Why so few new players?

Discussion in 'Tips, Tricks, FAQs, and New Player Discussion' started by Hexenon, Nov 28, 2014.

  1. Hexenon New Member

    So I have been playing EQ2 for only a couple of days after trying every other F2P MMORPG on the market and I think I might finally have found a game I want to stay in. The only thing is that, as a new player, it feels like I missed out on the prime time of EQ2.
    There are no new players. Everyone in the starting areas are veterans on a new alt (I've asked), and while that is okay and means there is people of similar level still progressing, it makes me wonder why there are no new players coming to this game.

    I know SOE has a new game on the way (EQN) but it seems EQ2 has been left to the side for a few years, judging by what other players say. Could it really hurt to spend a little on advertising for EQ2? Surely simple things like promoting on MMO websites and YouTube channels, google ads, things like that?

    A lot of people don't even realize that EQ2 is free to play. A lot of people don't realize that the F2P restrictions from ~3 years ago have been lifted. I know it is an old game but the graphics at high settings still rival newer games, the originality of the races and the feel of the world is unique. It is a shame that more people do not know about this game but I'll try and do my bit by inviting friends. If I had been able to run EQ2 on dial-up in the prime-time of 2004-2009, I would have!

    What do you guys think?
  2. Malfaer Member

    You pretty much nailed it. EQ2 is 10 years old. I think it's still one of the best MMOs out there, but its age combined with SOE's history of not doing much to market its games makes a dearth of true newbies to be expected.
  3. Hariken Member

    So what are the new f2p restrictions now? Can free players use all the spell tiers yet? Have a lvl 85 Warsen and he sucked to play with all the restrictions.Outside of this game most think SOE f2p model on all their games suck badly. Thats why you don't see new players.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  4. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    You don't have to be F2P to be a new player (I did it back when there was no such thing, just friends recommending it and helping me play ;->), but it certainly helps give newbs a feel for the flavor of it, and to encourage them to pay per month to get even more unlocked. I do miss the Silver accounts (there were Bronze, which really bit; only 2 character slots, unless you bought more separately, and a lot of other really egregious restrictions, then Silver, which you could get from a mere one-time $5 "unlock," with 4 slots total and less restrictions; then Gold, which they're calling All-Access now); about the only things you really couldn't (can't; I still have 4, thanks! ;->) do were send Mail and put things up on the Broker.

    One thing that I've noticed, beyond the lack of advertising post-2004 (you folks should've seen the ads they did; they were amazing, and helped to get folks into it a great deal, but were probably pretty expensive [literally like movie previews]. If they had toned down the expense, but still kept steadily advertising...well, who knows :-/), was that we've really been the "red-headed step-child" since 2012, when SONY, the parent company of SOE (do not confuse the two; a lot of this is SONY's fault, not SOE ;->), did an immensely--unfortunate--deal with a European media company similar to themselves called Pro7 (ProSeiben, or something like that; German). We wouldn't've minded if they were to handle advertising, pushing SONY movies/TV shows, etc. over there, we probably would not have even heard about it or cared if the SOE stable of games wasn't a small (for SONY, at any rate) bargaining chip...or bone, tossed in at probably the last minute. Some games were included in the deal (like EQ2, Planetside 2 [or whatever; EQ2 is the only one I play], DCUO, etc.), some weren't (like EQ1 and other older games).

    We were told in January of 2012 that it was a done deal, set in concrete, carved in stone, etc., and that nothing in Heaven or on Earth was gonna change it. We had many, many questions regarding it (hundreds of pages of threads worth of questions), and very few of them were ever answered. Most of them were important financial questions ("We just bought a year's worth of All-Access subscription here in Europe so we could play both EQ1 and EQ2. How will we be affected?" "If I leave the States for a business trip in Europe for 6 weeks, what'll happen? I'm the guild leader and raid leader; will I have to start another account over there and pay twice, or not play for over a month?" "I'll be overseas serving my country in the military on a European military base, which is US territory, for 2 years. Will I need to have another account and pay twice?" and other such),

