role-playing

Once again this Is why I hope the MMORPG world will pull their over inflated heads out of their butts. It is absolutly idiotic that sony is going to charge you 50 some dollars for the box price of EQ, plus extra for the Expansions, Half of which add new zones and monsters that about 60% of the player community will never see unless they have no life. I admit they have made an effort to make some updates and help with some major problems in EQ, but overall, EQ is still the same old boring Hamster wheel level grind that it always was. NOW that said It is even more idiotic that they are STILL going to charge you $40 buck for just 3 months of their old crappy game, (which once again, is the same old crap warmed over with a few spices on top. STOP THINKING THAT EQ IS THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN FOLKS. They are the biggest fish in a tiny fish bowl of american MMORPGS. At their best they have around 460,000 subscribers, and it is declining,
because there are many other mmorpgs that are much more fun, and cheaper. Example: Square soft (Who made Final Fantasy 11 mmorpg) are over 690,000 subscribers and climbing. How do they do it you ask? Simple, They know how to write a game that does not bore you to death after the first 20 hours, as well as create a good end game for those that reach the top.
So if you are thinking of buying this, dont. Spare yourself from buying 3 months of crap because chances are 1 to 1.5 months into your subscription, you will end up bored wishing you could refund the rest of the time you paid for.

Problem with EQ is that Sony has decided to consider paying customers as a secondary concern. Here are some of the problems you will face in purchasing this product.

Firstly, if you don't have every expansion, then Sony will attempt to get you to buy that expansion with a pop up window. Never mind that you are already paying them to play their game. Friend of mine got all but the latest expansion and got harassed immediately the day he signed up. Current expansion (Omens of War) doesn't come out until August. They started harassing us 2 or 3 weeks ago about it. This will continue on a daily basis and there is no way to play the game without dealing with it. You can't ignore it or escape out of it. There is no way to turn the solicitation off. Not Sonys policy. Glad my playstation doesn't do the same thing.

Secondly, bugs can take weeks or never to be fixed. Sony has been prioritizing releasing expansions and making changes to the game instead of fixing the bugs that have been present for some time. For example, boats were a long standing problem (years) that never worked properly. Boats are a method of travel through zones and sometimes the only way to get into a zone. With Gates of Discord what do they add? MORE BOATS. Yup, these didn't work either. Go fig.

Customer service. Well if your having issues in game, it will take anywhere from hours to weeks to get assistance. The only way to receive help is to stay logged into the game until you get a response (and hopefully you will be looking at your screen at that time). If you log out, your request will be deleted. They tend to have many loopholes as far as player assistance is concerned. Like not having 'exact' verbage for example. Also, if you need outside technical help, the employees working for Sony will either tell you to petition in game (see the beginning of this paragraph for how effective that is) or tell you to check the online help file. In game help is a strictly volunteer basis (ie they are not paid employees) so they have no obligation to log in frequently.

Now if all those problems don't detour you, here are the benefits. Other people I have met online can be a joy to work with. EQ is a game designed for grouping and it is strongly encouraged. Many zones to explore with various mobs to fight. Quests are fun for items or faction (exp is always negliable). There is tradeskilling, which can be tiresome but also a good way to bring in income. It is a hack and slash game though. Don't you think otherwise. Thats the only way to get any exp to level.

Ok the game card is VERY nice, because EQ constantly harasses its customers to buy/pre-order expansions when logging into the account, if they have your credit card and you push 'OK' then they quickly charge you in 1/10 of a second, no confrimation required, but if your using the game card they would have to ask you for the credit card number. I hate dealing with Sony!