The Real Reason Players Love the First 3 Expansions

In my opinion the real reason players love playing the first 3 expansions is

90% of the loot is tradeable.

so here we go, easy fix, make Oakwynd FREE TRADE and everyone will be happy.

Or, go the other way, make everything no-trade!

True, then they can scrap the server for lack of player base and actually make a Mischief clone.

ability to trade and sell increases the amount of social interaction = more money for DPG

also increases player ability to get items they want through trading, = happy buyer = mo money

I can see very little benefit for having no drop and non random items, it will only hurt the game

"Everyone"

Is FT being the greatest thing ever the reason why only 1 live server has the ruleset and the people playing on non FT servers outnumber those on FT 10 to 1?

BTW the first 3 expansions of EQ are complete turds

The real reason for me and my friends who always quit when luclin launches is because around that time we started playing other games like DAOC and later on WOW. So the nostalgia only goes thru those expansions. Zero interest in playing last velious

Premise 1) Players like tradable loot
Premise 2) DPG should make a server that players like
Conclusion) Make a server with NO tradeable loot

Now, we aren't allowed to call people trolls. All we can say is that this doesn't seem like a logical suggestion.

Yeah, I think this is it. Players fall off each expansion because thats when they left before. Some might stick around for an expansion or two longer but this isn't rocket science - it's nostalgia farming.

We love the first 3 expansions so much because that was before the awful Luclin graphics.

Preach the gospel.

For myself, I like being invested in a character and progressing through epics, spells, raids and AAs at the very start. I have no interest in starting a character on a server that has progressed to far into the convoluted mess that live servers are and what TLPs eventually become.

You're assuming there is nobody that likes no-trade. While I do agree it is a large minority that would be so. I would love an everything is no-trade server but I know realistically it would not last due to that very restriction that I like. I play on Mischief, but not for the free-trade, I don't group with anyone unless they are my friends or I otherwise know that also do not make use of free-trade loot, I play Mischief because I love the idea of random loot on group mobs, less so on raids which is why I originally quit after PoP launched on Mischief. But again, I know I am the minority.

All in all, I was not trolling so no need to call me one. It was a serious suggestion based upon what I want to see, knowing full well I likely will not ever get such a server. Will I relax on my thoughts about free-trade? Maybe, I relaxed on Ogres so who knows.

People like Kunark?
No raid content
Toxic fighting over names in Chardok
Bot squads locking down heiro, fungus king, chief gobbie, and his body guard.
Zones that take 10 minutes to run across.
More fighting over VP key quest pieces (only to later complain about VP loot being trash).

The real reason SOME players love the first three expansions: They're too stupid to get any deeper into the game.

What op says. Free trade.

And simplicity. The game becomes bloated with multiple abilities and spell ranks. Tradeskills become convoluted.

The other factor is content moves away from being soloable and single group to raid content. And the solo and group content is balanced around having BiS raid gear from previous expansions. You can casually play most of content upto luclin mid game.

The best content was made well after the original developers/creators of the game left.

Nobody in their right mind can objectively look at Classic-Velious itemization - let alone all the other glaring shortcomings - and say it's "good." You got literal garbage dropping off the original 4 raid encounters in the game. It's so bad that gear you acquire by level 30 is better than 80% of the end game raid gear. Look at this mega crap

For me, those first three expansions were all about the ebay. I sold more jewelry to order than alibaba sells things that break. That's the nest egg that to this day, keeps me in underpants.

The reason people like the early expansions is that hit point, dps, and stats inflation was minimal.

I can't speak for every server, but I think people digested content a lot slower back in the day. I don't think I started raiding Plane of Hate until right before Luclin came out, and during Luclin, I'm pretty sure that I was still working on my Skyshrine armor when PoP came out. This wasn't just because I was a stunted player either, it's just how my server was. lol.

I don't love the first 3 expansions.

People are around for the first 3 because its still fresh start. Not because those expansions are greatest of them all.

I actually like Luclin, GoD, you know where there is a lot of faction, long quests, keys, very unique items. Unique zones. Even SoF is that way too, got interesting tradeskill quest, lots of faction grinds, keys, long unique item quest just like GoD and Luclin.

If people drop off by Luclin its not really because of Luclin its because everyone is end game now, its not really fresh server anymore.