In my email inbox: "Echoes of the Dead Coming Soon!" Let's look to the Soon Meter...

[Laire]

Sapience, as many of us forum peeps know, has a very precise meter with highly accurate measurements to dissect this rather ambiguous term.

According to the Soon Meter, Soon means: "We’ve narrowed the date down to something within the calendar year!" We already knew this long ago, the date being "Q1ish" for a while. However, because it is capitalized, it would indicate that this update is coming out later rather than 'sooner'. There is an exclamation mark after the word Soon, and this spins a whole new meaning on the term. The only other term on the chart with an exclamation mark is the time, "NOW!", a rather foreboding status on the Soon Meter. Unfortunately Sapience does not cover punctuation and its various meanings in his chart, leading one to speculate that the update is somewhere between Soon and NOW!

However, the chart also does not take into consideration the capitalization of all other words in the sentence, and merely words associated with the word 'soon'. Capitalization means longer on the Soon Meter, but perhaps the Marketing Guy was unfamiliar with this tool and merely capitalized the whole title because it looks nice? Marketing Guy needs to be introduced to the Soon Meter, to say the least, if that is the case.

In the end, it still leaves us with the question of how soon is 'Soon!' when it is in a title? Because the meter does not cover it, I have come to the conclusion that, since this Soon! does not exist, the date of the update must fall on a day that does not exist. I think somewhere around March Eleventy-first would be a highly accurate theorized date.

How do you interpret this Soon! mystery, fellow I-am-bored-and-killing-time forum goers?

[Sapience]

The marketing department is not versed in the mysteries of "Soon".

[Fredelas]

The marketing department is not versed in the mysteries of "Soon".

Are there initiation rituals? My overactive imagination hopes that a ridiculously large hourglass is involved somehow.

[Silverangel]

How do you interpret this Soon! mystery, fellow I-am-bored-and-killing-time forum goers?

My interpretation is "Not soon enough", because the Dead do not reckon time in the same way as impatient mortals.

[Simplyhere]

The marketing department is not versed in the mysteries of "Soon".

Having wasted a good bit of my day reading forum posts, my brain is addled. Since there are many rhymes with "soon," I could not forbear. The previous is meant as an apology for the subsequent:

O! treat us not as one would treat the loon
when speaking of that word of portent full,
but give to us the meaning now of "soon"
that we may know when ends this crushing lull.
You say the marketers know not the tale;
the mystery of "soon" they do not ween!
Why so? and wherefore not? The sale
of information's dear the twain between?
Ah! Tease us not, O Sapience, I beg,
and give to us this gift, this michel boon,
That in the hours given us betwixt
now and yonder rise of update moon,
we wait with less propensity to swoon:
Tell us now the Market Price of "soon!"

[UndeadKing]

O! treat us not as one would treat the loon
when speaking of that word of portent full,
but give to us the meaning now of "soon"
that we may know when ends this crushing lull.
You say the marketers know not the tale;
the mystery of "soon" they do not ween!
Why so? and wherefore not? The sale
of information's dear the twain between?
Ah! Tease us not, O Sapience, I beg,
and give to us this gift, this michel boon,
That in the hours given us betwixt
now and yonder rise of update moon,
we wait with less propensity to swoon:
Tell us now the Market Price of "soon!"

Pure Win, Loved it

[EtherDragon]

I wish I could with all my might,
Have some news this very night,
But, 'las I wait upon my wish,
To hear the news MoreSoonerish...

[Gandolf_TheOld]

In the end, it still leaves us with the question of how soon is 'Soon!' when it is in a title? Because the meter does not cover it, I have come to the conclusion that, since this Soon! does not exist, the date of the update must fall on a day that does not exist. I think somewhere around March Eleventy-first would be a highly accurate theorized date.

How do you interpret this Soon! mystery, fellow I-am-bored-and-killing-time forum goers?

There is only one date it can be, the date is Soon!, but not NOW! It is both "real" and "not real", it can only be February 29th.

[EtherDragon]

There is only one date it can be, the date is Soon!, but not NOW! It is both "real" and "not real", it can only be February 29th.

Your logic is impecable, may I subscribe to your news letter?

[firithnorm]

Methinks we need to parse the entire title in more detail, since there is no such definition for "Soon!" As we do this a number of puzzles arise...

+ How does the modifier of "Coming" affect the "Soon!" anomaly? Does it soften or strengthen the period of time that "Soon!" potentially refers to?

+ As previously noted, it's the "Dead" that are "Coming Soon!" and the concept of time in the netherworld may be non-linear or indefinite - if time exists at all.

+ Throw in that it's not actually "the Dead" "Coming Soon" but "Echoes" of the "Dead" and now we are dealing with some abstract representation of "the Dead" arriving at some appointed time that is indefinite due to the lack of understanding of when "Soon!" could possibly occur!

(... and yes, my logic is somewhat dizzying - but I'm only GETTING STARTED!)

So...

If we take the entire phrase into consideration, then we are referring to some hazy possibly non-existent time that may be even farther out than we expect, assuming that "Coming" has a negative impact to "Soon!"

(... I think...)

[Raath]

How Soon is Now?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U5HpeA_WSo

[Laire]

Methinks we need to parse the entire title in more detail, since there is no such definition for "Soon!" As we do this a number of puzzles arise...

So assume that Coming and Soon both have a negative impact on time...

But don't two negatives make a positive? So, both of them together would positively effect time... making the update sooner than Soon?

[trancejeremy]

A lot of MMORPGs have been doing stuff like this because a fairly popular (for now) new one called "Rift" is going live tomorrow.

