I have to agree with the other posters about cash shop intrusion creep in EQ2. It irritates me to see ads on my menus. I think the marketing people should just put that you can instant mend and buy spell upgrades on the website and bury the option in the cash shop interface. Same goes for the new housing screen. Put all that crap where it belongs-->the cash shop menu and sub-menus. And have an opt out selection for subbed customers so the CS ad doesn't come up on login. AND remove the SC button from the main screen for all players. I mean its not like players don't know there's a cash shop.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the CS options in EQN will be integrated on the menus. If that happens, i will not be buying the game. There's too many options out there to put up with crap like that.
IMO marketing people and lawyers are scum. Well not all, but most.
Its just a major flaw with the f2p system, and EQ2 is probably the least intrusive game on the market. As a subscriber in LOTRO it is 100x worse, and unlike eq2 there are core gameplay items like an exp disabler or stat tomes that are for sale. And then there is Rift, where every time you go to a vendor you get a huge, nearly full screen, cash shop in your face.
Here is something I would like to see for EQN:
Sub: 11.95, full access to everything, cosmetics cash shop ok as long as subbers get a stipend
EQ All access: sub for all 3 EQ games, 14.95
F2P: Cant own land (this is an absolute must), full access to Antonica, no access to Faydwer/Odus
Land ownership rights: 4.95 per month for non subs
I'd just like to say that most games take 4+ years to develop.
They've given us bits and pieces of information:
It exists.
It will be a massive sandbox.
No Themepark.
New Engine (as seen on Planetside 2)
I believe they said it is F2P.
They've shown a couple of screenshots.
I'm sure there's other bits, but you get the point.
Point 2 coupled with 5 ( if true ) make me VERY skeptical about this game... a F2P sandbox ?
If it's heavy on the PvP ( as most, if not all sandboxes are ), this will be the game with the worse community ever, we're talking LoL levels here...
You mean like Age of Wushu? Or Ryzom? Or Entropia Universe? Or Anarchy Online? Or APB reloaded? Or Wurm Online?
In fact, pretty much every sandbox game aside from EVE, DFUW, which isn't really much of a sandbox anyway, and Mortal Online are all Free to Play. So I fail to see your point? Unless you are just really uninformed about sandbox games.
At least give people an OPTION to pay a sub, which gives them EVERYTHING with no exeptions.
Then have a basic free trial completely free of charge, and an option to buy bits and pieces of what a sub give you -up to but never exeeding what you get for paying a sub.
1. Seamless world, with no or limited static spawns, proper day/night cycle & weather + seasonal changes
2. Player generated content, items, events with the designers of these gaining real monetary "slices of the pie" if they prove successful.
3. Strong Role-Playing tools - SOEmote, voice modulation, range of animations.
4. Strong A.I. - npcs will be far "smarter"
5. Factions & reputations system that has a more open-ended approach & more meaningful context in the game world
6. Back end systems that allow GMS to run their own events on multiple servers (or if single-server architecture upon all phases) at the same time, both scripted & on-the-fly.
This can't be true. I really hate this payment method because it impacts on all mechanics in the game!
Well it is true. SoE realised long ago that they can make far more money from micro-transaction based systems than subscriptions.
More like they realized the more players you have in an MMO is added value for the other players as well.
but a company can kill a game with its micro transactions , so I see it as a valid concern.
Nah, they have stated quite a few times that profits went up significantly after F2P conversions. Which is why they rolled it out to their entire game stable. They said this was the reason any future games would be F2P.
The problem with P2P is that you only get $15 per month, per customer. F2P might attract a bunch of freeloaders, but it also removes the spending cap, so players who are fanatical about the game can invest heavily in the cash shop.
Perhaps the timing has something to do with the Elder Scrolls mmo. Just recently, they've started giving peeks behind the curtain. Maybe Sony feels that is TESO, due to launch late this year, if it makes a huge splash, it will take some of their hype away.
The last EQ game launched and was blown out of the water a couple of months later by a little fantasy mmo from blizzard.
