A Modest proposal

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Salinae, May 30, 2020.

  1. Salinae Old Cranky member

    Now for something completely different.


    I believe that EverQuest has been in a harvesting mode, since the day Daybreak took over. They are putting fewer resources in the game to maximize return on investment. This is what every venture capital company does. You keep the game going and focus on generating revenue. Microtransactions, TLP Servers, Lifetime accounts all provide an opportunity to generate revenue. We have seen customer service reduced due to these changes, which are not unique to Daybreak. So this is what I believe.

    1. The code for the game is complicated, and most likely, there is the knowledge that left the company over the last 21 years on how specific functions work.

    2. The game code is stretched to the breaking point with unintended statistics and features that are never designed to run.

    3. Developers and creative people feel the responsibility of guarding this game, but they have to make tough choices based on feedback, and the resources that they are provided.

    4. People spend an ungodly amount of money on this game through Krono purchases, box army subscriptions, and microtransactions.

    What I am proposing is we protect the game we love and fix some of the problems in a unique fashion through targeted crowdfunding of specific objectives.

    Here is how it would work. Something easy like fixing the script to allow characters to move between accounts. In conjunction with Darkpaw, come up with a realistic cost to automate this process with a minimum of disruption to their current development. Lets put it out to coders who are or have worked with the software that EverQuest is built on.

    The bean counters have said that it would cost $25K to get functional. There would be an additional 5K in expenses for interaction with current devs. The community decided if this is plausible. If you donate $50.00, you get a flag or title. If you give $100.00, you get a set of transfer tokens and a title. If you donate $1000, you get an NPC name in a future expansion on your home server. Once the campaign starts, there is a time window, and if the goal is not met, you get your money back less PayPal fees or whatever.

    Want to buy a raid in between expansions? GMM2 can be added for the right price.

    Want to get the lag issue reduced? DPG puts a plan together, and we fund it.

    The community votes with their wallet. They vote with their playtime. Maybe we think far out of the box and see if we could get sponsors. Let's face it a lot of us are DINKS that have played for 20 years, the kids are gone, and we have $$$ or the second generation that all have grow rooms. I think it is worth a shot - I mean, why not? Forget blaming things that we can't control, and let's focus on things we can.



    It's just a thought.
  2. Endorek Lorekeeper

    That's not actually how venture capital firms usually work. They're more in the invest for growth business. Aside from that, I just generally disagree with all of your proposal because it's ridiculously complicated. Just increase the price and do all the things, or if that would lead to too many cancellations, you add a subscription level above gold, like they tried back in the day on whatever the high GM involvement server where TR started, and those accounts get access to special content and features, or just sell those things through the store piecemeal.
  3. xxGriff Augur

    I agree with Endorek on his venture capitalist work/goal. I disagree with a tiered or a la carte approach. they simply become out right pay to win, and nickel and dime people into boredom and frustration. one reason i dont play several MMO's I had up until the above mentioned scheme was introduced in to those games. I do wish there was a Family sub option, that would take into consideration 4+ subs on a monthly basis. as that would appeal to our household with kids, grand kids who stay with us for 2-3 weeks and return home. I dont want to sub for 3 months or yearly when it is not used.
  4. Syylke_EMarr Augur

    I can't believe you'd title this "A Modest Proposal" and not even mention feeding TLP players to the devs.
    yepmetoo and Elyssanda like this.
  5. Tucoh Augur

    Haha.

    Crowdfunding TLP would be way more profitable than live. A crowdfunded TLP that released classic + kunark but level locked at 50 would make tons of $$$
  6. Angahran Augur

    So basically you want to go beyond "pay to win" and let those with the fattest wallets determine the entire direction of the Everquest franchise ?
    code-zero likes this.
  7. Vumad Cape Wearer

    I never understand it when people say Pay to Win when speaking about EverQuest. It's PVE. There is no PVP. There is no winning. And that aside, what can you buy that is meaningful? Krono to get Some XP potions? Collections? A power level? A few ultra rares?The best stuff comes from raids. Are guilds off FV selling raid loot?
  8. Vumad Cape Wearer

    Absolutely not. I already buy 3 expansions per year and sub 3 accounts. Thats $40x3+$156x3=$588. Even one account is almost $200/yr. Any company that can't make that work needs to seriously take a step back and ask themselves WTF they are doing wrong.

    Start nickle and diming me on DLC and I can bounce. My Xbox live sub is $4/mo. The game I play the most is crossout which is a free to play game. Tons of enjoyment in the gaming world can be had for much less than $200/yr, and definitely for $600.

    People will pay happily for things they enjoy, but make them feel exploited or exceed your value offering and the opportunity costs will greatly exceed the increased revenue.

