I am going to take this moment simply to ***** and moan. I've been playing EverQuest for about a year and a half now, and you'll find I've posted lots of informative stuff around this (the best EQ info) website, as well as keeping an active journal where I've developed storylines for my characters and blah blah blah. Suffice it to say, they've had me hooked and they've got me hooked. Nothing I'm about to say is going to change the fact that as soon as this game is once again operational, I'll be playing it fervently again.

However.

Today is Saturday, December 15th. It's noon now in the center of the United States. Since the game was launched a week ago, this is PRIME playing time. This day, this HOUR is when most EQ players with their shiny new Luclin expansion, are going to be trying to give it a shot. Those people not meeting the (exceptionally hardcore) minimum specs have probably gone out and grabbed some memory, and it's all a go now. Time to play!

Er. No. Every night for the last week they've patched this thing. And right now, at this primo prime-time play moment, it's DOWN yet again. I want to be clear on something. I am not ******** and moaning because they are fixing up something that shouldn't have been released until it was already fixed up. I am ******** and moaning because I am watching those dollar signs drain away REGARDLESS of the fact that this product isn't working.

Let's first take a moment to feel sorry for the person who just recently upgraded from (what was very recently a massive) 128 megs of RAM to (who will ever need) 256 megs of RAM, considered themselves the studs of the block for having such a powerful computer, only to find that EQ is barely operational for them and they're being told you really need 512 megs of RAM. Believe me when I say that this person is not as common as the person who has even LESS than 256 megs of RAM. Those poor people (who have probably invested hundreds of dollars into EQ already) have merely been discarded until they can "catch up with the rest of the world". Certainly that sucks. It is my opinion that Verant should have released this expansion as a stand-alone variety that COULD be tied in to the old world if DESIRED (and if you had the minimum specs). Instead, Verant has effectively slashed its customer base by about half if not more at this moment. Having been online for the past week now, the populations of each zone I traveled through with each of my three characters is about a THIRD of what it was pre-expansion.

(this month REALLY needs to be a freebie, Verant)

Now let's talk about the player who DOES have the required amount of RAM (I have over 600 megs of RAM now, and I'm told to slash that down to 512 megs, or else EQ will crash - let me just say - mwahahHAHAHAHAHAHAHA boy they get you on all ends don't they??), and the player who has everything else up to par as suggested on the Luclin box. I have DirectX 8.1, Windows 98, a 3D Nvidia card with 32 megs of RAM, and so forth and so on. Even at the *lowest* settings of detail and so forth, it takes me about five minutes to look around me in a full circle in the new Vah Shir starting city of Shar Vahl.

(this month really needs to be a freebie, Verant)

Now, it would be one thing if this only affected the new subscriber, but instead Verant has allowed every Windows 95 user in the bunch to be wiped out of the game until they spend the ridiculous amount of money Microsoft wants for a new version of Windows. To me, that's heartless. That's like saying "Hey you there, yeah you! You who have spent about $370 on a game and kept Verant's families well-fed and pleasantly plump - bye!!!"

But when you DO finally upgrade everything and fork over endless amounts of money to ensure your system will handle this beast of burden - BAM -

I can't fricking log on today. During prime time.

I suppose this is to be expected. I remember things *(like)* this happening during the release of Velious (nowhere near this extent). But my bottom line in all this, and probably the only thing that will satisfy my ******** (and the collective, silent ******** of hundreds of thousands of very loyal customers) is this:

(this month really needs to be a freebie, Verant).

Can I add one last kicker?

Every time EQ hasn't worked for me (like today). I've had to find out WHY here. Here. At Allkhazam's. At a NON-VERANT site. Why? Because Sony/Verant has consistently taken their website DOWN when things haven't been going well with their game. Try to go there right now. (Literally right now, while EQ is down). HAHAH!! Just another little slap in the face from a company that should be bending over BACKWARDS to serve the people who have made them "the most successful MMORPG on the planet".

(this month really needs to be a freebie, Verant)