Well, you may add Dungeons & Dragons online : StormReach to the list. its so cool. It is the latest MMOG game and the only one that recreates the classic pen and pencil game Dungeons and Dragons.
Based on D&D version 3.5 Core Rules, D&D online features 9 classes and 5 races which includes the Ebbaron Warforged race. Loaded with D&D authencity, the drills are always running in the background as Dungeon Master text appears across the screen and deadly spells and traps test your reflex and will! For specific features, you may check https://gamersloot.net/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=488
I think your an idiot. EQ was ruined by SOE. All the expansions took out so much fun, they dumbed it down for idiots to play, i guess like you. SOE ruined probably one of the best MMOs ive ever played, SWG. Played it from launch, but after 3 changes to the system, it sucks now. EQ2 was all PvE, until they added pvp servers, but they dumbed down EQ 2 also.
If you played EQ, or EQ 2 from launch, theres big difference, that arent good. EQ 2 made it so death means nothing. You use to get exp debt if you or anyone in your group died, and exp was a bitch to get, too a very long grind.
MxO is ruined even after SOE took it over. The game was shit from the start, nuff said.
I hate SOE. A company of mistakes, thats all they are.
SOE is the last company i will play a new MMO from, not until maybe SWG 2.
again people are ALWAYS clamoring for changes, and then the devs try to do changes, or add in systems they think the playesrs will enjoy or that they've been hearing alot of requests for.
EQ from the beginning was under a constant rise of members for about 5 years, and actually only started diving basically right after WoW was released, so was it eqs failure, or wows massive success? could be a bit of both, but you can't place it solely on the mistakes they made.
EQ2 is honestly a better game now then it was at release, and the pvp servers are MASSIVELY populated and enjoyed by the eq2 players. It took a pretty big spike right after wow was released and continued to fall, but it looks like its starting to rise again.
MxO was a horrible game at the beginning, and as it stands now after the changes that have been made, it is a better game, it still lacks ALOT of content and thats its biggest problem. The combat system is alot more fluid and enjoyable now, and i actually could honestly love playing the game, if the content wasn't soooooo limited. And i bought the game at release, and played it. It was alot worse.
Mistakes? alot of wow players hate raids, and blizzard keeps enforcing them. Mistakes? Coh/cov keeps trying to balance the game so every build is viable and even, yet alot of people dislike it. DAoC? Trials of atlantis. Nuff said. DnL? they made the game
it goes on and on and on. Game developers have their own ideas and visions, soe are just that. the games were theirs, they weren't your game, and they changed THEIR game how THEY thought it should be. What THEY thought players wanted. SWG is a big example of a mistake happening, but they were trying to improve the game to be more popular and have a wider appeal, it was a mistake, and they should have undone it. BUT WHAT THEY DID, THE DID IT FOR A GOOD REASON.
when will you people realize that game devs can't make everyone happy, and trying to do so will make everyone unhappy. Yet you still want them to do it.
People always want a bunch of changes, and its a massive uproar for them. But when they actually try to do the changes that people wanted, the other people who didn't want them get in a uproar.
Originally posted by brownhacker Well, you may add Dungeons & Dragons online : StormReach to the list. its so cool. It is the latest MMOG game and the only one that recreates the classic pen and pencil game Dungeons and Dragons. Based on D&D version 3.5 Core Rules, D&D online features 9 classes and 5 races which includes the Ebbaron Warforged race. Loaded with D&D authencity, the drills are always running in the background as Dungeon Master text appears across the screen and deadly spells and traps test your reflex and will! For specific features, you may check https://gamersloot.net/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=488
Originally posted by Bladin Originally posted by kidRiot
I think your an idiot. EQ was ruined by SOE. All the expansions took out so much fun, they dumbed it down for idiots to play, i guess like you. SOE ruined probably one of the best MMOs ive ever played, SWG. Played it from launch, but after 3 changes to the system, it sucks now. EQ2 was all PvE, until they added pvp servers, but they dumbed down EQ 2 also.