    The only viable long term growth model is to expand the player base. Not try to squeeze the existing base more.
    lockjaws and Alena like this.
  9. Jhenna_BB Proudly Prestigious Pointed Purveyor of Pincusions

    There are plenty of MMO's in the market that make PVE pay to win. They limit task timers and materials needed to increase gear without paying through the nose in their cash shops. The grind was insufferable maxing out our Rallos ears. Imagine doing that for every gear slot and paying to be able to do it because the method for grinding isn't available until tomorrow because of task timers.

    In many of those games, open world provides nothing to players. Those games have bot problems too and even less involvement by GM's to enforce it than EQ.
  10. Vumad Cape Wearer


    Yeah, but none of that applies to EverQuest.

    The Rallos Earring is a grind to cause players who are max XP to keep XPing. You don't need to spend any money to do it. There is no pay to win aspect. The devs have done the right thing with evolvers by making it so that casual players can get XP quickly while giving more active players a reason to keep pulling.

    Even most of the games that are pay to win aren't really. They have just traded the subscription model for an A La Carte model. Really in those games the base play is more of just a trial. (I don't play A La Carte games and object to the proposal of subscription / DBC hybrids in EQ)

    I think the issue is that people who start EverQuest now don't understand the subscription model and take the fact that they get to play the game for free for granted.
  11. Jhenna_BB Proudly Prestigious Pointed Purveyor of Pincusions

    Oh, it sure does. The slippery slope has already been tread upon. You can buy a cash shop item to increase your luck to avoid spending plat and the overseer is a huge cash grab. It's literally a predatory cell phone game. They just hid that a little this past patch by limiting accounts to 10 quests.
    Vumad likes this.
  12. Triconix Augur

    To be fair, you're comparing two wildly different things. The reason why xbox live subs can be so cheap is because they have so many more subs. It's basic economics. There are something like 65 million active Xbox live subscriptions. At $4x65,000,000 you're looking at over a quarter of a billion dollars a month in revenue or 3.1 BILLION in revenue per year.

    Now compare that to EQ and it's absolute prime of something like 500,000 subscriptions with an average of $15 a month. You're looking at 7.5 million dollars per month and 90 million dollars a year. 1 month of Xbox triples the earnings of EQ at its absolute peak of yearly sales.
  13. Xyphen Maximum Augur

    I suspect this is true but I honestly don't understand why people don't want play on P99 instead. A "classic" TLP is very little more than just creating an alt on a Live server and relegating yourself to an older expansion. While P99 is a very close nostalgic representation.
  14. Tucoh Augur

    It's true that TLP is a different game compared to P99, and P99 is way closer to Everquest in 1999.

    However, TLP is way more fun than I remember EQ being in 1999, and based on what little I know, is way more fun than p99. It's got almost all of the fun parts of 1999 EQ and the nostalgia factor, but has a lot of the rough spots smoothed out that most people won't tolerate in 2020.
  15. Triconix Augur

    TLP is the nostalgia of older EQ expansions but without dealing with all the huge negatives of vanilla EQ. Original EQ functionally was terrible. People mainly like the old zones, lore, raids, etc. Could you imagine vanilla EQ grinding in modern day? We got complaints about ToV exp. Take those and triple them.

    Also, P99 doesnt include some very well liked expansions such as PoP.
  16. Xyphen Maximum Augur

    Fair enough. I would probably give them an honest try if they reverted Freeport, Oasis and Nektulos and tossed the old spell effects back in.
  17. Tucoh Augur

    I rolled a Dark Elf whose leveling path is Nektulos->Commonlands->South Ro->Lavastorm so far. Those are the zones most hit by the zone revisions and it's pretty rough, yeah. But going through Befallen was nice, and most of the zones after that are still original.
  18. Vumad Cape Wearer

    You quoted this....

    To say this...


    But you deleted from that same quote this...

    So, like, thanks for explaining economics to me, I guess?
  19. Vumad Cape Wearer


    I agree and I have been very against the DBC store. Even on things that give no advantage what-so-ever. The ability to buy illusions is terrible for the lore and I hate it.

    But you're right. Those tradeskill potions on the DBC store are terrible and are another good example.

    So I retract my statement about EQ not being pay-to-win.
  20. Triconix Augur

    I excluded it because it's not a viable option. You're not going to significantly gain enough new subscriptions to generate enough revenue to make massive overhauls. It's just not going to happen. The game is 20 years old. The people who started playing this game 20 years ago were probably for the most part ages 15-30. You're looking at 2 generations of gamers that has grown up since then and most, if not all, probably never heard of this game. You really think you're going to target thousands (probably need millions) of people to pick up a 20 year old game for the first time?

    You want to complain about DLC and/or PTW tactics yet don't consider that those are some of the few only viable options to generate more revenue.

    Edit: and the more I read your responses, the more it sounds like OldManYellsAtCloud syndrome. I don't see how you would be happy of an expansion of players because those newer gamers would bring new ideas to the table, shuffle lore up, want mechanics changes, graphics changes etc. All the veterans of EQ would fight back to keep nostalgia on a game when nostalgia means nothing to the new gamers.