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EverQuest II: 350,000 Players and Growing
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SOE reported yesterday that they now have 350,000 players logging into their servers each and every week. They also seem proud of the fact that there is no "wait" to enter Norrath, their fantasy MMORPG world. A preview of their announcement is below:
| EverQuest II continues to grow at an amazing rate, not just in the number of players that have fallen in love with the game's rich, entertaining content, but also in the physical size of the world. We've got over 350,000 people logging in to our servers every week, with no delays or wait times and the game they are playing is only getting better. Below are a few reasons why we believe that if you aren't currently playing EverQuest II, you should be. We are committed to our player base and are very passionate about making EverQuest II the best MMO game. Open Communication Sony Online has an amazing community relations team that listens to players' feedback, and let them know what is going on with EverQuest II. Our development team and even our president, John Smedley, often respond personally to players, so players can rest assured that SOE is listening (and reading) and we do care what our subscribers think. Many of the changes that have already been made to EverQuest II (i.e. more solo content, new interfaces, and even quest content) have been a direct result of community feedback. 350,000 Players, No Waiting -- SOE Subscribers Can Play the Game They're Paying to Play, When They Want To We believe strongly in ensuring that the players can get into EverQuest II whenever they want. Understandably, all MMO games have downtime for maintenance and patching, but we don't believe in making our players wait to play our games. Players are paying a monthly subscription to play a game and our job is to work hard to let them play it as much as, and when, they choose. Tons of Content Added Since Launch Since launch, an enormous amount of free content has been added to EverQuest II. In addition to changes that made the game more fun for soloists and group players alike, more than 1100 quests have been added to the game since launch on November 8th. We've added more than 1200 new items to the game, including more craftable items for tradeskillers, and more loot around the world. Almost 400 new spells have been added and we've worked diligently to make sure our spell effects are as eye-catching as they are powerful. Recently, we added 8 new areas to the world, so there are now well over 100 zones in the world of EverQuest II to explore. |
To read the full story along with a long list of upcoming additions and changes, click here.
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
The dead know only one thing: it is better to be alive.
Comments
Sounds like they are directly attacking World of Warcraft with that second statement. But I hope they know that if they had 1,250,000 players in north america alone their servers would have problems as well.
I'm sure this wouldn't have anything to do with the fact you can download it for free? Nah.
There's no open communication with SOE. Go look at their boards. They're pretty much dead.
They can claim 350k if they want. I'll believe they sold that many, but I don't believe for a second that they have that many active subscriptions.
When they make the game "fun". And stop punishing players for doing about anything after logging in, then, maybe, I'll go back and play again.
I'd have to agree, I played EQ2 from Launch and was within the first 30 players world wide to hit 50, the game was nothing but an experience grind, always expecting that if you just got a little bit farther in the next area the game would finally pick up and be fun.
I even restarted with an alt, no phat loots on him, from scratch just to do all the "fun" quests I apparently missed out on. They were pretty much just sad imitations of DaoC Kill tasks and the "Collect bonechips" type of EQ1 quests. Not a whole lot of story was involved and the only real enjoyment I got out of the game was a few people in my guild.
I don't know why they're boasting about having 350k, WoW has far more then that I'm pretty sure (though I dont play WoW many friends do, EQ2 burned me out of MMOs for a while) They have always had "wait" time when they'd drop the servers in the morning hours, which was just a way of keeping the high end gamers from repeatedly killing the "rare" raid encounters over and over, by simply keeping their timers from coming up.
and communication? I quit in early January because my guild had been at level 50 for over a month with none of the promised high end content. We complained on a daily basis and talked to GMs personally, but not a whole lot came of it.
Where do you get 1,250,000 in NA? Theres only around 600,000 in NA.
Not at all people like WoW... And that is a fact. I dont like WoW since its actually massive singleplayer game, but I dont think that is a place for that discussion. There is lot of topic about WoW vs. All, where all that fanboys say Its cool. So please, dont do it here. You like WoW and I don't like it. End Of Discussion for me.
