GU106 - What do you think?

My only question at this point is "Are the Devs looking at where they are at and going "Man, we nailed this awesome expac!"? Or do they see the dumpster fire?

 

DBG has already shown how they handle online games with EQNext/Landmark, you let it rot until there is not enough paying people to support the servers, then shut it down, They have a lot options right now to ring every last dollar out of the game they can, the expansion is already being worked on, so that's probably going to happen.

They will offer all the different levels of types of purchases, for the expansion and make as much money as they can. This will keep a leaner staff going for fixing bugs and such for the next year at least.

During that time they will probably have to merge to 3 servers, 2 US based one and a international one. which will cut the operating cost down more, and allow them to extend the life a little longer.

It will be announced next summer the expansion will be delayed, as they work on class balance more, to get it right. In truth there is no expansion and they are planning on shutting it down when the servers get to a population that it cost more to run them than what is coming in.

Then the shut down will happen in 2020.

My Theory

 

Unless EQ2 manages to attract lots of new players then they are in the same death spiral as was Vanguard.

 

Sorry I should have made it clearer, I was saying they will use that as an excuse to make the expansion "delayed", It really was the first excuse I thought up. Could plug in any excuse there.

 

I would bet we've all had the discussion of what constitutes an expansion in this game or any other - - or even coin phrases like GUspansion. The terminology is flexible enough to be stretched to fit over and around any amount of content the vendor wants.

I think this November will be the final "what we all think of as the traditional" expansion for EQ2. I think at that point it might transition to an Adventure Pack (i.e., the recent Rum Cellar content) model where both the scale of content and price point are lower and perhaps more frequent than annually.

 

I agree that this November is likely the last expansion, but I don't think they will have enough people to even put out an annual adventure pack, much less something on a more frequent basis.

 

I think the end of the traditional expansion happened with KA, which was already 'content lite' if you exclude old content and repeatable grind.

Folks would probably be ecstatic, at this point, if they could get even Rum Cellar quantity and quality of content once a year, never mind more than that.

And hell will likely freeze over before they lower the price a single penny. They had the audacity to charge full market price for the standard version of PoP, and a ludicrously high price for what was offered with the 'premium' editions compared to other games on the market.

Even with the minimal unique content in PoP, they still couldn't manage to get the entire expansion ready for testing or launch, with the 'crafting' signature line coming in a few months later.

Will EQ2 have some version of another expansion this year? Probably. It shouldn't, but it probably will.

 

ToT = Free ESO content gu (without the instance grind and p2w bs).

Everything since ToT MIGHT make that comparison. Maybe.

I really am surprised people are still buying this game.

I remember in the old days, you could always find something different to do. Crafting, or challenging hq's, or contested content where certian mobs dropped really unique and useful items, dungeons, tons of quests and stories to enjoy in overland, contested zones, dungeon zones, cities.

Now days: Sig line -> grind a small set of dungeons/raids -> Repeat for 11 months.

 

I mean, they're not gonna lower the price. Look at Kunark and then compare it to any of the expansions that came out after Sentinel's Fate, and tell me they were worth the same price as Kunark. Not only did they have significantly less content but they also started doing these crazy 'collector's edition' packages that included minor bonuses for twice and even triple the price of the standard version. These people will gladly sell Rum Cellar style content for $40 every year, as long as someone buys it.

Edit: And even if people won't buy it, I'll bet at the very least they try it once before putting the game in full-on maintenance mode.

 

EverCrack is real. People get addicted and even though the highs aren't as high and it's probably laced with fentanyl these days, they still want a little bit more of that feeling.

 

Sooner, rather than later, those will be the only people left playing and they won't provide enough $$$ to rationalize further development, and perhaps not even maintenance. They have lost the bulk of their casual player base at this point.

 

When I see some sets of gear for sale on FV server in EQ1 auctioned at 350 million plat... and krono are 4 mill plat... lots of money in game still. Just not me.

 

The curious thing is many if the features that exploit addictive personalities have been stripped out of the game. Still, It would seem the ones remaining are heavily tethered to the bank card, so in that respect, we do indeed have a crack dealing business model.

From my observations, there is also a fair amount of irrational consumer behavior going on. Resistance to change, loyalty to sunk costs and all that.

There are much better substitutes in the market, and I am becoming concerned. For example, Mermut actually used an exclamation point in an OF post recently.

How can we intervene? How can we help our friends from tumbling down such a self destructive path?

It is safe to say bubble gnomes = Tyrone Biggums. Nothing can be done for them.

But what about the Mermuts of the world? How can we save them from themselves ?

 

Do you have any examples? The last time I looked seriously was during 'the great hack', but I have tried out a few since and none of them have snagged my interest.

 

First, I'd like to remind you that I don't offer solutions. My expertise is taking a problem and making it bigger.

That being said, depends on what you're looking for from a game.

If it's raiding your after, I know a ton of people who have gone to WoW and are prettty happy with it.

I gave up raiding a long ago, so idk.

Speaking for myself, I went looking for a game that gave me lots of different things to do. That's why I settled on ESO. It has a few warts, but on balance, I enjoy it. I'm a very casual gamer these days, so I like being able to log in a dink around with different aspects of the game, be they stories, PvP, crafting, pugs, theory crafting, etc.

I'l definitely give Ashes a try when it comes out

That being said, Tekka has done the most thorough survey that I know of. He would know much better than I.

