Launch is about 10 weeks away... And still no real videos, screenies and news?

[Titigabe]

Hi there...I'm always estonished the way SOE consider his strategy when it comes to communication.If we have a closer look at the RoK web site, or if we try to get screenies, information and videos on the internet, it's really hard to find something new, or something really interesting.It should be something with a huge hipe around it, to get the attention of people, but it looks like it's all but that.Too bad.

[LordPazuzu]

No one has ever accused SOE of knowing how to properly build hype around a game.  EQ2 would have a much higher sub base if SOE would just advertise the [Removed for Content] game more.

[Drager]

<div align="center"><span style="font-size: xx-large;">HEY ADVERTISING </span><span style="font-size: xx-large;color: #990000;">.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.</span><span style="font-size: xx-large;">RISE of</span><span style="font-size: xx-large;"> KUNARK</span><span style="font-size: xx-large;"> .'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. for EVER QUEST 2 </span><span style="font-size: xx-large;color: #0000cc;">.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.</span><span style="font-size: xx-large;">BUY THIS GAME IT IS </span><span style="font-size: xx-large;color: #990000;">.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.</span><span style="font-size: xx-large;">SUPER</span><span style="font-size: xx-large;"> AWESOME</span><span style="font-size: xx-large;">.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.<span style="font-size: small;">my work here is done </span></span><img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /><span style="font-size: xx-large;"></span></div>

[Zabjade]

<span style="color: #00cc00;">Preaching to the Choir here, we already have the game. you need to take it out to the streets <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></span>

[ke'la]

<p>I think if SoE every proporly hyped their games, especally the ones that are ACCUALLY worth the hype I think something would happen that is simaler to someone discovering exactly what the Universe is for and Why it is here.</p><p><span style="color: #000000;">Narrator: There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarrely inexplicable. - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy</span></p>

[walaruss]

there are videos out there on other websites, there is a high quality fan faire video and there are a lot of screenshots on other sites, but there is nothing on the official website, sure they have a lot of work on RoK atm but to refresh the website for new products is a must for a every company, hell even we subscribers want to know whats going on. 95% of the playerbase even dont read these forums.

[bunnykiller69]

<p>I completely agree with this post, I came back looking forward to this expansion and I expected, as the release date got closer they would give us more info to pump us. They have been so quiet I have gotten sleepy again and haven't logged in about 2 weeks. I would have expected something official by this point. Hopefully its amazing enough to get me to reactivate I recently canceled again after 7 months off because of the lack of incentive to stay.  Been playing eve online....Free expansions weee...</p>

[Willias]

Yeah, gotta admit...  there ain't much out there about RoK that isn't about Timorous Deep.We've pretty much been told that "hey, these are the areas we're trying to get in" but since that... there hasn't been much of anything.It's lame.  >:(Best one I've seen so far is <a href="http://eq2.warcry.com/images/view/22077" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this one</a>.C'mon SOE.  How about some not-Timorous Deep screenshots?

[Iad]

I'm getting antsy waiting for beta to start!

[DerykRenaln]

<p>Try looking at various websites. There are several videos out about RoK on third-party websites! MMORPG.com video interview:<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/setView/videos/gameID/2/videoId/1102" target="_blank">http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/.../2/videoId/1102</a>TenTonHammer video inteview during E3 2007:<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/9013" target="_blank">http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/9013</a>EQ2Vault screenshots of RoK:<a rel="nofollow" href="http://eq2vault.ign.com/fullstory.php?id=30990" target="_blank">http://eq2vault.ign.com/fullstory.php?id=30990</a>MORE EQ2Vault screenshots of RoK:<a rel="nofollow" href="http://eq2vault.ign.com/fullstory.php?id=32404" target="_blank">http://eq2vault.ign.com/fullstory.php?id=32404</a>Let's not also forget there was FanFaire 2007 in Las Vegas last month; GenCon 2007; GC in Leipzig, Germany; PAX in Seattle; and E3. All of these had SOE reps "hyping" up RoK and EQ2 in general! So I would hardly say that it is fair to say that SOE does not hype up its games. Just because you don't see SOE ads on TV (which btw no other MMO is advertising that way) does not mean they do not hype up their game. The best advertsing I might also add is word-of-mouth from players of games, not TV or movie advertising, nor print for that matter! Those that enjoy the game and pass it on get others to play. Why my circle of friends ALL play EQ2 now, simply because of my and another friend's word-of-mouth hype of EQ2. And that includes 4 new people from me alone! Plus my brother might come back to the game when he gets his new computer built!<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Iad]

How about something besides the starting area.

