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There's a Rate Hike ComingMar 25th, 2002 at 12:53 PM by Allakhazam

Hang onto your wallets. This was just posted at this link on the main Everquest site. EverQuest price increase 03/25/2002 Due to the increased costs of running the EverQuest game service, we will be increasing our subscription rates in April. Effective April 25, the new monthly subscription rate will be $12.95/month. We will continue to offer discounts from the new rate plan on multi-month subscriptions. 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. New EverQuest rates as of April 25, 2002: $12.95 per Month $35.85 for 3 Months $65.70 for 6 Months HOWEVER, for a limited time only (from April 10 through April 24, 2002), you may extend your current subscription for an additional 12 or 24 months by signing up for the new EQ 12 or 24 month plan – and reap great savings off of the new rates: Extend for 12 months for $109 US – and get a 30% discount off of the new monthly rates! Extend for 24 months for $190 US – and get a 39% discount off of the new monthly rates! Now is the time to lock in these rates, so don’t miss out. All pricing plans (except for the 12 and 24 month extension plans) are recurring, meaning you will continue to be billed at the appropriate interval, until you cancel your subscription. Note that purchasers of the full game will receive their free month of game play after supplying valid billing information. If you cancel your subscription during the free month, no charges will be made to your credit card. New York State and Texas residents will be charged sales tax. All subscription fees will appear on your credit card statement under the heading "SOE*EverQuest". Please note: The subscription charges are in addition to the cost of the game. You will need to purchase a copy of the game from a retail store or online at the Station Store. The price of the game will vary depending upon the store.

Tags: EverQuest, News

Comments

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you don't know what you got

# Mar 26 2002 at 11:19 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

Just to let you all in on a little secret..
You guys have it great.
13 dollars a month for the quality game that EQ is. Chump change in my opinion.

Why don't you guys go over and play a game of Diablo2 on Battlenet and see what not paying for online gaming gets you.

If you don't have it let me list the complaints.
Think about it this way, copy every elite item in EQ so everyone has it, then the legit players that don't do that but want good items get ripped off in trades by people trade hacking and stealing your items. Then there is skill hacks giving you almost infinte skill points making you just about unbeatable.
Now the server status...laggy to no end, always crashing.

And talk about bad customer service..you think verant doesn't care...atleast they put GM's and guides in the game to atleast be somewhat helpful instead of letting people run rampant and do whatever they want..

You people are quite lucky to have the type of game and support you do....
I wouldn't complain about a 3 dollar increase...

You people have no idea

# Mar 26 2002 at 11:10 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

I haven't played EQ for atleast a year now but I check this site everday to keep up with what is going on incase I can afford to come back and play one day.
Instead of playing EQ I have taken up Diablo2.
Let me tell you for 12.95 a month if I could get the service EQ puts out on Diablo2 I would do it..
Try this go play D2 online on their free battlenet servers.
You think EQ has bad customer service!!!!
Try thinking this...every high powered item in EQ is duped so everyone on your server has the best stuff all the time...there are trade hacks where when you go to trade with people they can rip off your hard worked for items...there are skill hacks that give you near infinite skill points...the servers are always ******** up and are laggy as all hell...
So you people that ***** and moan about paying a measily 12 dollars to play a game get a grip.

Price hike.

# Mar 26 2002 at 10:17 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

Yes, it's true that it costs money to run/pay for servers...yes it's true you have to pay people to work for you...yes it's true that Verant still hasn't given us what they promised...but..here's something my guild thought of...

Assuming EVERY player had ONE account there would be approximately 200,000 accounts times 3....600,000 per month, now times 12...Verant is raising the money they bring in 7.2 million dollars...now take it for what it truly is...400,000 accounts..times 3 dollars = 1.2 million dollars...times 12...Verant will be making 14.4 million dollars a year MORE then they used to because of the price change.

RE: Price hike.

# Mar 26 2002 at 10:22 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

And your point is that....

RE: Price hike.

# Mar 26 2002 at 11:42 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

... that running such enormous high powered high security network isn't cheap...

lets compare $3.00
You could...
buy 2-2.5 gallons of gas
buy a small popcorn
buy half a movie ticket (at a cheap theater)
buy half of a magazine
buy a game of bowling

and about 2000 other things that don't provide a microscopic portion of the fun and games that EQ does

A Closer Look

# Mar 26 2002 at 9:26 PM Rating: Excellent

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Anonymous

Let's take a closer look at what it costs to run a company such as Verant Interactive. Now a wholly owned subsidary of Sony in their newly created division - Online Entertainment.

How many employees does it take? Well, let's guess a minimum and maximum and their salary. Have to remember that SOE has employees and sites in other countries as well.

Support Personnel (GM's, secretaries, tech support, sales, web development, warehouse employees etc.) : 500 - 1000 @ $40,000 /year
Min $20,000,000 Max $40,000,000

Artists, Game Designers: 5 - 10 @ $80,000 /year
Min $400,000 Max $800,000

Programmers: 10 - 20 @ $80,000 /year
Min $500,000 Max $8,000,000

Network Specialists: 10 - 20 @ $80,000 /year
Min $500,000 Max $8,000,000

Management: 5 - 10 @ $120,000 /year
Min $600,000 Max $1,200,000

Now let's estimate the cost of running the network:

Contract w/ AT&T for 100 - T4 lines for a year - i'd guestimate $1M - $4M

Computer hardware - $500,000 for the latest and greatest Intel processor powerhouse computers

Now let's take the min and max of all and add them.

min - ~$35,000,000
max - ~$55,000,000

(Give or take several million)

Now let's estimate they want a profit of pfft... i don't know $10 million per year

min - $45,000,000
max - $65,000,000

So our guess is that it take a minimum of $45,000,000 and a maximum of $65,000,000 to run just the Everquest portion of SOE.