I love Norrath and I hope EQ next is the best mmo I've ever played, but once again, they have to be mindful of the competition. If EQ next isn't just darn awesome, it's going to get slaughtered again. I'm a bit skeptical with some words tied to EQ next, such as FTP and console mmo...
They scrapped thew design aspect, everything else has been made and ready to go . They didn't pull a blizzard and scrap a project like titan after being meh about it. They had idea they were finalizing and finally had the idea they wanted.
They have a huge huge team, they can do a lot in a short period. There going free to play and it was said in an interview they would not force pvp on everyone. They can have a great model without it being p2w, but those who disagree are just trolling
See, that's something I am wondering about:
How much did Blizzard really scrap of Titan?
I have a feeling they saw all the hype starting for EQN, read the interviews and thought "Hrm, Titan is looking a lot like ESO/Wildstar/WoW 2.0... I think we need to pull back here and see what happens" and just put the game on hold. I believe that they are waiting for the actual info release from SOE on EQNext to see what they can poach.
Yeah I got that impression too, I think they are waiting til the latest round of competitors come out to see which design works best for the masses. Then they will copy it and polish it up.
Well it is true. SoE realised long ago that they can make far more money from micro-transaction based systems than subscriptions.
More like they realized the more players you have in an MMO is added value for the other players as well.
but a company can kill a game with its micro transactions , so I see it as a valid concern.
I think you are over-thinking it. They just saw that F2P games seems to generate more money than P2P games at the moment.
But yes, micro transactions are a fine balance that can kill a game for many players. I hope they handle it better this time than they did with EQ2 (you more or less both needs a sub and to buy stuff each month to really enjoy it once you played a while). Some games do handle this fine like DDO and Tera so let's hope they go that way.
Being to greedy is bad, 5 million players where only 25% buy stuff still beats 100k where everyone use micro-transactions.
And, no I ain't trying to get a free ride but F2P games should sell bank slots, races, skins, character slots and other stuff that doesn't destroy the balance of the game, no items with stats, dungeons or classes (ok, classes that are a mirror of a class that is free for another faction is fine, like EQ2 class brigand that more or less is a swashie works as long as swashie is free).
MMOs are badly balanced as it is, we don't need cash spent as another factor. And items you loot that needs a purchase to use just suck, no matter if it is chests that needs you to buy a key or items that needs you to sub so you can equip them.
I have a feeling they saw all the hype starting for EQN, read the interviews and thought "Hrm, Titan is looking a lot like ESO/Wildstar/WoW 2.0... I think we need to pull back here and see what happens" and just put the game on hold. I believe that they are waiting for the actual info release from SOE on EQNext to see what they can poach.
Yeah I got that impression too, I think they are waiting til the latest round of competitors come out to see which design works best for the masses. Then they will copy it and polish it up.
Maybe. But then I think it is far likely that Blizzard just did what they usually do. Diablo 3 was actually planned to be released 2006. Diablo 2 was scrapped 2 times and should have been out around 1998 originally and they are not the only examples.
Blizzard are surely looking on other MMOs but I just don't see Activision letting them just wait while they remake the game over and over to fit MMO fans current fancy. Titan will release whever Blizzard think it is ready, they will add features from other MMOs before and after launch depending on how players like them but I doubt they would remake the entire game based on that.
I hope they handle it better this time than they did with EQ2 (you more or less both needs a sub and to buy stuff each month to really enjoy it once you played a while).
What are you talking about? There isnt a single item in the EQ2 store that is remotely necessary for the game for a sub. Its all fluff, in a game that has oodles of fluff to begin with. Plus, subbed players get free station cash each month anyway.
I am baffled as to what you felt you need to buy to 'really enjoy it'.
They scrapped thew design aspect, everything else has been made and ready to go . They didn't pull a blizzard and scrap a project like titan after being meh about it. They had idea they were finalizing and finally had the idea they wanted.
They have a huge huge team, they can do a lot in a short period. There going free to play and it was said in an interview they would not force pvp on everyone. They can have a great model without it being p2w, but those who disagree are just trolling
See, that's something I am wondering about:
How much did Blizzard really scrap of Titan?
