Community Letter: A Note from Jennifer Chan

SPOT. ON.

I already said "Hi" at the top of the thread but reading all the negative comments on the state of the game I felt I had to pop back and say a couple of things. I've been a subscriber to EQ without a single break since 1999 and an All Access subber since it was invented. I've played EQII since late beta in September 2004, again without a break. For the last few years, and for all of the Daybreak ownership, I've played solo with EQ2 as my second MMORPG (usually behind Guild Wars 2).

In my opinion, the game was at its lowest ebb in the last few years of the SOE period. After a shaky start it began to improve under DBG and it has continued to do so. Blood of Luclin is my favorite expansion since Sentinel's Fate ten years ago. It's so good, in fact, that since it launched EQII has once again become my main MMORPG and I've played it almost exclusively for the last three months.

As someone who has always both crafted and adventured I find the changes to crafting very much in my favor. Whereas in recent expansions I've gone most of the year using Journeyman skills until I could upgrade via the time-gated system, in BoL I can make Adepts for myself and buy them at a reasonable price. I have also been able to make a lot of Experts at very reasonable cost because the rares are far more obtainable than they have been for years. Whereas I have previously always maintained two crafters (Sage and Weaponsmith) at max level, in BoL, largely thanks to the very welcome accelerated levelling speed and the knowledge that, once levelled, my crafters would be able to make things I needed, I have expanded my crafting team to four. I now have a max level Carpenter and Alchemist too.

I enjoy the 30 second timer on the Shadow Staff and the two hour cooldown. It changes what would otherwise have been another background system into a foreground one. I look forward to the staff becoming available and the hunt for a good spot with multiple shadow nodes. It's far more engaging than simply moving endlessly around clearing node spawns in the traditional manner.

I love the Overseer system. It has become the first thing I do each day when I switch my PC on and the first thing i do when I get home from work. I find it interesting, amusing and very rewarding. I very much welcome any expansion or extension of the system. The holiday Overseer quests are a great addition to the game.

On the concept of "Pay to Win", I understand that for people at the cutting edge of the game feel they have to spend money to keep up but at my engagement level there is absolutely no need to spend anything beyond the subscription. I have never paid a penny to accelerate progress of any kind - I don't even remember to use the free accelerators that drop most of the time. Content for solo/molo is tuned in such a way that it's accessible without any of that. That has not always been the case in EQII's history and I prefer it the way it is now.

I just wanted to put a point of view that doesn't often get expressed on these forums and I go into so much detail just to give a perspective on why someone who has played EQII for a long time might not agree with the idea that everything is on a downward spiral. There have been plenty of times in the past when the direction of the game has felt alienating to me and I understand how changes that appeal to one player may almost break the game for another. I just wanted to say that for me the game is going in just the direction I would hope and has been for a while now.

That said, there is always room for further improvement. A dedicated crafting dev is essential. Mob drops could be made more interesting. Overall, though, for me it's very much a case of "keep up the good work" and I very much look forward to what the next year brings.

I am not entirely sure this will mark the beginning of the change of where EQ2 has been floating stagnant over the tenure of the last producer but I cannot help but wonder that rather than coming up with something new and exciting and forcing us to adopt the new overseer system just because someone thinks its good why not start the new position by having a community poll in the game and/or forums where you enlist the help of the players to understand and see what features currently existing in the game they would want either gone or changed?

Given "Holly's" go to term of "community driven" content, it is only logical to hear what the community of players has to say about the current state of the game or is that too much to ask?

Without soundng condascending or using fallacious arguments, I would venture a guess that people will be very forthcoming with ideas and suggsestions that will help the developers. After all, many of us have stuck by this game, specifically in its darkest times (From ToT to present).

Surely this is something to factor in early in your new post Jennifer. Welcome and all the best! A lot rests on your shoulders.

/Regards

Congrats on the new position! I'm sure that keeping Ttobey in line will be a daunting task, but it sounds like you can handle it.

Looking forward to seeing what comes next...sounds like some cool things are in store!

I cannot agree with this enough. I am in the exact same situation, only my family has decided to drop their paid subscription and go play wow classic. I don't care if you have an "easy mode" heroic that drops solo loot as long as I can play with my friends without having to have a full group of fully infused grind fest gear. I have played this franchise since since Beta EQ1, I was here as well for the same but I have dropped my subscription before in recent times for the above reason. At this point hubby and I are just doing the solo's together because I still love this game, but I miss playing with my other friends/family. I hate WoW but I am stuck playing it because I want to spend time with them.

Welcome to your new position within Everquest, Where the men are men crafting, the women are counquoring, the and the Dwarves need a bath.

She's not the boss of me! Oh wait. Darn!

lol ttobey <3
I just wanted to say , SHISH people way to welcome somebody by hitting them over the head with all this complains.
I don't know a certain froglog might have cleaned up to toxic posts , but really .
I am sure that our new Technical Director knows all about the problems and wishes and wants of us all considering how long she has been working in this joint .


I bid you a warm welcome , and please, PUT THE LEVELS BACK ON THE HARVESTS .

I <3 Chronoportals event!

Welcome Jennifer and thank you for taking it on!

I hate to be a grouch, but I'll believe fixes will be made when they show up. We have been told a number of things. Few came true.