Let's see here 420,000 subscriber's per month @ 12.95 per month = $5,439,000 per month * 12 months = $65,268,000 per year - annual revenue from Everquest.

So if it takes ~$65,000,000 to run the place and they are making ~$65,000,000 then i guess the price is right or did I just pull an Enron!

RE: A Closer Look

# Mar 31 2002 at 1:33 PM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1592757586331

Scholar

63 posts

I know this is a repeat of what everyone is saying, but... very well done! Extremely well thought out, even if you are missing some of the other costs

RE: A Closer Look

# Mar 27 2002 at 9:55 AM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

You forgot to include the costs for employer paid taxes, health benefits, 401K matching funds.....

I make about 40K and get a statement each year reminding me that my employer forked over nearly 10K above my 'pay' for these kinds of things.

Umm, plus general operating overhead type costs of utilities, rent, conference room chairs, coffee, pens and pencils.....

RE: A Closer Look

# Mar 27 2002 at 2:17 AM Rating: Default

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3 posts

Ahhh the measures people will go to just to convince themselves they are not being ripped off...hehe

Edited, Wed Mar 27 02:17:32 2002

RE: A Closer Look

# Mar 27 2002 at 1:57 AM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1591769051269

74 posts

Very well thought out, but you forgot to add in the ammount they make selling each expansion from the stores. They you also forget to add in the 50 bucks from many people who have changed servers over the years. You also forgot to add in the Legends profits. You are also forgetting all the advertising they are doing with Pentium and GEForce graphics cards, and Falcon computers... I bet they either got millions from those companies for promoting and optimizing the game for those clients, or at least they gave them HUGE deals on buying new equipment. As for AT&T, im sure they are makin VI pay them extra cause the server lag is not exactly what id call good advertisment =p

Also if a GM gets payed 40k a year!! get me a job there =) Good lord, thats the easiest 40k ive ever seen in my life. Im pretty sure the top sector of workers you described is making 30k max on average, if you ever worked in a wharehouse before, youll know its not where the cash is at. You do back breaking work for crap money, I know, I've been their.

Ah well, I guess Im in the sever minority thinking that we shouldnt allow businesses take advantage of us little guys. /shrug

Other than that, yeah its nice to see someone do some mathwork every once in a while, to do some logical thinking about a problem. /applaud

RE: A Closer Look

# Mar 26 2002 at 10:43 PM Rating: Default

__DEL__1592253806679

12 posts

MAN!!! This is the BEST and most THOUGHT OUT post I have seen on this issue. If you are even "close" the the truth I think VI/Sony should hire you as their Finance expert. I hope after this post gets read more people will see that VI/Sony are not trying to stick it to us like most of us thought they were. You actually made me step back and re-think my personal view on the subject too.

KUDOS TO YOU!!!!

Sincerely,

Zaymot Silver

RE: A Closer Look

# Mar 26 2002 at 9:35 PM Rating: Default

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169 posts

OMG do i see the voice of reason here?

Well done.

In fact thats a lot less than the %25 profit margin i would guess they would target (around 18M profit)

Lets look at this from everyone's perspective

# Mar 26 2002 at 9:03 PM Rating: Default

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12 posts

Okay, to do this we need to get both side together. First, lets get all those with their heads up Verant/Sony's *cough* Hindquaters *cough* to actually listen to reason. Then we need to get those *cough* cheapskates *cough* that think $13 @ month for 40+ hours of entertainment is WAY TO MUCH to actually look at the facts and see that you spend MORE then that in 3 hours at ONE movie or a middle-class arcade. Okay, now that I got all your attention (and I am sure most of you are now pretty tick at me now, but let me try to share BOTH of your rants so that we can talk about this calmly (if thats possible).

Okay, lets talk about this price increase for a moment. For those defending VI/Sony they are saying that its about time for a price increase do to inflation and cost of equipment upkeep and etc. Your point is a very valid and logical reason for the increase. Since 1999 the Nations economy (have to us US since VI/Sony is US based) has had problems keeping the "Mighty Dollar" from dropping, and so the cost of power (Electrical), salaries, rent/lease, equipment, etc have increased and so it is time for VI/Sony to raise their prices to atleast those of their competitors. Now for the other side. There are those out there that do not have a large enough family/household income to buget an additional 3 or 6 or 9 or more dollar increase a month for their entertainment. Are you VI defenders telling them that since they don't make as much money as you that they don't deserve to have the right to the same entertainment? That would sound pretty mean and self-centered of you then. I personally have 2 accounts (one for me and one for my wife) so the increase will be $6 a month for me, not $3. Also, as for inflation. As far as I can remember (not a Economics Major) the Nations inflation has not risen 30% in 3 years but the cost of EQ is now raising 30%, why not just increase with the inflation of the Nation to suppliment the increased cost to the company?

