I made a new year's resolution this year to write fewer posts about the EQ2 business model. Part of my reasoning was what I wrote at the time - I felt that I had added what insight I had to the topic. The other was a lingering fear in the back of my mind that something like what happened today was in the game's not too distant future. The damage could have been worse, as the team lost "only" two members, but this does not bode well for the game.
A no win situation?
The game's current producer, David "Smokejumper" Georgson, takes a lot of flack for the state of the game and the seemingly constant push for more revenue over the last year. It now appears that there was an "or else" behind these efforts - earn more revenue or else your staff will be cut to balance the books.
I still strongly disagree with the decision to implement free to play as a separate service rather than biting the bullet and converting the existing servers to the new model. I can also see how the way the game is today might leave longtime players feeling left behind as Smokejumper dictated a focus on streamlining the game and adding more low level content. To those of us on the outside, this shift calls to mind the notorious Star Wars Galaxies NGE, which also alienated the existing players while failing to bring in the new blood that SOE was hoping for.
But what choice do you have in a six year old game when you're told that you are no longer paying the bills? Stay the course and lose staff, leaving you less able to produce content so that you lose more customers, and then lose more staff?
Other Casualties
The two layoffs at EQ2 were actually a very small part of the bloodbath today.
SOE's entire online TCG studio reportedly got the axe. I never actually played Legends of Norrath, other than to open the cards that come with my EQ2 subscription in hopes of getting in-game loot, but I did play the old Lord of the Rings Online CCG that was made by Worlds Apart before SOE bought the studio. I hate the TCG business model, but that was no fault of the team in Denver - the client and everything else about the game was solid work, and I'm sorry to see them go.
The other casualty is the entire idea of having MMO's on consoles in general. It's always risky to base a business model around a platform that someone else owns, because they will almost always someday be in a position to choose their own interest over yours. SOE seemed poised to overcome this obstacle, because the relevant console was owned by their own parent company.
Instead, DCUO has to delay all its patches (if any more are forthcoming) on the PC while the PSN folks do their own testing, and the game's servers need to be segregated by platform (PS3/PC) for reasons that have been confirmed to be non-technical. (Most likely that the two divisions of the same company couldn't come up with any other agreement on how to split the revenue.) Free Realms finally launched on the PS3 more than a year late and with the same server split. The Agency will never launch at all.
If this is the deal you get your own partners, is it any wonder that third party devs aren't making much headway on the console?
What's at stake
Ironically, I'm one of very few who let a Rift subscription lapse yesterday so I could spend more time with a recently renewed EQ2 sub. Most of the game's biggest champions - people like Ferrel and Karen Bryan and Feldon - are now spending their time in Telara, rather than Norrath. Most likely I will be back to join them in a week or a month or two, but for right now EQ2 was the game that I wanted to be playing.
I never played the original EQ, so I don't have the advantage of knowing the world's lore (or the disadvantage of being offended if the latest expansion is inconsistent with it). Instead, my experience with the game is straight up on its own merits. On the merits, EQ2 has the best crafting content - actual separate non-combat questlines - in any game I've played. The game's player and guild housing blow everything else on the market out of the water. But most of all, even with the non-sparkly vampires and the complaints that all the classes now play the same, the game is the one and only MMO where I actually have stories for my characters.
I tried a Rift bard once, and I now understand why Ferrel gripes when you dress a Cleric in something other than plate armor. I have a bard. She has eyes and wings and hair of brilliant green and a pair of flashing blades, and when she fights, she swoops and darts behind foes to cut them down before they even realize where she went. She believes that things happen for a reason, to the point where she's developed way more of a chaotic neutral streak than I ever intended. She joined a guild that hailed from Halas back when that was merely a name in the history books - things happen for a reason, remember - and now that guild hall is such a part of her identify that I don't know that I could transfer her to the free to play server, even if it would save me money.
Her name is Lyriana, and she is a bard. The weird girl in Rift who kills stuff by throwing musical notes at it is what us LOTRO players call a minstrel. Of all the other characters in all the other games and all the time and money I've spent on MMO's, there isn't a single one anywhere else that has as much backstory as my level 20 crafting alts in EQ2. That, for me, is what SOE has accomplished with EQ2 - I'm actually paying them money because I missed a character. That is what is at stake if they can't find a way to make their situation work.
I'm pretty sad that the job just got that much harder.
A Fae's View Of Chronoportal Lore
The following is Lyriana's take on the EQ1 anniversary event in EQ2, which has added a few mini-instances containing some famous mobs from the original game. The devs have stated that this event has no ties to the lore, so Lyriana decided to help out with a little retcon work. Any glaring lore errors are due to my extremely limited knowledge of Norrath. If you think you catch me making not-so-subtle references to a certain other game, you've been reading too long. :)
"Did I get that about right?" Lyriana asked, as she finished attempting to repeat the gibberish that the Erudite Chronographer had been spewing at her for the last ten minutes.
"Other than completely mangling terminology that has been carefully crafted through hundreds of years of Arcano-temporal scholarship?" the mage retorted in an inpatient voice. "Yes, I suppose that will do. So you'll help then?"