    A lot of the questions were social, though, like the couple in Europe and South Africa who met online, fell in love, and frequently, inexpensively, kept in touch every night through gaming; even if they were in the same time zone, phoning would've been really pricey, snail mail way too slow, and email not the same...they were planning to marry in-game and meet up in RL after, but the European player would be cut off for way too long. The people in Europe had a lot of questions about Pro7's affiliate gaming company, Alaplaya, that people would need to open accounts with (even the US-based players weren't sure if we'd need to just to play any characters on European servers); there were like 2 out of 1000s of people chiming into the old forums (might be why we have new ones now) that were willing to trust them; the rest, who actually had experience with them in the past, were not. For a "done deal," no one was telling us anything, other than eventually, where our computer was based (URL, etc.) would affect where a person was considered to be, rather than a billing address or anything, so someone playing at a military base in an affected country would still be SOL.

    The amount of rage quits over this numbered in several digits and figures; even people in the States that had had many long-term family accounts for years quit in solidarity with the people of Europe, and flat-out told not only the forums why, and that they'd be boycotting not only SOE but SONY from that point on, but also everyone they could on the Internet (ironically, if we'd been told that, "The deal is still in progress, so we can't reveal anything at this time. But the moment we find out anything for sure, we'll keep our loyal paying customers in the loop," we probably would've been patient and waited for months for info). The kicker probably came when someone got ahold of the email address of one of SONY's high Powers and broadcast it, suggesting we inform said person of our concerns...finally, in October of 2012, Smedley got on Tweeter and Twitted that if we really, really wanted to, we could actually keep paying SOE directly for our gaming enjoyment, if we felt the need...but only for existing accounts; any new ones would be Alaplaya's property. The folks who were left were mollified, and the deal was finally nixed in, I believe, either late 2013 or early this year. But between 2012 and now, we've had a lot of staff either removed outright or transferred to the other games, EQ3 officially renamed EQNext (and I've seen the tentative maps for it; it looks exactly like EQ1's maps, as though this game never existed), we've had our old forum pages completely revamped (though some of the changes are good), and the only ads these days are for EQNext. Coincidence? Hmm... :-/

    Uwk
    who doesn't feel the need to skip 84 levels of game content for $35 extra dollars ;->
    Wirewhisker likes this.
  5. Csipi Active Member


    Dont expect this to change. Unfortunately about one year ago a large part of the SOE staff was laid off. They basically have the same goals today as back then, but now with far less people to work with.

    I haven't played this new expansion on live, but I played the beta on AoM and the one for ToV. By comparison ToV was way more polished and fine tuned then the AoM beta. Why...it's not that the devs stopped caring or that they weren't good enough, it's simply that they had less manpower to do twice the work.

    Just look at the forums as an example. Roshen is from what I understand the Community Manager for EQ2, but I believe he has made a total of 5 posts since he has had that position here. Why? Because he is the CM for EQ, and has been for a long time and his priorities lie there. He is just too busy to work with eq2 and eq and the same time. But he is the one CM because that is all SOE can afford.

    The lack of manpower has definitely become evident in the current situation of the game. And it is what it is. Nothing we can do about it, just accept it really. If you like this game, yea stay but dont put your expectations to the sky cause you might be in a for a disappointment.
  6. Phee Active Member

    I could answer but my post would get deleted and they would ban be from forums LOL
  7. Frinch Well-Known Member


    Bwahahahahaha~!