 

See this is what makes me the most sad about Everquest 2. At one time you could play casually or hard core, and be able to switch back and forth between the two. Take a couple months off and just solo/heroic, then decide to come back to raiding and get geared up fairly fast and raid again. Now its one way or the other unless you want to put a ton of time and money into getting back into raiding.

To me this game used to blend the best of both worlds pretty decent, not perfect, but pretty good.

I have done a lot of searching, and I have yet to find any MMO that I like, the only one I have not got to yet is ESO, I am waiting for the steam summer sale to grab it. So we will see then, but I went back and finished Fallout 4 and then did Far Cry 5. Just got Skyrim from summer sale, so will try that before looking at ESO. Tried Bless, that is just bad, BDO is ok but could not get into it, WoW I never liked the character models. I just don't like the Korean model of MMOs so they don't make it for me. FFIV has way to many cut scenes for me. I would be nice to hear what Tekka has seen

 

I believe a common problem may be that when looking for a new game, people compare them to what eq2 was. This fine, because that's the game many us of fell in love with.

The error (imo) is they don't also do that for eq2 as it is now.

What I did, was note all aspects that i liked in the old game. Then I did search of candidate games that did the best job of meeting those preferences (including eq2).

From there, I did a quick +/- on each game and compared them to what eq2 is ***now***.

No game is perfect. There is definitely some stuff about ESO I don't care for. But, on balance, it's a hell if a lot more enjoyable game (for me) than the current eq2.

 

I switched to an Xbox One and am loving Destiny 2 right now. I can jump in a crucible and get matched with 7 other people close to me in a few minutes and blow crap up for 10-15 minutes, or go run a campaign mission etc. every thing I do has a chance to give me a little bump in power. haven't made it to the raiding part.

With EQ2, there is just too big a gap in power now. I got my main in EQ2 to about 50k potency but no one is running heroics in that range anymore and I detest being 'carried'.

I could not find any PC game that was even close. Rift, ESO, WoW, FFIV, Conan, LOTRO I decided it was xbox time even if I just played dig dug. Wasting time is wasting time.

 

No game is perfect. No game is the EQ2 you wish it was (not even EQ2). That being said, here goes.

These are games I have personal experience with in the past 2 years:

Rift - The height of the game is behind it, but it is still well supported and actively being developed. It is, hands down, the best game for building and decorating, probably its strongest feature. It has a functioning cross-shard group, raid and instant adventure finder, and a large enough population to find groups for those things as well as rift and holiday events. The level and gear progression is similar enough to EQ2 that it doesn't feel unfamiliar, with the ability to adjust your level on the fly no content -has- to become trivial, but you have the option to plow through low content if you want (some things will auto-scale you up or down). There are a lot of activities to feed the 'all the shinies' addiction - collections, zone puzzles, wardrobe achievements, major holiday events. Meaningful crafting.

FF14 - Clear linear progression, though there are a LOT of side and story quests in the game as well (the Hildebrand quests are hilarious). If you enjoy grouping/raiding it has a functioning group/raid tool and probably the largest variety due, in part, to the various challenge modes that add new tactics and strategies rather than just a higher hit point pool. Gear acquisition takes enough effort to feel rewarding, but not so much that it's soul crushing. Even a raid casual scrub like me got geared enough to do normal mode World of Darkness raid. Meaningful crafting. (has gorgeous housing - decorating, limited)

ESO - The progression is slightly different because top end armor and weapons can be obtained via crafting, jewelry is drop only, though tradeable. Raids are for the skins, the skill and the challenge. Trials and instanced dungeons you go in with a group, open world content is cooperative. I can't recall off the top my head if there is a group finder, but when I played there was no shortage of players calling out for groups and coordinating stuff in zone chat. The interface and movement can take some adjustment, but once it clicks in your head it not a problem. A lot of folks talk smack about the 'limited' skill bar, but it makes your skill AND gear selection more meaningful because they need to work together, rather than just mash all the buttons. Meaningful crafting. (has gorgeous housing - decorating, limited) Auto-scales level

GW2 - Has a personal story that will take you through level progression (though I don't recommend you do it that way for REASONS), cooperative play in the open world pve and world v world v world, including resources (so no node jumping). Dungeons, raids and fractals are instanced group content. Depending on what you're after, you can either craft, get tokens or raid for gear and weapons - appearance skins are a thing to collect. Legendary or Ascended weapons and Exotic or Ascended armor are 'crafted' and has been compared to doing your epic in EQ/EQ2. The skill selection also requires forethought to coordinate with primary and secondary weapon sets/stat bonuses, no face rolling here. The game also has a huge variety of jumping puzzles, mini dungeons, a glider and 6 different mounts to quest for (and skins to collect) as well vanity pets obtained through various means. Meaningful crafting. (no housing) Auto-scales level

FF14, ESO and GW2 all have quite large populations, and no shortage at all for grouping, or guilds to join.

I've poked around a bit in Conan with some friends, amusing but a 'for fun' sort of thing. The Secret World Legends has a single player feel, with other people in it with you. I happen to like the creepy modern setting, so it's fun to goof off with.

While I haven't played it in years, WoW is still thriving compared to many other titles, and if the general chatter about it is correct, they seem to be recovering from whatever glue-sniffing episode they had around the time of the Great Panda Debacle.