Now another thing that keeps popping up where both sides also differ is the price vs the services rendered. Again the defenders of VI/Sony stick to their guns with the "trademark" response of, "If you don't like it, quit". This is true, if you do not like the increase in price for what VI/Sony already offers then you are free to leave, its your right to cancel your subscription at anytime and as for reimbursement for loss of service during patches and maintenance, thats just plan petty. Now to show the other side. Since the start, April 1999 (and no I will not count beta) VI/Sony promised us that for $9.95 a month we would get Top of the Line CS, Dynamic Quests and Events, new Interface and options, new zones, fixing bugs and problems ASAP, etc. We have been hearing this since day one and VI/Sony have yet to give us what was promised. Where are all the Dynamic Quests and Events? On Fennin Ro (before Legends) I saw a whole 2 events in a year. Where is the New Interface that was SUPPOSE to be in SOL? My box even says it includes a new interface. Top of the line CS, HHAHAHAHA. I petition about a bug or KSer or something else and am told, "Sorry I can not help you with that. Please send your issue to the Server GM when he is here on XXXXday." How is that helping?? Where are the fixes? EQ has been out for almost 3 years now and classes are still not balanced, pathing bugs still not fixed and other issues still plague the game and yet they are going to increase the monthly cost and give us nothing more in return.

Another smaller but no less important issue is the issue that VI/Sony have yet to even complete the "Old World" and yet they continuely press us with more and more "Expansions". Why not keep hold off on an Expansion until the CURRENT CONTENT is 100% fixed and working as intented? It would save money, manpower and surely make your customer's happier. As I stated above, I have two accounts and have both with the most updated expansions (EQ, ROK, SOV & now SOL) and I have yet to see the original world of EQ completed in the almost 3 years I have played it. When will the "old World" be completed?

I guess if after reading this you still can not see the other persons point you are either dense or just to self-centered to think that they could be right too. Before you jump at a person who you do not think is right, why not take a moment and put yourself in their place. We all know EQ is a great game (concept) otherwise it would not have lasted this long but we all ALSO know that there are some problems that VI/Sony have either overlooked or ignored, some of which are MAJOR issues. So again, before you flame that person that defends everything VI/Sony does or you flame that person that never seems to be happy with VI/Sony, take a moment and think to yourself....Would I think that if I were that person? If you do that first you may see that after all the flaming we all want the same thing, to make EQ better then it is and to enjoy ourselves.

**Zaymot dons his flame retardant robes**

You may now start the flaming.

Sincerely,

Zaymot Silver
47th Mage of Fennin Ro
Order of the Wolf

RE: Lets look at this from everyone's perspective

# Mar 26 2002 at 9:29 PM Rating: Default

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no flame here, you do make good points

however the american dollar has actually risen substantially in value over the last few years, forcing other currancies like my canadian dollar to lower marks.

yes i do think that if someone cant afford something, that they shouldnt be doing it . . . I'd love to have two accounts like you but i cant afford that, but you think i should get it anyways. On the other had if you have one account and just skip a few cigarettes, or a cup of coffee each month, this increase is nothing.

yes i agree that customer service sucks, although ive seen many more events then you have, guess you have bad timing.

the old world is basically done, quit looking at the artwork that was finalized for the art team before the separate programmer team had their goals finalized. There are many blind zone boundaries where no doubt they will add more zones in time, especially now that Legends subscribers are paying for more content to be tested on them.

why shouldnt classess be rebalanced? its been years, its time to balance for the fact that much more powerful weapons and gear are available then in the past, and that much more powerful mobs exist. A level 50 three years ago wouldnt be allowed on a plane raid wearing that gear today.

There is no %100 working bug free program, but you know that hundreds of things have been fixed over the years.

no real flame, just observations.

RE: Lets look at this from everyone's perspective

# Mar 26 2002 at 10:28 PM Rating: Default

__DEL__1592253806679

12 posts

Suraki, Suraka & Surakish,

I think you may have missed a few of my points. I was not saying that you should get two accounts. I was not saying that the art work was what caused the issue of the "old World" not being finished. I was not saying classes should not be balanced (actually my exact words were, "EQ has been out for almost 3 years now and classes are still not balanced"). What my post was created to do was NOT to show MY personal beliefs but to show you all what each of you are saying to show you that EVERYONE is right in their own way.

I do thank you for not flaming as my robes are still a bit charred from a post a few months ago.

Stop complaining

# Mar 26 2002 at 9:01 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

Okay, stop complaining just from looking at some of the posts it is like that $3 buck is going to largly effect your life. If you think about it for the three years you could have played it would be close to $100. Just think about if you go to a movie it is well over $3 to get in and over that to get any food, and that is only for a short time. Going to a fast food resturant will be over the difference of making a sandwich.

Saying that verant doesn't need the extra money is insane. Shure they could easly run the game of the $10 but would you want to have a job for three years and never get a raise? As more people join the more service and computers to run a server will be needed.

I have always wondered when they would increase the amount to pay. It is simple busines that prices will have to go up as the time goes on because of inflation, and if busines rises more people will have to work for the company causing them to pay out more salary. The longer the people work the more times they will get a raise.

Also people say that if I pay the extra $3 I want all the bugs to be taken care of. Well thats just not going to happen. They will always be bugs in the game. I want more GM's well it will cost you money for them to hire the GM's thats why they created the guide program so they could get people to help other people without having to hire more people and that would make there prices go up.

#REDACTED, Posted: Mar 26 2002 at 7:47 PM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) Stupid!!!

3 BUCKS.

# Mar 26 2002 at 7:12 PM Rating: Good

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Anonymous

3 DOLLARS. thats right, 3 dollars is all they want to raise the price of this game per month. you would pay twice to three times that for one movie at the theaters and that would only last 3 hours max. 3 dollars, one extra valuse meal that would only last 10 minutes. 3 dollars, a few games at the arcade of your choice and it would only last an hour max if you didnt play consecutive games. think on these examples of what 3 dollars will get you in this economy, and then think that the extra 3 bucks a month will let you play 700+ hours of a game you love to play or you wouldnt have stuck with it this long. if you really want to gripe about money just remember that tax day is coming and uncle sam pays 20k on toilet seats. grow up people. if you are going to do nothing but complain about 3 dollars then you might as well quit now because i can guarentee that one day in the future the price will go up again. thats just common sense talking. if you choose to quit over 3 dollars at least give your items to a character below lev 20 so they can remember you as someone nice that helped them get a foothold in a game that you used to love. for all of us staying, congratz on using what you were gifted with at birth ... your brain.
SEE YOU ALL IN THE GAME!

