> Harmonic - I have a hard time disagreeing with anything you've posted here.
> I do remain hopeful that you're wrong; and the expansion will come out and
> we'll have a bunch of cool new songs; that they for the most part work. I
> also hope that they fix Lullaby - and get the other missing songs (that they
> said would be out with the expansion)
That's the thing. I hope I'm wrong too. I'm tired of being let down.
There's a lot of potential here in this game. During my time away I
got to take another look at the game outside of the shell. While I
still dislike AC, I got to play a lot of other games like Nox, Majesty,
The Sims, etc. I almost beat Nox in one day, Majesty is pretty cool,
and The Sims only hold my attention for so long. Anyway, I got to
appreciate player interaction more by playing so many single player
games. I've said it before, this game used to be cool graphics, neat
effects, awesome weapons/armor, strategy based, exploring... now it's
purely friendships. There's no magic to the game beyond that any more.
I don't look at Everquest and become amazed like I used to which is
fine, I've made up for Verant's lack of enthusiasm by forming online
bonds with people. If we don't get the right songs, or even decent
songs that have been tested, I'll still get to explore and learn new
things about the expansion. Once that novelity has worn off, I'll
be looking hard at why Verant chooses to undercut certain classes on a
consistant basis (most particularly bards).
I don't feel we are keeping balanced with other classes, but
until we claim that - Verant will not see a problem. Everquest is
turning toward a cleric + warrior game, strategies/abilities/spells or
songs are really not meaningful in that scenario. When a group of
people hunting gods, dragons, etc can say 'We really don't need a bard
for this.', 'We need better tanks, and better healing, bards will just
lag us.', 'I would rather have a warrior with decent gear instead of a
bard.' - something is seriously wrong balance-wise.
To address the original point, we'll get the songs but will they
be well thought out, that remains to be seen. I am hopeful, but
doubtful (as I said before).
Harmonic.