Producer's Letter: January 29, 2007 :: EverQuest :: ZAM

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Producer's Letter: January 29, 2007Jan 30th, 2007 at 1:22 PM by Railus

Here is the latest Producer's Letter (as seen on EQLive):

I wanted to start off this Producer's letter by saying THANK YOU to all of the beta testers that are actively participating in The Buried Sea beta. I know that jumping into a work in progress can be frustrating at times, but the teamwork between the developers and the players really makes EverQuest into the classic that it is. Special thanks go out to the guilds that are helping with the larger tuning tasks.

Being able to participate in beta tuning is a huge job for both the developers and the testers involved. I know that many of you want to help out with each beta and we welcome the extra help. We wanted to get in a few new guilds to help us this time around. We tend to stick with guilds that have proven in past beta's that they are professional, on time and willing to work with our developers to ensure a better game for everyone else. If you have not participated in beta tuning with the developers, don't worry. We plan to cycle in new guilds when needed and will send out open calls in a similar manner as we did on The Buried Sea. The guilds that are listed below have all contributed to the tuning passes we are doing on this expansion.

Midnight Tempest - new beta testing guild from our board recruiting
Silent Redemption - new beta testing guild from our board recruiting
Fire & Fury
The Relentless
Silent Resurgence
Township Rebellion
Triality

Our internal Quality Assurance department is hard at work checking all of the new zones, quests, items and additional content that will roll out in The Buried Sea next month, and the work is right on schedule.

I plan on having a weekly feature on the webpage leading up to the launch of The Buried Sea as well, which we kicked it off on Friday with a feature on the Guild Banners. If you haven't seen it - go check it out! They are really cool and they should help guilds out quite a bit by reducing downtime and travel time.

I have been reading the boards regarding me taking over the reigns as Producer, and I appreciate the votes of confidence, and also understand the skeptics. The development team and the community have seen many people come and go, and I was aware of that when I joined the team. I am looking to bring a new angle to EverQuest. As I have said before, my intentions are not to change the game, but I do believe that there are quite a few things that could be done to make playing it more fun.

While I can't comment on promises made in the past, I can listen to you now and work with you to make this game a place that you love to come back to everyday. Changes can take some time but making sure that the right changes happen is far more important than rushing anything. Just remember that I am listening, so keep posting!

Clint "Jourdian" Worley
EverQuest Producer
Sony Online Entertainment

Tags: EverQuest, News

Comments

all soe cares about

# Feb 07 2007 at 3:33 PM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1591815999232

17 posts

all boils down to any company starts off yes sir please and thank you. once they get big and a sucess it's ***** you we don't care. it's all about the money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money
money money money money money money money money money money money money moneymoney money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money

Edited, Feb 7th 2007 6:35pm by Cougarmagic

Improve the game

# Feb 06 2007 at 12:06 PM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1593966003786

15 posts

I have ordered every expansion, usually I don't get to the newest expansion until everyone has already moved on. I agree that the expansions are coming out way too fast. I also believe that instead of adding more zones, it would be really nice if they just changed some of the existing ones. Kind of like they did to Splitpaw. I admit I am a casual player with a real life so it is difficult for me to keep up with all of the changes. I agree that it is time that there was a comprehensive guide for EQ. I can not imagine very many new people actually be willing to try and grasp all of the game, and I do admit to being jealous of the people who can just give a stone and have their corpses appear right there. I remember when I lost a full level trying to get my corpse back from Lower Guk

My main wish would be to bring back the Stormhammer server, I was there since it first started. Once the GM's and SOE figured out how to involve people they became my favorite EQ experiences. Finally, I agree with the poster who says we need to attract more people to EQ. New Customers are the basis of any business, and as we all can see by the server mergers the customer base is shrinking.
Bring 70 Ranger semi-retired

My input as well

# Feb 05 2007 at 5:53 PM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1662337106093

View User Forum

14 posts

I happen to agree with everyone here that EQ is concentrating on Way too much time on expansions and very little time on fixing bugs and problems in the game. I had a problem where everytime I zoned into a TSS zone, I crash to desktop. I waited about 3 weeks hoping tech support or the game makers would fix it, but they didnt get around it. I went to tech support so many times about this crash bug and they kept giving me run arounds which did nothing for me. There is a player in my guild that also had a similar problem, he coldnt logg on his main toon at all and tech support just kept giving him run arounds and did nothing to solve his problem. He was having this problem for OVER 6 MONTHS and none of the tech support did anything. He gave an ultimatum fix the problems or he is cancelling his account, he hasnt been on cause they still did nothing. I sincerely hope EQ developers are reading this.

