Yep, especially because they do pay the same or an even higher monthly fee for decades old content as live players do pay for newer content. FTP on live can have all that stuff for free but mostly without other players which does make the difference.
That would be horrible for player retention though as the non TLP crowd would leave once they have completed everything they wanted to and there was nothing left to do. The TLP crowd alone would have trouble keeping the game running.
The upcoming expansion has 7 zones which isn't a lot of content for them to be removing some for the high end and giving it to the lower levels which already have a lot of content.
It doesn't take a raider to catch up to the game in under a year. It just takes working to make the most of your limited gameplay.
The game is so top heavy because it is a 25 year old game that was designed in different times. Unless you redesign the game from the ground up you are not going to solve any of those problems. Compare EQ to WoW, in EQ soloing is not part of the game design while in WoW that is an option for every class. That fact alone makes a big difference in how players get through levels which impacts people with alts, changing mains, returning players, and new players. Taking away some of the limited zones for high end content isn't going to make it easier for players to level to max and it isn't going to help keep max level players in the game.
I forget if they took a poll about it, but I think it came out to be a better profit and more enjoyment for players when they swapped to yearly expansions. Even with larger expansions, players were finishing them well within the first year. Longer dxpansion cycles means longer lulls which isn't good (higher chance of losing subs without them returning) Playing on both, I'd say it's an even split. Regardless, we're discussing live and it's population. 1) The game isn't that complex. You'll come to notice after about level 90, you dont really get anything new. Same abilities and AAs. Just new names/ranks. The issue is: you don't stay current on the toons to stay familiar with their abilities. Read a book once. Pick it up again in 3 months. Are you going to be able to remember all the details? Probably not. Read the book every week for 3 months. After 3 months, how many of the details will you remember? A lot more than the previous scenario. So this happens in every faucet of life. Not just EQ. Teenagers nowadays start their working career usually in fast food (here in the US). By 40 theyve got a career and been doing it for 15-20 years. Now walk into a fast food joint and start doing their job without any training. Can't do it can ya? It's not because fast food got complicated in that time. It's because you didn't stay current in it and can't remember all the details. 2) Groups and content surrounding groups usnt based on how many people are playing, but simply how many characters are in the party. 1 person controlling 3 characters and 3 mercs or all 6 characters = 6 characters. 3) Its not that people want to be independent. It's people want to be efficient. I down loaded a log parser recently to attempt to increase my abilities and performance. Know what I've found? The average EQ player is bad. My FTP character running off of alt tabbing and macros, and even my mercs, out DPS other player characters. It is faster for me to play by myself with my box team or molo than it is to invite a random stranger to group with me. And the game is just fine for molo and duo boxers. You just have to understand your limits. So was I. It only takes me 1-2 weeks of relaxed gameplay to go 1-100. 'How? Having played that content a hundred times and knowing some of the best/fastest routes (another prime example of why we don't need more content in those level ranges). When the new expansion drops, would you like me to start a new character (pr a new 85 Heroic) on a new server and give you weekly updates (complete with screen shots of /played time) to show my progress to 125?
I have no way to know this but based on personal experience I think the non-TLP crowed would just play on TLPs. Especially if they were able to spend the time they spend on making expansion into improving earlier content. There are ways to refurbish content to make it feel new and exciting that are much less labor intensive than adding a whole new xpac.
If the non TLP crowd wanted to replay the content again they would already be doing that. If the devs stop making new content for players at the max level I see no reason why they would be making content for the early expansions. The entire point of a TLP is to replay existing content and not to play new low level content.
I agree with Iven and uberkingkong alot. They are making points to bring people into common place, where lower-level players can play on a new expansion. Where you actually see people and probably will participating in group together, at least some interaction. Not sure how that's going to work out, but I seemed to have higher hopes. At the same time, it should help a little better with expansion sales. Why buy expansion, if there's nothing for you. I mean not a thing. Those people that arguing against are telling the newcomers/ long return players to go on the deserted island and play. I don't want to get nasty but if I was the newcomer or long return player then I may opt to say bad things... Set aside a zone for lower level, is that hard? I mean are you gonna quit because of that. How hard is it not having one less zone to play? Seems like some people are just focused on now (me only) rather than help bring back the game. This may help bring players together where you see them scattered throughout previous zones. I have no idea if they are f2p or subbed. Why play at the previous zone when you can buy new expansion and probably gain better exps and better loots. I figure if Dev decide to set aside the one zone for lower level, then they probably will pack them with better exps and decent loots. They may even throw some part of the zone friendly to molo, duo, etc. Speaking perspective, I got pretty good amount of level 120s toons in FV and 5 toons in normal server. If f2p buys the expansion and play on the eazy zone, then so what? Better than them not buying it and playing on previous expansion. At least DP get some money out of them. Do I really care if someone gets little better exps or low-level good loots? The answer is "no I do not care". To sums up, is how to bring more money to the DP and may also help with the population.
