Bimonthly Patches?

This. This right here is why I need a Squint status reaction.

 

Imagine if that's not what they're doing, and they're just that bad ....

 

I tend to side more with this line of thought...

 

Could be. But is it really possible to be that clueless?

Longale, Kander, Caith....they strike me a lot of ways, but stupid is not one of them.

Manipulative & dishonest, yes. Dumb, no.

Welp, we'll see in Nov/Dec.

 

When it comes to crafting I think yes, they are that clueless. Plus they don't give a rats ass about tradeskills.

Have a look at Gninja trying to look like he gives a crap posting in forums again. Nice necro of a post Dninja.
Can we talk about the last xpac heroic gear dropping in T1 raids.. | EverQuest 2 Forums

 

You can only be that clueless in a vacuum -- their own customers are actively and repeatedly telling them they've cocked it up completely. You know what they say, when everyone else seems to be the problem, they aren't the problem, you are...

At this point, it's wilful ignorance and entirely intentional. Egos, what can you do?

And to hit back to what's different about EQ2, I can't speak for others but there was something about the intersection of the art style, lore and structure of the early game that was very well designed to hook you into it. The relative simplicity of the combat mechanics let the story shine through, if you cared to pay attention to it, or conversely you could ignore the story, min-max the combat mechanics to your heart's content and actually understand what happened to gain an edge. Or you could do both. There were options.

That has been notably absent and buried under layer upon layer of bolt-on stat systems and then burned by revamp after revamp. It's still sort of there, for nostalgia, but it's not the same. And most of us have been-there, done-that with it, so you might try again for nostalgia's sake, but it's never the same as the first time. So with the TLE servers, all their revamps have resulted in a crappy approximation of the past, people come back to relive it, but they've all done it before so it's not new, or interesting, it's just rote repetition for nostalgia's sake and a race to see who can say "I did it first, for the second, third, fourth time...". All while paying DBG for the privilege. And buying experience potions because if they aren't selling fast enough, they dial the experience rate down a little more until it's painful.

Edit: Hit reply too soon... oops. In any case, what started killing it for me is it stopped being so much coming home to an escape, an opportunity to see something I hadn't seen and interact with those people (if they were actual people...) I only knew from the game. What it turned into was, as I believe Feldon has called it, HomeworkQuest where I spent an inordinate amount of time on third-party sites and third-party tools trying to figure out how in the hell any of it was supposed to work, and doing menial, repetitive (and boring) tasks over and over in the vain hope that I might get lucky with the RNG to get the item I needed. I couldn't invest a static amount of time to achieve a goal, it was all up in the air. And as the years wore on, they added in the need to constantly crack open the wallet and give them even more money to only be always more confused.

Eventually I just couldn't stand it anymore, I went full on casual. I tried the TLE, it was too slow. I tried progression guilds on normal servers. I tried. And now I'm just done. Insert shrug emoji here.

 

Well, I admit to taking a pretty cynical view of the Golden Triad.

Generally, no response = working as intended. Now whether it's because they're just completely clueless, or because they're being manipulative remains to be seen.

I will say this however, their seeming inability to understand how their behavior toward customers has wrecked the eq2 brand, the importance of trust, and how difficult it is to regain trust supports your and Endymion's take.

 

It seems to me that it would take effort to systematically fail on purpose where it takes almost none to just suck.

I don't get the impression they want to work any harder than they already are, but what do I know.

 

My main focus when I first left EQ2 was RIFT and that was a awful, spent almost a year playing that, moved on from there to WOW and that was ok, did not really embrace it though. Played a bit of LOTRO and the star wars one, cannot remember its name. The only other game that snagged me though was EVE but that probably says a lot about me

I mainly stick with EQ2 now through familiarity and it not being expensive, less than £30 for a 3 month sub is not a lot imo, yes I am limited as I won't spend more and I accept that.. Is EQ2 a good game, heck no... is it a bad game... probably, does it fill an hour better than candy crush.. it does for me

 

I suppose regardless of whether one believes they are intentionally exploiting customers or simply clueless about the importance of customer relationships, the common denominator of both is an absence of respect.

Even if incompetent with respect to business, if they cared about their customers, they'd listen to them and take the time to respond to concerns honestly.

 

Interestingly, but not surprisingly, the first crafter openly (ingame and OF) express that their patience might come to an end soon....
I wonder how many player need to leave before they start to change.

On a side note this expansion is actually THE anniversary expansion, you know even Forbes reported about this, this is just so bad.......

