Producer's Letter: Expansion 17, Beta and Preorders!

Expansion details are revealed on pre-order and beta launch day. They do this because the previous expansion is on sale to the very last moment and they immediately charge your card which gives you instant access to all previous expansions.

There is a teaser announcement and a pre-order announcement.

It's probably going to be a lot like BoL.

Last year, pre order / beta was good till about a week before launch if I remember correctly. If so, then my husband and I will just split up our orders within a 2 week time frame. We aim for the higher tiers cause of the perks.

For SALE, yes, but in the past they've given us INFORMATION well before beta.

This Producer's Letter is the information?

Benito linked the BoL letter:

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...xpansion-anniversary-and-a-new-server.590845/

/shrug

The producer's letter says almost nothing compared to previous years.
Also, in the past, there has been information about pre-order packages and prices weeks before beta started.
This year they've pretty much confirmed only that there is an expac.. and that they've done 'stuff' with 2 AA pages.

You must be new. For 8 years we got 4-5 hours of presentations in Las Vegas with flythroughs of the dungeons, panels about the art and animation, the mechanics, unveiling the expansion content, crafting, etc. We found out what was going to be in the expansion and got to ask devs all kinds of questions. If there was an AA revamp coming, the mechanics dev spent half an hour just walking us through some of the changes, example spells, and explanations of WHY the changes were made.

After the Daybreak name change, for a few years we still got a 90 minute livestream walking us through all the content and what we can expect, as well as articles and interviews prepared by the Community Manager about lore, dungeons, raid zones, and the various systems being added.

This "take it or leave it" BUY IT NOW* with a couple of paragraphs of high level bullet points is a fairly new occurrence.

*This is NOT a pre-order. You can't call something a pre-order when the only way to find out what's in it is to buy it and beta test it, especially with a no-refunds policy.

Dreamweaver has done a great job so far. He can decide what to market and post.

Unfortunately, I expect the Negative Nancys to troll every piece of good or bad information. Sadly, this disinformation campaign will push new and returning players away in a meager attempt to fulfill their long-awaited prophecy of the end of EQ2.

If these critics have a grudge over EQ2, they need to get over it. Accept the results. For the most part, this is not the same company from years ago. If they somehow still dislike 1 or 2 devs from the past, they need to take it up with them. No need to pull the whole game and studio (working people) down.

I hope you'll do the same.

I voted for him. He is a moderate!

Asking for more information about an upcoming expansion is not trolling in any way shape or form.

A lot of us have been here since the beginning in 2004. We remember how much hype there would be about upcoming expansions - the videos, the affiliation sites, the fanfaires, the webcasts, Dellmon's podcasts, other websites getting some exclusive information to share, etc., etc. Now, it's 2020, 16 years later, and we're all older, more responsibilities, kids and parents to care for, and also have to watch budgets. Expansions used to be reasonably priced - I'd have to do some digging, but around $39.99, and you got ALOT more for the price back then, than you do today - where you have pay-to-win mechanics splitting the expansion into different price point tiers.

Before you say 'they are a business and they have to have a way to generate income,' we all understand that. But we are also in an era where people make informed decisions before buying a product - and there just isn't enough information out there other than 'EverQuest's 17 expansion is here: A new race, five zones, revamped AA's and the ability to gain 30 more, guild level increase, some quests.' No fanfare, no videos, no screenshots, nothing, other than one screenshot of a lioness (which admittedly looks cool.) No explanations of how the new mechanics will work, how many quests there are, etc.

If you really want to hype this expansion, and potentially increase sales - then release more teasers, not have the attitude of 'You have to buy it to see it.'

