EG7 cancels Marvel game, to re-invest $50m in other areas including original IP

nice roleplay there

An Updated, or newly built EQ would be AWESOME!!

If EQ was dying, it might be possible. But EQ is still quite profitable, but not so profitable that it could support a new game. Changes to the EQ product stack would likely result in losses.

The most likely scenario is modernizing EQ1 through things like UI, and expanded game engine features.

Most of the money will be re-invested into Lord of the Rings Online and DC Universe Online as those games have more potential for growth and are prestige projects. EverQuest is already in maintenance mode and being treated like an old horse without potential for growth. Marvel Online was another stupid project idea just like EQ II which would have been in competition to DCUO as both projects share the same super hero universe.

They did specifically mention investing some of it in original IP as well

You dont even know what maintenance mode is.
Maintenance mode means just keep the servers running. Just maintenance.
No new expacs.
No new servers.
No new events.
No bug fixes.
No roadmap.
Clearly EQ is nothing even close to that.

May be that would close to that:
Next expac vilain will be doctor doom.
Adventurer will have to help iron man to defeat him.

Ok, not maintenance mode then. Just energy saving mode. Messing around with 23 year old classic stuff and destroying the roots, and everything small small. Fixing bugs, weeding weed here and there. Not much creativity and concepts. Only small think think, not big. Rogues mad, wizards sad, troll warders bad.

I would call it "money-saving mode".

EQ is run very lean, it could afford a larger team & get more done faster in the modernisation pipeline but that would eat into profitability in the short term, so a longer term strategy is employed, and probably a good idea since existing EQ players are generally considered very loyal gamers.

Yeah, EQNext how much was canceled?

I don't think this is a resource issue or creativity issue. It is because DBG think players will complain whenever they try something new.

We get the game we deserve... We would probably have had an new engine and a much better looking game years ago, if we weren't so affraid of DBG modernizing assets... or locked in our requirements that we need 6 clients to run smoothly on a potato.

While it isnt, its been feeling closer and closer to that.

The last few years have been feeling continuously worse. The team feels too small to even keep up with smaller side projects at this point (look at the pins in this forum and remember the CRC project that started almost a year and a half ago was, 4+ months ago, put on "give us more time to look at applicants" status), and we're getting poorly thought-out and implemented patch cycles that go significantly longer than needed without changes.

I've watched more and more people just nope out of that in the last couple years than I saw in the decade prior, and its not like theres replacements flocking in.

An aging population could account for player losses. My guild's average player age is somewhere in the high 50s.

Sadly this is the most likely scenario. EverQuest is too profitable to change it. Not profitable enough to invest in it.

I have my reservations about the Community Resource Council. My concern is that the game could be politicized. Council members would be regarded as lobbyists for their niche or class. Imbalances or changes (nerfs or buffs) would be blamed on specific people.

We already know who is putting in the hard work (data crunching) on the community side: EQResource, Allakhazam, raid guilds, Sancus, etc. And not just as pundits or talking heads. I'm not sure a formal position or title would help; it could just bring unwanted attention (blame).

A monthly patch is a fair tempo. Most major bugs don't endure beyond one patch. I believe they tend to hotfix major issues (i.e. broken elevator in Mistmoore and see invis mobs in ToL)

We are a far cry from 3+ years ago where the game would be down for 24-48 hours due to "unforeseen events."

Give them credit where it is due.

I feel like you said a lot of things to ultimately agree with me anyway, besides arguing semantics over what makes a cash cow when you compare it to even larger companies.

My point stands. EverQuest makes them money. They could use that money to bolster EverQuest itself, or they could milk it to use it on other projects. They choose to use it on other projects. Nearly all of those projects have been abject failures. They would have made *more* money if they had reinvested in EverQuest itself. Unfortunately, they didn't see that then, and they won't see it now.

It is not the fault of the players. Things have changed much over the many years including the market but DBG clearly does lack big visions and visionaries like Brad McQuaid so they just repeat old patterns over and over. Of course there are players who expect and want just that but about all players that I had met ingame (and not the forum questers) are just bored and did tell me the same. There are zones that have been copied and repeated, often in totally revamped versions with totally different names, about 10-20 times just because of the lack in creativity. As example the Lavastorm Mountains, Nagafen's Lair and Solusek's Eye that do share a theme that is based on volcanoes and lava underground caves & tunnels. I have counted eleven out of twenty-eight expansions that do contain one or more of such zones. Even that most players do not like fire and lava themed zones.

I also do miss good leadership including better pricing and account models/offers and a better ingame structure that is forwarding the MMO aspects and does not so much support sickness symptoms like PL, moloing and multiboxing. Someone like Smed who does forwarding the project even when his leadership style is debatable.

While I agree the volcano-theme is a bit of a cliche, it sure beats snow/ice levels.

I think they owe us a good underwater zone or a dense jungle or something. We haven't had that in a while. Or at least some new areas, they milk their old familiar expansions too much. Lets visit Drinal now.

Or lets see some level-themes that haven't been done before....even if it is something silly like "the plane of cookies", or strange like where-ever Golems goes when they "die"(plane of magic or something... )

Has it ever been addressed exactly WHY all the insects are so frigging huge, I bet that deserves an expansion...

Not only no, but hell no! And you and the horse you rode in on. Underwater zones are evil incarnate. Personally I wish that all EQ zones could be drained.

And to think we were planning you a birthday party. :

SO much this.

Wishing EQ had received half of what was spent on EQ2, EQN and other projects. They might have beaten WoW. Instead, here we sit - gobbling up the table scraps they give us. Content to merely exist while Darkpaw milks EverQuest to death.

....or something.