They aren't going to make a "sticky" MMO out of EQ2.
#1. Brand: The SOE and EverQuest name is royaly tainted.
#2. Appeal: WoW, for some reason, appeals to everyone of all ages, tastes, and genres. Jocks play it, thugs play it, burnouts play it, nerds play it, grandparents play it, kids play it, everyone plays it. EQ2, on the other hand, has a much smaller scope of appeal. It's more geared towards the older "RP" type players - but not entirely.
#3. Graphics: Cartoon Vs. Detail. EQ2 was a very detailed game during its release. It was state of the art. However, the problem with detailed games is simple: they look terrible with age, whereas cartoonish looking games seem to have more sustain.
#4. Nickel and diming: SOE is known for chasing the buck - even at the expense of their current fan base. With constant microtransaction cash shops, xp potions, mounts, etc, it sort of takes some of the luster out of busting your butt in-game for anything.
If EQ2 wants to become a "sticky" game, they will need to completely change the name of it, construct some sort of sandbox mechanism, and go with it. They can't simply make a new class system and expect people to jump on EQ2. Nobody wants to touch that title now. It's too old.
Sticky.... sure, its possible. It would take a LOT of work. But will SOE hire more developers to make the changes needed to make this happen? Na. It's SOE.
Forever looking for employment. Life is rather dull without it.
Over the years I've played EQ, WOW, EQ2, Warhammer, and AION...all of those games with max level characters.
For PVE EQ2 is the best PVE experience I've had out of all of them.
For PVP Warhammer is the best experience I had (until end game) of all of them.
EQ2 is a massive, awesome looking game over 6 years after release. It's easy as pie to level in the game now (unlike first couple of years). I like all of the games or I wouldn't have played characters to level limit in all of them, but EQ2 definitely holds it's own.
I think it's funny that so many people seem to have a personal vendetta against SOE, it's actually strange. Pick you're favorites and move on, right?
"pick a small market, do something new. People need to get off this 'I'm going to remake WoW,' or 'I'm going to remake EverQuest' and expect different results. Players already have EverQuest and EverQuest II and WoW, so make something else. It's the publishers fault; people need to take smaller initial bites and see what works and doesn't work."
somewhat agree with this, but gonna just say this....
one of the biggest "untapped/no longer tapped" MMO niche in todays MMO market is the HARDCORE raiders...
EQ1 WAS the only game that was using this market, but is fading away from it with recent expansions. (group content giving almost the same reward as raid content) and raiding older content just doesnt make sense since "current expansion" group content gives better gear then last expansion's raid gear.
the REASON that people dont "raid" in EQ1 anymore is because they lost too many hardcore raiders over the years due to brokeware expansions, stupid nerfs, and overall age of the game vs other games with more "bling", not because the demand of the hardcore raiding content has gone away. it's a niche that is NO LONGER being utilized by ANY "current" MMO's.
if you ask a MMO player today what is the size of a "raid" today, they'll tell you anywhere between 5 to 25 man....:( EQ1 raids doesn't even START till 24 man and goes up to 72 man or higher(back in vox days)
some can argue that nobody has time for 72 man raids these days.... personally, I dont think humans has evolved that quickly. if 8 years ago, people enjoyed 72 man raids, then there will still be a segment of the MMO population who enjoy a nice and HARD 72 man raid today... something that is purely masochistic where 1 person screwing up can cost you hours of preperation for the entire raid:D EQ1 had the right idea fo risk vs reward and making raids HARD to almost insane levels where it takes months to figure out a raid script. but the rewards at the end of the raid is gratifying in both intrensic and practical ways.
most of the greatest raiders in MMO market/industry had their start as an EQ raider, the "younger"(WoW generation) raiders learned from pioneering EQ raiders after the "great exodus" from EQ:D. WoW's success is largely due to SoE's stupidity and greed by pumping out expansion after expansions of brokeware trying to squeeze as much money out of a dying cash cow as possible.
