PCGamesN: "Community neglect and a pay-to-win ethos are killing EverQuest 2"

Thank you Feldon, for everything you have done for the EQ2 community, and thanks for this article. I still use your information almost daily, and yes, I still play.

But I almost always 2-box. Most of those I played with have moved on since it just isn't "fun" anymore. Thank goodness there are still good folks in chat, willing to help still.

I am still finding fun in my many alts (on many servers), but this last xpac has pretty much burned me from the sub and any upcoming xpacs. I have always supported the game in that way, and yes, sometimes even bought some of the DBG cash.

I have paid my sub annually for years, and renewed last August in preparation for this last xpac. What a disappointment that was.

I will let my sub run, but at this point, plan to go FT2 when it expires. DBG is going to have to win my loyalty back, and I am not confident they are interested.

 

Dislike = sad

 

I remember many years ago (2005 or 6sh) keeping all my plat on an anonymous alt because the website kept track of wealthiest players. On the server I played on at that time my anonymous alt was ranked #4, but no one knew, not even my real life friends that the alt was mine. I had to leave the game for awhile so I surprised my real life friend and gave him my "fortune". All 400p of it!

 

I was never really a plat hoarder, always spending it. When I quit last March,I had a couple million in the bank. Logged in, gave it away, cancelled my sub.

A good friend of mine is a trustee on my houses, and I told her to take what she wanted and use em for storage.

I didn' feel one iota of regret about giving this stuff away. I was just done.

Besides, if I ever got back in game....sell a few Kronos and plat problem solved.

 

My "wealth" was traditionally in my stockpile of rare materials. I've long had the habit of harvesting wherever I was, largely to support my small (largely dormant now) army of alts. As a side effect, at one point when the silicate loam was still the high point of expensive rares, I was sitting on a small fortune of them!

Rares are barely worth anything now, other than the ones so ridiculously rare I haven't seen one yet...

 

Along with all the other valid reasons in this post for declining player base, this is definitely one I think of as a major reason for people on the edge of decisions finally giving it up. The initial exploitations that put far more plat into the economy than could be absorbed without creating enormous divisions has just extrapolated since then, now leading to raiding and higher end players muting items instead of offering them at a reasonable price. The increasing gap between those that could have and those that could not led to even further frustration and a feeling of non-progression already felt by the P2W type offerings. Yes, you can sell your shinies and rares but still not be able to put together a decent bid on loot rights from heroic zones (not even raid ones).

Another thing I think has not helped is putting Devs and Players in the same place en masse. Having worked with programmers/coders in the past, I know that there is almost a language barrier to many conversations. Add to that the ego component and things go downhill rapidly. Having people like Feldon and others acting in a spokesperson type role on behalf of players I truly think worked better than everyone trying to have every little thing addressed in a chat channel. Without any kind of filtering process to determine higher priority issues from lower ones, it often seemed to devolve into nitpicking type conversations that were not at all helpful. I certainly don't defend some of the things said or done, but I could also see that the model was a little overwhelming and that certain egos were not getting enough stroking which led to arrogant outbursts and somewhat childish behaviour (from both sides of the fence). I don't know how the people in the middle (I don't know about any other objective moderators other than Feldon) stood it for as long as they did.

 

I haven't played in 7 months and I had quit a few times since 2005.

Each time it was more over burnout, but this time it was under complete and total venom and vitriol for the members of the dev and com team. I am bitter about the pay to win model. I am bitter about the lack of grade 6 math skills (grade 4 for anyone outside the states). I am bitter about the community destruction.

I have had 0 desire to come back to this steaming pile.

I literally check in every so often to see if any of the dev team quit so I know where they are going and avoid it.

 

“As to communication, our devs go where they get the best and most constructive input to improve the game. We try to foster a two-way, supportive environment for devs and players, and we do our best to ensure that EQ2 remains a positive community and experience.”

Where does this happen? I want to be part of this. It sounds awesome.

 

Yeah, this was funny.

I think she actually believes her own bulls**t.

 

Nah... marketting is in the business of hawking bullshit as if it were the finest ambrosia. If they don't come off as sincere, they don't make it as far.

 

Thats what ended pretty much the game for me I subbed for a year when they ran the reduced rate malarky a couple of years back but there was zero for me to do, such a shame as I have always said EQ2 was, for me at least the best MMO there was by the time of EoF,it never got better for my money than that.

 

Definitely not forgotten here. Lost a lot of good euro guildies because of that cluster-****. And definitely NOT forgiven.