If you played EQ, or EQ 2 from launch, theres big difference, that arent good. EQ 2 made it so death means nothing. You use to get exp debt if you or anyone in your group died, and exp was a bitch to get, too a very long grind. MxO is ruined even after SOE took it over. The game was shit from the start, nuff said.
I hate SOE. A company of mistakes, thats all they are. SOE is the last company i will play a new MMO from, not until maybe SWG 2.
again people are ALWAYS clamoring for changes, and then the devs try to do changes, or add in systems they think the playesrs will enjoy or that they've been hearing alot of requests for.
EQ from the beginning was under a constant rise of members for about 5 years, and actually only started diving basically right after WoW was released, so was it eqs failure, or wows massive success? could be a bit of both, but you can't place it solely on the mistakes they made.
EQ2 is honestly a better game now then it was at release, and the pvp servers are MASSIVELY populated and enjoyed by the eq2 players. It took a pretty big spike right after wow was released and continued to fall, but it looks like its starting to rise again.
MxO was a horrible game at the beginning, and as it stands now after the changes that have been made, it is a better game, it still lacks ALOT of content and thats its biggest problem. The combat system is alot more fluid and enjoyable now, and i actually could honestly love playing the game, if the content wasn't soooooo limited. And i bought the game at release, and played it. It was alot worse.
Mistakes? alot of wow players hate raids, and blizzard keeps enforcing them. Mistakes? Coh/cov keeps trying to balance the game so every build is viable and even, yet alot of people dislike it. DAoC? Trials of atlantis. Nuff said. DnL? they made the game
it goes on and on and on. Game developers have their own ideas and visions, soe are just that. the games were theirs, they weren't your game, and they changed THEIR game how THEY thought it should be. What THEY thought players wanted. SWG is a big example of a mistake happening, but they were trying to improve the game to be more popular and have a wider appeal, it was a mistake, and they should have undone it. BUT WHAT THEY DID, THE DID IT FOR A GOOD REASON.
when will you people realize that game devs can't make everyone happy, and trying to do so will make everyone unhappy. Yet you still want them to do it.
People always want a bunch of changes, and its a massive uproar for them. But when they actually try to do the changes that people wanted, the other people who didn't want them get in a uproar.
This discussion is about SOE's poor habits, not WoWs or CoHs. They make these changes because yes people bitch and moan about them, but SOE makes the bad decision of dumbing down games. Pretty much every SOE game is as simple as WoW.
I know devs change it because they can and want and think thats what players want. But they ignore many things, specifically SOE. In terms of customer service (HORRIBLE, CSR's basically tell you to piss off), exploits (SWG is a prime example, you could cross server lines and put an infinite amount of crystals in your saber, as well thats TONS of other exploits that took months of months to fix, and many still arent fixed yet), SWG ignoring classes (like smugglers, who still cant smuggle, and theres been many posts and petitions to change smugglers).
I know when WoW hit, all MMOs felt it, but that doesnt mean they need to go mimic WoW, like SOE did. SWGs changes/NGE changed the game to a WoW style, which i hated.
SWG was probably the most innovating MMO because of the awesome graphics at the time, the class/profession system, which was unbelievably cool, and has yet to be placed in another MMO, not sure why. Even with dabbling and stacking your defenses, you could fix that so there wont be insane stuff like that, but still, all MMOs use classes systems, cept Eve and a few others. SWG profession system was the best of the best IMO. You could do so much, so much potential. The PvP was awesome, best experience of gaming ive ever had.
Even the jedi system, all though ultimately doomed, the Force Ranking System was going to be huge, but SOE just stopped it, never brought up the topic again.
The devs didnt understand when they announced the CU, that every area in there forums was flooding with anti CU stuff, that GUILDS will be leaving to WoW when it hits. Even in game, almost every player was griping over it, and Cnet before it launched, it was pure chaos. Where were the devs heads there?
