Why don't people care anymore?

I care about the game, It's really nice having a community that helps each other out this much and I wouldn't swap. It seems to me like the devs are busy always but not doing what people ask for? It seems to be causing a lot of frustration amongst people, and with not that much advertising about DoV happening you can understand that we aren't excited about it - because we don't really know of much to be excited about. I hope things turn out for the best =).

For about the last 12 months I only logged in to talk to my friends and hangout with them. Out of 10 now about 8 have already stopped playing.
Have no desire to even login now. I'm hoping Velious brings some of them back but I know several are already going to Rift.

For those that says that EQ2 doens't invest in marketing and adversiting this is the real proof!.
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2x...m?topic_id=4594

Smokejumper official post.

Taemien@Lucan DLere wrote:

They can't update the engine at this moment. It cost a lot of money to pay programmers and licenses to use new graphic engines. They would need to rewrite the code, so its not viable or probably yes, but how many hours/months do you think it will take to do that.
SOE its a huge company, my suggestion is wait for the next generation of Norrath in the next few years. Blizzard probably has more devs and programmers teams for projects like WoW but SOE doesn't want to expend more at least for this moment.
DC online is their new baby.

betatester7 wrote:

Can't? No.
Won't.
They're perfectly capable of spending the money. They're perfectly capable of allocating the manpower. They choose not to in favor of another title that they can slipshod out the door before it's ready, that they can eventually mismanage down the line.

Torryn@Antonia Bayle wrote:

Technically, they could, but is it worth it? What would be the costs versus expected returns? Could that money and developer time better be spent elsewhere, either on other parts of EQ2 or on new games?
Throwing what could be millions of dollars and hundreds of dev hours into a project with minimal returns would be foolish.
Which title is being forced out before it is ready?

Grumble69 wrote:

THIS THIS THIS

EQ2 when it first came out was so awesome, it had lore, it was beautiful, it was challanging etc. For the past 2 years now the overwhelming feeling players are getting from SOE is that they don't give a d#mn. RoK was the last, real, decent expansion; you should've have everything except raiding, done in a new expansion in 2 months.
SOE doesn't advertise EQ2 at all compared to other games. They've dumbed it down to try and attract WoW players but all that's done leave the old time players with a bad taste in their mouths. Every time sony has made a decision about how to handle EQ2 in the past few years it's been a bad one.
The only reason people hang around is because of old friends and lack of an awesome game to replace EQ2. It just seems like SOE does less and less, now it's down to the bare minimum that's passable when it comes to expansions and doing anything for the game.
I honestly don't know / can't understand how the developers have let it get to this point. EQ2 still, even after all the cr#p, has the ability to be the best game and best selling game out there if given half a chance. Like Grumble said, they just don't seem to care anymore or for some unknown reason are unable to make things better and it's painfully obivious. Velious in EQ was AMAZING, Velious in EQ2 is doomed to be another half-%ssed expansion. That really sucks.

DC Online is not only their new baby, it shows the future of what SOE is going to call MMOs. Since SOE was put under the control of the Play Station division all MMOs are being designed for cross platform play. This includes EQNext according to past interviews with Smed. That means limited play options so PS3 players are not disadvantaged. Chat options limited etc. As a matter of fact PC players in my opinion are instead at a disadvantge. This is the future of SOE, EQ2 is now just a means of milking money for developing this end. Heck I just saw a DC Online commercial during the Jets/Patriots game, some of the most expensive air time on a weekend. I think this is what bothers me the most. SOE could be honest. They could say "hey guys we are really focused on the next generation of games which includes EQNext so we haven't forgotten about u we are looking to your future is all." Instead they basically give us bread and circuses. Velious, it will get some people to come back as it was the most popular of all eq expacs. Problem is that will be a blip because people will be disappointed. Each time this happens those who came back leave swiftly and then more than a few who stuck it out leave with them because they too feel ill used. Its a vicious cycle that happens in every game that has evolved from being the focus of a developement house to being a revenue generator for their new focus.

