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Daybreak Game Company to Be Acquired by EG7 for $300 Million

Discussion in 'EverQuest II General Discussion' started by Feldon, Dec 1, 2020.

  1. Fuli

    Fuli Well-Known Member

    EG7 will offer better scaling, so EQ2 may be able to hang on for a little while longer, but I'm skeptical it'll survive for much longer.

    First and foremost, Kander's decision-making authority has to be removed. He might be a decent dungeon designer, but he is an absolutely terrible lead/creative designer, a failing that is amplified by his indisputable contempt for customer feedback. No way the game survives with him running the show.

    Still, even if a different creative director is assigned, the game is a mess. Fixing it is going to be massively expensive. Doubtful the money will be spent to remedy this in any meaningful way.

    And lastly, EG7 may have bought an email list, and that will probably work out ok for the other titles, but to say eq2 has a trust problem with customers is the understatement of the year. Moving Jen Chan in was a good move, but I expect that is too little, too late, and it's doubtful eq2 bring back enough former customers to make a meaningful impact on the game's revenue.

    Edit:
    IMO, Kander's contempt isn't limited to customer feedback, but extends all the way to customers themselves.

    Dunno how anyone would expect a franchise to be successful with that kind of customer relationship mentality.
     
    Last edited: Dec 25, 2020
    • Agree Agree x 6
  2. Zynt

    Zynt Active Member

    The company I'm consulting for now reminds me of this situation. It's the 3rd time they've hired me because they didn't listen the 1st 2 times. It comes down to their general manager, who used to be their production manager. He was a problem then and he is now, or was. He wouldn't answer emails, he wasn't present for conference calls with customers (because we don't like putting him in front of clients), and he never, ever did anything wrong. It was always the line workers or the customers that were the problem.

    They finally terminated him this time around but they allowed him to make such a mess of the place that I'll be stuck here for another year, at the least, helping them fix relationships with clients and employees alike. The money is great but I don't like being tied to a place for that long. I could leave whenever I wanted, especially given their history of not taking the advice they've paid for, but there's so much potential with the place that it makes me hesitate to leave. They produce something that is always needed and no one else produced for decades but now they have competition.

    Kander is a huge problem.
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
  3. Fuli

    Fuli Well-Known Member

    Took a stroll through the OF. Seems peeps are pretty ticked off about the reforging changes.

    Appears there are two primary issues: (1) drops are lacking the class-specigic stats people want, and (2) there are the folks who enjoy pouring over spreadsheets

    I suspect that if drops were more interesting and relevant, and if there was more actual content to occupy people, the second complaint would be less of an issue.

    I wonder if this design change is just a step toward clipping useless stats out of the game entirely (which I would support), a continuation of deteriorating quality, or, just another manufactured time sink.

    Maybe, it's all of the above, I dunno.
     
    Last edited: Dec 31, 2020
  4. Tkia

    Tkia Active Member

    I'd go with 2 and 3 personally. 1 would be way too sensible for this design team IME :p

    And there's a fair hoohah over the merc nerfs too. It was only to be expected though. Give people mercs, balance content on the assumption everyone is using one thus making them mandatory, then come along with the nerf bat and make them useless. But you can make them better again if you level and gear them which is really quick and easy if you give us $$$$$! :rolleyes:

    And the new merc that comes with the expensive version of the expansion and is available as one per character is apparently unobtainable unless you're max level and have done a certain amount of progress in the ROS quest line. Reports say that at launch you could circumvent this using COH etc but that this was blocked by the first hotfix so it's no mistake.
     
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  5. Errrorr

    Errrorr Active Member

    Honest thoughts on expac;

    1. I'm a fan of the reforging change, although some tweaks are needed [See point 2]
    2. Some stats are too hard to get, the ones that are critical now, Cast/Reuse. People are resorting to old temp adorns or level 96 white adorns. Introducing new versions of these would benefit a lot.
    3. Heroic content is basically gated behind 2 things; 1) Completing ALL solo content available to you. 2) Having BoL top end raid gear or P2Win to skip some solo stuff. IMO this is bad design because once I've done solo content fully, what do I do between heroics?
    4. Merc changes - No big deal, imo it encourages people to socialise more or learn to play their classes better than a merc carrying them through content.
    5. Theres a few bugs here and there, but nothing too game breaking imo. If the expac had launched any other week than the week before holidays, it'd have been fine as we'd be able to get hotfixes.
     
  6. Wulfgyr / Erytheal

    Wulfgyr / Erytheal Active Member

    Off-topic: Interesting read about loss aversion and the sunk cost fallacy in relation to video games / MMORPGs.

    I've pretty much given up on the OF and the Wire Discord (I'll miss our chats though, Feldon) as part of my end of year "purge."

