3devious

Fuck that, I'm keeping my subscription. I just sent that asshole developer some nice cookies and made lots of fanboi posts over at EQ2players.

*sits back and waits for my avatar geared character to be x-fer'd to Nagafen so that I can kill all of you whiners*

Caswydian, meet me on Nagafen. Character name is Smedisundermydesk. Your ass is mine! Stay away from my man, bitch!

Gori

Uhmm...doesn't that harken back to the discussions we were having on the feeling of accomplishement and earning something vs. it being easy to get? If I correctly remember it was pulled from a thread on levelling speed.

That point stands here also I believe. When you can bring real world dollars into a game to attain goals other people worked for inside the game, it cheapens and lessens the latter's accomplishment. Sure there are things that other people accomplish which no amount of plat can buy, such as killing an avatar, but there is more that can be than cannot be.

Caswydian

No, it was about travel times and overall game design - I argued that EQ2 was set up like a virtual amusement park with rides and attractions, and the fun part was going on the rides, not waiting in line.

Caswydian

Here's what I said:

Now you said this as a rebuttal:

I'll let you figure out the rest.

Gori

I am pretty sure it wasn't about travel times, or it actually would have made sense in the context. Travel times really don't bother me all that much, and travel times in EQ2 were never something so bad that I would get worked up enough to cut that quote out and make it my sig on the official forums, which is what I did way back then. However, since I won't be able to provide any evidence myself we will just have to agree to disagree.

So you don't feel that buying "rewards" with real life money cheapens the accomplishments of those who attained the rewards through in game effort?

Gromann

They removed all class specialization from WAR, so you will be identical to every other person with the same class. That is why they bumped guild beta back, again and again, because they don't want the masses to find out. Big flop inc.

__________________
"SOE is synonymous with clusterfuck." -mmorpg.com

Caswydian

For me, no. If I cook a meal, I do not feel it is less of an accomplishment because someone else could buy the same thing from a restaurant. I value my accomplishments because of what I put into it, how other people get the things they have is really of no concern to me. There are people richer than me who got their money through no effort of their own, but so what? Should I feel my car or clothes are cheapened because Paris Hilton can buy better with money she didn't earn?

Gori

Life never offered an even playing field to start on. MMOs, however, have historically offered everyone the same oppurtunities, where the fruits of those oppurtunites were solely dependent upon the person's abilities and desires within the game.

So no, I don't care if Paris Hilton has a nicer car than I do because her gramps owned hotels.

I do care if some chump can all of a sudden plop down 2 grand and achieve something someone else has worked for months or years to achieve in the game.

If the game had been like that from the beginning I would care less. It isn't a game I would probably play, but I have no quibbles with those who do want to play that way. Regardless of how many people cheat on the live servers now, it is not a sanctioned activity. Making it a sanctioned activity just diminishes what others have accomplished for the sake of a few more dollars in SOEs pocket.

Flaming Homo

People still bother to actually read, let alone respond to, Cassiegurl's posts?

Ancient Rites

Holy shit. Seriously, do you stand to profit from this in some way Caswydian?

You cannot possibly have such an interest in "MMO's going forward!".

I've read your posts here and on the O boards, I've seen less mental and verbal acrobatics from Christian fundementalists trying to defend their religion, than the amount of effort you seem to put into embracing and defending alot of what SoE does.

I really do not buy the story of you just thinking of whats best for the future. You act like you know whats best for everyone, or at least YOU and people like you, and the ones who disagree are "Dead wood".

I'm so happy that you've got the MMO world figured out.

That's the problem with video games in the past 15 years especially.

It isn't about fun, or creativity anymore, it isn't an art medium. Video games are now oil, they are now pop music, they are now big blockbuster movies, the only thing that matters is $$$$$$$, and how many consumer whore, instant gratification bank accounts we can convince to give us $$$$$ via one method or the next.

You are aguing that whatever saves us some money each month on a subscription fee, and makes SOE more money, is a good thing for the future of MMO's.

Instead of all this rationalizing and pandering, I want to see you provide your stance, your full reasioning as to why this is a good thing. Don't sit here and fling limp ad hominems at people for "holding back progress" and talk about the numbers on paper.

Tell us WHY you think this is the step forward, and how it can be adapted in the future to make games more fun for people? Tell us how this is such a refeshing new thing that it can usher in a new era for MMO's, and bring us things we do not have (but want) in this "stale genre".

Until you fully give your reasons instead of just apologetics, lay off it, because I swear I would be 100% convinced that you stand to profit from this in some way, and I don't mean from some weird, subjective sense of potential fun.