A Note from Jenn Chan

Reminder, o free player. It's we pay-to-play people keeping the lights on. You don't really have a stake in this. Those of us paying to keep the lights on so you can continue taking for granted that you can play your game for free really have some valid points here.

We're glad you're easily impressed by a pretty pony. The rest of us want value for our money.

dear JChan,
with a great amount of disbelief i read and saw information about the upcoming Summer Ethereals 2020 and Familiar Season 7.

The class runes are pretty much recycled from the last year ones only in a different format. You haven taken away those abilities from the player 7 months ago and even deemed them to "Unbalanced for Luclin" by the devs. This is pretty much asking the player to earn the same runes we already worked for.

The Season 7 Familiars are on lower levels significantly better than the Premium Celestial Lvl 10 familiar. This is more P2W.

I can only speak for myself but feel other player might feel the same. There is very little new engaing content and instead you repeatedly ask for our money. This is alienating the playerbase further and further away from the game.

Speak for yourself o rude one... I pay for multiple accounts... I would never be so rude to push aside someone else's opinion whether they are F2P or membership... If you just pay 14.99 a month for your membership, does your opinion count less than the ones who spend tons of money in the cash shop or on the extra expansions? I think not... I agree with them... The mount is such a pretty pony... A lot of others who also play have stated they like the mount... When FC stated speak for yourself... They had a very valid point... A lot of players like to use the term we and us... When we and us don't always agree with you...

Start June 23

I read this Letter and thought 2 things. Oh they now have an excuse to not release any real content until this Winter, and even bigger, you can't fix the lag because you don't have a concept of why it is even happening.

You need to higher an outside professional who can analyse game network packets and find out over the internet (don't do this locally in house it pointless) what is causing the client latency. As long as you have the people who have been working a DP/DBG do it this is a lost cause because they have been grasping for years with things like spell hacks or item removal and what not to 0 performance increase.

I have been around since beta for EQ1 when I used a modem for internet and was still using a 56k modem (with less lag) when EQ2 came out. I feel a lot of loyalty to this game franchise that was started by Sony, but it wearing thin and I am not really having much fun anymore because of all the frustration of client lag. I mostly now show up for the friends I have created over the decades. Unfortunate for DP many of my friends have moved on because they are frustrated with the same thing many of the raiders are like myself.

very pertinent remark. thank you. we all welcome this your remark

Which one?

The more news and comments from developers I see, the less is my desire to log in into the game.

It's funny: eq2 is the only game I raid in, but it is also the game I play the least; I basically log in twice a week for 2.5 hours raids. And, of course, I only use Krono to subscribe. There is no way I'll pay real money for the subscription.

Most of my time I play Lotro because of a rich wonderful world, full of lore and stories; and hobbits! The best game for a hobbit! I play WoW because it's a funny game with a lot of activities to do and where one can get a group almost instantly. I play Swtor pretty much for the same reasons as lotro, exept for hobbits. I recently started on ESO. I also have DDO and TSW, wich I play once in a while.

Oh boy 150 fusion fervor again. Wait didnt I already have that one in my bag? Oh yeah I did. Wait, its orange, now I get the exact same copy but its red and its called "new content"? The runes were removed because they caused imbalance between classes, but now they are just added back with status quo?

Not only is it such a boring rune for many classes (including my wizard), but just remembering back to CD, we know exactly who is gonna be top parsing again.

I better read up on what jchan wrote and what has been promised because all I see is more recycled content on laggy servers at the moment.

Dear JChan,
I give you all the credit in the world for what you are trying to do with Everquest 2. Nothing will change unless you really look at what Everquest 2 was and is now.. Pay to Progress game!! The gear itself doesn't stand on it's own, you need Play infusing to progress in the game. Tradeskill progression is hidden behind some random number generator only accessible by the everyday/every hour player. Don't get me wrong i love or use to love Everquest 2, the developers are one of kind. but the game is getting away from what use to work for Everquest 2.
As a self-reliant ,casual, altaholic ,14 year veteran player it was a very large struggle to be effective in the game.,Forget about being a True New player for Everquest 2, they don't have a chance to last a year without some outside help. I understand the Daybreak gaming has gone through ALOT of changes and struggles itself. But no excuse to let a game get to Pay-TO-Progress status. If you feel that Everquest 2 is not a Pay-to-Progress type of game then i do appologize , but i stated my opinion (plus i expect this post to be deleted) Good luck with Everquest 2 i hope it grows to the game it once was.
Sincerely Igknatz (Oldtymers guild Skyfire)

quite normal and respectful message, why must it be deleted? why do you think so? moreover, altaholics are the core of this game, around whom everything revolves here. in addition, much some other people who play also this game share same opinion as you, and no one deleted their messages, whereas they expressed similar opinion

I'm not out to start an argument, I just don't see a reason to get so hot-headed over this. Yes, it can be frustrating, but things happen and stuff brakes, such is life, and we cant always predict or stop it. Please show some patience and some understanding for the tech people who keep this game going for all of us. They know its broken, whining and ranting at them isn't going to help matters.

