Does the popularity of the TLP servers show that Everquest went down the wrong path?

Text is usually fine with me. I like that it gives me time to collect my thoughts and doesn't put me on the spot like a phone call does. I actually got rid of my cell phone and I don't own any sort of phone at all anymore, 90% of my phone calls were telemarketers or a wrong number and every time my phone rang my heart always skipped a beat. In fact just thinking of my phone ringing while I type this is giving me anxiety =P

This, yes 100 times this. Back when I had a phone people would call first and I wouldn't answer then they'd text me and I would answer right away. Then they'd usually call again knowing I was at my phone now and I wouldn't answer. They'd eventually get the point that I only answer texts.

I code for a living and all clients know to email me. Before I got rid of my phone they would call once or twice and I would generally wait an hour and email them and say "Hey I noticed you called...." and then they would call again, still no answer. Then they would email me and ask why I'm not answering the phone or let me know that they would like to talk to me.

Eventually it just got to annoying explaining to people how social disorders work. No one understands them - no one even cares - if you have one they can't fathom the idea of how you can't just "deal with it" and "get over it". They think because they're ok with talking on the phone or using voice chat you should be too and no matter how hard you try you can't convince them to see the other side of the argument.

They were NEVER 2 separate companies, Verant was a division of 989 / Sony.

Do level 105 players raiding the cutting edge content ever form groups with three (or more) human players in order to get the next 5 levels and/or AAs, or to farm necessary group content?

That there is the appeal of TLP to me. It's not the garbage velious/pop ones either; those are totally overrated. Even at 70 and half of 75 at least the ideal xp spots are open world, and there's useful (aug usually) content in them for top players.

The prospect of hauling out my old cleric and trying to rejoin ROI has zero appeal to me currently. I could just be totally off on my assumption here... but I picture a lot of playing with myself to get close, and a lot of playing with myself when not raiding. Zero interest.

I've never heard of XP groups on live but 100 - 105 players do group up quite often for Mercenaries, Partisans, and Hunter achievements. I see real groups of 2 - 4 people all the time doing quests on Fironia Vie.

As we speak I just stopped killing some wailing rotters in Sul Vius: Decay so a group on my server could swing through and do the Mercenary quests and it's only noon on a friday. It usually gets a lot more popping at night.

Also there are 23 people in the zone (I am 6 of those 23) So the zone actually has people in it too for what some would consider an off hour.

Yes, yes, and yes. I finished all the group content with 5 other players, and maxed my AAs while doing so. But all that was done months ago, so there's not much reason for me to log in outside of raids now.

Same thing in TDS, we had to complete nearly all the group content on day 1 to be able to zone in to Arx, request the raid, and have enough people flagged to plant a banner in the raid. But the exp from all those quests was awful, so I still had to do a lot of dedicated exp time to get 105 and important AAs.

All right. Since you asked, I have Aspergers, more specifically, hyperlexia. Talking to slow learners wears me out. Talking to intelligent people energizes me! Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. Our best player doesn't raid because he's deaf and CANNOT use Vent. I cannot play melee because the game requires my eyes/brain to work in ways that it CANNOT. DBG doesn't force anyone to raid at all so you have to be clear that requiring Ventrilo is not a game flaw but rather unique to that guild. EQ doesn't force me to play in places where fast reaction time is required. For a while, they had some sort of accommodation for color-blind people. Heck, I have great color vision and sometimes can't spot those grey goblins in EWKarana.

Fair? There is no 'fair.' There can never be a 'level playing field.' We play the cards we're dealt.