More SOE BS

[Raven]

You have a total of four character slots. They can all be on one server or spread across mulitple servers, however you wish.
============================
Moorgard
EQII Community Guy

I'm too tired to go into detail, on why this both disgust and amuses me at the same time. Suffice to say that SOE seems bound and determined to push people into the arms of Blizzard.

And it seems to be working.

[Falcon554]

Doesnt bother me one bit. I really could care less.

[Raven]

Well good for you sparky

[Cofcos]

Thats nice. But, I don't care if you don't care either way. Why do people feel the need to post replies like that about this issue? But for some, its a deal-breaker. Its already disillusioned me to the point that I canceled my last, and original EQ account.

[Vinda-Lou]

You have a total of four character slots. They can all be on one server or spread across mulitple servers, however you wish.
============================
Moorgard
EQII Community Guy

I'm too tired to go into detail, on why this both disgust and amuses me at the same time. Suffice to say that SOE seems bound and determined to push people into the arms of Blizzard.

And it seems to be working.

Color me stupid, but being a mmorpg newbie , what are the implications of this news? Why is this bad? (I'm NOT saying it's good, I just don't get it.)

[Raven]

It means that you can only have four characters total, not 4 per server. In EQ1, I have multiple characters on three servers, which would not be possible in EQ2.

If you have 4 characters that you play, on server A, and SOE opens up server B, at a later date, you'll have to delete a character on server A in order to free a slot for server B.

[Sponge]

Limiting character slots in a 100% PvE MMORPG makes no sense to me.

That said, it doesn't bother me personally since I usually spend most of my time playing a single character anyway so I'm not really effected by the (rather dumb) decision.

[YellowKing]

It makes more sense if you understand that Sony is offering each player in the game a website that tracks stats for each character. I would guess that limiting characters removes a lot of the overhead of having to maintain 20 pages for someone who just creates toon after toon. We really don't know what technical limitations are driving this limit. In the end a company has to make the bottom line - if limiting characters will save them X number of dollars in maintenance costs, so be it. Besides, evne if they let you have 20 character slots, there would be people out there complaining that you couldn't have 21.

Limiting characters also reduces twinking, and encourages a long-term attachment between players and their characters. I think SOE has demonstrated that they're gunning for a game world in which people are forced to cooperate and the old ways of twinking and power leveling and having multiple alts is gone.

I don't expect everyone will like the decision, but it's at least better than Star Wars Galaxies where they limited you to ONE character per SERVER.

This decision isn't going to bother me either, since I plan on playing one and only one character. I don't really have time for one character, much less multiple.

By the way, I really do hope SOE pushes people into the arms of Blizzard. That way there will be less whiners walking around Norrath annoying the hell out of me!

[Vinda-Lou]

It means that you can only have four characters total, not 4 per server. In EQ1, I have multiple characters on three servers, which would not be possible in EQ2.

If you have 4 characters that you play, on server A, and SOE opens up server B, at a later date, you'll have to delete a character on server A in order to free a slot for server B.

thanks. Now it makes sense why that stinks.

[Smoove_B]

As a former SW:G player, I can say that really sucks.

For comparision, City of Heroes allows you to have 8 characters per server - a total of 88 possible characters.

They're working on allowing you to copy characters between servers.

No word yet on how City of Villans will work (more slots / server, more servers, etc...).

It's a world of difference to know I have SO much room to make a lot of different types of characters.

[DiscoJason]

I only ever play one character, so it makes no difference to me.

[Odin]

If I were inclined to play this game, I'd be ticked.

[knob]

I knew YK would stick up for it


FANBOY!


(It's a joke.)



But I do think it's a horrible idea. I can maybe understand if it's a PVP game, but this is strictly PVE... If it really has something to do with stat tracking, maybe they should just limit your stat tracking to a certain number of characters.

[Cofcos]

The only problem with that is that they charge you for the extra web stuff(1$)...

And being in the situation I am, I'm quite positive 4 slots will only last me 4-6 months untill I've "maxxed" them all. And I refuse to buy another account, pay for monthly and buy endless expansions only for four more slots which, still, wouldn't be enough.

(Ach! The number of edits is listed on these forums... Guess I'd better get less edit-happy )

[Raven]

It makes more sense if you understand that Sony is offering each player in the game a website that tracks stats for each character. I would guess that limiting characters removes a lot of the overhead of having to maintain 20 pages for someone who just creates toon after toon. We really don't know what technical limitations are driving this limit. In the end a company has to make the bottom line - if limiting characters will save them X number of dollars in maintenance costs, so be it. Besides, evne if they let you have 20 character slots, there would be people out there complaining that you couldn't have 21.

So let me get this straight.

