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PC Games (Games) Role Playing (Games) Entertainment Games

Player Disquiet Leads To EverQuest Expansion Delay 111

Posted by simoniker from the crack-all-watered-down dept.
EvilBastard writes "Sony Online Entertainment have announced that, due to an almost universal player backlash against the next expansion pack that is seen more as a $30.00 patch for missing content, they are delaying the new EverQuest expansion by 6 weeks, and will 'spend time fixing the problems you have brought to our attention'. Also announced is a plan to fly some of the more vocal website people to SOE headquarters, to try to restart enthusiasm for what may be the last EverQuest expansion ever. With the cancellation of Everquest for Mac, some high-profile guilds quitting, 6 months of allegedly declining numbers, big - budget competition and now a widespread call to boycott future games, is the much-predicted end of EverQuest almost here?"
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Player Disquiet Leads To EverQuest Expansion Delay More

Player Disquiet Leads To EverQuest Expansion Delay

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  • FP (Score:5, Insightful)

    by roseblood ( 631824 ) on Friday May 28, 2004 @01:27AM (#9274928)
    I for one dumped EQ over this exact problem. Why charge your loyal customers another $30 for something that should have been in the last bloody expansion!

    • Re:FP (Score:5, Funny)

      by code-e255 ( 670104 ) on Friday May 28, 2004 @05:30AM (#9275696)
      Same here. I never liked EverQuest expansions, especially because they came out far too frequently, in my opinion, and they were overpriced for the stuff they added. By continuously adding more for powergamers to do, this game turned into just one long level-grind. I've been "clean" for a bit over two years now. :)

      • Re:FP (Score:5, Interesting)

        by grumpygrodyguy ( 603716 ) on Friday May 28, 2004 @06:48AM (#9275947)
        Same here. I never liked EverQuest expansions, especially because they came out far too frequently

        Something happened at Verant after the "Scars of Velius" expansion. I don't know what it was but EQ went downhill from there. "The Shadows of Luclin" was such an ugly, ill-concieved expansion. The bazaar is a moronic way of implementing player auctions. Why not run the auction on a separate chat channel, with visuals, accessible from any vender? Instead they decided to pack 600 players into the same zone and bring everyones graphic card to its knees.

        A single programmer could have implemented a good auction system in a few weeks. Instead they make this crappy bazaar idea a 'feature' of thier expansion.

        Unfortunately Sony is just using EQ as a convenient cash cow, leveraging its addictiveness to provide funds for the war against the x-box(I do sympathize, as Microsoft is as hostile as ever with its constant price gouging). Still it's a shame that such a great game/player community as Everquest used to be is being sacrificed.

        Sure they need money to finance EQ2 and SWG, but it's sad that they are canabalizing such a wonderful piece of art as the original Everquest world. I bet you 5 to 1 that the artists/designers Sony end up hiring won't have clue-one how to breath real life into a fantasy world...it will just be another lifeless clone with slightly improved player models. *sigh*

        Who knows, maybe another company will fill the very large shoes that EQ used to wear?
        • I think it was a recent patch that allows you to turn off all of the traders except the one you are trying to find. I remember reading it in the news as I was logging in, but I don't remember how long ago that was.

    • Re:FP (Score:4, Insightful)

      by AKnightCowboy ( 608632 ) on Friday May 28, 2004 @06:03AM (#9275816)
      Why charge your loyal customers another $30 for something that should have been in the last bloody expansion!

      Hell, I was all set to go buy City of Heroes because it sounded like an awesome game until I noticed there is a monthly fee to play! WTF? Is this getting more common with online games? If I start paying a monthly fee for a game it goes from being a quaint weekend diversion to something I feel obligated to play every day just to get my damn money's worth. If I miss a few days then I'll feel cheated out of that time. I'm not interested in becoming an addict like Evercrack players so I guess City of Heroes is out of the picture for me. That's too bad since it looked like it'd be fun to play superhero on the weekends once in awhile when I'm bored.. I guess I'll stick with killing Iraqis in Desert Combat.