I have a feeling they saw all the hype starting for EQN, read the interviews and thought "Hrm, Titan is looking a lot like ESO/Wildstar/WoW 2.0... I think we need to pull back here and see what happens" and just put the game on hold. I believe that they are waiting for the actual info release from SOE on EQNext to see what they can poach.
Yeah I got that impression too, I think they are waiting til the latest round of competitors come out to see which design works best for the masses. Then they will copy it and polish it up.
Or, they will do what they did with WoW and create something fresh and take a niche concept and find away to make it enjoyable for the masses.
The people that act like WoW copied EQ or whatever games are clueless. Themeparks didnt exist before WoW and EQ2, and its not like WoW could have copied EQ2 very much. These two games created a subgenre (for better or worse), and WoW especially took a niche genre and turned into something the masses could enjoy.
I hope they handle it better this time than they did with EQ2 (you more or less both needs a sub and to buy stuff each month to really enjoy it once you played a while).
What are you talking about? There isnt a single item in the EQ2 store that is remotely necessary for the game for a sub. Its all fluff, in a game that has oodles of fluff to begin with. Plus, subbed players get free station cash each month anyway.
I am baffled as to what you felt you need to buy to 'really enjoy it'.
Exactly. There is NOTHING in the cash shop that is needed to succeed. I don't like cash shops but when they are done like EQ2s, it isn't as bad because its all about the look of your character, not performance of your character.
They scrapped thew design aspect, everything else has been made and ready to go . They didn't pull a blizzard and scrap a project like titan after being meh about it. They had idea they were finalizing and finally had the idea they wanted.
They have a huge huge team, they can do a lot in a short period. There going free to play and it was said in an interview they would not force pvp on everyone. They can have a great model without it being p2w, but those who disagree are just trolling
See, that's something I am wondering about:
How much did Blizzard really scrap of Titan?
I have a feeling they saw all the hype starting for EQN, read the interviews and thought "Hrm, Titan is looking a lot like ESO/Wildstar/WoW 2.0... I think we need to pull back here and see what happens" and just put the game on hold. I believe that they are waiting for the actual info release from SOE on EQNext to see what they can poach.
Yeah I got that impression too, I think they are waiting til the latest round of competitors come out to see which design works best for the masses. Then they will copy it and polish it up.
Or, they will do what they did with WoW and create something fresh and take a niche concept and find away to make it enjoyable for the masses.
The people that act like WoW copied EQ or whatever games are clueless. Themeparks didnt exist before WoW and EQ2, and its not like WoW could have copied EQ2 very much. These two games created a subgenre (for better or worse), and WoW especially took a niche genre and turned into something the masses could enjoy.
They dumbed the genre down period. That's what "make it enjoyable for the masses" really means. That's all WoW did. It was better for the companies because it meant more cash for them, it was good for the entitlement generation because they could now succeed without much work. It was bad for the genre depending on your views on the subject. The fact that most games now could be played by a brain dead zombie seems to point toward WoW being responsible for the downfall of the genre but again, a brain dead zombie would think its the greatest thing since slice bread.
Remember also they scratched the original design and went back to the drawing board about a year or so ago. This will not be the same game they were doing when they started so that adds a lot of development time to the table.
They scrapped the game 18 ,months ago,so in reality the game is barely half done.This has the August time line looking extremely odd as it makes no sense.Why keep everything a secret then release information only half way through the development?
Are they just tossing in a whole pile of rushed maps and going on one gimmick just so they can get the game out this Christmas?Other wise why wouldn't you wait until closer to release,i mean games have their sacred NDA and yet are willing to spill trade secrets this easily and early,makes no sense.
You really need to stop spewing this nonsense all over the place, the entire game wasn't scrapped.
They scrapped thew design aspect, everything else has been made and ready to go . They didn't pull a blizzard and scrap a project like titan after being meh about it. They had idea they were finalizing and finally had the idea they wanted.
They have a huge huge team, they can do a lot in a short period. There going free to play and it was said in an interview they would not force pvp on everyone. They can have a great model without it being p2w, but those who disagree are just trolling
See, that's something I am wondering about:
How much did Blizzard really scrap of Titan?
