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Majority of EQ2 from New Orleans or is it going the same way as AC2?
Tyrgris
Member Posts: 321
I hear all this stuff about fixes for EQ2. Lot of places I read that EQ2 is a lot better now and has an expansion coming out on the 13th.
Well I gave it some thought, eventhough John Smedley is rubbing his hands together getting ready to watch all this money come in from all those adventure packs, the expansion packs he has planned to charge us for. Plus since he was willing to let us previous players back in with the "7 day come back" to check out what has changed. Anyway, my point is... Even if SOE did so much in changing all the problems that plagued EQ2, I don't think it has much of a longer future.
I read all these so called posts over at the EQ2 forums here at MMORPG.com where they claim that there are over 200,000 - 250,000 current subscribers. Well I don't believe it, first off when I use to play earlier this year as far as back to the launch of EQ2 in Early November when I purchased EQ2, EQ2 was basically at what? 250,000 to 350,000 subscribers? Well in January I think they hit that high around 350,000 and you couldn't really get in a server that had less than a heavy load. Maybe a few would be at "Medium" but most were at "Heavy" or "Full" even during off peak times.
Now, first off I was shocked that I was able to make more than 3 characters now. So I decided to make a new one and go play it. Just in case anyone doesn't know, you can't see the list of servers and their capacitiy unless you make a new character. Well, believe it or not all servers and I mean literally "ALL" servers were "LIGHT" In other words this is the labeled server load that you were told to join if you were new. It even says it on the tool tip when you cursor over the capacity of the server.
Anyway, I decided maybe it is just that way since I was logging in during a off peak time. So I decided to check back again (make another char) so I could see what the load was like then. Well I checked at 6 PM, 7PM, 8PM & 9PM last Friday, Saturday and even Sunday, Monday and tonight and STILL ALL SERVERS (Except Antonia Bayle - A RP server which was at medium, however by by 10PM PST it is back down to "LIGHT") were at a light load.
Now I have read on the EQ2 forums here about one guy saying that it is so empty that there aren't even any 2nd or 3rd instances in the sewers and vermin snye, Antonica, South or North Qeynos and etc... No one to party with and at al... So he plans to just go back to Neverwinter Nights for now. Some came on saying that it is because most are high level now and in other zones.
Well, if that is the case then why is the server capacity for ALL servers all at "LIGHT" even during peak hours of typical gaming time, like weekends and weekend nights and weekday nights? There is the answer!!! The majority of the players "QUIT" and that is why the main towns are empty. I stood in North and South Qeynos on Lucan DLere and did a /who and I was the only one in that zone.
Now, what happened to all those players? Don't tell me that the majority of EQ2 fans that are part of that 250,000+ are all from New Orleans!!!
My opinion is that EQ2 is so messed up and also has too high of a system spec requirement that not only most said "screw it, I can't even play this game in a cave because I get a 20 sec frame rate" (meaning they see one frame every 20 seconds.) Unless they are outside in Antonica which then you can turn up a typical P3 w/128mb vid card and 512mb ram to balanced at least. But in town you have to set your settings down a notch and in a cave or sewers expecially in Vermin snye fighting the queen rat you have to drop it all the way down and even drop that res from 1600x1200 to 1024x768. Unless you have atleast a P4, 1gb ram, and a top end video card that is still $350+...
However I didn't leave because of that, but I can remember a lot of people complaining about it getting very bad in any area that had a lot of sides/walls/textures to render. My gripe was the combat, tradeskills, auction and the "hearding us like sheep" into Antonica. Sorry, I never was a EQ fan, I played AC and when I left there to go check out EQ, I decided to wait for EQ2 since it was going to be a more fresh game to get started in.
In my opinion EQ2 is VERY AWESOME with the shader technology and puts WoW to shame in the detail department. But I would rather play WoW for many other game feature ideas. When I come back from playing WoW to EQ2, I am still amazed at the detail. But gameplay. No way...not good enough in game play.