1. Mermut is impatient and/or panicking. Remember how concerns over a "companywide publishing blackout" totally fizzled? The expansion pre-order will show more information. You can look at the EQ1 2020 pre-order page and post as examples:

https://www.everquest.com/expansion-content

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/claws-of-veeshan-pre-orders-are-live.270833/

2. Each Community Manager and the marketing team can make their own editorial decision. There is no conspiracy or cabal to push a "bait-and-switch" or be deceptive. (I am sure you can apply those same standards to crowdfunding for Pantheon and Ashes of Creation). Dreamweaver has been transparent and in communication with the community. I am sure he would be willing to answer DMs on the matter (marketing style).

3. If you distrust Daybreak/Darkpaw, you can wait a few days or weeks for secondhand reviews of Beta on the forums, Reddit, Discord, or from your social circles (friends, guildies). There has been no NDA on Beta for years.

Inflation.

You could buy a top-end model Nintendo 64 for $129 16 years ago.

Basic game consoles (Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series S) for now sell for $299. The top model consoles sell for $499-$599 or more.

After so many people complained about the amount of content and missing features in BoL I thought for sure this time they are going to go over the top with information early. To show what is in the expansion pack and to make people pre-order that maybe are waiting now because they don't trust them to make a good expansion after BoL.

The fact they are waiting to the very last minute again makes me think it's going to be another expansion with very little content and features. I was hoping to at least to see a bunch of screenshots by now! That doesn't' seem like much to ask or a count of the number of zones. Hope that I'm wrong. Looking forward to see when they release more information.

I also think it's odd that we have to pay to Beta test. We are doing them a service for free with our time to help them test the game. If we didn't they would have to pay someone to do it. It seems like giving the Beta to anyone that wants to test for free in exchange for the time to test it for them is a good fair deal for both sides. Plus you get more testing done. It might also get people excited about what's in the game and make them want to pre-order.

In the end people can decide with the information that has been given or wait awhile for reports to come in from people that paid to Beta test. As others have said there is no NDA so there will be lots of information from the testers even if they company doesn't see the need to release lots of information to get people hyped up for the expansion.

They are probably deciding which zone(s) will be used for Game Update content hence why they can't give us a solid number.

Sadly, paying for Alpha and Beta access is now industry standard. You have to pay $300+ to Alpha Test 'Pantheon' or 'Ashes of Creation' at a undetermined date. Thousands of dollars to Alpha Test 'Star Citizen.' On the flip side, SOE used to raffle spots for Beta and that system caused quite a bit of commotion.

That is the problem. NONE of the expansion pack zones should be used for Game Update content. Remember when the expansion price used to pay for the expansion content. Then our monthly fee would include a few Game Updates a year.
It's like cutting stuff out of a game and then selling it as DLC. If this is what is happening no wonder the expansions have gotten so small.

It's a good point about paid Alpha/Beta. The way you explain it makes sense. Since Kickstarters and Early Access games are you basically buying the game early so you can then Beta test. I didn't think about it that way but yes you have a good point there.

For kickstarters, though, you're paying them so they can have a good game.. and they tell you all sorts of information about what you're supporting.
For this it's 'we're not going to tell you anything, but you can pay to test it for us'

No, and it's not the same game either, which is why so many of us have lost patience with it.

Sounds like you misunderstood me, as that is not what I was saying. What I was saying was that in previous expansions, you had your Standard recipes, and you had the Advanced recipes, so you didn't need 15-20 recipe books to have all the recipes of your tradeskill profession.

I get it that this game is more about the journey than the destination, however the journey tends to get rather boring when you find yourself rinse-repeating over and over again for nearly half a season just to get the currency together to buy the recipes you need.

It would be nice to be able to get the recipes sooner so I can get to the rest of the expansion's content so I can enjoy more of the journey sooner.

I didn't think about it that way myself. DLCs are almost becoming industry standard. Everything from Microsoft Flight Simulator to Call of Duty push DLCs (or add ons) when they should be standard content. Luckily, EQ2's Game Updates are free. In their minds, they are worried about players "burning" through content. (I won't argue about time-gating because people will complain about other types of speed bumps: keying or grinding).