      • What you'd be looking for is Freedom Force (or FF vs. the Third Reich in the future). It's a great SRPG all about super-heroes. Set in the campy 60s comic era. You should be able to pick it up for $5-10 nowadays. No monthly fee, large single-player campaign, and the ability for users to set up their own servers... though I rarely found any when I played. It's definitely worth $10, though.

      • Re:FP (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Shihar ( 153932 )
        If $10 or $15 dollars is a lot, you need to get allowance money or a job. That is like going to one movie a month. Even at minium wage that 2 to 3 hours worth of work a month. For most people, it is probably less then an hours worth of work a month.

        The pricing model is fine. I'll happily pay 10$ a month for a game I'll play for more then 10 hours a month. Hell, I have bought more then one full price game just to be done with it after 10 hours.

        • Re:FP (Score:4, Interesting)

          by __aatgod8309 ( 598427 ) on Friday May 28, 2004 @11:15PM (#9283239)
          US$10 a month? Fine. Here's my money order in NZ$... What, payment in US$ by credit card only?

          Well, that $10 is fine, if they'll let me PAY IT. I don't have a credit card, nor can i get one as i don't earn enough to be eligible for one. So, as a non-US gamer, that cuts me out of playing MMORPGs. (and WoW sounded so nice, too...)
          • Most games have pre-paid [amazon.com] game cards [amazon.com]...
            • Ok, so i can send Amazon in US my NZ check/money order and not have it returned, not having a credit card to pay for the prepaid card? You seem to have missed the point of my comment.
              • No, that's just to show you they're available. You can probably pick one up at a video game store. You could also have a friend with a credit card sign you up for a few months, and you give him the cash.

                Most banks in the US give you a debit card that also works like a visa/mastercard, does your bank do that?
                • I do have a friend with a credit card, but i try not to take advantage of his generosity too much (and then only for one-off purchases, not subscriptions) - but that's not the point i'm trying to make. I've only seen one prepaid card here, once, for Ultima Online some time ago (i think it was before the release of the expansion with the 3d client, can't remember the name) - and at the time i couldn't afford to buy the game, never mind subscribe to play it. I've not seen any other prepaid cards make it dow
        • If $10 or $15 dollars is a lot, you need to get allowance money or a job.

          I didn't see where GP said it was a LOT of money, just that it shifts the game from a diversion to something he feels like he HAS to play because he's paying for it. I agree. For 120/yr, I can pick up 7-12 of the "Greatest Hits" RPGs on the PSX at a minimum of 25 hrs each. Especially when they're gonna gouge you for the game first, then AGAIN for the subscription.

    • Re:FP (Score:5, Insightful)

      by TheViciousOverWind ( 649139 ) <martin@siteloom.dk> on Friday May 28, 2004 @06:26AM (#9275866) Homepage
      The last expansion?

      What I don't get about MMORPGS (I play City of Heroes right now) is that they charge 10-15$ a month, and they excuse that payment with "adding new content, etc." - So why, are most new content almost always in expansions, which costs about the price of another new game, and not in the monthly updates.

      To me it just seems like a sort of inflation, just like when DVD came out and the manufacturers promised that it would be cheaper than VHS because it was a lot cheaper to manufacture. Then when customers are hooked, you suck them dry.
      • The Lineage 2 expansions are called chronicles, and they are updates/patches to the clients including new content. Apparently NCSoft figured out that people didn't want to pay for expansions. What they did this time around is charge for a retail box up-front, which I suppose will help pay for development of new chronicles. I'd rather have the old Lineage: The Blood Pledge model of downloading the game and paying the monthly fee.

      • Re:FP (Score:2)

        by Reapy ( 688651 )
        Exactly. Wtf is the monthly fee for? They said it's because they are constantly working on it and will always be adding to it. It's so bad now that they give you nothing for your monthly fee except bug fixing, which they should do for free anyhow. Unfortunatly every new mmorpg wants to follow this same fuck you in the ass policy.
        • You are aware that they have to pay to maintain the servers right? They also have to have full-time staff watching over the game for cheating, bugs, etc. Not only that, it is a business that is intended to make money and if they have created a product that people are willing to pay them to use, then all power to them.

