PoP, Money, and the Nerf

I have been thinking for a bit about why in the world they (VI) would pull a stunt like this prior to PoP.



The nerf is "supposed" to be "balancing" but I think that it is widely seen as pandering to a select group of players.



I feel that this is all about PoP and Money.



I think that a number of uber players have layed out that this was going to happen or PoP would not be a viable moneymaker for VI. Without the ubers (which I think constitute a statistically significant percentage of income) and those who desire to be uber (an even larger percentage of income), the success of PoP would be in question.



All nerfs need to be viewed in an economic context. The only "VISION" that VI has is to make phat lootz from the sale of expansions and the recurring monthly subscription income.



We got burned in order to keep the money train on track - analysis was done and the econimic impact that this nerf would bring is positive to VI.



Many people are saying cancelling their accounts - my educated guess is that this was accounted for and VI has a good idea of exactly how many accounts they are going to lose. They also have a good idea of what the "problem" with monks was going to do to their pocketbooks - looks like our economic impact is not large enough.



Best guess is that VI will tone down the nerf after a bit in order to keep both sides of the coin happy and reduce any risk of loss of income.



Just my 2 cp.






</p>

<blockquote>Quote:<hr> Best guess is that VI will tone down the nerf after a bit in order to keep both sides of the coin happy and reduce any risk of loss of income. <hr></blockquote>



Good post. What if...



VI wants to reduce our overall defense by 15% (my number).



VI patches us to 25% reduction (again my number)



Players deal with 25% reduction (quit, stop pulling etc) for a week or two.



VI gives us back 10%.



Players, though still upset, don't quit, stop pulling, etc..



Oh well, call me Oliver Stone looking at a grassy knoll wondering if area 51 is over the crest...






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I think you are right about the analyzation of the possible revenue/customer reductions based on this major change.



VI's complete lack of response to the monk community on this defensive change has certianly shown me that VI does not care about what kind of revenue/players that they lose.





Libeck



*edited for spelling mistakes*


</p>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub35.ezboard.com/ulibeck.showPublicProfile?language=EN>Libeck</A> at: 10/17/02 6:46:31 am

Not even one post from Verant on this forum is proof enough they don't give a ratass about it.


</p>

Hey,



Its because we Yet Again are not on the Box Art. Every class but Monk has been on the box art. They do this to us and we dont notice that we are not there.



On a more serious note. I think there was some issues that they saw in pop that we cannot see now. Dont know what it is but I can bet there is one. We shall see.




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Re: PoP, Money, and the Nerf

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Not even one post from Verant on this forum is proof enough they don't give a ratass about it.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



I think Absor has posted - but I do think that more posting would be a good thing.


</p>

Could someone post a link to Absor's post? I have been looking for a Verant response to the outcry on this forum and haven't been able to find one...


</p>

What they have done is a "theory" in customer service among giant corporations. Its called retention, among other things, but what it boils down to is...it is not cost-effective to service everyone the same way, so you focus so your efforts on the clients who provide 75% of your business, and you /shrug at the rest. Note that 75% of your business is not the same thing as 75% of your total userbase in this case either.



How many ubers do you think own multiple accounts? Even if they don't, won't it be the uber monks among us likely to provide the most income of the "monk" population? Didn't they have to nerf the class so that the onslaught of uber monks into their new zones didn't totally unbalance their new high-end game before it really got off the ground?



It really isn't that surprising...Verant is a one-trick pony. When they timesink existing content/skills i.e. tailoring, or an almost-sorta-xp-nerf, or killing off the average monk and preserving the ubers, aren't these all ways of saying "We serve the first 1000, and then we close the door on the rest?" Verant says through their actions that the ones who get there first get grandfathered in, and the rest are shut out in the cold. Especially when those shut out in the cold are soloers, and all soloers do is throw off their mob/player ratio...they likely populate the majority of zones based on how many groups they think it can support, not to mention that I'm sure half of the "ks" petitions they get are because some soloer is infringing on someone's groupspace.



I mean, just think about this: How much use exactly will the casual gamer/soloer have for PoP?




</p>

AbsorEQ

Alan VanCouvering

Community Relations Manager

Everquest

Posts: 15

(10/11/02 1:23:23 pm)

Reply

Re: Ac soft cap

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I just wanted to pop in and let you all know that I am reading these posts. I don't have any news for you about anything, but I just wanted to let you know that I've been reading.



