I have to agree with the other dissenters to the OP's opinion, Aradune was a success so massive it caused problems, victim of its own success. That you would see a huge success as a sign the game is failing is a weird kind of inverse logic that makes no rational sense whatsoever. Yes some players who maybe could have been won were lost, if they don't return next year it is a great shame, but so far every TLP has brought more people back to EQ, and the game as a whole has grown so the strategy is still working, yes some players are migrating from one TLP to the next but the old TLP still retain some players so overall the trajectory of the game population is going in the upwards direction. I'm not dismissing there were definitely things about this year's TLP launches that could have & should have been better, I would be disingenuous to suggest it was 100% fine, but you do have to maintain perspective on the broader picture of what is going on and not lose sight of it by focusing too much on the problems. Sunset was delayed by the success of Aradune, it could have been delayed by a larger amount had there been fewer problems, but there is a good chance we get another TLP next year.
ill never forget this rogue friend i had back in planes of power, he was so distressed by eq shutting down he had to quit before that happened .. this was 17-18 years ago now, lulz
I don't agree with the OP but I would say that if some folks were permanently turned off EQ due to Aradune that it is probably a bigger deal then we might first think. This is because EQ has a limited player base to draw from. It's not brand new players it is primarly returning players and the existing player base and that is it. I think Daybreak has to learn from this. They might have been better off limiting how many players could actually start on Aradune. But how could they do this? Have a special registration for Aradune that involves buying a three month sub that goes into effect when Aradune goes live and that cannot be cancelled (assuming this could be done). Once the limit is reached Daybreak doesn't take any more subs for the server. It should be an amount of folks that won't overburden the server. Having a 3 month sub tied to the registration for the server helps prevent no shows. Daybreak could keep a waiting list and if enough interest is generated consider an second server with similar rules. After the server has been up for a couple months (or insert appropriate time frame) and stabilized they open it up to everyone. Anyway that's just off the top of my head there may be pitfalls or such I haven't noticed but it would be one way to ensure a server launch goes well.
With the pandemic (as perverse as this point is) and other MMORPGs in infinite development (Pantheon, Star Citizen), EQ may be well positioned for several more years of operation.
2 hour long waits to get into a game that's too full of people? Shut the whole thing down! If anything Aradune show'd the staying power of EQ. There will always be doomsayers.
It wont take you long to figure out that a few whales are keeping this title and the company afloat. Just logon to any server during prime time and look at how many guildies are logged in during non raid evenings or look at chat and see how slow it moves. There is what, 52 guilds raiding in EQ2 and 60 raiding in EQ1. When the last whales leaves, the game will be doomed and even if a lot of you are poking fun at "lol this again? is it 2000" its honestly just facts that very few people are playing EQ1 and EQ2 in 2020. As for the TLP gimmick, I am sure they will keep opening them, especially the non-box TLPs seem to attract a lot of people and I am sure they have enough different gimmicks to make them slighty different every time. Just as we see with EQ2 TLPs they simply shut them down in that game when SF or DoV launches though.
"Whales" are not keeping EQ alive, all the subscriptions are enough for that. Why do people think that DPG is gambling on "whales" to stay afloat? They have survived on a subscription based model for many years... EQ is not a "pay to win"-game, it never was. The whole gamedesign is based on the fact that a subscription is enough to make you competitive in the game. It is not designed to milk the player-base for money like real FTP games... I really doubt the market-place is THAT critical to the survival of EQ. The expansion-price-tag covered the development-cost for expansion-development in the old days, and you know what have changed since then? Nothing has changed since then.... When people stop buying expansions, THEN ill start to worry...
