Well since EQ hasn't raised their rates in over 3 years so being an avid EQ player I figure that this will not kill my gaming experience.

If you compare DAoC and AO they STARTED with a 12.95 fee. EQ offers me a lot more then these two do so the rate hike is not going to hurt one bit.

-Z

It's the same company...how are they gonna lose?

Because Verant gets full royalties from EQ. The only other people gaining money from it is Sony.
As opposed to SWG, where they'll also have to pay royalties to LucasArts.

I would like to raise the point that people are saying both that the demands are too high AND that it is looking ugly.

Therefore both comments cancel each other out.

(i.e., do you want it to grow with the future or not?)

Hmph, things like this make me glad I quit the habit already...

A Former 50 TSK

Yea, sort of paradoxical... it looks like crap, and yet it runs like crap as well. Hmm...

~Jedi

Durr, Pete. Durr.

huh???

and i agree that EQ is fugly

EQ is old and ugly. If they can't upgrade it to modern graphical standards, they should cut the price. Like every other game.

The only MMOG I care about is Planetside (yeah, Verants game). A large part of the team working on it did Cyberstrike 2, an old but very fun (and underrated) multiplayer mech combat game. Then theres Dave G. who, contrary to the brain-trust at TribalWar.com, did a good job on Tribes 2 before Sierra pulled the plug.

"...by the time they are done the system requirements will be around a 2 gig processor and geforce3+..."

What do you mean "by the time they are done", 256MB RAM MINIMUM recommended is about as insane as paying $190 for 24 months of service! I don't care if they offer a 39% discount, you should at least get some free hardware to run the resource HOG that is EQ.

that reminds me of an EQ story from way back when I was infected with the disease.

Was killing hordes of stuff in the dreadlands with my 53 druid looong time ago, a bard in the group seemed to be afk for the longest time, and a female druid sat close to our group while not actually being in it. after a while I see a message in group chat, and I quote:

"and I rub my hand lightly up your thigh"
followed by "oops that wasnt for group"

I laughed my ass off. I wish I still had the screen shot of that, was funny.

Sorry for off topic just figured someone might get a kick out of it.

someones gotta pay for the next 40 ghey expansions they come out with.

by the time they are done the system requirements will be around a 2 gig processor and geforce3+

A few days ago verant said in an interview they dont loose customers to other MMORPGs, they said every time when a new MMORPG comes out, THEIR EQ subscriptions rise a lot a little later. they said they have now reached a new subscribers record since release. and they have the legends server which gives them tons of money because there are more than enough no-life ppl who want to be on that server.

So Verant, tell us, why did you deactivate the user-count on the servers if you have more subscribers than ever before? Why do you raise the price to almost $13 when you have soooo many subscribers and soooo many happy legend server subscribers? Tell us, HOW can you need more money when you get more money than ever before? without better service or new servers for those normal players you charge $3 more? Just because of that single legends server? normal players have to pay for it??? you dont even have enough other servers, so that the old ones are EverCrowded! 1000 ppl max it was at the beginning. then a few months later it was 1500, then 2500, then 3000 and now 3500 and more. and what do you do? 1 new server every 6 months or even less! great! how about if you would bring up 3 or 4 new servers for that new money you get from your EverGrowing customer community?

What people often forget is that EverQuest's competition already charges nearly that amount.

Dark Ages of Camelot: $12.95/month
Anarchy Online: $12.95/month

That said, only DAOC is comparable in the amount of subscibers.

It's the same company...how are they gonna lose?

I forget the correct term for it but companies that create new divisions to sell a new product (along with all the overhead and development costs) that is essentially the same and will be bought by the same customer can run into REAL problems. Typically the old division (which is now just a cash cow having depreciated/expensed all of the development costs) dies a quick death.

I've seen it happen in retail clothing.

Snappy2Stroke

--Your ideas intrigue me and I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Not being experienced in these things, I was thinking bulk drugs would cost more since the chance of the dealer being caught with an amount that couldn't be considered 'personal consumption' would obviously go up.

Durr, Pete. Durr.

Unspecified costs?
I can specify one: Sovereign.
http://sovereign.station.sony.com/

Not exactly an EQ cost, but certainly one for that Sony division. EQ itself of course is more than slightly profitable.

An additional $1.26 million revenue per month (420K accounts) is nothing to sneeze at. Even if they lose 127,000 accounts to "break even" they still make out from reduced bandwidth and other costs (I hesitate to mention what they call "customer service").

"You don’t have to do a thing; you will automatically be migrated to the new billing structure under your current subscription plan when your current subscription plan expires."

Isn't that nice of them? You don't have to do a damn thing, we'll just charge you more.

It reminds me of Parking Services here at school.....I was tring to fight a parking ticket and the woman at the counter smiled and told me "don't worry" and that "it was ok"...."just pay the fine".

How does Blue know that crack costs less in bulk,...

Everyone's going to quit because of a price hike, eh? Just like how people don't pump $1.50 gas, use 35-cent payphones, or go to a $8.50 movie anymore, right? Price hikes happen, 95% of people are not going to leave.

m19