So far I’ve managed to stave off the lure of the station marketplace. There’s only a few items I glance at here and there and really wouldn’t mind owning. I was thinking of buying $20 worth just so I had a little coin – the cowboy hat comes to mind for my hair-less characters (since it looks great with fur but makes you bald other wise).
Then they rolled out the house item on the right hand side – and what’s more it comes in an 8 piece SET. Which looks absolutely amazing. You can check out the pieces over on SOE’s web site. Now, if ever there was something that would draw me to purchase station cash, house items are the way to go.
I’m torn! On one side I really want the house items, because – they’re house items! I love decorating! They look amazing! On the other hand I REALLY wish they were QUESTED items and not something that people can only own if they fork out a bunch of cash. I can see this becoming a VERY expensive hobby to get all of the items that may come out in the marketplace. Which of course is the point, and I understand that but dang. I dislike how all of the ‘best’ fluff items are now things we have to purchase and the items are not something that people can obtain through any other means. I get that it’s not essential to the game, but I still feel like there’s a lot of ‘double dipping’ going on having both a $15/m subscription and all of these items in the marketplace.
Full dislosure: I am not currently playing the game, though I think EQ2 is one of the better MMO’s out. These particular items irk me. Why? There is a profession that creates furniture in the game. These items have a direct impact on the folks that chose that profession and there are many players that primarily play EQ2 for the crafting.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen what’s available in the game, but in my experience these items are far and away the best furniture items and are a complete set. Only the dynasty stuff compares and the only way to get a complete set is to have multiple toons do the quests.
I recently cancelled my vg sub which after playing it since beta 3 was purely to do with this kind of thing.I mean if i want to buy stuff i expect it to be in a free game like runes of magic not in a title which i am already paying £9/month to play.Which sadly means no more soe games for me…
@ Sisca I think you missed my point.
I don’t mind appearance stuff, at all. I don’t even mind paying for it —
I do mind paying $15/m for a game and then having to pay extra for things that are not in the game. The whole double dipping aspect. That’s what I have the issue with.
@Green – exactly. I’m paying $15/m already, why not give me a quest or a recipe or a raid even to get the items IN GAME, and allow those who have the $$ to purchase the fluff items. Or let me dump my $15/m and I’ll gladly spend $20/m on fluff items to compensate. Why am I spending $40+/m for one MMO.
I understand your point but as a counterpoint think about this. I’ve been playng since before launch and that original character, Sisca, is now 56% through 79. I don’t raid and since I mostly duo with my wife most of the high end instances are out of our reach so a lot of the really cool stuff is unavailable to us. However, the Station Marketplace allows us a shot at getting some unique items.
That said, I don’t want to see them put even the equivalent of mastercrafted gear on the marketplace. I feel that adventuring gear needs to come from adventuring, at least in EQ2. For that matter, I think that the best house items, as far as status reduction, need to be either crafted or quested. So far I’m liking what they’re doing by making the marketplace items strictly about appearence.
Precisely – the complaint isn’t “OMG, how dare you try to make money?!” The complaint is that games that have this type of transaction available have a strong financial incentive to take stuff away from the non-payers to make paying seem more worthwhile. That’s justified if you’re not charging at all (the player can always have their $0 back if they don’t like the macro-transactions, though several of the so-called “free to play” games are also charging a monthly fee), but it’s a lot less cool if you’re already paying just to discover that more money, not time or skill, is what it takes to get what you want in the game.
Also, note how, as always, they are very careful not to include the price tag with the announcement.