toon

# Feb 04 2007 at 8:33 AM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1618792172162

View User Forum

27 posts

i dont mean to complain but i cant get toons back when u did what ever to billing .. u took last 2 slots with my two higher toons in it .... so how do i acsess the help gm .. cant figure out ...
thanks

repost

# Feb 02 2007 at 9:29 AM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1592303259695

3 posts

Sorry for the double post. One last thing since im reposting yet again =)
Buyers/barter in bazaar is terrible, one thing i can think of to help it out,
make a search command that can search through all your bags and show what you own that can be sold, even better let it search your whole bank, this way tons more would have buyers and every1 would make a stop to the bazaar!

Driztalin The Champion of Magic 75 Human Wizard 1537AA
Kagnorok 75 Ogre Shaman 800AA
Acrobat 75 Shadowknight 140AA
Drinal

please fix trhe Billing issues

# Feb 02 2007 at 9:22 AM Rating: Decent

View User Forum

ZAM Administrator

1,230 posts

please fix the Billing issues

If you want us to buy in game the modulues- allow us eaiser way to update our Credit card Experation or new Card with out haveing to DELETE our ACCOUNT and create a new one.

I should be able to update my Credit Card with out going to Customer Support because the normal proces wants me to rebill to a lower package and I dont what to loose the $99 a year one I currenlty have. But inorder for the customer Service aggent to due that he needed me to rebuy the $99 now insteed of later when it is due in AUG.
Just so I can buy the new EXPASION now. I dont think that is right.

Improvements

# Feb 02 2007 at 8:58 AM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1592303259695

3 posts

Heya Jourdian, first off I would like to say that many improvements to eq have greatly increased my joy. Guild lobby / rest time / bazaar / guild banners / Instant wizard spells / vet rewards This being said and moving on towards the common goal... with the new low numbers im finding we need to support the players with NPC that say could cast 96 rez or maybe a step further .... buffs for plat, you could take some of the pp in game and absorb it by having a famous group of warfarers that are resting from a vicious adventure in the middle of the guild lobby, any buff RKI would be available for a price! get raid buffed or just a tenacity, up to you and your current mission goals or plat resources will determine what u pick. Something like 100pp for ten 500pp for raid buffed. DOWNtime would be reduced, allowing the nice rezzing/buffin toons we usally lean on to go out and adventure. AND ppl with no rez character can have their independence. I believe that this would revitalize the game.

Side notes sk get 90 rez / throw them a bone
wizard and druid can teleport yet not fly over 1 foot.. make it 10
make mounts stop fast...I ride horses for a living in real, and they can!
Thanks for listening =)

Driztalin The Champion of Magic 75 Human Wizard 1537AA
Kagnorok 75 Ogre Shaman 800AA
Acrobat 75 Froglok Shadowknight 140AA
Drinal

Improvements

# Feb 02 2007 at 8:55 AM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1592303259695

3 posts

Heya Jourdian, first off I would like to say that many improvements to eq have greatly increased my joy. Guild lobby / rest time / bazaar / guild banners / Instant wizard spells / vet rewards This being said and moving on towards the common goal... with the new low numbers im finding we need to support the players with NPC that say could cast 96 rez or maybe a step further .... buffs for plat, you could take some of the pp in game and absorb it by having a famous group of warfarers that are resting from a vicious adventure in the middle of the guild lobby, any buff RKI would be available for a price! get raid buffed or just a tenacity, up to you and your current mission goals or plat resources will determine what u pick. Something like 100pp for ten 500pp for raid buffed. DOWNtime would be reduced, allowing the nice rezzing/buffin toons we usally lean on to go out and adventure. AND ppl with no rez character can have their independence. I believe that this would revitalize the game.

Side notes sk get 90 rez / throw them a bone
wizard and druid can teleport yet not fly over 1 foot.. make it 10
make mounts stop fast...I ride horses for a living in real, and they can!
Thanks for listening =)

Driztalin The Champion of Magic 75 Human Wizard 1537AA
Kagnorok 75 Ogre Shaman 800AA
Acrobat 75 Froglok Shadowknight 140AA
Drinal

Where is the marketing?

