Only post in a decade (warning: long)

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Lichner, Oct 26, 2014.

  1. An old ELF! Lorekeeper

    I had a wet eye reading this.
    Absolute Poetry!

    I am standing up... clapping my hands ... giving you a standing ovation!

    I have quit one account today myself. ( So far )
    Lisandra likes this.
  2. An old ELF! Lorekeeper

    Fantastic post.
    I wish the best for you and your father!!

    I am so very glad you decided to move on. The game is getting more problematic then it is fun.
    You are a great Son!
    You have a great Father!

    Reiahla ( deleted and quitting account), Erollisi AKA Saave.
    Lisandra and TwystedPyxie like this.
  3. An old ELF! Lorekeeper

    oops.. wrong post
    TwystedPyxie likes this.
  4. TwystedPyxie New Member

    I liked my post. lol :(

    Though to be fair it's very TL;DR - but worth it. :)
    Lisandra likes this.
  5. Burdi Augur

    I tend to feel frustrated too by the general mediocrity of the recent Everquest content.
    I will see how that goes, but it is rather disappointing to see that So few resources are being allocated to EQ.
    I would suggest to add a few junior staff to EQ teem, they will bring new ideas, and some fun. They are essential to creativeness.
  6. Lisandra Augur

    Once again it's obvious that SOE as a whole & the EQ team itself doesn't care about us as individuals. They only care about how much profit they can make while putting in the absolute minimum time & effort in order to keep costs down. All profits are going to Next & Landmark (neither of which is worthy of the EverQuest name or lore) & they expect us all to continue to support them there but I personally will not be doing so in any way, shape or form.
  7. Ratbo Peep Augur

    Despite the "lip service" we keep getting, the actual flow of resources is still moving away from EQ - not towards it. It's likely the only new dev's we get, will be the ones that are being "punished" or "demoted".
    Think! Why would anyone new "up and coming" chose an old, slowly fading, game for a real career path on purpose? Hint: They don't.
    Sony itself has a long history of customer deceit. Is anyone here not aware of the time Sony used music CD's to install proprietary malware in people's computers? That's Sony at it's core - a predator.
    And then there's Smed. This guy has one huge hit (EQ), largely by being first the genre, and parlays that one hit to being the grand poobah of SOE. Of course since original EQ - his track record of "success vs sunsets" would get any sports coach fired. He largely serves as an example of how "not to do it".
    None the less he knows the right words to tell his corporate masters and keeps slinging poop up against the walls "hoping something will stick".
    Something did stick - it was EQ and he's all but forgotten it. We exist now only to get strung along, to milk for funding, for the next "pie in the sky" game they want to sling to the wall.
    -Rat
    Lisandra likes this.
  8. Casidia Augur

    The sunset of Vanguard was already disappointing, i liked running around in this game and i saw how many still played it (or played again). Very healthy population.
    It was a nice game once the crashing issues were gone (and i had no problems anymore), but that didn't help. So i am not surprised what happens with Eq1, the gamers and their feelings don't count.
    Lisandra likes this.
  9. Pwnography Augur

    I can't agree with you here - I love the rhetoric, but it doesnt really make sense. The pool of candidates that are willing to work on a huge game or have a chance at locking on with a big gaming corporation is huge. The other alternative for graduates, even those with some degree of real-world experience, is largely small indie developers across the country which may or may not amount to anything, not to mention stability. The demand for SOE jobs are a commodity, regardless of the proiect. There is an over-saturation in the market of prospective coders, designers, etc compared to positions available.

    With that said, I sincerely doubt their best and brightest are on original EQ. What you're looking at is a training ground, in my eyes. Where I work we have legacy warfighter systems running COBOL, FORTRAN, ADA, ALGOL, etc. Promising graduates with differing degrees of experience are brought in and given a trial by fire in old, low priority updates which tests their ability to adapt and learn new (I.e., ancient) languages and succeed. The best of those end up getting sniped by more prominent projects through word of mouth and politics.

    As far as EQ funding anything but EQ, I highly doubt it. All of the money being sunk here is almost certainly flowing back to the projects (minus project taxes for support functions like CM, etc.) While new games have more modern mechanisms - new engines, better languages, not having to worry about breaking fifteen years of cross dependency while writing, etc - EQ Development is probably largely the same with inefficient methods. Maybe they started tinkering with Agile development and sprints with staggered release, but thats just another means to an end. With a dwindling player-base, the project hours to build a bigger expansion are probably just not there. Whatever paultry sum is being made from this game pales in comparison to even the monthly project budget on EQNext. I can't imagine them siphoning a trivial amount of funds here in any capacity. The Govt labor rate for me is $120.82/hour after all overhead, project 'taxes, etc are handled. SoE is probably more efficient, but by the time that one Dev gets to his desk with his coffee and water cooler chat, he has blown through the cost of your year subscription.

