John at tagn has put up an extremely plausible business reason why were seeing a big push from SOE to get players back into EQ2. Got read it here. I really don’t have any info on whether this is remotely true, but we do know a big storm is coming from WoW and WAR and SOE has got to brace for it. Then again, it will hardly mean the end of Norrath since I think that EQ and EQ2 against those two will really matter in the end. Really, when WAR comes online, it’ll be fighting WoW. I doubt we’ll see very much migration from EQ or EQ2…or Vanguard for that matter.
Now, about the older EQ and EQ2 players that are complaining about these incentives. John is absolutely right…it is done everywhere else in business. I really don’t see Sprint customers whining about some “slap in the face” (… and I swear if I hear that from another MMO player, I will be doing some slapping…) from the latest “switch to us for free and get call waiting” marketing ploy. Time to put away the rattle and grow up a bit I think. Welcome to big people world were new customers are actually good for business (…sorry, it’s late and I’m cranky 
). What do old customers get? You guys get a stronger EQ2 from the new revenue SOE sees from this marketing push. You guys get more content. You guys get new people to your guilds. You guys get to be the “mature” EQ/EQ2 players that you claim to be and welcome these new players to the fold….right?
Again…I like EQ2. I think, hands down, that it beats WoW in terms of content and now…yes, I’ll say it…polish.
/Darren runs crying home to take a shower.
But here’s the secret to EQ2. Find a really good group of people to play with or you will not have as good a time as you could have. You can solo in EQ2, but there is some amazing stuff you can do/get with groups.
D out.
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June 9th, 2008 at 2:24 am
what? did some one say that EQ2 has MORE polish to it.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:26 am
Indeed I did sir. Pound for pound at least.
/Darren braces for impact
June 9th, 2008 at 7:12 am
i would be surprised if it did not have polish since its been out so long ….
June 9th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Darren I’m going to have to call you out on that. If EQ2 had more polish then I wouldn’t still hear new players complaining about how confusing it is to start the game. I picked up Rise and Kunark and while I deffinitely liked it better then LOTR I couldn’t get any of my friends to join for a couple of reasons. One was the character design which seems puppet like after playing WoW. But the other main reason was how un-intuitive the interface is for new players. Even worse are some of the systems like crafting and collections aren’t really explained that well. Some people like EQ2 since it doesn’t hand everything to the player on a silver platter but that really goes against the idea of polish. I would say EQ2 has better depth of content but it were truly polished more people could pick up the game easier.
P.S. Add me to your blogroll or else I promise to show up every day to explain why you’re wrong
June 9th, 2008 at 9:24 am
@ Relmstein – I guess we have a different definition of “polish” (/Darren washes mouth out with soap). I’m talking from a pure quality level, not from a user experience…which seems to be where you’re coming from. From a quality level, EQ2 is just as solid as WoW is at this point. You’re correct on all of your points though. Lot’s of people don’t pick up LoTRO (…a game who’s interface I hate…)…and we certainly don’t contribute that to lack of quality, so why would we for EQ2. Every UI has it’s pitfalls…actually, I think one of WoW’s strengths is the fact that you can change its vanilla UI….and you can do the same with EQ2.
/Darren adds Relmstein’s blog for fear of being told he’s wrong everyday.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:08 am
actually lotro does have the flexibility to alter and create UI’s much as wow and eq2 does and is very easy to load one in.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:23 am
Not only that Pixie, but I logged int LotRO to see DX10 in action yesterday and it seems to have undergone a lot of work. It’s very clean and informative these days.
Almost had me wanting to play it were it not for the sheer boring tone of the their Middle-earth.
June 9th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
I would have to say that EQ2 (and even EQ) allows much more customizability in the UI department when compared to either WoW or LOTRO. I have seen some completely crazy UI mods for both games. The other edge of the sword is that it is somewhat more difficult add on UI mods to EQ2 and the sheer number of windows and options can be overwhelming. You can screw up EQ2 much more deeply with UI mods.
June 9th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
“?sorry, it?s late and I?m cranky”
You’re always cranky. But as long as you’re cranky and right.
June 9th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I’m going to side with Relmstein for a change.
My impression of EQ2 has always been one of “quantity over quality” and that, to me, certainly does not equal “polish.” Content-wise, EQ2 is the grand-daddy of all MMO’s, it has the most content, bar none. However, how much of that gets utilized? They have additional content packs for purchase, yet every time I ask about it in forums I get “don’t bother” as a response.
I read West Karana and now Journey’s with Jaye and I see what looks to be some excellent content in there somewhere. But I see no reason to punish myself in order to reach it. EQ2 has been nearly the worst (that distinct dishonor goes to Face of Mankind) experience I’ve ever had as a new player coming to an MMO I knew little about. It pushed me away and turned me off on nearly every level conceivable other than the soundtrack. But I’m not paying $15/month to listen to the EQ2 soundtrack…
Maybe there’s something I just don’t “get” about the game. Maybe, like AoC, it’s just not for me. Whatever it is, it did a horrible job of engaging and interesting me enough to bother playing. However, that doesn’t stop me from recommending the game. It’s got tons of content, crafting with a bit of depth and a host of other attractive features, but I don’t know that I’d include an extremely high degree of polish as one of those features just yet.
@Darren: what exactly do you ‘hate’ about LOTRO’s UI? I have a main hotbar on the bottom center, extra toolbars I can enable, a quest tracker, a minimap in the upper right and chat windows in the lower left. I left-click to select things, right-click to interact with things, and a host of /commands or GUI interfaces for everything imaginable. I can move every element on the screen wherever I want and I can skin it. Every other “big” MMO including EQ2 has those exact same things, so… I never really follow what’s so “bad” about the LOTRO UI unless it was those ugly icons they launched with?
June 9th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
@Scott: yeah…it’s the icons and the lack of feedback I get from “pressing” them. Hard to express.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
I agree with Darren that EQ2 is a polished game. It’s cohesive — what’s in there fits together well. And SOE works hard to stamp out the little bugs. I was in the friends-and-family stage of beta (even though I don’t know anyone there closely), and the game was as solid then as most games are after release. I haven’t played it in a long while, and I’m sure there have always been and always will be plenty of things wrong with it, but it does strike me as a polished game.
There are some objective values involved in UI and such, but a lot of its basically preferential. I’ve played over a dozen MMOs, and none of them had a UI that really stands out. I don’t see many differences beyond aesthetics.
Anyway, one of the things I liked about EQ2 when I played was the ability to turn toggle the UI off completely while still being able to control my character with hotkeys. Different people like EQ2 for different reasons, but what attracted me most was its cinematic quality. The visual and audial experience of a beautiful gameworld. If you’ve got a computer that can run good graphics, then put the screen in letterbox, turn off the UI, crank up the music and sound… and the polish is pretty obvious.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
And shouldn’t this post be titled “a wise guy indeed?” Wise men walk around with frankincense and myrrh, or so I am told, and I don’t even really know what either of those are.
June 10th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Wow Darren, at least you admitted it was late.
Lack of responsiveness… I think that’s a good one and I really felt that with AoC and I think that was the underlying issue that was frustrating me.