----- Original Message -----
From: Gabriel <gdiaz@...>
To: <eqbards@onelist.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 1999 10:10 PM
Subject: [eqbards] Reply to accusation that Verant isn't effective.

> From: "Gabriel" <gdiaz@...>
>
> (I'm 17, and not really into economics, or buisiness, so the following is
> all limited speculation on my behalf. Read at your own discretion, and
> correct me if you may. Friendly opinions welcomed too.)
>
You're a paying customer - your opinions are as valid as any. Regardless,
you sound pretty bright for a 17-year old...

> Well, personally I feel that we may be demanding too much out of the
company
> right now. Yes, it was realeased as only a portion of what it SHOULD be,
> but the entire process...hiring all the help, setting up servers, beta
> testing, and everything else, must have cost a FORTUNE compared to what
your
> average game would cost to produce (Avg game = Anything not promising
lots
> of future patches or an evolving world, etc.).
> For ANY company, even a subdivision of the super-rich Sony Corp, to invest
> enough time and cash into a game like this to get rid of ALL significant
> bugs etc. would be an incredible risk for the company.
>
> Well, it took god 6 days to create the world...and on the seventh day he
> rested. Give Brad and the team a break, they are only humans...humans
under
> the confines of a Sony controlled company, which does have to be careful
how
> they invest their money.
>

Agreed. This is a big undertaking. If you notice - they were more careful
about their marketing claims than Origin was with Ultima Online. I don't
recall ever seeing claims that the world would be up 24x7 as did Origin. To
expect any piece of software to be completely bug-free is unrealistic.

> The only thing that bugs me is that an expansion was already hinted at
being
> in the works by a Verant employee, and they still have bards strumming a
> stick when playing the drums. Don't even get me started on the other
holes,
> you all know what I'm talking about. If they ARE building an expansion
now,
> I would stop playing immediatly. A company that would think of money from
> an expansion before bringing quality promised to an existing product has
its
> priorities WAY off base.
>

Agreed - but all I've seen so far is talk of an expansion. There is no
evidence that this is actually in the works. The proof is in the pudding to
coin a cliche. Are new servers not being put up? Are bugs not being
addressed? In my opinion, Sony/Verant's record is damned good. They got
the initial server problem worked out pretty quick - and didn't charge us
for those two weeks. The biggest nastiest corpse bug they fixed pretty
quick.

> Heres why I think they are working on expansions:
>
> "How much? I can't get into anything like that because we haven't even
> really officially announced anything about expansions."
>
> This was said by Brad McQuaid in response to questions concerning the
price
> of future expansions. It definately hints at something going on, but of
> course there are no official announcements yet.
>
> "There will be announcements soon about what to expect (well, more like
> teasers). I really do wish I could tell you more, because there's some
> really cool stuff, but I am not the keeper of PR."
>
> This was said by Rick Schmitz, artist at Verant, in response to the
question
> of the possability of an expansion. It definately hints at it.
>
> Oh well, I'll deal with it when the official announcements are made.
Expect
> cussing.
>

All products are based on a business model. I'm not privy to exactly how
this works - but I am guessing the $10/month is providing them with a lot of
profit. I'm guessing that the biggest bang for the buck, economically
speaking is the ~$50 we shelled out for the game. To maintain the profit
margins necessary to keep a company like Sony funding the product - they are
going to have to get us to shell that out again. Particularly when they
have more competition (Asheron's Call, Middle-Earth), etc

My opinion is this - if they spend reasonable resources fixing bugs,
building enough servers, having sufficient GM's online, tweaking the game so
that spawn rates aren't too small (or too great - I recall early UOL days
everyone getting wiped out because the game was overrun with tough
monsters) - who cares how many more programmers they are paying to build an
expansion?

Slyde of Xegony