In there wallets, because SWG was said to be porting to the PS3, they needed to make it more simple, FPS style. The devs KNEW everyone disliked it, yet they did it anyways. Because of that, many META guilds left my server, Bloodfin and it just kept going down hill. Now more than 95% of the players i knew in SWG are in WoW, because of the changes in SWG.
SWG was so alive even when WoW came, PvP every night, hours of hours of pwning rebels, clone camping, making them log off. The guild i was in, DREAD, was the most powerful on the server, i spend 2+ years with these people, more than 200+ members, and we all left for WoW due to the changes...
All SOE cares about is money, they dont care about the players or the community. They've expressed that greatly by there lack of listening to the people. I want a MMO where players and the community matters, where things can change, and the devs wont blindly change the whole system without consulting the people.
Which is why i fear Vanguard is going to be doomed due to SOE's greed. A potentially innovating game, may just be burnt to the ground.
What people that defend SOE so vigoriousl don't understand is that those that are so upset and point out all the mis-steps SOE has made are making these points because we have been burned soooooooo many times by SOE. You can't simply over-look the changes SOE has made in many of their games that were purely financial.
Example one and the biggest of them all is of course SWG. Now why would SOE take one of the deepest most interesting sandbox MMO's on earth(the best Sandbox MMO IMO) and gut the system. SOE claims the changes were to make the game more star warsy and easier to earn. Here is my problem with that claim, SWG had alot of problems noone will ever deny that fact but the community had built a great world(read: the community not SOE). When the NGE changes were made SOE did not address the mounds of bugs, broken missions, general lack of content in the least. SOE gutted the system and left most all the problems that existed before the changes in place in favor of a new simple system that would require much less staff to maintain. The changes not only didn't fix the issues of the game but created so many new issues that it destroyed the game.
First they destroyed everything that the community had built. With the new system in place everything that was in place before the changes was now null and void, no need for crafters, no variety in classes and none of the amazing variety in the way you could fight battles, no large scale guild battles due to the total lack of numbers in the guilds. At the same time they focused on the first 30 levels of the game devoting all new content and tweaking to those levels, why, simple they wanted to draw the new crowd and could really give a crap about the current player base. I challenge you rigtht after NGE to level a toon past around 40, couldn't really be done because the content simply ran out.
Next case for SOE's lack of care for the current customer base is Planetside. Now i know it was never a large earner for SOE but they still owe the subscribers a certain amount of maintinance and support. Cheaters run the servers plain and simple. i challenge you to report a cheater(and they are blatant and many) and see any change in his actions over the course of the the next month. The long and short is there will be none because they don't take action against these cheaters. I used to play was a fun game to play on the side but I'm beginning to wonder if they have any staff working on it anymore since they opened it up to free play.
Next comes the blatant lying of SOE, when it comes to their games. As a SWG vet I've seen so many promises made and never delivered upon. Rumors denied and then they come true and the most sleazy of them all releasing a expansion only to drop NGE on all the expansion purchasers the day after with no warning. To you this may be fine, but to me this is a calculated move to cash in on a group of customers that they knew would be leaving after NGE.
My final case for the hate for SOE is the way that they NEVER listen to their customers imput on anything. Heres a quick example of this total lack of caring for customer needs, at the summit people's questions around SWG naturally focused on "classic" servers in SWG". Now many of these people probably closed accounts due to the changes and even after all the lies and total scamming are still willing to come back to SOE and fund their games, but how were the questions addressed, with a one line statement "there will never be classic servers". Its funny the crowd broke into applause for a extended period of time and still that was the answer to repeated questions regarding a roll back or classic servers.
I used to be a station pass customer, not only that but at one time I was playing 4 of SOE's games on that station pass, but everyone has their breaking point where they say why should I support a company that won't support my needs as a player. Truly the most sad thing about it all is in the numbers, I posted two surveys in threads having to do with, number one how do you feel about how SOE has handled their games and two would you come back to SWG if given a classic server. I can tell you the opinion about SOE and how they handled their various projects was extremely one sided on the negative side, but at the same time the other survey asking if you would return if given something resembling pre NGE iin SWG was overwhelming in favor of yes I would return even though I distrust SOE.
