Progression Server Poll Results: What's Next?

Before anything else, thank you for working on this. I am looking forward to starting over.
That being said, I feel that it is a mistake to only plan to open one server. Going by past experiences the demand will be greater then one server could handle. It would be far wiser to plan for two now rather then one being an afterthought. If you do decide on planning for a second server, you could make sure both are filled by offering a different rule set on both.
If you consider, you pretty much offered 3 rule sets in the vote. (Progression, locked and competitive server) Opening one of the other that were in the vote would draw in many in both camps.

Server name vote: Dozekar the Cursed! (I remember when his dead corpse was my wallpaper )
Second option: Quarm.

Thank you again for really getting me excited about Norrath again!
Jexabel

when are you guys going to make one poll that asks a very simple question.

Would you rather play on a nostalgic locked progression server that stops after :
Velious
Planes of power
No thanks

This would give us a better indication of what the community wants, instead of false indicators from flawed polls...

That was already asked in the previous poll. One of the options was do you want a server locked at a specific point in time. That wasn't the winner. There's no reason to have follow up polls to further define something that didn't win.

I disagree. The people that want to play will play, even if their preferred ruleset wasn't chosen. Having one in another ruleset would just split that population between the two. I don't think there are many people planning on not playing because the server will not stop lock at some point, they will just stop playing around that time.

plz make a pvp server of these old rules or make it where pvp is only aloud in neutral zones and not hometowns or something I want old school talon back other then that I will have to stop playing this game because it is just way to boring wish I could rewing back to 2000!!!!!

did not read much after op, but consider these ideas:

• Boxing limit: do something, it doesn't have to be a 1-3 box server but <20 per ip might be nice
• longer times in each expansion: do less expansions, more time. Once velious is out there should be enough content to host a large population, so why not stay there for 6 months or for the duration of the original timeline, being this is server is being discussed at the time of the anniversary celebration? I think a lot more people would stay for a lot longer if they were able to have the time to enjoy the game the way it was. I don't think it'd be an issue if the server decides to stay in Velious or Planes too long, but a lot of people will taper off sometime around Mercs. Which brings me to my next point:
• Stop progression before mercenaries: There are a lot of people out here who would happily pay for a PoP era server (amirite Al`Kabor?) but even more so there is a far larger want in the progression server crowd for less mercs and more of the earlier content. Please consider locking content in Omens or earlier (if not then please do so before mercs )

Thanks for your time and consideration in creating another progression server, my last point for this would be:

• Bring back era specific content and changes - One of the largest EQ communities out there right now has become as such because they have been willing to try and recreate the game when it was good, now I'm not saying you have to be them, but consider what the attention to detail can bring (ex. Oasis of Marr/EC/WC Freeport etc.)

I've been on the server since day one. I disagree a with Rollen tho. Longer, timed no vote unlocks would absolutely be better imo. At least up to the level 70 era.

I've been on the progression server since the start I'd love to see the slowest server

Lol, it's an example. I like Obama...but that's funny haha. Have you seen this yet? Its hilarious..

A 30 rack of coors light is $23 now at Sun Stop. Thanks Obama.

bahahaha

I say no to the polls. Unless you start limiting it to 1 vote per location. you can't do a good poll when a lot of people get more then 1 vote some get a lot more votes then that. if I put my 1 vote in for something it is auto canceled out by the people that vote 2+ times. like on fippy when expan was held up I think a lot of that was do too the multi boxers that wanted to farm and sell more gear before the next expan came out and all the good loots turned to no trade items they wouldn't be able to farm and sell. So they would vote with all their toons to hold up the next expan.
So until you limit how many times someone can vote the polls are all screwed.

Option 1 W/ voting, I personally like Solace as a name for the server.

No, but I played another prog server and EQ Mac. Both had strong non-raiding communities compared to the raiders.

Look - people kept saying "The population dropped here", "The population dropped after that".

You don't know what happened to the population, and the only ones that do are the admins that saw the population numbers.
It could be that a load of your higher friends left, or casual friends left, but that's just your personal experience.
You also don't know the % of raiders to casual players. People keep saying "this did that" and actually have no numbers about the server as a whole to back them up. It's a little frustrating and TOTAL guess work.

ALL the yes's. Couldn't have said it any better. I second this wholeheartedly.

@ Zogg, I agree. A locked server would cultivate subs that aren't currently playing Everquest. I've said it many times myself, DBG could make a living if they remade a game they already made over a decade ago (EQ classic-Pop or OOW) and sold it as a stand alone game.
Full disclosure, I read the results and skipped to page 9 Lol, is there talk of two servers or have they kind of squashed that notion? If they want to go two, Locking one can attract the player base described above by Zog and may be more popular, than a progressing one even if its progressing at a slow pace.
Just allow no transfers between the two.

