Well, its finally time to say goodbye and this time for good. I know, I know... who cares right? Certainly not Daybreak. I want to start by telling a brief history of my time on EQ. I started in the year 2000. Fresh into collage on a computer that cost me $2,000 purchased with student loans and dial up internet. This computer had like 36mb of ram and cost 2k! lol... oh those were the days. Anyways, I've played this game for nearly 24 years. Purchased every expansion, not once, but at least two times and sometimes even three times. I've been a gold member a majority of that time. Why bother telling this? Call me old school but I believe when a person invest 20+ years of their life and resources into a product, they deserve some level of respect from those companies who have benefited from them. I realize this seems strange to newest management and probably many in today's generation. I'll get to the point. 1) I don't believe current owners truly care about it's users... at all. I think current developers and management are completely disconnected from what EQ is and what's it's players want. This will be demonstrated by this post quickly being removed. Just like several post I've made over the last couple weeks including a comment I left today, where I voiced my distrust in DB being able to create an EQ3 that we actually want. After all, they can't even make a UI that works. 2) The business model. There was a time when companies created a product that they were passionate about and as a result they were passionate about the user who loved and enjoyed what they created. The economic result was great success! Create a great product and people will flock to it! What a novel concept. EQ thrived and did it in a time when there was limited access to internet and computer hardware. There was no station shop and gimics. Now we have the opposite. Great access to customers, but a lackluster product. You want to know why they chose progression over grind? You want to know why levels 70-100 are so miserable? You want to know why there are teams of boxers and automation? ITS ON PURPOSE. Ahhh you returned to EQ and now your stuck and finding it impossible to get over the level 70 hump. Well, no problem, buy a level 100 boost. Uh oh.... can't get over the 100 hump? No problem, buy some krono to buy power leveling from the very people they pretend they don't want in the game. While your at it, buy some exp pots to speed up the process. Dang... you spent all that money getting to 110, now you need to repeat the process so you can hire people to run you through progression cause you wont get anywhere trying to grind! HAHHAA... Don't wan to buy anymore krono to pay for PL? Well you have one more option... build your own team! start 5 accounts, buy 5 expansions, buy 5 more krono so you can get the autogrant AA. It's an endless cycle. This is why I'm quitting and to those who are triggered by the post. Don't worry, it will be brought down with in the hour.
I have 20+ years worth of goodies and plats on FV. The digital treasure will be lost for all times never to be seen again.
Step 1 - /testcopy your main characters Step 2 - Send me your account details Step 3 - Have fun in RL
sorry, my characters must disappear into the darkness... never to be heard from again. Kind of like what happened to EQ. I'm not sure what the current product is... but's not EverQuest.
Almost made a long pointless post but I'll just sum it up saying: I agree the devs don't seem to care much anymore about us, but lower lvl content having zero population to help you advance without paying isn't really the developers fault. It's just an ancient game running on an ancient engine and that's the price a newer or casual player has to pay I guess? The devs have stayed their goal isn't to bring new players, but retain current ones. That means live and Tlp get all the love.
For the most part true. It's also true they never managed to create sufficient catch up mechanics without having to spend money (Heroic Characters) so it's partially their own fault. Anyone who says the catch up mechanics in this game are fine are simple deluding themselves. Even their persona implementation falls flat on its face for this aspect since exp is extremely achievement biased. It takes more effort to level up an AP than a regular alt in this regard.
I think by live Cadira is probably referring to whatever the most current content/expansion is. In other-words top tier max level get all the love. Not that hard to interpret.
Can you at least sign your farewell post with server names, character names? At least make this sound real man
I'm on FV, I'll take donations of stuff from the departing folks. My 5 box team will continue to truck along.
I think the OP is correct. I've said many times that the grind just doesn't work for people who are new to the game, or can't keep up with the wave of guilds / raiders that burn through the achievements and then don't want to do them all again (except for Krono). I also believe that the OP is correct when he says that people defending that path are deluding themselves. The grind / achievement levelling will only ever lose players rather than entice them. If it is by design, then it's poor. It not only leaves players behind, it leaves expansions / content behind to the point that all of the effort put into a single expansion last a year or so at best. That is hardly a great business strategy. It's like driving a car with all the original parts falling off but the driver using plasters and cardboard to replace them - it's cheaper and works fine a while. I do believe that this game is now a shell of what it was and I've come to terms with it. I no longer rush to play it as soon as the house is quiet, nor do I play until the early hours of the morning anymore. I now play the game in the way I enjoy and have managed to drop the FOMO feeling of not having the best gear, or playing in the latest expansion. If / when the next "big thing" comes along (it wasn't Palworld or BG3 for me), I'll jump to it and see what it has to offer.
True, that'd be the job of Marketing. But it sure wouldn't hurt the game if the devs made a couple of SIMPLE changes for the benefit of new/returning players to the Live game, a topic these forums see daily feedback about.
The new grind is Overseer. As unfun as it is, it will still DING your toons. I have alts that have never set foot outside the gh who are 125. Adapt and Overcome!
Sad.. But true. I also bought the expansions, realised it would take me an age to level my characters via the kill method, so cancelled my subscriptions and just used overseer.
Just accept that overseer is the new way to ding. No thanks, and... that really just proves my whole point. This is no longer the game we all love and DB really doesn't care about the game as a whole or it's users. I'm also astonished that so many are willing to just accept the new reality and settle for that. No thanks! You've poured your time, energy and finances into this community for years and years. We deserve better than this. This is the exact reason I'm moving on.
I am having more fun in the game than I have in years. Overseer is old news. The new way to XP is grinding merc tasks. It's endless mob killing and questing. It's actually fantastic lol. Best of all, it's something everyone can get behind. Sorry you're leaving. But it honestly sounds like you've needed to quit for years. You're miserable and it comes through in your posts. The truth is Everquest, like all things, has evolved. I hope you find what you seek on your journey.