[Willias]

<cite>DerykRenaln wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>-snip-</p></blockquote>Notice that the majority of that is Timorous Deep, the new newbie zone.Need some mainland Kunark pictures!  There's like... 5 of them.Edit:  And need more information about the whole Iksar vs Sarnak thing.  Can we side with either side?  Or will be all be stuck working with sarnaks?  D:

[ke'la]

<cite>DerykRenaln wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Try looking at various websites. There are several videos out about RoK on third-party websites! MMORPG.com video interview:<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/setView/videos/gameID/2/videoId/1102" target="_blank">http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/.../2/videoId/1102</a>TenTonHammer video inteview during E3 2007:<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/9013" target="_blank">http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/9013</a>EQ2Vault screenshots of RoK:<a rel="nofollow" href="http://eq2vault.ign.com/fullstory.php?id=30990" target="_blank">http://eq2vault.ign.com/fullstory.php?id=30990</a>MORE EQ2Vault screenshots of RoK:<a rel="nofollow" href="http://eq2vault.ign.com/fullstory.php?id=32404" target="_blank">http://eq2vault.ign.com/fullstory.php?id=32404</a>Let's not also forget there was FanFaire 2007 in Las Vegas last month; GenCon 2007; GC in Leipzig, Germany; PAX in Seattle; and E3. All of these had SOE reps "hyping" up RoK and EQ2 in general! So I would hardly say that it is fair to say that SOE does not hype up its games. Just because you don't see SOE ads on TV (which btw no other MMO is advertising that way) does not mean they do not hype up their game. The best advertsing I might also add is word-of-mouth from players of games, not TV or movie advertising, nor print for that matter! Those that enjoy the game and pass it on get others to play. Why my circle of friends ALL play EQ2 now, simply because of my and another friend's word-of-mouth hype of EQ2. And that includes 4 new people from me alone! Plus my brother might come back to the game when he gets his new computer built!<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />" width="15" height="15" /></p></blockquote><p>I guess you don't watch G4, I see WoW adds there all the time(they use a scene from Office Space usually(that one just after he took down his cubical Wall)).</p><p>The sad thing is SoE is a Division of Sony Pictures yet there seems to be no use of that marketing power, heck put Station Access Trial Keys in the DvD cases or something.</p>

[Drager]

ya thye really need to do something to hyp this game you know if the put the girl that got voted for antonia bayle up on tv they would probable get alot more players sex sells

[ganjookie]

I would expect that SOE makes more money selling the information to the 3rd party websites as "exclusives".  Thus not much info on thier own site.At least that is what I would do.  I could also claim that the videos/pics where not official so I could change stuff around w/o worrying about the public blasting me if I had put it out.

[Rad]

It's good to see people pushing to get the game advertised and excited about trying to get new users to play......But when we end up with "It's time to slay the dragon" again, you're going to be sorry you said anything <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[boogar]

It's funny that there are other games coming out with expansion's in the coming months and there are quite a few trailer's with information about them. There is hardly any info out for the Kunark expansion other then the noob starting area.  SOE is horrible at marketing.

[Seablade]

Anyone know when the BETA will start?

[Jaargen]

<p>What makes you think that Sony is bad at advertising?  Just look at the success of Betamax, the Minidisc and UMD disc. <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/ed515dbff23a0ee3241dcc0a601c9ed6.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p><p> Anyway, all joking aside, I wanted to make a post like this a month ago but I figure it would land on deaf ears.  In the past, Sony seems to sit on all thier information until a month till the release and then release small info weekly with the last segment due out AFTER the expansion is released.  To me, this is just annoying.  Even if it was just a single screen shot a week, it would still be something.</p><p>I have the feeling that SOE operates on the field of dreams idea, if you build it, they will come (so why advertise?).  I think in the past SOE did make mistakes in EQ1 by releasing controversial ideas they were planning and lead to a firestorm.  They might be trying to avoid that by releasing no information.  That works as well as if you get hangnails, cut off your finger.  SOE has to get it through thier heads that if they release a small steady stream of information, they can keep people interested in what is coming without starting a firestorm.</p><p> Anyway, maybe someday SOE will learn but I have no idea when.</p>

[Blumfield]

<div><p>Maybe their marketing expenditure is appropriate for eq2's product life cycle.</p><p>That is to say, they make good profits just retaining customers.  To really compete with WoW from a marketing perspective could entail a huge expense, considering how ubiquitous that product is.  Maybe they don't think they get much return from trying to market it half-posteriored, since the mmorpg customer base already has formed assumptions about products as old as EQ2 and WoW.  Instead, they'd probably rather push a new product (a la vanguard) that has no baggage rather than try to aggressively re-market eq2.</p>You know, I know and they know that we'd buy this product based on past product quality, even if we could only see one RoK screenshot before launch.  They're probably smart to go barebones with the marketing, with that in mind.</div>

[BarrowBott]

I can't figure out why we still can't preorder this game at EBGames Canada.  You can already preorder the next WoW expansion, which is coming out god knows when, and you still can't preorder RoK.

