Saturday, August 28, 2010

Official Comment From SOE On Race Packs

In what may be a first for this blog, I personally got a response from EQ2's producer, Smokejumper, on the official forums on EQ2's policy of bundling races in packs of three.

Green Armadillo wrote: Can we also get races as individuals, not as packs?  It's even more  irritating to have to pay triple to purchase two races that you will never need than it would be to pay for an extra class that you might in  principle choose to use later.

Smokejumper wrote: No. Races are going to stay in packs. You're not getting charged three times as much. If we sold them individually, we'd still charge in that same neighborhood of a price. We just figured that it was cooler to give players more races to play with for each purchase. That's why we sell them in packs.
Rothgar clarifies later in the thread that the packs were designed to bundle less popular races as "throwins" with the more popular races.  I'm surprised to see them admit that they are happy to charge $7 per race, since that was basically the least charitable interpretation of the way they're selling races. 

Moreover, apparently they are so confident that most people are only in the market for a single race that they're prepared to give away two "bonus" races with every race sold.  The irony is that you now get a very good deal if you happen to like multiple races in a given pack, and what feels like a bad deal if you only want one.  I guess EQ2 races have been homogenized to the point where they're mostly cosmetic anyway.

(Off-hand, Dark Elves, Ratonga, and Fae are presumably the run-away winners of their respective packs. I'm guessing that Gnomes win their pack maybe, since I don't think I've ever seen a Wood Elf, and perhaps Kerra over Arasai and Frogloks?)

Also, as Yeebo (who also got a dev response) points out in the comments, they've announced a plan to sell broker transaction tokens at a suggested price of 10 tokens for 150 SC ($1.50). That's a harsh price if you're looking to access the economy in bulk, but an absolute steal if your goal is to sell one or two items to make enough money for a pair of 40-slot handcrafted bags for your two free bagslots.

4 comments:

  1. When I use to play EQ2, my main was a Wood Elf Swashbuckler. So that race does get played. Yes, it's not the most popular.

    I do agree though. Races are mostly cosmetic with just a few 'nice to have' items on some. Fae feather-fall is nice. you already mentioned the one with tracking. Most of the rest you could just use an illusion for the same effect :)

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  2. Hey now, at least 4 of my chars are wood elves. They're not as rare as you think. :P And they have tracking too now, ho ho ho.

    (Though I'm not sure why I'm bothering to stick up for EQ2 at the moment. I'm watching most of it in bemusement and with very little intention of coming back. But then, no cancellation lasts forever in MMOs.)

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  3. Regarding limits on brokers, if EvE can have absolutely trusted escrow services, then EQ2x will eventually have them as well ... similarly, a trade hub will develop.

    In the short to medium term, most people will just use a guildie though, and sling them 10% as a tip.

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  4. I started today and am quite happy with the free races.

    It's possible to get racial illusions later I believe, so if you want everyone to see you as an Ogre then you can do that and still be Erudite.

    As for brokers I'm sure players will work around the restriction. A guild could have its Gold+ players do auctioning on behalf of the community, auction channel seemed to be busy earlier and face to face trading is allowed. People are already selling sets of spells.

    I rather like it that all the EQ2E players are on the same server - it gives it an Eve-like inclusiveness. I met a blogger today. Feels like a much smaller world.

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