Gamespot News: SOE talks EverQuest II updates

Discussion in 'Community News' started by ARCHIVED-Tabiani, Jan 7, 2005.

  1. ARCHIVED-patimen Guest

    You know, I think I probably haven't felt this since I play Planetside as well as EQ1. Thus, EQ2 was basically the cost of the game to me, and I got the 8 character slots for free too. So to me, I've gotten all of this at no additional monthly cost for me. No wonder I'm sanguine.
    That said, I hope they don't make everything nickle and dime, and I don't think they will. They'll try this new idea out, see the response and plan accordingly. But again, if they don't make the basic product competitive, there is a TON of alternatives right now. They screw up too badly, they'll lose my whole $21.99 and I'll go try other MMO's. They do well, I'll be happy. We just need to see what happens, what kind of new content they provide and hope they are keeping the LONG TERM in mind, not just a few quick bucks soon.
  2. ARCHIVED-Sebastien Guest

    That all sounds very cool Moorgard. As SOE works on ironing out the "kinks" I know my friends and I are certainly looking forward to content like this. :)
  3. ARCHIVED-Malifestro Guest

    Hahahah.. If that was the case that might explain a few things! We got a bunch of bug fixes, and new content with a bunch of bugs. ;) I sware we got just as many bugs as were fixed! And what's with the lack of information on the skills/traits. Sooooo many people made the wrong choice and want to change it because they failed to give us enough information to make an informed choice. This is typical however. They did code the game to allow you to pick this little tiny button called 'destroy' instead of 'select' for money and blow it all away without a confirmation screen! That still pisses me off, and they saw my logs and wouldn't give it back. Bastards.


  4. ARCHIVED-Loqii Guest

    I have the same respnse to people like Ferondia here as I do in-game...

    /ignore

    Saves a lot of bandwidth. I don't need someone telling me to love it or leave it. Please.

    My only beef is that SOE ABSOLUTELY should have made it clear that this was going to be an a-la-carte game before I plunked down my cash for the DVD's and spent 100's of hours working up my characters. That is just wrong. If I had known that, I might have chosen a different game to play.

    Not because I can't afford it, or because they have no right to set up their game however they want, but because I just simply think that a pay-more-get-more atmosphere is NOT where I want to spend my time, and they never made it clear that was what EQ2 was going to be.

    But, they are changing the rules as their whims lead them. The way I see it, people who have a problem with this move (And there are obviously a lot who do...) have some choices.

    1. Get over it and move on with our lives.
    2. Quit the game because we find the random pricing structure changes to be wrong.
    3. Let SOE know we dislike this tactic, in hopes they will change their minds and give us the content as PART of that bill we pay every month.

    I'm leaning towards 3, as I DO love the game, but think this is a shady move. Don't want to leave, but I will if I feel I'm not getting the game I thought I was already paying for.

    -Loqi
  5. ARCHIVED-Xenoror Guest



    this is pretty much how i feel on the issue - this type of buisness model Could be very successful, but it all depends on how much they charge, and what exatly we are getting for it. I personally Greatly dislike paying for things piece by piece. i would much rather pay another 2$ a month and have this type of story-based mini-expansion released as they will be.

    who knows, they might just do that.

    at the very least, however, it is disrespectfull to the playerbase to spring this type of decision on us.
    Message Edited by Xenoror on 01-07-2005 02:45 PM
  6. ARCHIVED-Dewfire Guest


    Ditto...I thought the $$$ a month we were putting down were for these additions...next thing we know in EQ3 they are going to add to our monthly fee for house rent and storage...
  7. ARCHIVED-Cheirdal Guest


    I've seen the "pay-to-play beta" used a lot over the last few weeks on here and at first I just thought it was hyperbole from frustrated players. But the more I play the game the more I think there is a large grain of truth to this assessment. I've gotten one character to 20, and another to 16 as well as at least getting my two other characters to their respective cities. Everyone's armor, weapons, spells, songs and skills seem to be exactly like everyone else in the same class at the same level. It sounds an awfully lot like we're going to be expected to pay for content that should have been included in the game before it was released from beta. Right now I feel like I'm playing EQ-Lite but with better graphics. I talked two friends into playing the game when it came out and I even bought one of them the game for a birthday gift, so I've got a lot of money personally vested in the game in hopes it would be complete and fun. The friend that never played EQ1 is happy with the game as it is so far since he doesn't know anything else, but the friend that played EQ1 (as I did) is not happy with the $$$ for additional character slots and the nickel and diming in general.
  8. ARCHIVED-Bolanos Guest