# Feb 02 2007 at 4:15 AM Rating: Decent

3 posts

Unless it is SOE's intent to let EQ exist and then die off slowly by catering only to existing players, some resources absolutely must be spent on marketing, and this includes boxed sets of the all too frequent expansions.

As I walk through any store that sells games, I see games like WOW, Oblivion, Vanguard, etc. prominently displayed. Where is EQ? When I am asked about what game I play, unless people already know about it, when I tell them EQ they have this questioning look and reply "Everquest, hmmmm, not familiar with that one." Lack of public awareness is the absolute deathknell for any commercial product.

Attrition of longtime players is a natural occurance. However, attracting new players to the game is as or perhaps more critical to its survival than frequent additions of new content for existing players. (As an aside, veteran players please be tolerant of and help the newbies. You may need to recruit that new player later when your raiding guild's principal warrior has to quit playing because they switched to second shift)

I see the absolute need for placing boxed sets in stores, complete with a good PRINTED manual for getting started. I was lucky enough to have relatives who played who could guide me, others are not so lucky. The tutorial is good, but there are dozens of game features and tweaks which can't be covered by the tutorial and people who get frustrated will eventually leave. It would also be nice if the updated game on display were accompanied by a demo disk running on the store's display computer. Perhaps even a point of purchase floor display with the with the boxed sets on it. Advertising works.

New content is nice, but most can't keep up with expansions every 6 months. However, even with server mergers, without a steady stream of new players, SOE is simply accepting the death of the game. The only variable is time.

Save the game...

# Feb 01 2007 at 6:07 PM Rating: Default

__DEL__1592759552183

33 posts

Hi Clint, I copied and pasted this from another thread. It is a post I made regarding the many good ideas I've come across on the boards here on how to save the game...and yes, it needs to be saved from the sometimes not so slow death march it's been on over the last couple years. A lot of people still care about this game, I hope you do as much as you claim.

Quote:

I wonder if anyone from SOE ever comes by and reads any of the posts here. What they would see, if they did, is the overwhelming majority of people that have no intention of buying the new expansion and/or no interest in any of it's features. They would see several good ideas on how to maintain and *gasp* even expand on the current community. In a nutshell, here are some of the ideas, gleaned from these message boards as well as others, that make sense for revitalizing the EQ world. (in no particular order)

1. Advertise the game in print or television media. Let people know it's still alive.

2. Offer the games on disk again as well as digital download. This also let's people see that their ARE still other games out there besides WoW when they're shopping their local Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.

3. Slow down the expansion rate to one every 9 - 12 months instead of every 6 months. Quality control becomes a serious issue when you rush a largely untested product to market that fast.

4. Fix existing bugs, broken quests, etc. No one buys a new car and settles for the fact that the tires are flat, it has no seats, and the transmission doesn't work. We as the consumers shouldn't have to accept a broken game either.

5. Continue to revamp old zones, improving drops, drop rates, quests, quest rewards in the revamped zones. This does NOT mean turn every old zone into a high end guild raid only zone. Zones like Splitpaw needed a freshening up, not an extreme make over.

6. Add content for the casual player. Something the level 11 - 50ish player can do for decent exp be it quests, mobs, whatever.

7. Add content for the solo or small group players. see above. The community is dwindling. Give the people you have left something to do that doesn't require being in the largest of guilds.

8. Another server merge is probably in order if you aren't going to take aggressive steps to build upon your customer base so that there's more than 2 people in any given zone to group with.

9. Add 2 extra character slots so that people can try out other race/class combinations instead of having to open a new account to do so because (news flash) they won't.

10. Do NOT increase the monthly subscription rate again until you address all the issues raised above and probably not even then.

Anybody have any others to add?

please fix known bugs/issues

# Feb 01 2007 at 1:10 PM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1592767776744

5 posts

Hi Clint,

Please fix the bugs that are still in the game and have been there for many years.
Also fixing the broken quests would be great!
I don't mind paying for quality content but I am annoyed when new expansions come out and the open bugs from the previous expansion and the one before that and the one before that... are still there.
Fix the broken product!
PLEASE

thanks,

re: The Buried Sea

# Jan 31 2007 at 2:43 PM Rating: Good

Sage

76 posts

From a purely personal viewpoint, and not having seen the new expansion yet I have to say that the very LAST thing I wanted in an expansion was more " pirate " content, this is to me the epitome of how far out of touch SOE is with the player community. I have multiple accounts, and I'm NOT buying it...in fact, SOE couldn't pay me to download it. If this is any example of what the devs think the EQ community wants, they all need to rethink their whole game plan. One more of these useless expansions, and my accounts will no longer be renewed. Pffft...

