SOE attempts to persuade WoW subscribers

[Wizard_01]

From http://eq2vault.ign.com/pagetools/pa...ntnews&id=5774

"EverQuest II - 325,000 Players Strong, No Waiting

EverQuest II continues to grow at an amazing rate, not just in the number of players that have fallen in love with the game's rich, entertaining content, but also in the physical size of the world. We've got over 325,000 people logging in to our servers every week, with no delays or wait times and the game they are playing is only getting better.

Below are a few reasons why we believe that if you aren’t currently playing EverQuest II, you should be. We are committed to our player base and are very passionate about making EverQuest II the best MMO game.

Open Communication
Sony Online has an amazing community relations team that listens to players’ feedback, and let them know what is going on with EverQuest II. Our development team and even our president, John Smedley, often respond personally to players, so players can rest assured that SOE is listening (and reading) and we do care what our subscribers think. Many of the changes that have already been made to EverQuest II (i.e. more solo content, new interfaces, and even quest content) have been a direct result of community feedback.

325,000 Players, No Waiting -- SOE Subscribers Can Play the Game They’re Paying to Play, When They Want To
We believe strongly in ensuring that the players can get into EverQuest II whenever they want. Understandably, all MMO games have downtime for maintenance and patching, but we don’t believe in making our players wait in line to play our games. They’re paying a monthly subscription to play a game and our job is to work hard to let you play it as much as, and when, they choose.

Tons of Content Added Since Launch
Since launch, an enormous amount of free content has been added to EverQuest II. In addition to changes that made the game more fun for soloists and group players alike, more than 1100 quests have been added to the game since launch on November 8th. We've added more than 1200 new items to the game, including more craftable items for tradeskillers, and more loot around the world. Almost 400 new spells have been added and we've worked diligently to make sure our spell effects are as eye-catching as they are powerful. Recently, we added 8 new areas to the world, so there are now well over 100 zones in the world of EverQuest II to explore.

That's not all. We have a very long list of new features, additions, and gameplay enhancements that make EverQuest II even more fun to play, including:

- Greatly increased solo and small group experience rewards
- Mentoring allows higher-level players to “group down” with lower-level players
- Lots of new armor looks
- Two new dungeons available for level 25 to 30 groups
- A dozen new level 50 epic raid zones have been added, including the Draconic quests
- Eight new instanced dungeons for both soloers and groups
- More encounters added for soloers and small groups, including advanced solo encounters
- Tons of new quests, many for solo players
- Sabotage quests that allow you to strike at your rival city
- Training spells added as yet another way to personalize your character
- New examine information added to explain the benefits of spells, arts, food, drink, poisons, and potions
- Brawlers get built-in shields
- Guild followers can now spend the status they earn at city merchants
- Easier to equip rings, wrist items, and weapons
- Maps now show your current heading
- Lots of UI tweaks and enhancements
- Revamped Heroic Opportunities, making them more fun and visually dynamic
- Vitality indicator added to your XP bar
- Tabbed chat windows have been added to organize your conversations
- See what your target is attacking with the new Implied Target window
- More precise, informative AC values
- New heritage quests, including Golden Efreeti Boots and the Crown of King Tranix
- A new con system that allows you to see important information on enemies before you attack
- Longer durations for short-term group buffs and single-target buffs
- Less fizzles on spells meaning more damage more often
- Shorter timers and fewer restrictions on instanced zones
- House pet naming
- All tradeskill classes can now refine their own materials and components
- Wizards and Warlocks go nuke happy with more damage
- Tanks now tank better with increased mitigation
- Easier search abilities so you can find potions, poisons, activated items, and food
- Even more voiceover available for optional download

All of this new content has given players a reason to come back to our world again and again, and we're continuing to make gameplay improvements every month.

Today, Sony Online Entertainment would like to invite players from any game that may be experiencing lines to log in to their servers, a lack of customer service attention, or a lack of new, free game content, to play the EverQuest II Trial of the Isle demo -- We think you'll agree that EverQuest II is a fun, engaging experience that you have to see to believe.

We hope to see you in the world of EverQuest II soon."

[The Bog]

Cunning.

[Mkopec1]

Today, Sony Online Entertainment would like to invite players from any game that may be experiencing lines to log in to their servers, a lack of customer service attention, or a lack of new, free game content, to play the EverQuest II Trial of the Isle demo -- We think you'll agree that EverQuest II is a fun, engaging experience that you have to see to believe.

OUCH! SoE is going for the throat!

[Braen]

First rate!

They could say: "Hey, we know we fucked up then, but who is fucking up now?"

[Mkopec1]

Remove that fucked up shared EXP debt and I would check it out again.

But Untill then my middle finger goes out to SoE and their stupid exp debt bullshit.