Why would SOE ignore facts like these in favor of doing whatever THEY want to do even knowing that eventually it will lead to the death of a few of their online games. Simple running classic servers would require more staff and require extra work which would cut into the funds they are collecting on the new dumbed down low maintenance system. Why would SOE allow hackers to run Planetside even knowing that it will be the end of the game in the end, because it would cost money to have staff to police the game. Why would SOE have a Everquest to Exchange on their sight even though most MMO companies frown on the sale of items and the like due to the shaddy nature, simple because they want a cut of the money in every aspect of these games whether the funds are coming from a shady area of the MMO world or not.
Bottom line its all about the money with SOE, you are simply another sheep to be fleeced in the eyes of this company. I personally let my money do the talking I went from station pass user playing basically only SOE MMO's to a COH/COV player, why because despite the constant tweaks in COH the developers have the player in mind with changes not, "how can we make just a little more out of this customer before they leave in disgust." When you title a thread I love SOE you're setting yourself up to be labeled a fanboy and IMO rightly so. Fanboys will fiercely defend what they like whether it is the right thing to do or not.
One last thing you say that EQ2 is on the upswing with members, check the website that tracks MMO subscribers for all MMO's and you will see a disturbing trend of SOE's MMO's bleeding customers at a fairly substantial rate since around Jan. Why Jan for losing customers you might ask, because NGE in SWG has taken many of the station pass users such as myself to greener pastures. I will never return to SOE's games and when lucas arts hands the Star Wars license over to a new developer at the end of the 5 year contract with SOE, I will be living it up in a new Galaxy far far away, from SOE that is.
yes i know they are a money hungry company, but every other game company is too. They've made mistakes and ruined swg.
Planetside was never that big of a success in its entire history, hitting 60k subs at its peak, and is now down to 20k. They simply don't care because it's not really... bringing em that much, and its a company, its not as if these game companies really are gamers friends(no matter how much they want you to believe they are)
Even look at nintendo, they make all those mario games, all these "innovative" features, and generally cheaper consoles. A gamers friend no? Actually its a really good marketting tool. Look we play good games, and we can do this and this! and you get it 400 bucks cheaper!(isn't the wii rumoured to be like 200?) It'll sell, and it's made and priced that way to sell. The Wii could have easily been extremely pricey, but its good marketting to be innovative and cheaper. It's not for your convenience
Look at WoW its initial release and surge in population was for two reasons. 1. The name, its blizzard, its warcraft, its going to be a great game. 2. The game kept its population coming and rising. SWG had 1, but it lacked 2, thats what soe tried to change. And they failed. And ruined the game, i've never denied that.
And if you look at the eq2 numbers, the game fell till around jan of this year, and it raised a LITTLE since then(around the time of pvp servers and the class change no?).
SOE has a few things going for them.
1. Money, they got it, and they want it. Don't give me any bs about smaller companies/teams creating fantastic/successful games... I honestly haven't seen one yet. 2. Talented Developers who can actually produce a game(even if they destroy it later, but its really because of their high expectations for swg that they did the changes, its numbers were solid and probably could have spiked with enhancements and not redesigns. But what can you do now. Rumour is they are reverting back or something? ionno i don't really care, i played the game upon release and the combat was dull and thats what holds me to a game.)
When many other game companies out there can barely produce their games upon release, DDO, AA, DnL, Wish, horizons, RV... At least they get working games out there.
And heck its not even like i really like SOE, I just honestly think they are just another mmorpg company, making mmorpgs. Hold a game by its own features and gameness. *EDIT* when i said it was a great company, of course its not a great company on its own, but compared to the other mmorpg companies out...it really is.
Let's not even forget that EQ is still about the 5th most populated mmorpg out there atm. Despite what the eve-rs want to tell ya.
