What is Darkpaw doing to Bring New Players to EverQuest?

Maybe not. But you have a better chance of getting the handful of players learning the game to interact if they're on the same server. There are also a ton of veterans who would play there just to help new folks out. Even if the population isn't huge, it fosters an environment of being helpful in a way that live servers and TLP's might not.

My TLP experience is the opposite. Folks were goal-oriented, move quickly and expect you to know what you're doing.

I get emails all the time. Social media, posts, etc. Admittedly I'm subscribed to these. Buying ad time on other networks costs $$. Could they do it? I'm sure... but are there better places to invest? Probably.

The churn you're describing has been going on for 20 years but you have misidentified the components of the churn.
Its not the brand new people coming in and probably hasn't been for years.
Returning players are the bread and butter of EQ.
People go away and play other games or they focus on other aspects of their lives, but so many people come back.
We even joke when a player posts a retirement thread that "we'll see you again soon".
Why? Because people come back to this game in greater numbers than anything I've even seen before.
Now, should we be doing more to encourage players to return, absolutely!
They should periodically send out a month of free game play to returning accounts that have been inactive for more than a year.
Beyond that, they need to keep doing what they have been doing.

That is actually a good idea, people who peek in during the free month will have a hard time quitting again. It is called "EverCrack" for a reason...

For added effect, they could write them a mail about where their most played character is...Maybe even what achievements their guild have beaten recently...

Considering there appears to be a cap on the number of servers they can have running as it wasn't that long ago they had to wait for server mergers to launch a new TLP I don't think it is a good idea for them to open up what will most likely be a dead server. I still don't understand why you would need a level cap to attract new users and how that would be better then just tagging an existing server to direct new players to.

The first thing I believe they should do is hide the forums.

Your idea sounds good about the free month offer to ones that have been out for more than a years.
It won't cost them virtually anything. Not too bad of chance for them to come back if they use the free month.

Oh? Source?

It's that the server/playerbase of that server is corralled to lower level range of content. One only has to grind to 46/47 to group with max level folks, which they can achieve in a matter of days, rather than weeks/months.

A progression server works somewhat like this but its lifetime is limited by the release of content. A lowbie server can persist while players can come and go.

As I said "appears" there is nothing official on it. What we do know is they have said in the past that they had to do server merges before the launch of new TLP servers. If I remember right it was the 2020 TLP where they had to do it after merging servers earlier the same month.

You don't have to limit the player base to 70 to attract new players and if that is something you want they launch new TLP servers every year that fit that bill. I see zero reason that a level 70 server would attract a new player over normal live server that has a built in player base. Along those lines I see zero reasons why an existing player would want to create a character on a level 70 server to help those new players. It would be much better to get them on a server where there are veteran players who can help them or a TLP server where the low level player base will be much larger.

I once made the mistake of talking a family member into playing EQ with me.

They went in with full gusto (expansion/heroic/DB store purchases of stuff, they spent about $160 on the years subscription and everything.). This is after watching me play and group with my guild, a well oiled machine full of people who know how to play.

My guild, who thought they were being nice, PL them and geared them to 115 from 85 in a few days.
They were then stuck with a level 115 heroic necromance with no idea of what to do or where to go or even how to play a Necromancer. When they grouped with the guild they were basically told not to do anything. When they were asked to molo to improve their skills, they flat out couldn't and just died over and over and over again.

They expressed some frustration about not being able to do or get anything after about tow months and then quit and demanded that I reimburse them for the cost of getting in this "abusive game, full of unhelpful people and impossible to follow quests":

"There's nothing I can do and everything takes way to long! I can't even login and just play! It takes me an hour to just login and get a group, get to the group and die! I can't do any quests on my own! I can't do anything on my own and all I do is beg and whine! I'm not the kind of person who wants to be like that or act like that and this game is forcing me to whine and beg! This isn't fun! "

They weren't and aren't wrong. This is pretty standard fare for new players.