the mistake EQ1 made was to bury their greatest strength (raid game) under a mountain of AA's. in order to raid TODAY's EQ1 end game content, you need like 5000AA's... nobody is going to grind 5000AA's just to play the best 11 year OLD game.... EQ2 has the right idea of limiting AA's to 300 cap, but lack the depth of EQ1 raids.... whats the typical EQ2 raid size? 24 man?:D back in my EQ1 days as a raiding warrior, i had 24 people dedicated in supporting ME:D 6 clerics doing their overlapped CH chains, plus maybe 4 druid/shaman's spam healing. 1 dedicated shaman just to chain cure me, and not to mention the different buffers/bards that are keeping an eye on my buff slots... secondary tank, tertiary tank, assist tank.... sometimes i feel like i got a person dedicated to wiping the blood dripping into my eyes:D
unfortunately game makers dont see that niche under piles of reasons aginst the HARDCORE market anymore. even SoE who basiclly BUILT the MMO market on the backs of hardcore raiders/gamers no longer see it as a niche. kinda like sony no longer make TV's that last 20 years, they just dont see profit in the hardcore market...
IF this new guy is serious about his beliefs and are able to pull off this niche market strategy, I'd be willing to give SoE games another look... but for now, the boat is steered directly towards bioware or bethesda (if EA manages to screw up bioware).
I have to agree with everything Psyclum said there, I love EQ1, I played it for 12 years, no other MMO has held my attention for more than 6 months at best (except WoW and thats because I let my 6 year old play on the account to, and yes a 6 year old can actually play WoW pretty well)
I believe there's a spot for hardcore huge raids, we were still hitting 150 people on raids in EQ till they capped the raid size, most other games just don't seem to have the hardcore game mechanics that EQ had for raiding, take WoW raiding today, it's so simplistic it's insane, and people ragequit raids when you wipe more than 3 times LOL, in EQ we often took months to figure out a dungeon, hell VT took 2 nights to clear. Remember the emp in Ssra Temple? Originally he used to DT people, we actually beat him while that mechanic was still active, only to have SoE remove it as it made it to hard lol.
I miss the old days, the majority of MMO's feel like spoonfed rubbish these days, all geared towards the console generation that have little to no skill unless it involves hitting 4 keys in sequence (although that does kinds remind me of old school EQ clerics!!!)
People need to start voting with their feet and not playing more of these games, bring back the challenge, bring back true Risk Vs Reward... SK Epic v1 FTW!
“Nevertheless, the human brain, which survives by hoping from one second to another, will always endeavor to put off the moment of truth. Moist” ― Terry Pratchett, Making Money
Comments
They aren't going to make a "sticky" MMO out of EQ2.
#1. Brand: The SOE and EverQuest name is royaly tainted.
#2. Appeal: WoW, for some reason, appeals to everyone of all ages, tastes, and genres. Jocks play it, thugs play it, burnouts play it, nerds play it, grandparents play it, kids play it, everyone plays it. EQ2, on the other hand, has a much smaller scope of appeal. It's more geared towards the older "RP" type players - but not entirely.
#3. Graphics: Cartoon Vs. Detail. EQ2 was a very detailed game during its release. It was state of the art. However, the problem with detailed games is simple: they look terrible with age, whereas cartoonish looking games seem to have more sustain.
#4. Nickel and diming: SOE is known for chasing the buck - even at the expense of their current fan base. With constant microtransaction cash shops, xp potions, mounts, etc, it sort of takes some of the luster out of busting your butt in-game for anything.
If EQ2 wants to become a "sticky" game, they will need to completely change the name of it, construct some sort of sandbox mechanism, and go with it. They can't simply make a new class system and expect people to jump on EQ2. Nobody wants to touch that title now. It's too old.
Sticky.... sure, its possible. It would take a LOT of work. But will SOE hire more developers to make the changes needed to make this happen? Na. It's SOE.
Forever looking for employment. Life is rather dull without it.
Over the years I've played EQ, WOW, EQ2, Warhammer, and AION...all of those games with max level characters.
For PVE EQ2 is the best PVE experience I've had out of all of them.
For PVP Warhammer is the best experience I had (until end game) of all of them.
EQ2 is a massive, awesome looking game over 6 years after release. It's easy as pie to level in the game now (unlike first couple of years). I like all of the games or I wouldn't have played characters to level limit in all of them, but EQ2 definitely holds it's own.
I think it's funny that so many people seem to have a personal vendetta against SOE, it's actually strange. Pick you're favorites and move on, right?
somewhat agree with this, but gonna just say this....
one of the biggest "untapped/no longer tapped" MMO niche in todays MMO market is the HARDCORE raiders...