MENLUIN
LEV 11 WOODELF RANGER
"ORC SLAYER EXTRODINAIR : IF YOU SEE ME RUNNING TRY AND KEEP UP!"

RE: 3 BUCKS.

# Mar 26 2002 at 9:00 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

/cheer

PRICE INCREASE.

# Mar 26 2002 at 7:03 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

complaints

# Mar 26 2002 at 6:58 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

I don't see anything wrong with complaining; it's like more taxes. 3 extra dollars a month isn't fun. Do you complainer-bashers think the streets would flood with people in joyous rapture of paying 3 extra dollars a month? "Oh, once I was a miserable, lonely person, full of pain, but now I pay 3 extra dollars a month! My life is back in order! Huzzah for paying extra to Veranr! HURRAH!". Of course Verant may want that extra money monthly, and sure we'll give it to them, but it's not like we WANTED to pay 3$ more a month. My 2kpp(actually price may vary)

A bit of perspective

# Mar 26 2002 at 6:55 PM Rating: Excellent

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7 posts

Are any of you out there happy to work for three years without a pay rise? I didn't think so.

I'm playing from Australia where our $ is worth about half the US$. So this rate hike takes me from paying $20 to $26 per month. THIS IS STILL SOME OF THE BEST VALUE ENTERTAINMENT YOU CAN GET.

I spend about 30 hours per month playing. So the subscription part of the game is costing me less than a buck per hour - quite amazing value for money.

[Aside: okay, so the REAL cost also includes all the expansions I had to buy, the subscription fees to Allakhazam [ incredibly good value!], the computer I had to replace for Luclin, the 2nd computer and 2nd EQ account I had to get so my wife would stop playing her druid and let me play my Ranger...]

I also know that my biggest expense is actually the time I spend in-game. Figure it out this way: what is the hourly rate you earn at work? Use that as the 'cost' of your time for playing EQ ( ie: instead of playing EQ I 'could' be at work earning money ).

Now tell me who is expensive in this equation - Verant? or you? So quit whining 'bout the other guys' costs - your choice is to pay a few more $ per month or have a sign go up saying "THIS GAME NOW CLOSED" . With a bit of luck they will even use some of the money for smoothing out some long ignored issues....

Aedhmor Darkmere
44th Ranger
Paragon in Trust
Tunare Server

Well

# Mar 26 2002 at 6:10 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

Hello. I'm posting as anonymous because I dont have a real name here, and dont often post, but I would like to add my thoughts on the price hike.

Yes, the dollar isn't worth as much as it was 3 years ago, so ofcorse they are going to need to look for a way to generate an additional cash flow.... For this reason the Legends server was created. It would offer pretty much the same game, for a higher price, which would add a profit (or atleast keep them in line with the changing times).

I am guessing that the Legends server is not doing as well as they expected, or aswell as they say :/. This 3$ hike is probably just covering the difference that they expected to make with thier new 'uber' server.

Aslong as they dont try another hike for 15-18 months, I will not be upset at all. Actually I was expecting a hike sooner then this. So if they dont try to nikel and dime us to death over the next year or so, I woulden't mind paying 15.99 in 2003-4. If anything happens before that, with no good reason, then I will look for a different game.

Thanks

Idiot

# Mar 26 2002 at 6:07 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

What do you think the 40 dollar a month Legends subscription did, its always the most populated probly with a 75K or so subscribers X 40 bucks, fixes there profit, and if they weren't making profit all this time, why would they keep it up? There just trying to make more money, Legends shows how much people will pay for EQ, they can afford losing some customers for 3 more bucks to those who stay, then its going to be 3 more, 3 more and so on. Back up Verant, your backing up your 25$ a month subscription in a year.

RE: Idiot

# Mar 26 2002 at 6:22 PM Rating: Default

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169 posts

wrong, Legends is the least populated server, not even as populated as the special rule / PvP servers, the regular servers have a far higher population. And Legends was capped at 8000 subscribers.

if you ran everquest, would you do it for free? would you pay out of your pocket to run 1200 computers so that the world could play?

RE: Idiot

# Mar 27 2002 at 3:19 AM Rating: Decent

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I dont know if you have looked ant the legend server when you log on but it IS ALWAYS at the top of the server population list.

RE: Idiot

# Mar 28 2002 at 12:12 AM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

Dont post till u know what uare talking about. Before they changed to UP and DOWN . They showed the number of users on each server and least was on the top highest last.

Cursed: Great Game, Terrible Company.

# Mar 26 2002 at 6:06 PM Rating: Default

__DEL__1592251799969

10 posts

There is no way in HELL you are going to get me to believe that the added servers are actually costing SOE an additional $1,254,000 PER MONTH!!

Let me take a moment here to say that I have already spent well more than 10 times the dollar amount on EQ than on ANY OTHER GAME EVER.

If we are going to see an increase in charges lets see a goddamn reason. Lets see an actual upgrade to the service, and no, don't tell me the expansions are an upgrade to the service because I paid for those seperately and ON TOP of my monthly payments.