Kinderslye
Paladin of Brell
Quellious server

____________________________

There are three things in life that I'm sure of:

No good deed goes unpunished...ever...

No matter where you go....there you are.

Ignorance is a condition that can be remedied by education and experience...but there is no cure for stupidity.

He seems cool....

# Jan 31 2007 at 12:59 PM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1684109816485

95 posts

This dude seems into his job at least, thats a good thing. One improvment that i would like to be is the bugs getting fixed! Though not everyone wants to buy nex expanions, I know a lot more people would like to get some of the bugs out there fixed! And, Shanlomin is right, his new position will be very demaning, but hopfully, you'll do well, Good Luck. And, Don't wine about things that need to be fixed. If this guy really is good, we don't want him to quit or something, do we?

Everquest is fun

# Jan 31 2007 at 12:28 PM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1592342126940

Scholar

16 posts

You seem like a great person interested in making everquest more fun, i like you. you will do a great job, enjoy your job thats the key. just filter out all the white noise like the first post by qquarios and your set :)

Listening eh?

# Jan 30 2007 at 3:20 PM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1591846823046

4 posts

If your listening then why do we still have this new Petition system? It is the worst idea in a long time. Its just plain useless .Ever hear the saying"If it aint broke dont fix it"?Well gratz .....you broke it.

Listening eh?

# Jan 31 2007 at 4:11 AM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1591922654322

5 posts

I feel the need to post a reply here. I had the need for help, and used this system, and got a reply within an hour of posting the problem. While it took a few posts and replies to solve the problem, each reply was received in a very short time.

It is a bit less convenient, but, the repy time for me was shorter than it was with the other system.

Listening eh?

# Jan 31 2007 at 7:20 AM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1591923581434

2 posts

I agree, I have used both systems and got a much faster response with new system. Response time was 30 mins with the new system. Old system was lucky to get response by the next day.

Listening eh?

# Feb 15 2007 at 12:03 AM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1591762755253

115 posts

Disagree most heartily! At the last patch, the upgrade mysteriously deleted one of my level 70 spells. You all should know how hard it is to get one of the glowing runes, and all of mine have been paid for with hard-earned DKP points.

The problem really got frustrating when I tried to submit a petition. They put me into the on-line system, and I studiously entered all the information that they request, (no trivial task I assure you). When I tried to submit it, the system kept giving me a cryptic message that I needed to update my email address. Unfortunately, there was no entry field to do so, no matter how hard I searched for it. The long of it (there was no short of it) was, you needed to update your email address before they would accept your petition, but there was no way to do so. I tried going into account info and fixing it there, but nothing I did worked. I finally gave up in frustration. I know the system deleted the spell, because the next glowing rune I got produced the next spell in the line. Therefore, I can't even go back and get the original spell.

I tried to log into the chat room. Sitting there for 15 minutes, there was not a single person on line, nor did any log on during the time I was there. Now I haven't been into the chat room for a long time, but it used to be full of people asking for help. Did they all just give up and go away? Like I did? In my book, the new petition system sucks big time, dudes.

Flewid Stumbledore, 73rd Druid on Prexus

EQ Improvements

# Jan 30 2007 at 3:16 PM Rating: Decent

__DEL__1591922654322

5 posts

Hoping you read these forums, Mr Worley.

First improvement to EQ would be to QUIT MAKING EXPANSIONS DOWNLOAD ONLY!!!!!!

As I am sure you know, hard drives can be fickle, and it isn't a matter of if it will crash, but more when. Thus, reformatting then reinstalling software becomes an issue.

I, for one, would greatly appreciate the time savings re-installing a large program as EQ from CD or DVD rather than have to wait for much longer to wait for downloads to finish. It takes a lot less time to install from disk than to download each expansion.

I don't need a new keychain in a box to be enticed to buy an expansion. The expasnion should sell itself. (By the way, Buried Sea is not selling itself well to me.)

Good luck with your new position, it will be demanding, I am certain.

Shalomin
Bard 71
Drinal Server

EQ Improvements

# Jan 31 2007 at 10:19 PM Rating: Decent

View User Forum

Scholar

428 posts

Hey Shalomin, I also play on Drinal. I learned years ago to backup my eq folder and documents years ago. Just save them to an external hdd, a disc of some sort, on another computer, a different partition... something.:)

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