SOE now selling PLAT for RL money!

[BuzWeaver]

On EQII you can now pay $5.00 a month for 3 days worth of play.

[Zoloph]

And I just noticed a banner ad at the bottom of the forums about EQ2 Plat and Lvling for real currency...

As long as there's a market for these services and in-game items they will be available.

[Skaff]

I can't really tell if your complaints are with the "Bayle Marks" or with the mercenaries themselves. I know you did slightly inform us about how they work, but I can pretty much tell that you have never used one before.

But I do agree with you, it is sad to see a RL currency enter a game. But I really don't see the effect being huge or used at all for most situations. Platinum is pretty much disposable to anyone who has been in the game for a period of time. I played on the 51/50 server and I was able to easily obtain enough platinum to eventually buy a merc and pay his upkeep. Keep in mind this was on the 51/50 server and that naturally attracted players to run around with and you were thrown a very nice set of gear to begin with.

If I had decided to start a new character on any of the non 51/50 servers, I would have started out close to where you start out in project1999. I would have been given a weapon* and a tunic. I know there is some tutorial where you can get a little more cash and a little gear but you still start pretty broke. The main point is that you are basically thrown into an empty world. The game has been around so long that the player base has become very top heavy.

Now enter the mercs and eventual "Bayle Marks". Will any player who has been around consider real life money to pay for the mercs? Hell no! They are cheap to maintain. Will a player who is new and has a limited source of income consider it? Possibly, but I would love to see the stats of new players entering the game. Regardless of the slight parallel that can be drawn between "Bayle Marks" and RL money... yes, a direction connection can be made but in reality there does not appear to be much of a significant application at all. If you want to complain about mercs, thats a whole other discussion!

It was also pointed out that WOW has the mount offer for $25 bucks. I heard about that the other day from a friend that was still playing the game. I personally thought it was funny and commend Blizzard on the use of well designed micro transactions.

[LazyFuj]

wow, let me just purchase a max lvl char!

[guineapig]

The Asian platinum market has been around forever in EQ and Sony has never seen dime 1 of that money. They can ban the plat farmers all day long but that does not keep new accounts from being created.

This is basically the only way they can see some of that untapped profit that being generated from their game.

Yeah it kind of sucks in a way but it really does make the most sense from a business standpoint. If you can't get rid of it, regulate it and profit from it.

[Tallenn]

Actually, I HAVE used mercs before. I know exactly how they work. My issue isn't so much with mercs, but with the use of RL money to improve your character in the game.

I didn't like Smed cash AT ALL, but at least before, you were only able to use it for cosmetic stuff. Now that you can use it to pay your mercs, you can basically purchase platinum with your credit card, right from SOE. If you don't have to use that plat to pay your merc, you can use it for something else, so in a very real way, the marks you purchased to pay your merc IS plat you purchased from SOE with your credit card.

It doesn't matter if 100,000 people use it, or if nobody uses it. The bottom line is that SOE has become a plat seller.

Again, the issue is not mercs (though that's a separate issue), the issue is with allowing people to BUY progression in the game with RL money. For me, the issue is with smed cash period.

And yes, I'd heard about the WoW mounts, and am floored by that, as well. But this is an EQ forum, which is why I didn't mention it. I'll have to look more into that, too.

[Excision Rottun]

Smedley Treehorn treats objects like their women, man.

[karekiz]

ugh. 5 buck for 3 days?

If you are going RMT. Go free to play.

It is working for Runes of Magic...