Do you people REALLY think it costs them $5,831,100 PER MONTH to keep a bunch of computers running? If so... who the hell is setting up these computers and why don't they know how to do their job? I can see a huge investment required to get it up and running but to keep it going? COME ON. If they would adhere to the same standards everyone else has to adhere to (ie. get the damn thing working before going public with it) they wouldn't have these on-going costs, they wouldn't have the persistent down-time and CUTS TO MY SERVICE (which I might add.. I have NEVER been reimbursed any money from SOE for the EQ servers being down even though I am PAYING for 24-hour service and the damn servers go down at least once a week).

Let me say finally, that I do love EQ, if the game wasn't such a great idea in the first place, verant wouldn't have a hope in hell of surviving with a business model like this. But let me also say, I can't wait for the replacement EQ to come along so I can finally give these incompetent money-grubbing shysters the extended finger they deserve.

RE: Cursed: Great Game, Terrible Company.

# Mar 26 2002 at 6:35 PM Rating: Default

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Your ignorance is showing.

Have you no clue how many techies it would take to keep a farm of 1200 computers running, let alone keep 1200 computers happy on a network?

Of course it doesnt take $5,831,100 per month to keep the computers running! you must make a profit! you can not run a business that makes no profit! this is a business, not a charity!

How about you host 1200 servers in your basement, keep them all running yourself, pay for the electricity, fix the breakdowns, fix the network conflicts yourself so i can play for free?

There has been 5 or 6 games come out since EQ that were going to replace it, but EQ now has more subscribers than ever. Get serious, you arent going anywhere, I dare you to go!, and you are spending less money per month on EQ than you would to occupy the same time playing regular non-MMORPG games. EQ is still cheaper than the pathetic alternatives.

I love hearing that rant about being reimbursed for downtime . .. yes, i'd like that 30cents back for that day EQ was down, even though i had a life doing other things and couldnt play anyways that day. . ... EQ is far more stable now then it was at launch.

RE: Cursed: Great Game, Terrible Company.

# Mar 26 2002 at 10:34 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

Surak...I see what your saying, but he has a good point...network conflicts don't just pop up out of nowhere (I know because I run a 65 computer network) Clearly thats alot smaller than 1200...but 10 guys could handle that size network crash from a beach in Jamaica if they wanted to. It all comes down to working the bugs out of systems BEFORE putting something as large as EQ on them.. Luclin went live and EQ SHUT DOWN. There were 2-3 weeks where the servers were up/down/locked/on fire/running away...you name it, they were doing it. The amount of man-power and time it took them to fix the problem when it happened like was probably 10 fold the amount it would have taken had they properly tested it first.

Look at some of the bugs that are still exsistant in the game...and have been since day one. Go to North Qeynos and Lev over the jewelry shop...when you zone, you can occasionally pop up inside the necro guild....pets randomly suiciding...these needed to be fixed way back, yet verant pushed them off. Raising the price isn't what bothers me...it's how much they raised it by

They used Legends to test how many people they could hook... 40$ a month is, lets face it, too much money to pay to play a game. 8000 people were limited to legends, and they hit that quota relatively quickly. As soon as they got that to happen they knew they could stick everyone else with a 3 dollars hike...Legends = $30 dollars more
regular = $3 more...

One last rant because this post is WAY too long...for everyone that is saying how 3 bucks more makes no difference blah blah blah...I pay for 6 months at a time..so I pay 7.50 a month basically...3 dolars more per month is a 50% price rate, thats substantially...and suppose they change it again...now its 15$ a month after another 50% hike...thats some McDonalds and a movie...yes the price is cheap when broken down...yes they should compensate for horrible amounts of downtime...yes they suck when it comes to CS, but lets face it...only about 15 of us are gunna quit.

RE: Cursed: Great Game, Terrible Company.

# Mar 26 2002 at 8:28 PM Rating: Default

__DEL__1592251799969

10 posts

MY ignorance is showing??

I know a thing or two about setting up networks my friend, it used to be my specialty before I retired.

There is no way in hell any 1200+ computer network should cost anywhere near to $5.8 MILLION per month to keep running. To spend that kind of cash on a server farm you would have to hire 1 full time techie for each single computer and pay them over $58k per year to do it.

There is no way Verant has 1200 techies each making $58k per year to watch their server farm.

My point was only this: They were ALREADY making a stupid amount of money off this game (UNPRECEDENTED amounts I might add - on a monthly basis).... and yet... they raise the cost with absolute zero promise to raise the level of service (which in my opinion is already well below sub-standard).

I have high standards though. I expect software products to go through rigourous testing stages before they go to the open market... maybe its just me, but I tend to expect things to work when I buy them... not 10,000,000 patches later.

RE: Cursed: Great Game, Terrible Company.

# Mar 26 2002 at 8:43 PM Rating: Default

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Again you still think that all the income from verant must be spent on costs! You know nothing of business! They must make a reasonable profit! Without profit no business can survive.

did you retire, or did you go broke paying to keep those networks you setup running?

How do you know they are making "stupid" amounts of money? tell me exactly what their profit margin is?
. ... whats that? ohhhh you dont know! didnt thing so.

I bet their profit margin is the same as any other successful service, no more than 25%

No patches! hahhaahahah idiot! you say you want the game to improve, but you wont allow for the mechanism that improves it!

RE: Cursed: Great Game, Terrible Company.

# Mar 26 2002 at 8:42 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

Well if you think about it its not just keeping the computers working you need to have the other people working and do you think that Sony is going to keep a game that is costing them money or not making any money for the executives? Its been $10 for three years they need to raise the price eventually.

wah

# Mar 26 2002 at 5:51 PM Rating: Default

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Well my rants about you complainers seem to have been cut off due to the large number of posters, so i'll post again.

