May 2016 Producer’s Letter

Apparently they can work on cross server grouping as Holly was planning on doing that before players overwhelming asked for servers to be merged first.

The problem with adding new servers is that it will further spread out an already increasingly thinned out population. Even after the merges most of the servers still feel lacking in active players. Also, the TLE servers were so poorly implemented that many players that returned to the game left in disappointment and have not returned.

I understand that they need to make money, but if they turned their focus on fixing existing problems and revisiting items players ask for all the time on these forums (i.e. battlegrounds revamp, cross server grouping, pq's etc.), then they would most likely retain existing players and possibly entice former players to return.

I agree with you on all points, however, there has to be a balance between profit and the happiness of the player base because just from reading the forums, a lot of people aren't happy and it seems to be across a lot of playstyles. If they push too hard to make a profit at the cost of quaility, people will leave and they'll loose profit.There has to be a balance between things that will entice people to stay and support the game and thier profit. Columbus Nova is an investment firm, I imagine they'd like the highest profits at the lowest cost. That's fine, but there's a limit to what people will accept. Most of us won't knowingly keep throwing money at them to keep a game alive that isn't fun for us any more. I will literly cry real tears when eq2 is no more. This game has seen me through a lot of very hard times and I cherish it, but I'm not wealthy and so I can't afford to make eq2 my charity of choice.

Why I'm angry and maybe others too, it that we already knew what you're saying and we've tried to be understanding, the last xpac was very small with not a lot of side quests etc. We gave them a pass because we know they're a small team and we're not without compassion or understanding. It's when they start to do things that seem like an obvious cash grab in a way that people aren't intersted in when there's so many other areas of the game that need attention, people get upset and angry because we've already been trying to support them by acccepting less content, less quaility ( more bugs ) etc. It begins to feel ( for me ) that they're trying to wring out as much money from me as possible without providing a meaningful gaming experiance ( for me ) Maybe it's because they want a as much profit as possible before eq2's closure or because the powers will push and push to make more profit till they see that people have had enough and note the line between having to spend money to keep people playing and thier profit. I'm not privy to thier interal goings on so have no idea if it's either/or or something completely different.

As far as a solution, I have no idea. I just play eq2, I have no idea how to find the balance between meaningful content and profit. I would like to see eq2 going for many more years, but I won't be able to support it if it becomes a hollow, meaningless shell with the playerbase being milked regularly. In an ideal world, maybe they could say "hey, this is where we're at, we know it's not great but we're opening up dialogue between us and the player base to brainstorm what we can do to keep the game meaningful across playstyles without spending a huge amount of money" There's lots of players out there that are game developers and coders and writers etc etc. that would be willing to help. That's really a fantasy idea and not very likely but can you imagine if companies were actually open and honest with thier customers? Most people are understanding and willing to even go the extra to help support something they love but we don't want to feel used either.

All the issues currently with the game have been adressed now by most of the people, especially in the two posts above mine, and I can only support what's already been said.
Would even half of those issues begin to be adressed, I'd be more than happy to return to this game again and support it by subscription (if seeing that the dev team is actually listening to the players and is willing to improve the rather bad situation) as I've been doing all the time earlier. I'm sure many more people would, as well.

And to all those who feel I should be excluded from voicing my views here just because I'm not playing Everquest II at the moment - I don't mean to be rude, but that is rude.
With attitude like that you might want to ask yourself, if that isn't a part of the reason some people left the game. I don't see it very likely for once active players to consider to return to the game if they are met in the community as someone who doesn't belong here.
I played only a few years, but I have supported the game before the situation turned to much worse, and it is still a game I continue to be aware of, and consider to return should things visibly improve. But that is not very likely at the moment.

i am just wondering, do they have an eta on the marketplace guild halls? will we be able to have more than one since they seem to be intent on bringing out more later? or can we trade in one if they bring out one we like better? how limiting will our future choices be if we buy one of the first ones? any sneak previews? marketplace (prestige) guild halls has been something decorators have asked for for years. so yeah, we want to know more. i personally loved the prestige palatial guild hall in eq1- and i liked the idea of buying land to put it on. what i didn't like was getting evicted if i didn't log in for a short time. but buying the halls and even the villages was not a real issue.

I have been resubbed to EQ2 for a month now after not playing for 5-6 years. This post makes me so incredibly sad.

Trying to level up a new character has been so depressingly lonely. Every zone I've been to is completely empty. Just me and the occasional bot. It wasn't until I went to Sinking Sands that I encountered an actual person running about. Level 55 before I saw anyone outside of the cities. There are no dungeon runs. There's no level 15 Blackburrow groups. There's no level 35 Kaladim groups. There's nothing. Pre-95 is a wasteland of zombies running agnostics and nothing else. 10+ years of content being ignored.

I tried to join a few guilds, none of them have more then 3-4 people on at any given time. It got so lonely I decided to try out the TLE server, everyone said it's more populated. Even there it's nigh impossible to put together a group unless you are level 70 and even then, I see the 70s spamming general chat endlessly for a few people to run CoV.

