The yearly question: will this expac be cut n' paste?

Same with EQ2, but it's likely as a counter to all the players who whined there was no story, no reason for their character to do things, but are also the ones who click 'skip' or just hit the blue words and don't look at anything else. Forcing them into a progression pushes a single-player storyline played in a group so someone can't complain all you do is skip around.

Ironically, one of the complaining groups about "no story" are those who want to be able to only grind and don't want anyone to get XP from quests 'cause it takes away from their choice to grind.

I like quests, I like story, I hate being railroaded into a specific and only quest progression that has to be done in order by every alt hitting a certain segment of content.

I don't mind a bit of grind, especially in group, as long as it isn't only faction grind with quests where the kills have next to zero XP even with bonus + potion (as it is on EQ2). Quest progression for specific advanced rewards is great. Quest progression as the only possible way to do anything is not. EQ2 has become the later (to the point a higher level person won't do content with a lower level even with all the mentoring and other tools to facilitate because it does absolutely nothing for them and might cause issues for the lower level person's quest progression).

Everquest was never about the 'story', it was about social interactions between real people.

The name itself would seem to contradict that allegation, EverQUEST. There have always been quests and story in Everquest, even from day 1. However there wasn't a requirement to do specific quests in a specific sequence unless you wanted the reward(s).

You are 100% right. These days EverQuest is EverQuest in name only. It's like playing shuffleboard on the Titanic as the iceberg of player attrition looms in the distance.

Every year a new expansion is churned out of the EQ expansion sausage machine. The remaining few devs just do as they please without consulting the community that pays their bills. The institutional knowledge of the players is vast but untapped. There's no evidence of any form of collaboration with the players except when they need free labor during beta to test their expansion, even then, suggestions are not always followed.

I see a lack of empathy for the players. There's no evidence that the devs even play EQ in their leisure time. From what I can see, the passion that we as players have on the forums is not reciprocated by the devs or at least communicated by them to us. There are no dev logs anymore. No live streaming videos that demo new expansions. Transparency from devs is rarer than the Ancient Cyclops spawn.

What troubles me the most is that Darkpaw has no vision for EverQuest and the EverQuest franchise. DarkPaw has no product evangelist like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk. There is nobody at Darkpaw that cares enough to rally the troops and promote this franchise to the world. That's a real shame.

We should be all in this together but it doesn't feel like it.

If Elon Musk bought EverQuest, how quickly would he bankrupt it?

He would fire half of the devs and tell the rest they had to work double hard to keep their job. Then all players would leave the game and so would the devs. I am happy with EQ and I feel that DB is taking it in the right direction after they have cleaned up all the SoE milking the game mistakes.

EQ Cut N Paste is still better than WoW Cut N Paste. EQ you just have to get new versions of the same abilities. In WoW they take away the abilities you already had until you DO get new versions.

Besides, I'd be afraid if they did do anything major to the game. They're not exactly known for deep dives and thorough follow through. They're more of a band-aid and an armor recolor when they have to kind of group.

$8 to mark your toon so the GM knows you're not a bot.

You are funny. You sign their paychecks and they just ignore what you say?! Tell me more of this amazing tale.

I was talking about the future of the EverQuest franchise and the need for a product evangelist.

Your analysis of what Elon Musk would do with EQ is way off base and not even remotely accurate.

You're using a Strawman fallacy, a typical Internet debating trick. Don't mispresent what I said.

what did he do in Twitter?

Expansion incrementing is just the way of the road, boys.

Would love to see the next expansion not increment the level cap or incrementing spells/AAs and instead focus on adding fresh content and balancing existing abilities/spells/discs that classes have.

Would love 10 levels next expansion. I like the way DB is doing it at the moment, tuning in small steps.

That would be cool to develop eq in the metaverse!

You will raid

You will get ore

You will make gear

You will like it!

Cut n paste

We will raid

There are no ores

Pay attention here, there are no ores

Not sure we'll like the new plan at all... but sure, we'll get gear

Messrs Epstein & Ham fired more than half then told everyone else they had to fill all the roles that had been excised between them so they certainly don't need any future "Elon Musk's" they've had "him" already.

Turns out they let go of so many it harmed the viability of the game's future & they had to hire again for EQ, but still nowhere near the numbers that were around before they took over ownership from SoE.

Cookie cutter: As in I could take a list of all the raid loot in the expansions since TBM or there about and draw a line to its upgrade. For example, despite name changes ther are always two staves for monks, one that is just for monks and beasties and does heavy damage with quick delay (23 I think) and one that is usable by many melee classes and hits harder but is slow enough that the ratio is worse. Names change but these are the same items, slightly upgraded. And always one monk 1hb and 1 hth, and the two of them together are always inferior to 2hb for monks.

Likewise, all the AA just tack on more numbers and tiny percentage changes. Get creative. Monks have an old ability, chronoprojection, that lets us go for a walk on the astral plane and scout around. It’s actually just like an Eye of Zomm. But how bout once a day letting us invoke Astral Transfer, where we can transport our physical body to wherever we have sent our astral body? It would be fun and still wouldn’t put us in any danger of doing more than fraction of the damage that a necro does. It’s the thought that counts. Other classes, other things, but you can get the idea.