Nailoo@Unrest wrote:

Hard to find fault with your assessment of the state of the game tbh

First, I don't agree with the statement that SoE doesn't care about EQ2. As long as it's making money and they think they can find a way to sqeeze even more money out of you then they will. Are they as dedicated to it as they use to be? Now this part is where I find them falling back on. They are now at the point of doing the minimum amount of work to try to keep as many EQ2 Players as possible, but only the minimum. That's the only way I could explain the last two expansions. That's the reason also that we keep getting this stupid "Void Rift" story line. Guess they are going to milk that for as long as possible so that they don't have to hurt themselves thinking up something that would fit right. Hey! I know, next expansion have the void rift guys bring in cars, helicopters and planes, maybe some starships! Lack of imagination on their part equals a lack of interest on mine.
From dawy
"The only reason people hang around is because of old friends and lack of an awesome game to replace EQ"
Definitely this for me, except you could even delete "awesome" as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't have to be awesome, just good and unfortunately that hasn't happened yet.
So let me guess what the next expansion is going to have for us:
1. Is going to make all of our current gear totally useless almost imediately with major changes to the current stats of much of our gear. (Remember how it used to be? Your gear was OK..but only ok and you slowly replaced it with new stuff?)
2. A new AA tree that will require mineless repeat grind to get all of them.
3. Sooner or later there is going to have to be several "fixes" to several classes. Especially the fighters and the aggro system. Maybe this will be where it happens. Will the changes be so radical that you find that you no longer know how to play your tank? Doubt it.
4. More rift storyline. OOOOOOOO... I'm so underwhelmed.
5. A bunch of new stuff on the SC for you to buy at launch of new expansion. Some of it will be game changing and will upset a lot of people whom SoE will ignore.
So my status is, I've already told my raiding guild that I will not be purchasing the new expansion. I will continue to play the game but I'm a major raider burnout now. So no more raiding for me, at least for awhile. So I'll be leaving my raiding guild that I've been a member of for over 4 years (wow, can't believe it's been that long). I'm going to wait and see what everyone is saying about the expansion for the first few months. Since I won't be raiding, I don't mind falling behind a couple of months. One thing that will change immediately once I leave the guild is that my raiding main (Coercer) will be retired. I'm done with arguing with SoE about how the screwed up my favorite class of the last five years. So another old time Coercer will bite the dust. Oh well. Might even go so far as striping him of gear and muting it just to make sure I don't waver later down the road. Guess my Troub will end up as my new main. Umm new main.... do I need a "new main" since I won't be in a raiding guild anymore? Maybe not, just play whomever that day. Wow, what a concept! Heck, I might even level up my 30something Ranger. Oh who am I kidding, I'm not going to waste my time leveling a Ranger!
So you see, it's not that I don't care anymore. It's more that I'm too burned out to give a &(*& anymore.

JoarAddam wrote:

Well, you know, "every cold" or "every bullet in the head." Same difference, right?! That reminded me of the grandparent at family gatherings who interjects poorly considered (and scary) political remarks into discussions where they really don't fit at all.
And the weird plug for imperialism was also priceless.
Carry on, kids, and stick close to your area of expertise!

dawy wrote:

One issue is they've always been stuck in the shadow of WoW. It can't help when a game with a similar (and I think perhaps smaller) development budget launches at the same time, and rapidly outperforms you financially by an order of magnitude. It means EQ2 has always been viewed as something of a failure by SoE, but there's no clear single reason why it's failed compared to WoW. It could be lack of marketing; it could be the game at launch was too hard for casual players; or it could have been something really simple like the fact the newbie areas at launch required a ridiculous amount of zoning and the game missed the chance to get a critical mass going.
A passionate, talented lead developer post-launch would definitely have made a world of difference. The problem is, the best MMO talent are more interested in making new games then moving on after they've gone live. It's obviously more fun and challenge to create something new rather than refine something out there. And let's face it, after you've got past about the 10 top names in MMO design, you're left with thousands of applicants with a lot of ideas but very little track record. They've tried recruiting from the community for EQ2 (I remember Moorgard's brief spell), but to really get MMO design you need a difficult blend of mathematical genius coupled with a gut feeling of what's 'fun', not just for your own playstyle but for a wide range of people who approach the game to solo, group, or raid.
I do feel that actual total budget hasn't been a major issue with EQ2, more cash is always better, but the quality of the work the art team puts out is second to none. It's game design where EQ2 has really fallen down, a result of the difficult balancing act required for 24 classes, and a lack of designers with sufficient oversight and ability to attempt it. Repeated reinventions of the core mechanics at the launches of EoF and RoK also didn't help at all, creating more problems than they solved.

