How Not to Sell an Expansion @ Massively
Karen Bryan over at Massively has turned in another great expose on the deafening silence on the upcoming release of EverQuest II: Destiny of Velious. While expectations are ridiculously high and fed primarily by nostalgia, you would think there would be SOME more information about the game at this point. Remember, last year at this time, we’d learned some things about the expansion, started to receive zone and lore previews, etc. We know hardly anything about the Destiny of Velious expansion which was not released at August’s Fan Faire.
One month.
That’s all that’s left before EverQuest II’s new expansion, Destiny of Velious, goes live. I’ve been looking forward to this expansion since 2009, when rumors first emerged that there was some work on Velious content quietly going on. It’s my favorite content from EverQuest, and it really marked a Golden Age for those who look back fondly at the game.
But with one month left, I’m left feeling frustrated and concerned. There’s just too much silence about the expansion and too many questions left unanswered. Read on to see why the blank slate of Destiny of Velious is a troublesome sign for players.
Continue Reading The Tattered Notebook: How Not to Sell an Expansion at Massively.
Tags: destiny of velious, marketing
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Comments (20)
Blockhead
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I watched this game fall apart since about mid 2008, left for good only about 6 months ago, heavy playing over a year ago. Many good friends left when Hartsman left, the rest by the end of 2008. Me though i hung in there hoping things would turn around. I honestly take zero pleasure in the fact the game hits all new lows monthly, weekly, daily since i decided to give SOE the Bird and now the lowest of all lows is upon us, Velious.
Myself and several others where lashed out several months back when we were saying that Destiny of Velious is going to be another failed expansion. Am i here to say i told you so, nope, not at all my friends. I’m here to share in the sadness, the “reality” that SOE is only milking what they can from the game.
A few posters ask if you left then why are you still here, to a few of us posters here. Same reason you’re here, the love of the game which is EQ2. I can tell you there are many players whom still hang on and even if we don’t play doesn’t mean we aren’t hanging on hoping too.
I think everyone has a different threshold though. Knowing what SOE is doing, like cutting off live servers from new blood, cash shop’in stuff on live to test the waters, forcing live players to use EQ2X servers, the list, well it’s a seriously long one. When this sort of behavior is taking place with no regard for the people whom pay them, well, my threshold went 6 months ago, some people, years ago, some two years ago, some 6 months from now, some tomorrow.
Hey but SOE left the live servers alone just like the players asked and didn’t make them F2P. Ever think that SOE did this so vets wouldn’t get in the way of their training new blood that Cash Shop is the the only way to go, why play, just pay, it’s much more fun my younglings. In the background all the old vet servers dwindle and get merged, talk about getting shipped on.
Technically it’s not another NGE, just a more cleverly disguised one. SOE big-cheese talking about SWG “We completely pulled the rug out from under the player base and the community took notice??? Lucky we didn’t say nothing about this before we sold them the expansion /giggles. Imagine if we didn’t wait to release NGE many days after the expansion was sold, imagine how many pre-orders we would have lost. Shhh, quiet. Well we sure learned our lesson we better smarten up and change our approach next time, welcome EQ2X server our little candy coated NGE. WooT!”
Another famous question i read is why do you come here and complain if you left, go find something else. Hmmm, OH wow, what a brilliant idea. Lets; everyone in the world stop complaining about bad products, shoddy support, half baked products, companies who say one thing and do something else completely different the next day. OMG, what a better place we would live in. That’s bordering on an epiphany.
Honey, my new car is missing doors and an engine, i’m going to complain. Oh dear don’t do that, jeepers please don’t complain we wouldn’t want to make the world a worse place to live in would we and deny companies the right to deceive and swindle customers? Yea i guess your right, probably just as well as we’ve had no phone service for at least two weeks and if i had to go down to their office i would have to shower and we haven’t had water for a few days now. But i didn’t complain. Well that’s the main thing dear, we can’t rain on the parade of companies bilking customers, or people opposed to showering, communicating, errrr driving, and so on and so on…
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Steve
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Can I have your stuff?
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Blockhead
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Sure np, but I think the new policy is that i have to give it all to SOE first, then they put it on Station Cash for you.
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Rick
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Lol, omg, that was a good one Stevie! You sure told him. Aw man, still laughing about that, wish I had come up with it by myself goshdarnit.
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joseph
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“Another famous question i read is why do you come here and complain if you left, go find something else. Hmmm, OH wow, what a brilliant idea. Lets; everyone in the world stop complaining about bad products, shoddy support, half baked products, companies who say one thing and do something else completely different the next day. OMG, what a better place we would live in. That’s bordering on an epiphany.”
blockhead makes a good point. we as consumers and players have a RIGHT to complain about bad products we want better and Deserve it. i don’t think that’s to much to ask . if i bought a used car and it breaks down in the parking lot is it wrong for me to say.. i want my money back or a better car?