    ~F
    Azriss, Wirewhisker, Kalderon and 2 others like this.
  8. Spock Active Member

    Afista is the new cm shes good. The reason u see so few low levels is that most people go to the 80s very fast. I suggest finding a good guild you gonna be taking care of thats the main thing otherwise might be difficult to level off unless ur like me and u just came back and got plenty of content to discover and in no hurry to get to end game .
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  9. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    "No hurry to get to end game." I like that; wish more folks thought along those lines. ;->

    Nowadays, it's buy an 85th for $35, play for 15 levels, get bored, complain, quit. Or, start at level 1, pay someone at least 75 plat to power level to 100 in a week, get bored, complain, quit. :-/

    Uwk
  10. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    Hey, if they haven't deleted my post yet, you should be fine...unless cussing would be involved. ;->

    Uwk
  11. Vastranis Member

    Because of the lack of marketing(I didn't know about half of stuff that is in EQ2) and because it is an actual MMOrpg.

    See, folks these days don't really want MMOrpgs. What they really want are good SPRPGs with some multiplayer options. EQ2 is really unyielding in showing players what it really is. I would be the first to admit that if you allowed me to chat while playing Skyrim/Dragon Age/Witcher/etc, I wouldn't even look at mmo genre.
  12. Raff Well-Known Member

    We've brought many people over to this game from other games we tried. Almost all of them quit. And it never had anything to do with SOE. EQ2 is way more complicated than most of the other games out there. Most of them took one look at 100 levels...well..95 back then and simply said no way.

    The other thing is that they came into a fully maxed guildhall with all the amenities. They were never there during the comraderie building, grouping, writ running, crafting, pre-portal time that new guilds go through...that lets you experience the entire game.

    If I had one suggestion to any new players coming in, it would be to find as young a guild as you can, so you can take the entire ride up with them. Its the journey to endgame that makes this game so awesome. But only as long as you have people along for the ride.
    Ranga, Tarnorili, Wirewhisker and 3 others like this.
  13. Estred Well-Known Member

    Most everyone I've convinced to give it a shot have quit. It's generally they are overwhelmed and feel lonely. It's hard to find a GOOD low level guild that feels active like you can on newer MMO's. Sadly also as Raff stated. New players don't get the community building that was pre-guild halls or the pre-druid/wizard portal events. Back then, well you knew people and it was a choice to travel long distances for groups as it took time but you had people to see and talk to along the whole way.

    The game's not like that anymore. You find people in Quest Hubs rarely and that's about it. At max level they are around the Writ givers and that's it. I know the removal of "bloat" quests or the ones that are just "meaningless" XP/Coindumps was a good thing in many people eyes. However, those bloat quests also added little side stories to the NPC's that made the area seem more alive, at the least it gave people something to do if they didn't feel like questing.

    Mini-Quest chains became a thing of the past and ushered in the era of Advanced Solo zones being the "soloers" way to play. Sigh, I miss the RoK days. The games still a good game though but indeed for new players, find a low-guild that is not max level and enjoy building the guild with them.
    Wirewhisker, Charlice and Cuelaen like this.
  14. Halanna Active Member

    EQ2 is more involved and requires more attention. You benefit from reading quest text and the 'quest helper' doesn't always show where to go and what to do. (play with it off, it's fun!). Some zones are confusing and require thought to navigate. Some players don't want to be bothered to actually play. They just want to be max level and raid. But this game the journey is far more interesting than the destination and that frequently gets lost on new players who don't spend enough time to even realize the depth of content available.

    The modern perception in MMO's is - if you aren't max level there is nothing to do. That's not the case in EQ2, but getting that point across to potential new players is impossible.
    Azriss, Wirewhisker, Enoibia and 2 others like this.
  15. vampiregoat69 Member

    ummm I am VERY new only here 1 month on Butcherblock server so yeah not true.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  16. Feldon Well-Known Member

    It's a 10 year old game.
    Marketing is completely out of touch with players and developers.
    Lots of reasons.
  17. eyerollage New Member

    Smedley blew the marketing budget on hair gel
  18. Cuelaen Well-Known Member

    Not right, lol^^^^^^^
  19. Cuelaen Well-Known Member


    Well put!
  20. HaphazardAllure Well-Known Member

    I'm also pretty new (been playing for a few months), but I know that's not common. Now I understand why my guild was rejoicing when they asked if I was new to the game and I said yes. ;P