In discord today...
This from Kander RE: ethereal class runes on test:

KanderToday at 1:49 PM
Those are not being given out

KanderToday at 1:49 PM
The runes showing on test are not the correct rewards.

KanderToday at 1:51 PM
The new runes have only archtype and subclass bonuses, no triggered effects
Should be on test soon.

Yay, free mount!
Boo, one per account!

Really wish they would give us a way to buy, or even EARN more of items like this. Maybe using some of those loyalty points we got piling up? I play on 2 servers, so i can't even swap it between toons, and most of us are altaholics. I'd be fine with "The first one is free" as long as they are priced reasonably.

Careful what you wish for. They may charge you $1600 for it. In their mind this is a reasonable price.

Taking ownership of the entire matter as you have done here Jenn is commendable to say the least but it echoes more strongly now considering that none of your predecessors ever felt the need to come clean with the players about any of the issues.

That said, there are fundamental flaws within the game which still exist and i sincerely feel that they are going unadressed. The content designers really do need a good shake-up to ressurect what feels like a rinse and repeat strategy for years now. There is a gaping chasm between what players want and what is forcibly introduced under the guise of "take it or leave it" pretext.

Please review the following in your round-table discussions:

1. The lag - I cannot tell you that how frustrating it is to play these days on any server. I would go as far as to say that don't even worry about the content until this is completely resolved. Long gone are the days where the mere mention of "its a network issue and the cause is not fully known" were a viable excuse when you have a plethora of mmorpg games out there now with substantially higher population run silky smooth. The recent migration of data as you alluded to and the weekly reset has not produced any fruitful results and i think many here will feel the same sentiment.

2. The insurmountable number of bugs and exploits. I cannot recall ever in eq2 history that these many bugs were ever present 6 month-in to the new expansion and yet we see talks about new features. Some game companies have pulled games off the shelves due to these things. The players using exploits is going on for years and they continue to go unchecked or unreprimanded. They in some cases have destroyed the game economy and have taken legitimate competition out of the game.

3. Class balance – We have been teased about these since KA (more recently by Kander again in his podcast) and I am baffled as to why even mention something that is clearly not full thought out or tested yet. How can class changes be rolled out in segments and then fixed on the fly? Would it not make sense to put them all out at once on the Test server where people will be more than happy to test so by the time it gets to the live server there is little to no need for fixes or balances?

4. New features – I am all up for innovation but how could they ever be whole-heartedly accepted when the core game, i.e. mechanics, classes, the ever growing list of micro-management features require a systematic overhaul? Ascensions ruined any semblance of class distinction and created a player divide where those who invested time and money survived and those who did not either quit the game or gave up on being a competitive player. We are stll reeling from its effects and now we have another new feature of Overseers – which we all know is being touted as the next best thing but just like familiars, we all can sense where this is going. Why is there no new in-game poll to see what players will want to see or even removed with logical options to choose from?

5. Social media and interaction with players – I know Discord is not an official entity of DPG but we have a lot of the developers now moderating eq2 main channel so I personally do see it as a place where we can voice our concerns but yet anything critical of the content or something that carries a negative connotation gets removed immediately and player getting an instant IP ban. I completely agree that social media must be regulated with a baseline level of mutual respect without any malice aimed at any of the developers of the game or others in general but if you remain constructively critical towards the content they make, why is this topic so sensitive? Is it not within the remit of an artist for their work to be commented on? Yes, by all means come back to the players with an equally constructive response where you right the wrongs but instead we get an instant ban? How is this fair? Same is the case on the forums.

6. Podcasts – Kudos to dreamweaver for conducting these with the creative lead but if I can be critical of this is that some of the recent podcasts seem very generic in the sense of not covering essential topics but just being superfluous discussions which do not answer the questions properly and detract from the intended function of these podcasts. We would also like to hear from you Jenn to be on one of these as well, unscrippted and off the cuff!

