With the release of Kunark

People join general channels?

No hostility here, just amused by people who want to keep replaying the easiest and dullest parts of this game.

Also, 90% are gone after PoP? That's a good joke, I'd wager the server populations drop by maybe 15% after PoP, the biggest drop is Don/DoDh/PoR. Which is understandable those three expansions are interminable.

That's the first thing I turn off when I start a new character, nobody needs that drama in their lives.

The biggest drop is probably after week 1 honestly. People log in for their quick nostalgia and quickly disappear. They don't count as part of the population in my opinion.

Among other things, I'm counting all the Clueless ForumQuester channels.

You can't use channels to measure server pop. For one thing, people don't all play at the same time, so the ones you see on at 10 AM aren't the same as the ones on at 10 PM, in general (see what I did there?). As others have already noted, a lot of players turn off all the auto-join channels, especially those who are raiding. The only way you can get a reasonably good estimate of a server's pop is to track all the guilds and ask guild officers how big they currently are. My numbers weren't meant to be taken seriously, and yet I think they're much closer than yours.

Yelinak's numbers will be down this week as people are waiting for Kunark to unlock. Every Classic-launch TLP has gone through that cycle. Someone who keeps insisting that 90% of the playerbase only cares about the Classic-PoP era should have known that already.

April 2023 there will be zero TLPs in classic-POP. Are we to assume DPG will lose 90% of players for 2 months? Doubtful

And if I have no leftover pizza in my fridge, zero people in the house will be eating leftover pizza. However, when there is leftover pizza available, it's what everyone in the house will want for breakfast. You can't then point to days where there is no leftover pizza and use the fact that nobody is eating leftover pizza as proof that nobody wanted leftover pizza.

A considerable majority of people who play TLPs quit EQ when WoW came out, which was around the time of GoD. That's how far most people played back in the day. When they return to play on TLPs, they're looking for the nostalgia hit of what they enjoyed when they were young back then. Most of them aren't looking for whatever Everquest did later on.

I'm not sure what your obsession is with this subject. It's an established and self-evident fact that the TLP crowd mostly cares about classic->PoP. How you can somehow turn that into some kind of flaw or personal failing on their behalf is bizarre to me. With the exception of Mischief, with its very unique ruleset, TLP servers only thrive up to the end of PoP.

Through what seems like a weird need to insult internet strangers, you've somehow construed that into a view of them being "afraid of new things" or whatever wildly irrational narrative you've got going on. The fact of the matter is that by and large, TLP players just don't want what's on the menu after PoP, so they choose to play what they want. Let them.

A) you can use channels to measure population because roughly the same % of people should be joining the channels in every server. It's not meant to say 200 people play aradune, but that 5x~ more people play yelinak

B) as others have already noted? you mean as >I< have already noted

C) I never said 90% of the playerbase only cares about classic-pop era; you're confused

The only thing that has a 90% drop off after PoP is random pugs. If the game to you involves putting up /lfg and going out with 5 other random people then I can see why you'd think the game is dead post-pop. You need to establish relationships, get a couple friends to grind with regularly. Join a guild. The game carries on post pop and tbh alot of the expacs past then are better than before. Easily the top 5 expansions are all past PoP.

Ah, yes, Everyone only wants to do what they already did before, or only like things they liked when they were young.

I'm really not the one that's obsessed here. What does annoy me is the baseless assertion that you keep making of 90% of the playerbase leaves after PoP, It's ridiculous on its face, and not at all supported by any sort of facts.

If a TLP dropped 90% pop after Planes It'd be a ghost town. Hell even on busy servers off-prime time feel empty as hell, and none of the TLPs I've played on after PoP have felt like that, other than Phinny when Veil of Alaris dropped.

And Yeah, I suppose I would consider refusal to try new things to be a personal failing. Like I'll never blame someone for ducking out for the DoN/DoDh/PoR slog, but trying TSS and later expansions would benefit a ton of people, especially the ones that do only ever see the game through the extremely limited view of Classic>PoP.

Far be it from me to tell people that they HAVE to play in later expansions, but I'm not going to hide my derision for refusing to try new things, or for rushing back to the cold comfort of classic when things get too complicated for them. Imagine, bosses that don't just require zerging!

That's how it starts, "Hans"

Goodwin and /thread

Some segments of this game's playerbase cannot be reasoned with on any level. I guess if you're part of the majority who don't stay after PoP on TLPs, you're some sort of subhuman creature who must be talked down to and written off as a failure. Makes sense! Very rational!

Christ almighty.

You're really trying to have your cake and eat it here. You can't (baselessly) claim to be part of the majority, while simultaneously evoking the victim card as if you're being persecuted in some way. You're just wrong, and instead of attempting any level of introspection, you choose to double down. When you talk of "segments of the game's playerbase that cannot be reasoned with on any level" you're really throwing stones from a glass house. It's silly, and you should feel silly for doing it.

lol you've taken me stating that I look at people who refuse to play after PoP the same way I do a child who won't try new foods, and tried to turn it into discrimination.

You should really calm down, getting this worked up can't be good for you.

I think I might agree on this. This is my 3rd TLP. My first two I went mostly solo and my experience with guilds were decidedly subpar. Playing this way, relying on PUGs, around a expansion or two beyond PoP, I just found it incredibly difficult to advance and trying to play an alt from level 1 was just pure frustration. There just wasn't anyone really to PUG with. However the game was was still very lively with tons of people running around PoK but it quickly became obvious that the vast majority of the people running around were part of the top guilds on the server.

have fun play whatever server you want tlp or live.

Does players counts actually matter? Because this is a dead game period. So I don't know nerds keep throwing numbers around like it matters.

https://mmo-population.com/top/2022

That includes the MAUs.

Back to the topic of the thread. I am looking forward to seeing more zones going completely unused like classic and there being 200 picks of KC, Seb and The Hole (still).
But seriously, I am looking forward to just doing more now especially quests there are a few quests that I've been waiting to start, but to do so I needed Kunark to unlock.

Post PoP is actually very enjoyable, besides a couple really boring expansions that at this point need to be merged with others.

With that said.. Kunark, Velious, and Luclin are still some of my favorite parts of Everquest. I never understood the hate for people that enjoy these expansions. Sure, some of it is nostalgia but that will only get you so far. To say the the only reason people play these expansions over and over is "nostalgia" is simply burying your head in the sand.

The fact is, its an awesome game at these points. It even continues to be an awesome game for a while.

Yeah it matters because if there aren't enough people playing, even a mostly dead 23 year old game, then the experience goes to hell. Also the game is social by design and there is content that no matter how much boxing you do, your still going to need at least a few other boxers to complete it.