The effect that you described has also an influence but that is not what I mean. EQ was as simple as a child book and in all the years it has grown to a lexicon. In the past most people only played one player character, and mercs were not existent, so they only had to memorize the setting of one player character beside their alts which were not played as commonly as today. People sticked to one main character mostly. There were not much buttons and spells to memorize. Today each high level player character has about 150 buttons/gems and about 250 spells/discs/AAs that must be memorized by the player and tons of other stuff that didn't existed in the past. Additionally about every player has to box at least 2-3 player characters with a few mercs, just for being able to play the game. It has become as must have and not only a nice to have. Typical player setup in 2003 1 player character (Single boxing) ~3 alts (depending on how long the player was already active) 0-1 pet ~25 buttons/gems to memorize ~10-40 spells/discs/AAs to memorize Typical player setup in 2023 2-3 player characters (Duo or trio boxing) ~20 alts 0-3 pets 1-3 mercs 0-3 familiars ~150 buttons/gems per player character ~250 actual spells/discs/AAs per player character to choose from Sumary: ~300-450 buttons to memorize ~500-750 spells/discs/AAs to memorize This detail does not matter much. When the combat system does get aligned for a full group (6 characters) and the average is just 4 characters, it does cause problems. They usually want to be both. There are no common goals anymore which is why people prefer to play alone. Why repeating quests and progression or camping mobs for loot and experience, when the rewards are no longer needed or not rewarding enough ? No, but you could send your progress to the devs so that they could adjust the content.
Nostalgia is not the only factor. Many players are only active on TLP servers for the community and communication because the player density in the first few expansions is much higher there. TLP players are moving on to other servers when the player density does get thinned out to much by the amount of unlocked expansions. The game simplicity until SoF should be also a major factor. When SoD (mercs) does get released, the player count is usually going down. I have never played on TLP but that is what TLP players had been reported on the forums.
If that was the case you wouldn't see large numbers leave a TLP and jump to the new one at the same expansions each cycle. The fact is that you have large numbers that don't want to play EQ past a certain point.
Because it was new and revolutionary. Remember pong? Look at video games now. How much more complex have they become? Even Hello Kitty World is a lexicon compared to that. It's called progress, growth. Remember how simple your life wad as a child? And 20 years later, look at how complex life is. (And the game is still easy)
Yes, YOU are wrong again. 10-15 spells, handfull of AAs ? You must be a TLP player or just someone who does not care about efficiency and DPS. /attack on, things are done ! I had bought NoS a few days ago, but I won't play there yet. Nearly all ToL and NoS zones are empty of players on AB btw, so how should I fill a group ? With a FTP account and no players around ? No common goals because every player is stuck in another expansion and progression, has other priorities, or is just done with everything. I don't see any contradiction in that. The players do jump over to the next TLP server at the same time because of the reasons that I have named and there sure is herd instinct involved also -> Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Put in new low level zones and you will have 3% of the playerbase using it for 1 week before they level up and move on.
wrong https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/120-before-new-xpac.292914/ put in some low level zones like 90 to 105 100 to 120, those people that spend months leveling up will have some place to be. Put in a lot of questlines storylines them. Tons of reason to stay there and finish everything up as well. Not only stay there longer, you have 1 to 2 zones catchup that people can find others doing catchup as well. With your 16 zones 100-105 16 zones 105-110. You wont be finding anyone too many zones too few people. Less is more Thing is, those 100-105 16 zones, they were designed for end game Those 105-110 zones, they were designed for end game Not designed for catchup
I think you are talking about some (correction) of the NoS zones. I have not been to the Deepsahde and Darklight Cavern, so I can't talk about there. Also, can't talk about other zones I have not played extensively. From the zones I've been to, Firepass is the one that is packed, multiple picks. That's where I usually decide to farm the one named and the augs. And I see lots of players there. For example, of empty zone is the Ruins of Shadow Haven, nobody there most of the time. I've been there to farm the Topaz for JC and also get some T2 armors. Usually, nobody's there, once in a while I see 3 toons come by to do the quest. That's it.
