The horrible argument that MMO / RPG need microtransactions to survive.

Hackling isn't even close to what you suggested in the cloud company getting access to the data. And yes many companies are moving to the cloud and storing their data there because it is cheaper and safer overall.

Not sure what you are trying to say here and why you think it is related to cloud storage at all

Cloud storage is cheap because storage in general is cheap (and getting cheaper) and because they want to get you to use their other services after they start storing your data.

And it isn't as risky as you are saying as many major companies wouldn't be doing it if that was the case.

Or maybe it just happens to be their favourite game and no quasi-religious ad-hominems are required.

I wholeheartedly agree with you about the "in general", but EQ doesn't do microtransations in anything like as destructive a manner as most game whose gameplay becomes centered around maximizing microtransactions.

A section of the playerbase has been doing these transactions in one way or another since the game launched. almost every MMO has had to contend with this issue to some degree or other. Not something I've ever been involved in but at least Krono has offered a better level of protection to those players determined to do so and the numbers of players getting ripped off by scammers is much reduced by it.

Far less a Cruise ship & far more an Orient Express, if I choose to stay with your Agatha Christie analogy.
The game runs on rails, and everyone knows what is up ahead, more copy paste spells & abilities, more tiny expansions & zero stuff going on in the game if you step away from the rails everything now runs on.
The train is at least getting some upgrades, 64 bit, better UI system, DX11, maybe more to come.

choooo, choooo, Orient Express to zone !!

I really hope you don't think that's the case and you're just trying to get a rise out of people.

What you see as faith is simply understanding. Some of us are just old, with lots of operations/business experience. We understand what it takes to run a complex operation of employees, finances, security/enforcement, customer service, IT, design, planning, employee management, business strategy, legal compliance, etc.

Daybreak (and every other name it's had since 1999) has built, managed, and continued to expand an MMORPG for over 20 years. There aren't many people or companies that can claim that level of experience so I give them the benefit of the doubt when I don't understand something.

That's not faith, that's maturity.

Maturity or desperation? Seems to me they like to toss ideas against the wall and see what sticks. There last major announcement prior to this year's launch of TLP is written in that format... that's not maturity.

If EQ shutdown tomorrow, most of the player base you are alluding to wouldn't bat an eye.

I would, but not for the reasons that most might think. I have many friends in this game, all held together by the thread of this game. Most of them play other games on the side, WoW, FFXIV, ESO, etc. If EQ were to shutter its doors, that common thread of EQ would be severed, and I'd lose contact with many of my friends over time because they all don't play the same game as others outside of EQ.

I appreciate what you are saying but I stand behind my comments 100%.The EQ forum community is very stodgy, cliquey, clubby, insular, and closed-minded. There's a cabal of forum posters that rush in to defend the status quo and prompty shoot down new ideas that they don't approve of. It's disheartening.

People are coming to these forums in good faith with excellent analysis and suggestions and are met with with routine indiffernce or outright hostility and everything in between. Eventually they end up leaving because they realize that it's pointless. This community is not welcoming to newbies or players that don't tow the party line and approve of the status quo. That's my honest opinion and after thousands of dollars spent on EQ over the course of 23 years, and I'm going to continue to express it.

You get the community you deserve. I'm looking at you Darkpaw Games.

While I appreciate the fact that Darkpaw is keeping EQ going, it's very obvious that they are doing the bare minimum. According to Enad Global 7, Daybreak has made a lot of money on EverQuest and it's very profitable.

With all the revenue coming in I find it inexplicable that they don't canvas players, they don't talk to players, they don't engage in any meaningful dialogue whatsover. Failing to take advantage of the incredible amount of crowd-sourced experience and wisdom that the community can provide is negligent and short-sighted in 2023. At this stage of the product lifecycle you would think that the remaning handful of developers would be embracing the community and reciprocating the continued loyalty and appreciation but they do not. Maybe they do in their own way, but perception is reality. They cancelled Fan Faires. There are no official EQ meetups. No YouTube, Twitch or TikTok live streams. Nothing.

What part of we need them and they need us do they not understand?