          • Re:FP (Score:2)

            by JVert ( 578547 )
            Paying for the servers?
            More like pining for the fjords.
            For 15 bucks a month i'd expect to be able to run the game via metaframe.

            Can you belive mmrpgs for xbox? the anual fee for xbox live, plus a monthly fee from the mmrpg, consider your dsl cost and you can finance a used car!
      • Presumably since you mention City of Heroes, you're including that in your discussion. The first new content patch is coming pretty soon, and it looks to be very satisfactory. If they keep adding updates of this magnitude every few months, it should be fine. As for the first scheduled expansion, they are adding major new aspects to the game with tons of content.

        I don't think Everquest players would be complaining if all the Everquest expansions rose to that level, but they fall far short. Another Ever
  • Can someone tell the rest of us what the content referred to here is:

    due to an almost universal player backlash against the next expansion pack that is seen more as a $30.00 patch for missing content

    I thought one of the things with these MMORPGs is that first and foremost they're 'massive'. Did they break some content and are charging to put it back in? Are the people complaining about it just after something for free? Or are Sony just milking it for all it's worth?

    • Re:Not being an Everquest player (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 28, 2004 @01:54AM (#9274996)
      People are basically angry that SOE has promised them the world, but delivering a not-so-polished turd. They have released a neutered character class, tons of high-end content that casual players will never have a chance to see, and a new game engine that has severely broken collision in the game. The gameplay has become even more of a grind and massive time sink over the years and EverQuest is basically no longer that game that had such amazing appeal.

      EQ2 aims to fix a lot of the design issues they had with EQ. The graphics engine in EQ2 is fucking incredible, and if the gameplay has quality half as good, it will be an awesome game.

      • Re:Not being an Everquest player (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Its a sad world we live in when we're happy at the thought of getting gameplay half as good as the graphics... ...sadder still because people settle for less than half.
      • Casual Everquest Player is an oxymoron.

        How EQ could become more of a grind and time sink, I cannot fathom.

        In all honesty, I have EQ'ing friends, and they tell me that the game got much better after the first couple expansions, and that the end-game didn't play anything like the low-level game. But there was never anything about the low-level game that made me want to pay a monthly fee for 2 years (let alone 5) while they got their shit straight. Particularly since all I hear from these EQ'ing friends is
        • The high level game could be quite fun and you could be reasonably casual to play it, but it's more like a sporting event and less like a video game. You gather a bunch of people up in the same place at the same time, get all your gear, then go play for about 4-6 hours. Sorta like a giant golf outing: you all bring exotic equipment and wear funny clothes and swing at a lot of shit.

          The high level game consists mostly of "raids" involving 18-72 (or more in some cases) people destroying a dungeon (at a high r
        • > Casual Everquest Player is an oxymoron.

          In EQ, 'casual' players are pretty much everyone else who doesn't qualify as a high-end 'raiding' player, regardless of how much time they actually put in. A *true* casual player who only puts in 2-3 hours a week would probably still be level 30 or 40 and completely oblivious to all these high-end expansion-oriented problems.

          > How EQ could become more of a grind and time sink, I cannot fathom.

          Apparently how they did it in the last expansion pack was to make
    • There are tons of problems with existing content, and people got pissed of off the fact that Sony would rather release more pay-to-get content instead of putting resources into fixing the existing content.

      Also, people weren't too happy to hear they announced the new expansion before they even had finalized its features. This GU comic [gucomics.com] summarizes the hassle nicely.

    • Re:Not being an Everquest player (Score:4, Informative)

      by Hecubas ( 21451 ) on Friday May 28, 2004 @10:32AM (#9277545)
      This is the straw that broke the camel's back [gucomics.com]. If you're played EQ for any amount of time, chances are you've read Woody's comics.

      Things that led to this:
      • SOE upgraded the graphics engine to use DirectX 9, causing much headache for under par machines (which were running fine before).
      • Within a short period, they released many expansions. The latest, Gates of Discord, being totally aimed at uber high end raiders, and was not labeled as such.
      • Said latest expansion was so difficult, if you weren't playing the "core" classes, you're SOL. Also, it appeared much of the content was buggy.
      • In the midst of Dx9 issues and fixing bugs with the latest expansion, SOE announces yet another expansion.

