February 2016 Producer's Letter

Discussion in 'News and Announcements' started by Windstalker, Feb 22, 2016.

  1. Kittybock Well-Known Member

    Since it appears that you've joined us recently in the Forums, welcome. That said, you may have missed discussions on this, in the past. As has been covered in prior forum posts/ threads: MMO's which offer FTP options, do so as an incentive to get players to either Sub and/ or buy Cash shop type items. It's similar to a restaurant offering free appetizers: they want to get people in the door, but they also want them to buy dinner and drinks. That's what pays bills. MMO's are a business and also need to pay bills.

    With the advent of F2P, many Free players migrate from game to game, demanding changes and moving on to next free option.

    Per your offer to PM me about another MMO, thanks, but not necessary. I have tried other games, but none that compare with the depth in EQ2. I've always come "home."

    Kitty
    Febrith, Kurisutaru, Raff and 3 others like this.
  2. Sigrdrifa EQ2 Wiki Author

    Niemand verlangt, dass du Englisch lernen, ob im Alter von 60 oder jede andere Alters. In einigen Gilden, wird jeder Spieler Deutsch sprechen.

    Es ist nur gemischtsprachigen Gilden, die ein Verfahren zur gemeinsamen Kommunikation erfinden muss, die von allen Mitgliedern verstanden werden kann.

    Zumindest versuchen, die neue Konfiguration, und sehen, ob es für dich arbeitet. Es wäre traurig für Norrath, dich zu verlieren!
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone and Kuulei like this.
  3. MissGreen Member


    Well thank you, and I would like to add that it doesn't change the fact WHERE this game is headed, they already merged servers and created 2 old school servers hoping to bring old comers back...the fact remains..the game is in dire straits...and I'm here to help or try to anyways, even though it may be a hit and miss but I love this game too, I wouldnt be here trying if I didn't.
    And Im currently subscribing to a game, Im not a freeloader by any means...I do support games that I truly enjoy playing, however that being said, I want to come back to this game, being my second true love of mmo's and all...I cant help but feel its very empty....and the developers need to consider what Im saying here because I'm sure they are more than aware of it as well. Ive also been here for years, and yes this is my first time posting on the forums, perhaps I should have done it years ago, but I am learning too lol...

    The bottom line is the game is in trouble, OBVIOUSLY and Im sorry but creating new skins for npc's instead of fixing what needs to be fixed or working on pvp and things is not good for any mmo's marketing decisions..Im sorry DB...I started a thread where the developers need to focus on what the players want in t his game...since no one is EVER making suggestions and things the game is bound to die off...it takes two to make a thing go right...and that is the players giving the dev's ideas and things and working with them, other wise the game is a GG.

    '
    MalcolmXBox likes this.
  4. Schmetterling Well-Known Member

    Sigrdrifa I don't know what language you normally speak but that was my point there will be different guilds speaking different languages its like different countries in Europe some people never leave their country others do some people never learn a foreign language others do its just like real live you can still hang out with your friends and do quests with your family
    the only problem as I see it is is the NPCs speaking only one language,( most likely English.)
    All houses guilds and guildhalls will be transferred to the new server everything will be intaket


    Ihr koennt immer noch mit Freunden spielen und mit Eurer Familie spass haben es wird verschiedene Guilden geben die verschiedene Sprachen sprechen
    Alle Hauser, Gilden und Gild Hallen weren auf den neuen Server gebracht ,dass heist Ihr seit noch immer in der selben Gilde auf dem neuen Server
    Das einzige Problem dass Ich sehe ist die Nicht Spieler Karackters die dann nur eine Sprache sprechen ( Hoechst wahrscheinlich Englisch).
    Aber Ich hoffe dass Spieler Die Englisch sprechen helfen warden .
    Ich hoffe dass das Neue Norath wie ein kleines Europa funktioniert.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  5. Adevil Well-Known Member

    Anything even approaching P2W is more likely to drive away existing members than it is to attract new ones. The players who have stuck with this game through thick and thin seem to have a strongly entrenched bias against such "ploys" to pry their wallets open even further.

    Edit: Honestly a little bit of advertising would go a lot further than dumping more crap on the cash shop.
    Also, the players won't stop making suggestions. Probably more suggestions than the devs want to see get tossed onto the various forums.
    MissGreen, Kurisutaru, Raff and 2 others like this.
  6. Ingerimm Well-Known Member


    This is precisely the problem. The server merge is supposed to fill the gaps in the ranks and not increase it, but that's what will happen. Then you can save the server also merge.

