The 50/50 EQ2X AA Slider

One of the more intriguing design decisions SOE made with the free to play variation of EQ2 was the call to lock the AA slider at 50% for free players. 

Background of the AA system
EQ2's Alternate Advancement points - the game's version of talents/traits/etc - are earned through a separate experience bar that advances primarily from discovering new locations, completing quests, and killing new mobs.  Because there aren't enough of these unique activities to earn all of the possible points (250 with the latest expansion), regular experience that would gained by level capped characters is instead converted to AAXP. 

Last fall, the devs implemented an oft-requested feature allowing players to begin converting combat exp to AAXP prior to the level cap.  The feature was in high demand because it is comparatively easy to get enough experience, but new level 90 characters (especially those who attempt to group instead of doing solo quests) are often badly behind on AA's. 

In the traditional subscription EQ2 service, the AA slider allows players to divert anywhere from 0 to 100% of their exp to AA.  Players who opt for the subscription to the free to play EQ2X servers also get to adjust the slider at will.  For all non-subscribers, though, the slider automatically defaults to a 50/50 split in experience, which cannot be altered.

Effects of the fixed slider
This seemingly small decision has much more significant effects than I'd anticipated when I first heard about it.  I rolled up an EQ2X character and have 8 AA's by level 13, which is way faster than I'm used to.  However, I'm also noticing that it's taking significantly longer to gain levels.  There are pros and cons to this approach.

• In level ranges with large amounts of content, it is easy to outlevel quests, leaving you with a quest log full of trivial quests to either blaze through anyway for minimal reward or abandon.  With the slider set to 50%, you can finish many more quests before outleveling a zone.
  

• If your primary goal is to catch up in levels with your friends, and you're willing to be behind on AA's in order to do so, you will not have that option unless you subscribe.  (Your friends can mentor down to your level, but their rewards for doing so are generally not that great.) 
  

• Though EQ2X has gone to some trouble to limit the power of non-subscribers by locking them out of higher quality spells and gear, I find that my character feels unusually powerful because I have more AA than normal.  This might balance out over time, because all AA's are not equally large upgrades to your character's power, and I'm going for the ones that will have the maximum impact first.  Then again, even though I'm not "outleveling" content or twinking it to death (the way I do on my live account), right now things feel easier than they should.
  

• From a business standpoint, SOE would like to see leveling take longer.  The longer it takes for players to hit the cap, the longer they will stick around to potentially buy stuff.  Also, gear upgrades will "last" longer if it takes more time to outlevel them.
  

• Not every level range has equal amounts of content.  In particular, I'm concerned about having enough exp to clear the 60's and the 80's (the current expansion, though they'll be fleshed out a bit by next year's expansion as well) with the slider where it is.  If you do have to scrounge up every last bit of content, that really hurts the level of interest in playing alts (which is normally one of EQ2's strengths). 

Overall, I'm not sure whether the consequences will be good or bad. Either way, it's an interesting experiment.

Competing With Free

I spent a chunk of the weekend checking out EQ2X, and it occurred to me that I'm suddenly looking at four separate MMO's that don't require a traditional monthly fee. With EQ2 and LOTRO joining DDO and Runes of Magic, it's been two months since my most recent MMO subscription lapsed.

These games aren't entirely free - for all but ROM, I have previously paid money that allows my current/future level of access to the game world. Still, for at least the medium term, I can count on being able to access any or all of these games whenever I want to, without any impact on my current month's budget.

Moreover, it doesn't stop here. We have games like Warhammer and Conan running unlimited free trials, and other "true" free to play games, such as Allods, that I have yet to visit. The folks at Cryptic made an official comment that makes it sound like some form of free play might be coming to STO.

In short, there are a lot of options on the market with low or nonexistent entry barriers, and limited requirements for long-term commitment. This may or may not be a good thing for the games in question, but I'd be even more worried about the next round of MMO's.

You can't really compete on price when so many high quality games are available at these terms. You can't really compete on quantity with games that have been around for 3-6 years. You can try to compete on quality, but A) you have to actually succeed in producing higher quality and B) you still need quantity if you want to keep collecting monthly fees.

How do you compete in this market? Hopefully someone's got an answer to that question, but it looks pretty challenging at the moment.

Official Comment From SOE On Race Packs

In what may be a first for this blog, I personally got a response from EQ2's producer, Smokejumper, on the official forums on EQ2's policy of bundling races in packs of three.

Green Armadillo wrote: Can we also get races as individuals, not as packs?  It's even more  irritating to have to pay triple to purchase two races that you will never need than it would be to pay for an extra class that you might in  principle choose to use later.