STOP WHINING

EQ is run in a server farm in california, according to an interview in PCGamer magazine, it takes over 1200 servers to run EQ (a couple dozen per each "server" you see at login). every expansion requires that more computers are added to each "server".

More computers means more space in the server farm to pay for, more electricity to pay for, more techies to keep those computers running. More hardware that needs to be upgraded or replaced when it breaks down. more bandwidth needed, more network costs.

when eq started the number of computers being supported by your $10 per month was a lot less than it is now.

Now, would you work a job where you didnt get a raise or advance at all for three years? NO. ... obviously they have to pay their employees a respectable amount so they dont go elsewhere.

My guess is that most of the real complainers here are the teenagers who get their parents to pay the fee because they cant get a credit card yet, who have no clue what it means to earn their own money, and no clue what it takes to run a business, just scared that daddy wont like the larger fee on his statement.

Well booo hooo! go cut your neighbour's lawn once a month and pay your daddy back so he wont cut off your EQ playtime.

I've seen a few times in these posts, people who cant do math.

There are 418,000 subscribers to EQ
$3 per month is $1,254,000 in total for verant not 120,000 as has been told a couple times.
which i bet just brings them back to the profit margin they had three years ago before all the increased costs from how they have improved the game since.

Dont like it, Dont Play, Your dollar is all that matters your whining means nothing, especially all of you who post as Anonymous

Just take a look.

# Mar 26 2002 at 5:11 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

This message is for unbiased comparison. I am not trying to sell anything, I am simply trying to open some eyes...

Okay, for almost all my games, I check em out on IGN. As soon as I saw the patch message I was POed, they're testing us to see how far they can push the line. So I went MMORPG shopping on IGN... Here's some links.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/152/152252p1.html - ign review of EQ (You know what EQ is like already, don't bother with this one, pretty outdated).

http://pc.ign.com/articles/164/164162p1.html - ign review of Dark Age of Camelot.

Now just look...they are now both the same monthly price...just READ the reviews. IMO, DOAC looks like more bang for the buck, but then again I haven't played it yet. I guess another reason I posted this is for feedback because I am probably going to get DAOC.

P.S. It doesn't matter what you think, or what anyone thinks. It matters what happens. (translation: there's no point in flaming me.)

RE: Just take a look.

# Mar 28 2002 at 5:20 AM Rating: Decent

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14 posts

I agree with the post above. The one big difference is the realm vs combat. Also in DAoC there is no camping, people can group almost no matter the level of their char. DAoC wins on that.

As for char development DAoC was better until Luclin arrived with the AA points. And now Planes of Power will offer more customization. So EQ wins on that...NOW.

But we all forgot till now the world sizes. EQ is HUGE. HUGE ! Antonica, Faydwer, Odus, Kunark, Velious, Luclin, Planes. Noone sports this much gaming space. Noone. I know many people 45+ who havent been everywhere...

So for $13 monthly we get the chance of participating in a world ever being added to. That for me is ok. I dont car eabout grouping/camping as long as i have places to go, quests to do, new sights to see.

RE: Just take a look.

# Mar 26 2002 at 10:42 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

I just want to let you know that the Everquest review is from before DAoC was released...and that no expansions came out, and that the review was written during beta, alot has been improved since then.

RE: Just take a look.

# Mar 27 2002 at 3:25 AM Rating: Decent

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And that would be under the same circumstances as DAoC. It has no expansions yet. And I play DAoC and Eq both but now that they are the same price one of them will have to go.

RE: Just take a look.

# Mar 26 2002 at 8:48 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

I didnt read the EQ one that far down but because I would like to point out it seemed that this was not including the expansions so it is not completly true.

RE: Just take a look.

# Mar 26 2002 at 8:48 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

I didnt read the EQ one that far down but because I would like to point out it seemed that this was not including the expansions so it is not completly true.

RE: Just take a look.

# Mar 26 2002 at 5:15 PM Rating: Default

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55 posts

I have played both DAoC and EQ, and in my honest opinion i would not say that DAoC is more bang for your buck. Yes, it did improve on some of the problems we see in Eq, but it has plenty of problems all its own...the one big difference between EQ and DAoC would be the realm vs combat which unfortunately i never got into because left DAoC to go back to EQ before my char got high enough to participate. I would not say that DAoC is a better game, but different, and perhaps worth getting if you just want a change of pace.

in all fairness

# Mar 26 2002 at 5:09 PM Rating: Decent

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5 posts

Ya know it seems to me that i saw a ton of rants and flames when good ol alla started charging for his HUGE service. Now people are used to it and know that without it we would lose a valuable resource. SOE < not spirit of eagle!> in my opinon is covering growing costs for a still growing game. As long as the downtimes do not increase unreasonably and their are a few more gm events spread around i dont have a problem in the world with this so i pay 6 bucks more a month give or take some change. my wife and i both play i have 2 comps and we spend allot of time here. Really think about it folks for me anyway 26.00 a month for HOURS upon HOURS of entertainment...try going to 1 movie for that...or renting enough videos to watch in that time...or buy gas enough to go for drives each day for hours...hey cheap entertainment IMHO. Take care fellow addicts!

think about it

# Mar 26 2002 at 4:41 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

The ONLY reason they're raising the price of original EQ is because the success of their 29.95 or is it 39.95 legends server subscription, which is always the most populated no matter what time of day you are on. So they said hey we'll jack up the price to equal all the other online games out there, people will definitely pay an extra 3 bucks if there willing to pay an extra 20-30 bucks

RE: think about it

# Mar 26 2002 at 5:25 PM Rating: Default

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Incorrect

Legends is in fact the least populated server.

