New Marketplace Item: Guild Rename Potion

[Amnerys]

Once upon a time, long ago and far away, you were faced with an important decision … A decision that would forever impact your identity in the world of Norrath… One that would define yourself and your group of companions, setting you apart from the others…

You had to choose a guild name.

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[Xalmat]

Wow, $55 is a pretty high price. But I can see why you'd price it like that.

[Amnerys]

Yep, and that's why I wanted to explain a little in the article. It was a price we talked long and hard about. Some internal folks wanted it to be a good bit higher, to keep a tighter rein on potential abuse. Others wanted it lower, for more accessibility by smaller guilds. We ended up going with the middle ground.

[Senya]

I was going to buy a rename for my alt guild.  The guild was not named by me, and actually violates the SOE naming policy since it's the name of a book, but petitioning for a name change didn't work.  Anyway, after seeing this price I'll be keeping the name.  I was prepared for 1,500sc or even 2,500, but 5,500 is, in my opinion, waaaaaaay too much. 

[ke'la]

Senya wrote:

I was going to buy a rename for my alt guild.  The guild was not named by me, and actually violates the SOE naming policy since it's the name of a book, but petitioning for a name change didn't work.  Anyway, after seeing this price I'll be keeping the name.  I was prepared for 1,500sc or even 2,500, but 5,500 is, in my opinion, waaaaaaay too much. 

Well you could wait for the next Double SC weekend, and then buy 2,750 worth of SC cards, and that would get you enough SC to buy the change, granted it is still 250sc more then your top end, but it is a solution.

[Senya]

5,500, and this is just my opinion, is not worth it, even during double up weekends, which happen rarely. In addition, since I have no retailers here that sell cards anymore (they used to) I have to make other arrangments if I want cards during those weekends now.  2,500sc would be the max that I personally would have been willing to give for it.  It's more than the SF expansion (4,300) or more than 2 prowler mounts (2,500 each).  I'm not saying people won't buy it, or that to some it's not worth it, since value is a matter of perspective, but to me, it's highly overpriced.

And please don't misunderstand.  I'm not being argumentative, or trying to be difficult in any way.  I'm just giving my personal feedback on the price. 

[ke'la]

Senya wrote:

5,500, and this is just my opinion, is not worth it, even during double up weekends, which happen rarely. In addition, since I have no retailers here that sell cards anymore (they used to) I have to make other arrangments if I want cards during those weekends now.  2,500sc would be the max that I personally would have been willing to give for it.  It's more than the SF expansion (4,300) or more than 2 prowler mounts (2,500 each).  I'm not saying people won't buy it, or that to some it's not worth it, since value is a matter of perspective, but to me, it's highly overpriced.

And please don't misunderstand.  I'm not being argumentative, or trying to be difficult in any way.  I'm just giving my personal feedback on the price.  I was willing to pay for it, even though I feel the name should be changed anyway since it does in fact violate SOE's own naming policy, but at that price I'll keep the name.

I understand what your saying about the price, though I personally like a high price for discuragment of use of this potion. I was just making a sugjestion of a possable solution to allow you to change the name by getting it closer to your RL money price range. Though without a retailer selling the cards in your area, even if you were willing to spend the Double SC on it, it makes it hard for you to do.

BTW, have you checked places like 7-11 if there are any where you live cause I see them there alot. I also see them in Wal Marts and Targets, but in a very wierd place, among the CDs, not with things like the TCG sets or other pre-pay card items. (all the SC type cards for most games are in that area)

[Senya]

I live in a very small town.  No Best Buy, no 7-11, no Target, no Gamestop.  We do have a Wal-Mart and a Rite-Aid (which used to carry them) but now they no longer do, which I imagine is because a lack of demand for them here. 

It's not so much the real life dollar amount as it is the price in general when compared to other marketplace items for expansions, name changes, race changes, gender changes, etc.

It's not a big deal to me, there's no one in my alt guild but me and my husband, but I did want the feedback to reflect that they at least lost a few would-be customers for this by settling on a price that's so high.

[Purr]

Nice to see that this is available and even nicer that you plan on keeping tabs on the guilds.

Now, can we please have the [Change/Reset your adventure class to to level 1] potion? Please?

Purr~

*looks forward to the Block Party to meet Amnerys*

[Alvane]

I think it's awesome - an IMO, cheap considering. I know a few guilds who due to unfortunate circumstances developed a poor reputation. The original peeps have long since left those guilds - leaders and members. New people have taken them over but the name puts a poor view in front of others and they have a hard time recruiting despite they are very different guilds now.

This name change potion will help them start off in a more positive light, that is, if the current peeps decide to change the names of those guilds. By disbanding and making a new guild would cost them not only millions of status but also plat. They would had to start all over from scratch.