[Blumfield]

<cite>BarrowBottum wrote:</cite><blockquote>I can't figure out why we still can't preorder this game at EBGames Canada.  You can already preorder the next WoW expansion, which is coming out god knows when, and you still can't preorder RoK.</blockquote><div>Here's your answer--based on year+ old information, but you get the idea</div><div><img src="http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff199/Schmutzen/marketshare.gif" border="0" alt="" width="911" height="623" /></div>

[Nayurayne]

<p>It's just another starting area video but so far this is my favourite of the ROK videos I know about. Mostly because it shows of the Sarnak...and I love the Sarnak.</p><p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.uberguilds.org/radio/node/165" target="_blank">Clicky</a></p><p> Edit: Oh and I completly agree about the fact you're not able to pre-order in Canada...I mean how hard could it be to set that up. I don't want to download digital because I have a compulsion to have the box. It might be stupid but hey. </p>

[Couching]

I am so surprised that the the market share of everquest and everquest2 are so low comparing to other games. sigh

[Drager]

well i look at it this way ever since i was 10 i wanted to play EQ so when i saw EQ2 in stores i was like oh [Removed for Content] and quikly bougth it and began enjoying my life for the next 4 years <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /> loli think SOE is sort of expecting this from new customers or people who already play the game to pull more people into its cluches

[ke'la]

<cite>Couching@Crushbone wrote:</cite><blockquote>I am so surprised that the the market share of everquest and everquest2 are so low comparing to other games. sigh</blockquote><p>a) that graph is from befor EoF and WoW:BC the populations of those two games have shifted a great deal sence then.</p><p>b) that chart is based off of VERY questionable statistics</p><p>c) if you beleave the developers Lineage has over 12mil subscribers to WoWs 8mil so how can WoW have greater marketshare then Lineage.</p><p>::EDIT::</p><p>as to the point the person that posted that chart is trying to make, market share has NOTHING to do with store shelf availablity, other wise you would not see 8ft shelf sections with nothing but WoW and another with nothing but LotRO on it, while squeezing all the single players stuff to 1 shelf.(single player computer games still have a HUGE market share advantage over MMOs). The reason WoW is available and EQ2 is not, is because Blizzard PAYS EBGames lots of money to make it available.</p>

[Blumfield]

<cite>ke'la wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Couching@Crushbone wrote:</cite><blockquote>I am so surprised that the the market share of everquest and everquest2 are so low comparing to other games. sigh</blockquote><p>a) that graph is from befor EoF and WoW:BC the populations of those two games have shifted a great deal sence then.</p><p>b) that chart is based off of VERY questionable statistics</p><p>c) if you beleave the developers Lineage has over 12mil subscribers to WoWs 8mil so how can WoW have greater marketshare then Lineage.</p><p>::EDIT::</p><p>as to the point the person that posted that chart is trying to make, market share has NOTHING to do with store shelf availablity, other wise you would not see 8ft shelf sections with nothing but WoW and another with nothing but LotRO on it, while squeezing all the single players stuff to 1 shelf.(single player computer games still have a HUGE market share advantage over MMOs). The reason WoW is available and EQ2 is not, is because Blizzard PAYS EBGames lots of money to make it available.</p></blockquote><div>You missed my point.  We're actually in agreement.  Sony is one of the biggest corporations in the world--of course they can get shelf space if they want it.  In fact they do get it; you can find plenty of sony games out in stores.   You can find a sony game--but can you find any expansion of eq2?  Point is, they've made a choice about an aging product with a weak market position:  they're marketing to existing customers rather than to potential new ones.  That's all.  Shelf space costs money (or it has an opportunity cost of what other products could occupy that space); indeed, even online shelf space (i.e. advertisements to pre-order new expansions) has costs associated with it.</div>

[Drager]

no see all we have to do is get a celeberty playing EQ2 who will get way too into it and make a religion out of it so everyone will join EQ2