  9. ARCHIVED-twolfer Guest

    I Kinda like the way SOE si going with this...time will tell, and remember, as each of the adventure packs come out, they will give us a sample for free to see if you would like to buy it. great idea in my opinion....and since ill be getting the adventure packs included with my station pass fee...i love it even more!
  10. ARCHIVED-Bolanos Guest

    Yes, but for them to be coming out with a new expansion soon while they still can't get the stupid bugs fixed leads us all to believe that they have, given the benefit of the doubt, ONE PERSON working on bugs!
  11. ARCHIVED-BraveBulgo Guest

    Funny you should mention that.

    I spent a lot of time last night checking out WoW's forums to get a feel for how folks over there liked that game. And I was extremely surprised to find out there were not one or two but four or five RP servers there.

    I won't stay around and get nickle & dimed by SOE. I have friends here from other games and it'll pain me to leave them should they choose to stay (everyone's got a lot of thinking to do now after this stuff) but it's the principle of the matter. $5 extra for 'adventure packs' won't break me, but I shouldn't have to be paying it in the first place. $30 or $40 a year for expansions I wouldn't mind and had anticipated, but not this nickle & dime stuff with the character slots and now the adventure packs. After that it'll be "high level Guardian content for only $6 more!" or "you and your friends can now use crystals to move around Norrath faster for only $3 more!" and it'll just keep going. Turns my stomach.

    I've still got my CoH account open. This week they released Issue 3... two new character archetypes and a big bunch of additional content. All included in the price we already pay per month there. And their Devs actually interact with the customer base daily and discuss issues and concerns. Here we get thread closings. Will I go to WoW? I'll at least try it out and see what it's like on their RP servers. I cannot imagine it could be any worse than EQ2 is right now.
    Message Edited by BraveBulgo on 01-07-2005 03:32 PM
  12. ARCHIVED-Tomodachi Guest

    10$ says the first module 'unlocks' Frogloks.
  13. ARCHIVED-Schadwe Guest


    I agree...This sounds like someone's MBA-bright-idea. If they are going to charge us for added adventures, then they should lower our monthly cost.

    This whole idea will unbalance the players between the one's with money who can buy their power items (read: quests) and those who can't afford the extra (no matter how cheap) and so have gimpped characters. This will result in people not wanting to group with these gimped people (who will die often yielding xp debt) causing the one's without to quit.

    Nice way to maintain your player base, SOE.
  14. ARCHIVED-Forsfyth Guest

    You know all the things I heard about Sony are true. I know you have to make money but this is all becoming a joke. I am cancelling now and playing CoH until WoW is released in Europe.

    SOE is not about gaming its all about making money.
  15. ARCHIVED-Curative Guest

    "....you haven't fixed the lag "


    um...what lag?

    i run 1.8ghz cempron
    1 gig of ram
    and some 128 meg video card nvidia i think

    never any lag....ever

    second:
    I have no problem whatsoever paying a "SMALL" fee for a new dungeon JUST MAKE IT GOOD and let me enter it at lvl 5 and alone if i want. If i pay for it i should be able to enter it whenever. Forget this access quest crap. If im newb enough to go innto a zone over my head then i deserve to lose my shard for 3 days...especialy if i paid someone to be able to do so.

    third:
    It cracks me up the amount of whining in this thread..it really does. In the article it states that they have about 250 folks working on this game, thats aprox 12million dollars a year just to pay the employees! and that 250 employees to make 300,000+ people happy...befor you rant and scream ...sit back for a moment.... /bug the issue your having.... take a breath and judt play the game or dont. Now Im not saying to not have a voice but I can read the lack of common sense in these posts and it makes me shack my head about how some of you even managed to install the game in the first place.

    fourth:
    Im done :)
    Peace out
    Happy Friday!
    Message Edited by Curative on 01-07-2005 04:11 PM
  16. ARCHIVED-GrisuLa Guest