1 Vote per paid account really is the only voting system that makes sense. I notice a lot of outlandish conspiracy theories whenever a vote does not go the way that some prefer. Those that choose to race through the game may have to wait if the majority of paying customers don't wish to Win EQ in 2 weeks.

My vote will always be for Slow progression and Vote locked server but if the majority of paying EQers choose another option I'm not going to cry about it or suggest a silly alternate method of voting be introduced to ensure my preference wins.

I voted for slower but there have been a lot of threads about short classic or unlocking Kunark at start and honestly I think one of the things that ruined Fippy for me was how LONG classic went. There just isn't enough room and I don't want to log in each night just to fight over every xp mob.

I'd ideally like to see something along the lines of 1 month classic and THEN start the slower progression when people have more to do and room to spread out. Either that or please allow a vote to open Kunark with Classic.

Pretty sure "existing rules" was the easiest one for them to do considering it already exists.

Kurnark needs to come out right away Imo there isn't enough stuff to do in classic EQ for 6months , even 3 months. Just lunch both right away than drop velious in 4 months than do your plan up there.

Xanadas said: ↑

“TO DBG: (this was also PM'd to Aristo, but is relevant to all, so I'm posting it here)

I must say I'm pretty disappointed. I've commented a few times in the thread, but here is a more concise summation of my thoughts:

I'll be up-front - I wanted a locked server and I still believe a locked server is in the greatest interest of the EQ franchise. I know the decision is made for another progression server, so I'll keep this part as brief as I can before getting to my other point. I think a locked server would have been the best, if for no other reason than the fact you'd be taking back the thousands of players who have left to go play on the private servers. There are also many people who come back to EQ regularly, looking for that old-time nostalgia, don't find it because the content they love is irrelevant and dead, and quit again but aren't technically inclined enough to figure out how to get on the private servers, so they do nothing, or play somebody else's game. There are droves of people dying to relive their characters in the older expansions and most people simply aren't going to do it on this new server knowing that within a few years, they will be obsolete and irrelevant again. Myself included most likely. With the new server choice, the best case scenario for DBG is that you get their sub back for another 2 years, tops.

Regarding the unlock speeds, we can't really look at the speeds as "twice as long as the original prog unlocks! isn't that super cool?", the more appropriate and critical way to look at it is "they're twice the speed of the original timeline", which is not a good thing. Why are people still playing and why are tons of people excited about these prog servers? Because they fell in love with EQ back in those older expansions that lasted as long as they did. Clearly the recipe for being hooked was spot-on, and fast-fowarding thru the parts of the game that get people motivated to sign-up is just asking people to not sign up (myself included).

What I'm basically proposing here is an "original timline", which is my distance second choice to a classic-locked server. The ones who don't like the original speeds will most likely stay subbed and keep playing on the live servers, or play with the longer unlocks anyway knowing there's always stuff to do in EQ. Another way to phrase it is: "You'll lose more players the shorter you make the unlocks than if you increased the unlock time".

I wish you guys would understand and accept that the vast majority of the players who will play on these progression servers don't like the later expansions nearly as much as the older ones, and simply play the current stuff out of loyalty - if they play at all (most don't), which meant that the fact that the server-type poll was in-game, I knew was going to skew the results. Of course the winner would be the choice for another unlimited prog server - that's the most fitting choice for the type of players still playing. The existing players aren't going to stop and think about what would grow the community, they just think about themselves and what they want. It's entirely DBGs job to grow this thing and the "unlimited progression" server type does not grow the community, it only placates the players you already have. Maybe brings back a decent amount of people for 2 years, then they cancel their sub again.

Saying things like "It'll take 8 years to catch up to the live servers! zomg that sooo long" in an attempt to draw back players is meaningless to anyone who examines the options for more than 10 seconds. Because they're mainly interested in the first 5-6 expansions OR LESS, that means the server lifespan for them is really only maybe 2 years.... tops?

Now for the even harder truth: Even with the slowest timeline option (including the original-timeline option), the server will inevitably end up like fippy and vulak, with most of the excited population who joined at the start jumping ship at or around OOW. Subs will be down and you'll have 2 maybe 3 guilds limping the server along.

I know you want to provide a server that "most of the community" wants, but then again, most kids want ice cream and candy for breakfast lunch and dinner, but it doesn't mean we give it to them.”

Personally, i keep coming back to EQ at least 1 to 2 times a year and my break point is always the same one, i pass POP and i lose all my drive to keep playing.