Most of the acrimony and toxicity on these forums is because of a lack of official communication between the devs and the players. As a result of this, players feel abandoned and alienated. That frustration manifests itself in the forums. We don't have a clue of what's going on and the crickets chirp and the tumbleweeds roll on by. It feels like an abandoned Hollywood western set. It's gotten so bad that there are forum regulars who claim to speak on behalf of the devs. The EQ community would be transformed overnight if Darkpaw Games even slightly reciprocated the love and loyalty that fans have showed them for 23 years.

You've already admitted you do not play EQ. Why are you still posting here?

People like playing EQ and have for the last 24 years and continue to like playing, regardless of the state of the game/forums/whatever. The world or this game does not revolve around what you want.

Again, you don't even play.

A telling statement.

Mentioning two times the same knock-down argument does not nullify Brontus' statement. All people in the forums, when excluding the staff, are and were EQ players. Some are just inactive players.

The main problem of EQ is the leadership and frankly Jennifer Chan is not the right choice for that position. She might be a good programmer and technical director tho, because she developed the Advanced Looting system which is great. It always was a problem of SOE/DBG that the wrong people got the wrong job positions. Brad and Smed were also bad leaders but they had other strenghts. The current problems that Brontus mentioned started directly after Holy Longdale and Jonathan Caraker left the company which is a strong indicator that somehing went very wrong at the game studios. Two of the best employees did left for the suboptimal Blizzard studios, that is notorious for sex scandals and its unmature devs and Jennifer Chan was just an emergency solution but never got replaced by an experienced leader which does also not speak for DBG as being a good employer.

The game developer scene in silicon valley is rather small and does suffer from the revolving door effect and nepotism. However we should not expect to much because the game is definetly in a semi-sustainment mode where everything is kept down to minimal costs. New expansions do only get released because they are required to keep the project running.

I do not think that anyone at DBG controls resources and you all are barking up the wrong tree. If I had to guess, JChan gets a set of production goals the studio has to meet and enough resources to accomplish it. She probably gets to determine the who and how, but that is extent of it. DBG has been hiring people, so maybe some of her recommendations are being resourced but it is backend stuff we cannot see.

I do not think it is much of a stretch to say if Enad Global 7 thought JChan was doing a bad job that they would have replaced her by now.

It is just my perspective as a player and EG7 might have restricted the communication between the devs and the players so I just can compare what the different studio leaders did in the past and how the game progressed during their leadership. For EG7 Jennifer Chan might be perfect as long as the revenue is good. The x64 transition was perfect but let's not talk about the UI. At least it will be soon possible to switch back to the old UI but that decision should had been made much earlier. The timing for the new UI is also very unlucky so close to the big anniversary party so we just can hope that all problems will be solved until then.

Gosh that's a lot of accusations.

• Stodgy? Maybe. Sometimes.
• Cliquey? No. Most of these people don't know each other. I've had a direct conversation with maybe 12 accounts on this forum. I know a couple of them from in-game, but they actually post very infrequently
• Clubby? See cliquey.
• Insular? We play and care about Everquest, so... I guess so.
• Close-Minded? I'd go as far to say stubborn, but far from close-minded.
• Cabal? There's no organization conspiring to disagree with you. It's completely impromptu.
• Defend the status quo? Only when the it's an irrational/under-informed attack.

Some do. Most just come with opinions. Analysis and opinions are not the same.

• Indifference is the right of every person. One isn't required to take up the flag of another person.
• Hostility is reported and (hopefully) acted upon by DB staff.
• "Eventually they end up leaving" - That's measurable and I don't think you have the data.
• "This community is not welcoming to newbies or players that don't tow the party line and approve of the status quo." They agree with a lot of people who are new... when they're right.
• "That's my honest opinion" - And I accept that.
• "after thousands of dollars spent on EQ over the course of 23 years, and I'm going to continue to express it" - And as I see it as being severely incorrect and unfair to hundreds of forum users, I'll be here to debunk it.

Bare minimum would be server maintenance, not bug fixes, UI improvements (TBD), and new content.

I can give some parallel insight. I work at a major public university full of highly intelligent people and in a wonderful environment. We have perfectly open finances and make changes to our area of influence per legal mandate.

