As you are probably aware by now, on November 12th, 2007, the SoE Web Platform team released a revised version of the EQ2 Players website. Titled "EQ2 Players RoK Release (3.4)", this new version brought new features, some bugfixes, but also introduced new problems, failed to address several long-standing problems (some of which have existed since the game's introduction in 2004, some three years ago), as well as removed existing features. This is similar to the situation that was created by changes to EQ2 Players on November 14th, 2006, on the occasion of the EoF release.

These changes had a marked impact on the Roster Master project (due to missing data and inconsistently formatted feeds that were the result of the changes), but more so had a marked impact on the community. Whether users of Roster Master, or just customers of SoE, players were left with unresolved problems ranging from being unable to use the data, data not being updated consistently or correctly, to the fee-based Advanced Services not working as advertised or being able to access services that were paid for, all the way up to reoccurring problems with billing for those services.

Fortunately, the Roster Master project had been able to recover partially from these changes through the efforts of Dark Grue (RM4DF dev) and Lantis (RMSA dev). By putting our heads together along with other members of the community, we managed, once more, to find ways to work around the data format problem, but still at the cost of reduced functionality.

So, what happened?

First, there is incompetence. Those feeds were broken at EoF release last year, and it took them six months to fix them. Six months later at the RoK release, they broke it AGAIN, making the exact same mistakes with the same results. Poor quality and responsiveness has been a consistent theme with EQ2 Players; however, failing to learn anything from in the course of a year stretches credibility, and is not acceptable in any industry.

In Logic of Empire, Robert Heinlein states: "You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity." But in having the EQ2Players RoK release duplicate the circumstances of EoF, we have what appears to be forethought of malice, not incompetence. In short, the appearance that SoE set out to intentionally sabotage the community. A few months prior to the expansion's release, a detailed report of various EQ2Players issues, and recommendations from the Roster Master community was sent by Dark Grue to a representative of the SOE QA team. No response was ever given. Months later, as part of the EQ2 Players RoK Release, we see SOE offering new Advanced Features services that replicate key Roster Master functionality; except they are charging for this service. Simultaneously, SoE also removed community access to roster data fields that have been openly available for community use and that Roster Master relied upon, and reserved them solely for their paid service. Draw your own conclusion.

[Further information is available in the Roster Master - EQ2Players Timeline.]

The Roster Master project is a very small group of developers that work, for no compensation, on the project in their spare time. We receive no compensation for our efforts (other than the thanks of the community and the knowledge of a job well-done). We receive no ad revenue, and garner no sponsorships. The work we do only brings value to the community, which in turn brings residual benefit to SoE. Such arrangements are common in today's marketplace, and are almost always win-win situations.

As both third-party developers, members of the EverQuest II community, and customers, the Roster Master Development Team are disgusted with the lack of communication, quality, and ethics we experience with EQ2 Players and the Web Platform team. Successful examples of collaboration between the EverQuest II developers and the community on projects such as EQ2Maps show that such interaction is not only possible, but benefits both parties. That specific example resulted in a completely seamless experience with the ROK launch. In contrast, the SOE Web Platform developers have been nothing but an obstacle to the Roster Master project and the community. They are not only ignoring us, but also changing things with no regard as to the consequences - even when it is in fact their own paying Advanced Services customers they are marginalizing.

Is it too much to ask that they stop ignoring the community, insulting it in the process by offering a broken and incomplete service? Using the Roster Master project as a stalking horse for market research and development of a product, only to plagiarize the efforts of community developers such as ourselves speaks volumes as to intent.

So, where does that leave Roster Master specifically? Version 3.5.0 of RMSA and Version 6.2.0 of RM4DF have been engineered to work around those issues, but at a loss of functionality, since many of the data fields on which we were dependent are no longer accessible. The Web Services team has shown an inability and unwillingness to listen to or communicate with the community, and after soliciting the Roster Master team's input, only to use that as a roadmap to implement their own pay service and harm the community project, they have shown a tremendous breach of faith and trust. Using a free open-source community project that had made every good-faith effort to reach back to SoE and collaborate in order to bolster their own commercial pay product which they are unable to deliver as complete and consistently working service is not the behavior you would expect from professionals.

The Roster Master team is committed to continue working on Roster Master in its various forms for as long it will remain possible, and enjoyable. But the recent experience has left us all with a bitter taste that only seems to intensify with each passing day that the service continues to accrue complains and problems that remain unaddressed and unresolved.

As a community member, all we can do is suggest that you make your opinion heard by them. The history of EQ2 Players and the Advance Features service does not demonstrate that its purpose is to provide a useful service for a nominal extra fee. Rather, it is to generate a reoccurring source of income for SoE - much in the way that the banner ads have been added to the site do (a feature which takes away value from the customers to generate revenue for SoE). Bearing that in mind, EQ2 Players is "working as intended" as long as it is generating income, there is no reason whatsoever for SoE to fix what is already working.

People in SoE you should consider writing to:

John Smedley, President (jsmedley@soe.sony.com)
Russell Shanks, Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer (
rshanks@soe.sony.com)
Torrie Dorrell, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Sales and International
George Scotto, Vice President, Global Customer Service and Quality Assurance
Mike Lustenberger, Vice President, Marketing
 
Sony Online Entertainment
8928 Terman Court
San Diego, CA 92121

Businesses do not hear your wallet voting - that just helps you. Businesses listen when you write to them and tell them (in a clear, calm, and concise manner) why you are not willing to continue buying their services.

Sincerely,

Lantis, Roster Master Stand Alone Developer
Dark Grue, Roster Master for Dragonfly Developer