I realize I have discussed this in the past but it baffles me at the lack of marketing within Daybreak for their upcoming releases. I fully understand SG&A has to be small to create margins but come on, its at an all time low when you have to get into beta to know anything about the expansions.
You are describing a "sales tactic" this company has been using for many years. You have to pay for the expansion in advance, which will provide beta server access, and also access to the beta forum threads that are hidden from public view. Getting information outside of that process has become progressively harder over time. It seems that EQ2 is becoming increasingly unwilling or unable to promote their product to anyone that is not willing to part with their cash in advance on blind faith. A reasonable mind could consider that to be a strong indicator of how much confidence they have in their product.
Top reason I'm skipping this year, I'm all confused if they updated the heroic opportunity system or didn't would of been a good reason for a twitch stream but alas it's still 1992 for the dev team.
It's the first time in a while I've been on the outside whilst a beta is going on. And frankly, if I had skipped over the email, I wouldn't even know an expansion was imminent. There's literally zero noise about EQ2 outside of EQ2.
I have always been baffled on why they do not advertise. I see games listed on all sorts of online sites, news, gaming, just about everything. But never see any word about Everquest or Everquest 2. Even after they went f2p they didn't advertise. Maybe if they spent a buck, they would make more bucks. That is usually how it works but I am sure they have their reason.
Last time this question came up on the forums some years ago, we were told they in fact did target advertising to specific audiences. When asked to name where that was happening, because no one was seeing it anywhere, we were told it was considered "classified." I think the last time they were at any gaming convention was years ago and they had a small poster.
Just to play devil's advocate, perhaps they genuinely don't want new players.. hear me out... New players have high expectations (user-friendly gaming, tutorials that actually help, modern graphics, story/quests, balance, progression, interesting itemisation, the list goes on). EQ2 would most likely fail to meet them in too many areas to avoid a deluge of horrible interactions with dissatisfied customers and their already poor industry reputation taking another hit. Add to that just how utterly terrible Daybreak in general, but particularly the EQ2 team actually are at interacting with their customers, and, well, perhaps they just accept that they're not set up for that and prefer to try to cling on to their existing players. I'm not for a moment suggesting they're doing a good job of that either though, or that they ever really have. But maybe they prefer to just stick to the status quo and let EQ2 die a (very) long, drawn out death.
It is truly a shame. You made some interesting points since I have heard from many returning players that it was just impossible to catch up with all the changes made if they were gone for any length of time. But doesn't all games change over time? All those I have played did. Had they not stopped advertising perhaps they player base would be substantially larger and the income from that base substantially larger as well. Perhaps not. I know when I was working, we counted on advertisement to keep new business coming in. That new business allowed for company growth and wage growth. Just a thought.
I'd have to agree. There seems to be very little coverage of the Everquest 2 expansion in the gaming news sites. The most recent article I could find on the expansion was back in Sept. on PCGamer, EverQuest 2 goes spelunking in its 19th expansion in 18 years | PC Gamer I expect all that it would take to get more coverage would be to put out some press releases to the gaming news sites. EQ2 was mentioned in a Gamer article yesterday about the "9 Best Winter Holiday Celebrations In MMOs." EQ2's Frostfell was ranked 1 out of the 9. Best Winter Holiday Celebrations In MMOs (thegamer.com)
They already said we are here for the players that play the Game. Yes they try to hide that for fact they want to say they do more but no they don't. There use to make Video showing the Exp, now just word on websites and nothing more. For every Ad for a Exp there none for EQ or EQ2. Like I said I don't know how many people work on Eq or Eq2 but the Days they show off the Game are Done. Like I said This is it for me I'm out after this Exp and yes I wish they could do more even in house but Nope. Reason Well they haven't done much for 2 or 3 years and that is when we turned level 125 in Game. They spent wild over the years now they can't afford it. This is 2 years ago on their Youtube channel this is the last Video on their youtube Channel. They last posted a Video for Planetside 2 in Nov. 17,2022 but ever other Game is an ad on Facebook.
Maybe it's the writing on the wall that the plug will be pulled...sad. I agree, this very well may be my last expac with Daybreak and EQ2, even after 19 years.
I haven't seen the video trailer for RoR yet, but I do know they made one, because I was in one of the groups where they were recording for part of it.
I'm not trying to be snarky ttobey but isn't that part of the problem to have blinders on, ie the character models we have now could use some fresh paint or 9 times out of 10 the player base asks for something new it's either not time or not enough resources.
