Good post and really sad its come to that for a lot of people these days, and sad to see another necro go down too wish it wasn't so also... hope posts like these get into the heads of devs about the playerbase and stuff. (yeah right )
Thank you for sharing your stories with us. I've never used the word privileged in a good bye post but it was a privilege reading this. I appreciate you both using your personal story as an attempt to get the game to a better state - for we who still linger here - than the condition you now take leave from. I myself am a 16 year EQ vet and now have some of my best real life friends I will ever have from my journey's here in Norrath. I've certainly received more from my time here than most. The state of this game matters for myself and many others like you. I wish you both the best. /salute
Beautiful post friend. I fully understand your feelings and stand behind you. I too have not bought TDS and have stopped my sub. I did not grind HA's, but the language the community relations have used as of late and decisions like this mean that I can't put more money into the company. Trove has bitten me (TRY IT!) and will get my money for now.
Thank you for this excellent post, it was a bit saddening to read through it but I wish you the best in finding a good game to play with your son.
I think an even more telling state of the game sign is that this post has not received even a 'good bye' or "we are sorry to see you go" from any of the devs in the 24 hours it's been up. I never met you in game Lichner but I am sorry to see you go. I too have cancelled all my extra accounts and am wondering if I am going to keep my main going or not.
first off , I imagine that these changes arnt easily undone, and will require some time and another patch to make the adjustments. secondly , im sure they are waiting to see the effect on game when the servers are live, if any adjustments need to be made. lastly , with every expansion / nerf / etc we see people "rage quit " but they end up getting the expansion anyway. not pointing to the original poster but in regard to the masses. to the original poster , I am sorry if you decide to leave. I belive the expansion and the game is worth continuing to play. however if leaving is mostly due to health reasons I hope there is something that will keep you entertained and having fun. as for the devs , im sure they are not reading the forums as they are scrambling to have everything ready to patch to the live servers.
Im sorry to see you go. You are 2 of many that we have lost over the years for reasons that could have, should have, been avoided. This community has lost some incredible players over the years. Not only due to RL stuff but because their hard work and dedication was wasted away due to executives who are so focused on making a buck, they lose their sight on whats important, which is exactly what makes this game profitable. Most of those who are left that invest their spare time into creating change are doing it for their own benefit and not for the game/community as a whole. And the devs just eat it up ( for whatever reason). Good luck to both of you, and may the joy you found in EQ come back to you in whatever else you set your sights on! /Salute Yes! Unfortunately however this is not possible. First they would have to come here or another public forum, acknowledge whats been happening, tell us that they like EQ as much as us and want it to have the longevity that we all want it to have. Then, they would have to put their money where their mouth is. They would have to outline, in public, what their strategy is, then do it. That strategy would have to include a customer service based approach, similar to how it used to be. They would have to stop releasing content, spells, abilities to the game without rigorous testing. Then when someone comes along with an agenda, they have to be prepared to handle it correctly and fairly, in a way that keeps the future of EQ top priority. Then they would have to be ready to be in it for the long haul. It will take time to get all those that quit to come back. Because they have screwed this game off for so long, they would have to be patient for their investment to pay off. IMO, those are the basic things that must happen in order for EverQuest to survive and thrive. As I said above, this will not happen. They arent interested in any of the above, if they were, things wouldnt be the way they are. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to see whats needed to revive this giant of a game that EverQuest is. The higher ups are only interested in profit and rightfully so. No company can survive on just giving the masses what they want. The company has to be profitable.If they gave a damn, EQ would be at the top ( where it belongs) and would stay there for years to come. This game is profitable and can be even more so that it ever was. Theyre like alot of US companies, who moved their factories to 3rd world countries to increase profit, all the while shooting themselves in the foot by losing focus on whats important, a profitable future. Greed inflicts them so much, they lose sight of their goal. There is a small part of me still hoping that someone finally steps up to the plate and gets it done. Maybe all of the people here and other public forums speak loud enough with their wallet and with a voice that makes the powers-that-be see the error of their ways and they decide not to give up but to fight on!
Not this time. There will always be those who defend what is done with Eq to the very end (not saying you are one of those btw), but the masses are leaving the game for real currently. And why not, it's a normal reaction to the ill treatment players received in the last ~2 years. Eq1 is not immune just because it's the @original mmo, people don't like being taken for fools. This has nothing to do with nerfs or rage quitting.
