While that may be true (and INSANELY offensive), there similarities still stand. One day the servers went down for maintenance and when they came back online drastic changes had been made with no player input and no advanced warning.

Yes, I know. I was there. They did change some things, but fixed so many others.

That was what, 3 years ago?

I mean, you can technically draw parallels between the NGE and almost anything...but that is just kind of sad to do.

Beau

I think you may be taking this a little too personally - or rather, I think you may be assuming that people invoking the name of NGE are taking it personally. The reason the NGE is valid is not because it is of personal importance to players who experienced it (of which I do not number, I'm afraid, so I have no first-hand experience) but because it is of historic importance to the study of the MMO genre. I'm not aware of any other high-profile cases where a company made such sweeping changes with absolutely no warning to their players and timed so carefully as to ensure that they had bilked players that would leave due to the changes out of further money. The public outcry may be stale by now, but the fact that it existed then is of historic interest.

The parallels are absolutely valid, especially since we are dealing with the exact same company. (Though I would venture to say they would be valid even if it were two different companies.) Sony has, for the second time, added a feature they knew would be controversial with absolutely no warning and immediately after getting more money out of their players via an expansion pack. The only place the comparison breaks down is that in SWG, the game that people loved and played was totally gone. You couldn't ignore the new features because they had replaced the old ones. Here, you can just ignore the RMT vendors and keep playing EQ and EQ2. But parallels can still be drawn, I think, in regards to how one can expect Sony to behave in these kinds of situations.

But, here's the deal: the NGE was YEARS ago, and it is basically this:

The company SOE changed one of it's games. A good deal of players didn't like it. Some players think that the company did this in a sneaky way.

This type of thing has been going on for years and years throughout MMO's.

Comparing this sudden appearance of cash shop transactions (although, actually, if you actually do your homework, you would know how much they have been talking about it and mentioning it was in the works ) to the NGE is, again, sad.

That's like bringing up the US government for some of the sneaky stuff it does.

Or bringing up your brother Billy because he lied to you in the third grade.

The NGE, first of all, did not destroy SWG. It lost players to WoW and boredom.

Secondly, if it hurt you that bad, and caused such strife in your life that you need to bring it up not only 3 years later but at any mention of SOE (I am addressing those players that do this, whoever they are) then you need to re-address what you think is important in your life. How are you going to deal with real life disappointments if a video game patch, which actually IMPROVED the game in more ways than NOT, can crush you so that you mention it like some kind of drunk high school football quaterback at every b-b-q?

It's funny that no one pulls out the examples of the incredible things SOE does FOR it's community. I should know, I have talked to so many of them over the last year and know that from the head CM down to the interns they actually are NOT in the business of making people angry.

This all comes down to this: no one cares about the NGE. That was 3 years ago. SOE is trying new and different models for subs and for players to enjoy. Connect it to the NGE, if you'd like.

After all, the mistakes you made 3 years ago mean that you will make them again right?

Beau

Hi Beau!

The NGE was a turning point in MMO history, very much a reference point for games today.

You've said that people don't make the same mistakes twice, but just yesterday SOE implements a big update to customers with no prior warning, knowing that the fallout would be slightly controversial. And the last time this happened was the NGE?

It's quite hard to follow your points in this regard as I think you've actually given some credence to the NGE comparisons here, rather than dismiss their relevance, if I'm alone here in my summing up, please let me know.

Regardless of 'they want to make us happy' well that's great, but players feel that resources could have been better employed on the game they currently play and were shocked by the sudden announcement which went live, again, just like the NGE.

Different players take different things from their subscription, you might decide to be friends with the CSR staff, others play to roleplay, others for the competitive challenge, bottom line is that if people are the customers here, so what they decide ultimately determine the success of the game, customers just like the upset people here, and on the EQ2 boards, and if they consider the NGE relevant to their argument, it's wholly up to them, as you say these are the people paying.

If poor management decisions have been made, no amount of CSR camaraderie is going to change that, despite the individual's best efforts.

Let it be known that this is part of the service, and could be considered fluff, very much in line with the MT model Smed has promoted, not essential.

I'm sure your attempts to goad an ex SWG player into some sort of angry response might raise some ire, but I don't think your argument is strong enough to get them to post unfortunately.Trust me, I'm a bit of an expert :)

It's good that you attempt to put this into perspective, but it's not really that simple when it comes down to customer satisfaction and players have slowly accepted that SOE were on probation after this landmark blunder, and again find the channel of communication has purposefully gone preceding a major change.

Glad to hear you are making so much good use of your life and never get upset or angry about anything, a true role model for MMO subscribers! I'd bet money you are really Dr. Phil, except he hates MMO's.