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EverQuest II: Letter from John Smedley

MeddleMeddle Administrator UncommonPosts: 758
in News & Features Discussion

Sony Online President John Smedley has written a letter addressing updates, the adventure packs and future expansions in EQ2.  Here's a little bit:


Hello fellow Norrathians,

In the months since EverQuest II has launched, we have seen an overwhelming response to the game. Here at SOE we've spent a great deal of time charting the future course of EverQuest II and laying out a roadmap for continuing to evolve the world of Norrath. I'd like to share that plan with you now.

The letter in it's entirety can be viewed here.

- MMORPG.COM Staff -

Comments

  • MinimumMinimum Member UncommonPosts: 236

    Greed continues.

     

    The game itself is still bugged, but already they are diverting people to other projects.  Gotta love it.

    I'd love for him to show where they are "listening'.  They sure don't show it in their largely ignored forums.

    I wouldn't touch this if it was $.25, let alone whatever more he's going to try and gouge out of people.

    Your just jealous because the voices only speak to me.

  • QinetiqQinetiq Member Posts: 5

    "Adventure packs?!" You'd have to be a complete moron to touch this with a barge pole. Charging players for content that should be added via a patch ::::12:: ? I was considering EQII...not now. This is just SOE desperately trying claw back some revenue while a certain other game runs off with the "phat lewt." ::::28::

  • Cyris90Cyris90 Member Posts: 5

    Trying to explain away the cost of a new expansion is irrelevant, they are still going to charge you more money to get content that other MMO's are giving for free. Lets do some math shall we?

    10000 accounts * 15.00 per month US = 150k per month

    150k * 12 months = 1.8 Million

    Average salary of a developer 32,000 * 100 = 320k Per year

    1.8 Million - 320k = 1.48 Million

    Um.... and your charging more money because you have a large development team??

     

    My numbers are obviously a estimation but being a lead programmer for large projects I am in charge of budget too... MMOs are best money maker there is in the developement industry is why they have gone from 3 MMOs to over 100 in current developement... and with over 100 in developement I am sure that I have a better place to put my money the with a company that is going constantly going to be charging me for updated content.

     

    Cyris

  • MinimumMinimum Member UncommonPosts: 236


    Originally posted by Cyris90

    Trying to explain away the cost of a new expansion is irrelevant, they are still going to charge you more money to get content that other MMO's are giving for free. Lets do some math shall we?
    10000 accounts * 15.00 per month US = 150k per month
    150k * 12 months = 1.8 Million
    Average salary of a developer 32,000 * 100 = 320k Per year
    1.8 Million - 320k = 1.48 Million
    Um.... and your charging more money because you have a large development team??
     
    My numbers are obviously a estimation but being a lead programmer for large projects I am in charge of budget too... MMOs are best money maker there is in the developement industry is why they have gone from 3 MMOs to over 100 in current developement... and with over 100 in developement I am sure that I have a better place to put my money the with a company that is going constantly going to be charging me for updated content.
     
    Cyris


    I might pay for an exapansion, but not to SOE, not when they're already diverting resources from a game that still has many many problems.  And being run by a company that clearly really doesn't care.

    Your just jealous because the voices only speak to me.

  • wesjrwesjr Member UncommonPosts: 506


    Your math sucks, and your a lead, in charge of a budget???? ::::07::

    32k x 100 = 3,200,000 ....

    and 32k is an awful low salary 15/hr or so ....

    I work for a software company and I make 17/hr for security ..


    ::::02::


    Originally posted by Cyris90
    Trying to explain away the cost of a new expansion is irrelevant, they are still going to charge you more money to get content that other MMO's are giving for free. Lets do some math shall we?
    10000 accounts * 15.00 per month US = 150k per month
    150k * 12 months = 1.8 Million
    Average salary of a developer 32,000 * 100 = 320k Per year
    1.8 Million - 320k = 1.48 Million
    Um.... and your charging more money because you have a large development team??

    My numbers are obviously a estimation but being a lead programmer for large projects I am in charge of budget too... MMOs are best money maker there is in the developement industry is why they have gone from 3 MMOs to over 100 in current developement... and with over 100 in developement I am sure that I have a better place to put my money the with a company that is going constantly going to be charging me for updated content.

    Cyris

  • bluejaye99bluejaye99 Member Posts: 8
    If 'content' costs extra money, what is the monthly fee for? And if the monthly fee is for 'game maintenance', why do all other 'online' games have a one time fee? Starcraft doesn't have a monthly fee. Age of Empires doesn't have a monthly fee. Diablo doesn't have a monthly fee? Doom3, Team Fortress, Quake, Unreal,... need I go on? And those other MMORPGs: WoW, AC, heck, even Horizons, (I won't mention the no fee Guild Wars since its not out)... they don't charge extra for content, thats what the monthly fee is for. Hmmm. The Sony letter should say, "hey guys, you know all that conent you already paid for, well, if you want it you're going to have to pay for it again! And thanks for being the most lucrative group of beta testers we've ever had!"

  • EnigmaEnigma Member UncommonPosts: 11,384

    Originally posted by bluejaye99
    If 'content' costs extra money, what is the monthly fee for? And if the monthly fee is for 'game maintenance', why do all other 'online' games have a one time fee? Starcraft doesn't have a monthly fee. Age of Empires doesn't have a monthly fee. Diablo doesn't have a monthly fee? Doom3, Team Fortress, Quake, Unreal,... need I go on? And those other MMORPGs: WoW, AC, heck, even Horizons, (I won't mention the no fee Guild Wars since its not out)... they don't charge extra for content, thats what the monthly fee is for. Hmmm. The Sony letter should say, "hey guys, you know all that conent you already paid for, well, if you want it you're going to have to pay for it again! And thanks for being the most lucrative group of beta testers we've ever had!"


    monthly fees go into paying for bandwidth, server maintenance, staff, etc.

