I don't understand some TLP players, help me

I like server reset when everyone gets put at level 1. Yes people are going to blaze through, but there are FAR more people leveling in lower levels than compared to live.

Fair enough, that you enjoy more mechanic heavy encounters than what you deem "Boring" tank and spank fights. I disagree. Nothing is more intense than doing AoW in era the first couple times before your guild gets geared. That is an intense fight that relies on everyone doing their job correctly and you win or loose based on if your clerics can CH, can your necros pump, can your DPS dps, etc, not "omg we ran out of time because this event is arbitrarily timed just for the sake of being timed"

Opinions are just that, opinions. My opinion is I do not like more modern EQ mechanics, your opinion is you do, fair enough sir - I wish you the best in OOW+ content! But the question was why do people quit TLP's and go back to classic over and over again, I said why I do it - and as someone who has lead a lot of guilds over the years, I promise the mechanical heavy nature of EQ OOW+ is one of the major reasons people don't play it. They say: "Well it doesnt feel like EQ, it feels like WoW or EQ2" - Yes, it does, because those expansions were designed to be like WoW, and unfortunately a large part of the TLP crew doesn't enjoy that type of play.

For those who DO like that kind of play, thankfully TLP's go for many expansions and you can keep playing till the end with all that content you like. Unfortunately the majority of player's dont seem to agree, and restart on new servers (Though Mischief's loot system is definitely bucking this trend. I am still on Mischief where I would never be on a different loot system server).

I too really enjoyed Mischief up through the end of OOW. Afterwards, I lost interest practically overnight. I'm not sure what it is about Omens, but it feels like the capstone and final-form of what I want my EQ experience to be.

I'm not sure if its the missions and tasks of DoN and the live game that I don't care for, or the raiding that starts becoming more mechanically intensive. Either way, its a departure from the original EQ experience of what we all grew up doing in game that I personally don't care for.

Long story short, I won't play past OOW again, but anything up until that point I will absolutely play again. Meeting new friends on each server, playing new classes, joining different guilds, and making it a new experience each time is the fun part.

Why doesn't that make sense? You don't need to engage in an activity to know whether or not you'd like it, if you have other things beyond 'how it feels to play' to evaluate it on. In the case of an MMORPG, anything from stated design choices, lore changes, story developments, etc.

I could tell that WoW Shadowlands and Dragonflight are much different games than WoW Classic, despite not having played WoW since Cataclysm well over a decade ago now. WoW changed with and prior to Cataclysm in significant ways, but much of the story and how exploring the world felt was similar. Pepperoni-nipple Thanos, gender-confused dragons (literally Chromie's story, no hate), and getting to max level in a day are a world apart from Vanilla, TBC, or Wrath of the Lich King.

All I am saying is that you can’t write off 80% of a game as not being that game especially if you have never bothered to try it.

I think you are right that it is intense. I think the problem however is its not engaging. For every player participating there is not a whole lot to do for that 20-30 min fight. As a tank I wait for my turn to hit my disc and press taunt. As a healer I wait for my turn in the rotation and press my heal. As a DPS I hit my 2-4 buttons in the same order at the same intervals. Its intense the same way high stakes gambling is intense. At anytime RNG can ruin your day and every second is like your guild rolling the dice. Casinos make a lot of money providing this kind of entertainment so its not to say its not fun, but its also not something that is enjoyable in the long term. This is why after you do all the raids once a lot of the charm wears off. EQ raiding after PoR is much more engaging with many more mechanics not only from the raid but the players themselves.

The real issue as someone who has played both early and more modern EQ is that a lot of the times its the presentation of the mechanics that's the issue rather than the mechanics themselves. For instance in SoD there is a Zek Brothers raid where Tallon will randomly AoE a section based on a PC's location. The issue is there is no visible indicator where this AoE is being launched so unless you happen to see where the target player was standing when the emote was making it very hard to interact with. Another similar example is free targeting AoE PC abilities. When some is casting an AoE cure or heal you have no idea where the ability is landing . It would be much more interesting if there was an animation on the ground so I could know where to reposition. So while there are a lot of mechanics that sound cool or look cool on paper EQ often does a very poor job of communicating the information to you. I think one of my most memorable examples of this was a fight in Soltaris. There is a Dracnid boss that travels through time as you fight it. This is communicated to you only through a line of text and the boss spawning and despawning sometimes with multiple copies at the same time as different versions of itself converge on one section of time. The whole time I just remember thinking what and opportunity was wasted as with proper animation the fight would have been very cool to be a part of as the boss opens rifts in time and jumps in and out of existence.

Meh, I'm just going to have to disagree. AoW fight isn't intense at all from a dps perspective. Turn on your attack and hit a button or two on refresh. Pretty boring honestly for 20 minutes. Even as a tank it was pick up aggro, pull to corner, stand there watching my health go back and forth.

Maybe mentally it's intense because of the anticipation for loot, but it's not intense or engaging of a fight for me. Most people can play at a very subpar level and can win hence why you see 20-30 guilds beating it within a couple days on each TLP. There aren't that many good EQ players and definitely not enough for 25 full guilds lol.

Want an intense fight? Go to Mearatas.

