You either 6 box or you dont play EQ. That is what this game has come to. Multibox with mercs or suffer. Grouping is dead. I have come back to this game so many times and each time I come back its less and less players available. I used to be a very very hardcore raider in Kunark/Velious/Luclin/POP Era. I just came back to the game in September 2013 and its in such a terrible state. I really wish they would stop thinning out their resources and maybe just focus on one thing in development. The game has so much potential just going to waste. The biggest being that the community is dying due to Mercs & Boxing. Give us some sort of bonus for grouping with real players. Let there be an incentive so people stop multiboxing everything 24/7. I hate playing solo most of the time. /rant off
If more of a bonus were applied to groups then multiboxers will continue to multibox only now with an added bonus.
They did this its called Plane of War. It is very hard for boxers to box there and some named mobs even need 2 groups to kill them. But still people complain...
I dont like the idea of boxing, but am fine with using merc, if you can solo it wih one character and a merc, thats as right as rain. If not, you should come back when your stronger, or most probobly, be in a real group, or ask a higher level player for help.
I don't box. Tried a couple of years ago, didn't like it. Not for me. LFG doesn't work, you have to go where the hot zones are and ask around, or hang out by Teek in POK and ask there.
What server are you on? Bristlebane is overcrowded. 100+ AFK in Lobby and 100+ AFK in PoK at random times of the day and night. Tons upon tons of players on Bristlebane. You'd have plenty to play with on Bristlebane, thats for sure. So transfer on over, since Bristlebane seems like the new transfer trend these days anyway. Whats one more player added to the lag piles
Boxing has helped save this game. It funds a lot of the game. I'd take "the grouping scene is dead-er" (honestly not even but whatever) over "the game is shutting down."
I wonder why the devs haven't implemented something like WoW's grouping system -- the highly automated cross server system builds a group for you... all you have do to is play and socialize...
If you keep leaving and coming back it means you aren't developing enough friendships/avenues to get groups to begin with. So you're shooting yourself in the foot. Join a family guild, figure out who is on when and I bet you may start getting groups.
I'm no expert, but an awesome guild, a good attitude, and a proactive approach would be my recommendations. I don't ask for a group, I simply tell everyone what I'm doing, example " I'm off to the courtyard, popping my j5, 4 slots left, peeps are welcome to join me for some fun!" I rarely have trouble getting a group, I have more trouble finding time to do my own thing. Change guilds, change servers, try grouping with lower level peeps. I like to group with people 10 levels younger, let them loot everything, and im always all happy and smiley. You'll soon have a reputation and people will seek you out.
I am seeing more groups made than when i went on my last hiatus. people are actually spamming to round out existing groups. Mercs adds to that flexibility not deters it. in june when part 2 comes out grouping will be on the rise again.
Thats odd, I haven't had less then a full group of real players (except during odd/off hours) in 2 years. Establish yourself and your reputation and your going to get groups...
I heartily agree with this post. Something along the lines of better experience (I realize there is already a small exp. increase with more real players), increased mob loot (only lootable by the original group members), AND experience to mercs even while they are not summoned. Wake up devs. These are small changes that will make a big community difference.
Boxing is a symptom of a problem, not the source. You have to ask the question, "Why do people box?" Here's the Answers: 1. "I like the challenge" 2. "Always missing Class X" 3. "We need to level X Class" 4. "I don't like grouping" 5. "There's no groups" There's a multiboxing community that supports 1. but they are in the minority. Many guilds need certain classes for a spot in a raid. Rather than recruiting another, sometimes its easier to have a guildie roll it. That cover's 2 and 3. Then you've got the anti-social crowd that just don't trust strangers. Normally they'd play Mages, Druids, Wizards, Necros or other solo friendly class. These are number 4. Finally you have number 5. The guy who is LFG all day gets fed up and goes to form their own group. Group number 1 would be the problem that everyone associates with multiboxing to be the reason of group shortages. But they are a very very slim minority. Leveling a few characters and grouping with multiboxers leads me to believe the ones I grouped with were NOT in that group. Well this is evidenced by the fact they allowed me to group with them. They are also quite chatty which makes me figure they are not number 4 either. When I ask them why, its basically they need to level a class, but have no groups. Guilds need certain roles being filled. Sometimes they don't have the right combinations or playtimes to PL someone to that level. This is mainly because the raid dates they can meet are the times they are all online. When this occurs, they raid. Not PL. Not getting around this one. And there's no reason to be bothered by it. These people wouldn't group with you anyway. But they might, and even if boxing will probably still group. If... there was one. Now you have the 4 crowd. These people don't group. Why? Who knows. Maybe they are antisocial. Maybe they had bad groups. It doesn't matter. If they couldn't box, they still wouldn't group with you. They aren't the source of the group problem, they haven't grouped since EQ came out. And even if they were a problem, what could be done? What could be done to make them group, but not quit the game for something they can solo in? Leave them alone and they leave you alone. There is no groups... that's 5. That is the cause of multiboxing. In the old days of Kunark and Velious, the LFG tag was used to find people looking for group. Why isn't this used anymore? You used to be able to go into a zone and use /who lfg. The who command still works. Type /lfg and click the LFG button to enable people to see you are LFG. With the tool we can see what level and class you are. You can also use the tool to see groups LFP. If... they turn it on. So groups, if you need peeps, turn this on. Thats one way to help mitigate the problem. The other... is to replace mercs with players. Players have their nuances, but they are exponentially better than mercs. If you're using caster mercs and see a DPS LFG, pick them up. Likewise for Tanks and Healers. Player Healers have the added bonus of infinitely more DPS than a healer merc. This of course depends on the content you are working on. But even in a complete healing role, a healer