Both Servers - Population Thinned ?

That can go either way. He said return to 6-month or adjust it to faster track. Both of those phrases seem to point the other way. If we return to 6-month it's not currently 6-months. If we adjust it to a faster track it's not getting faster than 3 months so it's currently at 6. I think that RIGHT NOW, the plan is to have 6 months of Kunark, based off of their wording during votes that the time change was only for classic. I also think that right now, the plan is to hold a vote a month or two into Kunark to determine the timeline for the rest of the server. I hope it's 3 months of Classic, 3 months of Kunark, 6 months until POP and then 2-3 months for the rest.

Um no, I think a majority of people transferring are transferring to get away from the toxic cespool that is ragefire. There are some transferring for the 6 month thing but if Ragefire wasn't so bad, I would guarantee you would have lost the whole top end raiding environment off of Lockjaw plus the select players that want to eventually raid. The population would have possibly dipped on lockjaw.

Totally agree with this statement.

Some people might see the overwhelming exodus from Ragefire to Lockjaw as being primarily due to the 3 month/6 month unlock, but it has a lot more to do with the toxic environment that exists at the top of Ragefire and trickles down.

Just about everyone I have talked to that went from RF--> LJ said they thought 3 months was a little too soon and that 6 months was a little too long, but that really didn't influence their decision that strongly one way or the other. The vast majority went to LJ because it seems a lot less, to use the now popular term "toxic", and the leadership of the top guilds on Lockjaw were able to work out an equitable rotation for all guilds on the server and try to bring the community together rather than not giving a damn and helping to tear it apart. They didn't have to force DBG's hand and continue to squabble like bickering children because they didn't/haven't gotten their way.

So yeah I am convinced the large sum of transfers has so much more to do with the environment on one server compared to the other and less to do with the unlock time on Kunark.

Discussions about populations are very premature at this point. Server transfers are open until 8/10 and people are moving back and forth for a variety for reasons from testing the economy, checking if LJ is less toxic then RF etc.
8/11 will be the day to start looking at populations and see how they settled.

I know the guild I am in has absorbed a ton of Ragefire players which is a good thing as our raid force is incredible solid right now. Those players will have to make a decision soon though, and the decision will be: Do I want to raid classic for another 3-4 months or go back to Ragefire and raid in Kunark.
Non raiders will be deciding if there is enough groups available on Lockjaw to warrant staying or go back to what was known to them as far as grouping opportunities.

8/11 will be a very interesting day

Why would more people going to LJ cause LJ to have a thinner population? I don't understand your math.

And, btw, "no" LJ is a madhouse of population and crowding now.

What would you consider low pop? 2 or 3 instances of OOT and Guk instead of 7? Because that's what I have seen so far.

3 months of classic, 3 months of kunark, 6 months Velious/Luclin/PoP = best outcome IMO

Of course it is thinning, classic is boring. There is only so much to do. I am literally working on my bind wounds and begging skills because... Well its something to do.

Exactly - the vote was a dumb move. When transfers were announced anyone could have predicted this outcome. We want slowly phased expansions; what we don't want to to rush through the content like a meth addicts running on 120 hours w/out sleep. That's how we have sex, not how we play games.

I will also point out that it is more heavily booming in the mage train of boxers .. I have been pushed out of multiple hunting areas since the transfers have begun by the boxers..

normally I have no issue as such (though I do think it undermines the idea of an MMO (that means massive multiplayer BTW) ) BUT now there are more and more on LJ that just think they are entitled to whatever they wish whenever they wish .. and it wasn't bad enough before the transfers..

I guess maybe it is time to give up as boxer run the game now it seems ;(

trouble with this is that you really are still rushing through the content as the xp gain is incredibly fast by comparison to original .. even if you take out the hell levels I can gain 2 to 3 levels in 20th and 30th levels with ease in a good group .. after a weekend in premade groups that knew what they were doing you used to be lucky to get a level and a half..

EQ didn't have to become WoW with lesser graphics

Population on Ragefire was always going to be smaller than Lockjaw, once the 3 month and 6 month decision was announced. How guilds behave on both servers towards one another was another influence. Ragefire's population will become the one predominantly populated by guilds that want to rush thru content and employ multiple boxing accounts. You will see an additional push at the last minute of folks moving to Lockjaw now as well, since its now more populated by players as well. It wouldn't surprise me to see the population spread as being something along the lines of 40%/60% once the dust settles, and of the 40% a majority of multi box accounts over player accounts. I imagine all of RF players will end up rerolling on Lockjaw in due time once their population dies out from rushing thru expansion eras in a couple years, unless more guilds stick it out on RF or large guilds on LJ move to RF.

Has anyone mentioned that P99 velious came out yesterday? They had like 2,000+ players online for launch day. But the raid bosses have already all been killed, and waiting for velious was what was keeping a lot of bored, max'd out p99 players' attention.

I believe unless Rogean keeps creating some kind of fresh interesting GM event-type challenges, interest will subside consistently as more and more people realize this ceiling (velious) is forever.

And again, most raid bosses beaten on day 1. The faster to farm status, the faster they will get stale

I agree that the level max MIGHT create and issue BUT bringing up the issue at P1999 doesn't shed light on the issues here.

leveling fast has not helped ANY mmo retain players ..

It might get a lot of casuals to play for the first half year to year but then they get bored and go do something else.

It is my hope that one day a gaming company figures this equation out..

When EQ was first going around and up to Vellious I drove tractor trailor coast and might only be on for a fw hours every other weekend (usually every week BUT not guaranteed) AND yet I played EQ and only stopped as personal issues got involved and I just couldn't continue to play .. So I was a definite casual BUT I loved playing a game that was definitely a hardcore game.

I then later played most of the MMOs that came out BUT was unimpressed as the leveling kept me coming back (you could see growth this way) BUT the max level farming for gear got OLD REALLY fast.

Now I don't know this is an equation to all the newly failed games BUT you can see it if you look ..

Hardcore games and casual alike get bored fast with a fast pace to gearing and leveling.. Casuals can and WILL play a hardcore game if they like the game BUT hardcore gamers become dissatisfied with a casual game VERY easily

ILV farming works well for games that continually release content. New content every 6 months (preferably paid only once a year or two), probably keeps player retention more than anything. In the end does it really matter if they raised level cap by 5 and made all your gear pointless or f they released new gear and made all your gear pointless. People play until they feel like they have done everything.

Constant development had shown to keep players, but also has a higher cost/risk factor.

SoE for the most part thought they could release 2 (almost 3) full paid expansions for awhile. The content kept players but eventually the price of entry was more than many for willing to pay.

The other biggest problem is calling new games "failed" because they didn't top WoW 11 million subs, while forgetting EQ peaked at 500k. The expectation of success has been raised to a level that has been so for unattainable. Getting 500k-2 million (ffxiv) paying subs after a year is not a failure...it just isn't WoW.