$55 is a very fair price - less than the cost of a collector's edition of EQ2 xpac or less than 4 months of subscription fee for one account.

Thumbs up to SoE for making this Guild name change potion available.

[Barx]

Glad to see this finally put out! $55 is a pretty penny (and kind of an odd price, $50 would have been a nice round number), but that's only $30 if you get SC on a double weekend from retail cards. And a high price is understandable, since it's a relatively huge change, unlike changing a single character's name. Plus it adds a pretty hefty price for people trying to 'sell' guilds (a practice I've never cared for since it goes against the spirit of a guild to me, although it's much more of a /sigh than a /rage thing).

Definately not an everyday item, but I'm okay with that. The only thing is that I wish people had a way to donate SC to the guild leader for buying such a potion (to distribute the cost), although I know any way of trading SC from character to character would just be a further method of RMT platselling.

[KerowynnKaotic]

Woohoo!  Finally! 

For reference I was expecting (dreading) them to price it at $100, so I'm happy with the $55. 

*dances*

[Vortexelemental]

Senya wrote:

I live in a very small town.  No Best Buy, no 7-11, no Target, no Gamestop.  We do have a Wal-Mart and a Rite-Aid (which used to carry them) but now they no longer do, which I imagine is because a lack of demand for them here. 

It's not so much the real life dollar amount as it is the price in general when compared to other marketplace items for expansions, name changes, race changes, gender changes, etc.

It's not a big deal to me, there's no one in my alt guild but me and my husband, but I did want the feedback to reflect that they at least lost a few would-be customers for this by settling on a price that's so high.

Actually, That is not likely the reason. Small stores like Rite-Aid don't move much stock in the gift card department.

Ask to speak to a manager next time and see if they can put in an order for them, I know when I worked for Rite-Aid manual orders were a bit difficult to get done...hopefully that has changed but ask for them to order some from the Warehouse it should be on their planos since I saw some around 8 months ago but meh.

Either way just put some pressure on them and be very courteous they will likely help you if they can.

[Enna]

Barx@Antonia Bayle wrote:

(snip)

The only thing is that I wish people had a way to donate SC to the guild leader for buying such a potion (to distribute the cost), although I know any way of trading SC from character to character would just be a further method of RMT platselling.

Well, if folks trust their guild leader enough to want to donate cash, PayPal is international and funds can be sent by way of email.

So no real names or personal information has to be exchanged, yet anyone could contribute.

I'm not sure if EQII has a way to buy SC from PayPal, but FreeRealms does (another SOE game). This provides a work-around, if someone has an honest interest in assisting their guild leader to make the rename-potion purchase.

The Guild leader, when s/he has enough money in PayPal, can make up a free FreeRealms account using the *same* account sign-in and password as their EQII account that would be making the purchase.

Transfer funds from PayPal to SC, log out of FreeRealms and into EQII and bingo! All set.

Edit: typos

[Rijacki]

Senya wrote:

I live in a very small town.  No Best Buy, no 7-11, no Target, no Gamestop.  We do have a Wal-Mart and a Rite-Aid (which used to carry them) but now they no longer do, which I imagine is because a lack of demand for them here. 

It's not so much the real life dollar amount as it is the price in general when compared to other marketplace items for expansions, name changes, race changes, gender changes, etc.

It's not a big deal to me, there's no one in my alt guild but me and my husband, but I did want the feedback to reflect that they at least lost a few would-be customers for this by settling on a price that's so high.

If you ever make trips to "the big city" and find cards there, stock up but don't redeem them until bonus weekends or until you really need them.

[Yask]

The guild I am in is called House Reamorda.

In EQ1 it was called House Rea'Morda.

It always should have been called House Rea'Morda, but when we came to eq2 when it launched you could not have a  '  in guild name.

We since Petitioned when that changed but got told the guild name could not be changed and we would have to lose all our guild levels and make a new guild.

What a pack of lies, it can be done we just have to pay for it.....

It would go a long way for SoE if my guild leader found one of these potions in her overflow slot next time she logs in, but thats not going to happen is it?

[Calthine]

It wasn't a pack of lies.  The game has been out 5 1/2 years now and only now has this become available. 

[Alvane]

Calthine wrote:

It wasn't a pack of lies.  The game has been out 5 1/2 years now and only now has this become available. 

The OP from House Reamorda was talking about when SoE allowed EQ2 guilds to use certain characters such as ' in the name. Apparently one could not use those type characters in guild names when guilds were introduced. Then later, use of those characters were allowed, but too late for guilds like House Rea'Morda who wanted it changed but could not.

Now they can through the potion.

