Account Linking - it really is about time! No?

[Shinie]

this question has been asked many times now over what seems quite a few years.  the answer is always the same, "it is something we want to do but right now we can't be bothered". atleast thatis how i interpret the responses previously. 

can we make this happen please, you've ahd plenty of time to work it out.

thanks

[Yimway]

My understanding is this required assets outside of the eq2 team to complete.

So even offering it as  a paid service via SC wouldn't help find the budget to get this one in.

[Lathain_Sarathai]

own multi account is already an unfair ingame adventage, there is no need to give more adventage to leacher.

[CheezeBurgerAnimal]

Lathain_Sarathai wrote:

own multi account is already an unfair ingame adventage, there is no need to give more adventage to leacher.

Wut?

[Zaldor]

Lathain_Sarathai wrote:

own multi account is already an unfair ingame adventage, there is no need to give more adventage to leacher.

Please expand upon this statement.  I would like to hear how you think that someone paying for multiple accounts somehow is "unfair".

[feldon30]

Lathain_Sarathai wrote:

own multi account is already an unfair ingame adventage, there is no need to give more adventage to leacher.

This makes absolutely no sense.

Lathain_Sarathai wrote:

The most vocal people on forum are not the true player. Befor DoV i was almost never reading forum (in almost 12 year…). A true player is in game not on forum.

[cawalton]

I personally loved multi-boxing 3 accounts at a time in EQ and had 5 to choose from, its like a built in group where everyone always agrees! (although the same bad players keep showing up)

I don't multi in EQ2 but extra advantage or not, its a fair way to game on.

PS some kind of account linking might get me thinking about an extra account or two, even though it would require a little hardware investment on my part.

[Kaidissa]

Lathain_Sarathai wrote:

own multi account is already an unfair ingame adventage, there is no need to give more adventage to leacher.

U mad bro?

[Anastasie]

Wouldn't it be easier just to allow mutiple log-ins for the same account?  They already have the ability to buy extra character slots. This would make heirloom and vet rewards available to all of your toons and still allow for multi-boxing.

[Tallhart]

Annelise@Guk wrote:

Wouldn't it be easier just to allow mutiple log-ins for the same account?  They already have the ability to buy extra character slots. This would make heirloom and vet rewards available to all of your toons and still allow for multi-boxing.

Yes, you'd think so wouldn't you? Every time this comes up I repost this suggestion (hoping one day it will be noticed by someone with the power to do something about it ):If linking the accounts is too hard to do, and they haven't spent any implementation time on it yet, then how about 'family plan' accounts? Why do people have multiple accounts? It's not just because of the extra character slots. If that were the case, a lot of them would just get Station Access and get other SOE games thrown in. Or just go buy extra character slots now that that's available. So that's not why people have multiple accounts. They have multiple accounts because they want added character slots AND they want multiple logins. They are multi-boxing, or they're playing with a significant other, etc.So why not allow people to pay for accounts with multiple logins? $15 = 7 slots/1 login, $30 = 14 slots/2 logins, etc. You'd then have one big account, where the heirloom sharing, shared bank slots, etc. come 'for free'. Heck you could even charge separately for slots and logins. You're already charging for individual slots, just add the ability to buy additional logins. Although the slots right now are a one time fee, and I'd imagine they'd want to charge monthly for the logins. $10/month/additional login perhaps? Maybe even factor in discounts for those nuts, ah I mean dedicated sorts, who are 5 or 6 boxing. What about people with existing multiple accounts? Well it would be nice if they came up with a way to merge your secondary accounts into the main account, keeping the 'highest level' of account age / veteran rewards. But I'm guessing that if they went this route, they'd make you pay for character transfers from your secondary accounts into the big new main account.

[Amnerys]

We certainly don't think this is something we can't be bothered with. The subject comes up pretty regularly in meetings, but it is not currently on any task schedules.

The main issue here is resources (this requires mostly work from our Platform development team, not the game team) and of course time, as well as logistics. There are a lot of situational circumstances that need to be planned out in advance of starting work on something like this, and a lot of integration would need to be done with our account and payment systems. Hopefully some day we'll be able to add this level of sophistication to our account tracking, but at this time, it's a very large undertaking.

That's not exactly awesome news I know, but I didn't want it to go unargued that we can't be bothered. It's just a matter of balancing priorities. But it's on our radar.

[Katz]

As long as they keep the ability for the toons on the different accounts to group together.

[Rhyme]

First off let me say this:  I would LOVE multi log-ins or Linked accounts or whatever.  I have 2 accts and box a lot when i'm not raiding.  I love that they added Heriloom to a lot of gear but it really killed us people w/ multiple accts as now we are the only ones who have to make the raid stop so we can get our other acct in to loot gear for alts.  This is one of the reasons I love the idea of multi log-ins over actually linking my accts.  This way I could loot all gear w/o ever having to log another acct.  And on top of that I could actually pair up toons that are currently on the same acct to box with. 