However, the big thing that severed my desires to play EQ2 was that John Smedley guy. When he said 4 adventure packs this year (Cha-ching!!! $$$$ SOE $$$$), 3 Expansion Packs (Cha-ching!!! $$$$ SOE $$$$), If you want more characters than 3 (Cha-ching!!! $$$$ SOE $$$$), or you can even play all our games with the "STATION PASS (Cha-ching!!! $$$$ SOE $$$$).... That made me so nauseated especially coming from AC for over 4 years, in which they gave us enough characters to play and if you wanted more then you just make more on another server. They gave us monthly content and new creatures and such at no additional costs and only so far to date made us pay for 2 expansions. Which AC has been public ever since November 1999. 6 months after EQ's launch. Almost 6 years and only 2 expansions. But a TON of content and new stuff every month for free, which SOE waits for Expansions to sell it to you.EQ Live is a perfect example of how John Smedely loves the cash cow. What, 10 expansions now for EQ Live? AC has been out about as long (6 month difference) and only 2 expansions. I think when John Smedley gave that public annoucement (which you can find here in MMORPG's archives, if they have one which was about January...When I left EQ2) about the adventure packs and Expansion packs, everyone knew he was going to do worse with this game than they did with EQ when SOE took over Verant. So IMO I think that was the beginning of the end of EQ2. As for me, I am going to just play WoW tilll DDO or LOTRO comes out!!!
Final note: as I see it, either SOE is going to do the same thing within six months as Turbine did to AC2 four months after their expansion (an attempt to save the game). Or: knowing John Smedley he will just bundle EQ2, SWG & PS and you just pay $24.99 to have access to them all. Not EQ of course since it is their bread and butter in the MMORPG arena.
My thoughts of course....
Enjoy!
Comments
Don't worry, they will adjust server load so light becomes extremely heavy
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SOE loves their little money makers, but these expansions and adventure packs also mean more content(hopefully not buggy and broken) so you always have something new to do. I really don't like EQ2 myself, at the surface it seems like the perfect fantasy game: depth, graphics, content, and variety but I just didn't have fun playing it, I really didn't feel anything except... well, "Eh" is the best word for it.
EQ2 reminds me of something Edward Abbey said, "Great art is never perfect; perfect art is never great."
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MMOs Retired From: Earth and Beyond, Project Entropia, There, A Tale in the Desert, Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft, Eve Online, City of Heroes/Villains.
MMOs Currently (worth) Playing: None.
MMO hopefuls: Age of Conan.
Yeah think that guy that posted was talking about places like vermin syne.All zones he mentioned are pre 30s.Considering a good majority of the crowd are now 40+ thats hardly suprising.
People are now playing the level 50 content and since there is a lot to do at that level and it is HARD to get to level 50 people are not rolling much alts.People are just very spread out now hunting with guilds.
But for an idea of how many people are playing you should have seen when the froglocks were added and people started to roll frogs out.The city and antonica was jam packed with frogs
I played EQ2 the first month it was out, even went back to it a couple months ago for about a week before I got sick of it again. I know there has to be SOMEONE out there that likes this game..but personally I think this game blows big hairy $%$$. The graphics are great, but the game play sucked, crafting was interesting at first, but rapidly became annoying, and I could tell right off the bat that it was another of those get 300 of your closest friends and raid x or y type games.
No thanks
About the servers being "light" you dont have a qlue to the numbers. All you have is a "light" indication. EQ2 server hope a hell of alot of players. Even more than WoWs servers I belive remeber reading. Also they will be joining servers together making them more crowded, but this will not be happening for some time as the ekspansion will be coming and most likly they will see if it pulls in more players and if they stay after time.
They grafics have a massive amount of tweaking abilitys. I belive a low end comp can easaly play it. Heck, my spare comp at 1.3 Ghz with 512mb ram and a crappy Geforce 4 card can play it.
But on another note: f you dont like a game they dont play it. Geezus, noone is holding a gun to your head (are they?).
Missing my point, just because everyone is higher level now, doesn't mean they shouldn't be in Qeynos anymore. Secondly and most importantly...Even if everyone in the game was 60th level doesn't mean the population shrinks....Population shrinks from people not playing, not from all playing at high level zones.
Yes I do have a clue to the numbers if the servers are considered "light" Light means low. how many? I don't know, but obviously low enough for the dev to say, if you are new go here. Medium, well obviously that would be about 50% of capacity and of course heavy would be more than likely 75% or higher and MAX or FULL would be Hey, don't go here, this server is VERY popular!!!
