Archived from groups: alt.games.everquest (More info?)
Hi guys.
I have done some looking into the Legends server and unfortunately have
been quite disappointed by what I have found out so far. If it were what
it could be and was priced fairly for what it offers in comparision to
other alternatives available today such as EQ2's online community
features (which only cost 2.99 a month for all of them if you get the
extras above what's free). I mean, at 40 bucks a month considering what
the server has to offer players today it is no wonder people often write
about it dying off, including people who are on the server.
So, I went to the Legends pages on EQLive and found a link to write to
the folks who run Legends I think it is. Here is the email I sent them
last night:
Hi,
I've been playing EverQuest for just about a year now and my main
character is a level 65 High Elf Cleric. Currently, I have an SOE All
Access account so that I can also try out EverQuest 2 and Planetside.
I've reviewed the Legends tour on the Website and I like what I see
there very much. But I do have some concerns I want to ask you about and
a suggestion to make while I am at it.
First of all, I have read threads and posted a query on the Legends
server boards (official and user run ones) and most of the feedback has
been on the negative side from players on the server. Their concerns
have run from Web features they say did not work or work correctly for
long periods of time, lack of GM run events on the calendar at times and
other lesser things to the most important one of all: the server
population is very low and SOE does not seem to be actively marketing
Legends such that one could hope this is going to change.
Now, I am not making any complaints myself as I have never played there
but if these things are in fact still true, it is hard to justify any
additional expense to play there. Add to this the fact that for cheap
money (2.99 a month) EverQuest 2 players get a very similar set of Web
features available to them, in fact more comprehensive features really
with such niceties as guild chat with friends in game even when you are
not in the game yourself, and one has to question how Legends can
possibly be worth 40 bucks a month.
And I suspect many other players view these issues in the same way,
which further contributes to the problem of low server population. Even
so, I don't know what is actually like to play on Legends, what the GM
events are like or how often they actually occur, if there are items
that actually reasonably attainable that are unique to Legends and
worthwhile, etc. With the player feedback I've read it is hard to
discern what is actually working as promised on Legends and what is not.
And I guess what I am telling you is, is if my experience as an EQ
player looking into Legends leaves all this room for doubt, how many
other players have looked at it and felt the same way? How much has this
stuff hurt the server's population and the success of the feature from a
business standpoint for SOE?
Then there is my problem as an All Access account holder wanting to play
there. There is no means I know of to do this. I either have to give up
All Access for a regular EQ account to play on Legends or just forgo
playing on Legends. You guys need to address this. I am not willing to
do that. I have a hard time imagining any All Access account holder
being willing to give that up to pay twice as much for a server that
basically does not have a great reputaion at this point. Again, I am not
saying these things to you just to complain about them. I am saying them
because I hope this can be forewarded to decision makers in management
and I hope prompt some discussion about how to fix the perception the
player community has of Legends, fix the All Access Pass issue and make
Legends what it could be so that it turns into a profitable venture for
SOE and a fun place to play for us at a reasonable cost for what one
gets in return.
Given these concerns it is not hard to see why Legends is not doing well
today. And as someone who loves EQ enough to pay a premium to play on a
special server, I care enough to write this lengthy missive to you and
ask you to do something meaningful to correct this situation. I want
Legends to be a success again, if it ever was. But I want to be able to
play there for a reasonable cost in addition to my All Access Pass
account without having to give it up. I also want confirmation from you
that the problems I have read about have been addressed. Lastly I would
like to see you do some real marketing of Legends to bring new players
to the server. To that end I have a few ideas for you to consider if
they have not been brought up by others already:
1.) Promote Legends in a big way on the EQLive Homepage. One link to an
ages old tour isn't going to do it anymore. You need to make something
new to draw players in. You need to forthrightly speak to players about
the issues of the past on Legends and tell them what you have done to
fix them. In short, you need to give players a very good set of reasons
to want to come there to play. What you have now is not enough. It is
not working as far as I can tell and if that is so surely you must know
that better than I.
2.) You need to rethink the pricing for Legends. Who is going to pay 40
dollars a month to play there when alternatives like EQ2 with their new
community Web features are available complete for only 3 additional
bucks a month? EQ2 players get a new more attractive Norrath visually, a
new kind of gameplay in the same wonderful world, Guild Web pages, out
of game guild chat, screen shot storage to share with friends, a
Magelo-like feature to show off their characters and gear, an
Allakhazam-like database of in game items with info about the item and
even who first discovered it in the game, etc. And that is just the
stuff I can remember off the top of my head. Personally, I don't think
Legends ought to cost any more then $9.99 additional per month and only
then if everything is working as advertised. I think a price reduction
like this coupled with an active marketing campaign on the EQLive site
would bring the influx of new players to the server that would solve the
population problem. I recognize that this is business and the bottom
line is this feature needs to generate profit for SOE to be worth doing
and I do not have the data to know what is needed to make that happen.
But I can at least operate on the assumption that with marking and a
substantial price reduction the increased number of users of the feature
would be enough to make it profitable. Surely you guys could study this
and find the magic number for anticipated number of users that means
profit for you and success for the server in terms of numbers for the
players.