I have a feeling they saw all the hype starting for EQN, read the interviews and thought "Hrm, Titan is looking a lot like ESO/Wildstar/WoW 2.0... I think we need to pull back here and see what happens" and just put the game on hold. I believe that they are waiting for the actual info release from SOE on EQNext to see what they can poach.
Yeah I got that impression too, I think they are waiting til the latest round of competitors come out to see which design works best for the masses. Then they will copy it and polish it up.
Or, they will do what they did with WoW and create something fresh and take a niche concept and find away to make it enjoyable for the masses.
The people that act like WoW copied EQ or whatever games are clueless. Themeparks didnt exist before WoW and EQ2, and its not like WoW could have copied EQ2 very much. These two games created a subgenre (for better or worse), and WoW especially took a niche genre and turned into something the masses could enjoy.
They dumbed the genre down period. That's what "make it enjoyable for the masses" really means. That's all WoW did. It was better for the companies because it meant more cash for them, it was good for the entitlement generation because they could now succeed without much work. It was bad for the genre depending on your views on the subject. The fact that most games now could be played by a brain dead zombie seems to point toward WoW being responsible for the downfall of the genre but again, a brain dead zombie would think its the greatest thing since slice bread.
WoW wasnt bad for the genre. Its the devs that keep copying the bad points of WoW and almost never the good points that is bad for the genre. If leveling wasnt meaningful in WoW it never would have been the hit it was. If the world wasnt extremely well made with interesting people and places it wouldnt have been the hit it was. And up through TBC the WoW grouping endgame wasnt easy. that changed with wotlk, but games now try to emulate wotlk WoW and not vanilla WoW, and completely lack the soul that WoW has
This can't be true. I really hate this payment method because it impacts on all mechanics in the game!
Second this. SOE's F2P is horrible!
It's pretty good now, have you checked it out in the past couple of months? If you think that's horrible, then I guess you'll hate EQN. We really don't know what EQN's F2P model will be like, because SoE keeps refining their own model with each new game.
This can't be true. I really hate this payment method because it impacts on all mechanics in the game!
Second this. SOE's F2P is horrible!
It's pretty good now, have you checked it out in the past couple of months? If you think that's horrible, then I guess you'll hate EQN. We really don't know what EQN's F2P model will be like, because SoE keeps refining their own model with each new game.
I played PS2 and those stupid new OP weapons and max 30 certshour made me angry. This game is P2WIN.
They scrapped the game 18 ,months ago,so in reality the game is barely half done.This has the August time line looking extremely odd as it makes no sense.Why keep everything a secret then release information only half way through the development?
Are they just tossing in a whole pile of rushed maps and going on one gimmick just so they can get the game out this Christmas?Other wise why wouldn't you wait until closer to release,i mean games have their sacred NDA and yet are willing to spill trade secrets this easily and early,makes no sense.
Scrapping a game doesn't mean losing all the zones, maps, and artwork which is the majority of what takes time on a game anyway. They are just talking about remaking the game systems.
TF2/GW2 don't have many P2W options. I haven't played much PS2, but it doesn't seem to have too much of an issue either.
EQN will most likely follow SOE's other games with multiple levels of buy in. F2P, Sub, and something in between when you spend a little $. F2P has its pros and cons, but either way, it is the future (especially SOE's).
I haven't tried TF2 so I can't comment on it. I have played GW2 and PS2 though. GW2 has the gems to gold conversion so you can purchase better gear with real life money. PS2 you needed to unlock weapons (they said they were all equal power level but lets just be honest here) which could be done with extreme amounts of xp or with your credit card instantly. Both games had xp boosting items for purchase with cash. Again I know that comparatively these games have been much better about it than some of the terrible terrible games, but none the less the more money you give them the more powerful you are. It is deceptive marketing. Its not really the future, It's the now, and it wont change until we as consumers force the change.