[Calthine]

Alvane@Unrest wrote:

Calthine wrote:

It wasn't a pack of lies.  The game has been out 5 1/2 years now and only now has this become available. 

The OP from House Reamorda was talking about when SoE allowed EQ2 guilds to use certain characters such as ' in the name. Apparently one could not use those type characters in guild names when guilds were introduced. Then later, use of those characters were allowed, but too late for guilds like House Rea'Morda who wanted it changed but could not.

Now they can through the potion.

Oh-ho.  Yeah, the timing sucks on that. I always felt bad for guilds with misspellings or miscapitalization.

[Tuatha]

Calthine wrote:

It wasn't a pack of lies.  The game has been out 5 1/2 years now and only now has this become available. 

The potion has become available now, yes...However, if you reread the post, Yaskel was told by SOE that it couldn't be done, when technically they could have done it for their guild back then too (just without making $55 from it, of course) - and I know of at least one guild on Guk which had its name changed by SOE years ago (because La Cosa Nostra was not too popular with the powers that be), so "can't be done" was not entirely true, was it... Infact, pack of lies sounds just about right.

[Ristan]

This is awsome, I think the price is right.  I had actually became leader of someone elses alt guild and turned it into a raid guild, however, if they had a name like "I Like Waffles" I could now change it.  yay.  The guild had a cool name so I didnt have to worry about it but thanks devs for putting this out there!

btw your article Amnerys made me chuckle

Starseeker * Arendul * Ristan * Kyraine * Saewyn * Lyiana * Kicx * Elegi * Anomandaris My Houses: Starseeker's Suite--The Tinkerdome 1.0-- The Tinkerdome 2.0

[Rijacki]

Tuatha@Splitpaw wrote:

Calthine wrote:

It wasn't a pack of lies.  The game has been out 5 1/2 years now and only now has this become available. 

The potion has become available now, yes...However, if you reread the post, Yaskel was told by SOE that it couldn't be done, when technically they could have done it for their guild back then too (just without making $55 from it, of course) - and I know of at least one guild on Guk which had its name changed by SOE years ago (because La Cosa Nostra was not too popular with the powers that be), so "can't be done" was not entirely true, was it... Infact, pack of lies sounds just about right.

Actually, it very well could have been true THEN even if it is NOW possible. Changes had to be made to the back end structure of the game to allow tradeskill class changes, gender changes, race changes, etc.

It was also said, more than once, that the name of a guild could be changed but had the potential to cause a lot of havoc with members and guild linked stuff that it wasn't something they did often even when a name was rule breaking (breaking up the guild was easier).

So, if a statement is made at one time that is true at that time (such as, in 1986 declaring, "Ronald Regan IS President") because it is not true later (he's not president now) doesn't mean it was a lie when it was said.

[Alvane]

Rijacki wrote:

Tuatha@Splitpaw wrote:

Calthine wrote:

It wasn't a pack of lies.  The game has been out 5 1/2 years now and only now has this become available. 

The potion has become available now, yes...However, if you reread the post, Yaskel was told by SOE that it couldn't be done, when technically they could have done it for their guild back then too (just without making $55 from it, of course) - and I know of at least one guild on Guk which had its name changed by SOE years ago (because La Cosa Nostra was not too popular with the powers that be), so "can't be done" was not entirely true, was it... Infact, pack of lies sounds just about right.

Actually, it very well could have been true THEN even if it is NOW possible. Changes had to be made to the back end structure of the game to allow tradeskill class changes, gender changes, race changes, etc.

It was also said, more than once, that the name of a guild could be changed but had the potential to cause a lot of havoc with members and guild linked stuff that it wasn't something they did often even when a name was rule breaking (breaking up the guild was easier).

So, if a statement is made at one time that is true at that time (such as, in 1986 declaring, "Ronald Regan IS President") because it is not true later (he's not president now) doesn't mean it was a lie when it was said.

IIRC, although there were difficulties about changing names years ago, the problem was dealing with certain character marks in a name. There was only one type accent mark (`)that was approved at the time for EQ). Since then things have changed in the coding system and the ability to handle them. I suspect that is why things are a lot more relaxed involving particular character marks such as House Reamorda vs House Rea'Morda.

In the Everquest Naming Policy, what rules apply to personal character names, also apply to guild names, even though the policy doesn't specifically say so, it is generally "hinted" at in the first section.

In any case, I think it's a good thing to allow guilds to change their names for what ever reason as long as it meets the Naming Policy. To me, the price is fair and takes into account most all the guilds from a personal guild to a large guild. Most all guilds have several peeps as members, even small guilds. A guild of 10 or even 5 can easily afford the $55 split amoung the members. It would be a rare situation if a one or two person private guild couldn't afford $55.00 even if they can afford to pay for several accounts. Even then, they don't have to change the name.