Smokejumper wrote: No. Races are going to stay in packs. You're not getting charged three times as much. If we sold them individually, we'd still charge in that same neighborhood of a price. We just figured that it was cooler to give players more races to play with for each purchase. That's why we sell them in packs.

Rothgar clarifies later in the thread that the packs were designed to bundle less popular races as "throwins" with the more popular races.  I'm surprised to see them admit that they are happy to charge $7 per race, since that was basically the least charitable interpretation of the way they're selling races. 

Moreover, apparently they are so confident that most people are only in the market for a single race that they're prepared to give away two "bonus" races with every race sold.  The irony is that you now get a very good deal if you happen to like multiple races in a given pack, and what feels like a bad deal if you only want one.  I guess EQ2 races have been homogenized to the point where they're mostly cosmetic anyway.

(Off-hand, Dark Elves, Ratonga, and Fae are presumably the run-away winners of their respective packs. I'm guessing that Gnomes win their pack maybe, since I don't think I've ever seen a Wood Elf, and perhaps Kerra over Arasai and Frogloks?)

Also, as Yeebo (who also got a dev response) points out in the comments, they've announced a plan to sell broker transaction tokens at a suggested price of 10 tokens for 150 SC ($1.50). That's a harsh price if you're looking to access the economy in bulk, but an absolute steal if your goal is to sell one or two items to make enough money for a pair of 40-slot handcrafted bags for your two free bagslots.

Examining EQ2 F2P Restrictions

Update, December 2012: Greetings, people who are finding this post over a year later courtesy of Google after the main EQ2 service went Free to Play.  This post describes the state of EQ2X as it was in August 2010, and is significantly out of date.  I have written updates here and here. 

Welcome to the EQ2Ex store, where the race you want is bundled with two utterly random races you didn't!
Whatever my general thoughts on whether EQ2's new F2P model is good for the game, the reality is that it is here, and probably here to stay.  I've had the chance to pay the new service a visit, and the new client does indeed install fast, though it would be nice if it did not require a second 11+GB of hard drive space for players who already have the subscription game installed.

Though things are still technically "web 2.0 beta" and subject to change, they're accepting real money for characters that won't be wiped, so it's probably safe enough to start asking the practical questions about how the restrictions affect me personally as a player. 

Subscriber-only activities (show-stoppers that cannot currently be bought out individually)

• Group content: There are two major restrictions on overall character power for non-subscribers, who cannot equip dungeon gear and cannot learn the two highest quality spell upgrades (approximately 10% increase in the spell's base power, before modifiers from gear and other stats, PER UPGRADE).  Though players are constantly beating things that are not meant to be beatable, Ferrel tells me that EQ2's raid game uses strict gear checks that might not be possible under the non-subscriber restrictions.  
  (Subscribers beware: Players who do subscribe are still stuck on the free servers, which may or may not have the right demographics for group content, but this is a moot point for me - if I'm going to subscribe, I'll do it with my live account so I can play with my live guild.) 
  
• Access to the economy: Non-subscribers are barred from the auction house, and are also stuck with a gold cap that could impede their ability to get enough money on hand to buy things directly from other players.  There are also limits on bag and shared bank slots, but these are less serious than the first two because EQ2 bags get so huge that you don't really NEED more bags than free players can carry for regular questing content (especially if there's no reason to pick up loot because you're already gold capped).
  

Negotiable Restrictions (may or may not matter to you, can be bought out)

• Character Options: Some races and classes are free.  Yeebo discovered that the developers will change the original plan and allow non-subscribers to purchase the non-free classes.  Races can also be bought, but irritatingly are only available in packs of three utterly unrelated races for $7.50 (see the screenshot up top for the races in each pack). 
  There's talk of selling additional character slots, but I couldn't find that option in the store at the moment, so it appears that non-subscribers are limited to two slots - upgraded to three with the one-time "silver" purchase - compared to seven for subscribers.  Finally, the silver upgrade is required for any access to the shared bank, but this is less of a must-have feature in an environment where a non-subscriber may not be able to equip heirloom gear in the first place. 
  
  (Subscribers beware: The $15/month subscription does not lift the race restrictions, which do not exist on the traditional subscription servers.  You must still purchase races under the same terms that non-subscribers face - paying for two races you don't want along with the one you do want.) 
  
  (Character Tips for newbies: Ironically, I'd argue that the free half-elf race is one of the best for solo players because they get tracking as a racial ability.  Tracking allows you to home in on any mob (or player) in a wide radius around you, which is very useful when a kill quest specifies that you must look for a specific type of rat amongst the local rat population.  The only other ways to get tracking are to roll a scout class (such as Swashbuckler/Brigand) or pay to unlock Kerra, Wood Elves, or Halflings.
  