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foozlesprite
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“””if i bought a used car and it breaks down in the parking lot is it wrong for me to say.. i want my money back or a better car?”””-joseph
It’s more like leaving the car in the parking lot, getting a car somewhere else, and keeping an eye on the original dealer to see if they keep doing it or if you’ll ever be able to trust them again.
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Murfalad
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A simpler explanation is just trolling.
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crabshack
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allow me to be the first…
TL:DR
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Sigtyr
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Well I agree it is strange, on the other hand after the mega failure last time with SF (no store copies, no way of purchasing or pre order the expansion outside the US) it may be understandable why they do not speak about the upcoming expansion. Maybe they fired the marketing dept? That is not too uncommon nowadays and outsource it instead, from SOE point of view it can only get better.
But there is a paradigm shift in EQ2 away from live and towards EQ2X, if you like it or not is of course another thing. My own guess is that the shift to EQ2X came after they realized that EQ2 Live never would be able to get bigger on its own , its an old game, top heavy, not a very good newbie experience getting groups (at least on AB). So the failure in retaining and attracting new players made EQ2V the obvious decision, it is also possible that there is a huge difference in what the people who posts in forums like this likes and what the majority of players likes. There has been a HUGE excitement in the public channels on AB over the (imho silly) vampires.
And if they manage to get the old EQ2 back with content that is a challenge to casual players, where you do not have to grind marks until you cry, where raid loot trivializes both the content and the perception of what is doable in game “you should be able to solo that because I can” they may have a hit on their hands again. I do not think that the “cutting edge” of the EQ2 player base will like that game at all and probably leave, but I guess that SOE knows how large that customer group is and thinks they safely can disregard it.
The thoughless dumbing down of EQ2 since Kunark has only produced a game that is fun if you play a lot and has contains nothing interesting to look forward too if you are a casual player, as I read what Smokejumper have written I think
he wants to change that. And yes it is obvious that SOE are ignoring the previously important customers.
How it will turn out is anybodys guess, this is the last chance for EQ2 I think everybody agrees on that.
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foozlesprite
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I’m not sure SOE has had a marketing department since /pizza. Or if they do, they should be fired, lol.
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Zynthar
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They don’t actually have a marketing department. I forget which developer said it, but they share the over all Sony marketing department with everyone else in the company. Can you imagine that? Let’s see…what are we going to advertise next? Lap tops? Playstation 3? Camera’s? Everything else we have that the public at large actually knows about? … or some online game that none of us play or know anything about.
I’m thinking we won’t ever see any marketing.
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Murfalad
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Some thoughts on SOE at the moment
We know that they have a “lot of irons in the fire” right now, and thinking back they’ve made quite a few short term profit decisions such as selling character slots.
We also know that they have
EQ Next
Planetside Next
The Agency
And until recently DC Universe online
Until recently clonewars
In production, add to that Clonewars last year and a few facebook games too. All of these need
money, especially DC Universe since its been given an unprecedented marketing budget including tv adverts.
While its normal and expected that existing games fund new to release games I think SOE and Smedley have over reached themselves with how much has been taken from EQ2/EQ1/Planetside (Free realms seems to get a lot put back in, and SWG is still tied to lucas arts) to plow into new games. The observation I’d make is that Smokejumper has been quiet recently about it, his job isn’t to moan or complain openly, but it is to fight EQ2’s corner, if he hasn’t got anything good to say then he’ll just say nothing.
If my guesses are right existing SOE games have been under a larger then normal draw of resources, one that will alleviate this year with the release of DCUO and Planetside Next (that train wreck called “The agency” will limp on for another 2 years I guess).
I just hope that Smedley doesn’t believe that if it can continue for a year it can continue indefinitely as it is having an effect and it is being noticed. I know he’s a FPS player these days and no longer does the RPG’s, if so he needs to stand back and let people who do have passion for RPG’s run the show properly resourced.
EQ1 was a golden goose, EQ2 often is painted as a failure because it didn’t beat WoW yet in its own right is a successful MMORPG that many since (AOC/WAR) would have loved to emulate. I don’t think success is guaranteed with EQ Next (e.g. Star wars 1-3!), especially if the current playerbase is not supported well.