    First of all, i play on Innovation.
    I never noticed, they ever did anything with the bug reports.
    They fix every couple of weeks the prices, as if thats the most important bugs.
    The really bugs, everyone tells them every day are not fixed for at least two months.
    They PLAN to give us a gamemaster in february.
    I pay for that banana software and they want extra money for things, that are ( in my mind) included in my monthly fee.
    And that soe now needs 250 people to build an expansion pack, when the game still havent leave the beta,
    sorry, but i cant understand. I have preordered WoW and will reenter EQ2 again then 3 to 6 months later to see,
    if the game is then a game, not a beta. If i have to pay extra for every greater quest, then that was it, bye bye eq2.
    I pay for support and new content. I dont have support, that stands for the name, and i have bugged content, and shell pay extra
    for extra content. I feel like a money cow with soe. I will rest my account. Other smaller companys would have been wiped out
    from the players. They sold something, that is not the same they told it to be. They only brought it on market, hoping to get
    most players from WoW. Now i think, they do the best to push players to WoW. I played Asheron Call 1 (still the best), Asherons Call 2
    from beta on, Neocron, Eve, Anarchy online, but i never was made so angry and frustated in game as in EQ2. Its my free time, i want
    to have fun, and want to relax from work. In EQ2, you simply have to craft some items you need, and you instantly feel like in work.
    Some people from soe must have misunderstood the word game.

    Best greetings and wishes from germany, bavaria

    Baumharz
  17. ARCHIVED-Vaelaen Guest

    i would think that, as a company, soe should seriously consider what they are doing here. for every 1 person that posts on this site, there are probably 100 more that didnt post.

    get the game fixed, stop the "daily downtime", and listen to your customers.

    i really dont want to see eq2 fail. it has so much potential as a game that it isnt funny.
  18. ARCHIVED-Ibnithl Guest

    I'm kind of appalled actually.

    No, not at the concept of the Adventure Packs, they are outlined thoroughly at:

    http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=news_announcements&message.id=90

    The Adventure Packs sound pretty damned cool. Free gaming content with an option to buy and yet no commitment? It's an awesome deal for players.

    I don't get the whining, b*tching, and moaning. I'm fairly disgusted by it to be frank.

    Read the updated news on it from that Smedly dude, and I mean REALLY read it. If you can't tell that he (Smedley) truly DOES have both care & concern for the EQ2 community just by the words he has taken the careful time to choose to illustrate and underline the upcoming changes, then you must have run into my coercer who has somehow, mysteriously & permanently cast Stupefy upon you IRL. Smedley has been kind enough to share with the everyday average user the actual vision and direction in which EQ2 intends to journey. I for one am actually thinking of joining the test server just because of his letter. He has, in essence, invited us along with him so that we might be able to relax and worry less about game developments (it's not our job to worry about bugs & developments, but it does help that we report them & take interest), so that we may focus... and just enjoy the game.

    Oh, and in an attempt to curb the onslaught of hateful posts that I will surely be subjected to within moments, NO I do not work for SOE or anyone related to SOE or any subsidiary for that matter. I don't know anyone of them personally or via business either, I just respect hard work and the kindness they are showing by allowing us to be part of the informational loop.

    So just kick back, relax a bit, enjoy an antonican creamed coffee and a vulrich leg... but just play and have fun. To take it to such a level of critical severity that you would berate the developers and possibly discourage them is utterly ludicrous.

    Thank you for all of your hard work Smedley & Moorgard, et al. @ SOE


    Ibnithl EQ1 / Illraeth EQ1 & EQ2 / Sylraeth EQ2 / Ibyn EQ2 & a few other characters
    Message Edited by Ibnithl on 01-07-2005 04:25 PM
  19. ARCHIVED-Cutshall Guest

    Well, I guess this settles it.

    I've been thinking the last few days why I'm still playing EQ2. I alpha/beta'd "The Other Game" for a year, but ultimately chose this since I didn't want to get burned out so quickly on "ToG" and basically waste my money. ;) If I'd known 2 months ago this would be the strategy for EQ2 I wouldn't have bought it, probably wouldn't have even bought "ToG". Glad I didn't buy that one too, what with their queues they had. Boy, that would have pissed me off.

    But I've slowly gotten apprehensive to the whole MMORPG industry. Guess I should have looked at how I reacted to SWG with more seriousness before buying EQ2. Only played that game for 1 1/2 months.

    Log in, "Ho hum...don't feel like playing. It's the same old song and dance." Log out 10 minutes after logging in and trying to motivate myself to play.