can crit with their spells. Healer mercs cannot. Getting groups started in the first place is the hardest thing. But thankfully you only need one other person. Now you have a group of 2, or 4 if you have mercs. After that, you can say in general or ooc that you're a group LFM. That will get responses more often than not. A group of 3 means 6 with mercs or a full group. You're ready for most content at that point. And then you can replace mercs with players after that. Leveling a character can help you make groups as well. Group with the same people over and over and add to friends. This is true of people you group with later too. Build a network, and you get tells to group as you login. Guilds help with this. People are more likely to join someone asking in the light green text than they are in general, alot have general off. What can SOE do? Well the only thing I can think of really is to add a LFG channel to the list when people are /lfg or /lfp. They could make content require groups. But they added mercs and other solo friendly options to retain players. Removing those or mitigating them seems contrary to player retention. In addition it makes content more involved for groups. I don't know about you all but part of the appeal of EQ is that some content doesn't require immediate constant attention like all other MMOs. This allows one to socialize while grouping and able to multitask while playing. We don't have complex skill rotations like other MMOs. We don't have to dodge red circles on the ground constantly. In many cases we can flip on autoattack, use a few skills and then take a bite out of a sandwich or post a tweet while the cooldowns are going. Take that away and why play EQ over another MMO? Well some of you might stick around, but not everyone. And that just makes grouping even tougher when the pool of players shrinks. So with that said. There's not much SOE can do. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of challenging encounters that keep you on your toes. But those should be the spice, not the main dish for the reasons I said above. Therefor the problem is in our hands to solve. I've given advice on how to do it. It just takes players on a larger scale to stop throwing their hands up, and actually have the patience and gumption to fix it. Someone else mentioned reputation. Some of the more veteran players.. and I mean really veteran players like to group alot. But they're picky about who they group with. In the old days, your name had attachments. You were either known as a good person, or not so good. Being a great player mean fulfilling your role in the group and being an overall friendly person. Being a jerk meant you didn't listen to the group, did your own thing, or worse... you did something wrong. Something wrong meant getting a black mark on your name. Things that cause this are training, ninjalooting, or stealing camps. The first two are against the rules. The last one isn't.. but don't do it. Ninja looting is a pretty broad scope. Its very impolite to loot corpses near a group without asking. Just because they aren't looting, doesn't mean they don't want the items. Sometimes they have designated looters and they just haven't gotten around to it yet. This is especially true in House of Thule courtyard and Grounds. Many mobs can get destroyed for quest reasons, and sometimes there's just not time to pick up stuff. Leave it alone. If you want the loot, ask first. Asking makes you look like a nice player. Meaning they'll remember you for good reasons, not bad. Training... this normally isn't done intentionally, but still happens. Just yesterday a friend of mine was trained sorta. What had happened is he was afk on his rogue, Shroud of Stealthed. Another group pulled a named near him, the grouped wiped and the named who's AOEs pulled the rogue out of stealth, then agroed the rogue after the group wiped. Granted the rogue shouldn't have AFK'd in the zone. But he was off in a corner by himself. Be mindful of other people nearby. If they aren't moving, don't pull things on top of them or near them. This goes for whether they are AFK or not. You'll train them if you wipe. Don't do that. Camp stealing is a bit vague. In the newer zones, I've noticed things are a bit more cramped than they were in the old days. You're very likely to be side by side with another group. Consider moving if the area is becoming devoid of mobs to kill. But if the things are respawning fast enough, pull as you will, just stick to your side as much as possible and don't cross pull if you can help it. From what I've seen, players don't typically get irate about it. Some do however.. and they really should be a little more understanding. But again this is getting quite rare. Also consider merging groups if you've got room and the needed roles. Thats always better. Sometimes you can even do harder things for better loot this way. And of course just be nice to people. No reason to get upset for little things. Be sociable, or friend people who are and group with them. Groups are more fun when everyone is friendly. In addition the chit chat makes the time go by. If more people followed all this advice, I'm sure boxing would become a rarity.
It'd be nice if they quadrupled that bonus when 3 or more players in a group had different internet addresses. But as was the case with Refer a Friend Your Alt and 1 free Heroic upgrade per household I'm sure those who would creatively avoid single account disadvantage would be creative if this were done too. (In fairness I'm definitely getting some improvements to an alt in group content, PoWar, and pickup raids. But then again I'm not expecting (nor having) others gear up my bot army so I don't have to group with others.) Yes, OP should join a (large) family guild. If that doesn't result in more grouping opportunities IMO he should look for a more single account friendly game (as many many others have done).
Boxers often pay 2x 3x 4x 5x 6x 10x as much to play EQ as do single-account players. Yet boxers are the cause of demise? Lulz. Remove all the boxers from the game and you will substantially reduce the number of expansion purchases and paid subscriptions and micro-transactions. You have just effectively killed the revenue stream with one fell blow. You have just laid off another dozen developers. Now, you've got a dead game. The game isn't dying because of boxers, its surviving because of boxers.
You hate playing solo. You also hate people who box. And yet you think that if SOE gives the people you HATE an incentive to play with you, it'll magically fix itself. Those people you hate will suddenly warm up to the idea of grouping with a hater like you. The boxers are not the problem here. You are.
I am stuck boxing, but I have a crazy schedule and play in Pacific time. I do have access to 2 fellowships, so if fellowships have room or want to do something, the boxes get parked and its a normal group. Boxing and mercs are just options, especially when its not prime time.
