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EVE (indie) vs. LOTRO
Player_420
Member Posts: 686
Now first read my signature, yes I am currently playing both; and yes I purchased SoM today and am very excited for both.
With that being said something struck me as funny today. The real difference between indie game companies, and more larger (want to take your money as much as possible) companies.
Just look at EVE:
You can purchase game time for in game ISK - I bought the game for 20$ in 2004 and have never had to pay a single penny other then subscription fees for any of the 11 x-packs (including a full graphical update)
LotRO:
Purchased the game when it was released and in a little more then a two year time peroid I have paid 40$ total for only 2 x-packs.
However....
I feel so used to this...its like EVE is a special thing where the company treats you extra special, but its wierd because as im d/ling the FREE EVE x pack (very excited) I am also paying 20$ for LotRO's, and feel kind of annoyed about it, but will do it anyways.
I play all ghame
Comments
I never buy expansion packs because i haven`t found a MMO that can draw me away from eve. I played pretty much every bigger MMO title that got released lately but they are so unimaginative. Go kill 10 boars and bring me the hides. WTF? It`s funny that there is just WoW-alikes and eve. The first game trying to copy eve is perpetuum but it is in beta still.
the problem with MMO expansion packs apart from EVE is they dont actually "expand" the gameplay. They only replace it leaving the original content devoid of life.
You are forced into buying them, because you end up being segregated from the rest of the game if you dont "upgrade"
Eh both EVE and LotrO are indie titles in the exact same way.
They have different buisness models and are very differnt games so I dont see any problem.
Payed expansions for sandbox MMOs will proably not work vey well, since it would seperate thoose who have the pack and thoose who dont.
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
This. Well said. There is room for different payment models, and different game types will be better suited to different models. because of EvE's single-sharded zero instanced nature, it is obviously very desirable that everyone be on the same level. Whereas for D&DO, paying for adventure modules is a no-brainer payment model.
Personally I am a big fan of CCP's model for EvE, but I can see that it might not work for other games.
Give me liberty or give me lasers
I do play both games as well.
First EVE's "expansions" are barely really worth to call expansion, just check the update of tuesday. They call that an expansion, but if you look realistic on it: Its for 99 percent fixes, tweaks and improvements on existing content.
Yes, sure, you have some new windows with it, there is a few new faction ships, but to consider it an expansion, nah.
I doubt it did take that much manhour at all really, not enough at least to pay extra for it as stand alone package.
Eve Online is fooling around a bit the last few years and their service with new content and so is going a bit downhill, sorry to say it.
Now look on lotro: the expansions they brought out, these were clearly new content, there is no doubt about that and well worth the money invested in it.
However, the above is really not interesting at all. Eve online can not afford to have people WITH And WITHOUT expansion in the game, the whole market system would break or not able to work anymore. For eve its vital, that every player has access to anything new, that comes into the game.
For lotro however this is not the case, the game can be played with players having access to new content and players not having access.
Are you out of your mind? I'm sorry but apocrypha was not a small expansion and neither was Dominion you may have a case with quantum rise but seriously look at the last three years of expansions for Eve.
They offer players a lot. I'm sorry if the only expansion you feel is worthy of a purchase needs to add more levels and make atleast 30% of the game obsolete.
Sov revamp alone is worthy of a paid expansion but they also added in a planetary and star field graphics update, new Browser, revamped mail system/jukebox, faction ships, tutorial missions and new epic arc.
Added with a much needed minmatar buff and the fact that this expansion alone will probably have more than four more mini patches including what the devs left out (cap ship revamp, fighter bombers, AF rebalance and more).
Honestly the people that call CCPs expansions "mini patches" need to step just stop with the bullshit Eve offers new mechanics, upgrades and tweaks for 100% of the playerbase. Not just only the high level players and they don't make old content worthless.
Im amazed that people would say CCP doesn't release real expansions with how expansive its feature set is.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
As a Lineage 2 player that also gets Free expansions I too believe that all MMOs should have free expansions. The only thing a person should have to pay for is the monthy fee for a MMO. There should be a free download with probaly a 7 day trial and afther that you can choose to subscibe and get all future content free.