Back when we were allowed to see how many people were online in each server instead of just seeing UP or DOWN as we do now, the highest population servers were always at the bottom. The special rule servers were always at the top with the least population. Low and Behold, Stormhammer is always above them and so is the least populated.

RE: think about it

# Mar 26 2002 at 5:10 PM Rating: Default

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55 posts

legends...the most populated server any time of day?...In fact its wuite the opposite. half the reason why people pay the extra money to play on legends is because it has a fixed number of people that can play per server, to decrease overpopulation like on all of the old servers.

there is one simple reason why rates were raised...its called inflation, 10 dollars today isn't worth ten dollars three years ago. verant is a business, so they are going to keep up with current prices, espcially considering that just about ever other mmog costs more than 10 bucks a month anyways....i wonder how anyonce could be surprised at this turn of events, of course they were going to have to hike up prices sometime.

RE: think about it

# Mar 26 2002 at 5:10 PM Rating: Default

__DEL__1591750752940

55 posts

legends...the most populated server any time of day?...In fact its wuite the opposite. half the reason why people pay the extra money to play on legends is because it has a fixed number of people that can play per server, to decrease overpopulation like on all of the old servers.

there is one simple reason why rates were raised...its called inflation, 10 dollars today isn't worth ten dollars three years ago. verant is a business, so they are going to keep up with current prices, espcially considering that just about ever other mmog costs more than 10 bucks a month anyways....i wonder how anyonce could be surprised at this turn of events, of course they were going to have to hike up prices sometime.

Dont have to pay

# Mar 26 2002 at 4:02 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

http://shadowbane.ubisoft.com/home/news.shtml
(sorry i dont know html youll have to copy and paste it) that game is made by the people who made the original everquest and left when the game started going downhill. for those of us who dont like the price hike, theres your other option.

RE: Dont have to pay

# Mar 27 2002 at 8:50 AM Rating: Decent

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8 posts

From the Shadowbane website:

--------
1.06 How much does it cost to play?

The game CD will be priced in the same range as most other new game titles, and the first month of play time will be absolutely free! Pricing has not yet been determined for additional months, but the service will likely cost around US $10.00 per month, per account (as with other comparable game titles.)
--------

See the "Pricing has not yet been determined for additional months" and "will likely cost around US $10.00 per month"? I don't know how you came to the bold statement that the pricing of Shadowbane would be cheaper then Everquest, DAoC and other online games. I read from that statement that the pricing of Shadowbane will most likely on release be 12.95$ like ever other game. (12.95$ is "around" 10.00$ and the same pricing as "as with other comparable game titles" as stated)

Edited, Wed Mar 27 08:50:01 2002

ADDICT!

# Mar 26 2002 at 4:00 PM Rating: Decent

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2 posts

Ya, alright i'm and addict... been going to counseling for it and that costs an extra 100 bucks a month and now they have to charge me an extra 3 dollars a month per account of which i have 3, in essence adding 33 percent more to my monthly fee... It's going to break me and then im going to have to go to more counseling doubling my counseling fee to 200 dollars a month, then I'll get more depressed and have to buy another account to make me happy because we all know eq = happy.

j/k on the counseling thing, but imo I think if you have multiple accounts they should be able to cut you some slack on monthly charges. Before you flame me let me explain why.

The ten dollars, now 13 dollars a month goes to paying for people to help on tech support and pay for GMs and r&d. For me I will now have to pay 39 dollars a month as opposed to 30 dollars a month for one RL person. On the customer support end of things there is usually a ratio of x number of Customer Service reps per x number of people that play the game. I am the only one that uses these 3 accounts therefore they need only support one person, seems reasonable to me.
To the guy that posted below saying yes, we knew what we got into when we bought the multiple accounts, yes we did, but if the money goes to what VI says it is going to which is salary increases for their people - they are still only supporting me, not 3 different people.

BRING ON THE FLAMES!

RE: ADDICT!

# Mar 26 2002 at 5:19 PM Rating: Default

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55 posts

What you say might make sense....but the only problem is...what stops a bunch of friends from just putting all of thier accounts under one of thier friends names so that they get a reduced increase? SOE has no way of knowing whehter your two or three accounts are yours, or maybe some of your friends.

They are testing us

# Mar 26 2002 at 3:24 PM Rating: Default

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22 posts

$3 dollars.

Not much.

Or is it?

This is simply a test. What will the reaction of our subscribers be to this "modest" increase? This will test the elasticity of the player base to see how tolerant it is of a pricing scheme change. They will benchmark this, look at number of subscriptions lost, and weigh the gains. This data will be used to determine just how much the cost can be increased, and over what timespan. Don't get me wrong....I'm not saying that if we all rise up in solidarity that this 3 dollar hike will go away. What I AM saying is that if we respond with pure apathy (as many of the posters here have done), I GUARANTEE that we will get another "modest" increase before you know it. And another one. And another one. And another one. Until they hit the proverbial "29.99" renewable monthly target that all such businesses covet.

So, think about this before you rush to Verant's defense.

Yes, it's a great game. Yes, there have been many wonderful additions. But you DO have power as a consumer.

Use this power. Write a letter. Make a difference.

