Future of EQII

I know it's a meme to say "oh the devs must not play the game" or whatever, but there is no way they play the game casually. Maybe a couple of them play end game together or something, but they don't make new characters and explore the game like a casual player would. There's no way.

 

I'm confident that few if any members of the development would spend their own money to play eq2, especially the p2w aspects of it.

Hell, I doubt they play it on a house account because (a) it's not fun, (b) they are as bad as the bubble gnomes when it comes to shielding themselves from any unpleasant information.

 

Roxxy said on her stream a few days ago that she actually never even got an EQ2 characters past level 10.

And shes our 15th community manager or something along those lines.

 

Why does this not surprise me? lol

 

Exactly Why is there no way for them to play casually?
A lot can be accomplished, even solo, in a couple hours a week.

 

See, I don't begrudge them not playing their own game. If I spent 10 hours a day working on a game I probably wouldn't want to play it when I got home either. But that's all the more reason to listen to players and employ a reasonable team of testers.

 

Heh. Personally, I make it a rule never to buy anything from someone who won't use the product they are trying to sell me.

 

Bit of a difference between using a product and choosing to play a game for your leisure activity. Part of the fun and experience is discovering new things. When you go into a zone for the first time and find a named and wonder what it's going to drop, or if you're going to be able to counter it's special abilities. They'd walk into a zone for the first time and it'd be like they'd farmed it a hundred times already.

 

I think what's been lost with the EQ2 team is not just they have limited working knowledge of their own game - I'm skeptical as to whether or not they even play in an unmodified Live environment - but they've also lost the passion for their game. Not just for making a good game, but for making a good EQ2.

And you can really, really tell when you contrast it with both itself in earlier periods and with other games where The Team hasn't lost that passion for their game.

 

I guess from my point of view it doesn't matter if a product or service is for leisure purposes or for practical purposes, I would still like to know that the creators/providers of said product/service have first hand experience using said product/service and continue to be involved in that way on an ongoing basis. Nothing better than first hand knowledge. Especially if the creators/providers are going to charge me money for their product/service.

 

Developers at software companies (any, not just gaming) usually don't have the bandwidth, even in a really profitable company, to use the software they create as an end user. Even if they try it's not the same as a regular user, because you can't objectively look at something you create yourself the same way a customer does. That's what user focus groups, testing (quality assurance, etc whatever you want to call it), and listening to your customers provide. They either don't have the $$ for those groups and/or don't listen to them.

 

I think focus groups, testing, and listening to your customers is very important and is their primary tool for quality assurance etc. I am not suggesting that those tools should be replaced, but that they could be enhanced further by first hand experience. Many developers have and do play their own games.

I am just saying that if they don't gain first hand knowledge by playing their own games, if not daily, but at least periodically, then beyond what others tell them, how can they really get a feel for what is going on? We all know there are some players that will always praise every thing, even as sales might be dropping and/or players leaving the game.

If I were a developer, I would read the players feedback and perhaps log in myself when time permitted to see for myself. Either way, the majority of the time, the only player feedback they seem to be interested in is bug reports and not the type that says their content is not fun.

 

Totally agree they should be logging in to see what people are concerned about first hand. That should be integral to the development process and it's obviously not.

 

I am so not surprised by that unfortunately .

 

Uninstalled EQ2. Well over six months since I played.

Though I never bought any expansion, its nothing but grind, grind, grind, in the worst sense. There is no miracle at Helm's Deep.

 

In complete contrast to how eq2 does business these days:

1. ZOS just flew their most popular streamers out to San Francisco for a preview of the new Summerset expansion (ESO). No NDA-turn on your cameras and share away!

Oddly, none of the streamers I watched mentioned that I can pre-order now.

2. A complete balance and tuning pass on classes and abilities.

3. A new adv skill line that is not p2w.

4. A HUGE (and really beautiful) overland zone.

5. A new crafting skill line - jewellery (something the players have been asking for).

6. A straight forward answer to other things the players wanted but was not included: "Those are good ideas, we are working on them..."

7. Some itemization tweaks players have been asking for - addressed!

I only have time to play very casually these days, but seeing how they interact with the community and produce a substantve product that is high on quality reminded me of just how bad EQ2 has become. Just a massive gap.

 

Any game I play other than EQ2 reminds me of just how bad EQ2 has become...seriously. It seems like a lifetime ago that I used to always see EQ2 as my go to game, the one I always came back to. My how the mighty have fallen...tragically.

 

Can you imagine the eq2 staff promoting an expansion by rolling it out to streamers and encouraging them to share the experience with their followers?

Lol.

So many reasons and levels why eq2 would NEVER do this.

And the obvious fact that ESO has the confidence to do it speaks volumes about what eq2 actually is.

 

That'd require there to be prominent streamers that play EQ2, or for EQ2 to even look appealing in streams (frankly, most MMOs don't -- I think ESO gets by on this a little bit though because because it looks like Skyrim).