Could just have Agnarr serve as the "newbie server" - it already has a population of fairly helpful folks on it.

Pair that with an annual F2P month for Agnarr like during the anniversary event & you'd have a great starter server, all that would remain is getting the word out.

The same as they have done for the last decade at least... nothing.

they need to raise the monthly sub cost to show they are doing well. it's the fad in all the streaming services.

It's true. They don't have to do anything, and continue to leave EQ unfriendly to new players and returnees.

I'm starting to get the idea that happens a lot.

Nice way to alter what I am saying, I am pointing out that there is zero reason for a new player to go to a level 70 capped server and you don't seem to be able to come up with any compelling reasons why a level 70 capped server would be better then a new TLP or existing server with a healthy population instead of a gamble at a new live server when we already have almost dead live servers.

I explained this but you seem more interested in arguing.

Did you think the modern tutorial was a good change? More like that would be good.

I failed to see any compelling reasons why a new live server with a level 70 cap would not be dead on arrival. All of the newer live servers that have been created have failed to attract much of a population and I fail to see why this would be any different. There is no incentive for existing players to join it and there will not be enough new players starting or returning to EQ to give it any sort of population. Most of that player base will be drawn to a TLP or existing live server.

One of the problems with getting totally new people into EQ is that EQ is such a unique game that it not everyone will enjoy it. Not only do they have to find new players, they have to find new players who are the type of people who enjoy the challenge that is unique to EQ. As an example, consider how common boxing is among EQ players. I think it's fair to say that most gamers in general would not want to play a game where players turn to boxing in order to play it. Certainly not everyone boxes, but probably a high percentage of EQ players either box or would consider boxing in order to get stuff done. It's the same with a lot of the other mechanisms that go into what the players have to do in order to successfully play EQ. A lot of gamers in the general public don't think like that. So not only does EQ have to find new players, they have to find new players that actually would fit with the unique aspects and mechanics of playing EQ. Either they would have to have a massive marketing effort to find these players like needles in a haystack, or they would have to massively change the game to appeal to a wider variety of newbies. Either option is massively expensive with dubious payoff, so it's unlikely that either one makes business sense.

Resources would be better spent on retaining existing members and making it easier for returning members to get back in the game. For example, make the server select screen show on which servers you have characters. This would be relatively easy to do and would help returning players jump right back in to their old characters without the hassle of logging into each server to find them. The first time logging in after X years, there should be a summary of major changes over that time that they may have missed. Not the patch notes, but rather a listing of the new and cool things that were added since they were last on and might want to check out. Perhaps there could be a vitality boost to help with leveling (I think EQ2 has offline vitality already). Stuff like that would payoff in having more returning members become active. A past player who has a fond memory of EQ pop in their head should be able to get back into the game and have fun as easily as possible. Get rid of any barriers to entry for returning players. This will maximize the chance that they come back and stick around since that's where the "new" players for EQ will come from.

Yeah. Clear on that. You said it four times now.

Tutorial? Good?

A lot of this works for new players, too. Win/Win.

For me, and folks with a lot of characters across servers, that might get a bit... cluttered. And this is really more of a one-time thing yes?

Instead, how about, send an email to "mytoons@everquest.com" (or the like, add a few aliases) returns an auto email with the account names, character list and servers that are linked to that email? Attach some kind of promotional offer, boom.

I'd like to see a community-curated list of "uncommon knowledge" items that get added to load screens. Quick lines about stuff like shield AC, stats to stack for tradeskills, Paragon gear quests, etc. It'd be a bonus if these could be tailored to the class, level and/or zones. You could put these in the EQ button under 'tips' and read closer, or cycle through if you missed them.

This guy gets it.

No one is disagreeing that we need to get rid of barriers for entry on returning players just that making a new live server that is level capped isn't going to do that. Chances are most returning players will have existing characters and they would like to work on getting them up to current levels instead of starting from scratch. We don't need another dead/low population live server when we already have plenty of those. There is a reason most people suggest a high population live server to most new and returning players.