EQ1 WAS the only game that was using this market, but is fading away from it with recent expansions. (group content giving almost the same reward as raid content) and raiding older content just doesnt make sense since "current expansion" group content gives better gear then last expansion's raid gear.
the REASON that people dont "raid" in EQ1 anymore is because they lost too many hardcore raiders over the years due to brokeware expansions, stupid nerfs, and overall age of the game vs other games with more "bling", not because the demand of the hardcore raiding content has gone away. it's a niche that is NO LONGER being utilized by ANY "current" MMO's.
if you ask a MMO player today what is the size of a "raid" today, they'll tell you anywhere between 5 to 25 man....:( EQ1 raids doesn't even START till 24 man and goes up to 72 man or higher(back in vox days)
some can argue that nobody has time for 72 man raids these days.... personally, I dont think humans has evolved that quickly. if 8 years ago, people enjoyed 72 man raids, then there will still be a segment of the MMO population who enjoy a nice and HARD 72 man raid today... something that is purely masochistic where 1 person screwing up can cost you hours of preperation for the entire raid:D EQ1 had the right idea fo risk vs reward and making raids HARD to almost insane levels where it takes months to figure out a raid script. but the rewards at the end of the raid is gratifying in both intrensic and practical ways.
most of the greatest raiders in MMO market/industry had their start as an EQ raider, the "younger"(WoW generation) raiders learned from pioneering EQ raiders after the "great exodus" from EQ:D. WoW's success is largely due to SoE's stupidity and greed by pumping out expansion after expansions of brokeware trying to squeeze as much money out of a dying cash cow as possible.
the mistake EQ1 made was to bury their greatest strength (raid game) under a mountain of AA's. in order to raid TODAY's EQ1 end game content, you need like 5000AA's... nobody is going to grind 5000AA's just to play the best 11 year OLD game.... EQ2 has the right idea of limiting AA's to 300 cap, but lack the depth of EQ1 raids.... whats the typical EQ2 raid size? 24 man?:D back in my EQ1 days as a raiding warrior, i had 24 people dedicated in supporting ME:D 6 clerics doing their overlapped CH chains, plus maybe 4 druid/shaman's spam healing. 1 dedicated shaman just to chain cure me, and not to mention the different buffers/bards that are keeping an eye on my buff slots... secondary tank, tertiary tank, assist tank.... sometimes i feel like i got a person dedicated to wiping the blood dripping into my eyes:D
unfortunately game makers dont see that niche under piles of reasons aginst the HARDCORE market anymore. even SoE who basiclly BUILT the MMO market on the backs of hardcore raiders/gamers no longer see it as a niche. kinda like sony no longer make TV's that last 20 years, they just dont see profit in the hardcore market...
IF this new guy is serious about his beliefs and are able to pull off this niche market strategy, I'd be willing to give SoE games another look... but for now, the boat is steered directly towards bioware or bethesda (if EA manages to screw up bioware).
I have to agree with everything Psyclum said there, I love EQ1, I played it for 12 years, no other MMO has held my attention for more than 6 months at best (except WoW and thats because I let my 6 year old play on the account to, and yes a 6 year old can actually play WoW pretty well)
I believe there's a spot for hardcore huge raids, we were still hitting 150 people on raids in EQ till they capped the raid size, most other games just don't seem to have the hardcore game mechanics that EQ had for raiding, take WoW raiding today, it's so simplistic it's insane, and people ragequit raids when you wipe more than 3 times LOL, in EQ we often took months to figure out a dungeon, hell VT took 2 nights to clear. Remember the emp in Ssra Temple? Originally he used to DT people, we actually beat him while that mechanic was still active, only to have SoE remove it as it made it to hard lol.
I miss the old days, the majority of MMO's feel like spoonfed rubbish these days, all geared towards the console generation that have little to no skill unless it involves hitting 4 keys in sequence (although that does kinds remind me of old school EQ clerics!!!)
People need to start voting with their feet and not playing more of these games, bring back the challenge, bring back true Risk Vs Reward... SK Epic v1 FTW!
― Terry Pratchett, Making Money
mmmmmm..... nuns..... :P