Oh well, the idiots win

[mofish]

http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news ... th=current

Back to single player games I go. And I was just starting to have fun in EQ2. Fuck em.

[Narrock]

They'll probably take a hefty % from each transaction. Sony is like the Mafia.

[Harrison]

http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news_archive.vm?id=457&section=News&month=current

Back to single player games I go. And I was just starting to have fun in EQ2. Fuck em.

Do you even read the bullshit you post?

It will only be on specific servers. If you don't want to be on one of those servers, don't fucking play on it.

[mofish]

Retard, I know exactly what it says. I can read. I can comprehend. Im educated. Im not an angry, fat hypochondriac ( http://www.dictionary.com ) that dropped out of high school and blames the world for my failures. Like you.

[Harrison]

There's no need to lie.

You clearly didn't read it if you're all worked up about them opening some servers that allow this.

Unless of course you're a whiny bitch, which is more probable given your disposition towards everything else you talk about.

P.S. If you thought for one moment I was unclear of the meaning of hypochondriac, you're as foolish as I am led to believe.

[Martrae]

The news about Station Exchange is bound to be controversial. I'm not going to try to sell you on the idea or promote the service; most players in this genre already have an opinion on the subject, and there is little point in one side trying to win over the other.

What I do want to do, however, is make sure posters can respond to the facts of this service rather than base their reactions on emotion alone. So please keep the following things in mind before you praise or denounce Station Exchange:

* Station Exchange will be launched on new servers. Think of them as special rules servers, and if you decide you don't want to play under those rules then you simply don't need to play there.
* These servers allow player-to-player transactions only. SOE does not create virtual goods that we will be selling ourselves; we are only facilitating a secure transaction between players.
* The EverQuest II team and our customer service staff will continue to enforce our licensing agreement and rules of conduct. Station Exchange is not a means to break the rules in order to farm cash or items. We will keep on banning farmers who break the rules on all our servers, including those with Station Exchange enabled.
* Subscribers get free character transfers to a Station Exchange server if they choose to use it. Characters, items, and coin cannot be transferred from a Station Exchange server to a non-Station Exchange server.
* If demand is high enough to convert an existing server into a Station Exchange server, players would be given free moves to another server. No one will ever be forced to play on a Station Exchange server who doesn't want to.
* SOE is charging a nominal, nonrefundable listing fee, plus a percentage of the final sale.
* Prices will be determined by the market. SOE will not be enforcing any kind of pricing guidelines.
* SOE is establishing this service on its own, not in partnership with anyone else.
* Ultimately, this is about giving our player base options. This wouldn't have been considered if it wasn't something that was so commonplace in online gaming. What we're doing is giving the players who want to engage in this activity a place to do it.
* This service will be offered only to US players at this time. SOE will be looking to expand Station Exchange to the rest of the world in the future.

You can read some more specific details on the service at its official website. Please check out the FAQ section.

I realize this is a controversial subject, and there will be a lot of emotional reaction to it. I'm not going to argue with people who don't agree with this service, as disliking it is just as valid as wanting to take part in it. But please remember that this is entirely optional system. If you choose not to play on a Station Exchange server, you don't have to.

Message Edited by Moorgard on 04-19-2005 05:37 PM

===========================
Moorgard
EverQuest II Community Guy

[dammuzis]

basically they are giving up

[Harrison]

Giving up?

They are cashing in on a multi million dollar "industry" that was up until now, "Underground"...

Genius

[Narrock]

Yeah, they are going to profit by this one way or another... that's for sure.

[Phlegm]

If the program is successful and Sony is racking in the dough, you can bet that they will expand to other servers. I wonder if the government going to jump in and make them charge sale tax.

[mofish]

Exactly. Just a straight up money grab. Will not expand to other servers my ass. Give it a year, a bad quarter or two for SOE, and they will be selling items directly to players. So lame. Also, by allowing transfers to and from the ebayquest servers, youre screwing up the non-transaction (for now) servers anyway.