      Interestingly enough, during this time they've reduced prices on expansions and have several bargains on year long subscriptions. My theory is SOE is painfully aware of the MMORPG competition and is using a shotgun approach to hang onto the market. That would explain bringing the game up to speed to today's graphics and releasing expansions rapid fire, while at the same time dropping prices.

    • Re:Not being an Everquest player (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Austerity Empowers ( 669817 ) on Friday May 28, 2004 @10:44AM (#9277656)
      Think Kill Bill Volume 1, then Volume 2. The last expansion "Gates of Discord" (GoD in eq jargon) was by most accounts a dismal failure. It is reasonably innaccessible to non super-guilded types (i.e. the masses), but pathetically easy to the super-guilds on any server. So in other words, it made no one at all happy...

      To be honest, it was tiny, expensive ($30), did not appeal to the masses, and was not worthy of discussion and immediately after release (feb '04) made me mad. I spent the most time ever in those expansion zones last night (a whopping 2 hrs) and still don't get it...

      As if to throw salt on the wound SOE announced for E3 the next expansion "Omens of War", which seems to have almost an identical plot, promises many of the same ill-defined effects, involves much the same plot-line and characters, and by all appearances appears to be "Gates of Discord - The Missing Content". It honestly seems like an excuse to bilk us out of another $30 for the same content.

      I think however it is premature to call EQ dead, or dying. I have played almost all the MMOGs out there, and they're all mostly boring time sinks. I still find EQ to be the least boring of all of them which is why I kept dropping my subscription and returning.
      • I still find EQ to be the least boring of all of them

        Never played City of Heroes [coh.com], I take it?
      • Think Kill Bill Volume 1, then Volume 2.

        What the hell kind of analogy was that? Are you trying to say that you had to see the first movie to understand the second? Are you trying to say that one of the movies was worse than the other?

        According to Rotten Tomatoes both [rottentomatoes.com] movies [rottentomatoes.com] rated pretty high, and I know that I enjoyed the hell out of them.

        -prator

  • I'd boycott, but... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Nasarius ( 593729 ) on Friday May 28, 2004 @01:41AM (#9274956)
    I don't have the time to play MMORPGs anymore, so it would be redundant. Sony/Verant did make a horrible mess of EverQuest, though. I got out of there after the first or second expansion, mostly because they seemed intent on forcing everyone into a single, very boring playstyle.

    Some day, when MMORPGs have matured a little more, I might get back into them. So far, I have seen very few that aren't essentially EverQuest clones. Ultima Online used to be good...

    • I have to say, World of Warcraft is awesome... I'm a beta tester for it, and have beta tested several other MMORPGs, but have never played any seriously because they never really captured my attention. I have a history with MUDs, but as far as MMORPG experience goes, I couldn't get into Anarchy Online, EVE Online held my attention for a bit mainly due to the space theme but lost it for several reasons, but I was addicted to WoW right from the start. One of the problems I've always had with RPGs is having to
    • You'd be interested in Citizen Zero [citizen-zero.com] then. This game is going to redefine how MMORPG's are played :)

  • Bizarre (Score:5, Insightful)

    by obeythefist ( 719316 ) on Friday May 28, 2004 @02:06AM (#9275044) Journal
    The bizarre thing is that the mechanics of just about every MMORPG are identical to the mechanics of MUDs, only the interface is significantly altered.

    Now, with most MUDs, especially free muds, the client is free but you can use a commercial one (telnet, tf, zmud). With MMORPGs, you have to pay for the client, and it's the same price as most modern PC retail box games.

    MUD: $0
    PC Game: ~$50US
    MMORPG: ~$50US

    With most MUDs, and most modern PC games, online multiplayer is free. You need to pay a monthly fee for MMORPGs. Valve also wants you to pay a monthly fee to play CounterStrike (they call it Steam, but if it looks like a porkbarrel and it quacks like a porkbarrel...)

