Shaman will get their talent review in 1.11

[oldmandennis]

I wouldn't call bull#$%& on the EQ2 bit without playing it, personally. EQ2 has a fairly stable player base, but Sony Online Entertainment as a whole is failing.

As for the quality- all MMO's have patching problems. It's part of the game.  :shuriken:
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Amazingly, we have kept this civil so far :D

Anyhoo... It is a fact that SOMETHING has caused EQ2 to contract servers. It is probably NOT that they are putting out such a fantastic product that overwhelming demand is forcing them to squish more people togeather.

And I did try EQ2 for a bit. I found the graphics sterile and soulless. The backstory is simplistic and lame. And recently they made a shift (right before I started playing) which put 16 classes to choose from right from the opening screen. The problem is that those classes were origially designed to be branched out from 4 arch types in 2 steps (4x2x2 = 16). Earth to SOE - I am level 1. I have no idea what the difference between a conjurer and an illusionest is.

But as obviously as SOE games are flailing about (Starwars is worse off then EQ2 by a large margin), my impression is that they are still making money. Not WoW money, but still profitable from the last report I heard.

And considering the amount of money WOW is taking in, their stability problems are becoming less and less excusable. Think of it this way - They are taking in 1/2 the cost of my cell phone or so per month. My cell phone rarely has an inablily to connect to the server (dropped call, etc). Certainly not for significant peak hours for large parts of the month. Having actually worked in that sort of industry for a while, I know EXACTLY how to fix this. Tie sizeable bonuses (~1/3 annual salary) for the networking staff to get 99.9% uptime for everything that could possibly be considered under thier control (ISP's, Authentication servers, Forums, etc.) See how hard they can lean on what ever degenerates are supplying their internet connection when it is their Christmas on the line. Give them an almost blank check to do what they need - new hardware, new/redundant ISPs, you'd be astounded what people will accomplish if there is a few thousand cash money on the line. Trust me, I have seen this work, its not just an idea that sounds good on paper.