Originally posted by JigsawJesus I do they, make and run great games. And for the most part do a damn good job. Now i will say SWG was ruined by them, and John Smedely should be fired. But like at their track record Everquest Everquest II Matrix Online Planetside Starwars Galaxies Everquest Online Adventures (ps2 eq) Now Everquest one was created by Varent interactive But SOE bought them out, now some may see this as a bad thing, however I think SOE has done a good job maintaining and continually updating and releasing expansions for the game. It's still around and doing great, If verant interactive had kept going, who knows where it would be. Everquest II The only complaint i have is that it looks so good i can barely run it haha. Tons of tradeskills, and quests. Always updated, expansions and boost packs this game is expensive But it is very well maintained. The Matrix online, Definitely not the best game, but SOE rescued it when it was falling. The game was dying and now it has a safe haven. Fans Rejoice. Planetside, Fantastic mmofps, I still play this one. The action packed space war is continually updated. And just hit its 3 year anniversary. A very great game, SOE has done well with 3 xpansions, regular updates, and a decent price. 20$ for the game and both expansions Starwars Galaxies, Now SWG was fantastic, SOE and LA did a fantastic job at the begining. The first year or so (however long it was) was fantastic until they made the CU and NGE This ruined it. Big mistakes were made, they took the game in the wrong direction, and lost most of the playerbase for a new one. Not very nice to loyal customers now is it? Everquest Online Adventures, This is the only mmorpg on PS2 next to FFXI and in many ways its superior. Its regularly updated, has an expansion or two. If you want a good, fun, mmorpg that can be played with a PS2 controller, that has tradeskills, magic, everything everquest is known for, Then give it a go.
I love them, SOE ROCKS!! All of these games are regularly updated And more are coming im sure. So what do you guys think??
did you know that Everquest 1 still has 200,000 subs... its still their best selling game.
Elnator, I never knew about that Qeynos backwards thing! I've been a long time player of EQ and it was surprising to learn something like that. I also wasn't fully aware of the situation with Verant and SOE, but none of that mattered to me, I played EQ because I enjoyed it, and I still think it is a good game.
I share your opinion about SOE, Jigsaw. Although I hate them for ruining SWG, I don't easily forget the many, many great gaming hours I've had playing their other games, particularly EQ and EQ2.
I also think it is really funny how you write your posts to looks llike a poem
Comments
Based on
D&D version 3.5 Core Rules, D&D online features 9 classes and 5
races which includes the Ebbaron Warforged race. Loaded with D&D
authencity, the drills are always running in the background as Dungeon
Master text appears across the screen and deadly spells and traps test
your reflex and will! For specific features, you may check https://gamersloot.net/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=488
http://www.danbrown.com/
https://gamersloot.net/catalog/index.php
EQ from the beginning was under a constant rise of members for about 5 years, and actually only started diving basically right after WoW was released, so was it eqs failure, or wows massive success? could be a bit of both, but you can't place it solely on the mistakes they made.
EQ2 is honestly a better game now then it was at release, and the pvp servers are MASSIVELY populated and enjoyed by the eq2 players. It took a pretty big spike right after wow was released and continued to fall, but it looks like its starting to rise again.
MxO was a horrible game at the beginning, and as it stands now after the changes that have been made, it is a better game, it still lacks ALOT of content and thats its biggest problem. The combat system is alot more fluid and enjoyable now, and i actually could honestly love playing the game, if the content wasn't soooooo limited. And i bought the game at release, and played it. It was alot worse.
Mistakes? alot of wow players hate raids, and blizzard keeps enforcing them.
Mistakes? Coh/cov keeps trying to balance the game so every build is viable and even, yet alot of people dislike it.
DAoC? Trials of atlantis. Nuff said.
DnL? they made the game
it goes on and on and on. Game developers have their own ideas and visions, soe are just that. the games were theirs, they weren't your game, and they changed THEIR game how THEY thought it should be. What THEY thought players wanted. SWG is a big example of a mistake happening, but they were trying to improve the game to be more popular and have a wider appeal, it was a mistake, and they should have undone it. BUT WHAT THEY DID, THE DID IT FOR A GOOD REASON.
when will you people realize that game devs can't make everyone happy, and trying to do so will make everyone unhappy. Yet you still want them to do it.
