SoEs lack of *Selling* the game to the PublicFollow

I'm used to disagreeing w/ Shadow, but ... I'm frankly shocked he was sub-d'd for the above post. His reasoning is pretty flawless. (edit - not all of it - this is shad - but parts are reasoned abnormally clearly for him)

/duck /scream

Wait! Wait wait wait! I started playing EQ in the first six months. I LOVED the game, and I still have many fond memories of it - so much so that we've reactivated our accounts and are trying to come back.

His point - of all the things that mmo's offer players, where is the one place that EQ is different - he's largely right: it's in rich high-end content. (edit, of course the game offers more than this - it's eq - it's got a unique tone and feel - we shouldn't forget that)

WoW has been very, very slow in offering expansions. Wow's # of equipment slots is lower than EQ's, too - so even if WoW wanted to offer more, it would be harder for them to put up an offering like EQ does (of a rich variety of things to try to get). The only way WoW could compete is in offering same-slot items for same class but differentiating for various talent builds.

I noticed Sony has taken a step to reduce downtime, and this is the only reason I could possibly stay in the game. I had to quit serveral years ago because downtime was killing me - I can't raid like others, I like alts, I sometimes have to be a caz soloer - and I just went out of my mind with boredom staring at the screen while my chars regened health or mana.

Well, it sure was nice hearing the old music and exploring the old cities. Eq is an oldie but a goodie. Sony's probably taking a "we've milked all we can from this old cow" posture towards this game, which is a shame. I agree they could do more to keep EQ strong and healthy. But this is Sony, remember... sigh. And sigh. And more sighs. Don't expect miracles from them. Don't even expect common sense....

(understand, this thread is out right after WoW just made it way, way easier to level to 60 - we're talking obscene experience gains - so much so that it's making me wonder what I was doing there)

Edited, Nov 16th 2007 3:57pm by IponemaGirl

If you havent read at least 20 of the Shadowrelm-tangents on here, you really cant begin to judge someone on how they approach his posts.

Sony
Founded: May 7, 1946.
Employees: 163,000
2006 Revenue: 83 Billion US dollars

They must be doing something right.

Back to the OP.
If the new players knew what they were actually getting themselves into by playing the toutorial with asperations of buying the game .... geeeeez. It would scare half of them away. I think its the K.I.S.S. .. solution. Give em a taste and Keep It Simple Stupid. This game is amazingly complex , but very well thought out, If you have the time for it. Maybe, by having a new player have to sit and med for a while, while a mob respawns, they will get a little taste.
Oh and there are a ton of new things and freebies in the toutorial that wernt there in the old school toutorial .. If you can remember that place. Someting about a bridge and a few people you walked arround talking to .. heck I dont even think you were actually playing your character in that one.
Anyway, If the player isnt excited about the game already and has someone nagging them to hurry up and start a character...Or they are tired of playing by themselves and want to experiance the best in online gaming, then they are not missing anything. Actually in that light .. the toutorial just gets in the way , anyway.
I personally get a kick out of the toutorial. I get burned out after six years. I can go to another server start some type of toon I would never consider playing, and run that character threw level 10. That gives me perspective. I never knew how hard a life a Gnome Rogue actually had it .. lol J.K. no offence to all the Gnomes or Rogues out there.

thank you for resetting my original i will start using it after this



and i never said people didnt have the right to be bitter towards a troll there were plenty back when i played and posted more often

my point was just because they are a troll doenst give y ou the right to misrepresent what they were saying cause when you do it makes you nearly as bad as they are

even a troll can be right at times

and yes i have looked back and shadow definately fits the mold of a troll in my estimation but doesnt mean my first post was wrong though

It's not the math I was disputing, it's the numbers - THAT's why I quoted the numbers.

shadowrelm appartently has some secret insider giving him info that the rest of the world is not privy to. It's a pretty well known fact that SoE doens't publish them. More likely, though, shadow is making the crap up to try bolster his own warped arguments...that he has with everyone...over everything...all the time.