Krudd RottgutZ
Slave of the Faceless One

RE: They are testing us

# Mar 26 2002 at 5:25 PM Rating: Default

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55 posts

I do not doubt that they are testing us...but you also have to look at this from a business standpoint....they have to raise the prices some time. If they kept it at 10 dollars a month forever that would be somewhat crazy, considering most other MMOG's already cost more than that. Due to inflation, money is worth less now than three years ago, so it can only be expected that prices will rise with time. I'm not saying i like it, but i don't dissagree with Verant's price hike. If they tried something like this again in a year or less, then i would be very mad and suspicious, but at the the moment, i think that a 3 dollar increase after about three years isn't that unreasonable...

I guess we just have to wait and see.

RE: They are testing us

# Mar 26 2002 at 3:49 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

I agree with you when you say that that they are using this increase as a test for the elasticity of demand. However, I think that Legends also had a great deal to do with this price increase when they saw how big the initial demand was. However, I have also noticed somewhere in a line from EQ that they are having a huge cancellation issue with Legends (I wonder why?). I imagine that they have found that they can not sustain the demand for such a high end game with the ridiculous cs that they provide. However, they did notice that there definitely a willingness on the part of some poor suckers to be willing to participate in EQ at a higher price level. It would be interesting to see the numbers on how the sales of the last expansion set went comparably to the prior sets.

I imagine that EQ is facing an issue like many mature businesses do where sales are starting to decrease. With additional competition coming on, they are probably afraid that they are going to be facing a reduction in revenue and they should with the shoddy product that they provide. It would help if EQ new what the phrase "quality control" meant.

I have been playing for 18 months and April or May will be the end of my participation in adventure.

Androp, Gnome Necro from RZ

Rate increase

# Mar 26 2002 at 3:22 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

Hi we are your friends from EQ. Unfortunatly we have to raise the rates. OH..... And by the way the login server is down indefinitly. Thanks, have a nice day.

OMG

# Mar 26 2002 at 3:21 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

*so lets say there are 100 VI employees, making $75k a year* FK 75K a year for what!?

If they want more money they need to give us what we pay for! Fire all customer service damn it, they don't do crap anyway, just sit and ***** when you call them. Some of them don't have a fking clue what's going on. Go to HELL EQ!!!! BURN BRUN BRUN!!!

...

# Mar 26 2002 at 3:13 PM Rating: Default

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159 posts

just my opinion here, but: if VI is going to hike the price to $12.95, tehy had better get off their butts to a) get rid of that nickname "Everpatch", decrease the server downtimes (espescially those annoying-as-hell multiple day downtimes) and increase the degree of customer service.
it appears that VI gave themselves all bonuses and salary hikes to pat themselves on the backs for a good job with luclin(yeah, right. all the lag, unfinished zones and whatnot; you'd almos think we were playing some crappy version of DAoC...)
here's a thought: take the money from all those ill-gained bonuses and raises, and recycle them back into the game.
or, pause production of Planes of Power, and try *finishing*the game( ie. including all that sutff that was said to be included...3 years ago....)

whatever, i'm still not happy about this price hike; to play EQ was barely within my budget limits before, but now...now this is ridiculous. who knows, this could be the straw to break this camel's back.

RE: ...

# Mar 26 2002 at 8:51 PM Rating: Default

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169 posts

There's no more lag in luclin than anywhere else, your problem is either a slow connection to the internet or a crappy computer that cant handle the high end graphics. the game is optimized for a 56k connection, if you have it then your problem isnt lag.

Its a separate team that does the expansions, they are not diluting the work to fix problems as they always have the same team working on bugs.

I used to complain that not everything was included, but look at it now, there are alternate planes, there are 5 continents, and now there is a moon ... the game is far more than they promised at launch.

RE: ...

# Mar 26 2002 at 5:34 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

I could not agree more on what you just posted. There are syill some things that have never been introduced to the game that we were promised upon this games launch. For example, remember the zone Veksar? Of course you dont, because it dosen't exist, even though it was supposed to be one of the zones that came with RoK. And while these problems left unfixed and accumulate, they DARE open up a new server that is supposed to have extra customer service or new zones?? I mean, we are already paying $10 of our money for that anyway.Then I hear they are adding all of these great new bonuses to EQ like getting rid of hell levels. And here comes Verant with the nerve to jack up the price 3 bucks even after we are deprived of what we are paying for already and with all the unfixed problems with EQ. Yes,it was indeed nice to have some new things added but can't Verant just add something nice without a huge negative thing to follow? I will still continue to play on account of I live off of this game :) But, Verant will be recieveing a letter with what I have to say about this, and their B.S. support.So, in my conclusion I say "Play freely ( err for $10 rather) or not at all". Thank you to listening to my problems.

Bertoxxulous Server

Galiden 48 shaman
Torkild 48 rogue
Danelorn 23 shadowknight

/sigh

# Mar 26 2002 at 1:50 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

Exactly WHY do they need to increase the pricing? Greed, me thinks? I think that they earn more than enough $$ with all the new players rolling in weekly-- if not daily. Although three dollars isn't a lot in itself, when you have that three dollars and multiply that by 12 that's 36 more dollars than the original payment.

So once again I ask, WHY do they need to increase the pricing? Feel free to flame me and what not, I don't mind people calling me an idiot for stating my mind... It's simply a matter of opinion.

Ta-ta for now

RE: /sigh

# Mar 26 2002 at 3:06 PM Rating: Default

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Anonymous

im pretty sure they are taking a hit on that new ledgends crap, they may not say it, but i didnt meet to many people who were going to it. and havnt met one person that did go that thought it was worth that much money and grief. they had to hire alot more peopel to GM and work on content for it, and the ones that are paying are the players that didnt want anything to do with it. jyust my opinion, flame away :p

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