People always want a bunch of changes, and its a massive uproar for them. But when they actually try to do the changes that people wanted, the other people who didn't want them get in a uproar.
Geeze, sickening
EQ from the beginning was under a constant rise of members for about 5 years, and actually only started diving basically right after WoW was released, so was it eqs failure, or wows massive success? could be a bit of both, but you can't place it solely on the mistakes they made.
EQ2 is honestly a better game now then it was at release, and the pvp servers are MASSIVELY populated and enjoyed by the eq2 players. It took a pretty big spike right after wow was released and continued to fall, but it looks like its starting to rise again.
MxO was a horrible game at the beginning, and as it stands now after the changes that have been made, it is a better game, it still lacks ALOT of content and thats its biggest problem. The combat system is alot more fluid and enjoyable now, and i actually could honestly love playing the game, if the content wasn't soooooo limited. And i bought the game at release, and played it. It was alot worse.
Mistakes? alot of wow players hate raids, and blizzard keeps enforcing them.
Mistakes? Coh/cov keeps trying to balance the game so every build is viable and even, yet alot of people dislike it.
DAoC? Trials of atlantis. Nuff said.
DnL? they made the game
it goes on and on and on. Game developers have their own ideas and visions, soe are just that. the games were theirs, they weren't your game, and they changed THEIR game how THEY thought it should be. What THEY thought players wanted. SWG is a big example of a mistake happening, but they were trying to improve the game to be more popular and have a wider appeal, it was a mistake, and they should have undone it. BUT WHAT THEY DID, THE DID IT FOR A GOOD REASON.
when will you people realize that game devs can't make everyone happy, and trying to do so will make everyone unhappy. Yet you still want them to do it.
People always want a bunch of changes, and its a massive uproar for them. But when they actually try to do the changes that people wanted, the other people who didn't want them get in a uproar.
This discussion is about SOE's poor habits, not WoWs or CoHs. They make these changes because yes people bitch and moan about them, but SOE makes the bad decision of dumbing down games. Pretty much every SOE game is as simple as WoW.
I know devs change it because they can and want and think thats what players want. But they ignore many things, specifically SOE. In terms of customer service (HORRIBLE, CSR's basically tell you to piss off), exploits (SWG is a prime example, you could cross server lines and put an infinite amount of crystals in your saber, as well thats TONS of other exploits that took months of months to fix, and many still arent fixed yet), SWG ignoring classes (like smugglers, who still cant smuggle, and theres been many posts and petitions to change smugglers).
I know when WoW hit, all MMOs felt it, but that doesnt mean they need to go mimic WoW, like SOE did. SWGs changes/NGE changed the game to a WoW style, which i hated.
SWG was probably the most innovating MMO because of the awesome graphics at the time, the class/profession system, which was unbelievably cool, and has yet to be placed in another MMO, not sure why. Even with dabbling and stacking your defenses, you could fix that so there wont be insane stuff like that, but still, all MMOs use classes systems, cept Eve and a few others. SWG profession system was the best of the best IMO. You could do so much, so much potential. The PvP was awesome, best experience of gaming ive ever had.
Even the jedi system, all though ultimately doomed, the Force Ranking System was going to be huge, but SOE just stopped it, never brought up the topic again.
The devs didnt understand when they announced the CU, that every area in there forums was flooding with anti CU stuff, that GUILDS will be leaving to WoW when it hits. Even in game, almost every player was griping over it, and Cnet before it launched, it was pure chaos. Where were the devs heads there?
In there wallets, because SWG was said to be porting to the PS3, they needed to make it more simple, FPS style. The devs KNEW everyone disliked it, yet they did it anyways. Because of that, many META guilds left my server, Bloodfin and it just kept going down hill. Now more than 95% of the players i knew in SWG are in WoW, because of the changes in SWG.
SWG was so alive even when WoW came, PvP every night, hours of hours of pwning rebels, clone camping, making them log off. The guild i was in, DREAD, was the most powerful on the server, i spend 2+ years with these people, more than 200+ members, and we all left for WoW due to the changes...