[Sanchek]

It sounds great till you actually download the 1.7gb trial and play* it.

* if by play, you mean suffer through.

[Mkopec1]

Originally posted by Sanchek
It sounds great till you actually download the 1.7gb trial and play* it.

* if by play, you mean suffer through.

Come on now, its not that fucking bad.

Suffer through it? Wait lemme guess!

the character models sucked...

Ohhh wait I got it! the Graphics sucked.

[PigBenis]

oh yeah i wanna suxx0r their SOE man cock

[frott]

They could also say "Ignore our completely fucked up track record for a second and the fact that back when we were "fucking up" we had the opportunity to be completely amazing but didn't feel like it due to the lack of competition making it, basically, unnecessary."

[Mkopec1]

How bout:

Bwahahhaa! We told you WoW sucked! Now come back home to daddy!

[Asmadai]

Originally posted by frott
They could also say "Ignore our completely fucked up track record for a second and the fact that back when we were "fucking up" we had the opportunity to be completely amazing but didn't feel like it due to the lack of competition making it, basically, unnecessary."

Or they could call Blizzard out on their fucking spectacular track record? Cause we all know Starcraft and both of the Diablo's were just online gaming GOLD.

Although they are obviously sucking SoE's proverbial dick, they make valid points. Too bad the "brown shading everywhere" makes the good points null and void tho. Too bad.

[The Bog]

Originally posted by Sanchek
It sounds great till you actually download the 1.7gb trial and play* it.

* if by play, you mean suffer through.

Woah woah woah, stop there buddy, I see what you were trying to do.

At the moment the hot topic is WoW content patches, and how unpopular Blizzard are for not making them. You currently need to be remembering your EQ days with nostalgia and mentioning going back to it every 2 or 3 posts, and say how you are "considering" EQ2.

Okay, you're good to go.

[Daerath]

Originally posted by Mkopec1
Come on now, its not that fucking bad.

Suffer through it? Wait lemme guess!

the character models sucked...

Ohhh wait I got it! the Graphics sucked.

I played EQ2 for a few months and it was kinda cool, but it still failed in the "casual player" department. You can play casually, but that forces you to play a class that can solo really well, or a cleric so you get groups quickly.

The tradeskill system is neat, but it becomes tedious very quickly. Sorry, but I don't want to buy overpriced components or perform like 10 subcombines just so I can make an Adept 1 spell that became available to me at like 15th level in Scribing. If the low level recipes are like that, wtf would a max level recipe involve? 493 combines please!

Add to that the fact that many of the drops for marginal tradeskill items are so absurdly rare that affording them is difficult (especially if you are a casual player and therefore not very wealthy because your rate of income is lower).

XP debt is annoying as shit. I didn't think it would be that bad until I was in a group that just had a few bad encounters and wiped three times in a row due to mistiming of roamers and repops. That sucked ass.

I like instanced zones because they let multiple people do the same group of monsters at the same time.

Hell, of all that, I'd probably still be playing, but the tradeskill system is the main reason I left. It became too annoying too quickly and I had high hopes for the TSkill system.

All that said, I might check out EQ2 again, but not unless I stop playing WoW. I like WoW. It's fun. I also didn't power my way to 60th, so I haven't run into the endgame issues yet. I started on one server, then moved to another one, and made a horde and alliance character. By the time I hit 60th on both of them I'm hoping that the problems have been fixed.

If not, I'll just work on the epic mount for Night Elves. That'll take a while. =P

[Braen]

Originally posted by frott
They could also say "Ignore our completely fucked up track record for a second and the fact that back when we were "fucking up" we had the opportunity to be completely amazing but didn't feel like it due to the lack of competition making it, basically, unnecessary."

Actually SoE had TONS of competition during it's run.

OU, AO, DAoC, AC 1 and 2, EVE, Earth and Beyond, World War 2 Online.

Maybe because they still had a better product than their past competition they didn't see a need to excell. Not that that is a forgiveable attitude by any reach of the imagination.

Competition doesn't make a company work hard, only GOOD competition does.

You think Microsoft with Windows needs to fix all it bugs because millions of customers will move to OS2 Warp, Be-OS, Linux or a Mac?

WoW is the first real competition EQ has ever faced. They have owned up to it and the SoE/EQ2 dev team has done a bang up job doing exactly what people have asked them to do.

Blizzard has moved down the road SoE used to pave, maybe they thought if SoE could get away with it, Blizzard (a more respected gaming company) definately could.

At least one fo them is making a real effort now.

[FuckYou]

Fuck them - no way. There's a point where you just cant and wont go back to a company that was so fucking stupid that they lost any future chance to prove themselves.

Thats my stance anyway. They could implement the /blowjob command I would still not try their shit.