Are we looking for this...?

[SirAlvarex]

Games have new producers, which I don't doubt happened from expansion to expansion. Smed would have *had* to move on to EQ2 at some point, so him leaving EQ and Brad jumping ship ~Luclin probably had something to do with it.

There's no doubt the "vision" got squandered after Velious, but it isn't straight up "SOE the devil's" fault. The only fault the SOE brand would have for ruining EQ is bringing in a new Producer that went away from the old hat development. Also, losing Vhalen really sucked, because he was one hell of a story-teller. EQ2 had a story arc that revealed itself over what, 7 expansions?

The documentary is great for revealing this. Although I'm not a fan of Jace Hall, it really helps show the misconceptions the community had for a long time. It's also why I have some faith in Smed for EQ Next. The guy's original vision is why we have EQ, and he along with Brad helped mold the game we're playing 14 years later.