All SOE cares about is money, they dont care about the players or the community. They've expressed that greatly by there lack of listening to the people. I want a MMO where players and the community matters, where things can change, and the devs wont blindly change the whole system without consulting the people.
Which is why i fear Vanguard is going to be doomed due to SOE's greed. A potentially innovating game, may just be burnt to the ground.
What people that defend SOE so vigoriousl don't understand is that those that are so upset and point out all the mis-steps SOE has made are making these points because we have been burned soooooooo many times by SOE. You can't simply over-look the changes SOE has made in many of their games that were purely financial.
Example one and the biggest of them all is of course SWG. Now why would SOE take one of the deepest most interesting sandbox MMO's on earth(the best Sandbox MMO IMO) and gut the system. SOE claims the changes were to make the game more star warsy and easier to earn. Here is my problem with that claim, SWG had alot of problems noone will ever deny that fact but the community had built a great world(read: the community not SOE). When the NGE changes were made SOE did not address the mounds of bugs, broken missions, general lack of content in the least. SOE gutted the system and left most all the problems that existed before the changes in place in favor of a new simple system that would require much less staff to maintain. The changes not only didn't fix the issues of the game but created so many new issues that it destroyed the game.
First they destroyed everything that the community had built. With the new system in place everything that was in place before the changes was now null and void, no need for crafters, no variety in classes and none of the amazing variety in the way you could fight battles, no large scale guild battles due to the total lack of numbers in the guilds. At the same time they focused on the first 30 levels of the game devoting all new content and tweaking to those levels, why, simple they wanted to draw the new crowd and could really give a crap about the current player base. I challenge you rigtht after NGE to level a toon past around 40, couldn't really be done because the content simply ran out.
Next case for SOE's lack of care for the current customer base is Planetside. Now i know it was never a large earner for SOE but they still owe the subscribers a certain amount of maintinance and support. Cheaters run the servers plain and simple. i challenge you to report a cheater(and they are blatant and many) and see any change in his actions over the course of the the next month. The long and short is there will be none because they don't take action against these cheaters. I used to play was a fun game to play on the side but I'm beginning to wonder if they have any staff working on it anymore since they opened it up to free play.
Next comes the blatant lying of SOE, when it comes to their games. As a SWG vet I've seen so many promises made and never delivered upon. Rumors denied and then they come true and the most sleazy of them all releasing a expansion only to drop NGE on all the expansion purchasers the day after with no warning. To you this may be fine, but to me this is a calculated move to cash in on a group of customers that they knew would be leaving after NGE.
My final case for the hate for SOE is the way that they NEVER listen to their customers imput on anything. Heres a quick example of this total lack of caring for customer needs, at the summit people's questions around SWG naturally focused on "classic" servers in SWG". Now many of these people probably closed accounts due to the changes and even after all the lies and total scamming are still willing to come back to SOE and fund their games, but how were the questions addressed, with a one line statement "there will never be classic servers". Its funny the crowd broke into applause for a extended period of time and still that was the answer to repeated questions regarding a roll back or classic servers.
I used to be a station pass customer, not only that but at one time I was playing 4 of SOE's games on that station pass, but everyone has their breaking point where they say why should I support a company that won't support my needs as a player. Truly the most sad thing about it all is in the numbers, I posted two surveys in threads having to do with, number one how do you feel about how SOE has handled their games and two would you come back to SWG if given a classic server. I can tell you the opinion about SOE and how they handled their various projects was extremely one sided on the negative side, but at the same time the other survey asking if you would return if given something resembling pre NGE iin SWG was overwhelming in favor of yes I would return even though I distrust SOE.
