A quote from Scott Hartsman. One of the few devs I still respect and have esteem for.

In online games beyond the boutique scale, you are #1 or you are Everyone Else.

“#1” obeys certain rules that I won’t get into, but stability-to-growth becomes easier and you’re far more protected from loss, barring extreme triggers.

For “Everyone Else,” the converse is true: You are generally in a net state of subtraction over time. It’s just a matter of the rate. It takes extreme triggers to cause stability or gain.

For an MMO in the Everyone Else category, overall stability is actually a significant victory.

Therefore, saying that “EQ2’s investment isn’t paying off,” is most definitely incorrect — It’s paying off in that “stability” means we have a large percentage more subscribers right now than we would have had otherwise.

Worth quoting and giving it some visibility as it’s true in general and not just for EQ2.