We hold quarterly webinars. We communicate directly with our users via mass email, direct email, meetings on request, and in-person presentations. We announce emergencies and interruptions to service. We have directly surveyed the population in the past, but we don't anymore because the sentiment is always the same:

• Build more.
• Make it free.
• Don't hold me accountable for doing unsafe things.

And I don't blame them. They're not industry professionals. They're not required to care for the long-term health of an organization in light of union contracts, limited funds, maintenance, repair, safety, security, etc. They only care about their very limited personal experience.

There is massive amount of intelligence, wisdom, and experience in any customer population, but tapping that resource so that you receive some reliable amount of actionable content is almost impossible. Instead, experienced organizations facilitate ongoing rolling conversations (ie. a forum) so that ideas can be proposed, debated, hashed out, honed, and maybe if some cream rises to the top, acted upon.

Absolutely not. The developers should not be expected to embrace the idea of people just because they're loyal. If that were the case, your mythical cabal of party-line tow-ers would have changed EQ to their exact preferences ages ago. That's not the case not would you actually want it to be the case.

Perception is not reality. Reality is reality.

We have Everquest and forums. That's enough for almost every single EQ player out there.

Daybreak needs a certain amount of customers to meet revenue thresholds to cover expenses. It doesn't need any particular customer.

I think you need to simply rename yourself "Players" so all these wide-reaching statements could be correct. I think it'd be awesome, really.

Only playing EQ limits your ability to identify flaws in the game because you have no frame of reference.

There was an interesting interview with Swen Vincke (Larian's CEO) a week before launch.

He was asked if reviewers could judge the game poorly if they made the wrong dialogue choice, leading them into a certain path.

Swen said that any choices you make in the game need to lead to an enjoyable time for the player. That's their responsibility as a developer. The game tells the story.

When Swen was asked what is the best strategy to start the game. He said there is none, trust the dungeon master he said, trust the game, we will make sure you have a good time.

You play a role, and the game responds accordingly. You can chose to fight in BG3, you can also chose not to fight, talk your way out of a fight, and the game will catch you, the game and its dungeon master has you covered.

This stance is diametrically opposed to how EQ has been developed, where you need to talk to specific NPC, say specific things, loot certain items to progress. You are expected to follow guidelines in EQ that lead to success. A good time is not guaranteed in EQ, frustration has become part of EQ.

So how do people at Larian know all this. I think because they do different things that expose them to different games and people. Larian decided to help Disco Elysium developers a few years ago, it became the highest rated PC game in history. Larian decided to make educational games at one point. Larian hires people from fields completely unrelated to games. They hired people who design tabletop games. They hired a relationship expert to build out certain storylines. They hired a cosplayer because she's great at telling stories.

If you just play one game, you can't see the forest for the trees.

Just because a few voices diagree with you doesn't make them all a bunch of hateful cultists.

Anyway, I'm off to sacrifice a chicken, bless some rum, smoke a Cigar & tell Jobu he better make sure EQ has new Models by next year.

I don't mind there being a cash shop, but I do have a problem when it is required to actually play the game. Luckily EQ is not one of those games.

Unfortunately 90% of the cash shop is either garbage, or outrageously overpriced just like every other F2P cash shop.

So you come here, start a discussion which is kind of abrasive and then say since some of us only play EQ that we are limited in our knowledge.

This forum is just for one game, EQ

It is not for MMO or RPG's in general. There are other forums where more encompassing views can be debated/discussed where many different games are played by the members. Your post would be more appropriate and might get more validity on one of those forums. I feel your views are wasted here amongst us unlearned players.

Lets them know they don't have to do microtransactions like "heroes forge" to be successful

Not abrasive, but uncomfortable.

It's uncomfortable for fans of a game when someone points out the exploitative nature of microtransactions. Microtransactions fueled by addiction, microtransactions that prey on the vulnerable, prey on minors, microtransactions that attract farmers and criminals.

People who only experience one game for years on end, lack certain perspectives. They lose a frame of reference. Players who are stuck in a single game world for years, offer a poor analysis of the game they are playing.

You can discuss any game you want in reference to EQ. EQ was not created in an isolated environment, it's a game borrowing heavily from D&D, with a monetization it took from other games.