 

I hear that a lot with Rift, actually, depending on when the person played it. Whatever flaws it has, one thing I give major credit for is that the game has surpassed EQ2 housing by a fairly wide margin.

I haven't played WoW since Lich King, but it was always just a game I went to visit.

LOTRO I played from launch until they introduced Rune Keepers, fun class, but ultimately the game didn't grab me. If I recovered my account, I might even still have a lifetime sub.

SWTOR I didn't play, I poked at it when Cast was in the beta test and thought it was ugly. I've heard it shaped up as far as game play, though.

The other reason I like to ask questions, especially with folks that have some level of discontent (and now with the absolute state of EQ2) is that I have played several games, and I enjoy pointing out different ones to try now, or when the inevitable happens.

If you don't mind using both hands for movement, have a look at ESO. It's subscription/F2P + expansions. F2P includes the base game, you purchase expansions and DLC content (or get DLC access for free with a sub) with no notable restrictions. If you craft, you'll want to subscribe for that sweet, sweet materials bag, though. Game play is different than EQ2, but easy enough to pick up, gearing up is pretty straight forward. It's flexible as far as time commitment. If you have an hour a day or four hours, you still feel like you've gotten something done. Very solo friendly, lots of group content, housing and seasonal events. Crafted gear is relevant for all levels.

If housing isn't a consideration, look at GW2. It's buy to play + expansions, if you're active when story chapters are released, you get them for free, if not, you can guy them later (reasonable cost). Game play is a lot more active than EQ2 but not difficult, gearing up and builds are pretty straightforward. It's a very easy game to dip in and out of, and also flexible as far as time commitment. There is a TON of stuff to do. A few seasonal events. Crafters are relevant from start all the way to epic gear being crafted (which is a process).

For a fun throwback, look up City of Heroes Homecoming. It's completely free, though they do accept donations once a month for cost to run only (gotta be quick, the window is usually less than an hour). Super Heroes, Villains, eye lasers. It's straightforward to complex, depending on how into builds and maths you get. It has some seasonal events, base building and Architect Entertainment (kind of like dungeon maker, but it actually works and had thought put into it).

Not saying you shouldn't play EQ2, or even enjoy it (if you do), just tossing out some other stuff that's out there to have a look at.

 

I don't think any of them are dumb, either. I just remember times like when we removed crit mit/avoidance (gating mechanisms), which were just replaced with more focus on resists and eventually Resolve and the potency/other stat avoidance you see on mobs now... aka gating mechanisms. And don't forget the heavy-handed attempts at "balancing" classes by assigning low use classes high resolve buffs. Every time there's a change that sounds interesting or beneficial to players the monkey paw curls its fingers...

 

I try to differentiate the mechanical design issues from the business model stuff (although, I suppose they're often enough joined at the hip, especially with respect to eq2). I believe few players like gating mechanisms, but at the same time, I kind of empathize with dev's on that. If they don't have the budget/staff to produce an abundance of content, folks will just burn through it and find themselves with nothing to do. Stuff like the resolve buffs you mentioned is really just band-aid development. I definitely see your point there: balancing classes around a gating mechanic is bad.

When I talk about an absence of respect, I'm more or less talking about how eq2 goes about making design decisions and implementing them. Things like resolve may be unavoidable, and well, given current staffing and resources, a large reduction in the crafting game may also be unavoidable. All I'm suggesting is they be honest with their customers. It may cost them some sales, but it won't cost them their reputation.

 

I guess the point I was trying to make is that I doubt they have a long term plan to phase out crafting, it's just yet another case of one short-sighted decision leading to another, combined with a lack of resources.

 

Fair enough, and while you have familiarity with the personalities involved and how things tend to operate over there, I concede that I don't.

 

There wasn't even going to be a crafting sig line this expac until Gninja stepped up, kinda, and took it on with the caveat that he would be doing it alone. Intentional or not they're absolutely phasing it out. Outiftters are phased out currently. Scholars are tied behind ridiculous RNG to be useful, same for provies. I bought the provie book off the broker because I knew I could double my plat in a day. I still haven't seen one drop. Alchemists, besides experts, are mostly a side thought. No real poisons in ages and we get tons of potions from Overseer quests. My carpenter is useful, kinda. I'm a firm believer in never attributing to malice what can be attributed to stupidity though.

Also, most of what I sell can be made by any crafting class. Consumables are the ticket, and the temp adorns can be made by any 120 crafting class. Vanilla.

 

I've heard that the only reason there is a TS sig line in BoL is that gninja volunteered to do it. If he hadn't stepped up it wouldn't have happened...