Time to pull out the "liar" card here. You don't have a clue what you're talking about. The most recent beta event only goes to level 27 yet here you are talking about what happens to your toon after level 30.
If you want to stay loyal to a game, that's fine. But lying about your experience in a different game to sway opinions makes you look stupid.
I can tell you, that even up until 27 when you hit the cap, there is still replayability even at that level and things to do while the beta plays out.
Having an opinion is cool, supporting it with lies is well...lying.

Atan@Unrest wrote:

Yeah, it's also something you're not in.

Siman wrote:

Actually, Alpha testers have no level cap and full access to all zones, so if the person you're quoting is an Alpha tester, then they've experienced far more of the game than those of us in the limited Beta events (which really are mainly just promotional events for sales and server testing). BUT, Alpha is still under an NDA too, so they shouldn't be speaking freely about it if that's the case, either.

This late in the product lifecycle, simply marketing would be difficult. Retailers aren't going to order an old title with little existing demand. In addition, many were left with unsold previous expansions that are nearly worthless with a rollup with a new expansion every year. Online will be the primary point for new players where they get a decision point, buy or play? To be fair, the options coming in that way do describe EQ2X as restricted with options to purchase more, but as a new player, I know which option would make sense to me.
EQ1 and EQ2 subscribers funded several projects, but now they quite apparently see no further need for subscriber funding. It's the EQ-Live servers that prevented them from following a true Korean MMO template, where XP potions are worth money because free-play grinding takes ridiculous amounts of time. They should have eliminated vitality and ramped the xp levels up, but they couldn't support a fork while devoting developer hours to the other projects.
This product model is really only left in place as a courtesy from what I can see.

Kasar wrote:

Indeed.
EQ2 generally seems to be in maintenance mode with Sony, with the developer staff ever diminished. Smaller dev staff = smaller expansions = less happy customers = less players. Vicious cycle.
What little focus there is goes to EQ2X, and most likely Sony sees EQ2X as the future of EQ2. The Live servers is only something they need to get rid of in a timely manner without creating too much of a PR disaster. At some point (when the Live community is small enough and the EQ2X community is mature enough) they will start offering free transfers to EQ2X.
I am a bit surprised at the lack of information and hype around Velious though. Running a phased information campaign on the boards to build suspension doesn't cost much. Don't they care because EQ2X won't have much use for Velious anyways yet? (few 90's there) Not doing the pre-Velious hype campaign will cost them money by less Velious sales, and Sony never passes up on income, do they??

Sony, the parent corporation of Sony Online Entrainment (SoE), has a really poor record when it comes to advertisement. They seem to think that less is more. Actually less is less. It also seems as though there is a corporate fixation on television ads, which haven't been all that relevant for many years.
With all their sales blunders over the years, all the way back to Betamax, my husband and I have jokingly posited that the only reason Sony has stayed profitable is because it is actually a Japanese mafia money laundering operation LOL.

Nailoo@Unrest wrote:

"this this this" is Wrong Wrong Wrong... Blaming the devs is a waste of time and honestly, insulting to the devs. Take but a moment to think about what is happening before you begin to blame the devs... It's got nothing to do with the developers and everything to do with SOE CORPORATE. It's the people who are in management, not the devs who are responsible for the direction of the game. And DCUO isn't the main issue here that is causing DoV to fall behind, it's the amount of time and resources being pushed into creating the Station Cash items.
Blame the devs all you want but you are doing them a GRAVE injustice. They are doing as they are told by a management team that couldn't give 2 cents about what players want ingame... or even what the game is about... UNLIKE the devs whom you are so quick to accuse of wrong doing.

Wouldn't it be better to ask the dev's what's the most time consuming thing that has to be done in a xpansion?