[Tyrus Dracofire]

lack of pre-release expansion would still hurt since no one knows too much, and once it hit the shelves, then too many folks are still cautious or leery to waste hard earn cash. SOE should have had post a few teasers instead of waiting for release date or holding for conventions, to keep posting a few teasers will keep folks begging for more by not giving all the details at once. i have been waiting for long time to see new breed of weapons, elemental weapons, but these adornments are cop-out, it would be neat to see "Sword of Efretti Lords" with flaming effects and red blade, or how about "Shard of Vox" with icy effects and able to see cold damage ice effects? acid drips from weapons and burn tiny holes for few seconds. lightning arcs in attack trail of the weapons. i had made suggestion more than 2 years ago for additional AA elemental tree for resistances and damage masteries, which would make lot of characters to get "unique" instead of clones. more AA variants mean more challenges for PvP since many would need to find weakness to exploit and switch tactics.

[MullenSkywatcher]

<cite>Drager@Nektulos wrote:</cite><blockquote>no see all we have to do is get a celeberty playing EQ2 who will get way too into it and make a religion out of it so everyone will join EQ2</blockquote>Curt Shilling doesn't count?

[BarrowBott]

<cite>Schmutzen@Vox wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>ke'la wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Couching@Crushbone wrote:</cite><blockquote>I am so surprised that the the market share of everquest and everquest2 are so low comparing to other games. sigh</blockquote><p>a) that graph is from befor EoF and WoW:BC the populations of those two games have shifted a great deal sence then.</p><p>b) that chart is based off of VERY questionable statistics</p><p>c) if you beleave the developers Lineage has over 12mil subscribers to WoWs 8mil so how can WoW have greater marketshare then Lineage.</p><p>::EDIT::</p><p>as to the point the person that posted that chart is trying to make, market share has NOTHING to do with store shelf availablity, other wise you would not see 8ft shelf sections with nothing but WoW and another with nothing but LotRO on it, while squeezing all the single players stuff to 1 shelf.(single player computer games still have a HUGE market share advantage over MMOs). The reason WoW is available and EQ2 is not, is because Blizzard PAYS EBGames lots of money to make it available.</p></blockquote><div>You missed my point.  We're actually in agreement.  Sony is one of the biggest corporations in the world--of course they can get shelf space if they want it.  In fact they do get it; you can find plenty of sony games out in stores.   You can find a sony game--but can you find any expansion of eq2?  Point is, they've made a choice about an aging product with a weak market position:  they're marketing to existing customers rather than to potential new ones.  That's all.  Shelf space costs money (or it has an opportunity cost of what other products could occupy that space); indeed, even online shelf space (i.e. advertisements to pre-order new expansions) has costs associated with it.</div></blockquote>You can preorder the expansion at EBgames in the states, you just cannot in Canada.  That's what I don't understand.  Market share has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with this, I mean what are the percentages for CoH/CoV and Guildwars?  Not high, that's for sure... But there was a preorder event for the new Guildwars expansion and CoH is still on the shelves.

[yellowbelly08]

<p>Sony was in position A only a couple of years ago with vast resources and the sucess of the PS2 etc. However they have seriously dropped the ball. An appalling launch range of games for the PS3 now sees it languishing far behind the xbox360 and even bizarely Nintendos wee (nintendos innovation and marketting is amazing and more than makes up for inferior hardware> In my local superstore i was amazed to see games from every platform including psp and pc on the shelves BUT NO SIGN OF A PS3 GAME. As for EQ2, well the majority of the in the know mmorpg community aknowledges eq2 as the best game currently out there, but the layman and general public DOESNT EVEN KNOW IT EXISTS.So easily fixed:</p><p>1. Pay the games mags and stores money too to compete with Blizzard.</p><p>2. Rok bundled with all other expansions and main game and a short tv advertising campaign of high res in game footage (similar to that recently seen with the likes of Bioshock)</p><p>EQ2 is your sleeping monster Sony.......wake up and realise this.</p><p>Galoro Nagafen</p>

[The_Real_Ohno]

<cite>yellowbelly08 wrote:</cite> <blockquote><p>EQ2 is your sleeping monster Sony.......wake up and realise this.</p><p>Galoro Nagafen</p></blockquote><p>Man that is soo true!</p><p>QFE</p>

[DerykRenaln]

<cite>Ohnoez@Nagafen wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>yellowbelly08 wrote:</cite> <blockquote><p>EQ2 is your sleeping monster Sony.......wake up and realise this.</p><p>Galoro Nagafen</p></blockquote><p>Man that is soo true!</p><p>QFE</p></blockquote>QFEI would also agree with this!