Your second paragraph about graphics, well my point wasn't about if you can play. It was about more than likely about why most people left EQ2 in the first place. Other than john smedley's announcement of course. But I never said anything about what can or can't run EQ2 with regards to graphics. Don't grab the topic and turn it into a different point. However, since you did bring up about the scaleability... My secondary PC is a AMD 1700+ (1467Mhz), 1 gb PC3200 DDR RAM, Nvidia PNY Geforce FX 5700 "ULTRA". That one there you have to set to balanced in Antonica @ 1600x1200 fine... Towns...drop to Performance......Vermin Snye.... Drop settings to Extreme Performance...res to 1024x768.. Otherwise in a group the Frame rate is like watching a slide show of a battle. With extreme Performance looks like major crap. Plus the whole UI gets screwed up when you change res...(Which BTW WoW's UI is so much cleaner and niceer looking than EQ2's...Anyone in their right mind would agree to that!!!) So either you do setting changes when going from wilderness to town to cave/sewers/dungeon or drop to worse scenerio and play it like that all the time. Now outside of that then EQ2 isn't worth it.
As for your last statement. First off: this is America, it is called freedom of speech. I have a right to my opinion and the right to voice said opinion. Secondly: If you don't like it, then I suggest that you don't read my posts. No one is forcing you with a gun to read them! And finally, Are you worried that my Opinion may influence others to share theirs as well or stop others from purchasing John Smedley's kids their new Cadillac Escalade...ahem I mean the EQ2 expansion?
Oh BTW, do you realize what forums are for? Shees, I hope you aren't the gastopo trying to stop me from informing others of my opinion.
Nuff said...
EDITED FOR THE GRAMMER POLICE!!!
I have been saying it all along.
EQ2 is an average game, and when the new games in the pipeline will come out(DnL, DDO, Vanguard), EQ2 will slowly die.
EQ2 will not be able to retain its players because the game itself doesn't have any particular feature that makes people love this game.
Many of them are playing it because there is nothing better on the market.
EQ2 iis a game made with money in mind rather than the players, and the results are there for everyone to see.
Anyway EQ2 won't close like AC2, simply because SOE strategy is to focus on the Station account, they will make money by offering several games for the price of one, that's why they bought MXO, a game with less than 50K players.
Hopefully next time SOE will put some heart when they make a game, in the end the player is not stupid and there is lot of competition arond, no one will play another piece of crap with a nice package.
ROFL you are contradicting yourself!! Freedom of speach means I am intitled for my opinion as well! But I guess you are of the sensitive type, or just arrogant.
Also this is NOT America but The World Wide Web, sorry to bust your ego but USA is not the only country in the world. Im from Norway.
Yes I know what forums are for, but if you dont like people comenting your own opinions maybe you should not post them at all?
I didnt say anything negative towards you, I (just like you) posted MY opinions to your matter.
Take a chill pill man.
Its no way dieing, I mean you just need to go to the eq2 section of here or look how many play it in this section theres quite a number.Eq2 seems to be a game which people either seem to love or hate. I belong in the hate section as there were so many things I didn't like;
Hero opportunities
Linked mobs
The mobs not looking as if they belong with the super realistic environment
The dungeon I tried felt nothing like a dungeon experience.
The casting bar.
And other things
I did enjoy playing a predator and there was one zone, this sewer zone which was particuarly good. But that was about it.
I should start making a list of all the "SWG/EQ2/<other SOE product here> will die" and reply a year from now, "Haha, game's still here". :P
MMORPGs die hard and when they do, they die slowly. They fought for quite some time to keep AC2 running and increasing subscription. It wasn't just the failed effort that made them decide to close it, it was also the fact that they had a better option, to use more resources on other announced and under development titles that may prove more profitable in the long run.
Since SOE has made no public announcement of any new game release, why would they decide to stop one of their current games? Especially when they acquired a new one and are trying to increase their subscriptions?
If you don't like EQ2, that's fine, and I consider the complaints valid from your point of view, excluding any remarks about content (EQ2 is the only MMOG I've seen story-progressing dungeons or triggered events and such). People have different tastes and that's perfectly acceptable. But comments that try to belittle EQ2 fans (like saying that we're stupid to enjoy EQ2, lol) are just silly and unacceptable.
Currently playing:
* City of Heroes: Deggial, Assault Rifle/Devices Blaster. Server: Defiant.
* City of Villains: Snakeroot, Plant/Thorns Dominator. Server: Defiant.