  Amongst the free classes, non-subscribers might want to consider the plate-wearing melee healer Inquisitor class.  The Inquisitors are good soloists to begin with, and their AA melee attacks should not be affected by the non-subscriber restriction on spell quality.)
  

Not Restricted (beyond what's discussed above)

• Solo content: With few exceptions, solo content is not balanced assuming that the player has anything that they are prevented from obtaining by the non-subscriber restrictions.  There are some solo quest rewards that are "legendary" quality and therefore cannot be equipped as a non-subscriber, which is irritating, but not insurmountable.  Otherwise, all solo content up to level 80 is 100% free to play and the remaining content from the current expansion is subscription-free once your Station account has an expansion key (SHARED with the subscription servers).
  (Tip for new players: You might want to wait for February's expansion, which will almost certainly include the current one for free, rather than pay for the last 10 levels now and still have to pay full price for the next one as well.) 
  
• Tradeskills: Some crafted gear cannot be equipped by non-subscribers, and the economy access restrictions hurt anyone who was hoping to actually craft for other people.  (Remember, even if you subscribe, the BUYER also needs to subscribe to buy from your broker boxes.)  As with solo content, 1-80 is 100% free and the new expansion requires an expansion key.  There might be a recipe or two somewhere that only drops in group content that you might not be able to run due to lack of groups.  Other than these points, crafting - one of EQ2's most highly regarded features - is 100% free.
  
• Player Housing: Some house items drop in dungeons that may be hard for non-subscribers to clear.  Other than that, EQ2's housing system - IMO the best anywhere in MMO's - is 100% free.
  
• Guilds and Guild Housing: There's a one-time fee of $10 to create a guild, mostly to ensure that the database doesn't get overwhelmed with a million one-player guilds.  (The chart currently claims that the guild creator must also be at least a silver-level player, I don't know if that became obsolete with the fee.)  Non-subscribers may or may not have difficulty paying to buy and maintain guild halls due to the gold cap (though the cap could also be viewed as an incentive to donate, as excess gold is simply discarded).  Otherwise, EQ2's guild system, including guild housing (again, IMO the best in MMO's, at least when it comes to decorating potential), are completely free.
  

Where I personally stand
Though I don't dislike EQ2's group content, dungeon runs in the game take too long for them to be a serious considering in my purchasing decisions.  As long as I'm prepared to write off dungeon runs and play a free race/class (or pay one-time unlock fees), I can have basically everything that I used to pay to do in game for free.  If SOE is going to make it inconvenient for me to participate in the economy, I can just ignore that part of the game altogether, other than perhaps to get a pair of bags for my two free bag slots.
If I didn't already have a level 90 character in a guild I'm fond of on live, there's no reason why I would ever consider paying a single cent beyond expansion box fees ever again.  You might argue that this represents bad microtransaction design, but I was never the target market for this shift.  Their main concern appears to be keeping current year-round raiders from ditching their subscriptions, and it will be very hard to change that structure (e.g. the gear and spell restrictions) now that the game is accepting cash.

In addition to the current expansion, my Station Account happens to own 1750 in Station Cash that I got through various promotions.  I could, in principle, save this balance and apply it towards the box fee for a future expansion, or I could use it to pay for some unlocks, such as the Silver upgrade or races and classes.  I also have a mount attached to my Legends of Norrath account (subscribers get five packs a month for free to try and lure us into the TCG, and this appears to be my year for winning mounts) that could provide a ride to my hypothetical EQ2Ex character instead of an alt on my subscription account (who would be better positioned to buy a mount with cash from Auntie Lyriana). 

(That said, I will not pay for three races when I want one as a matter of principle.  If this forced bundling does not get fixed before I roll up a character I plan to stick with, I'm fully prepared to go half-elf - like I said, one of the best choices in terms of mechanics anyway - and keep the Station Cash so that I can pay SOE less for something else in the future.)

Overall, it's moderately likely that I will, at some point in the future, roll up a half-elf Inquisitor (a class that I've meant to try but never got around to on live servers) and give EQ2Ex an extended trial.  If that happens to mean less money that I give to SOE this year, that's their fault for the way they designed this service.

(Then again, EQ2's annual $40 expansions are comparatively expensive for solo players because they don't actually contain that much solo content.  I might be more willing to pay $40 for next year's edition if it wasn't also going to cost $15 for the month it will take to beat the new content.  Or I might not, if I won't be able to use any of the gear due to non-subscriber restrictions.  Who knows?)  

Update: Official dev comment on the race packs here.