EQ2 Producer's Letter

if they are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel... its probably the oncoming train!

 

In other news, Congress wants stuff from CN:

https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/03/04/po...ist-letters/index.html?r=https://www.cnn.com/

 

Yes, but it didn't list Jason Epstein as a person of interest.
It also lists almost everyone basically associated with Mr Trump as well.

 

Huh. This is odd....

....The above discussion about "how not to get banned from the eq2 discord channel"....

.... has mysteriously vanished?!

It's almost like.....like....they don't want people talking about how they treat people on discord.

Smart. Because the OF are the only place people are going talk about this stuff. So rather than stopping the behavior, just sweep it under the rug to hide it from view, and continue on with the existing wildly successful policies and behaviors.

I mean, the last thing we want is for any new or returning prospects to know how these developers treat their customers.

Gotta get the money first, THEN punish people for asking questions the devs don't want to answer.

Longdale is awesome...

 

But humbled ..... don't forget humbled ....

 

When you are as awesome as she is, its hard to be humble...

 

.... breaks into song ....

 

He's going to sing! He's going to sing! He's going to sing! He's going to sing...!

 

I couldn't resist linking this:

https://massivelyop.com/2019/03/13/...ale-discusses-daybreaks-reacquisition-thrust/

Longdale is indeed the Queen of Bullsh*t And Spin.

Short story version:
EQ is reaqusition focused. They don't have the servers available to accommodate new players, so they aren't interested in even trying to attract them.

Seriously, that's what she said.

Let's translate Longdale-speak to english:

"We're just sending out emails to people who've quit the game and inviting them to come back, because, well, we don't have anything new, innovative, or interesting to offer, so we're not going to attract any new customers anyway. Besides, this is a super cheap way for us to make a few bucks.

We have plenty of room on remaining servers for some resubbing customers, but ZOMG, better hurry before we run out!"

Now, I don't have any problem with DBG trying to bring back former customers.

But man, this woman just seems incapable of bs-free messaging.

She could have just said "Yeah, we're working hard to bring former customers back to EQ" without the amateurish attempt to manufacture an alternate reality.

Funny stuff

What is interesting though is the implication that EQ will remain alive.

Perhaps EQ + mobile game, EQ2 is round filed.

 

Well, I haven't logged into EQ2 for a bit now, and EQ1 even longer but right now, im BS tolerance is in the negatives... so I wont be returning to either anytime soon. Only way I would go back is if friends ask me back... but since I have no friends now since the check bounced...

 

This might be the dumbest thing I've read all year. Those pesky new players with their fresh money to spend would totally be a detriment to our business.

 

Im no computer expert and no idea how a game even works but maybe its the fact the servers are like super old and code is super old and the game in whole is well super old there for they cannot have a influx of new players because the game just cant handle it and my guess is they have no intention to upgrade what needs to be done to accommodate new players.

 

To be honest: It could well be the job making her so.
Did you see some photos of her on FB lately (at their brewery event for example)? I truly wish it is the job making her look unhealthy. So either things are tight or she is busy managing some super secret brand new project.

 

I still think that EQ2 and perhaps EQ1 are tax write offs by losing money.

 

What baffles me is:
A company that is in MMO business is not able to buy/rent more computing power if required?
Wow ... that tells a story!

(And considering current servers' population in either EQ game it doesn't really feel like capacities are at their limits there these days.)

Or maybe it is more a thing about "game got too complex with bloated functionality that no newbie will really understand" (but those who learnt that a mechanic became obsolete with another xpac). Or "new folks would quickly feel like disturbing cobwebs in the starter zones in all but the latest end-zones", maybe?

 

I figure it's more along the lines that the higher-ups decided the games are not worth investing in so each game only gets so much in the way of resources to keep things running and meet whatever goals are set for them. Once EQ or EQ2 finds itself unable to keep things running while still putting out whatever monetizable content is required of them (assuming one or both are not already in that position) then they're effectively a few discussions away from the plug being pulled for that game. Those discussions probably involve a bit of groveling and excuse making, but that can't save the game forever if the powers that be have already decided the game doesn't have much of a future. Who knows, maybe something like this EQ app game garbage is one of the only things giving the games leverage to stay alive now? Maybe it's working in their favor that they are somewhat linked together.