    MUD: $0
    PC Game: ~$50
    MMORPG: ~$50 + ~$10/month

    Now we come to expansions, which is what this is all really about. Expansions for MUDs just happen overnight, and they're more or less free. PC Game expansions are rarely free but usually inexpensive. MMORPGs use the same price structure. There will probably be more than one expansion on a successful game.

    MUD: $0
    PC Game: $50 + $30 + $30 = $110
    MMORPG: $50 + $30 + $30 + $10/month = $110 + $10/month

    Okay so basically MMORPG's cost a lot of money. Do they provide a better interface than a standard PC game? Debatable but lets' say it's about the same. So we can more or less suggest that in terms of measurable quality metrics (graphics, sound, polygons, etc) a MMORPG is identical to a PC game.

    In terms of gameplay, you essentially need to be a mudder to appreciate a MMORPG (bear with me) because the nature of MMORPG gameplay is identical to that of a MUD. You farm items, you kill rats and level up and gain XP and gain gold and gain items. The gameplay is identical. MMORPG's are more successful than MUDs have been because the interface has broader appeal. This is nothing new! Gaming in general is in a golden age because the level of quality in the graphical interfaces has progressed to the point where games appeal to a vast and wide audience, previously locked into TV only.

    So in essence, a MMORPG is a graphical interface on a MUD, and it's an interface that people are willing to pay more than the cost of a similarly interfaced PC game for the privelege of play. Combining in essence MUD and PC game.

    Will EverQuest die?
    MUDs have been known to live for over a decade. Theoretically then, EverQuest has the potential to live for over a decade. However, the eyecandy factor that attracts more players to EverQuest than muds have attracted also works against EverQuest. More and more MMORPGs are entering the market. They have nicer, cleaner graphics, because like a PC game, a new MMORPG will have better graphics than an older MMORPG. Let's assume that all MMORPG's cost around the same - so there is no price factor in demand. Let's assume that there is a fixed number of people playing MMORPG's, this figure will not grow dramatically over the coming years any more than the overall gaming market will. The determination then is whether the value of the time invested in EverQuest outweighs the personal pleasure obtained in playing a newer, better interfaced MMORPG.
    • To draw a fairer image between MUDs and MMORPGs, I think you need to look at gaming from the widespread gameplay point of view. Now I'm guessing from your post that you've played a MUD one time or another so you know one of the biggest problems with them. "God players". Anybody who's played a table top role playing gaming or a text-based MUD has run into these types of people one time or another. They're the ones who always seem to land critical hits, never get touched by attacks that fill the entire room,

    • Re:Bizarre (Score:2, Interesting)

      by black mariah ( 654971 )
      Ummm... MMORPG's ARE PC games. For that matter, so are MUD's, but I'll go with it. Most MUD's are cobbled together in free time by one or two people. MMORPG's have multi-million dollar budgets and are put together by teams of 20-30+ people. They are in no way comparable, and this entire argument is stupid. It's basically "Well, it's ALMOST like a MUD, except that a MUD doesn't have graphics... or an interactive combat system... or any sort of visual stimulation whatever except for text... but it's free!"

      • Re:Bizarre (Score:2, Informative)

        by Pizzop ( 605441 )
        Medievia [medievia.com] does have an interactive combat system, some nice er "text" graphics, and is more entertaining than any of the 6 MMORPG's I've played (City of Hero's, DAoC, EQ, Anarchy Online, SWG, WoW Beta). After Maxing out 2 accounts in DAoC, I still go back and play Medievia.
        • The only major problem with medievia is the perpetual big-mud problem--if you don't know someone who's been around from the beginning, it's nigh-impossible to get into a good clan. Without a good clan, the game becomes a grind instead of fun.
          • That certainly isn't the only problem [t-online.de] with Medievia.
            • Hmm, completely off topic, but it's funny how 3/4 of the time when I run into pages on mud stuff, KaVir shows up somewhere in it. I just find that mildly amusing... too bad I bore of muds too quickly to make anything like Godwars. :P
            • Heh, I was speaking from a player standpoint. Vryce, of course, can deal with the problem you linked (or not). I heartily don't care mostly because I don't play it. =P

      • Re:Bizarre (Score:4, Insightful)

        by (trb001) ( 224998 ) on Friday May 28, 2004 @10:02AM (#9277280) Homepage
        You haven't played a lot of MUDs before, have you? Go take a look at huge MUDs like Achaea sometime. More content than you can shake a proverbial stick at. Player run towns, councils, guilds, political parties, factions, quests. It's really ridiculous what some MUDs have incorporated these days. Calling them "IRC with stats" is assanine.