Double exp weekend and I'm still waiting 20+ minutes in a queue for an agnostic.

Why would you want to split up the player base even more? I can't even imagine what is going through the minds of the devs here.

To be fair, if the legal issues were not in play, I would much rather see Vanguard return than to see either of these servers. Of course, I'd rather not see new servers period, because I don't see why they're even desired, much less "necessary." The whole idea seems quite wasteful, to me.

I was under the impression (from posters) that EQ/EQ2 was profitable, but Sony had some big debts and sold off EQ/EQ2 to help pay of those debts rather than get a small amount of profit each month. Better one large lump sum than a few dollars for a decent amount of work. If we weren't profitable, Columbus Nova wouldn't have bought us in the first place. You cant just rely on major layoffs and costs cuttings and expect your clients to accept a loss of service sheeply. So by cost cutting, layoffs and ending development of EQNext, they are able to devote their funds (limited profits allocated to improving their services and business) where there is likely to be some sort of payoff. Lets be honest, if they thought that (made up numbers) investing $100 into the business would only pay off with $103 at the end of the year, they would invest in savings bonds from a government that pays better.

EQ/EQ2 is still profitable, but its just a matter how long EQ2 will still be. EQ seems to be doing better, but I prefer to play EQ2 overall. I suggested (computer wont handle it) that players make some entertaining videos to put on YouTube to help get some views and interest in the game, but no one responded. If we cant help EQ2 and they cant do it (for whatever reason), the Titanic is slowly sinking, but it has for a long time. Only the ship's crew knows how long it still has... even as they tell us "All is well, and free drinks in the bar... and if you need ice, just go up on deck! Its been delivered already!"

Jokes aside, its not the developers or even most of the crew at Daybreak games that's to blame, its goes up higher. Perhaps hashing out a good strategy to help save this game (done by us for us) and presented to Columbus Nova as a proposal to improve their finances by showing how the suggested improvements will help retain, and hopefully bring back old players and encourage new players to join.

Just go here https://dgcissuetracker.com/secure/Dashboard.jspa

This will show you how much they really care about fixing issues for EQ2. Nothing will change and things will only get worst.

I have no desire to create yet another character on a time limited server. Towards the end of last year I created one on Nagafen as I decided to try out PVP. As one of many alts I was not on it all that much but still went to play it for a change. When the time limied one came up , I activated a secondary account to run an alt form there on it as well. Then suddenly...pooft...no PVP as its combined with the other time limieted one in ADDITION to have closed down Nagafin.

How about adopting a PVP style on a server, that is found on regular (non pvp) servers in WOW, ... you don't have to choose to be PVP and it allows for more flexablilty.
Another thing...if you wish to be really creative...how about a 'fantasy ' server that say, is also time limited, but allows you to pick any illusion you want. And that illusion stay with you reguardless if you are mounted or not. You have a lot of folks, especially of the younger generations that would give their right arm to be playing a unicorn or dragon. Think about it. We had a short lived trial run of something similar on test for EQ1 ages ago, it was promised to be brought back but never was, Though that particular test limited the illusion to only the zone the player chose the illusion in.

Lastly, you want to keep old players in, don't be doing negative stuff. Give us back things that can give us alternatives to play, give us back the 'play it your way' by giving us back something ...whether tokens or a dab of experience, as a reward for going though peoples decorated dungeons, as well as bring back the 'mobs' you could buy in station cash, as well as pick up from the beasties you normally killed..i haven't seen any 'drop' from snakes, bears, etc since the 'nerf' happened.

Play it your way... more variety... good story lines, good customer service...attention to details and fixing bugs all matter. P.S. ... a bit tired of camping back into game to find im UNDER the tiles.

Vanguard was interesting..I had just begun to play there when they took the game down. Dissapointing, it seemed a good back up game as well for when servers were down for repair.

If it keeps going in the current direction - guild halls will be available in a pack, and you will find out which one you get on opening it.

It's a nostalgia server, basically. A large group of players had been requesting it for a very long time (since the second or third expansion, probably), and up until shortly before the release, SOE/DBG had said it was not possible since so many changes had been made to the game and the original program no longer really existed as it was. They eventually gave in and did what they could to bring the current game back to where it was when the game first released and made a server for it, complete with original newbie island. ^_^ (I loved that place! Had the music from there on my MP3 player for years.)
There is also a much shorter wait for expansions since people get to vote on when they get added to the server and no need for any thing to be created, just patched a bit (or removed due to being too messed up, like the pet arena from the first expansion). This helps with the regular servers, since bugs that hadn't gotten much attention in old content that some of us still roam finally get some work done due to demands from the TLE server. ^_^

I wonder... is the "tradeable heirloom" server a test to see how it would work (or if it would cause problems) type thing? Maybe if it works well they'll patch it into live servers?