    What's the point if you can only talk with his old known which are becoming less and are even less then the merge and the language change? Where is then the positive effect will be, which is the official reason for the merge.

    This is called a wanton paradoxum.
    Sala93 and Uwkete-of-Crushbone like this.
  7. Sigrdrifa EQ2 Wiki Author

    English. I read and (badly) write German, but I don't have it as a spoken language.

    Since there are already foreign-language UIs, I'd think that DBG should make it so that one can use their preferred language UI. As already happens on the American servers, we will see guilds in which one or more non-English languages will be spoken. Someone who is monolingual would probably want to seek out a guild that speaks his or her language. And there will be several guilds in which at least two languages are spoken. Maj'Dul has at least one already that looks for players fluent in two out of three languages (Vantage, speak to Lynch about how they manage).

    I have played in roleplaying raids in which we communicated, in persona, via /r, /t, and /gsay. You can still use tools such as ACT or Teamspeak to handle timers and calls, it's just a matter of adjusting the tool to read the language of your UI and TTS in whatever language you understand best when spoken.

    I have been in guilds in which each archetype (fighters, scouts, mages, healers) each had their own Skype, and they would be able to listen to Skype for their instructions. You could do this by language as well, so long as you have one bilingual player in each Skype group. So the raid leader could, say, give instructions in English in game chat (or Ventrilo or Teamspeak), and the German group leader would repeat those instructions in German, while the French group leader did the same in French. Etc.
  8. Merriel Well-Known Member

    I've been saying all along that they really need to advertise this game. I don't know why they are so dead set against doing so, when this game has still so much potential to remain popular. Poor planning on the part of the person/people who make these decisions.
    Febrith, Prissetta and Nockturnal like this.
  9. Nockturnal Well-Known Member

    Correct.


    I've never been worried when people come to these forums speaking dooms day. I and many others are having to much fun for dooms day.

    All I ask is fix the lag, fix the bugs and listen to your paying customers. Win, win.
  10. Kuulei Well-Known Member

    It's always been one for me, with a sub that started with EQ1 and 5 years later when EQ2 came out, I upped it to All-Access to include EQ2. That's an uninterrupted subscription on this account for 16+ years. They ADDED a F2P option to get or keep players but it's always been my P2P and most likely will.
    I said "Somehow" because when F2P launched, it was extremely generous as a FTP with leveling albeit the restrictions on races and classes, currency, bags, slots, banking, etc. was somewhat irritating but unlocks and subscriptions could make your gaming better.
    In my opinion they made FTP a very generous gaming experience for a game that was P2P for years and still is for many. So with my choice of P2P, I will get to play new content this spring! ;)
  11. Kittybock Well-Known Member

    You go Girl!! :) Totally on the same page. Can't wait to see new stuff!
  12. Tabri Well-Known Member

    Im sure Daybreak would like to make this game pay to win like the other f2p/p2w games out at the moment but they dont you know why? Because this older population would literally crap themselves if they did that :eek: Soooo , they have to think of other ways to make money because guess what folks this game costs money like any other game to maintain and keep up happy. If your f2p this game wasnt even meant to be that in the first place feel privileged they dont charge the monthly fee anymore and stop complaining over every little thing. Besides that why does f2p even need prestige fabled items there are plenty already not marked prestige?

    I play Neverwinter and they have all languages on one server I dont see why DBG cant just do that here, or if they are planning on doing that, then great, I am not sure the details on the EURO merges, havent checked.

    When all languages are on one server basically if you dont understand what someone says in general chat or whatever just ignore it, its not for you anyway. If someone sends a tell in another language(which I get here and there on Neverwinter), politely say you only speak english and let it go at that. Its really not the end of the world everyone can still communicate with their respective people.
  13. Fulenstixx New Member

    I would like to know wot u are doing to the lag on Splitpaw till the merge ???? u havent given us anything about that so far or are ignoring us in Europe , we are not satisfied whit how it is at the moment we have had extrem lag in raids for weeks and u keep ignoring us or give us any infromation at all about wot u are doing to help us out , , there has been sevral threads asking or wanting somekind of info on this , fix the game before u start making new stuff ingame,
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  14. Yavie Active Member

    The Scourge look good. Nice graphics. Now that we have Luclin back in the sky, will we ever go back to it? I'd like to see Fungus Grove and other zones up there back in game.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  15. Posy New Member

    Spring is the period from the Vernal Equinox to the Summer Solstice, so between the 20th March and the 21st June.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  16. MalcolmXBox Active Member

    Gonna be a lot more of that soon too. :(
  17. Schmetterling Well-Known Member

    I think Daybreak is not working on the European problem because when the servers are marched the new server resulting will be functioning saves them a lot of work I also think that not all European servers will be tossed into one , I think there will be at least 2 .
    of cores I hope the problems are addressed because it will be months before the consolidation will happen, first you get to pick a new name for the new server.
    than they give you time to pick up all bound things from your houses and guild halls you get the idea you might want to dig up the forum for when the American servers were consolidated
    There were problems not drought but most went smoothly.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  18. Raenius Well-Known Member

    Guess it will be an english based server/client with a language-overlay for real-time translation - you can chose if you want that overlay to translate into german or french - but if you do you get additional lag and all affected will moan again on forums.