I both agree and yet disagree with parts of your statement, iniari-TR. I agree that there are a lot of people who threaten to rage-quit whenever they make some kind of modification to the game we play. It's a natural and understandable reaction at first when devs start messing with things we grew to love or at least grew to adapt to. That being said, I don't feel like this is the same type of situation. Like the OP, I think that the majority of people who are upset by all this are upset because enough is enough. It's BECAUSE everyone has tolerated the minor nerfs and tweaks that Sony has thrown out time and time again, only to feel like this time they're being crapped on for their loyalty. The way that Sony rolled out their article was condescending, and almost as if they were berating those of us who don't have their particular play-style in mind when we log on. Telling us what we should and should not think is fun in the game is reprehensible, IMO. Like another poster has already mentioned, I do not farm HAs. In fact, I only have time to play about 3x a week (which makes my $15/mo. + not including marketplace goodies more precious to me). However the language they chose to use, and the way they blatantly showed such disregard and disrespect for those of us who do not play the way they feel we should (even though we are paying them) are a couple of the main reasons why I'm on the fence about sticking around, and even then, I'm unsure of how much of my hard earned money or valuable time I'll be willing to spend on them moving forward. They also didn't take into consideration (or if they did, they don't care) that there will be a great deal of people who will essentially be unable to play the new zones, especially right after launch. These progression locked zones will be overflowing and crowded, so those players with the bare minimum of the specs required to play the game (sorry that I don't have enoug pocket change to upgrade my PC for a game I already pay monthly for) will be left out until people have already progressed so far beyond, the zone isn't laggy anymore and we can zone in and explore. This is counter-productive to their other goal, that everyone should all be racing to get the highest gear and levels all at the same time and progress simultaneously. That will not happen anyway, unless you have systems that can tolerate the massive influx of players crowding those zones all fighting to unlock progression at the same time. All in all, people are upset because they have already remained loyal and true and have not "rage quit" like they threatened to do when they were pissed. Yet NOW they are having their gameplay be dictated to them and they are trying to pigeonhole people into playing one particular style by punishing those who choose to stay in lower zones and wait it out while those who DO want to rush in and get their progression done immediately finish up. I'm still not holding my breath for any changes they MAY implement. If these forums and the lack of understanding or acknowledgment of the feedback they're getting from their paying customers is anything to go by, I'm less than optimistic about the changes they're going to make to their original plan. Either way, it won't happen right after launch. This is why I won't be buying the new expansion when it comes out, and am still on the fence on whether I will continue to play this, or any Sony game in the future. There are other options out there that many have posted, which are comparable, that I could explore instead. However, because I'm loyal (and because the timing of it all saw me auto-renew for 30 days last night), I will wait it out for a bit to see what, if any changes, they implement or promise to implement in the near future. They have 29 days to change my mind, before I cancel and go elsewhere. This isn't me threatening out of rage, it's me calmly mulling this over ever since the original article was posted and argued over. Lichner, myself, and others who are removing payment methods from their accounts - These are the people you don't want to see go, Sony. I realize that the decision is a big one that involves several areas of the business that we, as the consumer, are not privvy to know or understand. I work management for one of the largest online retailers in the world, so I'm well aware of how big business decisions work. That being said, all good businesses also realize that while some plans appear awesome on paper, they suck when they're implemented and rolled out to their consumers. They actively listen to customers' feedback, and at least attempt to find some middle ground that both appeases the big business side of the deal, but also (and more importantly), appeases your customers. While EQ may be a drop in the bucket financially speaking compared to EVERYTHING else Sony provides, your customer base is currently very loyal. You start losing loyal customers (like Lichner), and you will not find them dropping any money into anything else Sony has to offer in the future, rightfully so. Even through word of mouth alone, you will find your loyal customer base slowly dwindling. Remember that the quality of your customers is also just as important as their pocketbooks. There's a reason we loyal customers prefer EQ to WoW and it isn't all just because of the gameplay. Last but most certainly not least, I'm very sorry to see a player like Lichner go. I'm saddened that I was never able to know you or group with you in the game, but wish you grand adventures where ever you and your son end up. Perhaps I'll see you in another game.
Great post. Your end result was similar to my own. No TDS, 6 cancelled accounts, I dont even think I'll bother logging in before my account pay cycle ends. Ultimately players leave this game for different reasons, but it often comes down to the fact that "the fun" just isn't there anymore. I was unable to find the fun these past few years and regret that I dragged out my decision as long as I did. More or less. Many mid and top end guilds are seeing insane departure rates in recent months. This isn't even member turnover, there simply aren't enough warm bodies to replace those departing anymore. Entire servers are rolling over dead again.
