18.2.3 What are your thoughts on the changes in EverQuest that have made the game easier? While some argue that they have made the game more player-friendly, others seem to feel they have "dumbed down" the gameplay.

What's interesting to me is that the original EverQuest 'vision' is often labeled as 'hard core', even by those who enjoy that style more.

Forgive me in advance here for playing numbers... especially because there are a LOT of factors involved with subscriptions... the age of the game, what else is out there, player burn-out, etc.

But I do have to say that the game got to over 400,000 subs under the 'old school hard-core make-the-game-challenging' regime. In fact, I think it was fairly close to the 430,000 or so that seems to be the number that, when talked about at all, the game seems to be 'holding' at... and for quite some time.

Then I also look at the subs of games that are 'less hard-core'...

It's ironic I think that changes to MMOGs since 'original' EverQuest in an attempt to reach out to more people, to make the games more accessible, etc., have subs much smaller.

Sure, I know... there are a lot of other factors... my main point is that I wonder if the 'hard core' are really the 'hard core' or whether they're simply the players who play and enjoy MMOGs the most.

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