I think I see one reason new players might be getting turned off by the game. When you go to a merchant and see a level 10 defiant ring on the merchant and it costs 10,000plat. WTF kind of new player has 10k to spend on a simple little ring? That's just one small example, there are MANY more just like that throughout the leveling experience and I'm not even a new player and it turns me off to wanting to continue playing the game!!!!
That's why we have the bazaar. I know prices there are not always better but often times on low level gear its much cheaper. Also if people just ask in general a lot of times players are just destroying or letting that lower level gear rot when farming tradeskill materials. I have personally given away hundreds if not thousands of pieces of defiant gear over the years to players that need it. Communicate with the community. Most of us truly want lower level players to be successful so they become a regular member of the community and help the game prosper.
The idea behind this is to go hunt and kill stuff on your own so you learn the value of the item and not to buy the game so to speak. Or take up a tradeskill and learn those compartmentalized rings that are not level restricted and give high stats. Didn't your parents teach you it is better to get what you want by hard work than having it bought for you? Yes there is something to be figured out when a level 10 ring can be 2000 plat but a level 100 chest item is 1 plat. You could also look up "twink" items in google and find lots of jewelry/armor etc that are easy to get for lower levels.
First, stop making crap up. The Crude Defiant Rings cost 10pp on the vendor, not 10,000: http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/npc.html?id=33253 FYI, these rings do not drop, they are ONLY available from that one vendor. And they are NO TRADE, so they're not available anywhere else. The ONLY price you can ever pay for this ring is 10pp.
Let's try Hero's Journey Achievements!! New players get comparable equipment for free!! http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=5553