Kiss off menjoyeliab, for YOU are the one bashing.

he said IF they had 100,000 people not that they did have 100,000 people that it would be 1.5 million dollars which like i said 100,000 x 15 is actually 1.5 mill

no where in that statement does it say he has any inside info or does it even say that he thinks it is 100,000 he just says IF and honestly i would think 100,000 or maybe a little more probably is a good guess cause it seems unlikely they would keep it running for less than that

notice i didnt argue the part about 400,000 leaving because that part does sound like he is saying more than he could probably know

but for you to tell me to kiss of just because i point out that you were taking one particular statement out of context jeez makes me want to turn into a troll also

oops forgot i was gonna go back to my old name

Edited, Nov 19th 2007 7:51pm by menjoyeliab

I still have the original EQ cd from 1999 and the tutorial is on it. Correct, you did not play a character. You just walked around and talked to some NPCs for basic info.

SOE does not spend a lot on marketing EQ because they understand the reality. A huge marketing blitz will not get millions or even thousands of new people to buy an 8 year old title. (Notice I said title and not game. The game has changed but the title has been familar to many for 8 years)

The only effective things they can do now are keep their current subscribers and lure former subscribers back from games they quit EQ for.

I agree with you, Elinda. There are a lot of people out there who have not even heard of MMORPGames. Everquest has been around for 8+ years which means a child at 10 is now 18, just buying his or hers first computer and might not of have even heard of Everquest. I would like to know how someone who wants to play, doesn’t know anyone who plays, goes into a store and picks up a CD, Magazine, game book, or even sees a poster of EQ???? EQ is old, but so is Coke, Cracker Jacks, Chevy, McDonalds & etc… The thing is when you are 2nd you try to be #1, when you are #1 you try to stomp on #2….MARKETING. There are a lot of, never played the game, people out there. There are a lot of players that can be stolen from other games. There are things a company can do to make their client base even happier or keep their interest. I have posted a few things I feel would work to help SoE’s problems. Speaking of posts, if Shadowrelm removed his own post that is his purgative, if someone else removed them, it sure makes my post look lame, I was addressing or referencing his post in many of my rants. I did not see anything he said as offensive and some of his quotes might be ill informed. Some one should not be removed because they are ignorant on a subject or ill informed. Stupidity is another thing…Stupidity should be removed…LOL. That is how people learn by being educated by others. EXAMPLE: I never thought of the fact that SoE included all the expansion to hopefully give the player, who was away from game, the opportunity to get caught up to speed, cheaply. I read that here and now I am a more educated person for that.

Safe Travels this holiday weekend,

Armourcarr, Zek Bazaar Merchant.

Don't worry, you aren't a minority on this opinion, I don't know how many times I cursed the revamp as I made backtrack after backtrack through it (lost as lost can be 95% of the time) while working on the pally 1.0 earlier this year.

Thanks. My only hope in getting around atm is using the Find function - like Find Boomba to get to the gate and so on.

Some of the old quests are still active! I just did the Stein of Moggok quest w/ my old stein-farmer -- because he'd benefited from turning in many quests (and got good rep hits), he had no trouble, in spite of Alliance not working (or not working like it did - in fact, I didn't see it in my spellbook - was it removed??).

I had heard so many rumors - like "illusions didn't work" and "SoM quest was taken out of the game." All false ... or partly false.

Illusions seem not to work on monsters, but they work on town guards. Guards that glowered at my old DE Enchanter were much more tolerant of him in Half-Elf illusion (middle rep - indifferent?).

Given that illusions make you not hated by city npc's, it seems they sort of work towards doing the quests of other sides. I'm not 100% sure about that, though. For instance, if you had a brand new enchanter, illusion Dark Elf might not work on Clurg. Might have to go up to 16 or 17 and get illusion Ogre. Even then it might not work, meaning you'd have to click on CLurg faction link and kill monsters that give +rep to Clurg (and never go to Dwarf lands). If you're a DE to start, might work best.

Sure hope they leave the other cities alone, especially Qeynos. If Fippy doesn't suicide-charge the gates every five minutes, the game is over. This may seem strange to some of you. Sure, the new FP looks awesome! But imho so did Old FP! Clunky, I know - but I used to enjoy going through the layers of evolution of the game.

Just like real life cities have their history plowed under and built-over in the name of "improvement" and "progress," the same is happening to EQ's historical buildings! Silly, sure ... but is it silly? It's only pixels, but wait - is it only pixels?


edit, did notice you can find zones w/ the Find function!

Edited, Nov 24th 2007 8:34pm by IponemaGirl