But since you start here that WoW>All, I will have my 2 coppers
I really think it right move for SOE, in current situation. There sold more that 350k box, and there sure have 350k active players. Sure they can cheat here, since that have all in one subscribe plan.
And last, about There's no open communication with SOE. There is, look at boards and you will see that pioble there and also dev there, where dev on BZ board only in Blizzard Archive. And also I dont really like BZ forums:(. They not friendly in use.
Since SOE did NOT release the original... that statements both unfounded and unfair. SOE bought out the original creators of the game - Verant Interactive.
And as an original beta tester of EvErQuest 1, I have to disagree with that statement, anyway. EverQuest 1 was great when it was released. Sure, some classes (rogues!) weren't very well implemented at the beginning, but the game was new, the genre was new, mistakes were to be expected.
I can see them having 350k subscribers. At any given time, the servers load reads medium-heavy, ever during the european hours that I tend to play.
You should get your facts straight first. WoW may have sold 1.25m copies, but they do not have anywhere near that number of subscribers.
EQ2 was in pretty good condition when it was released and alot of the improvements were due to player requests for improved casual player content. They are really improving the game significantly in my opinion.
As far as WoW is concerned, I also subscribe to that. I do play around with WoW and it is fun. However, I find the quests, storyline and gameplay far superior in EQ2.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
They say "We've got over 350,000 people logging in to our servers every week"<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Which means they count number of logins not the number of actual accounts to number of simultaneous logins.
I think you are wrong. It does not say "We have people logging in 350,000 times every week." If you listen to the EQ2 bashers they would have you think there are only 10 subscribers to EQ2 and they just keep logging in over and over just to make the numbers seem higher. Preposterous isn't it?
I will never understand why there is such bashing of EQ2 by WoW fans and vice-versa. Both games are good in their own way and appeal to a certain type of gamer. Personally, I prefer EQ2 but that does not make WoW a bad game.
For the record, this isn't an EQ2/SOE bashing thread from a WoW fan. I'm also getting iritated at WoW's constant crashes and lag issues. Considering that they do have over twice the number of players to accomodate than EQ2 does even with their "350,000 logins a week" and not as much resources for their servers, I'm willing to give them more time.
However, even if I do quit WoW and move on to another MMO, I'll watch the world transmute itself into a galactic sized rotting peach before I ever give SOE and their steaming pile of mediocrity they seem so overly proud of another second of my time or another cent of my money. That's that, end of story, cya down the road while I leave you the sign of my extended middle finger you financially paranoid profit mongers. You guys failed to give me a game that fit what I wanted despite all your hype and promises the new revolution of MMORPG's, and now you have to take things to an underhanded level like this.
During the three weeks I played EQ2, I had issues there that were far more aggrivating than I ever got playing WoW for three months, and I blame that on your idiotic move in releasing the game so early just ot beat WoW to the shelves. Even without those issues, even when the game was working as it was supposed to, it was still boring crud, feeling more like a chore than early EQ1 ever did. Everything you've done with this game has put another tag on you as a bunch of moneygrubbing pirates who care more about the subscriptions than the players, and now this attempt to take advantage of another companies troubles to mine away more subscriptions is the signing, sealing, and delivery on how much of a suck ass corp you really are.
So, yeah, keep going. Keeping adding new crap to your old crap, because that doesn't keep it from being what it is. Crap.
And so ends the rambling rant of one pissed off gamer.
Since SOE did NOT release the original... that statements both unfounded and unfair. SOE bought out the original creators of the game - Verant Interactive.
And as an original beta tester of EvErQuest 1, I have to disagree with that statement, anyway. EverQuest 1 was great when it was released. Sure, some classes (rogues!) weren't very well implemented at the beginning, but the game was new, the genre was new, mistakes were to be expected.
I can see them having 350k subscribers. At any given time, the servers load reads medium-heavy, ever during the european hours that I tend to play.