Or not, what do I know?

 

I have, amongst many personal flaws, a near zero tolerance for B.S., which is why communications from Longdale on down tend to trigger me, and which sadly for you all, ends up with my obnoxiously high post count on these forums.

One can be candid and positive, one can be honest and kind. The problem I have with B.S. and dishonesty in general is that it shifts rightful responsibility for burdens (i.e. prices, costs) from the B.S.r to the B.S.d vis a vis the deliberate dissemination of misleading or false information.

Bad information -> bad decisions. So, when a company deliberately lies to current and prospective customers, it is basically saying, "We care about our welfare, not yours." This pisses me off.

The response I usually get when I mention this is along the lines of, "C'mon man, marketing is 99% B.S. Everyone does it."

THAT is nonsense. It is merely rationalizing a preference for laziness and greed. It's an attitude of contempt for your customers, one that treats them as stupid little objects from which to manipulate and and extract money.

Customers are people who are trusting your promise to help them solve a problem, not merely money-supplying objects used to enable a salary/bonus.

Selling on substance requires one to put the welfare of customers front and center.

I like to think of it this way: if you can't treat yourself with respect, you can't understand how to treat others with respect and the value of it, and as a result, you shouldn't expect to receive it from others.

The same goes for anything else we want. If we are unwilling to pay the price for what we want to have, we will not appreciate the price we are asking others to pay, and as a result, others will be unwilling to pay the price we ask. We can deceive people for awhile, but, eventually, the circle closes.

Every decision has a price, and EQ2 has a long history of shifting their responsibilities onto their customers, and they do it with deception, manipulation, and arrogance.

No one should be surprised they find themselves in the position they're in. If they want me to buy their game, then get me to buy it because it's a great game. Treat me (by your actions) like you care about my welfare; not by tricking me into spending money with gimmicks, deception, and predatory business practices.

EQ2's pattern of deceptive practices starts from within. Their disdain for wholesome customer feedback means they are unwilling to be honest with themselves, and so they find themselves increasingly reliant upon business practices that are steadily pushing even their most loyal customers away.

I feel badly for Longdale and the EQ2 team, but I don't feel sorry for them. They all have the freedom to make choices. The choices they're making reveal their preferences, and the market is giving them valuable feedback about the productivity of those preferences.

Now, my bloviating about DBG aside, I know that I let my anger at their behavior get the best of me, and my posts about it here can be, ahh......acidic. This is not helpful and hypocritical, so I'll work on it

Never the less, when I see anyone operating the way EQ2 does, I'm gonna do my best to blow that sh*t up, because people deserve to be treated better than that.

 

I am absolutely with you on all you said - just this little passage I see a little bit more different

The only people who might still have sort of "freedom to make choices" are the tech folks in the background - because they happen to truly be inventive and all.

Management on the level of Windstalker and below including Kander I think don't really have much of a choice anymore. They are well known in the genre and lets be honest: If I had a gaming company I wouldn't hire either of them - even if they were the last managers or senior devs or whatever they are called these days out there.

I often ask myself "why is Kander still there" and for a while now the only possible answer I can come up with is "nobody who cares about their products would ever hire him! He should have left the boat long ago instead of getting greedy in regards to power". Same applies to Holly. Would you hire someone for a management position who has shown that much bad judgement like she did in the past? Hard to say for me especially because I was close with many folks over there when they were still SOE.

 

I understand where you're coming from.

To add some clarity on what I meant, I never said their choices are easy ones.

As I mentioned, every decision has a price ( and sometimes the price is large), so at the end of the day, some of the eq2 folks would do well to evaluate how much their self-respect is worth.

That being said, if they evaluate that either their own, or their company's behavior imposes no cost on their self-respect, well, it's hard for me to feel sorry them or anyone at EQ2 (at this point, I'm inclined to believe each dbg title has a great deal of autonomy with respect to how revenue is generated).

I understand people have families to feed, responsibilities to honor. Still, there is always a way to solve a problem. Change can be good