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EverQuest II: Producer's Letter
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
Scott Hartsman, the Senior Producer of Sony Online Entertainment's EverQuest II has released a Producer's Letter. in this letter, Hartsman tackles the current status of the game: Echoes of Faydwer, Play the Fae, Update 30 and more! As you might expect, the letter is too large for our humble newsroom. To read it all, follow the link below.
Once again, the holiday season is upon us. A brand new expansion has been released to much fanfare and the EQ2 developers are all nestled in for an extended, hard-earned winter's rest in hopes that the Gigglegibber Grump doesn't arrive to make too much trouble this year...
Wait, no. Sorry. That's fantasyland. We're still here hard at work, and it's been far too long since the last Producer's Letter.
For starters, thank you all very much for making Echoes of Faydwer our most successful expansion yet, by every means we have available to measure "success." For our part, we're thrilled that people think we did this fabled continent justice.
Since its release a month ago, Echoes has been the best-selling expansion to date. That's probably not too exciting for most people to hear, but it's also meant the most in terms of both new and returning users coming back onto the scene. That's where everyone wins. We've all seen guildies return and faces we haven't seen in a while suddenly show up to check out what all the excitement's about. And being able to spend time with old friends is very fitting for the season, on top of it. To all of you new and returning folks: Welcome! We're glad to have you.
If you have even more friends that you want to get into EQ2 with you, now's a perfect time for it with the launch of Play the Fae. Point 'em in that direction, have them make a new account, and they can be playing right beside you in Greater Faydark.
Read it all here.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
Makes me wanna revise my opinion of SOE. If it weren't for SWG... then again, I am having fun there as well, so I shouldn't complain.
EQ2!
EQ2!
EQ2!
EQ2!
EQ2!
EQ2!
EQ2!
I LOVE YOU XD
....
But. Again (I don't learn very quickly). I learned the hard way who I
was dealing with about 6 months back and have since returned to World
of Warcraft with extreme prejudice (towards EQII).
You have to remember that this game is run by SOE. I could post a very
bitter rant, but for a lot of people that's all I really need to say.
Keep in mind that this game is run by SOE.
Newsflash: The customer service on most games is not that great. Is it really a big deal? I have had to deal with customer service 3 times in 5 years of SOE. It wasn't a major part of my life. My 1 experience in another game was far worse.
The game is much improved from day 1, and with the expansion which is the best ever, it is worth another look. Certainly a once in a great while contact with CS isn't a big deal.
For a very brief history lesson it goes something like this. Star wars galaxies was a game where there were dozens of normal professions and one special one called the Jedi. Now this Jedi was not easy to achieve, estimates are it took 300+ hours of gameplay. When the combat revamp hit not only did they reduce the number of professions in the game from 32 to 10, but also made Jedis able to be played from the start. This made alot of the people who invested the over 300 hours to get one very angry.
Of course the ones with just Jedis were not the madest it was the ebay Jedis that were, Jedis could grow to a infinate power level up upgrading their weapon at that time, however the only way to upgrade the weapon was to get a item no longer dropped in game. This lead to the Ebay wars where some Jedis spent quite a bit of real life money to get the rare upgrades to their weapon. When the combat revamp hit and jedi was made a common class the weapons lost all their upgrades so to speak to balance them with the other classes, as you can see this would make those who spent hundreds even thousands for the "ultimate jedi" very very angry.
And there you have a brief history of why whenever SOE comes up people pick up their stones and get ready to trash any game before they try it. Even though the branch of SOE that made Star wars galaxies is completely different from the one that made and is making EQ2.
months to years working on without explanation. They treat their
customers like garbage. I can go into a lot of specifics but I can't be
bothered. The fact is, in EQII right now there are only a few classes
that are really needed end game, and they have no vision for those
classes that aren't needed in end game. I played two classes which were
NOT needed end game, was forced to solo, and eventually went out of my
mind with boredom. Then one of them was needlessly nerfed (not a major
hit that time but it doesn't really matter because to me it was the
same old SOE story) and I unsubscribed.
I'm glad Faydwer turned out to be an excellent expansion and they've
seemed to have learned to do things right. I just want to warn people
they're dealing with a company (outside of one successful expansion)
with poor long term vision and, arguably, no idea how to design and run
an mmorpg. Yes EQ was a very successful mmorpg but there weren't a lot
of other options out there were there?
AND their customer service sucks.
I'm not a Wow fanboi as, in some ways, Blizzard seems to be
heading down the same path as SOE. (Warrior damage normalization
anyone?). I just would like to warn people that it's SOE, and though
the water may look pristine right now, there are definitely man eating
giant squids ready to suck your face off underneath. (I was gonna say
sharks, I like giant squids better)
*edited for syntax*
that are really needed end game, and they have no vision for those
classes that aren't needed in end game.
In 5 games I have played, I have yet to notice one class that does not either buff, heal, or cause damage. These would seem to be the necessary things to take down high end content in any game. I had heard the exact same thing from a hardcore raid guild once. It was told to me after they agreed to take me on as a member. I apparently got lucky in picking the right class. I decided not to join though.
SOE are disliked because of their tendancy to constantly change their games in a way they percieve to be the greatest and quickest cash return. They show complete disregard to their current player base and have no tangent vision of what they're games are suppossed to be. They try to justify all their changes with the elusive 'customer surveys' that they apparantly conduct (not sure how these work, but I, and nobody I know have ever been part of one of these surveys).
I've returned to EQ2 a few times, and each time the game is so different from the last time that I have to reselect all my skills and relearn the game. Their original theme was a challenging game for hardcore players. It was 100% PVE because their 'customer survey' showed that players didn't want PVP... At the moment EQ2 is pretty much the opposite of what it originally was.
When and if Warhammer, Conan or Vanguard appear and become successfull, expect another load of changes to EQ2 originating from 'customer surveys' which bear remarkable similarities to one of the above games.
I think it would be very wise to first read something before you give a comment that doesn't make any sence regarding the post you reply'd to cause from line one the person explains why he's mad at soe at that had nothing to do with him being a cheat but had everything to do with how stupid SOE handled things, dropped alott of professions, forcing those with already bad gaming aditude's to go even futher with the E-bay nonsens he explained happend because of what SOE was doing, nowhere did he say because he was buying of of Ebay but he explained that items still needed ingame wern't ingame anymore but only acceceble at Ebay
LEARN TO READ !!!
Sorry again and really i do not mean this with disrespect but get real and read before you respond
And in response to EQ2 i have played the trail and must say at first glance it really looks sweet untill you pull up all settings to high and then suddenly nothing is consisted with the world, creatures are far to realisistic compared to the game world, characters look like made of clay but the clothinging and armor/weapons are again extremly realstic, its more like 3 dif. kind of graphic games made into one, and really i don't dis like it cause its pretty cool nevertheless, its feels nice and play's well