EverQuest, for a change, is dying (like Superman)

Some threads on Fires of Heaven boards are just really funny to read. The news originating this thread is about the price increase of EverQuest Live (the classic) monthly fee:

Hello everyone,

It’s amazing that we’re now six years since the launch of EverQuest, and even more amazing to see so many people enjoying the world of Norrath. I know that the development team has exciting stuff planned for the coming months (look for an announcement soon!) and they are dedicated to keeping EQ fresh and alive with all the best technology has to offer.

EverQuest is in its 6th year of existence and while we have continued to bring new content for everyone to enjoy, the cost of operating a top tier MMO has increased significantly during the past three years. Today I am writing to tell you all that we will be increasing the subscription rate for EverQuest effective June 12, 2005. The new monthly subscription rate will be $14.99/month.

On which I have two comments:

– Every time an (unavoidable, I’m between those pushing for higher monthly fees in the genre) price increase happens the only two relevant considerations are about “timing” and “reasons”. As it happened for DAoC, SOE couldn’t have chosen a worst moment. It’s just a month that they closed half the servers and the “increased operating costs” excuse is really not believable.

– This price increase favors even more the “all access” pass (if they do not rise shortly the price of this one too) that I quickly commented here. But in this case we are talking of the classic EQ. If the players move from a single EQ subscription to the all access pass, they’ll directly gain the possibility to play EQ2. So this price increase could accelerate the migration of players from a game to the other.

Instead the FoH’s thread goes on the topic “EQ is dying”, which is also interesting to discuss aside the commonplaces and that type of drama that we all know so well. My opinion is that EQ isn’t dying now, but it’s dying since day 1. Because it represents a type of development that brings directly to the actual decay of a game word (remember my “MMORPGs will die” claim?). More on this in a few days when I’ll archive some comments I wrote about EQ2 on F13 forums.

—

Vaclav:
The game isn’t dying – try actually logging on and that would be quite apparent.

No person currently playing would tell you that the game is dying – XP groups are a bit harder to find during the day – but the raid element of the game is still just as vibrant as ever.

Hard to make a diagnosis without even being in the same room as the patient, Dr. Jait.

Itzena:
See if you can follow the bouncing ball of logic, Vaclav, and fill in the blank.

The number of EQ servers has been halved.
The individual populations on each of the new, combined servers is about where is used to be a year or so ago, pre-mergers.
Therefore, the overall subscriber base has _______.

Vaclav:
…stopped playing in contested zones where population controls truly matter.

The wonders of instancing allow you to cram 10-15x the same players into the same instanced zone if not more without detrimental effects.

And for CS and maintenance purposes, its alot easier to watch 20 servers than 40, isn’t it?

They probably wanted to do this years ago, but only once DoN was released was there plentiful, popular instanced XP and raid content so that players wouldn’t be constantly banging heads.

Cup half full, cup half empty? Only difference is I play the game currently, so I have first hand input that contradicts your OPINION. And as a matter of fact the other few EQ1 players still here say the same.

When 100% of the people that know the current status of the product firsthand disagree with you, its time to admit you’re fucking wrong and move on.

DJk_Zero:
Actually the game is dying, sorry to burst your bubble. The only reason raiding is flourishing is because most of the top guilds said goodbye and left the people who are like 1-2 years behind the times to fill the void.

Now couple that with a complete lack of “newbies” leveling up to fill the natural turnover and I don’t see how the hell you can call the game stable and flourishing.

Vaclav:
I still see many guilds with the manpower, focus and experience to raid content 20+ days a week in many cases – I personally see massive numbers returning or acknowledging WoW as a casual game to play in the mornings and raiding in the evenings in EQ1.

Now the fun of this last comment is both in the emphasis of the passionate defence that brought this player to the typo, and in the fact that I could actually portray one of those guys using a time machine in order to catass more at his game of choice :)