        --trb

    • Re:Bizarre (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Derkec ( 463377 )
      Yeah, I think the whole MMORPG price structure is pretty messed up. I'd like to see them set a monthly price, say $15.

      The price would be: $0 + $0 + $15/month. If you're paying them monthly to make the game better, expansions should be part of the deal. They should be relatively frequent, and incremental as expansions in Muds often are.

      The game itself should be free if you download it online or maybe $10 in store to cover distribution costs.
      • A lot of people agree with this.

        Even if you set up a contract so you had to play for 3-6 months, zero dollars up front would increase subscriptions dramatically.

        After all, it's usually the first 10-20 levels on any MUD/MMORPG that are the ones that get you hooked.
    • I don't think the pricing scheme for MMORPGs is that out of line. $10-$15 a month isn't bad, since they're maintaining the servers to make sure the game runs all the time. Also, a good MMORPG will release free content for download, like EQ used to do (Paineel, the Warrens, etc). $30 for an expansion isn't bad either, assuming the expansion is worth it. The Kunark expansion had an entirely new continant, with a new playable race, new items and weapons, and zones and content for every level. $50 for a ga

    • also wants you to pay a monthly fee to play CounterStrike (they call it Steam, but if it looks like a porkbarrel and it quacks like a porkbarrel...)

      Apologies If I missed the memo, but... when did valve announce they're going to charge a monthly fee to play CounterStrike? They certainly aren't at the moment, and I've never seen any mention of them planning to do so; according to the FAQ [steampowered.com], steam is free.

      • Currently, yeah, but Valve's overall strategy is to lever Steam as much as they can so that they can turn it into a giant subscription gameplay engine.

        If you look closely at their roadmaps, you can see more and more services and games being bundled and wheedled into Steam-only franchises.

        It's almost like they're copying the microsoft business model sometimes.

  • 3 Cheers to Raph. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by will_die ( 586523 ) on Friday May 28, 2004 @02:59AM (#9275225) Homepage
    After creating a worthless design in star wars galaxies, he got promoted to overall creative designer to EQ,SWG,EQ2 and others. Look what we get from him.
    If you think this expansion pack is good wait until we get EQ2.
    • Well, he did design UO. I thought he was godlike until I played SWG... He's just not as good as he was. In fact, I think that the only godlike entity on earth is Designer Dragon, not Raph Koster himself :)
      • UO population did not increase until he was removed, also he was having to work under the direction of other people, primarily Richard Garriott.
        • Ralph (who I will always know as 'Designer Dragon') is the one who doomed UO. UO would of been what EQ is now, if it wasn't for that man. All for one reason, he didn't want a (what we called it back then) PK switch. Everyone was complaining that pkers ruined all the fun in their play and wanted either 1. pk switch 2. seperate non-pking land (which is what UO has now -- Pker land is a ghost world). Yet ralph didn't want any of that... Noooo... His vision was one where people could attack people if they
  • Everquest is finishing? Man, i have a friend who's gonna be bummed.
    ---

  • This proves it. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by StormyWeather ( 543593 )
    The customer is always right. And right now they are tired of mmorpg's in general.

    I personally loved everquest, however I logged out for the last time a year and a half ago, played daoc for a year intermittently, and now don't play any mmorpg's.

    I honestly think everyone in EQ is going through the same boredom/withdrawal that I did. MMORPG's as they stand are dying. It won't be until we have a paradigm shift in their design that they are reborn. This may take an even greater technological leap though.

    • Re:This proves it. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 28, 2004 @07:36AM (#9276165)
      This post would make more sense if its fundamental thesis was actually true...

