why vets should get a character unlock

[chelanfarsight]

<p><p style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #d2c5a9; background-color: #000000;">i think many of you, along with SoE, have missed the point and the opportunity. Lotro, which so far has created one of the better f2p models in the west, will allow you to login and play any of your characters that were available to you when you were a subscriber. the slots are limited and you get a one time opportunity to choose which characters you wish to play. but you can choose classes that the regular f2p'r who was completely new to the game would have to pay for.</p><p style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #d2c5a9; background-color: #000000;">why? because they had paid for them in expacs past. just like i cannot play Beastlord now, or in the future, until i pay for AoD.</p><p style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #d2c5a9; background-color: #000000;">so then why should past vets, who have paid for expacs that contained races and classes not be able to choose a limited number of their original characters to play. for the sake of argument let's just say, two characters. (with only 4 slots even one could be enough.)</p><p style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #d2c5a9; background-color: #000000;">this allows folks to come back enjoy the game a bit and spend some money. SoE's model, which borrows a page from Lotro when they should have taken the whole book, causes, as you can see, simply frustration, confusion, and more folks turned off by the f2p, then should be turned on to EQ2.</p><p style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #d2c5a9; background-color: #000000;">at this point we're not even talking about 'fair' or 'unfair' practices. we are simply discussing, what's going to be the most likely thing to bring vets back and spend a lil'cash? locking them out of their mains? locking them out of the character they worked on for so many years, simply in order to prove a point?</p><p style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #d2c5a9; background-color: #000000;">from a business standpoint that's a ridiculous sentiment. my purpose in running a business is to get as many people in the door as i possibly can, knowing that the turnover ratio of visitors to paying customers will be unbalanced in favor of the visitors. however, if the ratio were some random allotment, lets say 10:1, then for every 10 *more* people i get to play, im going to get at least one more paying customer.</p><p style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #d2c5a9; background-color: #000000;">and you dont get visitors by confusing or frustrating them, even if you think its fair that they shouldn't have access, because fairness is not the point. numbers are the point.</p></p>

[Yunna]

<p>I definetely agree.  There's SO many ways they could go about this to entice vet players into giving this game another chance, most of them at little to no loss to them.</p><p><ul><li>Allow us to unlock 1 pre-existing character for play so we can try things out.  Don't even need to unlock the race/class itself (ie. you can't make MORE of those, can just play the one you had).  Can even keep the gold/bag/gear/etc limits if they just 'save' the surplus gold to be made available later if the player resubscribes.</li><li>Make locked characters not fill slots so we can create a F2P char and check things out.</li></ul></p>

[chelanfarsight]

<p><cite>Alyana@Nektulos wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I definetely agree.  There's SO many ways they could go about this to entice vet players into giving this game another chance, most of them at little to no loss to them.</p><ul><li>Allow us to unlock 1 pre-existing character for play so we can try things out.  Don't even need to unlock the race/class itself (ie. you can't make MORE of those, can just play the one you had).  Can even keep the gold/bag/gear/etc limits if they just 'save' the surplus gold to be made available later if the player resubscribes.</li><li>Make locked characters not fill slots so we can create a F2P char and check things out.</li></ul></blockquote><p>all good suggestions, and details that i hadnt thought of.</p><p>i would like to add as well, that i am not a returning vet, i am a continuing subscriber and have been for quite some time.</p><p>again, this is not about fair for unfair, its simply about bringing in the numbers. others have argued that EQ2X was so popular that this isn't an issue. but the Freeport server was, and is, a completely diffferent issue. what we are talking about is whether SoE wants to entice vets back, or whether they want to simply frustrate and confuse potential customers.</p>

[Yunna]