The downside on this with Sony is that if they did do Multi Log-ins they would sell less expansions as the actual number of subscriptions would drop a bit.  The plus side is that they would get a lot of instant cash flow from those people paying to move characters to their oldest account so they can let the older acct go inactive.  In my case that would be a fast $150 to move 6 toons from my 5yr acct onto my 7yr acct. 

So my vote for Multi Log-ins instead of linking my accts.  Just make sure that if you do it....do it right.

[Zehl_Ice-Fire]

For those of us who multi box, the heirloom tag is just a frustration.

[Nrgy]

Zehl_Ice-Fire wrote:

For those of us who multi box, the heirloom tag is just a frustration.

For those of you who farm, the LORE tag is just s frustration.

[Dillin]

Amnerys wrote:

We certainly don't think this is something we can't be bothered with. The subject comes up pretty regularly in meetings, but it is not currently on any task schedules.

The main issue here is resources (this requires mostly work from our Platform development team, not the game team) and of course time, as well as logistics. There are a lot of situational circumstances that need to be planned out in advance of starting work on something like this, and a lot of integration would need to be done with our account and payment systems. Hopefully some day we'll be able to add this level of sophistication to our account tracking, but at this time, it's a very large undertaking.

That's not exactly awesome news I know, but I didn't want it to go unargued that we can't be bothered. It's just a matter of balancing priorities. But it's on our radar.

My take on what he just said:

We'd love to put something like this in game but in reality, for a 5 year old game it's way to much work.  We'll probably do this in EQ3 which is in the works.

[CoLD MeTaL]

Zehl_Ice-Fire wrote:

For those of us who multi box, the heirloom tag is just a frustration.

+1

[Avirodar]

Shinie@Nektulos wrote:

this question has been asked many times now over what seems quite a few years.  the answer is always the same, "it is something we want to do but right now we can't be bothered". atleast thatis how i interpret the responses previously. 

can we make this happen please, you've ahd plenty of time to work it out.

thanks

Voicing support for account linking...What ever way you look at it, an alt is an alt. If an item can be traded to an alt, you should be able to trade it to any alt, regardless of which account it is on. There would have to be ways SOE can make this happen, without requiring changes from the mysterious "platform" department that is backlogged with several million years worth of mysterious work.

[Barx]

Amnerys wrote:

The main issue here is resources (this requires mostly work from our Platform development team, not the game team) and of course time, as well as logistics. There are a lot of situational circumstances that need to be planned out in advance of starting work on something like this, and a lot of integration would need to be done with our account and payment systems. Hopefully some day we'll be able to add this level of sophistication to our account tracking, but at this time, it's a very large undertaking.

Therein lies the problem: it requires those other teams to do things in order for them to do it the right way. The platform team isn't exactly the most responsive or speedy; it's probably understaffed, potentially even moreso since the recent RIF.

They could probably do it in a less-than-ideal way which would involve less work on those other teams but that generally leads to problems down the road which is probably one reason they don't want to do it.

Other potential "solutions" like allowing you to have more than one character from a single account in-game simultaneously would probably be even more work. I'd imagine that restriction is probably coded in pretty deeply and also brings up other potential issues.

They could charge for account linking no problem -- I'd willingly pay $25 to have my two accounts linked so that I can share Heirloom items between them. Maybe if enough folks keep clammoring for it and they see enough of the allmighty dollar in it they'll allocate the necessary resources for it.

[Fendaria]

The ability to link 2 accounts and share heirloom items would be wonderful.

Fendaria

[Yimway]

Fendaria wrote:

The ability to link 2 accounts and share heirloom items would be wonderful.

Fendaria

The ability to pool all my characters on one account by paying for slots and transfers would be wonderful.

The ability to purchace multiple subscriptions for my account so I can log on 1,2,3, or however many of those at the same time would be even more wonderful.

Breaking us free of the multiple station account requirements to do this would be amazing, and I think it would drive up paid subscriptions by a significant amount.

[Wingrider01]

Atan@Unrest wrote:

Fendaria wrote:

The ability to link 2 accounts and share heirloom items would be wonderful.

Fendaria

The ability to pool all my characters on one account by paying for slots and transfers would be wonderful.

The ability to purchace multiple subscriptions for my account so I can log on 1,2,3, or however many of those at the same time would be even more wonderful.

Breaking us free of the multiple station account requirements to do this would be amazing, and I think it would drive up paid subscriptions by a significant amount.

1. isn't that already there? I added a number of slots to on account and transfered all the characters I have to oer form the other 4 accounts.

