I logged into Everquest 2 for the first time in some weeks, the longest break I’ve had from this game since September of last year. I had a good run in the game up until recently but the old-school slow pace of leveling really got to me, something that FFXIV as a more ‘modern MMO’ does not suffer from.
But I logged back in this week to find that there was a bonus XP event on, why hadn’t I heard about this!? Probably because I don’t follow Daybreak Games online, they’re celebrating the launch of the new website, new company logo etc. Since the great cull of the official EQ2 forums last month, I haven’t been following the game as much offline – even when I wasn’t actively playing I liked to keep an eye out for interesting player-guided events but the natural home of that was wiped out along with so many other sub-forums.
Daybreak’s CEO came out this week to say that the days of the “WoW-style MMO” are gone (see Bhagpuss’ post on this). That’s pretty insulting to the current EQ2 player base I would have thought, I have no percentages to go on but if you watch global chat in the game it’s dominated by people looking for characters of this or that classes or role for a dungeon/raid group. Beyond that has Mr Smedley seen how many players World of Warcraft or even Final Fantasy 14 has? Yeah, no one wants instanced group content anymore…
The jarring nature of these comments go deeper than just insulting a segment of the player base though as to me they undervalue EQ2 as a game. There’s no equal to its combination of traditional dungeon/raid content with some of the broadest and deepest alternative MMORPG gaming I’ve seen to date. It still has an amazingly rich housing system and crafting in the game is strongly supported not just as something worth doing but as an alternative focus of non-combat gameplay with its own quest lines and dailies.
So I find myself in the same situation again where I like the game, even love certain aspects of it in fact, but the company running it leaves me less than inspired to keep playing it…
GamingSF 
I hate to play the “insulted” card. I don’t know what Smed may or may not know given his position. Norrath built SOE, but that might not stay true forever. Of course, I have a collection of unfortunate Smed quotes that he later changed his mind on. Norrath may yet live again.
But the hopes he seems to have pinned on other consoles as the bright new beacon that is going to save the company and make Daybreak a power to be reckoned with seems… odd. In my mind that seems to translate to “Not being able to make games for Xbox was all that was holding us back.” Really?
Indeed. Well there was enough of a community uproar to get an official “we didn’t mean that exactly” response: http://massivelyop.net/2015/04/30/smedley-we-will-support-eq-and-eqii-for-the-very-long-haul/
That’s something at least, though whether you or I agree with the direction EQ2 is heading in with the demise of expansions is something altogether different…