I'm not going anywhere. I have a Guild Hall to develop and a ton of ALTS to work on and none of my characters have hit 100 yet! Maybe this will lead to a team actually being allowed to go back and cleanup all the bugs we've reported over the years, that have been ignored. The San Diego layoffs do seem out of place in a rebuild effort, but only time will tell if this will destroy or improve the game.
Funny how I know Buffrat's name for his incredible contributions to the Dirge community for years, but I don't recognize yours at all. Guess some forum title doesn't have much to do with what actually matters.
I have no hate for Columbus Nova. I do not know CN and I have absolutely no loyalty to CN. I have been playing this company's games as far back as 1999 (989 Studios, then SOE, now DBG) and have seen many changes over the years but nothing like what happened today. I feel so bad for the folks that were let go. I wish all of them the very best. My optimism for the future of Columbus Nova / Daybreak Games was washed away with today's news. I no longer have any faith what-so-ever in EQN ever seeing the light of day. The entire Everquest franchise appears to be in jeopardy for that matter. Key people being let go across the board ( EQ, EQ2, EQNL, EQN, H1Z1, PS2 ) with Everquest II and EQN getting hit the hardest makes it very difficult to have any hope. "Do more with less" never works. Everyone suffers.
What is going to kill the game is jumping ship and not even giving the new owners to prove to us what their intentions are. I say hang in there until it is proven that Daybreak is out to kill EQ2. Sorry to see those of you go who are giving up so easily but I wish you all the best in all your future gaming. Thank you.
Point out to me where it has been said all games will quit development. When one company takes over another it is nothing unusual for the new owners to pink slip old employees and bring in their own people. Been there had that happen to me.
i started EQ with the RoK expansion (came from UO). i have played EQ1/2,PS1/2, and SWG for years. i have 3 accounts still, all access and year subs. my mains are on Luclin and AB and have been for years. anyone could post a troll on behalf of a know player. my point is this thread is looking like a troll, how can you say you're supporters if you are not subbed? i know a few manage to support the game without a sub but most do... i really hope EQ makes it though these rough times and not on a console or mobile device....
Daybreak hopefully is restructuring to better serve our community and being as such this transition is going to take some time. Leaving now only drives another nail into EQ's coffin. So let us remain hopeful that Daybreak will succeed in their venture for all our sakes. I wish Daybreak all the best.
I'm not going anywhere either. Not until the sun sets on EQ2 for the final time...and even then, I'll be sitting on some mountaintop watching it.
Personally I think we should all keep playing until the day that the sun sets on Norrath and ignore the doomsdayers.
From a business standpoint, it makes no sense to engineer a buyout of a gaming company, and then get rid of the games that actually have a revenue stream. EQ, EQ2, Planetside2, and presumably DCUO are the games with active subscriptions and a cash flow. Why would an investment company buy a gaming company, and then shut down the games that make money on the speculation that a game that hasn't been released yet might make more money, or that moving games to other platforms might make more money. I don't think these games are going anywhere yet.
I believe if daybreak cared about the subscribers to their games, one of the first things they would have done is hire a PR person to communicate with their player base.....the people that pay real money to the company, that is where the future of these games lie. The fact that they are not, in any way, trying to make the players feel more secure in them tells me they do not intend to keep these players around......I love everquest 2 and will continue to play til the end, but I am carefull not to invest a lot until Daybreak invests in it's players it's plan for this game, which will also influence any future decision to play daybreak games...
It hasn't been, at least no where anyone can see it, and it probably won't be. I expect we'll see a producers' letter as soon as the Producers get their feet under them and regroup.
From the SOE forum: "These reductions will not affect the operation of our current games and as mentioned above, will help better position our company for future success. As we move forward, we are committed to delivering the best online games and working side-by-side with our players to drive the future of our online games." I've seen enough games close to know the real sign things are going downhill is multiple mergers down to one or two servers, as was the case with Vanguard.
Lets be honest the game needs some new direction and new focus. Eq2 was a great game that has been going in the wrong direction for a while, and we were getting less and less from the expansions for the same $ or more $. I don't even what to go into the so called future games SOE was working on like Everquest Next, because the lack of progress on EQN appeared to be non-existent. Not to mention I was not a fan of the art direction on the characters or where they thought they were taking this game. I want to see what Daybreak does now, but they better get out front of things in a hurray and lay out a vision to stop a mass exit.
If next expac ends up being RoK 2.0 faith will be restored. Sadly, I do not see this ever happening. :/
I will continue to pay my sub until at least mid-march. I am however currently spending my time (one commodity that is most precious to me) on other pursuits. If there is no real communications from DBG I will certainly cancel my subs. We have received absolutely nothing from them aside from 2 little PR snippets that are full of corp-speak during their purchase of the company and their layoffs. In my view, if they cared at all about this game's community, they should have done better job of talking to us in a week's time. Starting now, they have a month to convince me that this is not the end.
They had 50 devs for RoK, they're down to less then 20 now.. It's a simple matter of not having enough people do do an expac of that size and scope.
EQ2 has been my home since the beginning (well it would have if Amazon hadn't screwed my order by a couple of weeks). Apart from dabbling for a few months with Rift this is the only online game I've known or wanted. I've commented and complained with the best over the years but I have NEVER cancelled my subscription or would dream of even threatening to do so. EQ2 is precious to me and I dearly hope to still be playing it in my retirement home.
Yeah, I know. I more meant the dungeon progression and the actual gear-earning mechanics more than anything else. XD
