Ah, my old friend, the Exit Survey. Seen quite a few of these now, often several for the same game, as I buzz about MMO obsession like a bluebottle on a windowsill, or something. It's that page in the web-based account management setting where they get to try a bit of minor post-mortem on a love gone awry, in the hope that the answers you give might help the game do a better job of maintaining the spark of romance with it's other hundred thousand lovers, and indeed, help it make itself more attractive for future reconciliation.

I often find you can learn a lot about an MMO by the state of it's exit survey; just as they hope to learn from whoever fills it in - the questions they ask reveal much in turn. I used to just ignore these. Often I'd be quitting in quite a fury, feeling variously hurt, betrayed, exhausted, and often quite angry about the whole episode. I like to think I'm that much nearer to being a Grown Up nowadays though, and do try to treat these objectively, and in the spirit they're meant. It does still annoy me that in most cases, they only wait until I've quit, before asking me for my input and advice, but do try to do them properly anyway.

It's Everquest 2's turn this time. I'm quite old fashioned in some respects, so do actually unsubscribe from games I've stopped playing - even EVE Online - rather than just leave them parked for months at a time. I probably spend more on Crisps per month than the average MMO subscription mind you, but that's not the point; I don't like paying for things I'm not actually using!

Anyway, on to the survey. It was a surprisingly short one this time - four questions on one page. Shorter is probably better for this kind of exercise - the player has already lost interest in the game, and is only going through this stage to stop the Credit card being billed further; bombarding them with a twenty page list of "Strongly Disagree, Slightly Disagree, Mildly Disagree, Sometimes Disagree..." stuff is likely to just make them skip the whole lot entirely. Short, sharp, and to the point is best, in a Colombo "Just one more thing..." style!

No free text-box I noticed, which is unusual. I love the free text-box on these forms, and I find that it's mostly because these aren't big enough, that I maintain an MMO blog! I can see what an admin nightmare it must be to get any meaningful statistics out of such a field though. Saying something like "Please add any other comments you think we might find helpful", and then having to hire twenty temps/interns to sit there and wade through the feedback, which can vary from War and Peace, through to ':P', over and over. Very cathartic, but probably not helpful for further design planning.

Questions 1 and 2 were just statistics - How long have you been playing (On and off since launch), and What level is your main? (51) - both useful for working out whether to focus on newbie experience or end-game. 3 was surprisingly frank - Why are you quitting? I picked 'Not enough time' from the list of potential failings.

Question 4 was interesting though: 'If we were to add even more features to EQII, which of the following might cause you to continue to play?'

And the options were as follows (my comments in brackets):

  • The addition of even more content that doesn't require a group.

    (Since launch, EQ2 has become progressively better and better for soloing, as SOE, traditional crusaders of the Interdependent Group have responded to the realities of trying to get anything useful done with five other strangers of varying ability, gear, commitment, competence and online times. The group stuff is still there, of course, but with the exception of Lavastorm and Everfrost, most of the rest of the game is comfortably soloable now, if need or inclination demands)
  • The addition of even more high level zones.

    (Always important. The rate I was going, I'd expect to see 70 on my main in about two to three months, and many EQ2 players are far more committed than me. Given how much easier it seemed to progress, a lot of people will get to the top much faster than before, and want something to do when they get there.)
  • The addition of even more interesting and unique loot.

    (The loot seemed pretty plentiful to me this session, with perhaps 30% of mobs dropping a chest of some description. The EoF zones in particular seemed a treasure mine of interesting loot, although work the same zone long enough and the finite nature of the loot tables does start to become apparent. As for Legendary or Fabled loot, that only ever showed up in Dungeons, as a group, which I guess is fair.)
  • Faster combat speed.

    (With the exception of the guild raiding, combat was pretty rapid, and downtime almost non-existent. Then again, I was a flailing DPS type. Not sure how combat was for the tanks or priests.)

  • Faster travel options.

    (Always a tricky call, but I would like to see a more 'instant' way to go from Kelethin to Qeynos - the current overland and ship journeys were pretty time consuming, and there aren't any Griffin towers in EoF, that I could see. Maybe a fast-travel route between the Greater Faydark Entrance, and the Docks, in Butcherblock would help. Like the Qeynos Harbourmaster tickets for the TS/Nek Docks Hub.)

  • The ability to hire NPC group members to assist you.

    (Oooh...Guild Wars style henchmen, in EQ2? That would be something to see, although the AI would be big and difficult job, given the more methodical nature of EQ2 encounters, compared to the DPS zerging of GW. Then there's loot splitting to these notional other party members, and added complication of equipping, training and levelling them, if going down the full-on GW Heroes route. It's worth noting that GW only has henchmen and heroes because the very nature of the world design makes it effectively unsoloable, in the classic sense. In GW, you always have a  full party, humans or AI)
  • New and unique mounts such as flying creatures, or ships.

    (Ah...The Burning Crusade rearing it's ugly head here. Flying mounts would be neat, but as in TBC, would only be reasonable in new, purpose built zones, although the various floating sky-islands of Kingdom of Sky seem already to be suitable. I doubt this would be practical for the existing Shattered Lands though.)
  • The ability to create adventures or quests for your friends.

    (Getting into Ryzom Ring territory now. This looks good on paper, but risks the Neverwinter Nights problem - infinite freedom to recreate the same 15 adventures, with as many different lighting options as you like! Making the components flexible enough, without making them so specialised that it takes thousands of man-years to design. Also economy problems - where would all this loot and xp come from? Thin air? Very exploitable if done wrong.)
  • Even more plot-lines, in-game events, and holiday events.

    (Aww. EQ2 has nothing to fear on this score, and have always put in a stellar performance on these, I think.)
  • Expanded player housing options.

    (Again, somewhere EQ2 shines, although the housing never seems to act as a social hub. Perhaps the addition of some more mercantile style dwellings - Inns, taverns, pie shops, whatever. Also, our guild could have used a proper guild-house, rather than just all piling into someone's home. As far as the 'dolls house' side of an individual player's dwelling went, very good, and ties into the events above - furniture can be interesting, yet rarely unbalancing.)
  • Broader avatar appearance options.

    (Who doesn't want to look prettier? Still, this many years in, and I STILL can't run the game as intended - 'Extreme Quality' settings, so the improvement is already there - just buy a 512MB Gfx Card! More styles of clothing and armour would be good though - stop everyone sub-70 looking identical within their class. I'd also like to blend in better in Maj Dul - flowing headscarf and desert gear, Gnome sized!)
  • A concentration on fixing the existing game instead of new features

    (The last recourse of the bitter, this is still quite important. Saying that, I didn't notice anything game-breaking, or even memorably annoying on the Bug Front during this last session, and on the whole, EQ2 is a very stable MMO. What goes on at the far reaches of experimental raid-play though, I couldn't say.)

I went with More Holiday Events in the end, just because I like them so much, and want to see more next time I'm back, but as noted previously, the real reason I'm quitting isn't EQ2 at all - just me.