"Not even if you tore my wings off!" Lyriana exclaimed angrily. "We have Chrono-Porto-things sending people back hundreds of years into Norrath's past, and you'd like to send an invasion force of adventurers through to try and best the toughest champions history has to offer, back from the grave, all so you can analyze what the planar energy does to the old platinum coins? No thanks, I have a strict policy that if someone comes to me with the stupidest idea I've ever heard, I say no, and you just made the bottom of the list!"
Lyriana stormed off muttering about crazy Erudite plans under her breath. "Like it's MY fault that I asked one of them a simple question about how to absorb the power of a Mythical weapon, and they turned around to develop a technique that would allow some crazed dragon god thing to absorb world-threatening powers off of the signature blades of Qeynos and Freeport? And now... oh dear gods a talking otter."
"Hail to you, adventurer," the Othmir said, raising a paw. "I have come to take the chosen ones of Norrath to Velious."
Lyriana cupped her hands over her nose and mouth and took two deep breaths. "Let me guess," she began, exasperated, "You came through some sort of Chrono-Rift from hundreds of years ago when people actually went to Velious, and now you're going to establish some sort of time foothold thing."
The othmir looked at her, puzzled. "What is a Rift? I assure you, Velious is real and still in the world today."
"If that's the case," Lyriana asked, skeptical, "Why hasn't anyone seen the place in centuries? How are you proposing to get us 'chosen' folks there, anyway?"
"Easy," the emissary exclaimed, pleased to finally have a question he could answer. "We shall ride on the back of the mighty Lodizal."
"The legendary giant turtle that adventurers used to fight centuries ago?" Lyriana asked, incredulously. "That's the stupidest...."
She thought about it for a minute and sighed. "You see, I have this policy about world threatening stuff and apparently this whole rift thing has gotten to the point where it's not at the bottom of the list anymore. So I'll tell you what - I'm going to go try to deal with that, and if this doesn't send all of you crazies back to whatever age you came from, we can talk."
"Did I get that about right?" Lyriana asked, as she finished attempting to repeat the gibberish that the Erudite Chronographer had been spewing at her for the last ten minutes.
"Other than completely mangling terminology that has been carefully crafted through hundreds of years of Arcano-temporal scholarship?" the mage retorted in an inpatient voice. "Yes, I suppose that will do. So you'll help then?"
"Not even if you tore my wings off!" Lyriana exclaimed angrily. "We have Chrono-Porto-things sending people back hundreds of years into Norrath's past, and you'd like to send an invasion force of adventurers through to try and best the toughest champions history has to offer, back from the grave, all so you can analyze what the planar energy does to the old platinum coins? No thanks, I have a strict policy that if someone comes to me with the stupidest idea I've ever heard, I say no, and you just made the bottom of the list!"
Lyriana stormed off muttering about crazy Erudite plans under her breath. "Like it's MY fault that I asked one of them a simple question about how to absorb the power of a Mythical weapon, and they turned around to develop a technique that would allow some crazed dragon god thing to absorb world-threatening powers off of the signature blades of Qeynos and Freeport? And now... oh dear gods a talking otter."
"Hail to you, adventurer," the Othmir said, raising a paw. "I have come to take the chosen ones of Norrath to Velious."
Lyriana cupped her hands over her nose and mouth and took two deep breaths. "Let me guess," she began, exasperated, "You came through some sort of Chrono-Rift from hundreds of years ago when people actually went to Velious, and now you're going to establish some sort of time foothold thing."
The othmir looked at her, puzzled. "What is a Rift? I assure you, Velious is real and still in the world today."
"If that's the case," Lyriana asked, skeptical, "Why hasn't anyone seen the place in centuries? How are you proposing to get us 'chosen' folks there, anyway?"
"Easy," the emissary exclaimed, pleased to finally have a question he could answer. "We shall ride on the back of the mighty Lodizal."
"The legendary giant turtle that adventurers used to fight centuries ago?" Lyriana asked, incredulously. "That's the stupidest...."
She thought about it for a minute and sighed. "You see, I have this policy about world threatening stuff and apparently this whole rift thing has gotten to the point where it's not at the bottom of the list anymore. So I'll tell you what - I'm going to go try to deal with that, and if this doesn't send all of you crazies back to whatever age you came from, we can talk."
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| Not a death rift. |
A Pink Pig-tail Finale
Today is the end of an era in WoW blogs, as Larisa announced the finale of the Pink Pigtail Inn. Larisa has played a non-trivial role in the life of this site, so I feel it only fitting to pay her tribute.
I started my blog a bit after Larisa started hers, but mine was an intentionally soft launch. Though my first post was in April 2008, I viewed those early months as a warm-up for July, when I would actually have time to write on a regular basis. I made a few posts, had the occasional comment, but things here were pretty quiet.
I eventually ended up on Rohan's blogroll at Blessing of Kings, and then one day out of the blue I got a comment on a random post expressing appreciation but pointing out that I did not have a contact email on my page. This wasn't really something that had occurred to me previously, as the idea that a reader might want to get in touch simply hadn't come up. Regardless, I dutifully sent this Larisa character an email, and added a gmail address to the site in case anyone else was similarly inclined.