989 Studio's Created EverQuest. Dont you EVER forget it.
Xander
Where do you get 1,250,000 in NA? Theres only around 600,000 in NA.
I think he meant worldwide. There's just over 600,000 in N.A. I believe. There's about 350,000 in Europe. Not sure about Asia market.
Xander
Haha, "and growing"... I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that they are GIVING the game away for FREE now.
I walked into a store 2 or 3 weeks ago, they had EQ2 for sale for $19.99 (before rebate), with a $19.99 mail in rebate... net cost to you, a stamp to mail in the rebate form and you get a free months trial. That sounds like desperation to me, not success.
My guess is that they are trying to get people to sign up so they can take advantage of people that forget to cancel their accounts after they stop playing.
The following site (recently shown in PCGamer magazine but they showed an older version of the chart) shows a bit more unbiased view. (Lineage is I believe roughly 85% asian communities FYI).
http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart7.html
Shagz
EverQuest - Shaman, Saryrn Server... Retired
WoW - Warrior, Alleria Server
I think you are wrong. It does not say "We have people logging in 350,000 times every week." If you listen to the EQ2 bashers they would have you think there are only 10 subscribers to EQ2 and they just keep logging in over and over just to make the numbers seem higher. Preposterous isn't it?
I will never understand why there is such bashing of EQ2 by WoW fans and vice-versa. Both games are good in their own way and appeal to a certain type of gamer. Personally, I prefer EQ2 but that does not make WoW a bad game.
No, he's RIGHT. Here is the quote directly from the first paragraph.
"EverQuest II continues to grow at an amazing rate, not just in the number of players that have fallen in love with the game's rich, entertaining content, but also in the physical size of the world. We've got over 350,000 people logging in to our servers every week, with no delays or wait times and the game they are playing is only getting better. "
Yes, 350,000 people logging into their servers every week does not mean they have 350,000 subscribers. Blizzard could easily say they have 1,500,000 people logging into their servers every week. Doesn't mean they have 1,500,000 subscribers. I agree that both games are good. I play both EQ2 and WoW as well. Besides some of the graphical issues in EQ2 early on and WoW's queues and server crashes, both games are very enjoyable. I tend to play WoW more, but still have fun playing EQ2 as well. I wish I had more time to play both.
Xander
I'm stuck in a delima atm... I can't seem to find 1 game thats actually fun. EQ2 is obviously crying for help, I think the game looks great but, that SOE tag ruins it. WoW is a great game overall but its missing so much CONTENT, i've made 2 lvl 60 characters, and done every instance/95% of the quests.... It's just to short, about 9 days of gameplay is a max character and maybe 2 weeks of gameplay to have seen every bit of content. I went and got HL2 to try out CS:S as I await Guild Wars. (i dont mean to bring up a FPS in MMORPG but i must) The problem with CS:S is there is NO form of anti-hack outside of admins banning anyone suspicious, so i officially refer to it as HaxorStrike:Source. If anyone knows some quality games out there that I can pass about a month on it would be much appreciated.
Xander
Well when it comes to crafting in WoW, I have a 300/300 Enchanter with Crusader, 300/300 Alchemist. 300/300 Tribal Leatherworker (b/c the other leatherworking choices are quite poor). Along with the gathering professions Mining, Skinning, and Herbalism. I did play as an alliance Human Paladin until lvl 40 to try things out theres only 3 instances that they have specifically like Gnomeragen. Hmm, I hate all of the Morrowind games with a passion heh, i actually have a couple of them as it is. Star Ocean sounds familiar, i'll check it out. Isn't it an anime/cartoon style? I never even thought about waiting for Matrix Online lol, I could only picture playin with 10,000 people with the name The1, N3o, etc etc. I'm not much of a hardcore gamer though, I just dont like wasting time so when i played WoW i was trying with what time i had, so it only took 9 days PLAYED to get to 60 on a priest of all the slow lvl'n classes. Anyways, i'll stop yappin, and go try out Star Ocean. Thanks for your input.