Event servers were tried by other games and were pretty popular, so adding that was a pretty good idea, IMHO. It would have been nice to let the non-raiders have a shot at it somehow, but oh well. :\
Frankly, anyone who tries to force me to raid can just bite me. I tried it, I hated it, I don't do it. That's it. If I'm going to be told where to be, when to be there, and what to do while I'm there, and do that over and over and over again till it's practically muscle memory... I'm getting paid at least $9.50 an hour. :\ I'm glad it's there for those who do like it, and I'm always happy to see more content for them.... but kinda irritates me when new content comes out only for them when the mirrored/similar but less reward versions for solo advanced has been around for a while now.
Is a no-stats or lower stats version of what the raiders get to much to ask for to attract casual and non-raiders to the new server? o.0 I'm honestly a bit shocked if there isn't. Heck, might have gotten some casuals interested in raiding by attracting them there and maybe they finish the solo task and join a raid to try and get the grand prize and actually like it.

good idea passing it along!

I love Ishuna's post as I think it covered just about all the major problems players are having with EQII--especially the part about profit vs. player happiness. No company can produce a buggy product and expect it to make their customer's happy.

I still love the old zones and I play in them just about every day. When I outgrow them, I just make a new toon which is why I'm now up to 75+ toons.

I did my first agnostic dungeon, yesterday, and I can now see why so few people are in the older zones. I was blown away by how fast my toon leveled up in the agnostic dungeon. As a result, I won't be doing them very much, in the future, but they are great for those who want to get to end-game material quickly.

I did love the loot I got in the agnostic dungeon and wish I could get such great loot in regular dungeons. There are some dungeons that are actually fun to do but all I get is transmutable rewards which are little help to new alts. And since each account generally only has 9 classes, it makes it even more difficult to find non-heirloom gear that is useable. All I can do is vendor it or transmute it.

Like many others, who have posted, I am floored by your opening two new servers. The one bad thing about the agnostic dungeon was standing around waiting for a group.

Players would join and then leave because of the group composition and levels so I gave up after the first dungeon run. I'm glad I finally got to be in one, but it made me doubt the wisdom of fragmenting servers even more. If it is hard to find a group now, what will it be like when there are two more servers competing for players?

I don't even want to consider the population on AB after Trade and Trakanon servers go up -- most likely the only players left will be the 100 trolls who hang out in general and like five active guild members lol.

12 pages so far, about half of you are upset that there weren't more polls, but the other half were somewhere between "Lets not have another server.", & "Why do we need an events server?". So in short Daybreak has asked your opinions and a lot of you have no idea what they were asking in the first place. Rather reminds me of what SOE did just before Daybreak took over. Which makes me wonder just how long is EQ2 going to stay online. I like the game, and clearly others do too, we just need to find a way to market ourselves a bit better to a new audience. Maybe lowering the price of SC cards, or make a $5.00 card to be emailed out to all the people who start on 7/4, or some other holiday. Start using Craigslist to sell SC cards, or maybe put a few more youtube videos out. Neither of the ideas I saw are great by any stretch, but at the same time Daybreak is trying to get more people in. As far as servers go we need 1 main one, like Freeport was, and then about 6 other servers based off Greenwich mean time, so that you always have some people playing the game. Sadly my RL schedule of late means I don't have as much time as I used to, but that doesn't mean I'm giving up on the game. While I never thought I would say this, but let's hope Daybreak stays around a bit, because the alternative is the lights going off for good.

the poll was 'which server type do you prefer' with three options.

i want A server. (event server)
i want B server. (tradable heirloom server)
i want A and B servers.

where is the 'i am indifferent', 'none of the above' and 'i prefer you put resources on EXISTING servers'

the poll was simple enough to understand, it was a rubber stamp poll designed so they could decieve the ignorant into believing that they introduced new servers because players wanted it and voted in a poll you could not vote in any negative or indifferent way.

it's no different then an election ether you vote one evil in or abstain, there is no 'i don't like ether candidate go back and pick better representatives'.

The first SOE in-game poll was a disaster on all fronts. It was a separate pop-up window in your face when you logged in, not an email. The poll was about something important and divisive, the real money exchange server IIRC. I still have screenshots of it around here someplace. All of the choices were cut off mid-sentence so you couldn't tell what you were voting for, but you had to cast a vote in order to get the window off the screen.

Fast forward to the most recent poll which was technically improved but still cryptic. In fairness, the poll asks "Which of the following two prestige servers would interest you more?" Since it's an "Upcoming Prestige Server," the question of whether we like the idea in the first place is off the table.

The email behind the poll says we can delete it if we don't want to participate. Since the developers can see which in-game mails have been opened, replied, deleted, etc., it's a snap to figure out how many players opted out by deleting or not answering the poll. So although it seems a bit insulting not to give us a "none of the above" choice, we had the option of voting no-opinion by deleting the email.

Imaginary Baskin Robbins poll:

We have an empty spot in the ice cream freezer next to your favorites, so we are introducing a new flavor next month to fill it. Which flavor would interest you more?

A. Anchovy Pizza
B. Garlic and Pickle
C. Both

I would toss that poll in the trash knowing that at least one of them is coming and there is not much I can do about it except not eat it.