Bingo. CoTF being disappointing (I'm not a huge HA fan), repeated nerfs (to include not only needed nerfs, but also unjustified nerfs, unannounced nerfs, nerfing mechanisms they were happy with for years and years, and wasting limited dev time to nerf things which were already dang close to obsolete and would be obsolete with the rise to 105), botched implementation of things like chase weapons (after six months they still aren't back in HA's - so guess the plan is to either ignore it, or else wait until they are *all* obsoleted by group content, and then add them back in), wasting dev time on nobles (workarounds for the 10% surtax are apparently too hard to do - even though one solution sounded like it would basically be re-using spell rune turn-in code) and Marsha - and then saying 'hey, this is what is fun when an expansion comes out, und ve vill nerf experience everyvhere else in order to make sure zat you vill enchoy it too! (disregarding the fact that announcing such a major change just before release screams of either a) not being transparent and keeping players informed of what would hopefully have been a rather deliberate and well thought out process - with the decision not being made halfway though beta, or b) that this is some desperation move made during beta to try and make up for the lack of content) . . . . I still have a lot of stuff to do in ROF (and that $#@% Tear from VOA), and exp will be bad enough simply from /cons greening out, etc. to have an additional nerf thrown on top of it - because hey, they know what is fun. (Sorry, Roshen, but that was not very well-worded copy they gave you.) Level to 105, so your power vs. current content will be lower relative to what it was when the level limit was 100, and trying to do stuff you haven't gotten around to over the years is going to be less rewarding! So why do I want to level? OK, /rant off Excluding the 39 months I've been deployed, tomorrow is going to be the first time since that I haven't bought a new expansion as soon as it has come out. I'm basically waiting to see how long it will be before the guild requires 105, and then getting it for my main. Assuming I don't just hang it up, which would make my wife very happy. I get the sense that SOE is giving lots of spouses/significant others an early Christmas present with their approach to the game over this last year. Lichner. Apothikis - as my navy buddies would say, fair winds and following seas.
I do agree with how wrongly CS addresses the players. I remember not long ago when a lot of people were mistakenly banned for using VMware for legitimate reasons and CS called everyone cheaters and hackers. or the famous rollbacks from "tainted plat " I also think this nerf to xp is extremely dumb. EQ consists of over 300+ zones and a so many quests even the staff have forgotten some , to explore. and they want everyone to rush to 105 and play in this latest expansion. and I do agree too many times changes are made and players are told to deal with it. I don't care if mages can beam kite ,or bards run around with a large train, or wizards nuking for a million. what I care about is having fun- the game doesn't need to be in perfect balance or follow a plan according to a set vision. after 16 years the game should be tailored to what the players like. and real feedback / communication between staff and players. i do think there will be a lot less expansions purchased , especially for alt accounts and for those still in lower content. while i understand that development resources are limited and they cannot design an expansion like the TBS for all level ranges , but to basically obsolete completely the amount of content to the high end player doesn't make sense.
I did just read the stuff in announcements (while watching the Cowboys struggle =p), and it's quiet shocking how players get ignored when all they want to know is if the exp changes will happen in this patch. At this point even if i hadn't quit already, my pride would forbid me to give them any more money at this point. This is simply too much, yep they are in charge and players are not but we are grown up peoples here for christ sake and i would not go this low for a game. No...freaking...way...screw that.
Even though I posted on the original page and I fully support Lichner's message, I feel obligated to point out that... I've been noticing this misconception a lot, so I thought i'd come point it out publicly. CoTF is still fair game - they're simply reducing the xp rewards in terms of Rain of Fear and below (this, I suspect, was because of the massive hoarding of partisans that could boost borderline 101 player to 103ish - Why they care so much, I don't know.) I suspect the first people to 105 are going to be grinding HA's and other content in CoTF as opposed to pushing through the new expansion, honestly. It'll be an open bastion of red and yellow cons, where the new areas are going to be packed with competition and in-fighting given that all virtually all partisans are required for raid flagging. Argin-Hiz and Tower of Rot are looking beautiful for all the players who want to level but avoid the crowds.
rather then reducing xp for doing older content, they should boost the xp for doing the newest content. ps. my comment wasn't ment to be trolling those classes , but to make the point that certain styles of play and what we as players consider "fun" should have a greater priority concerning changes to the game. i also wish to retract my comment about the "masses" these changes and the expansion as a whole , seeing the flood of negative posts , may lead to a greater exodus then what occurred during the release of GoD and UF.
If you read and understood the other threads you'd know why they care so much. Follow the money... (or lack thereof) -R
