Saw this on the Everquest Live Guide internal site...

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[Equable]

Any parenthetical remarks are made by yours truly.

"On Friday June 24th the company will be making a rather large announcement at approximately noon pacific. This will not impacted (nice grammar there) the guide program or indicate any outlook for the company.
 
Players may be filled with emotion because of this and may be extra vocal. If you are online during this time please be aware, listen to the players, (you can bet your booty that I will not be logging in this day) but do not engage in conversations about this change.
 
I understand that you are players and may be affected on your player accounts. Please remember that if you are going to be vocal to do so on your player account as a player and not on your guide account.
 
I will not be able to answer all of your questions regarding this change but I will try my best to let you know what I can. This is going to be a little bumpy and I really appreciate your understanding."

Anyone care to speculate? Looks to me like they are done making expansions. If they're not even giving guides a head's up as to what we can expect, I am sure it's something of that magnitude.

Anyone care to speculate?

[Emperor]

Something regarding F2P?

[Equable]

Everquest 2 is (kind of) so it makes sense.

[Xiggie | Stone]

This is very interesting. Anyone have anything farther to add yet?

[walk2k]

people still play everquest?

[funkinmofo]

Doubt its something to do with f2p considering they are expecting players to be vocal about it. Would think it would be more along the lines of a server reduction.

[Trevius]

Wow, that has me very curious!

It sounds like they are expecting major complaints and whining about the decision.  Here are my thoughts:

1. Free to Play - This seems like a logical choice since others have gone this direction including EQ2.  The only thing that makes me think this is not the announcement is because it doesn't seem like something that would upset people much.  Maybe people would be expecting more annoying spam bots if it was F2P.  Or, maybe the F2P has certain restrictions that doesn't apply to existing accounts and really only benefits new accounts/players which people might find unfair.

2. Server Reduction/Merge - I kinda doubt this will be the announcement, since there have already been several in the past and they didn't make too big of a deal about it.

3. No more Expansions - This is a definite possibility.  There is already an insane amount of content out there.  This wouldn't immediately affect anyone, but for any end-game players, it means progression stops there, which means they will be able to "beat Everquest" finally and have nothing left to do which could piss those players off for sure.  The main reason I don't think this would be the announcement is because they are nearing the time that the next expansion would be announced/released.  If they weren't going to release any more expansions, they should have known that by the time HoT was released and announced it around that time.

4. A Major Game Mechanic Removed/Changed - They could be announcing some major negative change to the current game mechanics such as removing mercenaries or maybe something like reducing all platinum on all existing characters by 90% to basically do an economy reset.  I kinda doubt something like this is the announcement, as they would have to have a really good reason to make a massive negative change like that.  It could also just be a nerf like considerably reducing AA exp rates, which could definitely set some people off.

5. Making the Game Easier - They could be doing massive adjustments like permanently doubling experience rates, or rare spawn rates, etc, to try to get a bigger chunk of casual gamers playing EQ.  While this may seem good, it also means uber players would have more competition and that new players would have it much easier than the veterans, which might upset some.  I wouldn't be too surprised if the announcement was related to this.

6. Server-Wide Instancing - They may be coming up with a new system that allows all servers to share an instancing system, so you could join an instance with players from any other server.  This might not be a bad idea, because it would probably help with under-population issues they have.  At the same time, there might be some negatives about a system like this that would have people vocalizing.  I doubt it is something like this, but was just a random idea I had about what the announcement could be.

7. Multiple Account Penalty - They could have plans to add extra fees for having multiple accounts, or maybe reducing the cost for people who have multiple.  Either way, I could see people complaining about it.

8. Price Increase - Obviously, increasing the monthly fees would raise a ton of complaints.  I kinda doubt this would be the announcement, since they would only lose more customers and probably make less profit if they continue raising monthly fees, especially if it is more than most other MMOs.

9. Micro-Transactions - The plan may be to open up high-end items to be purchasable for real money.  This is something I am sure would make the company a ton of money, but would also be a very good reason for players that earned their stuff the hard way to complain.

10. Selling EQ to another company - This would definitely cause some uproar.  I don't really see this happening, since they would most likely also have to sell EQ2 at the same time.  Also, the comment about it not indicating any outlook for the company makes me think it isn't related to selling the game to another company.

11. Private Servers - They could be adding a system to allow players to run their own private custom servers.  I highly doubt this is the announcement, but it doesn't hurt to hope lol.  I think having a private server system for EQ would be really cool, but I can also see why many players would be vocal about it.  I think if they made the system right, they could have some real potential for making massive amounts of money and revolutionizing the industry at the same time.  I could certainly imagine SOE being jealous of servers like P99, and imagine the popularity of a server like that with the open support and advertising of SOE.

So far I am leaning toward it being that no more expansions will be made.  It takes a fair amount of resources to make a full expansion from the ground up and I doubt they are making good enough returns to really justify it.  If their expansion sales are high enough to pay for it, then that is one thing, but with player numbers dwindling, they may not be meeting their requirements to make it worth-while.

[Xiggie | Stone]

Allowing private servers with the ability to customize would be huge. Especially if they made it easier to do than is current with emu. And just think, they would basically have a free dev staff. Scratch that, the dev staff would be paying them.

[Slyminx]

They never tell Guides jack shit.

When they took the Petition Queue away from us, the rumors about it were circulating through the over-extension/flappy mouths of the Elders (who essentially instigated the whole ordeal in the first place), but nothing, NOTHING was said until the D-day when the truth came out offocially.

I think the Guide program volume dropped by about 20% that time, people LOVED solving player problems via petition queue, summoning corpses out from under the world and such.

Afterwards, we were the jesters of the universe that nobody took serious. Stick figures sentenced to life improsonment.

I wonder if Jessla knows anything more about this?

[Gwendlyne]

My guess would be no more expansions past the next one. Either that, or they are putting in action a plan to draw the game to a close, with an expansion that will be designed to have a storyline that brings some sort of closure to EQ.

Free to play is a possibility, but I don't see it. The market place already generates an insane amount of money for what it is. F2P would most likely cut into their profits. Players would indeed freak out over a change like that, though.

[whatzizface]

Dont know if this is it but seems they have added "offline" leveling http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts/list.m?topic_id=177210  so people can get into a "fellowship" and log off and come back in a week to a lvl 90 char.

[lerxst2112]

That's not it, this is.

Dear Star Wars Galaxies™ Community Member,

We write to you today to inform you that on December 15, 2011, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and LucasArts will end all services (MMO and Trading Card Game) for Star Wars Galaxies (SWG). The shutdown of SWG is a very difficult decision, but SOE and LucasArts have mutually agreed that the end of 2011 is the appropriate time to end the game.

We are extremely grateful to all of the SWG fans. We have had the rare opportunity to host one of the most dedicated and passionate online gaming communities and we truly appreciate the support we've received from each and every one of you over the course of the past eight years.

In recognition of your incredible loyalty, we are extending special Fan Appreciation offers to the current SWG community. We also plan to go out with a bang with a galaxy-ending in-game event in December and hope to see you all there. The details relating to these offers and events as well as the timeline and specifics regarding the discontinuation of the service, are provided below.

Again, we want to extend our heartfelt thanks to our player community for making SWG one of the best online communities in gaming history.

Sincerely,
Sony Online Entertainment & LucasArts

[chunkumss]

Interesting. If there were a "Norrath-ending in-game event" in EQ I'd re-up my account to see it.

[Xiggie | Stone]

Wow, so all 15 people that still play that will be pretty upset.

[walk2k]

considering SW:TOR is coming out soon, not a surprise.

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