[VizP]

While I really want EQ2 to get the recognition it deserves outside the MMO community, I dont think the sleeping monster should be awakened completely. Imagine EQ2 swept by the populace and the community deteriorating to the type in Wow. Now I think that would be heartbreaking!Lucky I doubt EQ2 will ever have the insane numbers that WoW has and thank goodness, a middle line would be just perfect. If only SOE would just wake up and help give the game the push it needs. I mean come on, you cant even see EQ2 in the stores in the UK - the EoF box is rarer than a class fabled drop.

[Gargamel]

<p>I happen to believe that they are relying on a beefy LU39 to bring back some returning players just before RoK is released, as part of the promotional strategy.</p><p>October 17th (or 24th) they will release LU39, and as part of it will include the Halloween live event, and also the new Shard of Fear (group instance) and Shard of Hate (raid instance) zones off the Feerot.</p><p>They already added the audio files (check your music folder) and are hoping the new content will bring people back just 3 weeks before RoK is released, convincing people to buy RoK and continue playing once veryone moves to the 65+ content contained therein.</p>

[Blumfield]

<cite>BarrowBottum wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Schmutzen@Vox wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>ke'la wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Couching@Crushbone wrote:</cite><blockquote>I am so surprised that the the market share of everquest and everquest2 are so low comparing to other games. sigh</blockquote><p>a) that graph is from befor EoF and WoW:BC the populations of those two games have shifted a great deal sence then.</p><p>b) that chart is based off of VERY questionable statistics</p><p>c) if you beleave the developers Lineage has over 12mil subscribers to WoWs 8mil so how can WoW have greater marketshare then Lineage.</p><p>::EDIT::</p><p>as to the point the person that posted that chart is trying to make, market share has NOTHING to do with store shelf availablity, other wise you would not see 8ft shelf sections with nothing but WoW and another with nothing but LotRO on it, while squeezing all the single players stuff to 1 shelf.(single player computer games still have a HUGE market share advantage over MMOs). The reason WoW is available and EQ2 is not, is because Blizzard PAYS EBGames lots of money to make it available.</p></blockquote><div>You missed my point.  We're actually in agreement.  Sony is one of the biggest corporations in the world--of course they can get shelf space if they want it.  In fact they do get it; you can find plenty of sony games out in stores.   You can find a sony game--but can you find any expansion of eq2?  Point is, they've made a choice about an aging product with a weak market position:  they're marketing to existing customers rather than to potential new ones.  That's all.  Shelf space costs money (or it has an opportunity cost of what other products could occupy that space); indeed, even online shelf space (i.e. advertisements to pre-order new expansions) has costs associated with it.</div></blockquote>You can preorder the expansion at EBgames in the states, you just cannot in Canada.  That's what I don't understand.  Market share has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with this, I mean what are the percentages for CoH/CoV and Guildwars?  Not high, that's for sure... But there was a preorder event for the new Guildwars expansion and CoH is still on the shelves.</blockquote>Whilst I wasn't arguing that market share <i>causes</i> EQ2's retail coverage to be lower, I was suggesting that this is an observable <i>effect</i> of a marketing strategy.  (i.e. few big promotions, some markets missing out on pre-order, lack of advertisement in gaming press, almost 0 shelf space devoted to eq2 related products, etc.)  It's interesting, really.  In terms of product quality, EQ2 is arguably tops marketwide in every category:  graphics, gameplay, story elements, mix of raid/group/solo content... which can only lead me to believe that this is a choice by Sony not to invest in recapturing market share with this particular product.  Presumably they're planning to do that with EQ3 or some other future game or combination of games.

[Razak]

Generally the 3-4th years of an MMO tend to have the highest subscription rates assuming that the game doesn't completely fall off after 3 months... This was true for EQ1 and I think will turn to be true for WoW as well... think there are several other games too.... the only game I know of that has done well past an aweful launch has been Anarchy Online and that was fairly short lived about 2 years later.Now EQ2 seems kind of in an interesting position as it did have a huge fall off after the first 3 months, but it I think it rebuilt a bit with EoF quite well.... however, SOE may have decided that the rebuilding was not enough to warrant putting all their cards into it, they may be waiting to see if RoK may rebuild more... I thinK RoK is in prime position as EoF was actually going against WoW's first expansion which a lot of people were really excited about, but was a disappointment... since then many WoW players have been looking for something else and RoK has a good chance to recapture some marketshare... in addition to the old content maybe bringing back more EQ1 players.It is difficult to fully tell whether SOE has given up completely on trying to really build EQ2... I would guess they have at least a vested interest in maintaining it's population in hopes that EQ3 can recover, because if they don't maintain well, then EQ3 will likely flop regardless... plus EQ2 is still SOE's #2 game which warrants it at least some money on marketing. (Though honestly, I think they market EQ2 far more than 1.)