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r2d2422
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No-one thought the reason they’re being quiet is because:
a) they are releasing this “expansion” in two parts, separated by a period of several months from part 1 to part 2. One “contested” dungeon? One? Really?
b) the class/ability/AA changes are universally negative
c) the loot changes are universally negative
d) the stat changes are universally negative
e) this is yet another in a long line of “nerf EVERYTHING two steps back prior to the expansion” that $0E can’t seem to stop doing just prior to every expansion since LU13, which was supposed to remove the necessity of exactly this problem. Ever heard of a spreadsheet? Or a graphing calculator? They’re really handy for working with numbers.
And..
Vampires (please, they’re just half elves), flying mounts, and the continual adding of features found in other MMO’s is not helping Velious, $0E. Gearscore? Yeah, there’s a good idea. Universally held in contempt by any sane human, and you voluntarily add it to EQ2? Smart. S M R T.
You really need to look up what the words ‘innovative’, ‘dynamic’, and ‘new’ are defined as in the dictionary, $0E. It’s not going to get better until you do.
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Rick
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Better be careful r2d2…your comments are about to bring about the full wrath of the “just quit” and the “why do you complain if you don’t like the game” community.
What those people fail to understand is this game would have failed long ago if the standard quo remained in place and we just accepted everything the developers and producers thru at us.
What they fail to understand is one day, they will be left playing with themselves because anyone who cared about the game enough to voice an opinion about its shortcomings finally just gave up and left. That day will be here sooner rather than later.
EQ2 is a great game but the powers that be are destroying its soul. Seriously, how can you be one month away from release and not have one screenshot, not one article to build enthusiasm, not one anything other than flying freaking mounts. The next wave of games may not be all that but as long as they are something entertaining, many people will leave SOE behind. The exodus has begun.
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Murfalad
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@r2d2 Being in the beta I can safely say that your comments are just plain wrong, once again its everything (=universally) is wrong nothing is right, even games I dislike such as WoW aren’t that bad.
That’s the problem, I’ve put down my feelings on the past year or so on that things feel negative at times. But its not a black and white thing, too many people out there get a kick out of just posting the-sky-is-falling stories over and over.
It always has to be that everything is broken and nothing works, there is never a grey area with such people or any intelligent points made, and as such their message is always going to be uninteresting and irrelevant.
Seriously, some interesting critism would be refreshing here.
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Vortex
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It’s not that nothing is right, but that the things that they do now are so overbearingly stupid…
That it’s difficult for the good things to event dent the stupidity the other things put forth.
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Feldon
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The comments section of EQ2Wire is rapidly turning into EQ2Flames. I guess I’m going to have to start reviewing and editing posts before they appear.
I especially don’t appreciate “if you don’t like it, just leave”. If you shut down all sites but the ones that unquestioningly support EQ2, all you’d have left is EQ2 ZAM.
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Jason S
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Way I see it, DoV had the PERFECT setup for making previous expansions still mean something. With no level increase, now was the time for SoE to wrangle in gear progression. A gear/stat/class nerf is definitely in order, and I have no problem with admitting that. That is not to say simplification is the answer… because its not, it’s just moronic tbh. However, SoE decided that they essentially wanted to “reset” the game and make everything pre-DoV null and void, instead of wrangling in pre-DoV content/gear and proceeding in a well thought out manner. To simply say that old expansion items will not work in Velious is an extremely poor and lazy way to “fix things.” What they are essentially telling us is that all of our hard work has been for naught. with no level cap increase, I’m really curious to see what Sony HAS been working on… it doesn’t seem to be all that much.
And I understand that gear becomes obsolete every expansion, but every expansion to date has had some sort of level increase…
I won’t go into anything else, because it’s all been said before. I just thought that needed to be said. Sony is just a lazy company when it comes to EQ2. It’s just sad to see a game a lot of us have spent many years of our life enjoying, going in such a poor direction.
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Striinger
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1st, apologies to Feldon if anything I’ve posted sounded like, “like it or leave”. Customers have a right to complain OR stop being customers. “insight” from people who haven’t had an account in months to years is just…well…what happens at EQ2flames.
Reading a lot about the expac I can only say that I can’t correct any speculation here…but much is unfounded. Beta gets so many tweaks that no one can be sure of the outcome details yet.
I agree strongly, though that the gag policy and long lag time of Sony marketing is nothing short of disguisting! Finally, when criticizing the EQ2 team…the Beta NDA being breached will cause you pain, but their employment NDA will take everything they have (and then some).
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Blockhead
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This is the difference i try to convey to everyone about Hartsman years/Golden Era of EQ2, compared to how EQ2 is now.
I went to Starseekers site to ask a question about Rift and OMG Hartsman drops her a line and wants her feedback after the next beta. This is what we are talking about how EQ2 used to be when Scott was running the show.
Check out the comment section.
http://starseekerssanctuary.midnightaeternus.com/?p=203#comments
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