Anyone who believes this will somehow lead to less farmers or ebayers on non-ebay servers is smoking crack. Or that they will somehow bring the hammer down on farmers. Why would they? Especially now that they are now monetarily tied to farmers? Its now in their best interest to allow farmers, not come down on them.

Been playing EQ since 2000, pre-kunark. Balance problems dont bother me, nerfs dont bother me, bugs dont bother me, downtime doesnt bother me. This bothers me. It sickens me. I was the biggest salesman for this game also, got all my friends playing it.

Looks like Ill be checking out Vanguard. Quote from Brad McQuaid from FOH boards :

"So yeah, this stuff is going to happen in Vanguard, just as it happens in other sucessful MMOGs. The difference is that we and other companies are going to try to fight it. And not just using the traditional methods of banning and such, but we're also discussing forming an alliance or 'guild' of sorts with both MMOG players and MMOG developers in order to garner support for some legal routes to curtail a lot of this stuff. Unfortunately, this early on, I can't say much about it yet, other than to clarify that we plan on doing a lot more than just whining about it and banning people who are caught farming just to sell items on eBay or what have you.

There's really only two choices to make here... you can do what our distinguished competition has done -- the 'if you can't beat them, join them' approach, or you can go to the other extreme. Our inclination is the latter. And I think we'll be able to garner that support from both MMOG players and developers -- at the very least, it's worth a shot. And the reason we're starting now, and being rather public about this (e.g. the semi-recent interviews with Cindy Bowens about the issue) is that now is a good time for Sigil to start investigating this and planning accordingly -- I'd rather do it now, proactively, then later, during beta or post launch and therefore reactively."

[Narrock]

And not just using the traditional methods of banning and such, but we're also discussing forming an alliance or 'guild' of sorts with both MMOG players and MMOG developers in order to garner support for some legal routes to curtail a lot of this stuff.

Sounds like entrapment to me. Bastages.

[Lyion]

The thing thats being ignored here is Everquest has been fighting this. For years. They've probably banned more accounts than every MMO combined.

Smed has indicated the vast majority of their CSRs support time has been in regards to ebay type things. They've arguably been the front runner in confronting out of game transactions. I find it ironic that Mythic is blasting SOE about this, when its legal to sell your account in Dark Age. Pot, meet Mr Kettle.

These game companies are businesses. There is no doubt any business is going to do what is in their best interest, and the health of their game. SOE has gotten to the point where they believe this is better for their clients, and is something they want strict regulation on. They also want their hand in the pie.

I don't have a problem with this and can understand why they are wanting to do this.
It's a small experiment and its not like its going to all their games and servers..... yet....

[Ironfang]

Why not let them sell stuff to other players??

The majority of purchases are done by people with money and without the time to get to all the end-game stuff that takes raids/huge time commitment.

Sure, some of it is rich kids buying stuff, but a lot is adults saying I am willing to spend $300 to save time.

[Gidan]

Exactly. Just a straight up money grab. Will not expand to other servers my ass. Give it a year, a bad quarter or two for SOE, and they will be selling items directly to players. So lame. Also, by allowing transfers to and from the ebayquest servers, youre screwing up the non-transaction (for now) servers anyway.

* Subscribers get free character transfers to a Station Exchange server if they choose to use it. Characters, items, and coin cannot be transferred from a Station Exchange server to a non-Station Exchange server.

[Gidan]

If the program is successful and Sony is racking in the dough, you can bet that they will expand to other servers. I wonder if the government going to jump in and make them charge sale tax.

The gov't would have a really hard time doing that. They are not actually selling a product, they are selling a service. Selling virtual property is different then selling a real world product. Since no product is actually being sold, the service of allowing another char to have something that your char has in a game is whats being sold not a product itself.

SoE can charge a fee for their aid in this service, and they can charge a % off the total amount of $$ they are passing between the 2 parties. However being as no product is being sold, there really isn't a way to charge sales tax on it.