    Starcraft uses player servers and do not have a programming staff to continually evolve the game.

    Same with Doom3, Team Fortress, Quake, and unreal. All of those have servers utilized by the players and rented through third party companies. I know this as I had hosted a RTCW server some time back.

    Also, as I mentioned before. The games you mentioned above are all finished products with no staff on the clock to evolve the game. If patches were release, it would be nowhere near compared to mmorpgs. Also, once those games are finished you usually do not have the team of programmers busily hammering out additions, bugs, patches, fixes, content, etc to further the game.

    That's where the monthly fee comes into play.

    Comparing RTCW, D3, HL2, Quake, CS to mmorpgs is like comparing Rollar Coasters to Chocolate Milk. They're entirely different beast.

    People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.

  • bluejaye99bluejaye99 Member Posts: 8
    Okay, I'll stand corrected on that comparison... however, many many other - well, all - of the mmorpgs I have played have had content updates as part of the service. I allow that major updates, like the retail EQ expansions and DAOC expansions are arguably so large and labor intesive to create from both a creative and technological standpoint that they should come with an additional charge. But a new dungeon? Buying into an ever changing world is a part of the promise EQ2 has made. If it changes only when you pay, then that promise is not fullfilled. Bug fixes and maintenance in updates isn't something that I, as a gamer, am impressed with. I expect it. The idea that a game doesn't have to work when its shipped seems to be more and more common. And now, maintenance and bug 'fixes' are a part of a monthly service? While the economics from Sony's point of view might demand an extra product cost due to a larger required workforce/bandwidth issues/or whatever, it is a sad state of affairs when getting what you paid for costs more, and what you paid for isn't a finished (and sometimes even working) product. I am unsympathetic to Sony's woes and will only pay for these adventure packs if they prove vastly superior to the content upgrades going out for free on other games. If that be the case, then I'll be a happy consumer, but the same kind of happy consumer that knows when buying a five dollar bag of popcorn at the movie theatre, that said bag is only costing the theatre about 3 cents.

  • Cyris90Cyris90 Member Posts: 5
    Yeah, check your stats, that is the average programmer wage, including the lowballers that come from other countries to work in the US. but even still if it was 50k per programmer per year that is still just half a million, and that still leaves a million a year left over.

  • kb4blukb4blu Member UncommonPosts: 717

    Goodness everyone quit whining image 

    Games are made to make money.  If you don't like the prices don't BUY IT.  The market place will determine if their plans will work.  Vote with your wallet not your mouth.

    I am amazed that people are so upset when a company tries to make money.  That is the game companies play.  Its called free enterprise.  If they charge too much people will not buy it.

    If they succeed they will make money. That is the way it works.

    Sony will charge whatever the market will bear.  If you think its too much don't buy it. 

  • AnofalyeAnofalye Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 7,433

    Well, the ressources where considering 10k account, when SoE claim EQ2 have 310k account, it ignore the initial selling.

     

    SoE work hard, they deliver a product on what they perceive is the desire of the majority of players.  And they do make everything they can to make it a quality product.   To bad they are having issues differencing a majority and a minority.

     

    As far as I am concerned, they could ask 1k per month on a special server where a human play the pet!  I would not play there, but I am sure some peoples would.  Heck, I am sure some silly persons have a staff of players they pay so they do what they want in the game.  Someone that have a copter in the parking can prolly afford to pay someone to be ''working'' in the game for them, full time.

     

    My friends that love to raid are in a paradise in plain old EQ and are refusing to consider EQ2 for now.  If they grow bored with old EQ, they will go to EQ2 and they will be enjoying it all the more.

     

    For me, despite been ''shallow'' as some peoples claim it, despite it ''lack'' of this or that, I really love(yeah, love is the correct word) CoH despite many mistakes in Issue 2 & 3.  Like in every love relationship, I am sure CoH find me impossible at moments!  Now, the insane part is, as a customer, I dont make concessions, I dont accept compromises.   And not been racists, but I am sure Koreans are much better then Americans or Japs at dealing with a Frenchie overated ego!  hehe

     


    - "Solo is, will always be, the main market. A MMORPG that succeed with little or no solo appeal is doing great considering they are ignoring the main player base.''

    - "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren

  • BendenBenden Member Posts: 103

    Lol, there's not limit for SOE.

    Mmorpg are big money makers. I consider this news a sign that EQ2 is maybe not as successful as they expected and want to make more money of their current suscribers (same happens to DAOC imho).

    SOE suck

     

    my 2 words image

     

    [url=http://p

  • bstrippbstripp Member Posts: 241

    This does not surprise me all that much.  At least at the moment, they are playing second fiddle in the market to both WoW and their own creation EQ.  They need to do things to make the game more dynamic and appealing to a large player base. 

    I think they understand that if they can't loose the reputation they have, they will never have the market share that they want to make it the successor of EQ.  So, to that end, they will keep an overlarge development staff and try and stuff more and more content into the game to attact players.  It may work, it may not.   Expansions have a way of bringing in $$ and players...

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