      First-generation MMORPGs are dying. In this group, I'd include the classic MMORPGs such as Ultima Online, Everquest, Asheron's Call, Anarchy Online etc. However, I see no evidence that this is symptomatic of a wider decline of interest in MMORPGs in general. It's like saying that the FPS is dying, because fewer people now play DooM than played it 5 years ago.

      All that's happening is that players are switching to the second-generation MMORPGs. Galaxies' player numbers tend to wobble up and down quite a lot, but they're still solid. Final Fantasy XI is bigger than pretty much anything we've seen before. World of Warcraft is also almost certainly going to be massive.

      Everquest deserves its place in gaming history. It may not have been the first MMORPG, but it was the first one to have a really major impact on the mainstream gaming consciousness. It's had an extraordinarily good run and, for all its flaws, will probably remain the model for the successful MMORPG for a long time to come. But it's an old game. Its joints are getting creaky and its looks just don't seem as good as they once did. With games like FFXI helping MMORPGs to shed their "ugly duckling" image, it's inevitable that games are going to move on to the latest generation.
    • Everybody says MMORPGs need to try something new, but we all forget that they did try something new with PlanetSide, the MMOFPSRPG. I would say that it failed. Maybe it could be attributed to its bland-looking environments, or maybe to the fact that everyone was fighting a war with no purpose (at least there is some purpose to real wars.. whether the reasoning be right or wrong). Everyone was fighting each other only to gain more zones -- only to have those zones taken away after you log off because, for so
      • City of heros sounds fun.... but there is one thing holding me back (besides all of my gaming friends telling me to buy it) I don't like the super hero aspect... I guess that's because I don't like reading comics. To me it's all the same... spider tingle... x-ray vision... etc... I need magic, I need elves and dwarves running around chopping things up with axes.

        Golf is another thing... At my college there is a golf club. Their all trying to get me to go every weekend. In my own opinion, I do
  • I know many people here are not into everquest, and this article doesn't touch on it, but exactly what is this "$30.00 patch for missing content" providing? Most of us are not everquest players, so it would really help if someone here who is, would mind explaining this, it would be very helpful.

    • Re:Someone mind explaining to me...? (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Basically whatt the "$30.00 patch for missing content" means , is that they release a new expansion on a fairly regular basis (~6 months?) and charge $29.99 US for it.

      Typically what you end up with, is an expansion full of bugs, both major and minor, and unfinished content at the high end.

      The more "hardcore" players rush into the new content, and often find themselves struggling against bugs instead of content. Mobs disappearing, keys not working, etc...

      Then there's the more general bugs... text wrong
    • Other things worth mentioning are, for example - when Planes of Power was released, one of the bosses you had to kill for progression was unkillable (with sony "retuning" it every now and then, presumably to try and make people believe it was actually doable) until they finished the content in the next zone, fixed the blocking encounter, and suddenly 4 or 5 guilds were past it within a couple of days.
      Similarly in this expanion GoD (Gates of Discord), the zone Uqua was pretty much impossible for a long time
  • It was only a matter of time before Phantasy Star Online put them out of business :)

  • hopes and dreams (Score:3, Funny)

    by musikit ( 716987 ) on Friday May 28, 2004 @10:30AM (#9277519)
    is the much-predicted end of EverQuest almost here?

    god i hope so
  • I have never played an MMORPG, but here is an outsider's view of what seems to be happening. When Everquest came out, it was really the only DOMINANT MMORPG. Yes there were a few others, but Everquest was really the only one that people played. There was a long time that things remained status quo with only one real option if you wanted this type of gaming experience, even if there were certain parts of the game that you really didn't like. It was almost a monopoly on the MMORPG scene.

    Now, the market
    • Bullshit. There's no "invisible hand" at work here. When EQ came out is was from a relative unknown and small studio. It was predictied to die quick (who's going to pay $9 MONTHLY for a game?!) and was much, much smaller than UO.

      It got big because it was new and fun. A semi-D&D world to explore. You could do anything - craft, explore, kill monsters, etc. There was a steep learning curve, but that was to be expected from a game where you really were in their world.

