I have been playing Everquest since March 1999 (just to establish some cred). I have seen a lot of changes/growth/evolution in the time that I have been playing this game. I wanted to share something that seems to have been lost somewhere along the way that I truly believe would be beneficial moving forward. A simple strategy to improve things would be, for any changes to ask a simple question. Does this _______ make the game more enjoyable. best regards, Godslayer Thana of Bristlebane
What you say is agreeable, and there is nothing overtly wrong or inaccurate with your post.. The problem resides in your lack of understanding that "Enjoyable" isn't the yardstick by which they measure EQ's success anymore.
As I remember, the best way to get a post ignored was to title it Dev. I also see nothing wrong is more communication, but as anyone can see just with the warrior, pally, sk fight going on. Saying talking will please everyone, while a great idea, devolves into name calling and turf wars.
Not to mention, "enjoyable" is subjective. Enjoyable for some is not for others. Some enjoy housing and everything they can do with it. I don't. But I enjoy puttering around in old zones, exploring, and creating alts. Others don't. Etc.
Some people greatly enjoyed swarming with their mage, headshotting with their ranger, going on decap sprees with their zerker etc... Despite this being fun for those who played those classes it could be a real pain for other players. I recall a few years back on a bonus XP weekend being unable to kill anything in Grounds due to a couple of berzerkers pulling everything in entire areas. Yeah, couldn't even get enough kills to do the stupid Teeks daily I remember zoning in to some zones and and being lagged to the point of being unable to move because there was a mage swarming EVERYTHING in the entire zone. Back in the day I enjoyed beam kiting with my wizard but I'm pretty sure that I was being a real nuisance to anyone even trying to make it through Icefall Glaciers and even farther back AE killing with my bard was a real hoot but again I was grabbing entire zones worth of mobs when I did that...I actually swore off of doing that before they made the changes to bards AE songs. So, "fun" is far from the only standard that should be considered when making changes.
And there is always the fact that some things that might make the game enjoyable for a while could hurt it in the longer run. I wish it was as easy as what is fun though. But also appreciate another person voicing their opinion. When can all discuss opinions and ideas in a friendly manner we are more likely to hit on something that works once in a while. As for how EQ's success was measured it was ALWAYS by profits as far as Daybreak/SOE/Verant (which was always owned by Sony) were concerned. What has changed is the gaming/business environment and the fact that Everquest is almost 17 years old.
To suggest that the Devs don't want to put out enjoyable content is ludicrous, unfair and completely wrong. These guys work their collective you know whats off to produce content they think people will like. They take comments from previous expansions (not enough raids for example) and incorporate them into the future, to try and give the people what they ask for. The other complete inaccuracy in your post is that not everyone finds the same thing enjoyable. For example, people who don't enjoy raiding but love tradeskilling didn't find this expansion enjoyable, but people who love raiding and hate tradeskilling likely found this one much better than the last. The problem lies in your lack of understanding that what is "enjoyable" is not measured on the same yardstick for everyone who plays
I'd just like to see what kind of life they envision for the future of EQ... And maybe they can't come close to creating that vision with their various constraints, but I'm still trying to find that line of exactly how little am I willing to accept before calling it not worth it. Still dreaming for better always but git ur chit together Daybreak (said with love for our game)
The scary part about this thread is the dedicated base players are starting to wane in devotion to the game. I don't think the OP said does this change make everyone happy? Nor did the say the enjoyable has to be a short term boost the expense of the game. EQ was a hard game when it came out, and was very successful, easy doesn't always equate with enjoyable. Given the lack of resources, unless something is completely broken (and yeah there are completely broken aspects to the game, that hopefully are fixed tomorrow), without some consistency to a well thought out plan, changes to the game on established tactics, game play and/or class definitions are only going to cause more issues than benefits. Especially given with the limited resources of our developers, chances of them doing it right is limited at best. For example, the nerf swing at necros besides mana burn (which most admit was a bit overpowered) is founded on what this round? Least I can understand why mages got wacked to oblivion, they were trying to balance the class to 15-17 year old content with little consideration to current servers. I will state its absurd to affect current content balancing to TLP servers. All its done is create a cluster of issues that will take several rounds of patches and fixes to resolve on content that was balanced on the old levels. What scares me most is when is my class going to be reviewed and find out some line of code 14 years old wasn't working and was fixed, that lowers my dps by 20 percent with no consideration of how the fix is going to affect the balance of my class today. And just for fun, I went through my bank statements (really should get rid of my old records) I have exceeded 25k in subs, expansions, and station cash purchases to SOE, Verant, and DBGs over the past 17 years for all the accounts I maintain. Ruven
There is no way to explain some of their recent actions. You don't nerf xp and missions that people enjoy because you are anything but punitive!
I think the fact that someone other than the player base that believes in keeping a game that's 16+ years old alive is worth considering they realize it's "enjoyable" in many different ways, to many different kinds of players. The only thing I haven't found enjoyable is grouping with a F2P operator and getting ready to burn through an instance only to find out they don't have the necessary tools to either contribute or keep up and end up being a sponge of sorts.
You do realize that they do things for specific reasons right? Accusing them of being punitive when people gravitate to specific missions because the risk/reward is out of balanced is again unfair. This has been going on since the beginning of missions (how many creator missions have people done because it is so easy for the rewards?) And they also have supervisors that they need to answer to that may want things done for other reasons.
I wonder how long some people can keep pretending that these changes aren't going to decimate the necro population.
Nothing. But don't pretend they are doing them over and over and over because they are having fun. They do the creators because it was the best return for the time invested.
Noons at dbg cares about customer satisfaction they only care about themselves at the decimation of eq... If they did care they would fix all the broken crap first instead of useless nerfs which is uncalled for... This why I am not playing anymore...
1. The length you declare to have been playing this game doesn't give or take anything away from your post. Just for future reference. 2. The term 'enjoyable' is highly subjective. Everyone has their own idea of what 'enjoyable' is. That is why there are different types of servers. You have different TLP servers, a PVP server, the FV server, and other standard ruleset severs. Next you have the options to raid, do group content, grind out exp, explore, or simply take advantage of the social dynamics that the 17 year old MMO has to offer. 3. If the content over the last 17 years has been anything but 'enjoyable' in accordance to what the majority of players think, I don't think EQ would have lasted this long. 4. If you are going to post an idea, criticism or any advice, can you be more specific than use vague terminology such as 'enjoyable'?
I think a large percentage, maybe 30% are in the same condition as me, running out the clock on 2 yr subscriptions.
I love what you get out of OP's post is semantics. Good job, you're definitely doing it right. Wait...no you're not, so I'll do it for you. Is it necessary to alienate player base with a constant barrage of nerfs that have no explanation or rationale behind them? It doesn't make the game any more "enjoyable" and just because some [stubborn] people choose to continue on with the nerfs, making the game less "enjoyable", it doesn't make those said nerfs justifiable or necessary. See what I did there? P.S. the length of time a person played does a lot for me because now I know that they've experienced just about everything. I wouldn't take a person who started a year ago seriously enough because they do not know the history of the game. Got it? Ok, good. I'm glad to clear that up.