The way I look at it from a semi-casual/serious gamer, I've never felt like anything offered in GW2 was harming my gameplay. I don't buy XP bonuses, but at the same time, I don't play 12+ hours a day either. I am realistic and know that there are people more dedicated either financially or time played then myself and I will have to work harder/longer than them to some degree. MMOs aren't "fair" and unless there is some really OP things to purchase, I don't find it that bad.
EQN will have bots and farmers, just like every other mmo. People with the cash to spend will buy power leveling, items, plat, etc. SOE can do what they can to prevent these services from being available, but they might as well offer their own services to make it less tempting.
I'd much rather someone pay SOE $5 for an XP boost then to some bot-farming company for power leveling with mindless zombies running around.
I don't mind paying $15/month, but at the same time, why bother if all I have to see is a pop up box every once in a while or some icon on the screen. EQ still offers a monthly add free sub and I'm sure EQN will offer the same.
As long as I can enjoy my experience and am not hindered in anyway, I'm fine with whatever is offered. I think offering only F2P or Sub is a mistake. The more options, the larger the pool of players. A game being one system or another doesn't draw a better/worse group of people.
And as seen by EQ/EQ2, going F2P will bring in a lot of people that might have never given these games a second glance. It's a good way to draw people in and I'm sure many have started F2P and moved on to Sub. Similar to why many games came with one month free. It's a chance to test the waters and see if you want to invest your time/money in the game after the initial buy in.
I too would like EQN to be subscription based with no cash shop, although I'm not deluded enough to believe that will actually be the case.
As for the person who said WoW didn't copy EQ2, of coarse it didnt, it copied original EQ, and made it more accessible with better polish and marketing. Blizzard didn't do anything truly innovative with WoW, it just merely took the formula that already existed and polished it into a fine gem.
Also WoW, in the beginning, wasn't a "themepark", at least not what we consider that term to mean nowadays. It was open, you weren't really hand-held and coddled, you had to figure out your place in the world yourself, and it was challenging. Granted it removed several of the fist-shaking complaints of EQ1 (no XP loss/naked corpse runs, addition of flight paths, offline auction house, etc), but vanilla WoW would be considered a pretty "hardcore" game by todays standards.
A commenter alluded to it earlier, but I believe that history could repeat itself here, EQN comes out, with genre altering gameplay and features, people play it, people love it, and it gets a stabilized player base of somewhere around 1 million. Then 3-4 years from now Blizzard releases Titan (or whatever it will be called), which takes EQN and finely polishes it, with better marketing, the same way WoW did to EQ1, which gives Blizzard yet another game with several million players, and another "win" over EQ.
Comments
Its just a major flaw with the f2p system, and EQ2 is probably the least intrusive game on the market. As a subscriber in LOTRO it is 100x worse, and unlike eq2 there are core gameplay items like an exp disabler or stat tomes that are for sale. And then there is Rift, where every time you go to a vendor you get a huge, nearly full screen, cash shop in your face.
Here is something I would like to see for EQN:
Sub: 11.95, full access to everything, cosmetics cash shop ok as long as subbers get a stipend
EQ All access: sub for all 3 EQ games, 14.95
F2P: Cant own land (this is an absolute must), full access to Antonica, no access to Faydwer/Odus
Land ownership rights: 4.95 per month for non subs
You mean like Age of Wushu? Or Ryzom? Or Entropia Universe? Or Anarchy Online? Or APB reloaded? Or Wurm Online?
In fact, pretty much every sandbox game aside from EVE, DFUW, which isn't really much of a sandbox anyway, and Mortal Online are all Free to Play. So I fail to see your point? Unless you are just really uninformed about sandbox games.
Well it is true. SoE realised long ago that they can make far more money from micro-transaction based systems than subscriptions.
At least give people an OPTION to pay a sub, which gives them EVERYTHING with no exeptions.
Then have a basic free trial completely free of charge, and an option to buy bits and pieces of what a sub give you -up to but never exeeding what you get for paying a sub.
1. Seamless world, with no or limited static spawns, proper day/night cycle & weather + seasonal changes
2. Player generated content, items, events with the designers of these gaining real monetary "slices of the pie" if they prove successful.
