Carpediem@Antonia Bayle wrote:
The problem with that is, with no real advertising how are they going to get new players?
Personally, I don't think SoE wants new players, and content with a niche market.
Having a huge game gives them a WoW population. SoE never has been a community feedback type publisher (it's trying, but you get the feeling if they could just program and never speak to the public -- like EA does it -- they would in a heartbeat). So having raging 15 year-old nerds on their hands would be a disaster, and too often they're not into lore but the next XBox "gogogo" DPS release. It would ruin the game from the ground up, as EQ2 isn't that type of game. It's one of the last "classic" style MMOs, and the only one with the content to go with it. It's a niche game, with it's own culture and own style (which is why we love EQ2).
Another factor to is the culture of this game as it is now. I agree EQ2 needs new blood, as the community is getting to be dinosaurs (I mean it). Too set in their ways, fighting every step of the way with SoE to ridiculous levels at times, that I wouldn't blame SoE to go on strike. I was here in TSO and all the bickering (even stalked ingame by a guy who took what I said on the forums personally), and it's the main reason why I quit the game. Don't know about others, but they too could've gotten the same treatment and left. The community drives others out, closes the door and ruminates. That's not a healthy environment for new players (which I was). I was pushed out and went to play a game most similiar to EQ2. Worked my way upto the top from level 1, from a newbie to a hardcore raider in 1 year. But I had help. I had advice. I had support. Not only for my class, websites rich in content to help me learn more about my role. I never got that level of help as a new player in EQ2. I love the game alot, but that experience soured me to the community itself.
So I come back because I wanted something I remember that isn't radically changed (like Cata did to WoW). I'm happy to see a world that is familiar, to have appearance slots/housing and actual guild halls/ and harvesting not as a secondary profession (god I even missed the music...EQ2 even has a theme). Things I never forgot in WoW and missed.
Been "homesick" and stuck between two games. One has the content and things I love, and the another I can play to end-game without the roadblocks EQ2 has.
Don't believe I'm the only one. You will meet a lot of EQ players in WoW, and you can sense they miss it too. But their friends and family (and my own family is also in WoW) are there, and it's hard playing alone...especially in a community that treats new players like pariahs.
Like I've said two years ago, EQ2 is not friendly to new players. And my treatment is an excellent example how and why people don't stay in EQ2. The community doesn't accept them and even tells them to kiss off.
So maybe SoE understands this, and keeps the game a niche market for niche players who like it just like it is, until it's down to 1000 players to finally turn off the lights.