aduros

The objective shouldn't be to cater to a different play style every expansion. Sure you may gather a few new players one expansion, only to alienate them the next. Instead it's much better to say "ok we're going to make EQ2 50% Group, 25% Solo, 25% Raid" and with each expansion build upon that, with content that fits accordingly.

When the captain keeps changing course mid sail, the passengers get fed up since the ship isn't going anywhere. The devs see their overall subscriptions sinking with each expansion, so they keep trying to push the game in a new direction, only to lose more players in the process.

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Caswydian

I see what you are saying, but how do you measure content? Zones? Quests? Encounters? Should a one-off kill 10 mobs for a few gold be on the same level as a major quest like the Claymore or Prismatic lines?

Really, what I see is a more consistent move towards having overland zones be primarily solo, with dungeons being primarily group oriented. This seems to be the case with RoK, but was a trend the devs had already started on with Antonica, CL, Nek, TS, Zek, EL and Feerrott, among others. So, I think what we're seeing is actually a move towards a more consistent design philosophy.

I disagree that we've seen massive changes in course - we've seen attempts to find the right balance between different types of content, and overall, the devs seem to be on the right path with overland = solo, dungeons = heroic.

I also disagree that EQ2 has seen a loss of subscribers. From what I've seen, both EoF and RoK increased subscriptions, either by bringing in new subscriptions or bringing back old ones.

Illuminator

Sure, if you conveniently omit the entirety of Unrest and Shard of Fear.

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Blackburrow.Aleraku - 80/140 Wizard
Blackburrow.Alaedraa - 80/140 Illusionist
Blackburrow.Calandra - 75/97 Paladin
Blackburrow.Cavatina - 80/137 Troubador
Blackburrow.Selanna - 80/140 Warden

Don't vote for Obama.

aduros

EoF brought in new and old subscribers. The novelty of RoK is already starting to wear off and people are already leaving. If epics are a disaster expect even more to go. What you cannot deny is that EQ2 as a whole, has less subscribers than it did 2 years ago.

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Caswydian

Neither of those are T8 instances in terms of itemization, nor are either located in RoK, meaning if you're in RoK already, getting to those zones is not that easy. Unrest is also rather old, so there's little incentive to go there.

What would be nice is something like a drachnid cave in KP, geared towards levels 70-75. An heroic instance off KC would also be a big plus.

Caswydian

Unless you have access to the subscription numbers, I don't see how you can make this claim.

Luceus

Well a problem is that there really is only so much to do for the 'solo' people. I mean it is an MMO, so they really shouldn't ever gear the game towards that imo. Sure, definitely give people stuff to do when they can't group and they're not raiding, but that should be the extent of solo play.

The game ideally should be about constantly improving your character and meeting new challenges. I think what they really needed to do for this expansion was start fresh with the gear progression, now that they had the chance (with the level cap increase). Tweak formulas and shit so it's a noticeable difference when you improve your gear between mitigation, avoidance, resists, etc.

Then also realize your player base will get extremely bored once it shoots up to 80/140, so do some work towards revamping the whole AA system. First, I bet there are only a few classes who actually gain much benefit from the last 10-20 points, secondly, give us a ton more points to get but make them smaller (but still good) bonuses. Like every point is 1/5th of a crit%, or increased run speed, or anything. Give people a reason to spend a night grinding in a dungeon after 80.

I can't think of a single thing to do when I load in now, and it's been that way for a little while now. That's kind of sad considering the expansion is only like 2 months old.

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aduros

How about the fact that they were on a steady decline, until they just stopped releasing numbers completely. Do you bother to think for yourself? Or do you only eat what's spoon fed to you?

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Caswydian

SOE has never released EQ2 subscription numbers. They've released them for EQ1, but never for EQ2.

Petgroup

2 ways to get more people to try your product

1. Advertise

2. Word of mouth

Currently, SoE spends as much money on advertising as I do on swimming with naked fishes on Saturn.

Word of mouth has been shit for this game for the past 2 years. I would not recommend it and thats from a veteran who played Eqoa forever and Eq2 from the start for over 3 years. I'm done with SoE.

So with that all out of the way, you gotta be high on meth to think that in the past year, SoE has had its subscriptions go up at all.

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Originally Posted by RadarX
Go play another game and wake up. SOE's Community Team does more than ANY other company.
Flames now has 0 support from anyone. No TTH, no Zam (although I'm not sure how much there was), no SOE, no one.