ROFL you are contradicting yourself!! Freedom of speach means I am intitled for my opinion as well! But I guess you are of the sensitive type, or just arrogant.
Sorry, I don't see anywhere in my posting where I have contradicted myself nor any of the responses towards you. Please, show me where I have done so. I will show yo where you have"you dont have a qlue to the numbers" Does that sound familar? I think you need to look in the mirror, that my friend sounds arrogant to me. However also making statments as sensitive and arrogant in that paragraph doesn't make sense either. Just sounds like you are now name calling!
Also this is NOT America but The World Wide Web, sorry to bust your ego but USA is not the only country in the world. Im from Norway.
I'm sorry, but this is MMORPG.com and I do believe they are in my country so I am sure it can be governed based on my countries laws and not Norways!!! So is that your comeback and are you suggesting I have no freedom of speech here?
Yes I know what forums are for, but if you dont like people comenting your own opinions maybe you should not post them at all?
Commenting on my opinion is one thing but if you are going to say something state your opinion rather than trying to make someone seem inccorect with their opinion, just as you are attempting in this last post as well, shees.
I didnt say anything negative towards you, I (just like you) posted MY opinions to your matter.
No, don't try to say you are like me, obviously your not. I post my opinion and you come back with a personal attack.
Take a chill pill man.
I think you should listen to your own advise.
To think EQ2 will die the same way AC2 died is just blatant idiocy. SOE are rich enough to keep EQ2 running infinitely, players or not. I do see where you're coming from though, EQ2 is becoming a barren wasteland and only the most fanatical fanboys will deny that.
EQ2 is just like Star Wars Galaxies, another one of SOE's get rich quick mmo's. They release an overly hyped mmo with little to no content, a plethora of bugs and some pretty graphics. Most players stick by it for a couple of months to see if SOE will deliver any of their promises. When they dont, the population starts to dwindle and those with brains and a speck of dignity left in their bodies leave the game.
We saw it in SWG, were seeing it in EQ2, well see it in SOE's next generic mmorpg.
_____________________
I am the flipside of the coin on which the troll and the fanboy are but one side.
Sigh. I think you are just picking fights here. Im not attaking you at all. If you feel so then I appologuise, was not intended.
I'm not gonna waist any more of my time on this matter as its clear you are short tempered and are responding aggresivly to things that are not intended so. You seem mad and you are reading my response as if I am mad as well. Which I am not. Im just sitting here typing happely away with a smile. But you reacting like this is pretty funny to me. Thanks for the laugh...You are going off track of your own topic and focusing on attacking me.
You are right. EQ2 is gasping for air. Just a matter of time before it folds.
A lot off EQ2's subscription numbers are players who use the all access pass and are not loyal EQ2 fans. This is how SOE fudges the numbers.
Now that we have rung the bell, Pavlov's dog will be along any minute to defend his pet game.
"We feel gold selling and websites that promote it damage games like Vanguard and will do everything possible to combat it."
Brad McQuaid
Chairman & CEO, Sigil Games Online, Inc.
Executive Producer, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
www.vanguardsoh
couple points.
eq's servers hold more ppl than wow's
Ty, if you ever played eq you would realize that 75% of your rant post is the result of your you being uninformed
Considering the shear amount of bluebies out there that have been whining / causing nerfs i cant see EQ ever dying, even though I wont touch eq2 with a stick, for EQ is the paradise of those that get off on pve content
north america school season begining--- typically, games increase again for the fall
over 20 years of mmorpg's and counting...
You just don't know when to stop huh? Shees. Talk about the one derailing the topic.
Plus I love how you put my thoughts in you posts. Love how people assume what others intentions are from their own reflection of words.
Go figure!!!
Oh, BTW say what you want. I think everyone here is intelligent enough to see how our little conversation went. They don't need you to try to manipulate, ahem I mean narrate for them. I think they know how to read all on their own. Please, no more unless you can be a bit more constructive. So far you haven't.
Thank you, come again
I've heard all of this before, the SOE bashing, and how they are just out to make a buck. Then the gripes about Everquest II. It goes on and on. Folks will all have their opinions, but there are so many awful mmorpgs out there, yet SOE games seem to be a common target.
