Sony selling level 85 characters in EQII

[Jackolantern]

This is just crazy to me, and I can't imagine that the playerbase is super excited about it. Sony has launched a new campaign that allows players to enter the game, and go right to level 85, play for free until level 86 (probably a longer time than it sounds), and then buy the character to keep playing on. Existing players will be able to upgrade their characters to 85 if they want, or buy an 85 from here going forward. They even give you preset hotkey bars to help you learn what skills to use.

I realize that EQII is a very old game that has had its ups and downs, but this just sounds insane from a community balancing standpoint to me. The only experience I have that is anything like this is that back in Final Fantasy XI, reaching the level cap, 75, was extremely hard and took months of playing to accomplish (the leveling curve was closer to EQ1 than WoW). However, the gold farmers of course had methods to do it in just a couple of weeks, and would sell those characters on the gold seller sites for sometimes near $1000. You could always tell within minutes of grouping with someone who had bought their character, because they had no idea how to play it when you compared them to the people who had the experience of leveling their character up. Taking one of these people into a raid was asking for instant failure (raids were only 18 people, and you needed every single one of them at 100%).

I also don't think this is a good long-term strategy. I think it will bring in a lot of people who think it is cool to just jump into a level 85 and play around, but the newness will wear off very fast and I think most of them will quit. They have nothing but some cash invested in their character, and I don't think that can keep someone engaged through the slow or tedious parts that come with every MMO's end game.

What do you think of this? (Here is the actual Sony page about it)

[Sharlenwar]

Well EQ2 is using the free to play model now. I remember playing it when it was $15 bucks a month to play, and none of this store crap. I also played EQ and part of the fun was to go and find areas to level up in, build your characters, find equipment, etc.

For me the whole MMORPG arena is starting to be filled with just crap. It is like these are being made for a certain common denominator to tap into one of the largest markets. A week ago a friend of mine came out of the blue and so we reignited an old project of ours and so are working like crazy on that.

Anyways, I remember joking about this years ago when companies started to use the online store idea. I remember saying that one day people will be able to buy fully leveled up toons. And voila!

[Jackolantern]

Yeah, part of me knew this was coming some day, and EQ2 is just the type of game that would get it: an older, ailing MMO that has had a somewhat troubles history all the way through (it launched at the worst time possible: almost the same week as WoW).

SOE has been known for being one of the MMO companies with the least restraint for this type of stuff. They were one of the first of the classic MMOs to start selling items directly. They were also the first of the major, classic MMOs to experiment with real-money items auctions. This is just the latest iteration of them pushing the envelope, but I really see that this could hurt the game for its long-time players.

[Callan S.]

Well for one it doesn't take months and months of leveling to learn a character.

Some tutorial raids would seem the complimentary addition to such a move.

[Jackolantern]

Well for one it doesn't take months and months of leveling to learn a character.

Some tutorial raids would seem the complimentary addition to such a move.

I still think there will be a stark difference between someone who leveled up to 85 and someone who bought the character. Most activities are going to show a huge difference between someone with hundreds of hours of experience, and someone with 4.

[hallsofvallhalla]

The MMO scene is so bad right now. Garbage games with garbage systems. I get more excitement out of Minecraft Multiplayer than a MMO. They have just become boring and no sense of accomplishment.

[Jackolantern]

The MMO scene is so bad right now. Garbage games with garbage systems. I get more excitement out of Minecraft Multiplayer than a MMO. They have just become boring and no sense of accomplishment.

I agree. Honestly I feel like ever since WoW made national news with its initial numbers, MMOs have gone down hill. Now they all start with WoW as the template and add in features to simply differentiate their game from WoW. If you look back at EQ1, Anarchy Online, DAoC, Ultima, etc., those games were nothing alike. But today if you have played WoW, you can sit down at almost any MMO and just start playing, since every quest-giver has an exclamation mark over their head, you have some item to warp you back to your bind point, certain classes mana, some have rage and some have energy, and on and on. Rift was actually called something different because of its Rift system, which was essentially just an ad-hoc quest system. Outside of that, it was a clone of WoW's mechanics.

Many free-to-play games have hurt the genre further. However, unlike many others vocal critics of modern MMOs, I don't feel that F2P is the biggest hit modern MMOs have taken. I blame the lack of creativity, and this unbelievable thought line that you can reach the same success as WoW by emulating every piece of it and just trying to offer a highlight feature or two beyond it.

[hallsofvallhalla]

well it is much like the movie industry. Spemd 10 million dollars making a crap film and just getting the initial rush to see it makes you 50 million. They don't have to make good things anymore. They make bank by hype alone.

[Jackolantern]

well it is much like the movie industry. Spemd 10 million dollars making a crap film and just getting the initial rush to see it makes you 50 million. They don't have to make good things anymore. They make bank by hype alone.

Very true. I honestly have to say that the MMO industry is largely a victim of the success of the F2P model. It works so much better than subscription based (from a revenue standpoint) that they aren't forced to put out unique games anymore. The general idea now is that if you put out an MMO with a F2P model, you will make money. They never go out of business. So why even bother spending all the extra time and money to surpass any other game? You can just skate by doing the bare minimum and you will financially succeed?

Obviously there is going to be a tipping point here, though. These games rarely go under, and more are coming by the week, so eventually there won't be enough players to go around. Maybe then we will see true competition and creativity return.