SOE is adding a feature that few ask for, and isn't really needed, since 3rd party fan sites have been providing these services for years, and they use that as an excuse to restrict each subscriber to a total of 4 character slots per account.

By the way, I really do hope SOE pushes people into the arms of Blizzard. That way there will be less whiners walking around Norrath annoying the hell out of me!

I think you're going to get your wish.

If you define whiner as anyone who isn't a fanboy.

[Charlatan]

Cofcos, I believe they only charge extra if you want additional capabilities on the website - I am fairly sure from what I read yesterday that the basic character statistics page and the guild functionality are included. It's stuff likee extra detailed searching and chatting with people in-game are extra.

As for the 4 character slots, yeah it sucks. Part of what makes MMORPGS interesting to me (and most people it would seem) is the ability to try new things - new character classes, start in new areas, try a different server to see how it feels. Limiting this to 4 slots is gonna put a crimp in some people's gameplay style to be sure.

I wish you could have more slots but only "enable" the web features for 4 of them at a time, if the web page stuff is what's causing them to limit slots (and I believe nobody is really sure where the restriction is coming from, are we? Isn't it just speculation that the web features are causing this change?).

[Charlatan]

Doesnt bother me one bit. I really could care less.

Says the guy who has 6 or 7 characters on the Palomides server in DAoC.

[Raven]

Limiting subscribers to 4 characters per account simply puts added pressure on players to buy multiple accounts.

Which, in my opinion, is exactly why SOE is doing it.

[Falcon554]

Says the guy who has 6 or 7 characters on the Palomides server in DAoC. Smile

Thats only becuse they gave us free 30s

[YellowKing]

I still haven't seen any official word that we're going to be limited to four character slots. If anybody has anything official from SOE, can you please link? An official chat comment, a forum post, anything? So far all I've read is people griping about it because that's the limit in beta.

By the way, I'm not really sticking up for the 4-character slot idea. I'm not "pro-limitation." I can just understand some reasons why they would do it, and since it doesn't affect me whatsoever I have no reason to bitch about it.

I wish a good buddy of mine overseas could hear you guys call me a SOE fanboy. He would laugh his ass off. We played EQ and SWG together and I think he has heard me call SOE every curse word ever invented by man.

[Raven]

And yet you still come back for more.

That's a fanboy.

[Raven]

I think he has heard me call SOE every curse word ever invented by man.

And yet you still come back for more.

That's a fanboy.

And since you don't belive my quote, here's the link.

[Charlatan]

Trying to read that thread linked above made me dumber. I have a difficult time dealing with comments like this:

bah plz change this to 24 4 is defenitly not anof i like to try at least every class in eq i almost tryed ever class/race combo

Urge to kill.... rising!

[YellowKing]

Raven,

I never said I didn't believe your quote. I said I hadn't SEEN official word on it. It's kind of hard to pick out Moorgard's one line post in a 15-page thread.

And I don't know why you have to continue to be so hostile about all this. We're just debating a game for christ's sake, yet you have to toss out fanboy comments and act like you have this huge chip on your shoulder about all of it.

A fanboy defends his game and bashes the competition without giving any valid reasoning for either. I've supported both my defense of EQ2 and my complaints about WoW time and again. All I've seen you do is bash EQ2 based on its publisher.

[AttAdude]

Bleh, overblown nonsense. I remember playing eq, and there is no way a person could actualy play 4 characters equaly and still progress in the game. your life is just not that long period. Granted i did infact have about 8 characters. However 2 of them where level 1 mules and 2 of them never made it past level 10. Even out of the 4 characters i ever played i had a level 55 chanter, a 51 Shadowknight a 21 paly, and a level 30 druid. As far as im concerned this does not really effect me at all.

Cofcos: have you ever played EQ? Saying you will max out an EQ character in 4 months, is crazy if the original serves as any indicator. Granted this is supposed to be a much more friendly leveling curve, but dont forget sony want to keep you there for as long as possible so they get that monthly fee. Hell in the original EQ an argument can be made that the real game did not even start till you where maxed out, or at least post 50 (depends on what time we are talking about).

[Raven]

Bleh, overblown nonsense. I remember playing eq, and there is no way a person could actualy play 4 characters equaly and still progress in the game.

Depends on what your definition of progress is.

I enjoy creating new characters just so I can revisit some of my favorite zones.

[Blackhawk]

Bleh, overblown nonsense. I remember playing eq, and there is no way a person could actualy play 4 characters equaly and still progress in the game. your life is just not that long period.

