Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

by: Tony "RadarX" Jones

A wave of shock and horror swept across the EverQuest 2 community last week. An accidental leak on the Knowledge Base inadvertently advised people of a pending $5 increase in the cost of Station Access. Flame threads began to trickle in, the moderators were put on Def Con 5, and the chaos ensued. Like a civil war, this heated issue pitted even close friends on opposing sides. What do these changes mean for the EverQuest 2 community and all of SOE's players?

What is Station Access?

If you aren't sure, like some, Station Access (SA) is an account allowing you to play all of SOE's for one low cost of $24.99. This includes, Planetside, Vanguard, Matrix Online, Star Wars Galaxies, and EverQuest 1. Considering most of these games require $14.99 for a standalone account the value of this is obvious in allowing people to save a few dollars and sample from the menu.

For EverQuest 2 specifically, there were additional perks inclusive in an SA account. First was the free addition of adventure packs that would normally cost $4-$6 individually. An additional perk that was advertised at one point, was the addition of 4 character slots reaching out to the Alt-aholics. It's this second perk that seems to be generating most of the drama.

More Toons, Less Cash

The most vocal opposition of the SA increase have been those paying for it to get 4 additional character slots. While the benefit was obvious previously, I'm sorry folks, you really didn't believe SA would stay $24.99 forever did you? If you paid for the account just based on this, it was a value at the time but it might be time to reassess what you use it for. I know most people are loyal to one game, but maybe this would be a great time to try out a few of SOE's games if you haven't.

Now, please don't misunderstand me about additional characters. I think it's a travesty the only way to gain them is through subscribing to SA. There should be process in place to purchase characters “a la carte” allowing those dying for alts to have a more economical alternative. I think it might have been a little short-sighted to go forward with the increase knowing a good portion of SA subscribers used it explicitly for this purpose. The sooner something is made available, the fewer people you'll find trying to storm the SOE Bastille.

What Happens Now?

SA goes up? Pretty much. There have been a few threads on the official forums demanding SOE take a look at this, but in all honesty their minds seem to be made up. Droves of people have sworn to downgrade their accounts and some have taken it so personally they have quit altogether. To those people I have to question what are you trying to prove?

Do you believe that a revolution is stirring? Can you hear the people sing, singing the songs of angry men? Maybe they are, and maybe a number of people are going to cancel. Perhaps, this is a nail in the coffin of SOE. More than likely, this is just an increase out of necessity and will be offset by future MMO projects that will be latched on to SA.

What will the future hold and how long will this controversy last? It's unclear, but one thing has become painfully certain. People take their subscriptions very seriously.