    The point is, you're turning this into a huge conspiracy when chances are we have newer devs and dwindling budgets with player exodus over the years. Less purchases mean less funding, less devs, and less content. They may even be sinking extra cost from out of EQ just to avoid the potential PR hit they may take in sunsetting the original legacy before releasing EQNext. The bragging rights of saying 'we still have a vibrant EQ1 population fifteen years later' alone may be what keeps it alive.
  10. Ratbo Peep Augur

    Heh... you really need to read the forums more. The fact that we've lost resources and Dev's directly to EQ-Next / Landmark and other projects is not "theory" or "speculation" on anyone's part. It's established fact.
    We are just the proverbial stone getting squeezed for more and more blood, and getting nothing back for it.
    I agree with you that there's 2 ways to work on EQ at SOE - you are on the way UP and on to better things, or on the way DOWN. :D
    -R
    Lisandra likes this.
  11. Leifer Augur

    [quote="Pwnography, post: 3140308, member: 402607" The bragging rights of saying 'we still have a vibrant EQ1 population fifteen years later' alone may be what keeps it alive.[/quote]

    Pretty much This. I highly doubt, to SOE anyway, that EQ1 is "profitable" in any way that compares to an Industry Standard. Its a trophy now. It is only around so that they can point at it and proudly say "look, its still around."
  12. Ratbo Peep Augur

    And we better count on that being the MO for a good while. :)
    -R[/quote]
    Lisandra likes this.
  13. Pazen New Member

    Dear Sony,
    I wanted to write you a letter so that you would consider the following that is destroying your main game Everquest, then to follow DCUO in which it needs help as well.
    Everquest:
    Release date: 16 March 1999, seeing that the original release date was 16 March 1999, I have played this game two months after its release. So I think following this game (since then) I do have some say in its newest expansion. I have seen many folks come and go in this game and many Guilds move on to find other games. Youor GMs made the Everquest game fun, but for many years I have very seldom seen any online unless you petition and wait for hours. I miss Grog the old Eci server GM.
    Random drop are not enough and drops are not enough:
    I think that everyone within the raids should acquire the full items:
    For Example: If legs, breastplates, arms… and so on drop, everyone within the raid build should receive them? (Only drop the number of items that are within the raid for example if 45 raid only 45 drop or if 54 raid 54 drop). Maybe it should be in the negative to level the item (legs, Breastplates, arms and so on), or maybe it should be the max reward for wasting our time for 45 min to an hour? You do not receive enough tokens to raid an hour for a few drops in which only makes people want the item at a later date…then seeing it hardly ever drop is a waste of everyone’s time. This is to include chase items. For example the shield in Bixie is not even worth doing the raid only to not even receive the item at random. Being in a top Guild, maybe 5 in our entire Guild have this shield (Warrior/Paladin shield).
    You have a lot of people leavening (Like you lost in POP days) and not competing enough in game that it will soon pass away (people leave and leave its mark as a first timer gamers).
    Your raid Bosses need to resemble your best like (Planes of Power content.) We are starting to get tired, and older; you have very few new players. Beating a Boss should resemble that of Plane of Power? To kill a Boss It should not take 45min to an hour. We have lives now…as far as a puzzle to defeat it…that’s good, but as far as drops not so good. As top in my Class, as with all your expansions, I was able to gear to the fullest. With the last expansion I received two items, and did not even gear completely???
    Slow the expansions down to one year, let us all get geared, have fun, and raid??? If you’re going to bring out new content every six months then you need to follow the above mentioned (more drops).
    Bring back the Lost Dungeons for Augments…that match our level 100-105. Making people find groups and meet new people. This will help the process of Guilds not disbanding, and people leaving the game.
    ADD: Tabards to the game so that people see what Guild you are from…maybe you can get more motivation from this…then again it may not be enough to save the game!

    Veteran since two months after the original EQ download on disc...not electronic download

    DCUO:
    The PVE Items cost too much to even continue…300K+ honestly for one items? Total fail!
    The game resembles that of World of Warcraft as far as PVP rewards….PVE cost so much your ready to quit the game! Plus you do not have a lot of armor items designs to choose from! You can get a low item that has the same graphics as low items???
    As I have played DCUO, I have noticed that mousing over an item doesn’t even give you enough information, and you constantly having to look the item up for the recipe. The UI should be more like EQ as a disabled Veteran with one arm it’s hard to press the numbers on the key board, and control the mouse as well. Why not set it up like Everquest’s UI?
    Take things more serious, please! Thank you for considering these ideas.

