OoW delayed

[Itzena]

http://eqlive.station.sony.com/news_...sp?story=62268

Hello Norrath!

I wanted to announce that we've decided to push Omens of War back to Late August in order to give the EQ team time to respond to important issues that the EverQuest community is raising (specifically including the issues with Gates of Discord). We've heard some concerns from within the community that we feel are important enough to push back our next expansion and spend time fixing the problems you have brought to our attention. At the end of the day, we work for you and it's important for us to demonstrate that we both understand and appreciate that. We're also inviting many members of the community to join us here at SOE for a day to have a direct dialog with the development team about issues that are important to the EverQuest community as a whole. We've already sent out the invitations and are making all the arrangements. In addition, our EQ community managers will be coming up with a list of issues raised on the message boards so that we can come back to you with a specific list of things we're going to address.

I'm sorry if you feel we haven't been listening and reacting appropriately. We do our best to balance all of the needs and concerns you raise along with expanding Norrath and giving you new and wonderful things to do in EverQuest, but we do make mistakes. We've heard you loud and clear.

We have many things planned for EverQuest over the upcoming years, and our goal is to keep you happily playing EverQuest for a long time to come. The best way for us to do that is by first and foremost is by listening to you.

John Smedley
President, Sony Online Entertainment

I'd put some commentary and links about the reasoning behind this and the timing vis a vis a certain EQ comic and multiple rant threads on most EQ boards...but it'd just get this locked so I'll just leave it at those not-so-subtle allusions.

[Draggar]

Honestly, and in as un-rantish as I can, I feel this was a good move on Sony's part.

As I stated in a different thread, I feel that they're pushing out the expansions too soon. They're nothing special anymore, it seems that they're now part of the subscription that we should expect to have to pay for.

While some expansions have been great (LDoN, Kunark, PoP, Luclin), some wen't. They should slow it down, even to 1 a year.

I'm very glad they're going to concentrate their efforts into fixing issues that have been popping up, and possibly old issues.

[Cantatus]

I'd put some commentary and links about the reasoning behind this and the timing vis a vis a certain EQ comic and multiple rant threads on most EQ boards...but it'd just get this locked so I'll just leave it at those not-so-subtle allusions.

This isn't an invitation to start ranting about SOE and calling their employees nasty names, but I don't think the moderators would have a problem if people wanted to discuss why this delay came about - as long as it stays on topic and there is no flaming or personal attacks or any other messageboard rules broken.

[Ngreth Thergn]

Yup... you can comment on "why" as long as you do not divert into "SOE sucks" type posts They can't be that bad... since they decided to listen to the community and stop or at least slow down the next expansion

[kiztent]

I'd say just lock the thread now. It's almost too tempting for me.

[Frerin the Smith]

Sony seems almost bi-polar in this aspect. On one hand they have the much deserved reputation of aloofness when it comes to customer concerns in EQ, while every squeeky wheel from the SWG boards gets a personal "fix" for their pet peeve. There is becoming some balance among both of their games now, or so I hope from what I have seen lately.

On one hand (EQ), it is very irritating to see the same issues rehashed over and over and then when they are addressed, the very people who were supposed to be on top of bugs and in-game issues start their fix statement with "As soon as we were aware..."

On the other hand (SWG), it is irritating that irate teenagers can get every profession turned on it's head every other week because they don't like the way it is "balanced".

I left EQ for 6 months because of the lack of attention to concerns. I left SWG for 6 months because there were things being "fixed" that didn't need fixing on a constant basis. (That, and the community push to make everyone Jedi capable in order to have "balance")

It seems that the EQ side has finally started addressing legitimate concerns that many have had for a couple of years now. It also seems that the SWG side has finally started telling some of the squeekier wheels to suck it up and deal with the fact that they are not in charge of the development team. A nice middle meeting ground, where there is feedback but not automatic knee-jerk fixes, seems to be emerging from both game teams.

For wisdom in both directions, I say kudos! And welcome back to my credit card.

[KyrosKrane]

I must say I'm floored by this decision. As far as I recall, they have never delayed an expansion before -- to the point that some expansions were released rather clearly incomplete or unbalanced. I'm very happy indeed at the shift in philosophy I've seen in SoE in the last six months or so. From the frank openness at the Fan Faire to the willingness to make significant improvements to the game (buggy it may be, but the new DirectX engine is a major step up from the old one) to this willingness to not only delay an expansion but actually call a summit ... I must say I'm impressed.

I'm an optimist by nature (albeit a cynical one), so I'll just observe that there is great potential for good here ... so long as they get feedback from a representative cross-section of players, not just those from any one strata, and actually listen to those players and implement their suggestions.