      And during EQ's reign, lots of mmorpgs

  • We've seen it before (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Look at UO. It crashed and burned as well with expansions. They all hit a spot where the mistakes are going to outweigh the desire to stay and then you're going to shed the less dedicated players. There will always be tens of thousands of players, probably a couple hundred thousand players, that will cling to Everquest until the day they close the doors out of sheer stupidity. Stupidity on the part of Sony because they can charge these people for ever and ever because they have established relationships in

  • Okay, step back (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Cranx ( 456394 ) on Friday May 28, 2004 @11:13AM (#9277921)
    Take a step back now and look at yourselves. Everquest is dead. Everquest is dying. Isn't that an old enough cliche that even the most cynical retards would know better than to repeat?

    Everquest is going to be around forever.

    Literally.

  • End of everquest? (Score:3, Funny)

    by CoolCat ( 594452 ) on Friday May 28, 2004 @01:03PM (#9279129)
    the much-predicted end of EverQuest

    This means that the guys next to my cubicle is starting to do actual work now???

  • MMOG's (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Thanatos(Miratos) ( 783758 ) on Friday May 28, 2004 @01:11PM (#9279216)
    I've played quite a few MMOG's over the years. Beta tested for a few. Ran an emulator for awhile. I don't think this is the death knell of EverQuest. Look at UO, which is even more dated then EQ, which is still running along its merry way. What we are going to see is a trend towards second generation MMOG's become more popular. This is really a natural progression. The fundamental question of what happens to old MMOG's that have run a long time and no longer become viable hasn't really been answered yet. It will be interesting to see how it is. In the meantime, I think we will see consolidation of servers across various MMOG's as the user base becomes smaller. Though I think this will only apply to the MMOG's that have a long and successful history. Slowly, by the time 3rd or 4th generation MMOG's come around, I think those too will fade quietly or maybe with a loud bang as the creators let the world go out in a huge fight. I don't know that we can really count SWG as a true second generation MMOG. I played it, it was like EQ in the future with Jedi. You waste huge amounts of time performing tedious tasks. FFXI I never played. I can't speak on it. City of Heroes - I have played it, its very good and you don't waste huge amounts of time doing tedious tasks. It appeals to casual gamers with the sidekicking option. This one has potential to last awhile. WoW will prove to be huge for too many reasons to list. We're at the transitional stage right now, between the passing of the old and the coming of the new. Which really makes it a great time to invest in some of your non-graming related hobbies while you watch to see what tumbles where :)
  • The evidence includes having the second-highest subscribership in the aforelinked subscriber study, where the highest subscribership is padded by Japanese subscribers who were never marketed to buy EQ in the first place.

    Yes, a lot of people were disappointed with the Gates of Discord expansion, and were infuriated at being asked to pay another $30 this summer to continue the grind. But considering how many MMOGs are out there, EQ is staying surprisingly resilient. The true test will of course be when gen
  • I have played a few of the more prominent MMORPG including Ultima Online, Everquest, SWG and Dark Age of Camelot(DAOC). I have always gone back to DAOC. The problem I had with say SWG is that it was not fun for me. I enjoy the interactions with people and the RvR the most. SWG just did not give me that. I felt like I was just soloing all the time. Mythic(creator of DAOC) constantly gives free updates that are like mini expansions. They put in housing as a free expansion, they put in new areas as a free expa
  • Play 24 hours of Wold of Warcraft and it will be easy to quit 6 years of everquest. The game is so great with so many quest. supervillain level 39 warrior
  • Also announced is a plan to fly some of the more vocal website people to SOE headquarters, to try to restart enthusiasm


    Ineffective. The people that run websites are are typically high-end raiding players. The majority of the game and gamers will be represented accidentally at best by that crowd.

  • I have been on an EQ hiatus for some time now. Every time I come back to play, it's lasts for a day or two and I'm back to my hiatus. I was shocked when I patched and logged in last week only to find another new expansion on the way.

    My thoughts were that overall SOE was on the right track up until the PoP expansion. Shadows of Luclin offered new some new updated graphics (enough to hold over until the launch of EQ2) and new content for all levels, albeit primarily for higher levels. Since then, new expansi

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