bgrifter wrote:Lack of better options, familiarity and ingame friendships kept most of the people I know around. Eventually that ceased to be enough, mass quittings during the GoD era and beyond just worsened the problem.
Eh... I left before GoD, I left at my PvP servers during PoP; PvP was just not doable anymore and people wanted to have the uber gear so teams went to hell and people crossteamed just to be able to survive in those planes. I moved to the european servers (VS) and left after a month out of sheer boredom; EQ 1's PVE was boring, quests were boring, and after years of play there was no discovery effect anymore... new planes? Weee... great, always the same thing with a different look.
GoD was an additional time sink that even the most addicted guilds refused to play
This time around the rules have changed, you can play EQ2, or WoW, or Ryzom, or Guild Wars, or a myriad of other options.
Mmmmh... EQ has not been alone for 4 years, UO still has players, I think AC1 does too, Anarchy Online, Dark Age of Camelot, Neocron etc were all present these last 2-3 years.
Considering SOE's tendancy to insult the intelligence of their customer base as you mentioned, I can't imagine why given options and a blank slate someone would even consider EQ2...
Blizzard is more insulting in my book... they know nothing of network security (what did they give to the people who played the special servers on Diablo 2 when they were hacked?) They know nothing of originality, they are basic to the extreme... DAOC? They can't balance stuff, and bring a solid nerf in each patch... and from time to time a mega nerf (berserkers, animists, rangers). Electronic Arts (UO and EAB) well they created facets on UO, Richard Garriott left the game altogether, and they closed Earth and Beyond and Motorcity online. Sorry but in this market you won't find a single company that will not disappoint people at some point.
I can chose to spend my time the way I see fit. SOE's made mistakes, all game companies have made mistakes... maybe I'm in a game for the long run? Maybe I just want to spend my time having fun, and if things turn the wrong direction they won't see me there anymore. All games I have played have had good momments until something went wrong with them in MY opinion.
I had a great time in UO until the facets, I had a great time on Rallos and Vallon Zek (EQ) until Planes of Power (edit: put Portals, those who ran BBS's probably remember the original PoP), I had a great time Arena Duelling on Anarchy Online before the OE patch, and so on... for Ryzom I can't say I've had a great time besides the exploration or running from Tryker to Matis/Fyros; I've been waiting for the advertised stuff and grinding meanwhile, or roleplaying with people... but other games allow me to do that. Maybe in a couple of months, it was the same with Anarchy Online, the first months were pretty bad (although AO had more variety in mobs, areas, more challenging duels, lots of roleplay props aka clothes - glasses and useless accessories - and even a couple disco bars).
I'm not praising SOE, far from it. I hate the company, not the game. If you chose to refuse playing a game because it comes from a specific company you may lose an opportunity to find a game that suits you. You have to dissociate the CSR, Devs and Company: some of these people made the game with 'love', they want it to be succesful because it's their creation, while the company is only interested in money. The ones who want the money are the ones giving directions sadly. But well, I am no "fanboi" I'm an opportunist/edonist who takes pleasure where it can be found as long as it can be...