One can search for the actual Naming Policy in the Knowledge Base.

[Hamervelder]

The price for these is beyond excessive.  I honestly don't care what the rationale of the team was; it boils down to greed, and nothing more, as far as I'm concerned.

[ke'la]

Illiam@Antonia Bayle wrote:

The price for these is beyond excessive.  I honestly don't care what the rationale of the team was; it boils down to greed, and nothing more, as far as I'm concerned.

This statement is made by someone who doesn't understand the principals of economics in the real world. As you raise the price of a widget, fewer people will buy that thing, as everyone places a differant value on that widget, once the price of the widget exceeds the value a person is willing to pay for it, that person will refuse to buy it. By pricing this widget at $55.00 they are putting its value far in eccess of what the majority of the player base values a name change at, because while they are not happy the ' is missing for exsample they are not $55 unhappy, as such a large % of those that WOULD HAVE bought the Potion at say $20.00 won't be buying it now as that number of lost potential buyers increases as the price goes up, eventually you hit a tipping point where the total profit you make accually starts to go down, as fewer and fewer people are willing to pay that high a price.

Infact this concept is behind the bussiness model of every Low Profit, High Volume product and store out there. For exsample Oil Companies make about 2-3 cents per gallon of gasoline you put in your car, yet they make 100s of billions of dollars profit every year, because the price is low enough to keep people buying it in the high volumes we do.

[Asif]

Illiam@Antonia Bayle wrote:

The price for these is beyond excessive.  I honestly don't care what the rationale of the team was; it boils down to greed, and nothing more, as far as I'm concerned.

I so agree with you no need for that much money its just a grab as usual.

[Neiloch]

Asif wrote:

Illiam@Antonia Bayle wrote:

The price for these is beyond excessive.  I honestly don't care what the rationale of the team was; it boils down to greed, and nothing more, as far as I'm concerned.

I so agree with you no need for that much money its just a grab as usual.

Opposed to the old method of 'none'

They could charge $500 for it and it would still technically be better then no option at all, just not by much. Also I agree with high price against abuse. A throttle on frequency of use and making it cheaper wouldn't even work really since it can be abused even with a one time use.

A guild with just a full raid force all chipping in it would be like $2-2.50 per person give or take. And i imagine others would be willing to pitch in a little more.

[ke'la]

Asif wrote:

Illiam@Antonia Bayle wrote:

The price for these is beyond excessive.  I honestly don't care what the rationale of the team was; it boils down to greed, and nothing more, as far as I'm concerned.

I so agree with you no need for that much money its just a grab as usual.

all say it again, they would most likly make much MORE MONEY if they LOWERED the price to something that would allow the troll guilds to regularly hide themselfs with out much cost. The whole POINT of the high price is a DISinsentive to accually buying the dang thing, so it doesn't get abused too much. It is just like AT&T charging $75.00 every 15mins to bring a telephone line to a desk in an office, as aposed to interconnects that charge like $90.00/hr they don't want to do it, but if your willing to poney up the extra dough they will.

[KerowynnKaotic]

For those complaining about the price of the Guild Rename Potion ..

Consider this .. it's $15.00 per Personal Name Change (Potion of Amnesia).  It takes (6) players to form a Guild, regardless of whether or not they stay in said Guild. 

If they (SOE) had applied that logic, which frankly I expected them to, they would have made the price of this Potion to be $90.  That's 6 x $15 = $90.  Instead it's $55.00, that's a savings of $35.00.  Buy SC during Bonus Days and you'd save even more. 

You don't like the price .. Then obviously you don't want it enough.  *shrug*

Me, personally, I had actually considered bribing a SOE offical with $1000 for a name change several years ago.  I didn't, obviously, it was just a thought but it underlines how much I wanted to change my Guild's name and I did consider starting from scratch but wasn't wanting to 'pay' that price.  

I'm sick as a dog, as the saying goes, I haven't played EQ2 since I got sick a couple days ago & haven't even felt the desire to since sitting at the computer too long is making me nauseous and yet I logged on to the game about 1 hour (or so) after I read this yesterday to purchase it and change my Guild name. It was the only thing I logged on for.

I was very happy to get rid of the old tag along with its history, which isn't horrible or anything I just didn't want to be associated with it anymore since it wasn't 'that' guild, anymore. 

To me the price is worth it and cheap at that!

[CoLD MeTaL]

$OE has lost its mind on this micro transaction crap.  Everything on here is overpriced, at least double what it should be worth for something that doesn't really even exist.

moderators reestrain me from expressing my true feeling at $tation Ca$h prices.  Apparently the dollar doesn't mean very much in San Diego or wherever.