<p>Just because the Freeport server was more popular than P2P doesn't mean that the model can't be even more popular than that.</p><p>The whole reason why F2P works is you eliminate barriers of (re)entry and then once you've got the player actually having fun you lure more $$ out of their pocket.  And when it comes to regaining vet players they're completely missing this facet of why F2P works.</p><p>This summer I got sucked back into FrontierVille (a FB flash game) because I "just logged in to help a friend with something".  I got into playing it (after having abandoned it since shortly after release) because I could just step in and my stuff was all there.  I could pick up pretty much where I left off (after cleaning a lot of weeds and trees!).  And that sucked me in, eventually spending upwards of $300 in a few months on that game.  Had they put a big lock on all my buildings and asked me to pay before I could even play around with them a bit they never would have seen a dime from me.</p>

[EndevorX]

<p><span style="color: #ff6600;">i agree with the OP but just in case any are raging out of confusion...</span></p><p><cite>Seliri@Nagafen said:</cite></p><blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff6600;">if you ensure your..."eq2ui_newcharscene2.xml"</span></p><p><span style="color: #ff6600;">...file is the default & not a custom UI version, you can utilize the "Shop" button to add Station Cash funds & purchase the necessary Class/Race packs to play your character, <strong>should you not desire to opt for a regular subscription (<span style="color: #ffcc00;">Gold</span>)</strong></span></p></blockquote>

[Golbezz]

<p><cite>Alyana@Nektulos wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I definetely agree.  There's SO many ways they could go about this to entice vet players into giving this game another chance, most of them at little to no loss to them.</p><p><ul><li>Allow us to unlock 1 pre-existing character for play so we can try things out.  Don't even need to unlock the race/class itself (ie. you can't make MORE of those, can just play the one you had).  Can even keep the gold/bag/gear/etc limits if they just 'save' the surplus gold to be made available later if the player resubscribes.</li><li>Make locked characters not fill slots so we can create a F2P char and check things out.</li></ul></p></blockquote><p>I could see SOE offering a time limited unlock for returning players but I don't see them giving anything else away. SOE is more concerned about the money than the number of players which is why they are handing out promotional gifts similar to SC items. Makes me feel better about the cancel status of my sub since this game has become too marketplace-centric while the rest of the game suffers.</p>

[Yunna]

<p><cite>Golbezz wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><blockquote><p>I could see SOE offering a time limited unlock for returning players but I don't see them giving anything else away. SOE is more concerned about the money than the number of players which is why they are handing out promotional gifts similar to SC items. Makes me feel better about the cancel status of my sub since this game has become too marketplace-centric while the rest of the game suffers.</p></blockquote></blockquote><p>The thing is they fail to realize that in an attempt to force us to give them $15 they are loosing out on a lot more $$ (and not even speaking of the long term here).  Or maybe they do realize it, but have no confidence in their product keeping our interest for any stretch of time.</p><p>If it was possible for me to log into the game and check things out for free without abandoning my old account I'd probably subscribe (+$15) within the week just because I'm a packrat and want all the bagspace I can have.  I'd also get my wife to check out the game again because we usually play MMOs together.  That's another sub (+$15), followed probably by a freeblood unlock (+$10?) because she's a total vampire nut.  If the game kept our attention for a couple weeks, we'd definetely be picking up 2 upgrades to the new expansion, because I for one would love to play around with dungeon creation (+$40x2).  Even if we got bored of it by the end of the month that would be a quick $120 (or more) from us.</p><p>Instead they're trying to force me into paying $15 to even check out the game, which I'm not going to do.  My wife took a look at my solidly locked character select, assumed hers would look the same, cancelled the EQ2 download and logged into WoW.  I'm typing this while logged into EVE in which I'm probably going to spend $30 soon for a PLEX to get some quick ISK.</p>

[Nuhus]

<p>They don't care about the long timers, they're hoping for a whole new slew of people to scam. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Shailas]

<p>If SOE considered the veteran players important then they would provide a benefit like this, but they don't.  If they did then some form of compensation like a grandfather clause would be in place.</p>

[Nakrima]

<p><cite>Nuhus wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>They don't care about the long timers, they're hoping for a whole new slew of people to scam. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>That's why we need to keep posting, to let the new players know it's not worth their time.  If this is how SOE treats it's veteran PAYING players... phew I'd hate to be the FNG.</p>

[Ilovecows]

<p>We definaitly needed another thread about the same exact subject.  6 about the same thing definaitly wasn't enough.</p>

