Sildroni

meh - its always been easy to reach the level cap - even back in EQ1 days - if you are dedicated to doing it.

Now its not as burdensome - and yes, alot of the stuff is easy mode. they could have put in the VP key, or have locked/flag progression raid zones like the Plane of Time and all that bullshit. There would be complaints either way.

EQ has been online in one form or another for 10 years - alot changes in a life in that amount of time. I for one welcome the dumbing down if you will - it keeps me playing when Id otherwise not have the time to devote to camping keyparts or dropping everything to get to a flagging raid.

SOE is never gonna be WoW, they won't put the money into it (Night Elf Mohawk!!), but I see people popping on to low level chat saying how much they like 'our' game more than WoW. The community is here, and I suppose the Devs react to what that community is saying as a whole, not just what Furor and FoH think ala EQ1. (no disrespect meant, but endgame back then was tailored for the 'chosen' and then dumbed down when the next expansion dropped)

<slight derail>
I saw on a XPlay (I think - and yeah G4 poseur so ) some interview with Curt Shilling - fucker was playing WoW. WTF - I thought this guy was all hardcore and now he's just another fanboi?!? They need to remove his avatar from the TS docks, or make it a practice dummy or something.
</slight derail>

I don't know how they could honestly change the game and make it better for the full spectrum of their subscriber base other than not releasing unfinished content, but I think its part of their mission statement to continue doing so.

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tomthumb

I fully expected the initial hurray flux of players to dissipate withing 2 months. Now it's 1 month and it's already becoming the reality. Can't say I am shocked as RoK is a wannabe piece of shit that may just do eq2 in.

Madrix

Yeah those clone PCs sure didnt take off in the 80s.

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methulah

That was providing the same product for a lower price. This is trying to provide the same product with higher system requirements.

tomthumb

and hardly even the same product. all wow-bashers, give that game a try past level 5 and you will find out it actually is pretty good. The upcoming wow expanision is going to kill the stillborn shitstain that is rok.

Gori

It is really kind of hard to get inside the minds of the devs on this one. From Scott's reply to that one site I know that the "nerf" to group exp was intentional, but it is harder to tell whether the lack of lower T8 heroic quests was also intentional or just due to a lack of time.

One thing that may be occuring, and if it is I can understand why (although I think they are putting the cart before the horse), is SOE may be trying to more differentiate between their fantasy MMORPG offerrings.

Caswydian

EQ2, WoW, LotRO, Vanguard and most other fantasy MMOs are far more similar than they are different. However, imitation generally works quite well:

In the computer game industry, you'll see dozens of successful games that are essentially copies of one another, with a few tweaks here and there, be it FPS, RTS, MMOs or some other genre.

Movies and TV shows imitate each other all the time to the point of being formulaic.

Novels, especially in the fantasy and sci-fi genres tend to share many qualities.

Cars all seem to follow similar design trends. If you look at the body designs for a mid-sized 2008 sedan, chances are, they all look pretty much the same. Same with the SUVs and sports cars.

Caswydian

I'd say it was intentional. Designing content takes time, and lower stuff will only have a lifespan of a few weeks for most. An heroic instance geared to 70-75 will get used up and then ignored, essentially becoming wasted content for most of the game, while a dungeon geared towards levels 75-80 will be used until the level cap is raised. It's simply efficient allocation of finite resources.

Lillin

Im not really sure what the main complaint is here, so many minor complaints trying to explain people leaving game.

Its pretty simple to understand eq2 has never been a hugely popular game. From all the this and thats ive heard over the years i do not think it even surpassed eq1's player base. Look at the life of this game ..........

• Crappy launch ........... for real the game design sucked and it took em what 6 months to a year to get the game some what entertaining.
• LU (put your most unfavorite LU here) killed eq2.
• There isnt enough raid/group/solo content.
• My armor for my uber sk is pink ........... damn it i wanted fuscia

I could list for ever of things people are unhappy with in this game.

What it boils down to is that is a ageing game and no matter what they did too it people would feel its more of the same. Been there done that. Add that to things like game changes pissing people off, other soe products people are scorned by and it just builds and builds till people just go elsewhere.

Alot of people came to this game with false hopes, there expectations let them down and they are pissed off about it. So they leave, so now that guys clique of friends start getting bored and they leave, all of a sudden one of the main servers crafters leave and that cuases some one else to leave ........... ect ect. There will always be the straglers though, like in eq1 .......... they like the game or the friends left there and stick it out.

I really dont put much faith in someone screaming the sky is falling becuase people left ............ who cares play the game if you like it ........ if too many people leave and its unplayable then deal with that problem then.

Regardless i enjoy some of things kunark brought about and there are things i dont like.

methulah

I fucking hate WoW, and I played it. The typical response to this is that I went into it with a mindset of negativity. I don't think this is true. At the time, I was a poor student, burned out on EQ2, and looking for an new MMO to keep me interested, and keep me from going out and spending money. I bought WoW, and a gamecard for two months of playtime. That is, I fiscally committed myself to playing WoW for at least three months. Poor as I was at the time, I played it for two weeks, got to level 25 and quit.

Same reason as why I'm finding RoK boring.