So I don't think they were trying to say anything about the release date, just trying to keep people from fleeing to it by reminding them that there is new content in the near future (though sadly, only new content for raiders)

[MorrisO]

Having wasted a good bit of my day reading forum posts, my brain is addled. Since there are many rhymes with "soon," I could not forbear. The previous is meant as an apology for the subsequent:

O! treat us not as one would treat the loon
when speaking of that word of portent full,
but give to us the meaning now of "soon"
that we may know when ends this crushing lull.
You say the marketers know not the tale;
the mystery of "soon" they do not ween!
Why so? and wherefore not? The sale
of information's dear the twain between?
Ah! Tease us not, O Sapience, I beg,
and give to us this gift, this michel boon,
That in the hours given us betwixt
now and yonder rise of update moon,
we wait with less propensity to swoon:
Tell us now the Market Price of "soon!"

Oh. well done! [Insert applause here] +1 rep

[Yemon]

Sapience: Do not try and bend the soon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth.
Laire: What truth?
Sapience: There is no soon.
Laire: There is no soon?
Sapience: Then you'll see, that it is not the soon that bends, it is only yourself.

[Windsinger3]

Having wasted a good bit of my day reading forum posts, my brain is addled. Since there are many rhymes with "soon," I could not forbear. The previous is meant as an apology for the subsequent:

O! treat us not as one would treat the loon
when speaking of that word of portent full,
but give to us the meaning now of "soon"
that we may know when ends this crushing lull.
You say the marketers know not the tale;
the mystery of "soon" they do not ween!
Why so? and wherefore not? The sale
of information's dear the twain between?
Ah! Tease us not, O Sapience, I beg,
and give to us this gift, this michel boon,
That in the hours given us betwixt
now and yonder rise of update moon,
we wait with less propensity to swoon:
Tell us now the Market Price of "soon!"

Kudos! That was brilliantly done. *wild applause* +rep!

[AnomieX]

(though sadly, only new content for raiders)

Lets see:

-4 new instances
-3 new skirmishes
-all of Volume 2 soloable
-over 100 new quests in Evendim

I'd say it's undeniable that the only new content is for raiders!

[Sorry to derail the thread, but my tolerance for FUD only goes so far.]

[BellusDuFenna]

As much as I like the light-heartedness of this thread thus far, I think I might just be required to be a bit of a "wet blanket" here, although I prefer the term "Messenger of Reason". This could be for good or for ill, depending on your opinion of what I have to say.

This email came from Marketing, as Sapience implied previously, which tells me one thing above all else: Barring a major issue arising on Bullroarer, the release date is now a known thing to Turbine. Obviously, they won't tell us what that is yet, because if a major problem arises which necessitates pushing that date back, there would be hell to pay from much of the forum community. I believe that this also tells us that the vast majority of Update 2 is finalized, with only minor bugfixes and polish to be done between now and the release date... again, barring a major problem arising with the content update.

Next, and in my opinion, more importantly, i think this means the release of Update 2 will occur in the next two weeks. March 1st is possible, but if I had to guess, I'd say March 8th is much more likely. Why so soon, though? Because Marketing knows that they don't want to start hyping Update 2 too soon, or it loses much of its drawing power. Three to four weeks from now, people won't be thinking about that email anymore, and any in-game ads for the update will be ignored, as we'll all be quite used to them by then. Also, in previous experience, similar emails for previous updates have gone out no more than two weeks in advance, as far as I recall.

Now, one could argue that both 3/1/2011 and 3/8/2011 are good launch dates for Update 2. The former may have people claiming it is coming "too soon", but it also would be able to take a slight amount of thunder away from a new MMO (which I shall not name) that is launching that day. The latter date is better in my opinion, though, since it doesn't directly compete with that game launch and will have the benefit of seeming less rushed, even though it is only an extra week.

Also remember that Kate Paiz in her last Producer's Letter described the content update after Update 2 by the name "The Anniversary Update", which means late April to early May release. That puts Turbine under the gun time-wise, just a bit. They've been averaging 3 months or so between updates since we went Free-to-Play, so pulling off another content update so soon will be tricky, and every week that goes by makes it even more difficult to do. They have about 10 weeks right now, if Update 2 were out today.

Perhaps Kate did the Devs a bit of a disservice by indirectly pinning a release window on Update 3 by calling an Anniversary Update, or maybe it is already planned to be rather light on content, so it will necessitate much less testing before launch? We can only speculate on that right now. But if Turbine is going to keep up the schedule their Executive producer outlined just a few months back - which they have thus far kept to, mind you - getting Update 2 out sooner rather than later would definitely be a plus for them.

Regardless, expect it soon, perhaps sooner than many of you might wish.

Just saying.

[Paestylandir]

Sapience: Do not try and bend the soon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth.
Laire: What truth?
Sapience: There is no soon.
Laire: There is no soon?
Sapience: Then you'll see, that it is not the soon that bends, it is only yourself.

"Matrix" nice man.....

[Fionnuala]

If there's one thing I've learned while playing LOTRO it's that updates are like Gandalf. You should expect them when you see them.

[Rouven]

What is an echo? A reflection of something that has already happened!
Coming! Soon! and NOW! Makes .... incrediyesterday!

*shiver* "I see dead people ..."

[Bryos]

[Hobiton]

Sapience: Do not try and bend the soon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth.
Laire: What truth?
Sapience: There is no soon.
Laire: There is no soon?
Sapience: Then you'll see, that it is not the soon that bends, it is only yourself.

Okay, now where did I put that blue pill?

[Arenhil1]

I think it all depends on how you ask the question. To wit,

"When will 'Then' be 'Now'?"

"Soon."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeZ9HhHU86o

[Sapience]

I think it all depends on how you ask the question. To wit,

"When will 'Then' be 'Now'?"

"Soon."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeZ9HhHU86o

Is it me or is Dark Helmet talking into an iPhone around :23 seconds in?