Thanks to those that have kept the discussion calm. We all understand that these changes are going to upset folks. It wasn't easy to decide to do this. So we accept the flames, and I'll read every email I get that isn't a copy of a post I've already read here (extensive cursing excluded).



It can be found here:



pub35.ezboard.com/fmonkly...=202.topic (http://pub35.ezboard.com/fmonklybusiness43508frm17.showMessage?topicID=202. topic)


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[Fder]

Problem is SWG is coming out shortly, so they are already expecting a very large loss of income. I had 4 active accounts before the nerf. I cancelled 3 of them when it was announced, as well as my preorder of PoP. Nor do I have any plans to purchase it in the near future.



Yeah I'm sure my dollar is going to put no where a scratch in their revenue. That does not mean I am going to continue to patronize them. They don't have to listen to us. But its a service they are providing, and if we are not happy with it, we should not be paying for it.



Oh btw, even if you cancel your account, you can still play until your billing cycle is up. Just another way to speak with your dollar, even if you don't intend to really cancel.


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[Fopoodzo]

<blockquote>Quote:<hr> VI's complete lack of response to the monk community on this defensive change has certianly shown me that VI does not care about what kind of revenue/players that they lose. <hr></blockquote>





They couldn't careless so long as you keep on paying (note: paying not playing).




</p>

[SkyKungfu]

I really doubt that theres ONE person they get more to play EQ or another Verant game with nerfing monks. But I am sure they upset a lot of people with the nerf which will result in loosing some (I really have no clue how many) EQ subscribers and for sure will loose a lot of people (like me) for all future Verant games. They wont get me trapped again in investing more than 3 years in my char to get nerfed at the end.



So its without any doubt no economig solution for Verant. And not only Verant, as it is I cant almost hear the name Sony anymore without getting upset.



Sky


</p>

Dog what your missing is that Absor posted that 5 days before the patch. We havent seen anything from him since the patch in regards to whats going on. I think thats what he was getting at.



That appears to be more of an appeasement post. Like when your dog is hungry and you throw him table scraps rather than filling his dog bowl with dog food.




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My guess is the adjustment to this nerf will come very soon - either in the form of an increase in offensive ability (which I personally would prefer) or in the "adjustment" of the mitigation numbers.



This would, after this fubar, make most people happy (read as "not entirely pissed off" and "willing to purchase PoP").



Just my 2cp


</p>

[Fopoodzo]

<blockquote>Quote:<hr> My guess is the adjustment to this nerf will come very soon - either in the form of an increase in offensive ability (which I personally would prefer) or in the "adjustment" of the mitigation numbers.<hr></blockquote>



I'm of the opinion that an small (proportional) increase in damage is vital to the monk class.



They've altered the:

warrior>monk>rogue (Defence)

rogue>monk>warrior (Offence)





and a small increase to monk damage would be vital to re-balance it. (other wise it's just a pointless monk solo power nerf - and why would anyone take a monk over a warrior or a rogue in a group?)




</p>

[Sontor]

Wouldn't suprise me at all if sometime in the next week or so, some information "leaked" about new uber monk armor that will drop in PoP that has built in damage mitigation.


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<blockquote><font size=-2>quote:</font><hr>Wouldn't suprise me at all if sometime in the next week or so, some information "leaked" about new uber monk armor that will drop in PoP that has built in damage mitigation. <hr></blockquote>





This may happen - but it would not solve this issue. If the issue for VI becomes "non - uber monks are going to leave and we will lose their money" this will most likely not help.


</p>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub35.ezboard.com/unorbulama.showPublicProfile?language=EN>NorbuLama</A> at: 10/17/02 10:13:50 am

<blockquote>Quote:<hr> So its without any doubt no economig solution for Verant. And not only Verant, as it is I cant almost hear the name Sony anymore without getting upset.<hr></blockquote>



Sky thats so weird because I do the same thing also. I went to Circuit City the other day to get another machine. I skipped the entire Sony Vaio(sp?) aisle completely. It just didn't matter whether or not they had the best deal or not there was no way I was gonna purchase that product. Same thing with Cleo's(sp again?) when I was looking for a handheld.