[Lightstrider]

I posted a thread somewhere else about what I thought might be subtle in-game marketing, but no one has responded so I don't know if it is or not.  When you first launch the game, the Everquest II logo comes up over the EOF scenery...that artwork is looking extra-flamey these days, it seems to me.  I am wondering if they added the orange  or not,  maybe as a way of indicating the approach of battle, i.e. ROK.  I could be wrong, as I don't normally pay much attention to that screen, it just looks different lately.  Not that this type of marketing would help with people who don't play the game, but there it is. 

[BarrowBott]

<cite>Razakius@Mistmoore wrote:</cite><blockquote>Generally the 3-4th years of an MMO tend to have the highest subscription rates assuming that the game doesn't completely fall off after 3 months... This was true for EQ1 and I think will turn to be true for WoW as well... think there are several other games too.... the only game I know of that has done well past an aweful launch has been Anarchy Online and that was fairly short lived about 2 years later.Now EQ2 seems kind of in an interesting position as it did have a huge fall off after the first 3 months, but it I think it rebuilt a bit with EoF quite well.... however, SOE may have decided that the rebuilding was not enough to warrant putting all their cards into it, they may be waiting to see if RoK may rebuild more... I thinK RoK is in prime position as EoF was actually going against WoW's first expansion which a lot of people were really excited about, but was a disappointment... since then many WoW players have been looking for something else and RoK has a good chance to recapture some marketshare... in addition to the old content maybe bringing back more EQ1 players.It is difficult to fully tell whether SOE has given up completely on trying to really build EQ2... I would guess they have at least a vested interest in maintaining it's population in hopes that EQ3 can recover, because if they don't maintain well, then EQ3 will likely flop regardless... plus EQ2 is still SOE's #2 game which warrants it at least some money on marketing. (Though honestly, I think they market EQ2 far more than 1.)</blockquote>Where are people getting the EQ3 business from?  What makes you think that there will be an EQ3?

[Blumfield]

<cite>BarrowBottum wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Razakius@Mistmoore wrote:</cite><blockquote>Generally the 3-4th years of an MMO tend to have the highest subscription rates assuming that the game doesn't completely fall off after 3 months... This was true for EQ1 and I think will turn to be true for WoW as well... think there are several other games too.... the only game I know of that has done well past an aweful launch has been Anarchy Online and that was fairly short lived about 2 years later.Now EQ2 seems kind of in an interesting position as it did have a huge fall off after the first 3 months, but it I think it rebuilt a bit with EoF quite well.... however, SOE may have decided that the rebuilding was not enough to warrant putting all their cards into it, they may be waiting to see if RoK may rebuild more... I thinK RoK is in prime position as EoF was actually going against WoW's first expansion which a lot of people were really excited about, but was a disappointment... since then many WoW players have been looking for something else and RoK has a good chance to recapture some marketshare... in addition to the old content maybe bringing back more EQ1 players.It is difficult to fully tell whether SOE has given up completely on trying to really build EQ2... I would guess they have at least a vested interest in maintaining it's population in hopes that EQ3 can recover, because if they don't maintain well, then EQ3 will likely flop regardless... plus EQ2 is still SOE's #2 game which warrants it at least some money on marketing. (Though honestly, I think they market EQ2 far more than 1.)</blockquote>Where are people getting the EQ3 business from?  What makes you think that there will be an EQ3?</blockquote><div><p>I don't know anything about eq3.  But Norrath's a beloved and well-known universe that countless consumers have played in on eq1/eq2, so it stands to reason that someday they'd reincarnate it with a new graphics engine, historical period, etc.</p>To the poster before:  it's funny because eq2 is like two different games.  In hindsight, the gameplay mechanics of the launched game were mediocre at best.  Now, I daresay they're great.  Unfortunately, a lot of people formed their opinions about eq2 based on the released game and will never try this much-improved version of it.  So as a marketing department, the question would be:  how do we let people know this isn't the same eq2 you beta'd?  Not an easy task--much easier to create buzz around a brand new product (be that EQ3 or something entirely different) that consumers have no pre-conceived notions about</div>