Congo Rats on new promotion Darlin! We looking forward to what you've got in mind for us.

You are right, dear Schmet =) But we are desperate!

Again JChan, welcome =) Nice to see your face! Rootin for ya.

Welcome and ggod luck JChan,

maeke Eq2 fun again so we get a bigger payerbase instead of relying (milking) loyal players.

Thank you !

Hmmm.

you left most of my post out Atta the last line was mostly meant as a joke.
and I don't think JChan needs luck , she is well qualified , to do , what can be done .

Yes, welcome Jennifer! It is good to see a technical person in the top spot. Hopefully many things in game can be fixed
.
However, I , too agree that we have too many leveling systems already. It takes away from time to play the game. Please quit adding new systems. Everything is already complicated enough. Many games get by with many fewer spells/attacks. Overseers just take playing time away from other things. And all the special leveling makes it confusing for new players. And ascensions are stlll a pain and take away from the fun of playing different classed specially. For playing a pally of an SK is fun without all the ascensions. They are for spellcasters.

Good Luck and may you bring prosperity and fun to EQ and EQ2.

PS Please please please put the levels back on harverst!


A loyal customer.

Greetings Jennifer Chan
Well, you certainly have your work cut out for you, and as others have said, more headaches!
I think the current state of the game was aggravated by the past 'bean-counters' who cut away too much of (if there was any ) 'fat' and into the muscle, of the development, coding and other staff of the game, not just once but quite a few times. Then cut services and parts of the game out to try and cut costs too.

As you undoubtedly know, there have been a myriad of problems that have not been fixed that have cropped up and then had layers of code written over them with new expansions coming out ontop. Perhaps the most obvious one is that of characters showing sitting inside furniture, so in player venues when someone arrives someone calls out the salute of 'sit/stand'. That is so very much buried it probably cannot be fixed now.
Another example is the uptick in mount speed causing the nonflying mounts to present as galloping (slowly) instead of walking when you hit the /walk command. Even later the flying mounts stopped walking and now look absolutely dorkey running in walk mode, and it ruins the appearance mount wings on folks that way as well. The Alter of Malice came out and we found even more lag, those of us on AB that were at a venue built over water (believe the name was The Therm), got bumped out by a server burp and we logged in to find ourselves stuck under tiles and drowning. The falling through raised building blocks has not been fixed. Supposedly has something to do with the way the environment loads, loads in the character before the building blocks but at least we were not falling though the world. The T3 and T4 guild halls when fully decorated have crippling lag, Age of Chaos seems to have made it worse. Much more problems of which I'm sure you have found aggravating and annoying as well... but the problem is that they have continued and been built over with more expansions coming out before the problems were fully fixed, if even addressed.
And this is just on the performance side.

Fun things though minor but added to the game were removed, such as the Legends of Norrath, and unfortunately it appears that some of the artwork of the cards has dissapered too.. wish they all were archived so perhaps they could be accesed later... Kudos to those who designed them...
Gobblin games, not missed all that much but gone...
Dungeons crippled by all rewards, not just he experience aspect, being taken out, along with critters no longer dropping dungeon versions of themselves, and Station Cash critters and spawners withdrawn from the marketplace. (we don't have the manpower to fix it , must devote our resourses elsewhere)
Remember the positive feeling we had when we had a customer service that was lively and even beat WoW's?
The level up YOUR Way advertising before the dungeons were nerfed?

But kudos also to all the folks that are still with us, and for all the effort that they have been trying to put out with what resources they have left. And the little things do count too, the dragon illusion that came as a mount, some of the other illusions NOT dropping when we mount up, A few new emotes, attempts to add new content to the game, etc.
Besides what folks have mentioned earlier (and yes, I hate nerfs, back in eq1 it was what actually caused me to finally leave that game, the last straw being when they nerfed the SK and Necro leach lines a SECOND time, and by a whopping 1/3, as well as what they did to the illusionists)
Maybe now, with what is now looking to be a dedicated gaming company owning the game, instead of a holding company , etc, perhaps the crew will be able to take EQ to a new second life? There is still a lot of potential but I will withhold suggestions as that might make this a book length post and it's certainly long enough as it is.

Welcome JChan, onward in our adventures in Norrath

Welcome, Jennifer! I think everything I would have said here has already been said multiple times by others, and I agree with Schmet that maybe we should just be welcoming you rather than complaining at you - after all, complaining is not very welcoming.

I will reiterate that the reason we are so critical is that we love the game so much - our criticisms are generally intended to be constructive.

I will also echo that it is comforting to know that the new person in charge has the kind of experience and longevity with the game that you have. May you find your new position enjoyable and rewarding!

(and please put the levels back on the harvests)

Yeah I get the feeling we lost some artwork to licensing issues. Boo! I kind of miss the LoN thing, the art was so very nice. But the player studio stuff is nice now too. I probably have stuck with EQ2 over the years for the art and story alone. Who me? Group? MMO what? I'm just here for the fairy tales. Well sorta. A good hack and slash is sometimes satisfying.

Er um, back to LoN there's never really been a replacement method for accessing that art, or the really cool houses, like the Dimensional Portal, which just might be my favorite one.