tl;dr: I'm actually enjoying it, and I disagree with the "Dead on Arrival" meme that gets perpetuated about the server. If you've been considering trying it, just try it, seriously. Now the long version: About me I'm an on-and-off-again EQ player who started in the Scars of Velious era. I used to be a hardcore single-group player (bard main) who ended up in some smaller, family-style raiding guilds later on. Depths of Darkhollow was the last time I actively raided in EQ, though I went on to raid in other games such as WoW later on. After several years away (last time I was active was shortly after CotF went F2P) I resubbed to play on Miragul, rolled heroic SK (my first actual tank), and have been playing casually for a month. Made some pickup groups, made some friends, got to level 90, got into a guild, got to T4 and am now raking in the MC/SS loot in preparation for raiding. Why I'm posting Basically, I started on Miragul mid-November and have found the rumors of the server's death to be exaggerated. To me it looks more like the server successfully FDed until the community forgot about it, and I'd like to call some attention to that. I've heard people say you can't make groups on Miragul. I've made two successful multi-hour PUGs in a single weekday by putting in no more effort than just using the LFG tool and sending tells. One was formed during the day and the other at night. I've heard people say there's no raid action on Miragul. I've recently joined a guild (T R I B E) that's in the process of ramping up for raiding, and I know of at least one other large guild that looks pretty active, sooooo yeah. I've also heard people say that no one on Miragul wants to talk to anyone or interact with anyone else. I've found literally the opposite to be true: because the server is small, truebox, and niche (only people who really want to play there are playing there), most people are pretty lively and focused, and they're often up for grouping if I send a tell. No joke, I have an easier time getting random people to converse with me on Miragul right now than I did when HoT was current on EMarr. Demonstrating a little initiative and competence goes a long way with people on Miragul, in my experience so far. Is the server small? Yes, it is. Is it niche? Yes, it is, but it's not dead, and that's an important distinction. We have people exping in the usual House of Thule spots (Lower Floors, Grounds, and MC/SS). We have a functioning MGB buff pile by the Oggok stone in PoK, and it's super easy for anyone to contribute to that by rolling up new 85 heroic characters to spread the love around. If you need enchanter haste and clarity, your duo partner can go create a chanter and give you Seeds-era buffs in a matter of minutes. It's also a great place to experiment with classes you're curious about, and should become the de facto "try before you buy" spot for Heroic Characters in the future. The takeaway If you haven't tried Miragul yet but are curious about it, go make a character! It's not a stinky dead cadaver -- that's just the smell of all the heroic shadow knights running around! About the worst that can happen is you have some fun on a level 85 heroic and then decide it's not for you, but you might end up getting looped in with a guild like I did. Thanks for reading, and have a good day.
What would it take for you to agree that it is "Dead on Arrival"? What objective measure? The server pretty much has played out exactly as many of us predicted. While I grant it may not technically be dead, and yes there are still grouping opportunities now, its population is consistently lower than any other TLP except Lockjaw now, and every week it drops some more. It speaks volumes that Miragul is the first TLP in the history of Everquest to have people posting "my server's not dead, come play here" messages within a month of launching. Yours isn't the only such post, and usually when a server reaches that point, it's because the population is in serious trouble.
I'm kinda just happy to see that someone is having a good time on a TLP and decided to post about that in the forums. Seriously. Now, enjoy that while it lasts, because what Machen says is pretty much true. Cherish your guildmates, keep people happy, and never stop recruiting. One problem for Miragul will be its ability to stay viable. With such a relatively low starting population, all the standard, expected attrition has the potential to kill off the server way more quickly than previous TLPs.
he means for mangler, at which point we're also very likely to see a couple "brand new" TLPs launching.
Other people are claiming it's dead on arrival and citing reasons like the ones I outlined in my first post. I'm countering their points with recently observed data from playing on the server within this past month. If there really weren't groups, there really weren't guilds trying to get something going, and there really wasn't any sense of communication or community, then I'd definitely consider it dead too. But since none of those things are true, it feels weird to exaggerate its status. I once played very happily for many years on text-based MUDs with no graphics and a steady population of 60 to 80 players, so seeing 187 people in General on my server doesn't worry me like it does some. One can have thousands of players in a game world but still lack a coherent community that's good to engage with, or one can have fifty players that form a coherent community that's good to engage with. (To be clear, I'm not saying smaller is better; my point is that the number isn't the magical, spicy part, but rather the way the players' expectations and desires interplay to create the game of people that make up the server.) I think Miragul was never expected nor intended to compete that much with existing server experiences, and it was probably smart on Daybreak's part that it doesn't. I'm a perfect example of who they probably wanted to hit with something like this; I literally resubbed just for Miragul because I had been away from the game a long time and liked the idea of getting to start in a world where everyone was heroic'd and people wouldn't be boxing as much. I guardedly assume Daybreak was aware of this niche nature: if Miragul were expected to compete with Live, then it probably wouldn't have been launched so near to an expack release, and if it were expected to compete with other TLPs, it probably wouldn't have released when it did in relation to Selo and Mangler from earlier this year. As well as I can tell, this server was always expected to be a smallish experiment that was intended to fill the niche of being a place where people can start afresh (but with solid AAs and gear, thus nixing the problem of feeling horribly behind) in a relatively modern EQ gameplay experience. The race to do all the things and take all the camps and get all the loot (things on which the classic TLP experience thrives) are muted here in favor of just darn getting to try out a new main right now by jumping in decently geared and heavily AA'd in an expansion whose design is reasonably solid. Thank you, seriously. I wish I saw a little more of this attitude around here. xD As you said, attrition is going to be a troublesome beast, and I assumed most of us know that anyway: we're on a niche server in a very old game. Building a community worth being part of is going to be extra important to keep it going.