They haven't pissed me off yet, in fact, SOE games are among my favorite with EQ2 being my all time favorite. I won't spend a lot of time defending what I think was incorrectly said about EQ2 here, but I can't help but laugh when I read the complaining and whining about such a successful company that puts out successful, and profitable mmorpgs. If you don't like the game, don't play it. Play something else, there are plenty to choose from. If EQ2 is not for you, then you have options.
I say spend your time enjoying what you like instead of coming back to a game you didn't like just to bash it. It serves not purpose. I wasn't talked out of playing EQ2, in fact, I am enjoying it more now than ever before. I never saw it flawed in the ways that others have, and neither has many of my friends that play it.
Star Wars Galaies was another SOE game that went through this very same thing. Players had a lot of negative things to say about it, yet it still has a dedicated player base and it it a successful mmorpg. There are many other mmorpgs that are out now and have fewer players than EQ2, and they are doing alright. Perhaps EQ2 has lots some of its initial excitement, but the game is loaded with content, more than you'll find in just about any other mmorpg out today. Just because you don't see players in your zone, it doesn't mean that they are not around playing.
Maybe a server merge will be necessary in the future. There are many servers and I think the player base may be spread out a little thin sometimes, but I play in a popular server and I never have trouble finding groups and I always see other players around in almost every zone I visit.
For every negative comment about EQ2 I can make a positive one. It's too bad I read mostly the negative on this website.
Quote: "EQ2 will not be able to retain its players because the game itself doesn't have any particular feature that makes people love this game."
There is plenty that EQ2 players like about the game. One in particular is the community, specifically on the Antonia Bayle server. Game features are important, but community is also an important aspect that often creates new ways to play the game and keeps players around when the game appears to lose its flare.
For hating EQ2 so much, you sure do come back to it a lot.
[quote]I'm sorry, but this is MMORPG.com and I do believe they are in my country so I am sure it can be governed based on my countries laws and not Norways!!! So is that your comeback and are you suggesting I have no freedom of speech here?[/quote]
I'm prety sure you lose your right to free speach when you enter private property.
1 - EQ2 is prospering, not dying, it may have lost a few artificial subscribers, but it is consisting of an extremely loyal player base due to it very nature.
2- EQ will prolly outlive EQ2 nonetheless.
3- MMORPG.com is not in NA if I recall well, but I could be wrong. I think they are somewhere in the old countries...
4- SoE is a company that try to IMPROVE with time, so judging the load of the servers is messy, simply because with new tech, what was causing a medium load is not causing any load anymore, and a heavy load is merely a medium load. SoE release lot of mistakes when a product is new, but they patch it non-stop. Players also tend to play less once they are settle in the game then they did at start, this reduce the load a LOT as well.
5- I dunno, folks seem to have a strong disbelief in SoE, but even if SoE miss the mark, they have all the right components to make the most successful MMORPG on the market. I dont say they will, but they certainly deserve your attention and a little of optimist, you never know, next year a ninja release by SoE may be what you are hooked on. SoE has been humbled by WoW, and humility on a team with such great potential was what they were missing the most, now if they can focus and keep enough humility, we may see something phenomenal. SoE team always was astonishing. Of course they may hide behind generic talk and say they dont care about a minority of players (who happen to be a majority unlike what they claims), or they may change drastically and make an awesome MMORPG.
6- It was SoE that did LDoN, not Verant. And if they would have let the designers (whoever they are, but their sissy lead design or producer remove most of LDoN tables) behind LDoN completely loose, I would still call EQ home today. They have all the ressources they need, they just need to make the right choices (and this is not a raiding enforcement, or a must PvP ala DAoC...but raiding and PvP must be present as SIDE games that dont affect the main game).
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Good luck seeing EQ2 get cancelled. More chance of getting your car washed by Jerry Seinfeld or Nelly flippin' your burger at Mcdonalds. SOE has enough bank to keep it going with 10k subscribers, and there are more like 400k atm.
I am playing EQ2 again, and my gf and her ENTIRE WoW guild are packing up and coming back to EQ2 at the end of this week because she finally listened to me and gave it a try again. It's a new game, compadre. SOE did a brilliant job with making EQ2 fun again: Bloodlines is a fun adventure pack with vampires (my personal fantasy fave) and the Splitpaw saga gives great ways to make cash and get fun drops. Also, Desert of Flames coming out is great, with tons of new area, mobs, drops plus PvP in Arenas.
Nice essay though, you get a C+. Unfortunately EQ2 gets an A.