Whats funny about that is that I'm not saying the above to be mean or anything, but its weird how it feels like its "ingrained" in me to not buy Sony products anymore. And I think it has everything to do with the way VI treats their customers.



Sorry if this comes across as a whine, but it really is how I perceive the real world as far as Sony/VI goes. Poor customer service from yet another faceless corporation.


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No company plans to make money by pissing off their customers. There are four explanations:





1) They listened to the wrong people..i.e. Absor told them stuff he thought was a genuine complaint and they acted on it.





2) They cant handle the diversity of classes with PoP design so they are wedging all melee and hybrids into tank/da,age dealer lines so they can get the release out without it being sleighted. After that they can re-tweak monks.





3) The vocal monk nerf and upgrades to the other classes are a precursor to a monk upgrade of some kind (I mean who the HELL believes we are overpowered compared to the stuff rangers can do (them being the most similar class to us - not saying they are overpowered, just that Ranger-Monk is no longer balanced)).





4) They are a race of aliens that feed over the internet on the despair of human beings that they try to trap into their addictive yet massively frustrating virtual word. Realising that the classes were finely balanced and that the class envy they were feasting off from Furor tasted like BO and cold pizza.. they decided to nerf the entire monk class to open up a delicous supply of human suffering (some from RL martial artists who taste far nicer in terms of despair than stinking computer geeks with visions of grandeur). The only way to stop these evil alien invaders is to disconnect yourself from their mothership's computer by cancelling your account.. a bit like a seige where we have to starve them out.







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</p>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub35.ezboard.com/ukawaitanuki.showPublicProfile?language=EN>Kawai Tanuki</A> at: 10/17/02 2:39:19 pm

The removal of the Paladin nerf - pre PoP rollout further confirms the monetary motivation behind VI. God I hope they dont nerf em in the first PoP patch - but I would be looking for it.


</p>

I vote option 4, Kawai =)


</p>

It makes no business sense to nerf classes just before a new Expansion. Get the expansion out, then nerf classes a few weeks after when they've paid for the expansion.



I'm glad VI is showing its true face now. I've cancelled my PoP orders, and am in wait and see mode.



Monks currently are slightly better tanks than rogues (I'd like to think atleast..) and deal slightly more damage than warriors (but hey, a top warrior outdamaged a top monk.. OMG!). Rogues however are only slightly worse tanks than monks, but deal almost twice the damage of a warrior. And now they get cool stuff like poison procs in PoP as well...



The pure melee classes are getting more and more unbalanced; if VI doesn't fix it, I'll look for a game where it doesn't need fixing.




http://www.xs4all.nl/~hjohn/swilvsign.jpg</p>

<blockquote>Quote:<hr> It makes no business sense to nerf classes just before a new Expansion. Get the expansion out, then nerf classes a few weeks after when they've paid for the expansion.<hr></blockquote>



PoP beta is over. I believe all the nerfs of late were the result of that beta.



a) PoP encounters were poorly designed such that they were trivialized without these nerfs. Rather than fix the encounters, they nerf.



b) beta testers on the beta boards had VI's ear. This was their opportunity to bend the game to their way of thinking. Thott in particular has been a vocal advocate of *all* of the nerfs that have gone in of late. Coincidence?





--

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</p>

I fail to see the business sense in the nerf at all. I fail to see why it became an issue now of all times. This game is the most popular game in the MMORG market and could have expected to remain so for at least another year. Sadly, all the news from Verant over the last year has left many of us wondering what they planned to do. PoP has had weak interest from everyone I know. Luclin is widely considered to be the worst expansion so far. People have been steadily leaving EQ for some time now (many due to the huge system upgrade requirements when Luclin came out). There have been several gameplay patches where a large portion of the player base has disagreed with. Finally, the many changes that recently went live are in direct response to the uberest of all uber having nothing to do but complain. For example, the last 3 or 4 months, all I ever saw on FoH's boards are one whine after another from Furor and his pose about this or that.



Bottom line, there is NO end game. There never was. The people who have everything there is in the game tire of new content very fast. It is clear that without the massive time sinks of Luclin, the uber guilds would have become very bored within a month.



I predict the following. After PoP comes out, Monks will discover new gear that makes up for the nerfs. Since there is not much that Verant can put on gear that is not already there, they simply removed mitigation from monks to give back to them in bonus'.


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