Here is hoping that these points make it to Jenn.

Daear JChan,

i am speaking to you in regards to the so called "New Runes" and your contentiously talk about a class balance.

Even with a huge disappointment i try to be reasonable with what i have to say.

Your words about class balance are empty words aren't they ?

I can only speak for my class, Ranger, but i believe player from other classes might feel the same. You keep weak classes (Ranger) weak and make top performing classes (BLs &Monks) even stronger. That is the message the Runes are saying.

As much i really don't want to point at employers at Dark Paw Games, i am afraid i have to put the finger into open wound.

Ever since Dev(s) took over the class mechanics part of the game the Ranger community started to have a "deja-vu " feeling. The being back at the old days of Aerilik. The older / "more seasoned" players might remember the time.

The community provided suggestions in Betas, on Discord and the eq2forums on how to improve the ranger class. The response was always the same "Not going to happened." or "To powerful /OP" for the class.

Many of use are having the impressions that the Dev(s)in charge aren't even willing to change the status quo.

Can i ask you kindly to look into this matter.

This is another wonderful example of empty promises. We're tired of 'just holding on' and being told 'things will get better'. Words are cheap we need action.

The community have endured endless broken content, broken hardware, missing content and being left in the dark. We raised countless issues during BETA that went unfixed, we raised the same issues and concerns when the expansion went live and 7 months in were still hit with broken content, broken mechanics and no information.

BoL is a layer of quick fixes and 'that'll do' approaches and we're all at the end of what is acceptable.

• Don't say something unless you mean it
• Commit to engaging with the community in a structured way - The podcasts are a fab introduction, but there needs to be an active two-way structured conversation happening now to address concerns and issues on both sides.
• Class Balance needs to be addressed - Change was promised, an 'attempt' was made on this with no direction of what or when other changes will come into play and this is having a BIG impact on US
• Ethereal event - This another classic example of 'that'll do', a copy paste job of last summers runes went on test, the community cried out (rightly so). They pointed out this will do nothing but push class balance further adrift, we asked why we were getting the SAME RUNES that we removed just 7 months ago due to them being so out of scale?! We got a quick update that these runes were simply placeholders (three days later), the community settled, we were happy to wait for something that had some thought and logic applied (I know, I'm an optimist, right!). This of course didn't happen we just reverted to runes used 2 expansions ago, without the final step/upgrade which are still heavily unbalanced and just add fuel to the firs that is class balance. The community has clearly listed the countless reasons why these runes are no good, but once again it's not listened too. We don't want them, take them back and burn them. Bring us balanced and creative content, back off the 'copy, paste that'll do' mentality.
• Discord moderation - The introduction of Discord was both amazing and horrific in equal parts. There is a CLEAR SET OF RULES posted on the discord and for the most part the community adheres to it. The Dev's (actually it's just one of them, I will happily provide specifics in a DM) abuses the ban-hammer consistently. If players are having a discussion about content or changes that they 'don't like' it's a quick ban and you're out. Let me be clear and say that they break no rules, use no offensive language they simply disagree with the approach of content or discuss mechanics issues and they get banned. This is a huge problem, you exclude that person from the most up-to date information and they also have no way to petition the ban. Once banned from a server, unless you happen to have friended the Admin you cannot contact them to be un-banned. I'm well versed in this, I've had to request un-banning of guild members at least 20+ this year. If you get banned, any comments you have made are all deleted and removed and you lose archived conversations. Introducing a mute function on discord for anyone who tows the line, or maybe needs to cool off would be a better approach, players could be muted but still able to read updates or information. Having one or two moderators who follow a set of rules rather than the free for all it seems to be at the moment would stop the ban-hammering.

The most recent comments that led to a ban on discord:
'Pay to win'
'What happened to transparency?'
'Is the only way to get that item from the marketplace?'
'Put your money were your mouth is and communicate' < This was Tuesday's ban in response to the faff of Ethereals


PS... I don't know how McDreamweaver does it but that guy needs a raise, without him fielding the 'no-mans land' between players and Dev's I would have quit a long time ago. If you're going to copy paste anything, I'd suggest you start with him, we need more people engaged with and willing to listen to the community like he is.


Ryver'Fish

This !
The best thing about this expansion is Dreamweaver and they way he handles communication !

Do not give too much praise to Dreamweaver. They will brand him as a traitor and BAN him.