    Sure everyone gets the first level of the adventure pack for free to try it out. See if they want to buy the rest. SOE may not be FORCING a player to buy the packs, but come on. To stay competitive in these games you have to be on par with what's out there. There's a feeling of obligation to most MMO players to get the best loot and drops. To see and do the best of what has to be offered. And when you don't or can't, you feel cheated, sub-standard.

    Without doubt the hard-core MMO-ers will happily pay for these packs and get their money's worth and have a blast. But this move makes EQ2 even less apealing to the casual gamer. There's that much more they can't or won't be able to do, now they feel even more cheated and sub-standard. These games take time and dedication to play, which is possible for even a casual gamer to accomplish..albeit at a much slower and relaxed pace.

    But there's a line. At some point it's not dedication, loyalty, and support anymore for a game you love. When that line is crossed players are strongarmed, oppressed, and manipulated. That may not be the case in reality that SOE is attempting to accomplish here, but an already jaded and apprehensive audience is certainly lead into feeling this way.

    With recent duds over the last few years, the MMO industry is becoming more and more of a joke. More and more people stop playing MMOs, finally disenchanted beyond hope.

    And the sadest thing? This industry is hanging itself. Bit by bit, each fiasco is adding another strand to the rope that is becoming a noose.

    You might be wondering where I fall into all this: hard-core or casual player? Neither. I would consider myself somewhere in the middle at the point where the line is blurred. I spend as much time in the game as a hard-core player, but lack the fanatacism to be the best, to pwn the rest. I guess I would call myself a "casual hard-core player." I try to do the most and get the most of my monthly subscription but at my pace; which is somewhere behind the leading edge when I really enjoy a game and am motivated to play. Usually within the top 30% of the population level-wise.

    But to pay even more to stay there? Pay more to feel like I've gotten my money's worth compared to what's out there? Pay more to feel like I can still compete with the truly hard-core?

    I don't have that kind of dedication. I'm an avid gamer, sometimes fanatical, but not to the point of joining the KKK that SOE is becoming.

    "A good magician always wears his magic shoes, and never leaves less than a few tricks up his sleave." Yours truly.

    SOE, you've got the tricks up the sleave bit down pat. Unfortunately, your magic shoes have dog [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot] on them.

    There are three groups of people here:

    1) Those that will happily pay for the packs and have a ball. i.e. the hard-core
    2) Those that will look the other way. Maybe pay for a pack here and there if they like it. i.e. most of your players
    3) Those who are fed up.

    The real question you have to ask: Is group #2 still fooled by your slight of hand when you pull those tricks out of your sleave, or are they too shocked by your soiled magic shoes to even notice your performance? By the time their attention is back on your show and not on your shoes, the trick is over. "Oh, well, look at these other folks. They enjoyed the trick, I'll clap too. This magician must be good! Maybe I'll come back for his next performance. It's a very reasonable price."

    After the trash that AC2 became, I have and never will buy another Turbine game. This is the end of the line for me. I'm getting off the SOE train. Just like AMTRAK, at some point you're going to have a catastrophe on your hands. Maybe that's this train, maybe it's the next one out of the station. I'm not a betting person, my luck sucks. Just my luck I'll end up on the one train that has no survivors; I'm not willing to risk that.

    In the greather sceme of things, sure quite a few people are probably canceling tonight, but most aren't. No one cares about my post on these boards. (And no you can't have my stuff. :p I've re-rolled toons so many times to try and get motivated, I don't HAVE any stuff.) And in the end, this game will continue, maybe even 5 years from now.

    The point is, the MMO industry will never listen until you hit them where it hurts. One person makes absolutely no difference. Even the few hundred who may be canceling tonight will make no difference.

    What makes a difference is that other developers learn what they can and can't get away with in this industry. Someday, someone might just make the end-all be-all MMORPG. You're only helping your competition. It doesn't matter if you have highly guarded trade secrets. If other companies can see that whatever mystical secrets you have don't work, they'll adapt.

    Anyhow, call me a tool. I'm long-winded.

    Back to single-player games for me. Oh, and there's this new concept out there I've been looking at that is having more and more appeal to me.

    They call it:


    CORPG

    Maybe it'll work, maybe not. But at least I won't have to pay monthly fees for a dissapointment if it fails.

    ;-)
  20. ARCHIVED-Sutexi Guest

    worst ideas ever, kthx.