Curious on your thoughts

I would say, that about 75% of players, if they couldn't box (only solo play) they wouldn't play the game.
What do you think?

I agree with your thoughts and personally I would no longer play.

Too bad 90% do not know the difference between boxing (good) and botting (evil).

Yeah, I wouldn’t play.

I think that might be too high of a percentage IMHO.

I think players that five or six box, yes if they could not box then 100% of them would not play. I could also be convinced to throw in the four boxer, although how many actually only four box? Once you get to four, might as well go to five or six LOL.

But players who box only two characters, like myself? I only have two accounts so that I can get some things done in game because no one is available since everyone else is 2-6 boxing. My preference is just one account, and if boxing was taken away... then people like minded like myself, we may get together and do things in game. I think that encompasses a good portion of those that box.

IMHO 4-6 boxers represent maybe 10% of the actual player base (not the percentage of accounts). I would take on another 20% from everyone else that doesn't 4-6 box that would leave. So around 30% of the actual players would leave if they could not box. At least initially, and as months go by if you haven't found groups during then, those players may also abandon ship.

Mostly I just 2 or 3 box, its easier if your manually doing it. I will box more for special occasions but those extra characters just stand there and are for fill in mostly (pets etc) and don't require much interaction.

It would not inspire me to group more in any way, shape or form.

The game's basic design makes grouping bad. I can spend 4 hours camping a named until the augment drops. Then I have a 1 in 6 chances of winning the roll. Whoever wins will of course leave the group (And if its tank or healer you cannot play until you get a rep for them). If its an out of the way place, its possible the group ends due ot lack of healer or tank.
If I box, I always win the drop. I don't have to spend literal days of time seeing drops go to people I'll never see again. I get what I want. Eq cannot be a "Social' game when you can spend an entire play session and only get a single named and then win nothing from it. Then repeat that MULTIPLE times. Thats not fun, and people quit games that are not fun.

Group named need to be more common, otherwise grouping is strictly bad.
Same goes with missions, you can only do them once a day (unless your retired and play 12+ hours a day). If I do a mission with a pickup group, good chance I won't get the drop I want even if it drops. Always better to not group with random people. Picking up random people means I have loot competition. Note you can raid log, only playing a few hours a week and get all the gear you want. Spend only that same amount of time in pickup groups, and you might not even get your gear before the new expac. 6 hours a week might be 2 named, split 6 ways means you get 1-2 peices of loot a month on average? The loot math makes pickup groups pure garbage.

Lastly, the basic trinity problem. We are at the whims of the healer and the tank. If they leave, everyone else cannot play until they get replaced. Social grouping leaves me at the whims of everyong else and gives no significant benefit. Everything about the game makes grouping socially worse than boxing.

i'm a 10%'r I guess

If I had to box to play EQ I would have quit a long time ago.

Well, just on this post its 5(forgot to include myself) would not play and only 1 would play. Gonna be hard to group with your self

But we know the forums are not representative of the players in the game

I have just one account. I could not manage more than one character at a time. At high level play mostly I am dependent on a group of some kind, usually with someone with whom I have a long game relationship. However, occasionally i will be picked up by someone adding me to their group.

It was my boxes that kept me playing this game. Or I would of played less and less of it a long time ago.

so both boxers and non boxers play this game.
i'd say that's a win-win.

Heck no. It's box or nothing for me. Is it even possible to get a PUG on the live servers anymore?

I feel it is that mentality many players have, myself included, of "Is it even possible to get a PUG on live servers anymore" that causes many players to not even bother to try. I feel if more actually tried, more PUG may happen.

true, I Assume many of the "groupers" are on tlp and not on live. On tlp, the quality of your group make matters less because there are no AA, and the difference between good gear and under geared is far lower. Plus most classes can fill in for each other. Then you have utterly broken things like monks

To be blunt, I don't care if it is possible.

When mercs came out - that is what brought me back. Now with boxing, I stay.

It's terrible. I tried inviting a couple guildmates to do the Tower missions, and one of them took 35 minutes to finally get to the Tower. Never said anything in the group chat or guild chat about how to get to North Ro.

Never again.

It was always designed to be a social game. Not just in terms of grouping to kill a boss (which WoW and other things do), but also in the tactics of moving into an area, establishing a perimeter, killing mobs and also talking while medding, waiting for pulls.

I played WoW and it wasn't the same: it was like wham bam thank you mam when doing a dungeon clear. There were few tactics except at high lvls; the idea of dieing your way in or through a dungeon was a reality.

Sadly the focus on team/group play started to fragment fairly early on in the expats release. By the time it got to Mercenaries, group play was mortally wounded. Which mean that people who DID like playing with other humans dropped away from the game. Some of them came back with the TLPs, but once the TLPs just became a race to the end, again, social play suffered.

IMHO Boxing and Mercs are two different things. Mercs suck. Boxing is a sort of salve. If grouping with live people is vampirism, boxing is sort of like living off animal blood. It works but it's not the same.

I box five, if for some reason boxing was banished, I would be very disappointed. I may stop playing, I just hope it never comes to that.

I wouldn't play without boxing - it's a unique challenge that I really enjoy. I tried to replicate it in Eve and it was useful, but not the same...

But then if someone wanted help in a lonely zone that I was in (I never really bother with the 85+ game), I'd be more than happy to accomodate them and lend a hand, but not many people want to do explore old content they didn't get around to back when it was a race to the top like I do. I find people at max-level wandering in to an old zone and laying waste, them arrogantly presuming it's single-player experience, far more annoying than (hopefully!) I am by discovering old level-appropiate content for the first time.