I hope that she will forgive a bit of skepticism in hindsight - usually, when someone emailing you is supposedly female and from Sweden, the odds aren't that great. The truth is that Larisa turned out to be friendly, supportive, insightful, and thought-provoking. To this day, the PPI is still one of the top traffic sources to this site, and I'm pretty much certain that I have Larisa to thank for the fact that Sweden is the number six country on my "traffic by country" chart.
I don't know where the road is going to take this particular pink pig-tailed gnome mage, and I'll be keeping her spot in my blogroll in case she changes her mind. In the mean time, until we meet again, I wish her all the best and good luck on her journey.
I started my blog a bit after Larisa started hers, but mine was an intentionally soft launch. Though my first post was in April 2008, I viewed those early months as a warm-up for July, when I would actually have time to write on a regular basis. I made a few posts, had the occasional comment, but things here were pretty quiet.
I eventually ended up on Rohan's blogroll at Blessing of Kings, and then one day out of the blue I got a comment on a random post expressing appreciation but pointing out that I did not have a contact email on my page. This wasn't really something that had occurred to me previously, as the idea that a reader might want to get in touch simply hadn't come up. Regardless, I dutifully sent this Larisa character an email, and added a gmail address to the site in case anyone else was similarly inclined.
I hope that she will forgive a bit of skepticism in hindsight - usually, when someone emailing you is supposedly female and from Sweden, the odds aren't that great. The truth is that Larisa turned out to be friendly, supportive, insightful, and thought-provoking. To this day, the PPI is still one of the top traffic sources to this site, and I'm pretty much certain that I have Larisa to thank for the fact that Sweden is the number six country on my "traffic by country" chart.
I don't know where the road is going to take this particular pink pig-tailed gnome mage, and I'll be keeping her spot in my blogroll in case she changes her mind. In the mean time, until we meet again, I wish her all the best and good luck on her journey.
EQ2 Epic Complete
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| Always fun to get a personal grats from a dev, thanks Domino! |
Lyriana has been working on her epic weapon for over a year now. I completed the fabled version in late January 2010 and started working on the quest to upgrade it after hitting the new level 90 cap in June. Unfortunately, I ran into a wall that took a lengthy hiatus from the game and a server merger to overcome.
Mythical History
The upgraded "Mythical" epic weapons, with sometimes class-altering abilities, have been in the game for over two expansions now, and they were causing a bit of a design problem. Classes had been balanced assuming that they had the epic abilities, but the only way to earn the weapons was to complete Kunark-era raids from 2007-2008. Once you had your weapon, you were never willing to use anything else, because it would mean losing your epic abilities. Neither of these conditions was tenable.
In 2010's Sentinel's Fate expansion, SOE added a new quest that allowed players to drain the energy from their epic weapon, gaining the powers that the weapon previously held as a permanent buff to your character. The good news is that this only required single group dungeon content from the new expansion. The bad news is that this quest was now nigh mandatory, as you would always be behind the curve no matter what weapons you obtained in the future if you did not have your epic buff.
Looking For Server
I'm in a small guild called The Halasian Empire from the Lucan D'Lere server, so it wasn't possible to just strong-arm guildies into taking me through the content. Meanwhile, LDL was desperately in need of a server merge due to low populations, but it did not receive one until this past February because it was an RP server, and there was no RP server with room for additional players. This made it nigh impossible to find a group for the epic questline. The big dungeon I needed was a zone called Cella, and I once spent an entire evening asking for it in the LFG channel on a day when it was the daily dungeon quest, without success. This had gotten too frustrating, so I finally gave up.
LDL finally got its server merge into a regular PVE server called Crushbone earlier this year. The improvement is dramatic. It still took about three days to find a group to run Cella (which is now previous-expansion content, and was even less attractive this weekend with the EQ1 anniversary event running), but I was finally able to get a PUG to complete the dungeon last night. Two of the players in the group even accompanied me into a non-instanced dungeon area known as The Hole to kill the last few relatively weak (but not quite soloable) mobs I needed, and I was able to claim my epic prize.
Epic Group Finder
As Rohan said in his Rift-wrapup, it's hard to overstate the impact of not having a dungeon group finder. I actually enjoy single group content when I can actually get a group. The thing that I don't enjoy is having an entire night feel like a waste because I spent the whole time plaintively looking for a group and failing to find one.
There were a lot of problems with WoW's Wrath era heroics (most significantly that Blizzard intentionally packed them with overgeared raiders), but a 15 minute queue time plus a 30 minute dungeon run meant that I could actually do group content whenever I wanted to. Last night's session ended up taking over four hours and running to about 1 AM - fortunately, I was able to find a group on a Saturday, because I'm not young enough to pull those kinds of hours off on a work night anymore.
Overall, I enjoyed the actual content, and I look forward to taking Lyriana's new toy for a spin over the next few weeks. That said, it's somewhat problematic that the logistics kept me from finishing for so long. In an era where group players are increasingly feeling that they're being pushed to the side in favor of solo play, studios need to do a better job of helping people who actually WANT to make the jump from solo to group content do so.
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| Blades, blades everywhere! |
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