[Nuhus]

<p><cite>Nakrima wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Nuhus wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>They don't care about the long timers, they're hoping for a whole new slew of people to scam. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>That's why we need to keep posting, to let the new players know it's not worth their time.  If this is how SOE treats it's veteran PAYING players... phew I'd hate to be the FNG.</p></blockquote><p>I used to find it easier, but I've been playing since Nov 11 2004. It seems time to let go. I've seen a lot and it just gets worse and worse. I'm pretty drained. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[SOEisawesome]

<p>vets deserve to pay for this wonderful product and SOE has granted this so be happy</p>

[Nakrima]

<p><cite>Nuhus wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Nakrima wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Nuhus wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>They don't care about the long timers, they're hoping for a whole new slew of people to scam. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>That's why we need to keep posting, to let the new players know it's not worth their time.  If this is how SOE treats it's veteran PAYING players... phew I'd hate to be the FNG.</p></blockquote><p>I used to find it easier, but I've been playing since Nov 11 2004. It seems time to let go. I've seen a lot and it just gets worse and worse. I'm pretty drained. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>I've played off and on for years, across many SOE games.  The saddest thing about this is how it's broken the camels back for me.  I was truly looking forward to Planetside 2... I'll never play it now.  (It will be using a similar F2P model as the current just implemented into EQ2)</p>

[Golbezz]

<p><cite>Nuhus wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>They don't care about the long timers, they're hoping for a whole new slew of people to scam. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>I guess they figure new players are much easier to fool.</p>

[Nuhus]

<p><cite>Nakrima wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I've played off and on for years, across many SOE games.  The saddest thing about this is how it's broken the camels back for me.  I was truly looking forward to Planetside 2... I'll never play it now.  (It will be using a similar F2P model as the current just implemented into EQ2)</p></blockquote><p>Whats kind of funny. When a friend asked me to play SWG with them and I found out the details.... I was like, what you buy the game and have to pay to play it? LOL Kind of ironic. But this whole F2P thing is pretty crappy for vets and I hope SOE feels it in the wallets. You log into the char if you picked a generic enough race/class to access it, the only 2 toons I can access one on naggy I created when I was bored and one a relative paid for me to copy EQ2X (I'd never pay for anything on EQ2X). Then (especially if your level 81 to 90) you can't equip any gear without unlocking them (everything is legendary), as well as such limited bag slots/plat. Then spell upgrade limitations etc. No thanks.</p><p>I've purchased every addon/expansion (non-sc) for EQ2. For me the destruction being done to the game and this low content release is not a direction I care for, I remember when they used to release content rather than make stuff to sell on SC. I don't think the game will ever be what it used to. I've completely given up now for sure. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Jeardawg]

<p>why bother? </p>

[chelanfarsight]

<p><cite>Golbezz wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Nuhus wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>They don't care about the long timers, they're hoping for a whole new slew of people to scam. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>I guess they figure new players are much easier to fool.</p></blockquote><p>while you are probably right in your assessments, i would like to believe that this was just a marketing gaff on their part. that no one really asked the question, What about returning vets that we can suck back into the game for a few bucks?</p><p>im really trying to be very cynical about the money making position. just assuming that is all they care about, it would seem that vets would have at least one unlock out of 4 free slots. as a previous poster pointed out, it would have been highly likely that they would have ended up spending more money if they had simply been allowed in the front door.</p><p>for just a moment SoE should think about what it would actually cost them to allow one character unlock. some bandwidth certainly. but aside from that its all digital, none of what they offer as entertainment actually exists anyways. all the upfront costs have been paid off long ago, considering the age of the game, and the vets have a toon they want to mess about with in EQ2. once they get into it and realize the restrictions are annoying and all they have to do is buy one thing from the marketplace to go Silver, its a done deal.</p><p>this just seems so simple and obvious that i can't imagine what they're marketing department was thinking or whoever overrode them was thinking when this decision was made. (see that? im still imagining that this was a conscious decision and not just a stupid oversight on their part =)</p>