3. Strong Role-Playing tools - SOEmote, voice modulation, range of animations.
4. Strong A.I. - npcs will be far "smarter"
5. Factions & reputations system that has a more open-ended approach & more meaningful context in the game world
6. Back end systems that allow GMS to run their own events on multiple servers (or if single-server architecture upon all phases) at the same time, both scripted & on-the-fly.
More like they realized the more players you have in an MMO is added value for the other players as well.
but a company can kill a game with its micro transactions , so I see it as a valid concern.
Nah, they have stated quite a few times that profits went up significantly after F2P conversions. Which is why they rolled it out to their entire game stable. They said this was the reason any future games would be F2P.
The problem with P2P is that you only get $15 per month, per customer. F2P might attract a bunch of freeloaders, but it also removes the spending cap, so players who are fanatical about the game can invest heavily in the cash shop.
Perhaps the timing has something to do with the Elder Scrolls mmo. Just recently, they've started giving peeks behind the curtain. Maybe Sony feels that is TESO, due to launch late this year, if it makes a huge splash, it will take some of their hype away.
The last EQ game launched and was blown out of the water a couple of months later by a little fantasy mmo from blizzard.
I love Norrath and I hope EQ next is the best mmo I've ever played, but once again, they have to be mindful of the competition. If EQ next isn't just darn awesome, it's going to get slaughtered again. I'm a bit skeptical with some words tied to EQ next, such as FTP and console mmo...
Yeah I got that impression too, I think they are waiting til the latest round of competitors come out to see which design works best for the masses. Then they will copy it and polish it up.
I think you are over-thinking it. They just saw that F2P games seems to generate more money than P2P games at the moment.
But yes, micro transactions are a fine balance that can kill a game for many players. I hope they handle it better this time than they did with EQ2 (you more or less both needs a sub and to buy stuff each month to really enjoy it once you played a while). Some games do handle this fine like DDO and Tera so let's hope they go that way.
Being to greedy is bad, 5 million players where only 25% buy stuff still beats 100k where everyone use micro-transactions.
And, no I ain't trying to get a free ride but F2P games should sell bank slots, races, skins, character slots and other stuff that doesn't destroy the balance of the game, no items with stats, dungeons or classes (ok, classes that are a mirror of a class that is free for another faction is fine, like EQ2 class brigand that more or less is a swashie works as long as swashie is free).
MMOs are badly balanced as it is, we don't need cash spent as another factor. And items you loot that needs a purchase to use just suck, no matter if it is chests that needs you to buy a key or items that needs you to sub so you can equip them.
Maybe. But then I think it is far likely that Blizzard just did what they usually do. Diablo 3 was actually planned to be released 2006. Diablo 2 was scrapped 2 times and should have been out around 1998 originally and they are not the only examples.
Blizzard are surely looking on other MMOs but I just don't see Activision letting them just wait while they remake the game over and over to fit MMO fans current fancy. Titan will release whever Blizzard think it is ready, they will add features from other MMOs before and after launch depending on how players like them but I doubt they would remake the entire game based on that.
What are you talking about? There isnt a single item in the EQ2 store that is remotely necessary for the game for a sub. Its all fluff, in a game that has oodles of fluff to begin with. Plus, subbed players get free station cash each month anyway.
I am baffled as to what you felt you need to buy to 'really enjoy it'.
Or, they will do what they did with WoW and create something fresh and take a niche concept and find away to make it enjoyable for the masses.
The people that act like WoW copied EQ or whatever games are clueless. Themeparks didnt exist before WoW and EQ2, and its not like WoW could have copied EQ2 very much. These two games created a subgenre (for better or worse), and WoW especially took a niche genre and turned into something the masses could enjoy.
Exactly. There is NOTHING in the cash shop that is needed to succeed. I don't like cash shops but when they are done like EQ2s, it isn't as bad because its all about the look of your character, not performance of your character.
They dumbed the genre down period. That's what "make it enjoyable for the masses" really means. That's all WoW did. It was better for the companies because it meant more cash for them, it was good for the entitlement generation because they could now succeed without much work. It was bad for the genre depending on your views on the subject. The fact that most games now could be played by a brain dead zombie seems to point toward WoW being responsible for the downfall of the genre but again, a brain dead zombie would think its the greatest thing since slice bread.