Not everybody's primary goal is 'progress'. Some people play for the experience, exploring, roleplaying, and so on. Back when I played EQ, I had a main character who tried to actually advance, plus four or five others I played semi-regularly, either to explore areas closed to my main one, to experience different abilities, to play with friends on other servers, to play on the PvP servers, to play on the roleplay servers, or just to try out something new. I had a couple on a secondary server for when my main one went down (which was fairly common in those days.) Most of them never got above 15 or 20, but that wasn't the point.

[AttAdude]

Bleh, overblown nonsense. I remember playing eq, and there is no way a person could actualy play 4 characters equaly and still progress in the game.

Depends on what your definition of progress is.

I enjoy creating new characters just so I can revisit some of my favorite zones.

Fair enough, cant really argue that point, because after all you play your own way right? While i can understand being annoyed, i fail to see how this is a game breaker, again assuming that advancment is even half of what it was in EQ. If thats true, then you would still have trouble leveling more than 2 toons, leaving you with 1 newbie explorer slot and another to test other servers with. Furthermore would not the newbie explorer be completly disposable since all he is doing is running around in zones for nostalgia and not for leveling or ther traditional pursuits?


Like i said i can see it being annoying for alot of people, raven. However i really dont see it as the huge game breaker. In anycase remember that old SOE slogan: "Your In Our World Now"? They stopped using it because we found out what it really ment. They have not moved away from that ideology, and this just proves it. Mabey its best you are pissed now and can move away from the game befor investing your self in it. As a long time (5 years ) EQ player i can personaly garuntee you that this is small fries compared to some of the balance tweeks and such SOE will implement in the future. In the long run this may be better for Ravens sanity.

[YellowKing]

"Your In Our World Now"? They stopped using it because we found out what it really ment.

Actually they're still using it, sort of. Now when you log into the beta server it says: "Welcome to EverQuest 2. You're in our NEW world now!"

I thought that was pretty funny for some reason.

[AttAdude]

"Your In Our World Now"? They stopped using it because we found out what it really ment.

Actually they're still using it, sort of. Now when you log into the beta server it says: "Welcome to EverQuest 2. You're in our NEW world now!"

I thought that was pretty funny for some reason.

lol that is funny. mostly because of its double meaning

[knob]

I'm going to have to call the BS on your statement, AttAdude (The "No one with 4 characters can progress thing.)


I've known many people who had anywhere from 2 all the way up to 5 accounts where they played each character at the same time, and they all managed to hit 60 (Which was the cap at the time) within a few weeks.

It's not the same thing, but it's still possible.

I've also met a few people who had multiple 60's on their account. It's very possible for someone to play multiple characters and advance quicker than the just about everyone else. You're underestimating the time some MMO players are willing to put into the game.

[raydude]

Okay, so lets say for the sake of argument that one can max out 4 player slots in a short amount of time.

Why is it so hard to delete one slot and start over? If the definition of maxing is that you don't have any more "goals" for the character then there shouldn't be any attachment to it aside from personal ego gratification ("lookie, lookie, I have a maxxed out character, see?")

Even if ego gratification were the case, one can always take screenshots of said character and put it on a website or something.

If the player still wants to play w/ that character then by definition it is not maxed.

So enlighten me. What would be the point of keeping these maxed out characters if you're NOT going to play with them? If you ARE going to play with them, then what would be the point of starting a new one?

[AttAdude]

I'm going to have to call the BS on your statement, AttAdude (The "No one with 4 characters can progress thing.)


I've known many people who had anywhere from 2 all the way up to 5 accounts where they played each character at the same time, and they all managed to hit 60 (Which was the cap at the time) within a few weeks.

It's not the same thing, but it's still possible.

I've also met a few people who had multiple 60's on their account. It's very possible for someone to play multiple characters and advance quicker than the just about everyone else. You're underestimating the time some MMO players are willing to put into the game.

Well man you can call bullshit if you want too, however you and i both know its not true. First of all those people with multiple accounts are using them to powerlevel each other. they dont represent the majority of players; these people with multiple accounts are usually botting a healer so thier fighter does not have to group or what not. Im sure thats nice and all, but in my opinion and that of SOE, it kinda goes against the intent of the game. If this would cut down on that, it will make me very happy. Id be willing to bet, that this 4 character thing, is a way to cut down on that with out making people refuse to have multiple accounts. In anycase argument from the fringe does not prove this is bad, only that a small minority of power gamers are gonna get thier feelings hurt. From where i sit, this seems to fall directly in line with SOE's design choice to make EQ2 a more casual friendly game. you might not agree with them doing that to EQ2, but it was never hush hush, so you should have been expecting SOE to try and curb those guys with no lives who sit and play EQ all day for weeks at a time. The good news is however EQ is and will still be around, so if thats more your cup of tea, its always there for you.


You know, now that i think about it there is one thing about this that might piss me off some time in the distant future. i could see my self making 4 toons and getting attached, then SOE puts out an expansion that say adds PVP, or new races. I would be slightly miffed if i had to delete one of my toons for that.

