I returned to the game around Blood of Luclin launch after some years away. I raided some back in the day but really enjoyed the group game with two long-time friends since 2004. Upon my return, I discovered the powers that be with this game took a big dump on the casual heroic playstyle. When exactly did it become a luxury to do regular heroic content with your friends? Many out there cannot afford the exorbitant cost of infusion which seems to be required. LFG is dead. I have been on for hours at a time and not seen one LFG. Divisive gating stats like the punishing potency requirements to actually get a pick-up group is an exercise in frustration. Resolve is easy enough to get but just reminds me of a rehash of Critical Mitigation in DoV and was rightfully done away with. Bulwark of Order just sucks. Forcing casual heroic folk to use third party apps is just ridiculous to me. Do-or-Die mechanics such as barrage should be left to T2 and Raiding or removed entirely. It just takes the fun out of tanking and doesn't always function as it should. The recent podcasts do not sound promising. Kander says there are many layers of playstyles in EQ2. Ok, then why eliminate this layer, consciously or unconsciously? What was wrong with content that brought people together on a nightly basis like Skyshrine? LFG was so busy, practically guaranteed a group every day. Let us all play in the same sandbox again instead of dividing us up. Guess until there is positive change, my friends and I are relegated to solo instances...and no, solo mobs with heroic tags don't count as the "heroic game" for casuals.
I've heard from folks who think that the only "layer" of play style that's being looked at or catered to are hard-core, max level, min-maxed toons to within three decimal points (that's to the right of the decimal...), etc., etc., etc., since they're the ones spending the most money, and that's it. If that's true (and that's a big if), I think we'd've done better to go with an actual game company, or game division of a company that wouldn't be quite so desperate to see us make a 8700% (or whatever they're expecting) profit every quarter. Smed himself bailed to Amazon Games, apparently; kind of wish he'd remembered the ones he left behind in the investment firm and brought us with him. ;-> Uwk
Hmmm. It's been a while, so let me know if any of this is wrong: Smed was in control during the introduction of RMT and P2W mechanics in EQ2? Smed doubled down on the RMT and P2W with Smokejumper and the "EQ2x/FTP" systems? Smed promised it was not a slippery slope, but time has proven it so? Smed was in control during the costly failures of The Agency, Free Realms, and several failed versions of EverQuest Next? I was going to say something about H1Z1, but as I didn't play it, I can't recall exactly where it fit in the list of failures. Smed was there during the sale to Columbus Nova, after which he received a golden parachute, likely guaranteed as a part of the sale transition? Smed poked around at some worthless 8-bit style projects, before Amazon hired him because of... reasons? Just curious... Has Smed had any actual success in the last 15 years outside of the golden parachute?
Ouch. ;-> Okay, yeah, granted all of that...I could've seen Smed off a short pier from a long walk if he'd gotten us to a "safe" place. ;-> Uwk
That looks about right to me. There was also I seem to remember some kind of thing with Star Wars the old Republic and NGE that caused something of a mass exodus of that title almost overnight..been so long don't remember the details and I cant remember if he was into EQ2 at the time that happened, it was in like Nov of 2005. The slippery slope thing...I will never forget that.
Not SWTOR, Star Wars Galaxies. Smed made all sorts of promises that the NGE survivors would have this wonderful new game for them...and introduced H1Z1, to their utter disgust. Yep, he was still with EQ2 at the time.