3.) You need to make Legends available to All Access account holders
easily without forcing them to choose. Because All Access account
holders will almost all ways choose to keep what they have and represent
a lost opportunity for Legends. Here you have SOE's highest paying
customers and yet they cannot play on Legends. That this has not been
addressed a long time ago astounds me. Personally, where the work to
create the Legends service has all been done you might as well
capitalize on that investment by using it to add value to All Access
subscriptions. Have you ever considered giving it to All Access account
holders or perhaps giving it to them cheaply? Right there you could
probably do wonders for the server population.
4.) You need to look for ways to improve and expand upon what Legends is
today in terms of features. You need to add real value so that players
find Legends worthwhile enough that they come to play there.
The hard fact is that right now most users believe that Legends is dying
(is it?) and that SOE does not care about this issue at all. You don't
have to take my word for it. Go read the message boards on EQLive and
better still the user run boards. I am not saying I feel that way. I
wouldn't take all this time to write to you about it. I think highly of
SOE myself in general and consider EverQuest to be the best and most
entertaining PC gaming experience I have ever enjoyed. That is why I am
bothering to write to you today about Legends. Because I hope you will
consider the things I am saying here and take some action to make
Legends a success.
If I thought I could safely assume there was a diverse player population
such that I could enjoy playing with others at all levels of play with
different characters ranging from my 65 main to my baby alts and if I
knew that all Legends features are now working as advertised, I might be
willing to pony up for Legends and move my toons to the server. Keep in
mind, I would be coming from Stromm where this is no shortage of other
players at all levels of play. Stromm is an active busy place most of
the time despite recent losses to other titles like EQ2 and WoW in
particular. I know I cannot expect a premium priced server like Legends
to have quite this kind of population but it's hard to decide when I
cannot tell what to expect. And if I do move to Legends I understand I
am there for 30 days whether I like it or not.
So please respond to this letter and give me some idea of what plans if
any you have for Legends marketing, pricing and features availability as
advertised. And at the minimum, do something about making Legends an
option for All Access Account holders. I will look forward to hearing
from you.
Thanks very much,
--
All the best,
Michael
============================================
So there you have it. I think that brings the issues right up front for
them as this player sees them. It will be interesting to see how they
respond to this email. When and if they do I will let you guys know what
they had to say. In fact I will likely just paste into a post on this
thread whatever reply I get from them.
Do any of you play on Legends or have you before? What do you think of
the service and the server? All comments welcome.
--
Get Thunderbird - Reclaim Your Inbox
http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/
Get Firefox! - The Browser You Can Trust
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
Hi guys.
I have done some looking into the Legends server and unfortunately have
been quite disappointed by what I have found out so far. If it were what
it could be and was priced fairly for what it offers in comparision to
other alternatives available today such as EQ2's online community
features (which only cost 2.99 a month for all of them if you get the
extras above what's free). I mean, at 40 bucks a month considering what
the server has to offer players today it is no wonder people often write
about it dying off, including people who are on the server.
So, I went to the Legends pages on EQLive and found a link to write to
the folks who run Legends I think it is. Here is the email I sent them
last night:
Hi,
I've been playing EverQuest for just about a year now and my main
character is a level 65 High Elf Cleric. Currently, I have an SOE All
Access account so that I can also try out EverQuest 2 and Planetside.
I've reviewed the Legends tour on the Website and I like what I see
there very much. But I do have some concerns I want to ask you about and
a suggestion to make while I am at it.
First of all, I have read threads and posted a query on the Legends
server boards (official and user run ones) and most of the feedback has
been on the negative side from players on the server. Their concerns
have run from Web features they say did not work or work correctly for
long periods of time, lack of GM run events on the calendar at times and
other lesser things to the most important one of all: the server
population is very low and SOE does not seem to be actively marketing
Legends such that one could hope this is going to change.
Now, I am not making any complaints myself as I have never played there
but if these things are in fact still true, it is hard to justify any
additional expense to play there. Add to this the fact that for cheap
money (2.99 a month) EverQuest 2 players get a very similar set of Web
features available to them, in fact more comprehensive features really
with such niceties as guild chat with friends in game even when you are
not in the game yourself, and one has to question how Legends can
possibly be worth 40 bucks a month.
And I suspect many other players view these issues in the same way,
which further contributes to the problem of low server population. Even
so, I don't know what is actually like to play on Legends, what the GM
events are like or how often they actually occur, if there are items
that actually reasonably attainable that are unique to Legends and
worthwhile, etc. With the player feedback I've read it is hard to
discern what is actually working as promised on Legends and what is not.
And I guess what I am telling you is, is if my experience as an EQ
player looking into Legends leaves all this room for doubt, how many
other players have looked at it and felt the same way? How much has this
stuff hurt the server's population and the success of the feature from a
business standpoint for SOE?
