Dear Mr. Smedley,
Can I call you John? Okay.
Dear John,
I am and have been a player of Everquest Online Adventures since
December of 2003. First, I would like to thank you for introducing me
to such a wonderful, imaginative world. The inhabitants and lore of
the Everquest franchise have kept me thoroughly enthralled since my
first steps into Halas as a level 1 Barbarian Warrior, nearly nine
years ago. This was my first experience playing an MMO of any type and
I had no idea how huge the game really was until I was led by a friend
out of the tunnel entrance to the city of Halas for the first time and
gazed out at the wintry world that lay before me. At that moment I
was hooked.
My intent with this message is probably already clear; I come to make
a case for the continued life of this amazing game. Over the course
of the life of this game there has been a community formed and more
closely knit with every day. I understand that the community is
dwindling, and never lived up to expectations to begin with. I beg of
you not to toss us aside and forcibly separate us. I know you have
offered us Gold memberships for your other games, Everquest and
Everquest II; but remember why you made EQOA to begin with: to reach a
new audience. Well you found your audience; we are console gamers, not
PC gamers. Since the inception of computer gaming there has been that
divide in audience and to toss us a free subscription to your PC
games, while appreciated, is almost insulting. It shows the lack of
understanding that SOE had of the EQOA audience to begin with and the
lack of understanding it still maintains. I have forayed into the
world of PC gaming. I toyed with World of Warcraft and was
unimpressed; I also played Vanguard and I loved the game, but the
great number of bugs and low population at launch turned me off after
a short period. I do also currently enjoy playing DCUO on my
Playstation 3, but nothing has my heart like EQOA.
John, we aren’t asking for updates. We aren’t asking for the release
of EQOA: Underfoot. We aren’t asking for a development team. We aren’t
asking for bug fixes, or game patches. We are asking you to leave a
light on for us. We ask that you not kill our adventuring until you
have brought us a replacement; a console replacement, that we would
gladly pay to play. All we ask for in return for our years of
patronage and our hard earned wages is one live server. Please, leave
us Castle Lightwolf. Take away our other servers, take away our
development team, take away our forums, but please don’t take away our
community. We have laughed, loved, killed, raided, adventured, and
explored together for 9 years and we still have yet to see all that
Norrath has to offer. I know that SOE found it feasible to save (and
make free) the EQ Mac server, I hope that the same might be done for
our own server.
Help us, John Smedley, you’re our only hope.
Sincerely,
[Wreck’s actual name]
AKA Wreckanize level 60 Lich 948 CMs – CLW server
Wreckuiem level 60 Minstrel 1077 CMs – CLW server
Wreckula level 60 Metabolist 775 CMs – CLW server
Kenobie level 54 Warrior 610 CMs – PPO server
Wreckanize level 60 Lich 988 CMs – PPO server
Everquest Online Adventures 
Great letter. I hope it can be enough to convince them to leave the game running, even just for a little bit longer.
Wonderful letter, I hope he responds.
Like some know and have seen me say before: I’ve not played EQOA since 2006, but dang, when he spoke about walking right outside of Hallas and seeing the world around him, it just smacked me in the face with sweet ol’ nostalgia again. EQOA really was a revolution for console gaming. There’s no doubt about it. It’s a fact to me. The only fault in the whole thing was the lack of advertisement on SoE’s part concerning the game, really, because I know that millions more people would have played it if SoE had advertised it correctly to the masses. I never even saw an advertisement on TV. The only way I found out about it was through my brother going to the store and seeing it on the shelf and bought it to check it out, then he told me about it.
I do like PC MMORPGs and the complexity involved but EQOA was still amazingly awesome for its time and I guess I could not compare the two (console vs. PC MMORPGs). It’d be like comparing apples to oranges – it just should not be done. I’ve also played WoW for a couple years (2006-2008 or so) after I left EQOA and I agree, it just wasn’t anything like EQOA. The “epic” and wondrous feel of EQOA lore and look of the land just made the game so amazing to play in and of itself. I personally love grouping and in WoW I felt lonely most of the time when having to usually quest solo – it was boring in that case, but the PvP was good though. EQOA is my style of game play overall! To adventure with other people together from low, medium and high level!
If they make an “EQOA 2” for PS3, I’ll be more than likely buying a PS3! I guarantee if millions of people see it (by way of GOOD advertisement), they will try it and be hooked!
I just emailed this:
Dear John Smedley,
Thank you for reading this letter. I am compelled to write you on behalf of all my fellow EQOA brothers and sisters. We are a family, a tightly knit community of gamers and friends. We are loyal, and we cherish every precious moment of magic and fantasy exploration in the world of EQOA. Like many families, some of us stray from our home base, go off to live else where, and often enough, we come back.
I have been playing EQOA on and off for 9 years. I’ve opened 3 accounts, introduced it to my friends, siblings, and children. Being an MMORPG enthusiast, I have explored other MMO’s, such as Everquest, EQ2, LOTR, WOW, Guild Wars, Shaiya, DCUO and others. I like them each for certain unique qualities they posses, but I don’t love them. As I’ve played them, I often compared them to EQOA and ultimately felt they were missing that “something special”.
In the last 9 years I’ve had to sometimes put down the MMO’s and tend to real life experiences such as work, raising children, and being a good husband. So often in real life I was reminiscent of this other world that I was once a part of, a feeling so real, it’s as though i had been there, and sometimes I was obsessed about getting back. This is Magic. No other game has done this to me. I love the world of EQOA. I know that that there is a core group of players here that feel the same.
Many of my fellow players will never touch a PC game. I have asked many of my EQOA friends what they were going to play after this was shut down, and many of them said “I don’t know. Nothing. There is nothing like this. I wont play PC games.” This breaks my heart. I know people that play with their spouses, often having their living room centered around their 4 PS2’s, and EQOA. They work hard all week, and their favorite form of entertainment is EQOA every weekend. I often have “EQOA night” where me and 2 of my kids setup our 3 tv’s and PS2’s and we go adventuring together.
There is no substitute for EQOA. The closest I’ve ever seen at best is DCUO, but this is not the mid-evil fantasy game that we yearn for. As good as DCUO is, Super Hero Outfits and Metropolis Buildings are not a palatable substitute. If their is no proper spiritual sequel to EQOA for us to move to, then we will be lost. Dare I say, we are a family of misfits, about to be evicted from our home.
Please, I beg of you, reconsider the future of EQOA. We don’t need updates, expansions, developers or forums. We only need 1 server; Castle Lightwolf. 1 open door, to an empty room. We will light our own fire, and make our own beds. We know EQ Mac was saved and given Free to Play. If their was any possible way that our family could be blessed in the same way, we would be eternally grateful.
If there is something you need us to do, please, give us a chance to do our part.
Our Hopes and Dreams are now in your hands.
Peace, my friend. Thank you for your time.
~Jeremiah B. Johnson
After reading your letter Wreck, i was so inspired to help our cuase, i wrote John my own letter (above) emailed it to him, then made a video version of my letter
and tweeted it to him also.
Your letter is very well done. I would like to ask permission to copy it and make a similar video version for you…you could tweet to him also?