EQ barly makes profit - Page 2

#16 10-14-2003, 08:58 AM

should read "PointlessPosterSlayer" in reality tho

Hardy · #17 10-14-2003, 10:58 AM

Was really surprised to come back and see 2 pages :lol:

I wasn't sure when they changed the monthly price to $13/month, but if it was just last year, then I can believe that this is the first year w/ profit because this is the first full year of the $13/month. They also do movies, television, music, etc.... So they have enough income, they don't need any profit from EverQuest, but they need something to run the servers and employees.

kai_shadowbane · #18 10-14-2003, 11:06 AM

now was that fact just everquest, or all of sony's mmorpgs, since they have, what now, at least 3 out and running at the same time? They could have factored in the hits for doing all the extra servers for those newer games too, which would explain the still massive losses.

Asigoth · #19 10-14-2003, 11:09 AM

I'd have to agree with Kai. The losses could be because of their other MMORPGs. Personally, I think Planetside and SWG aren't that great.

Merth · #20 10-14-2003, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trumpcard

Image, you nailed it on the head..

One of the big problems in enterprise level applications is that once your architecture is down, changes are very hard and very expensive to make and test

While this is true in companies I have worked for, I disagree with regard to EQ. That's why I frown on their recent attempt to cut down bandwidth costs.

EQ recently underwent major changes to the underlying protocol. It did not do this upon arrival of an expansion, it was between expansions. In fact, there were two major protocol changes between December 2002 and April 2003 - and is the reason why EQEMu and ShowEQ were out of commission for quite a while.

Their September 9, 2003 change to items was not as huge as the compression/encryption changes, but it was still a big change - items were not only serialized as a string, but they put items inside of other items, and did away with the slot_id for these items. This was definitely an improvement to bandwidth usage, but they are missing the bigger picture on what they are trying to accomplish - and this is where some major bandwidth improvements could have been made.

This carries over into some other packets being sent as well, but my point is: they are well suited to make big changes, but they end up making the wrong changes

Lurker_005 · #21 10-14-2003, 02:50 PM

As a_guest03 wrote, they most likely are doing lots of number crunching to show the profit/losss they want to. Usualy for taxes, but it also can have effects on stocks, or just rolling the money back in to assets. Hey if you make $1,000,000 profit, then invest it back in to your business... oops no profit now. But again that relates to taxes... US tax code is UGLY and I thank god I don't have to understand more than personal taxes!

Quote:

Originally Posted by a_Guest03

I existed before the asses, and they didn't go back and add them to every old user.

So most users from 2002 are ass-free.

*EDIT* I guess I can't find anyone else who is ass-free. I checked Ariak and Lurker to confirm, and I'm just outright wrong.

I like not having asses, but I'm unsure why I'm the only one I can find.

Actually I could be ass free, I snagged a 5 ass image as my avatar... I almost grabbed an admin one by accident :p

Oops hadn't noticed someone added my asses! The avatar gave me 10 asses!

Trumpcard · #22 10-14-2003, 10:32 PM

Quote:

This was definitely an improvement to bandwidth usage, but they are missing the bigger picture on what they are trying to accomplish - and this is where some major bandwidth improvements could have been made.

I have to play devils advocate here and say that we don't know what constraints these guys are having to work under also.. Are there better ways of doing things? Most likely, is the way we envision consistant with what they can realisticlly do? Who knows.. Changes might be to line up with some future architecture, you never know.. There are alot of variables

Edgar1898 · #23 10-15-2003, 12:11 AM

my guess is CM (configuration management) is to blame. I bet a lot of the devs would like to make improvements, but they are forced to stay with the current status quo until someone submits a bug report. CM is the devil of programming imho.

DeletedUser · #24 10-15-2003, 07:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by a_Guest03

I existed before the asses, and they didn't go back and add them to every old user.

So most users from 2002 are ass-free.

*EDIT* I guess I can't find anyone else who is ass-free. I checked Ariak and Lurker to confirm, and I'm just outright wrong.

I like not having asses, but I'm unsure why I'm the only one I can find.

Back with the VB forums when hogie used the converter it took over the custom titles with it, I think? That might be the reason you still have your title.

But I don't think that is true, because I don't have my custom title from back then.

x-scythe · #25 10-15-2003, 01:29 PM

sony makes money from not only eq as everyone knows

they own a lot of the major new technology that is coming out...playstation, T.V.'s, cd players, minidiscs, etc...in my opinion they could probably afford to have the price a little cheaper...im not saying its expensive to play eq (its really not) but i dont think it was really neccasary for them to raise the prices...

flyrken · #26 10-15-2003, 01:52 PM

SNE is the ticker symbol.
Sony is so big that bad money exchange rates cause them alot of money loss. Strong Yen is bad, (higher consumer prices) they normally look like this 700 Trillion in sales, 600 Billion in profits (Yen) Its fitting that I said this and I see a "FOREX" Headline on first hit on google under SNE, which includes Toyota, etc

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...&q=stocks:SNE+

Everquest has to be something of a profit maker.

Why?

Original Everquest
5 expansions to original Everquest.
Everquest Mac Version released this summer.
Wireless phone Everquest.
PocketPC Everquest
PS2 Everquest Online Adventures
PS2 Champions of Norrath

2004
Everquest 2

Everquest would have been dropped long ago if profit was not achievable, then again if this [software business] is a "Growth" market to them. Expect they will never give up until the CEO of board says "Lets get out of the Software and Service business especially video games!!". I wouldn't worry a single yen about it.

EOF

a_Guest03 · #27 10-16-2003, 04:46 AM

Sorry to drag this offtopic again!

I found many others like me with custom titles, no avatars, and no asses. They just haven't posted in ages. Like I said, many of us who had custom avatars or custom titles never had to switch to the butts system. I don't know why Ariak and Lurker have butts, but I do know why the other oldtimers like Drawde and Supporters do. The converter just missed me and a few select others.

Merth · #28 10-16-2003, 07:54 AM

Each rank type has a link to a picture on the server. These rankings are custom defined, and allow associating a picture with the ranking. Some (most) rank types have no picture associated with them. Yours is one of them.

Would you prefer to have the monkey butts? I can make an ass out of you, if you'd like ..

a_Guest03 · #29 10-16-2003, 08:10 AM

No no! I'm quite fine minus the anus.

I've had trouble posting a new avatar, and I know kyle9 (okay, bad example) had the same problem. It spams a lot of stuff and fails to load an avatar onto the server from local images. I think it should still work from offsite linking.

Merth · #30 10-16-2003, 08:14 AM

Try making the avatar smaller, both in dimensions and filesize.