Then there is my problem as an All Access account holder wanting to play
there. There is no means I know of to do this. I either have to give up
All Access for a regular EQ account to play on Legends or just forgo
playing on Legends. You guys need to address this. I am not willing to
do that. I have a hard time imagining any All Access account holder
being willing to give that up to pay twice as much for a server that
basically does not have a great reputaion at this point. Again, I am not
saying these things to you just to complain about them. I am saying them
because I hope this can be forewarded to decision makers in management
and I hope prompt some discussion about how to fix the perception the
player community has of Legends, fix the All Access Pass issue and make
Legends what it could be so that it turns into a profitable venture for
SOE and a fun place to play for us at a reasonable cost for what one
gets in return.
Given these concerns it is not hard to see why Legends is not doing well
today. And as someone who loves EQ enough to pay a premium to play on a
special server, I care enough to write this lengthy missive to you and
ask you to do something meaningful to correct this situation. I want
Legends to be a success again, if it ever was. But I want to be able to
play there for a reasonable cost in addition to my All Access Pass
account without having to give it up. I also want confirmation from you
that the problems I have read about have been addressed. Lastly I would
like to see you do some real marketing of Legends to bring new players
to the server. To that end I have a few ideas for you to consider if
they have not been brought up by others already:
1.) Promote Legends in a big way on the EQLive Homepage. One link to an
ages old tour isn't going to do it anymore. You need to make something
new to draw players in. You need to forthrightly speak to players about
the issues of the past on Legends and tell them what you have done to
fix them. In short, you need to give players a very good set of reasons
to want to come there to play. What you have now is not enough. It is
not working as far as I can tell and if that is so surely you must know
that better than I.
2.) You need to rethink the pricing for Legends. Who is going to pay 40
dollars a month to play there when alternatives like EQ2 with their new
community Web features are available complete for only 3 additional
bucks a month? EQ2 players get a new more attractive Norrath visually, a
new kind of gameplay in the same wonderful world, Guild Web pages, out
of game guild chat, screen shot storage to share with friends, a
Magelo-like feature to show off their characters and gear, an
Allakhazam-like database of in game items with info about the item and
even who first discovered it in the game, etc. And that is just the
stuff I can remember off the top of my head. Personally, I don't think
Legends ought to cost any more then $9.99 additional per month and only
then if everything is working as advertised. I think a price reduction
like this coupled with an active marketing campaign on the EQLive site
would bring the influx of new players to the server that would solve the
population problem. I recognize that this is business and the bottom
line is this feature needs to generate profit for SOE to be worth doing
and I do not have the data to know what is needed to make that happen.
But I can at least operate on the assumption that with marking and a
substantial price reduction the increased number of users of the feature
would be enough to make it profitable. Surely you guys could study this
and find the magic number for anticipated number of users that means
profit for you and success for the server in terms of numbers for the
players.
3.) You need to make Legends available to All Access account holders
easily without forcing them to choose. Because All Access account
holders will almost all ways choose to keep what they have and represent
a lost opportunity for Legends. Here you have SOE's highest paying
customers and yet they cannot play on Legends. That this has not been
addressed a long time ago astounds me. Personally, where the work to
create the Legends service has all been done you might as well
capitalize on that investment by using it to add value to All Access
subscriptions. Have you ever considered giving it to All Access account
holders or perhaps giving it to them cheaply? Right there you could
probably do wonders for the server population.
4.) You need to look for ways to improve and expand upon what Legends is
today in terms of features. You need to add real value so that players
find Legends worthwhile enough that they come to play there.
The hard fact is that right now most users believe that Legends is dying
(is it?) and that SOE does not care about this issue at all. You don't
have to take my word for it. Go read the message boards on EQLive and
better still the user run boards. I am not saying I feel that way. I
wouldn't take all this time to write to you about it. I think highly of
SOE myself in general and consider EverQuest to be the best and most
entertaining PC gaming experience I have ever enjoyed. That is why I am
bothering to write to you today about Legends. Because I hope you will
consider the things I am saying here and take some action to make
Legends a success.
If I thought I could safely assume there was a diverse player population
such that I could enjoy playing with others at all levels of play with
different characters ranging from my 65 main to my baby alts and if I
knew that all Legends features are now working as advertised, I might be
willing to pony up for Legends and move my toons to the server. Keep in
mind, I would be coming from Stromm where this is no shortage of other
players at all levels of play. Stromm is an active busy place most of
the time despite recent losses to other titles like EQ2 and WoW in
particular. I know I cannot expect a premium priced server like Legends
to have quite this kind of population but it's hard to decide when I
cannot tell what to expect. And if I do move to Legends I understand I
am there for 30 days whether I like it or not.
So please respond to this letter and give me some idea of what plans if
any you have for Legends marketing, pricing and features availability as
advertised. And at the minimum, do something about making Legends an
option for All Access Account holders. I will look forward to hearing
from you.
Thanks very much,
--
All the best,
Michael
============================================
So there you have it. I think that brings the issues right up front for
them as this player sees them. It will be interesting to see how they
respond to this email. When and if they do I will let you guys know what
they had to say. In fact I will likely just paste into a post on this
thread whatever reply I get from them.
Do any of you play on Legends or have you before? What do you think of
the service and the server? All comments welcome.
--
Get Thunderbird - Reclaim Your Inbox
http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/
Get Firefox! - The Browser You Can Trust
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
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