[knob]

Well man you can call bullshit if you want too, however you and i both know its not true.

It is true. I had a good friend In EQ that had atleast 5 level 50+ characters on one account.

I don't know how involved you got in EQ, but I've met many people with multiple 50+ characters on one account. I, for one, was one of them. I had 3 level 50+ characters on my account and a few 30s and 40s in the mix.



Raydude -- It depends on the style of play. A casual gamer might not have any problem deleting a character and starting over. But when I played EQ, I was part of one of the "uber" guilds. People valued all of their characters. If something happened to that character (Items lost, corpse lost, many back to back deaths, character some how deleted), they tend to get very pissed off.

Some people grow attached to their characters, just simply deleting them and starting over isn't an option for everyone.

Also, maxing out a character hardly means there aren't anymore goals. In EQ, there are still countless high end mobs to be raided, and many people enjoy doing that. In DAOC, there's tons of PVP to participate in.

That's why people put such an emphasis on the end game in an MMO. So that when they max out, they have plenty of stuff to do. Not everyone gets a kick out of leveling their characters and would rather just get to the end of the leveling. A lot of times, the real fun doesn't even begin until you max out. Atleast for me, anyways. The level grind is just a huge obstacle to overcome to get to the fun. Leveling is only so much fun, even if you have good friends to do it with.

[knob]

One last thing.


You asked, "Why would you start a new one if you're still playing the maxed out character?"


Because I want to? Sometimes people get an urge to start a new character and play it. That doesn't mean they have to stop playing their current "main." That's how they get multiple level 50+ characters in the first place.

I spent many years in EQ. I met many people who would have multiple level 50+ characters and just play whichever they felt like playing that day.

Some people enjoy playing multiple characters, and I completely understand why. Taking a day or two break from one character can certainly help it keep that "Fresh" feeling. It keeps things more interesting.

However, for some people, multiple characters just aren't an option, they don't want to play anything but their main character. That's fine. But the 4 per account thing will affect plenty of people, unless they're willing to pay double the monthly fee and buy a second account.

[YellowKing]

Some folks are speculating that expansions will open up another character slot or two. I think that would be the ideal way to go. Nobody should be forced to delete an established character in order to take advantage of a new expansion pack race or class they couldn't choose before.

I'd really like to see some stats on number of character per server over a certain level. I'm willing to bet the amount of people who have over four characters maxed per account are in a very small fringe group of power gamers - the same power gamers SOE can probably count on just to purchase multiple accounts. Heck, I know several EQ addicts who had multiple accounts in the character-slot rich EQLive, just so they could multi-box.

From a business standpoint, I think that makes perfect sense. Why support storage and website space and expense for thousands of low-level, non-played toons, especially when the players who really *need* the extra slots are EQ powergamers who will have no qualms about purchasing multiple accounts anyway?

[knob]

The level of the character really doesn't matter. Some people enjoy having multiple characters on multiple servers. Even if it's only level 20. I don't want to delete a level 20 character to start a new one. I want to start a new one without having to delete anything. Who knows? Maybe I'll want to play that level 20 later on.



And honestly, while it is a good idea from a business standpoint, I don't give a shit about a business standpoint. I care about the player standpoint. I'm not making any money playing their game.

Having a near unlimited amount of space to make characters in EQ1 never stopped people from buying second, third, or fourth accounts.

(By unlimited, I mean most people probably would never come close to filling up all of the slots available. 8 x 40 something servers?)

[Cofcos]

Oh, you could say I played EQ... I was a huge multiboxer and have-- Well, lets just say many 65s and a few 70s...

Due to my situation, as I posted elsewhere, I have tons of free time and don't at all doubt my ability to cap 4 characters(not including all the raiding type stuff) fairly quickly; without truely powergaming, either.

[AttAdude]

Oh, you could say I played EQ... I was a huge multiboxer and have-- Well, lets just say many 65s and a few 70s...

Due to my situation, as I posted elsewhere, I have tons of free time and don't at all doubt my ability to cap 4 characters(not including all the raiding type stuff) fairly quickly; without truely powergaming, either.

Well then i obviously dont know what the hell im talking about lol. I quit right after POP, and at the time that i played, it was hard just having 2 50+ characters. Then again, i have a job, and i tend to socialize ingame more than i actualy play, so that may explain the discrepency. /shrug.

In anycase, the more i read about this, other issues like it, and the game its self the more it sounds like Power gamers are just shit out of luck. We shall see soon. the 8th is close indeed.

[Ax]

Does not bother me at all I mean you can still have one of each of the arch types if you chose to have more then one crit, is it a shock nope not to me...