I do a lot more lurking and reading than I do posting, but at the risk of creating a total train wreck and adding more fuel to the fire, I'd like to try and start an honest and sincere discussion about moving forward post Broken Mirror. If Roshen or any Developer would be willing to add in some commentary as well (as it seems the communication is at a big lull since release), it would be greatly appreciated! Before I begin, I don't want the message to get misconstrued -- this isn't just more baseless b*tching about EverQuest or the Developer team. Even the biggest "gloom and doom" posters can't deny the immense amount of work that our Devs put in leading up to launch. Regardless of how the product came out, no one can deny they put in some incredibly stressful and draining 100+ hour work weeks to be able to make launch even happen, and no can deny it was probably a b*tch trying to get it all done running with a short supply of developers. I'm certainly not trying to take that away from them, and I'm even saying thank you for their dedication. At the same time, though, the Devs can't deny that there are many, many, many, many threads expressing the discontent with the latest expansion. At the risk of sounding like one of those "gloom and doom posters," things have been heading downhill pretty consistently with the past few expansions -- both in quality and quantity of content -- and it all seems to have culminated into The Broken Mirror, which is unarguably the most incomplete, empty, and "buggy" expansion to have ever been released. Regardless if any of the Developers play the game or not, there has to be a point where they take a step back as professionals and realize the quality of what they produced is severely diminished. I put my name on a lot of projects and designs as a professional in my field of work, and while I know it's impossible to please everyone, I at least pour my heart into what I do so that I'm proud of the finished product that bears my name and my work ethic. Even after taking into consideration all of the things that led up to Broken Mirror (e.g., office move, short(er) Beta, Elidroth resigning, etc.), I still don't know that I could be happy with such an incomplete product. We were paid "lip service" about so many things: how future content would be tuned, communication and intentions leading into upcoming content, workload delegation on the Developer team, balancing between TLP and Live servers, pushing back content releases for the sake of quality, etc., etc., and pretty much all of it has fallen short. The only things we have to go off of are broken and/or incomplete promises, the downward trend of quality the past couple of years, and the product that we were just delivered about a month ago. Can anyone seriously blame us for getting worried about a product that we've loved for 16+ years? Like I said above, there's plenty of threads that state what's wrong and what people are unhappy about. If we can help it, let's not revisit any of that. Instead, the damage is done, and we have the product that we have. Can we actually get a meaningful discussion going about how to make sure The Broken Mirror doesn't happen again? How can we, the player base, help our developers meet that goal? Can we actually get a Developer/relations response that actually reasons with and communicates to us instead of the scripted and diplomatic "We're listening!" nonsense? I don't know what the sales model was like for Broken Mirror, but I can promise you if we don't get some light shed on at least some of this and get it cleared up for the future, you're not going to have a whole lot of people left to develop for.
From a business model (only) TBM has followed the pattern of the last few previous expansions: 1. Spend less on Dev resources than last year. 2. Deliver less of a product than last year. 3. Replace content with tedium to "make it last longer". 4. Lose a few more people than last year. 5. Lament that the lower numbers justify less resources NEXT year. In business they call this a "death spiral" - and there is no way out. (However, it can be slowed as much as possible) We, EQ, and the Devs have been fighting "the long defeat" for years now. Adding the Daybreak investors to the mix only ensures that the product (EQ) must turn a profit through all phases of the long kiss goodnight. It's to this end, that we see more cash grabs (like TLP) than ever taking up resources. EQ *must* run in the black every quarter... period. -Rat
I think at this point it's just a dream that healthy discussion will change much, if anything. As Ratbo already pointed out, the business model behind TBM was simple: Push it out (too early) because they needed sales this year, Eq has to be in the black (and more, prolly). Call it expansion again, to justify charging more money. Hope that enough people are satisfied, despite all the problems. That's it, i don't see how things will change. Developers are prolly frustrated with their work by now. The few left. So it's a pretty safe bet that the next release will have more of the same, good games are the result of people actually liking their work, and putting their heart into it. TBM is the result of people being forced to keep this thing alive.
