I get it that the devs have to make raids 'reasonably beatable'. But it doesn't have to apply to every single raid. Why can't the final boss be like Mearatas? Have one super challenging raid for the hardcore guilds, and the rest can be all 'reasonable' for mass farming.
Great you enjoy it. You feel like you're contributing, but your willingness to devalue your own labor creates an environment where other people have their jobs cut. Stop giving for-profit industries free labor.
That answer is pretty obvious, 3/45 guilds beat pre-nerf Mearatas. It's not a smart decision to waste that much time and resources are such a fractional part of the playerbase. They make the most noise, but its ultimately not worth it.
This isn't Apple, or Starbucks, or Microsoft, this is the often sold, often renamed, barely still existing developer of a 22 year old game. It's not like the things she's doing would suddenly be done by a paid developer if she didn't do them, they just wouldn't get done at all. Whatever bug you have up your butt doesn't apply here. She wants the game to last as long as possible and knows that's out of her control, but if she can help keep it going smoother for a little bit longer, why not? And those of us who understand the situation appreciate those efforts. Maybe a quest gets fixed or an item gets updated and we benefit from that later. If it wasn't already obvious, whatever QA resources DPG has is not as much as they probably wish they had. It's not as simple as just hiring more, there will always be somebody taking the profits and somebody else wishing more of those profits were spent adding staff. If the volunteers stop volunteering, the people taking the profit won't suddenly learn some lesson, they'll just keep soaking up the money until it isn't coming in, and then reorganize their portfolio. That's when EQ dies, because they didn't buy it to save it, they bought it to make money. Once it no longer does that, we lose and they don't shed a tear.
If you think for a moment that not doing this 'work' would result it it being done elsewhere / paid for, you are delusional. No magic fairy to pay for it without subs going up etc etc. Also, many of us enjoy the heck out of beta testing. We did many raid days in beta, both on our own and with devs and are happy to help them with the game development and we get enjoyment value out of it also. (It can also be hilarious at times). If you don't like it, feel free not to do it
Because if the masses find it so difficult that they cannot achieve it, eventually they will feel defeated and leave. Which is not good for revenue and profit. And while you can have a Mearatas final raid and have it nerfed multiple times until the masses defeat it, people enjoy beating content in its current form. When you dumb it down, make it easier, etc... people feel like they are not good enough. And when you think you are not good enough and competent, you may get depressed and not want to play. Again, not good for business and revenue. Imagine standing at the 3 point line on a NBA court. You get ten shots, miss all ten. Then someone says OK stand at the free throw line and shoot ten free throws, but you will get the same points as if you make a 3. So you make maybe half the free throws. Then someone says OK stand three feet from the basket, shoot ten layups, and you will get the same amount of points as if you shot ten three pointers. Making it easier for the player, but they are not feeling happy about themselves knowing that they should have made ten threes but cannot. Now once again, I personally love hard and challenging content and raids. I just understand I am in the minority of that philosophy. Majority of gamers want to be successful, they want some modicum of challenge and difficulty but only if it still allows them to win. That is why raids are always going to be trivial and easy for some, who represent the minority.
Says who? The 'noise', the hype - is always good for the game. Nothing was 'wasted' on Mearatas. It started as a super challenging raid satisfying the most hardcore players, and then it was gradually nerfed to become more and more 'inclusive'. It was perfect. We need 1 such raid in every expansion.
A Agree with the above. Vulak started irritating, but once mechanic was understood, proved quite easy to defeat. Sure it took a couple of goes as we didn't do this one on Beta much at all, but that is fine. That said, I'm sure some guilds will struggle with it, like they do Sontalak or Aary, - The guilds that can't field a force of 54 mains for example, can struggle with 'move a lot' events. If I had to pick one, I'd say Aaryonar is the hardest event in the expansion.
Maybe you should not participate in raids then ? Or guilds should only be allowed to do 1 raid only, so if there is 9, during beta you can only do that one, the other 8, you cannot do. And only a guild leader, who is in a guild that won all previous expansion, except maybe 1 raid, on a monthly basis, can sign the guild up for a beta raid. Then all raiders will have only information about that 1 raid, and will not be able to 1 shot the raids on the day of the release of the tier. So for each raid, 2 guilds will likely be able to practice that 1. Would open the raids more.
You mean, if not for Mearatas, nobody would know that they are not as good as the top guilds? Everybody would be happily farming free loot from pinata bosses like Talendor or AoW, and that would be good for the business?
Businesses shouldn't rely on volunteers to perform vital functions. It erodes the position of other workers in the industry. I get that you're very addicted and passionate about your EQ lifestyle, but if the game dies off its not a big deal. You're right it wouldn't get done and that's on them to not be a crappy business. The point is that you give them an excuse by offering free labor to replace existing labor. It's bad for software workers.
Here's what happens every time they cater to the top 3 guilds in the game: Top Guild beats raid. Middle guild can't beat raid. Middle guild has high performing members that get frustrated and leave to Top Guild, and other members just quit raiding or the game. Middle guild dies, because there are no lower end feeder guilds. Eventually, Top Guild faces their own struggles because there's no middle feeder guild left.
A dev should never ever test the things he/she develops. They have a certain thought pattern, and will not likely think on everything, so bugs will slip through the net a lot. I work as a programmer, and well I do a dev test of my things, but I always have some other do the real test
Why do you care how we choose to spend our time? We choose to participate in beta, with the intention of helping and making things better for all with full knowledge that we are providing feedback while also trying to break stuff before it goes live, in the closest to live scenario possible. We choose to do it, and only a small part of it is about "the race". Everyone has the opportunity to join beta, so it is level playing ground. Also, the link your post confirms that they are hiring QA staff, not cutting it. Besides, QA Analysts have a LOT more to do than running through some missions and looking for bugs. They have to help identify potential scenarios, create scripts, help drive paid QA testers through scenarios to test X or Y unseen systems (combat, procs, unintended spell effects, etc.) among many other tasks. Your posts put people down, and reek of a superiority complex. As if you are saying everyone but you is stupid unless they agree with you wholeheartedly. Let me play the game I want to play, and you can play the game you want to play, sound good? It seems like you hate the race, company, game, and other players quite a bit.
I think you're underestimating the number of people in the top end guilds who would like a challenge and significantly overestimating the number of people who feel bad beating raids that have been tuned down. Plenty of guilds felt a sense of accomplishment in beating Mearatas post-nerf or even after ToV launch.
However there are guilds that break down, and lose their confidence when they could not beat it. I know a guild, who could not, and after Meratas, it is not the same guild anymore. Prior to TBL they were a vibrant guild, now they just a husk of their old self. They had an above normal raid force, and after 2 months of running into the wall, they struggled to get people on. And even today it is the same, I know some in the guild asked, should we not try Meratas, and as soon it was suggested, people said: Sorry I have to go.
Do I have to keep restating my point to every emotional reply my post receives? "Volunteering" for business is very, very dumb and allows predatory practices. It erodes the value of those in the labor market and leads to predatory practices from gaming companies. Go ahead and play your game, I wasn't aware my forum posts were stopping you? Please, think more broad picture the free labor that is supplied to gaming companies actively hurts those in the labor market. I love the game, it funded my first real-estate purchase which set me on the path to early retirement.
Catering one raid to the top 3 guilds is hardly locking everyone out. Heck, they could even remove that one raid from the progression chain, so everyone can complete the expansion, and some guilds could beat the hard-mode raid(s). Mearatas was an amazing raid, and those that beat it were elated and got a good amount of respect among peers.