    (PC Gamer/ Masters Degree in Game Art and Design. Veteran of the game, Veteran of the Military)
    1st Lesson in creating a game: It is all about rewarding players to let the game continue...or did you forget that part?
  14. Mardy Augur


    Don't be so sure, EQ1 is a well known cash cow for SOE. EQ1 is what got SOE where they are today, it was the #1 MMORPG in the genre from 1999 - 2004. Even after EQ2 launched, EQ1 remained to be the higher populated game for quite many years. Where as EQ2 failed to garner success, SOE spent the first few years revamping the game before it became a decent game to play, and it never ever reached EQ1's peak subscriber numbers. EQ1 allowed SOE to expand their collection of games & titles. Somewhere along the way, SOE lost its way. They used to be about making people happy, creating games for gamers. But they turned into a company that went with quantity instead of quality, and supported way too many games than they could handle. Just look at the number of games they had to close down, and how many of those games were starved of dev resources long before they closed doors? How many of those games were starved of player population years before they were shutdown? Who do you think funded those games? A successful title such as EQ1 of course.

    SOE functions on a shared resources model, this means they don't go out to hire outside studios for these expansion cycles anymore. They simply allocate resources from one title to another. If you beta SOE games, you would see some of the same devs show up at multiple game betas. EQ1 dev team submits art requests to the art team, they then prioritize based on what needed to be done first and get things done for multiple SOE games. So unlike a game like say, WoW, where it gets almost full attention from Blizzard. SOE games are constantly fighting for resources & manpower because there's only so much to go around. You can see the difference in quality.

    Everyone knows the most expensive part of a MMORPG is the creation of it. This is where you have the largest dev team, the largest programming team to build the engine from ground up. This is where you have the newest art, new animation created, new cinematics, and of course the always expensive marketing/advertising. EQ1 is way past that, it was 15 years ago when they spent all that money creating the game. SOE has been milking EQ1 for a very long time. To suggest EQ1 funds nothing but EQ1 is to ignore the history of even back when EQ1 had a lot more players, more servers, and even back then SOE was already pulling resources away to create their new gambles. Many of which didn't work out by the way, and it was always EQ1 that remained strong and hopping with players.

    So while it's true less population, less expansion purchases, lead to smaller dev teams and less resources allocated to EQ1. Many would argue which came first, who abandoned whom first. I would argue SOE started splitting resources and gobbling up sub-standard games first, which lead to lesser expansion qualities, which is what lead to players leaving this game. EQ1 is what it is today because of SOE management choices...and lesser blame goes to the dev team as I know they are hardworking folks, passionate about the game, but they did make some bad design decisions along the way. This isn't the first year players complained about lackluster expansions. It has been going on for years, and while it did start before EQN/Landmark projects, things got noticeably worse after EQN/Landmark projects started.
    Shadva Del`Shai and Lisandra like this.
  15. Hawklight Yandli Elder

    Sure SOE is taking a risk but SOE also took a risk in 1999 and every year following, and it attracted players each time, and lost others.

    If SOE doesn't innovate it won't attract new players, while still losing players that have moved on to other forms of entertainment.

    It is not always nice and tidy, but fads change, the market changes, the consumer faces choices. Nostalgia is unpalatable for some people, desired by others.

    SOE has to attract new talent as well that will be artistically satisfied by new challenges instead of doing things the same old same old. The past informs where companies go. Products come and go, new talent learns from the past and innovates and smart companies let the talent action their ideas.

    In the end, the consumer votes with their dollars. Take it or leave it. It sounds cold, it might alienate some, but it might mean more accessibility for others.

    On another level the incredible amount of disdain for new players, and derision should cause the EQ community to evaluate, what is it that they want?

    An exclusive club, that will continue to dwindle over time?
    Or do we want to be more inviting, have broader appeal.
    Will we mentor new players?
    Or Ignore them, treat them like invaders and enemies.
    Are we going to be ambassadors of the game and of our servers, or are we going to be protectionists, protecting "our virtual turf" ?
    Lisandra likes this.
  16. Janakin Augur

    They nerf exp to keep people from 105 faster but this is the fastest I have gotten 105. 1 hour 55 mins. Like I said in a previous post saving all RoF for one hail, 10 saved tasks, 25 glyphs and 1 left of each collection goes a long way. ~
  17. Marshall Maathers Augur

    Of course it is, it is the ONLY time you reached105 ;)

    EDIT: Congratz
  18. Janakin Augur

    Hah true.. I meant fastest I have gotten max level. Was first 100 on my server but that took about 18 hours then. :p
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  19. Numzan Augur

    Good post, was waiting till more stood up and figured it out.

    I too dropped a ton of cash before all this went down hill (easy $1000.00). I dropped paying for all the accounts 12-15 in total all paid for (all purchased COTF). Now my brother thinks it will get better...... grumble.... Hence why I have not re subbed after the pet class nerf.

    I was waiting to hear more on before deciding to return or finally retire.

    I have a really good reason why I am pissed off. Such is the money I spent, and it was nerfed away.
    I started since the end of beta 1998/99. Now 44 and ready to retire from MMO's since EQ turned me off.

    Either way, I am glad I waited to hear others responses about the game state.

    Cya Bud, maybe we will hit up other MMO's together.

    (hope EQ next flops)
    Lisandra likes this.
  20. Azzurri Journeyman

    I cancelled my accounts today as well.
    Tired of the nerfs. Time to fight them in the wallet.