    A few will quit, but on the other hand we have a few players who just understand the very basics of scripts and they are fine most times - just cope with it, or.......don`t.
  19. Ingerimm Well-Known Member

    I think people that you mention just where it's not about scripts.

    These people read the texts and the quests these people read what the NPC tell these people to understand the stories and backgrounds of the game because it is not a place to reach playing on a ranking, but simply play to the actual game to play.

    They play in the true sense of a MMO.

    To say now, take it or leave, you get what we offer and since it is easy for us there is the game which has come in german, french, russian and japanese as well as english on the market 12 years ago, only in english, because it is the native language of the developer company, is definitely not ok.

    The players of each nation have invested their money over the 12 years in this game, something does not occur to his feet, sorry.

    If you ever do something to one divides all the respect, all players who have a maintained the faithful for 12 years.
  20. Ommnom Member

    Well, everybody talks about money ... so lets see...

    You are a company running EQ2 and have lets say 10 Devs working on it, plus you have another 10 people involved in the processings such as office workers, Relations, Press and so on...
    Lets say you pay an average years income of 40.000 USD per employee. To pay that a company has to pay additional costs (tax and so on) for those employees. In Germany its nearly double what you can calculate for salaries, due to another social system. I du not know the american costs, but lets say you pay 50% of that you end up with 60.000 USD per employee. Times 20 --> 1.200.000 USD a year.
    Additionally we talk about a location to work and everything your employees work with --> 150.000 USD
    Now you have to host the game, and pay for the traffic. Your MMO is not running on a computer at your office, you gotta have a RAK for that and so on .... --> I really dont know what thats about to cost...

    Lets say DBG must calculate around 2.000.000 USD a year to operate EQ2 ending up at 0 ...
    But ending up 0 does not work for a company, you have to compensate for inflation, and difficulties to encounter that are unplanned. I would guess we're talking about 20%-25% of your yearly cash flow ...

    Ends up at 2.500.000 USD a year

    Lets go the other way round ... We pay 13 USD a month per Subscription -> plus another 100 USD per Expansion and maybe 100 USD on the Market Place a year (average) ... Ends up at 13*12+100+100 --> 356 USD a year ...

    So if we divide that up its 7000 unique accounts that you have to have to operate in a good manor ...

    Now that we have a "feeling" of what things cost we calculate personal costs for localisation of products... If you take 2 persons translating per Language and the extra costs for seperate servers to operate on you get an idea of how many "localisation" players you must have that localisation is efficently in your calculation.

    - We are playing an 11 year old game.
    - The Player base is decreasing for years, due to several things that happened :
    - PC Games are rolling backwards every year since 3-4 years and console market is getting more and more important
    - Kids nowadays are "faster living" they consume things faster and mearly have no interest in long term MMOs
    - Sonys struggle on financial things due to the Tsunami
    - changes that EQ2 overcome with changes from SOE -> DBG and producer changes and philosophy changes

    We can complain and complain, but you will not "advertise" new players on the younger ages. I do have teenage children, they just would never invest the effort and interest in a long term MMO and neither of their friends do ...They go for shooter or console games. If they played thru those they exchange the Game just be trading the discs... No accounts no nothing. Selling and reselling. Go over to gamestop and take a look on that and to the games they sell.... Same thing will be with new MMOs, they all fight the same problematics...

    ---------------------

    Bottomline for all who just scrolled over my post ...

    Localisation costs money, with decreasing player base on the EU side, you have to recalculate cost and benefit and have to cut down costs for that. So cut down localisation and merge players to one instance makes sense. We will get more player interested in the game on one server and we have to overcome language difficulties to play together.

    BUT we ARE Europeans. We work together in the European Union, we share the same money and we try to move closer together from year to year in so many things in Real Life. Its only a question of time, when we all will be speaking an EU Language and somewhat in the Future a World Language. But thats Science Fiction for us, we will not see that.

    What we will see is a EQ2 Server Merge in the near future in the EU. Its on us to work these difficulties.