I used to raid long ago, now boxing and alts at a more casual pace does it for me. The game does a good job supporting many playstyles and yet still retains that certain magic. Also, the constant feel that my characters are progressing, unless you grind out your aa with a quickness there is a long-lasting sense of power increase. Even on FV with the exp pots and increased xp rate, if I ever get bored I can start saving platinum toward a nice raid item. Killing old raid events is also great fun. Lots of ways to entertain yourself in game.
Okay, aside from my first response which is about the cute girls... What keeps me coming back every day is the fact that I can revisit older content and the memories flood back to me. I take medication that has a direct influence on memory loss, so running through that one zone, seeing that certain mob, it hits me that over ten years ago, at that very spot, I had an epic battle with that mob and earned a cool new item. No other game gives me that kind of satisfaction. Most things I enjoy about EQ is that it doesn't matter what class, deity, race, or starting city, you play it how you want to and your actions reflect that by the NPCs (faction). Or, that stuff I raided for years ago, I can go back and slaughter everything single-handed. Three hours spent getting to that last boss? Bah, I'll aggro everything from start to finish and kill it all. KILL IT ALL. What can be improved on? Ugh, so many. Factioning, old world bugs, quests, NPCs. SOE is trying so hard to make the game as linear as possible, the reason it was unique is now lost. What can SOE do without? Other games. Bring those devs back.
To answer my own question as a semi-retired raider ...grouper now. 1. I'm not sure anymore. I play with the wives Enchanter, the occasional guildmate, but starting to wonder... "To what end" ? 2. There are plenty of things I have "Enjoyed" about Everquest. Not finding much lately anymore. ALot of immature and ignorant people have decided to try and make themselves heard and be the voice for the game, and the Dev's are listening and it's ruining what made the game special. The uniqueness, the mystery of "Whats going on in Norrath today" when I log in. The bonding and set toward a common goal by a group of people who have similar interests. People don't raid anymore or log in much anymore because either events have surpassed the average gamer and cater to the end game player, or because they too are wondering, to what end. 3. I would love to see a return to Everquests roots. The mystery and intrigue, the Fear of corpse runs, the heavy social aspect, the center around the group game. Not easy events, but more group content, for a wider variety of player. Everquest can still be a viable game if they want it to be. I am not sure they wish to or care to devote the resources needed. 4. The mentality of end game players have been the same since day one. "I'm better than you"... When truthfully they got where they got due to the camaraderie of others, a guild binding together to accomplish a large feat. Even your seeing people in the end game start to falter because of these mentalities. The e-peening, ego's and immature behavior is rampant and truth be told, quite stale and old. But I am wise enough to know it will not be gotten rid of, as one guild replaces the next at the top of the "rankings" it will continue on.... but that is the one thing Everquest can do without. How to go about doing that is more than likely impossible.
Raiding, people, boxing and gearing up alts I would however be happy if they just turn the whole thing off so I can quit.
There has to be a balance between cooperation and competition. Whether it's a raid or a group. The devs can set up situations that encourage one or the other. However, when a raid necro who sees the other necros as competition, he'll have to find out on his own why that doesn't work in the long run. People who don't play nice in Dream Feerott find themselves locked out of the camp. We, as a community can do more about jerks than any management can.
For me, it's because there's so much to do in the game and I enjoy doing almost everything. About the only thing I don't enjoy as much is PVP. My guild raids 3x a week (12 hours max) and my attendance bounces between 60-80% raid attendance. So time wise in a given month I'll do: Raiding - both with guild and (the unforunately rare times I can join a pick up raid) Grouping - with guildies, with old friends, pick up style, trio'ing with husband (with or without me boxing either a ranger or a chanter) Housing Tradeskills (making the new RoF cultural for folks, etc.) Soloing (don't do this as often anymore) or Moloing (also do this rarely) Roleplay Soloing old named mobs Collecting old keys Slayer tasks (LOVE these) Collection tasks (man these rock /hats off to Augur) Zone bouncing (this is my nickname for random zone travels and buffing anyone I see) Helping new/returning players with something they need done And a few other things I can't recall right now. If I'm burning out on one thing and don't have enough balance between some of these, I'll just adjust. (It's one reason I love my guild because even being a cleric, there's not a pressure to have to raid if I just want to be online and take a break to do something else for that night.)
Raider in a high-end guild (though one without DKP or required attendance). What keeps me coming back is the friends and the literal thousands of things I can still haven't done in this game, despite having played it off and on (mostly on) for the last decade+ I love the raiding game: watching ~54 people work together to take down something is one of my great joys in the game and I love the power and ability to do things on my own that the raid level gear provides for my toon. I would love to see server GMs again-having ONE person who knows the ins and outs of server politics and is available on a consistent basis to help with problems would be amazing again. Even if they handled two to three servers a piece (assuming they could be logged into both at the same time) and even if we still had to filter through the petition system to reach them, having someone visible to put out fires would be amazing. Do without? Nothing beyond the usual quibbles and complaints that pop up during these sorts of questions. There aren't any massive, overarching issues that stand out to me as needing to be fixed.
Ive been playing eq so long its a habit or part of my life lol. there are days when i say why do i play eq.
This game is my entertainment, not my life. I get out of it exactly what I want to, and the game offers plenty for me to look into. This weekend, I did a bunch of collection quests, picked up 3 merc and partisan achievements for RoF, checked out some zones I have never been to in older expansion, got my monk to level 75, got 150 AA's on my bard (thanks to the collectors achievements), got 87 on my mage, and helped a bunch of guildies finish about 20 quests in various zones. I think I raided once or twice last week, too. But, yeah, I keep myself entertained. If I can't find something to do, I don't sit in front of the computer screen hoping something will happen, I either go do it, or I log off.
I like attempting to box (or duo with a friend) old raid content. With that in mind, i wish they could eventually go back and make a few minor changes to some old raids (but not at the expense of them doing current content) Oceangreen hills rottrued raid (remove the time limit for killing all the totem mobs, this raid is pretty much near impossible to get people to do) Rallos Returns + Ganak raids, remove the stupid 12 man requirement for opening the chest Solteris 3: Make it so that killing the uncontrollable golems can be killed for a win if the boss falls out of hp balance (something people have asked for for years)
To expand on that, I guess I just keep myself entertained. Finished everything RoF has to offer as far as missions and tasks go and now I'm going to finish grabbing up RoF group gear for my usual gang of idiots. After that, I'll probably go back and finish up VoA group progression (mission a few tasks in Sepulcher). Then go back and square away a handful of missing HoT tasks and hunter kills. Sorry Underfoot, you stink. Then the last 5 tasks for SoD completion. All the while, my hobby inside of my hobby is finding PoM stuff, rare items that no longer drop in-game and going back through boxing old raids. All that usually keeps me engaged enough until new stuff comes out.
Careful, if you say The Doke's name three times he appears, like Beetlejuice. Then we're all doomed; the forums will be down, threads will be demolished, servers crashing, we'll all be rolled back to level 55, dogs and cats living together...mass hysteria. The Doke just showers the world in chaos.
