The reason why SOE did this <IMO>

[TheWiseOne]

EQ2 is coming out soon and so is SWG. They probably want EQ to die out. Even if the lose that money. They want EQ to DIE out. How many are going to switch over to either EQ2 or SWG. I for one will not, but how many are??? I really think this is all just a carrot they are hanging in front of our noses, so they can find some way to have EQ die off without putting the blame SOLELY on themselves. Even though it really is by doing what they are doing.

Plz comment on this I would like to hear what you guys think.


Oh and the DEV team you have always been great. GJ in all the hard work you have done. You guys helped me finally get a stable OS lol.

Thx

[9e02825]

First of all, the people who play EQ are not neccesarilly(sp?) the same people who would play SWG. Second, EQ2's release is still way far in the future. And third, why do you even care why they did it? What's done is done, deal with it.

[RavenCT]

To be honest? (Which was what you were asking for) I have no intentions of buying SWG, I've never really been that much of a fan of Star Wars to spend the amount of time playing it that I have with EQ...

As far as EQ2 goes? Nope, I have no intention of getting that either. After UO and EQ (1) I'm a little burnt out on MMRPGs...

Besides, I REALLY have no interest in playing another SoE game, especially after this whole fiasco!

[Catt]

Well to put it very bluntly:

If it's got the Sony name on it, I'm not buyin' it.

I don't like the strong arm tactics of milking the player base with lame ass, bug ridden, piece of shit, expansions.

I don't like thier complete lack of tech. support, or any customer service, even if you do play on Ledgends.

Sony, See Ya!

(Just a point, I'm not talking only software, TVs and other stuff too, just say no to Sony. Maybe they should consider this on both sides of their house.)

[Mr. Suspicious]

I don't like there complete lack of tech support, or any customer service, even if you do play on Ledgends.


Don't think the "grass on the other side of the river is greener". Sony (ex-Verant) has the BEST tech support and customer service the current MMORPG market has to offer.

[KaL]

Why would making ShowEQ not work mean EQ would "die out"? The premise of the first post is stupid.

[seqseq]

Hey I'll bet you didn't know this, but Sony was originally an American company. Yup.

SONY stands for "Standard Oil of New York" and was born from the oil monopoly breakups. The Rockefeller family created a whole bunch of diversion companies in different fields and then later "exported" many of them (Sony being one of them) to still maintain their massive investments/capital yet not have them tied together for a possible future antitrust reaming.

Interesting info, huh?

(Don't flame me please, this is true if you look deep enough).

Just posting this here as a bit of trivia. What the hell hehe.

[Spaz]

Erm
The Standard Oil / SONY thing is an urban legend.

http://www.snopes2.com/business/names/sony.htm

As far as EQ, I think it's a great game. I think people who complain non stop about it really should quit - I'm not being mean, but seriously -- if you hate the product that much, do not play it or pay for it. If you've already quit and are hanging around peripheral EQ/Sony sites, you might want to stop if it's getting you worked up.

EQ has issues. Just about everything has issues. No game has ever captured my interest for this long, or come even close.

Regarding expansions, PoP really deviates from the path Kunark, Velious, and Luclin took. I didn't mind Kunark, did not really like Velious, thought Luclin's engine enhancements were fantastic but the content was lukewarm, but I really think PoP is excellent.

[Amadeus]

VI tried to break ShowEQ and was unsuccessful, and, finally decided to 'look the other way'. Sony is the boss now and I guess they figure they need their turn at the 'bat'. I doubt it's no small coincidence that this new encryption went in right as SoE took over.

It is also possible that Sony is extremely paranoid about ShowEQ giving an edge to the new "quest" system that went in with PoP.

Finally, I'm sure there are things they just don't want us to know :)

[horse_sense]

Sony did this for purely financial reasons. They want to keep their new puzzles hidden from the players as long as possible. The longer it takes to unravel them, the more the players spend to do it. Seq allows a short cut to that process and they have to work harder to create more elaborate zone, quests and NPC’s

It makes sense for them to attack snifters. They are also working to make sure that EQ2 and SWG can not be decoded if at all possible. What better testing platform than the current EQ?

[Dok]

I for one will never buy another game with Sony or Verant on the label.

If it wasn't just for the poor customer service or the distrusting attitude they have towards all their customers, it would be for the only fact that they change the rules for classes mid game. Its just depressing watching all classes get benefits from PoP and watch monks get nerf after nerf (directly with reduced mitagation or indirectly with a charged bandage making item). They think we're cheating, what is it when rules are changed half way through any game...

Anyway, if they want to close down EQ as I believe, be it that Absor knows thats what they're doing or not (Kinda funny how he thinks they're telling him everything...), this isn't the way to do it. Sure, it'll open up showeq to everyone, but is that really such a bad thing overall? Sure they'll be some morons that farm mobs from across the zone, (thats happening now) but overall, is it really going to effect anyone?

[Cam69]

TheWiseOne's post makes sense, and I wouldn't be to suprised to find out its true.

No EQ2/SWG for me!

EQ1 was enough. 0_o

[EQDoze]

Sony doesn't care if you buy or not. The fact is, the people that react this way aren't their best customers anyway. People threaten companies with this crap all the time, and it doesn't really motivate them to improve.

The only thing that would grab their attention would be for people to leave en masse. I just don't see that happening.

As for the original topic of this thread. They broke SEQ cause we're all cheating, it is their job to attempt to create a level playing field. SEQ makes everyone a tracker extraordinaire. Because you cannot cheat anymore does not qualify them as poor service providers -- in fact, in the grand scheme of things, it proves exactly the opposite.

They have information to protect because not everyone has equal access to that information because the vast majority of EQ players do not cheat.

So, to bottom line it, it's broken now -- you use the new methods of "cheating" or stick with just GPS functionality.

[sequser5516]

Perhaps Sony should just create a "showeq" program that you can purchase at a retail store. Instant Level Playin Field. charge me $5 more a month. I doubt they will, but if everyone could just buy a Showeq type deal in a store, than everything would be fair.

Of course that wouldn't be as "fun", and the thousands of people who use Showeq wouldn't be learning all the great things about open source, and linux. I didn't even know what Linux was until I started using Showeq.

[Mr. Suspicious]

So, to bottom line it, it's broken now

It's not broken, ShowEQ works perfectly (with a small adaptation on the Everquest PC).

[datadog]

They have sold their expansions.

Once PooP is explored, EQ's uber type will quit for other games (Sony or otherwise). EQ will get smaller (less world servers) but will continue to thrive with the 'casual' gamer types in small friendly guilds who use it for a chatroom.