say they are the stupidest company in the world

[Trellium]

They know that most people still playing have multiple accounts and are not going to leave over 2 more bucks.

... but they would also know that its not $2 for all those accounts, its $2 each account and the total does add up. Saying "buy a year" isn't making it look cheaper, since the cost this month for us would be $600 to renew EQ. It's just not going to happen. Then we look at what we really get, how much we really play on each account, how easy it is to give some of it up (and thereby also greatly reduce the costs of expansions). An expansion release by SOE means another $200 spent for our house.

The game is old, the population is dropping fairly fast, and its really not a product that can compete on an even level with newer games. Maybe they don't want it to. Maybe instead of shutting down the servers as an action on their part, they prefer to simply keep raising "profits" until no one is left. Then, its an easy decision to shut EQ down.

But, for someone to start a new mmorpg it makes no sense to pay the same for an old game that is struggling compared to a newer game like WoW that is not, yet is priced similarly.

They are pushing the annual subscription hard, so they must still be making money at $8.30 a month. The rest is gravy.

[mithridate]

Since this is the primal scream room...


Dealer-Junkie relationships reviewed

Despite serious complaints from junkies, dealer continues to cut corners with his product -- after all, the junkies will swallow anything the dealer gives them...
Dealer hires people who barely understand or speak English to handle junkies' complaints (thereby saving a bundle at the expense of junkie-relations, but that's of no consequence -- they're just junkies ...
Dealer consolidates his territory (and presumably saves a ton by doing so)...
Despite the dealer's product being a bit dated, it is hyped as being top tier -- the junkies don't notice, they're hooked...
Dealer gouges his client base even more...
... and the junkies just come back for more.


Before someone bites my head off, it's all in the name of good 'ole self-deprecating humor. ;P

[Yuliya]

True

It's not just humor, it's actually true.

When I worked for a game company, we actually had players who wanted to buy the code for the game when we sunsetted it so that they could run their own servers. It often hard for players to move on when they are so comfortable with what they have.

Many longtime EQ players are looked up to by other players and in guilds. Many, have no skill whatsoever playing the game beyond the gift of gab. Many have leveled in spite of themselves just because they have been in the game so long and have so many friends. What happens when they pay for a new game and actually have to learn and play to become a leader again? It's too scary to even imagine for some players.

So, pay the money many will. And they will bring their 4 and 5 accounts with them to whichever server they have to merge to in the future. As the players decrease the servers will decrease. One day, there will just a few servers and everyone will logon one night to stand in front of some well known landmark and take that final screenshot of the game that they played for.. 8 years?

By that time, enough of their friends will be big characters in some other game. They'll get an IM one day that says.. "hey come join me in game_01 and I will set you up". And it will start all over again.

[Darknyss]

And some people will run an EQ emulator when the game dies, and continue their quest.

Honestly, inflation has rised roughly 3% every year for the last 3 years and they've not raised prices in that time period... Gas prices on the other hand... yeesh.

Server prices have gone down, but electricity prices have gone up, security has gone up, health insurance and other benefit prices have gone up... and they still require the same processing power to maintain the population, regardless if it's on one server or 2.

People complaining about spending $600 for a year for 6 accounts w/ the deal aren't realizing that without the deal or price increase, they would have happily paid $936, and $1080 if they didn't give you the option to partake in ANY deal when they raised prices. And here's a question... Do you have 6 incomes to pay for those 6 people playing in this household?

Don't even get me started on outsourcing... the same people wanting cheaper fees, faster CS, and less downtime are usually the ones that complain about the most efficient cost cutting methods.

[Trellium]

the same people wanting cheaper fees, faster CS, and less downtime are usually the ones that complain about the most efficient cost cutting methods.

If you are so excited to pay more for less, then go ahead and do so.

We simply don't see EQ as being worth the extra money any more. Its just that simple. I don't give a rats ass whether SOE pays more for fuel costs or health insurance prices in India, since I face the identical cost increases right here in my living room. So, I set up a nice simple little system where I assign value to things in my life. Four of the 8 accounts we have are of little real value to us, so its pretty easy to toss them out. We pay a bit less for EQ in our lives, in exchange for a slight decrease in play options.

Lol, I can't believe the fuss some people make because other people decide they don't want some of their spare accounts. Its not life threatening or anything, they are just trader accounts that get shut off.

Is EQ worth $15/month? Yes, for the main accounts. Possibly for the secondary accounts we have. But, not worth it for trader's and mules.

If you think its such a deal, activate 8 accounts and pay them on whatever scheme fits you. But, don't think you have a say over our value system and how we wish to spend out money. Don't try to peddle us off as "wanting mre for less", when we play on Test server and customer service is cheap here.

Speak for yourself, don't speak for me when you say it so poorly.