MassivelyOP -- EverQuesting: Is EverQuest II in a Downward Spiral?

I understand now and yes the spread is huge. Not sure if it is statistical significant, would need more points of data/comparison.

 

If we assume 2% of eq2 subscribers are steam users, then you're looking at around 13k accounts, about $2OOK / month sub rev.

If those numbers are in the ball park, it's not surprising they are desperate for cash.

All pure speculation of course.

Fraction if steam users is prob lower than 2%, which would inflate the numbers to $500 to $750ish. Can't see it being much higher than that though.

 

Long-time forum lurker here, but your point mirrors my feelings perfectly. The current attitude toward customers will not yield a sustainable game, regardless of why it exists. I actually went and checked various statements and records to get an idea of my total of my expenses on this game in the last year before posting, and was a bit surprised to see it topped $700 (though I'll happily admit that it isn't a lot for an entire year of entertainment). That expense was not based upon what was offered during the past year, but tied more to experiences from years ago and my apparent need to try sustaining the nostalgia of bygone days.

That nostalgia is what their attitude is killing, and without it folks are quickly coming to the realization the product offered isn't worth much otherwise. At least that's where I am, so this year I'm on track to spend nothing at Daybreak. And it has everything to do with the overarching attitude that, as customers, we are not wanted once the funds have cleared. Daybreak does not possess a monopoly and therefore cannot afford to adopt the attitude of one. I will not continue to financially support that, and I know I'm not alone in that position.

 

I have looked at the steamspy numbers and it seems peak steam players, that is those that launched the game from there steam account, was 5,062 and that's in the last 2 weeks. Maybe it is healthier than we think.

Steamspy EQ2 link:
EverQuest II Free-To-Play. Your Way. -

BTW This is the link for the steam spy manual Steam Spy: The missing manual – Steam Spy

The other side of the coin is costs of the studio. While I have no idea about DB current staff costs, thanks to Star Citizen and Gamasutra we know that currently the fully loaded average cost per developer is USD 10K per month.

 

I'm not reading those numbers the same way you are, but a couple of things jump out at me.

First, "Peak Concurrent Players Yesterday" = 246 is consistent with the trend reported by the graphing app.

Secondly, "Players in the last 2 Weeks" = 4299 +/- 1928 doesn't mean they were unique players:

4299/14 = 307
2371/14 = 169
6227/14 = 444

Also, reporting a margin of error like that indicates to me that the statistic is an inferential estimate, and if that is the case, the standard deviation is nearly is 44%, which is terrible. I mean, it is such a large variance there is almost virtually no precision to the estimate, and a result, is not informative at all.

 

I read the Audience (2 Weeks) bar chart as each days total rather than accumulated total over 2 weeks. I can see that was incorrect now, too much enthusiasm my part

I agree that statistical these numbers aren't very useful. I will go back to wondering about the games population.

BTW DB Gaming Studio has 60 open positions currently, only one is for EQ2.

 

Doesn't surprise me about the hiring. It's pretty obvious DBG is not interested in growing the game. They're just going to extract as much money as they can from remaining players until they unplug it.

 

One thing I wonder is how much Columbus Nova would sell the EQ franchise/game and assets for and if it would be possible to crowd fund it. Probably not enough interest, but always been a thought.

 

I doubt there is a market for eq and eq2. These are really old game engines , and the games have very low populations.

The only hope for Norrath is if someone buys the ip and makes an eq3 with a modern game engine and forward thinking design ideas and modern bells and whistles.

Still, I can't help but think, that in that case, a big part of the fun for a dev team is coming up with their own story.

We can always hope, though

 

Can you imagine working 8-10 hours a day, then come home to see news everywhere about how awful a work place and how bad your product has been for years? Well I can and it must be awful.

That being said, I see no attempt from DBG current employees to actually make the work space better, the relationship with the people that pay their salary(the players) nor do I see any effort in implementing what players desire. Instead they sit in their own echo chamber hoping things will turn out good anyway.

They gotta stop up and think, what made Ever quest an iconic title? How do we return to that point. How do we improve relationships with players and most important, how do we fix the game we got? Should we backtrack and remove or altar some systems instead of tacking system on top of system until stats and healths are well above trillions.