I believe that the following articles, might be a contributor to some of the causes for the problems we are experiencing today: http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/02/11/everquest-studio-hit-with-layoffs http://massivelyop.com/2015/03/06/daybreak-layoffs-totaled-140-in-san-diego/ http://www.polygon.com/2015/2/11/8020627/layoffs-soe-daybreak-game-company-everquest http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...ame-company-layoffs-sony-online-entertainment From the polygon web site article, what I found interesting was the following quote:
The dev resources just aren't there anymore. EQ's best chance is getting the players better-involved in the content development process. Some of us know the game better than they do.
Roshen has replied to two liver server things since TBM was released. Once to chastise us for complaining about TBM, and once to acknowledge that some servers were down. Back when I had a sub to a game developer magazine, the best articles were post mortems of games after they launched. The breakdowns of what went right and wrong, with the reasoning leading to those decisions was great. Mistakes happen, but they can be a chance to learn and improve if you can be honest about them existing and the processes leading up to them. With how often soe/dbg repeats mistakes, they seem to be lacking a corporate or management culture that is able to do that.
^^This is main problem here. Did you guys see that TBM thank you video? It was on all their faces...that dreary look that you get from working in a place you hate. Sure one was smiling, but it looked forced if you ask me. I have been there myself so I can spot it. For a change to happen, dev morale will need to be boosted and only upper management can do that.
Captain Smith! I awake you with good news! Remember that fire in the #5 coal bunker? Rejoice for it's now out! -R
If devs would have bailed faster they could have saved the Titanic too. Just kidding! Nothing will save this sinking ship. Except maybe after it sinks DBG could release the code as open source and a newer, cleaner, smarter EQ could be launched.
^ we will get flamed for that lol, but yep...if TBM is the future, i want this ship to sink rather sooner than later. Just to see if it blocked something...better.
EQ is in a position to fight "the long defeat" for years if done right. For that matter it likely has a long life even in "maintenance mode" after that. Project 99 proves that EQ cannot just "die". So they might as well keep it operating at "some level". -R
I've been saying this forever. The cost of running the servers must be astronomically low since they let stuff like Vulak and Trakanon sit around. They'll go through several merges leaving a Live server and probably the special rules like Zek and FV. So... maybe 3ish, if that. Then they just need a skeleton crew dev like the Mac server had. I mean dear jebus, just look how long that relic lasted; the Mac server stopped at PoP but was then left running until just 2 or 3(?) years ago). That's almost 10 years of nothing. Pretty sure the reason they closed it down was because of F2P. Even after they stop releasing content for good, people will still pay a sub for years; some probably forever if they could.
MMO's nowadays are just a joke. We still have people who complain that TBM is too hard which I find sad. Because of WoW, games are now a joke and expected to get results like WoW does. Which cant happen. Ive worked on another mmo and was told, "Do it like WoW does." Exact line from a producer. So had to go back and make the event insanely easy and tell the people what to do for the event. I love EQ but its not fun anymore. Raids arent made anymore for good players. They are made for average players. I think it is possible to do both but you have to put the resources in to do it(FFXIV has a normal mode for average/normal players and a savage mode for the better players which I think is great). EQ is dying. Its hard to get new players to come to an outdated mmo when all the newer ones are a lot more new player friendly.
It's a shame that we as players keep getting less and less for our monies from EQ. The graphic engine is poorly outdated and still laggy (Look at Rift's graphic detail and smooth play for instance) BUT.. BUT... Everquest is the only game I keep coming back to! I've played most of the major MMO's out there, but at some point (If you're not an avid raider 24/7) you hit a wall where there's not really anything left to do. EQ has always had SOMETHING to work on, AA's, Gear, etc.. that has kept myself and a handful of friends coming back to it. Multiple accounts and 22 expansions later, here I am. (Passing time in the forums because the login server is down or under attack and I can't log in. LOL) 13 years later, I still find myself enjoying runs around Everquest. I hope some miracle saves EQ from the dust bin before it's too late.
The EQMac community actually begged to pay subs to save the server, but no dice. What a great server. Was sad to see it go.