AKA - Bruxail
You really need to stop spewing this nonsense all over the place, the entire game wasn't scrapped.
WoW wasnt bad for the genre. Its the devs that keep copying the bad points of WoW and almost never the good points that is bad for the genre. If leveling wasnt meaningful in WoW it never would have been the hit it was. If the world wasnt extremely well made with interesting people and places it wouldnt have been the hit it was. And up through TBC the WoW grouping endgame wasnt easy. that changed with wotlk, but games now try to emulate wotlk WoW and not vanilla WoW, and completely lack the soul that WoW has
Second this. SOE's F2P is horrible!
It's pretty good now, have you checked it out in the past couple of months? If you think that's horrible, then I guess you'll hate EQN. We really don't know what EQN's F2P model will be like, because SoE keeps refining their own model with each new game.
I played PS2 and those stupid new OP weapons and max 30 certshour made me angry. This game is P2WIN.
Scrapping a game doesn't mean losing all the zones, maps, and artwork which is the majority of what takes time on a game anyway. They are just talking about remaking the game systems.
The way I look at it from a semi-casual/serious gamer, I've never felt like anything offered in GW2 was harming my gameplay. I don't buy XP bonuses, but at the same time, I don't play 12+ hours a day either. I am realistic and know that there are people more dedicated either financially or time played then myself and I will have to work harder/longer than them to some degree. MMOs aren't "fair" and unless there is some really OP things to purchase, I don't find it that bad.
EQN will have bots and farmers, just like every other mmo. People with the cash to spend will buy power leveling, items, plat, etc. SOE can do what they can to prevent these services from being available, but they might as well offer their own services to make it less tempting.
I'd much rather someone pay SOE $5 for an XP boost then to some bot-farming company for power leveling with mindless zombies running around.
I don't mind paying $15/month, but at the same time, why bother if all I have to see is a pop up box every once in a while or some icon on the screen. EQ still offers a monthly add free sub and I'm sure EQN will offer the same.
As long as I can enjoy my experience and am not hindered in anyway, I'm fine with whatever is offered. I think offering only F2P or Sub is a mistake. The more options, the larger the pool of players. A game being one system or another doesn't draw a better/worse group of people.
And as seen by EQ/EQ2, going F2P will bring in a lot of people that might have never given these games a second glance. It's a good way to draw people in and I'm sure many have started F2P and moved on to Sub. Similar to why many games came with one month free. It's a chance to test the waters and see if you want to invest your time/money in the game after the initial buy in.
I too would like EQN to be subscription based with no cash shop, although I'm not deluded enough to believe that will actually be the case.
As for the person who said WoW didn't copy EQ2, of coarse it didnt, it copied original EQ, and made it more accessible with better polish and marketing. Blizzard didn't do anything truly innovative with WoW, it just merely took the formula that already existed and polished it into a fine gem.
Also WoW, in the beginning, wasn't a "themepark", at least not what we consider that term to mean nowadays. It was open, you weren't really hand-held and coddled, you had to figure out your place in the world yourself, and it was challenging. Granted it removed several of the fist-shaking complaints of EQ1 (no XP loss/naked corpse runs, addition of flight paths, offline auction house, etc), but vanilla WoW would be considered a pretty "hardcore" game by todays standards.
A commenter alluded to it earlier, but I believe that history could repeat itself here, EQN comes out, with genre altering gameplay and features, people play it, people love it, and it gets a stabilized player base of somewhere around 1 million. Then 3-4 years from now Blizzard releases Titan (or whatever it will be called), which takes EQN and finely polishes it, with better marketing, the same way WoW did to EQ1, which gives Blizzard yet another game with several million players, and another "win" over EQ.
Time will tell.
ive seen strong hints that Player Studio will be in EQN
March 2013 video interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wVIIIZ6ETtY#at=129
what that means - I dont know
if its anything like EQ2, its player made items sold for cash
EQ2 fan sites