    Mainly, I think the OF is doing a disservice to returning/new (if there are any?) players when the white knights try to put lipstick on a pig. Look, if you want to spend your $$ on it for nostalgia, go right ahead - that's your choice. But don't try to make it seem like the current state of the game is anything except trying to leverage that nostalgia to extract more cash, for the least possible effort.

    TLDR - if a returning/new player is looking for a polished product that's been through a comprehensive QA/QC cycle, EQ2 ain't it. If they're looking to pour $$ into something for nostalgia's sake, and even more $$ to level mercs, spells, familiars, mounts, etc., etc., etc..... then it's just the thing for them.
     
    • Like Like x 2
    • Agree Agree x 1
  7. Cheggers

    Cheggers New Member

    It's honestly pretty funny seeing people whine about Merc changes. Yes, I am kind of an asshole in my responses, but the very notion that EQ2 is in any way difficult at low levels, is completely laughable.
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
    • Like Like x 1
  8. Fuli

    Fuli Well-Known Member

    I've never really cared much about mercs either.

    I only times I've found them truly handy are those where I need one to tank so I can run off and deal with some scripting mechanic that requires two bodies in the fight.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  9. Mermut

    Mermut Well-Known Member

    I've used healer mercs with my utility toons in current tier solo instances in previous expacs.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  10. Ursa Minor

    Ursa Minor New Member

    I think it's more that a paid feature no longer provides a reasonable value. Sure, the mercs may have been overpowered, and could use be toned down a little, but this shift seems to have been way too far.
     
    • Agree Agree x 5
  11. Cindrax

    Cindrax Active Member

    You just have to pay some more for it to be gewd..... /sarcasm
     
    • Agree Agree x 3
  12. Mermut

    Mermut Well-Known Member

    Company sells you a car.. next time it's in for repairs, they take out the V8 engine and put in a hamster wheel... but tell you that if you pay enough you can get it up to a V12!
     
    • Agree Agree x 6
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  13. Feldon

    Feldon Administrator Staff Member

    Is anyone complaining about Merc behavior below level 100 content? Cause that's when all the scripts and your gear mattering starts.
     
    • Like Like x 1
  14. Feldon

    Feldon Administrator Staff Member

    People saying "I'm glad mercs suck now" in a game with zero grouping tools, one-shot-kill raid scripts on heroic trash mobs, and dps checks on the billions, all while spell description tooltips are all a lie and item windows are a horror show of modifiers, cause they're in a top 10 WW guild that knows the mechanics better than the devs and figure that represents the EQ2 experience for everyone.

    The absolute privilege.
     
    Last edited: Jan 1, 2021
    • Winner Winner x 6
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  15. Fuli

    Fuli Well-Known Member

    I remember when I hired my first merc. I was all excited charged off to run some heroics.

    On my first real fight, my merc basically went afk and didn't toss a single heal. After that, I drug one around on the off-chance i might save a heal or cure pot, but I pretty much went about my business like it wasn't even there.
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
  16. Tkia

    Tkia Active Member

    It's hard to tell really since most people seem incapable of including specifics in their whines, but I get the impression most people saying it's fine are talking about the high end.

    I did the Frostfell starter quest on nearly 30 toons to get the permanent flag. I pulled out the mercs to speed it up since the job was time-consuming and tedious. Most toons were 50+ with a treasured merc, not geared or levelled. Where previously the merc would have had stuff dead before I had time to target it now I can stand back and watch them slug it out for a while and some of them were suffering quite a health dip in the process. And this is easy holiday content. I wouldn't rate my chances of doing at level heroics with these, which means they are no longer an adequate tool to substitute for the lack of players for groups. Which I always thought was the point of introducing them ...
     
    • Agree Agree x 3
  17. Feldon

    Feldon Administrator Staff Member

    They made mercs fold like a lawn chair if they get agro from any decent mob to "protect" grouping and then did nothing else to promote grouping and everything to kill it except for diehards.
     
    • Like Like x 1
    • Agree Agree x 1
  18. Zynt

    Zynt Active Member

    The main thing the merc nerf did was f over low level players trying to level up. Used to you could hire a merc and just steamroll content, which at this point in the game is absolutely okay. You were never going to do current heroics with just you and a Merc. That being said I have no idea how they are performing in current solo content as I haven't played any but I imagine that depends on the player class quite a bit as well.
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
  19. Alarra

    Alarra Active Member

    I've been doing the solo's with my last expac merc with gear on it.
    When I did a solo with a non-healer player I didn't feel much of a difference except the lack of cures, which I had to do myself.
    I'm having to heal myself more with my limited healing abilities to stay alive on the larger pulls and the named fights.

    Will give more feedback when I do solo's on my non-pre-expansion geared alts.
     
  20. Mermut

    Mermut Well-Known Member

    So.. healer mercs aren't healing or curing... so now ALL mercs are useless?
     

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