Why would SOE ignore facts like these in favor of doing whatever THEY want to do even knowing that eventually it will lead to the death of a few of their online games. Simple running classic servers would require more staff and require extra work which would cut into the funds they are collecting on the new dumbed down low maintenance system. Why would SOE allow hackers to run Planetside even knowing that it will be the end of the game in the end, because it would cost money to have staff to police the game. Why would SOE have a Everquest to Exchange on their sight even though most MMO companies frown on the sale of items and the like due to the shaddy nature, simple because they want a cut of the money in every aspect of these games whether the funds are coming from a shady area of the MMO world or not.
Bottom line its all about the money with SOE, you are simply another sheep to be fleeced in the eyes of this company. I personally let my money do the talking I went from station pass user playing basically only SOE MMO's to a COH/COV player, why because despite the constant tweaks in COH the developers have the player in mind with changes not, "how can we make just a little more out of this customer before they leave in disgust." When you title a thread I love SOE you're setting yourself up to be labeled a fanboy and IMO rightly so. Fanboys will fiercely defend what they like whether it is the right thing to do or not.
One last thing you say that EQ2 is on the upswing with members, check the website that tracks MMO subscribers for all MMO's and you will see a disturbing trend of SOE's MMO's bleeding customers at a fairly substantial rate since around Jan. Why Jan for losing customers you might ask, because NGE in SWG has taken many of the station pass users such as myself to greener pastures. I will never return to SOE's games and when lucas arts hands the Star Wars license over to a new developer at the end of the 5 year contract with SOE, I will be living it up in a new Galaxy far far away, from SOE that is.
Peace
yes i know they are a money hungry company, but every other game company is too. They've made mistakes and ruined swg.
Planetside was never that big of a success in its entire history, hitting 60k subs at its peak, and is now down to 20k. They simply don't care because it's not really... bringing em that much, and its a company, its not as if these game companies really are gamers friends(no matter how much they want you to believe they are)
Even look at nintendo, they make all those mario games, all these "innovative" features, and generally cheaper consoles. A gamers friend no? Actually its a really good marketting tool. Look we play good games, and we can do this and this! and you get it 400 bucks cheaper!(isn't the wii rumoured to be like 200?) It'll sell, and it's made and priced that way to sell. The Wii could have easily been extremely pricey, but its good marketting to be innovative and cheaper. It's not for your convenience
Look at WoW its initial release and surge in population was for two reasons. 1. The name, its blizzard, its warcraft, its going to be a great game. 2. The game kept its population coming and rising. SWG had 1, but it lacked 2, thats what soe tried to change. And they failed. And ruined the game, i've never denied that.
And if you look at the eq2 numbers, the game fell till around jan of this year, and it raised a LITTLE since then(around the time of pvp servers and the class change no?).
SOE has a few things going for them.
1. Money, they got it, and they want it. Don't give me any bs about smaller companies/teams creating fantastic/successful games... I honestly haven't seen one yet.
2. Talented Developers who can actually produce a game(even if they destroy it later, but its really because of their high expectations for swg that they did the changes, its numbers were solid and probably could have spiked with enhancements and not redesigns. But what can you do now. Rumour is they are reverting back or something? ionno i don't really care, i played the game upon release and the combat was dull and thats what holds me to a game.)
When many other game companies out there can barely produce their games upon release, DDO, AA, DnL, Wish, horizons, RV... At least they get working games out there.
And heck its not even like i really like SOE, I just honestly think they are just another mmorpg company, making mmorpgs. Hold a game by its own features and gameness. *EDIT* when i said it was a great company, of course its not a great company on its own, but compared to the other mmorpg companies out...it really is.
Let's not even forget that EQ is still about the 5th most populated mmorpg out there atm. Despite what the eve-rs want to tell ya.
Elnator, I never knew about that Qeynos backwards thing! I've been a long time player of EQ and it was surprising to learn something like that. I also wasn't fully aware of the situation with Verant and SOE, but none of that mattered to me, I played EQ because I enjoyed it, and I still think it is a good game.
I share your opinion about SOE, Jigsaw. Although I hate them for ruining SWG, I don't easily forget the many, many great gaming hours I've had playing their other games, particularly EQ and EQ2.
I also think it is really funny how you write your posts to looks llike a poem