The thing that hurts Miragul the most is that it's essentially "new" everquest... and new EQ was based around boxing. Truebox kills that. The server will never be a big draw, and if it doesn't turn F2p to draw in return players then other F2P servers will get all the new blood. We're looking at a Fippy server here with "free" heroics.
You really think Daybreak designed a server for a niche of a couple hundred people? It makes no sense when there will be at least that many on a pvp server, a free trade server, a non-truebox server, or even coirnav 2.0 and they do none of those...
Yes, that is my opinion. Specifically, I think DBG thought it would have a chance of bringing in people who wouldn't have been All-Access already on other types of existing servers. It being a good opportunity to sell the relaunched House of Thule /claim pack (which is a nice package, one that I'm glad I already have) helps too. I'm not sure why we haven't seen TLP-PvP yet, but I would guess it needs either more code work or more community oversight than something like Miragul required. (I do think TLP-PvP is an untapped niche too, which ought to be explored at some point if possible.)
TL;DR PvP in EQ is dead. Because even at EQ's peak PvP was a very small niche population, but when people say PvP there wasn't one type of PvP server because the PvP community itself is heavily fractured into different specifities of PvP play, when the PvP servers all got merged they lost a lot of players who only wanted the specific ruleset their former server touted. All the above said EQ is an even smaller population now than it was at its peak thus the PvP component is almost certainly much smaller too & has largely moved on from EQ, there isn't enough of them to even justify a single server being made for it now & PvP players are reluctant to prove the devs wrong by gathering on the last remaining PvP server.
If there are enough HoThule fans to justify Miragul, there are enough PVP players still here to justify a PVP server. I thought DBG would never create a PVP server because it would be such a low population ruleset, until I saw them create Miragul... Either it was a staggering miscalculation that they thought would have vastly more population despite all the evidence to the contrary, or they are now willing to deliberately create niche servers for 100-200 players. Either way, the future is not bright for EQ.
Ahhh..... here we go again! Back to topic! Glad you are enjoying Miragul! I'm a bit skeptical about on how the population will tackle Veil of Alaris that is the next expansion on the server. Don't get me wrong. I Enjoyed that expansion a lot, but it's not an expansion that appeals to the widest range of players in the way that House of Thule did. Glad you're still going strong down there and good luck!
I know a lot of us play on our respective server on a daily basis but 187 in general at any given time doesn't equate to 187 accounts. It is most likely a multiplier of that number for actual krono/monthly subs used specifically for that server. What exactly is that multiplier? x2? x5? x10? For every person who plays on their "home" server daily, how many people play weekly or only twice a week? We don't know that number but the bean counters at DBG most likely have empirical data that can tell them after a short amount of live time on any given server what the break down is.
Take away from this thread is that people playing on Miragul are having a good time there and the people who aren't playing there but want to criticize all seem to be stuck in the mindset of a different server where everyone complains bitterly almost all the time. Perhaps unfair but that's how it would appear to anyone with no EQ knowledge randomly coming to these forums
I'm glad the few people playing there are having a good time. But when the OP specifically calls out people who said it would be dead on arrival, and claims that we were wrong, I'm going to respond to that. There's no criticism or animosity here, absolutely no bitterness, I would never wish any EQ player to have a bad experience. I'm glad they are enjoying it. That doesn't change the fact that the population is tiny and declining, and that it has been by far the least successful TLP ever released in terms of population.
I don't play on Miragul any more but I can confirm that for the first 3 weeks before I quit, I was getting groups much easier than on Selo, Agnarr or FV (the only other servers I play on). You can make a new toon and then group with anyone on the server in 2 minutes. My problem with the server is the 3 month unlocks. I don't raid so I get bored well before the 3rd month. I wish they had made it 6 weeks or so.
I tried it. The whole no boxing on 1 comp thing is what I hate. Best of luck to you all. I love 2 boxing and don't want the whole 2 computers/keyboards.
Don't listen to the haters that dont play on Miragul amd want it to fail. I've been playing on Miragul and its fantastic. Groups are all over and people seem to be having a good time. Best yet I have a few friends that's not committed to coming back to EQ yet but when they do I will be able to instantly group with them without having to have them level up a character first. It's also a great place to try out a new class that you've never played before as you can start one and instantly be 85 and give it a try. Even if you don't stay on the server its a great way to try things you are not sure if you're going to enjoy. When you do you may find yourself finding a growing community that you enjoy and wish to be a part of. Its happened to many new friends that I've made recently. Its a fun server and I look forward to seeing it grow.
