Current State of End-Game Contents - A Blog Post from A Japanese Player

[Melithea]

Could a EQ game even survive anymore?

Everquest and Everquest 2 both survive to this day, sort of.

It's really hard to find recent and accurate numbers, but from a little investigating EQ active subscription numbers look something like this.

2004: 550,000
2007: 175,000
2010: 100,000
2014: ???

By way of comparison, FFXI had 350,000 in 2010 and XIV: ARR currently has more subscriptions than EQ ever had. Now, I'm all for ARR becoming more fun, but people saying that they miss EQ and if ARR doesn't return to the days of EQ it's going to DIE~! really need to realize that EQ was a different game from a different time, and if we're talking from a purely financial/subscription perspective, SE sure as hell doesn't need to take any advice from Everquest.

By the way, people have suggested skillchains and stuff like that be brought back. Maybe not in this thread, but people have been asking for things like that here and there since launch. I don't remember if there was ever an official answer, but this strikes me as the perfect example of the kind of solution that it might be a really good idea to throw back out there and blow it up until it can't be ignored.

[Grizzlebeard]

By way of comparison, FFXI had 350,000 in 2010 and XIV: ARR currently has more subscriptions than EQ ever had.

Try and remember that EQ existed in an MMO vacuum. Hardly anyone in the world knew what an MMORPG was let alone played one. The potential subscription base for MMOs back then was significantly smaller than now and Sony Online Entertainment (SoE) were never amazing at promotion, or Verant for that matter. By that standard, FFXIV's subscription level is laughable compared to that of WoW's. When EQ: Next launches we'll see a more realistic indication of what EQ subscription numbers would have been in the current marketplace.

SE sure as hell doesn't need to take any advice from Everquest.

Were it not for EQ there would have been no WoW, no FFXI, and ultimately no FFXIV. As for taking advice, FFXI was so heavily influenced by EQ it's hilarious to feel S-E have nothing to learn from SoE.

[Melithea]

As for taking advice, FFXI was so heavily influenced by EQ it's hilarious to feel S-E have nothing to learn from SoE.

And in terms of playerbase XIV is more successful than XI ever was.

I never said that!!

Then I wasn't quoting you? Consider it a paraphrase of the combined positions of "Everyone is getting bored and leaving" and "This is why the original MMOs were more fun/better than ARR".

When EQ: Next launches we'll see a more realistic indication of what EQ subscription numbers would have been in the current marketplace.

Yes, but at the moment this is pure speculation.

Honestly, I thought leveling in ARR should have taken longer than it did, for example. Not as long as it did in FFXI though, which I started playing when Rise of the Zilart was released and a year later my highest job was only level ~55 (IIRC). And I was an avid player. Can you imagine ARR right now if the average player today was under level 36?

Let's be really, really careful with the nostalgia goggles and stay focused on ways to add depth to the battle system. Your masochistic romanticism over corpse runs and leveling down would drive off more players than Titan EX ever could. Yes, the community left might be a little closer, and that would be a natural result of having a much smaller community. But at what cost?

[Rosy]

It's really hard to find recent and accurate numbers, but from a little investigating EQ active subscription numbers look something like this.

2004: 550,000
2007: 175,000
2010: 100,000
2014: ???

By way of comparison, FFXI had 350,000 in 2010 and XIV: ARR currently has more subscriptions than EQ ever had. Now, I'm all for ARR becoming more fun, but people saying that they miss EQ and if ARR doesn't return to the days of EQ it's going to DIE~! really need to realize that EQ was a different game from a different time, and if we're talking from a purely financial/subscription perspective, SE sure as hell doesn't need to take any advice from Everquest. By the way, people have suggested skillchains and stuff like that be brought back. Maybe not in this thread, but people have been asking for things like that here and there since launch. I don't remember if there was ever an official answer, but this strikes me as the perfect example of the kind of solution that it might be a really good idea to throw back out there and blow it up until it can't be ignored.

I never said that!!