SOE may be opportunists but you can't blame them for that. They may have made the odd mistake here and there we all do. to the haters I just say sour grapes and a sad sad bunch of small minds.

Believe it or not SOE support themselves and Online gaming who else would pick up the pieces ...??

To the OP:

You have missed the point Hardcore isn't dead at all go play a good old MUD ... Dragonrealms now thats hardcore and fun.

Sadly not many Hardcore MMORPG's exist, too much effort for the masses. But hardcore games will exist just with low population games for sadists and people who like self harming.

Played Lotro for a week hit level 20 maxed ot all my trades and am seriously bored may as well go play a single player game no depth whatsoever.... Pretty though.

Nice post to the OP, can't disagree with much here one sad point the negative 10. I am just wishing for a game where items are gained through adventure by the adventurer questing. And the money gained from items is used for repairs and buying in game items.

Take away the greed and the gold sellers and bring on a game with a community and people that want to have fun and achieve over time... and items are traded for items or given.

Oh well need to go calm down poiint 10 negative is what ruins most games at the moment

Nice post by the OP and I agree pretty much with him.

I think I'll be going back to playing a MUD for a while, i don't care for graphics anymore all I want is a good game system decent content the ability to express and a small community to enjoy gaming with. And an amount of complexity.

Uhm, I presume the OP is trying to understand why VG is so bad.... The argument put forward regarding zones is utter rubbish the issue is the design and the code. A number of games run well without zones I think the starting point here should be the word 'Efficient' with respect to coding and resource management the game delivers neither.

UHm I think as an online game EQ2 is up there with the best on the market. As of now it has great content an ammount of playability and with the new expansions a lot to offer.

I find the OP post strange as I think the game is doing fine ...

Maybe it would be doing better if it had had the content it has now on release, more investment in marketing and less competition as the current mmorpg market is just a flooded cesspit or mediocre games with just a life of 3-6 months probably half a dozen releases sit outside of that and i believe EQ2 is one of them.

Yes had a look at this today both new and old, I really didn't realise how polished this looks would love to get hold of the world building engine if I had time...

I need to do some GameMaster begging...

I disagree with the OP here, I believe the arguments and points being made are due to the OP believeing that he/she/it has a god given right to a direct network connection straight into SIMU HQ, Uhm or is that the new HQ which they are filling with new staff.

The Hero engine is being licenced not sold, great marketing and approach which will help the HJ development all round.

I am starting to feel very positive about this title.

See you all in HJ sometime in the future...