2. not a bad idea - 1 logon = 14.99, 2 logons = 29.98, 3 logons = 44.97. Pretty good idea

3. doubt it will drive up subscriptions, pleople will just condense down like I did, got rid of multiple station access accounts when the ability to purchase unlimited slots came into affect

[Yimway]

Wingrider01 wrote:

3. doubt it will drive up subscriptions, pleople will just condense down like I did, got rid of multiple station access accounts when the ability to purchase unlimited slots came into affect

I think there are alot of people with multiple 90's that would pay the extra sub to be able to log in more than one at a time, just to try it out.

As far as the current consolidation ability, its too cost prohibitive.  Even doing it durring a double station cash weekend would cost me over 400 bucks to do.  Those transfer tokens should allow for more than one (maybe 3) per token if they're going from the same source to the same target.

[Wingrider01]

Atan@Unrest wrote:

Wingrider01 wrote:

3. doubt it will drive up subscriptions, pleople will just condense down like I did, got rid of multiple station access accounts when the ability to purchase unlimited slots came into affect

I think there are alot of people with multiple 90's that would pay the extra sub to be able to log in more than one at a time, just to try it out.

As far as the current consolidation ability, its too cost prohibitive.  Even doing it durring a double station cash weekend would cost me over 400 bucks to do.  Those transfer tokens should allow for more than one (maybe 3) per token if they're going from the same source to the same target.

ROI i still cheaper in the long run, consolidation of accounts and slots saved me 99.96 a month.

[BetaTester]

Atan@Unrest wrote:

Fendaria wrote:

The ability to link 2 accounts and share heirloom items would be wonderful.

Fendaria

The ability to pool all my characters on one account by paying for slots and transfers would be wonderful.

The ability to purchace multiple subscriptions for my account so I can log on 1,2,3, or however many of those at the same time would be even more wonderful.

Breaking us free of the multiple station account requirements to do this would be amazing, and I think it would drive up paid subscriptions by a significant amount.

account linking and multiple logins == win

[Geary]

IMHO the way to go here is with multiple logins. Each login is a sub, and needs to pay to unlock expansions like normal, they just login to the same set of characters. So, the expansions are keyed to the logins, not the characters. To make it simple, if login A gets the new xpac, that account (and its characters) are unlocked for it, and at that point only logins for that 'account' which share the same privleges (have the xpac) are functional. ie if you order the new xpac with login A but not B, login B fails with 'this account requires access to the "Next Great Thing" expansion pack' There, simple and done. You get multiple logins, they still sell as many (probably more tbh) xpacs, everyones happy.

'account merging' is just a character transfer from one account to another. Lets say you have two accounts, and you now order a second login for account A. When you signup it asks you if this is a merger, you say 'yes' and enter the login creds for account B. account B's characters are automatically transfered to account A (sans shared bank, BEWARE lol) and your new login 'inherits' the expansion status of account B. Account B is now closed, your done. Couldnt be simpler tbh.

[Yimway]

Wingrider01 wrote:

Atan@Unrest wrote:

As far as the current consolidation ability, its too cost prohibitive.  Even doing it durring a double station cash weekend would cost me over 400 bucks to do. 

ROI i still cheaper in the long run, consolidation of accounts and slots saved me 99.96 a month.

Wow, how many accounts you have?  With 6 accounts, my eq2 cost was $75/mo.

I'm using an alternate payment model now, so its really just the cost of the transfers themselves that are cost preventitive.

[Wingrider01]

Atan@Unrest wrote:

Wingrider01 wrote:

Atan@Unrest wrote:

As far as the current consolidation ability, its too cost prohibitive.  Even doing it durring a double station cash weekend would cost me over 400 bucks to do. 

ROI i still cheaper in the long run, consolidation of accounts and slots saved me 99.96 a month.

Wow, how many accounts you have?  With 6 accounts, my eq2 cost was $75/mo.

I'm using an alternate payment model now, so its really just the cost of the transfers themselves that are cost preventitive.

had 6 sa's now 2 regular with a lot of slots each

[Yimway]

Wingrider01 wrote:

had 6 sa's now 2 regular with a lot of slots each

Ouch, yeah, completely understand then.

[Muusic]

Amnerys wrote:

We certainly don't think this is something we can't be bothered with. The subject comes up pretty regularly in meetings, but it is not currently on any task schedules.

The main issue here is resources (this requires mostly work from our Platform development team, not the game team) and of course time, as well as logistics. There are a lot of situational circumstances that need to be planned out in advance of starting work on something like this, and a lot of integration would need to be done with our account and payment systems. Hopefully some day we'll be able to add this level of sophistication to our account tracking, but at this time, it's a very large undertaking.

That's not exactly awesome news I know, but I didn't want it to go unargued that we can't be bothered. It's just a matter of balancing priorities. But it's on our radar.

In plain english: They already have sharing of heirloom items between accounts via char transfers from one account to another and the cost is $25.00 per load. I Truely believe though that a better option would be to enable players to log in more than one char at a time on an account (for an additional monthly fee of course). Just the profit from the people who have 2 or ore accounts that would consolidate into one account would be worth the effort by SOE.