And please let me know your game names because I would never want to be a guild knowing my leader is bailing on me for a new TLP after a year. Where is the loyalty? I guess that's the difference between a live-oriented player and the TLP mentality. No loyalty.

lol... so you are in the tlp forums, on a thread asking why people play tlps / reroll, and you are telling people they are wrong because they dont have the live mentality... feels like you are in the wrong place no?

but also, as you said, 25 guilds per server killing aow, this shows that lots of people agree with Trev that it is fun and exciting...

I am in his guild. It has been more than a year and he is still there, leading the guild. Nor would the guild fall apart if he moved on. Would we be sad? Sure? But we would want him to do what makes him happy and wish him well. No one in our guild is expecting anyone, even the guild leader, to stay if they are unhappy. I would hazard a bet that plenty of live guild leaders have moved on in the last 23 years since the game started.

It's a video game, not the Night's Watch.

Probably the same reason my 40 year old friend is watching the Royal Rumble tonight Lol. Because he loves wrastlin'! /shrug.

I tell him all the time how lame it is, that its scripted, its not 1999 any more. We have UFC now with real wrestling.

Also the Royal Rumble is sold out tonight. People like what they like. It would be unwise to not offer the classic start TLP. I would challenge if we need one EVERY year but its a proven commodity. People do sub just for that freshy server smell.

I've played on Agnarr since 2017 and have a 90% RA doing the same content for nearly 6 years.

I'll flip the question. Have you drank beer? How many years have you been drinking beers? Why do you keep drinking beer. It's just the same. Ever had a hamburger? Have you had 100 burgers in your life? Ever had sex? WHY DO THOSE THINGS REPEATEDLY????

Maybe... Cuz they are fun/enjoyable so you do things that bring joy.

People do a lot of inexplicably dumb things which aren't fun.

I play on a TLP. But I've only played on one and made it further so far than probably 50% of the people commenting here. After less than a month in each of the first 4 expansions I can easily say I wouldn't even think of a new TLP until it's reached GOD. Everything prior is so mind-numbingly easy and neutered with power creep.

Why do many do it? Probably cause it's easy and people are lazy and enjoy being herded to easy loot.

Knowing a leader is going to be assuredly bail after a year is pretty selfish. It's not like he's retiring he is saying "peace guys I'd rather play on a new server than with you." Very different than just not wanting to play anymore.

Me personally, I'd want to find a guild where the leadership plans on being there for stability and continuity purposes, not one with planned exodus.

Why do we try each new TLPs and get bored quickly?
I'd say it's because we enjoy the early game. Not the zones, the raids or even the game itself, but the leveling part, the social part, when people form groups and go together kill mobs for exp and loots. Simple things.
Leveling a new toon on a new server where most characters are played by players willing to have fun and make progress with their characters is one of the best gaming experience in my opinion.
Boredom grows as people are replaced by 6 box crews and PLers. Then it's a vicious circle. Less people play, less people want to play.

Ahh yes of course, im sure those 1500 or so people cant be having fun because they are doing something that you dont find fun. I personally don't like baseball, but I dont call everyone inexplicably dumb for watching or playing it.

Let the other people who actually do play on more than one tlp answer why they do it, and not just insult people for enjoying a game differently than you.

1. He has been on Mischief for almost 3 years now, and plans on continuing on Mischief. Literally nothing you said applies to the person you were trying to insult.

2. You haven't ever played on a TLP before, have you? Every TLP, even Mischief (though it wasn't effected as badly as most TLPS.) loses a massive amount of players when the new TLP comes out. Including guild leaders. It's just part of the cycle. Even if your leader sticks around half your raiders might jump ship if a good enough ruleset comes out. That's TLP life. You merge into another guild and keep going, or you join your friends on the new TLP. Either way you get to keep playing, and most of the time you will be playing with the same folks. Especially if you are in a niche timezone. There is an uncertainty that looms over all TLPs. What will DPG come out with next? Will it be good enough to lure me away from my current server?

I have been playing with much the same people since Ragefire. I made friends on Ragefire that I have known so long I consider them RL friends. Even the folks who fall into the acquaintance category I have seen on multiple servers. It really is just the same crowd, with the occasional new face. At this point you have to take the TLP community as one big group, that happens to be spread out over several servers, all looking for the niche that makes them happiest. It is a different type of community, not better or worse than live, just different. If that isn't your cup of tea, no one is forcing you to play there.

I don't get the re-roller mindset myself, but if that mindset helps pay for the game to continue then I am okay with it.
I played EQ 1999-2008 and then returned in 2015 & played until the end of CoV, one thing I will say is that the game after SoD is a poorer representation of EQ than the game Prior to SoD.

Post SoD the game is 100% focused on the the "progression system" and nothing exists outside of it, it was this switch that I felt altered the nature of EQ, the later switch in ToV to experience only cemented that on-rails experience into steel-reinforced concrete. I tried the live game for a while but I'm not sure it is for me any more.

I tried Vaniki but unfortunately real-life concerns interrupted that so severely it wasn't feasible for me to go back, but I enjoyed the little time I spent there.

I'm keeping tabs on EQ and hopefully this year's TLP will prove to be interesting enough to try it, my journey on Phinigel was a lot of fun from GoD to CoV but I think it would be more enjoyable to go from Classic with a Berserker, starting months behind after everyone else just doesn't appeal, and if that never happens then I'm okay with never going back for a TLP, though I might come back to the Live game at some point.

I used to create alts to get my kicks in the lower game on live, leveling up a different path each time, trying out each class. I've tried a few TLPs but they didn't keep my interest longer than a few months. Mischief kept it longer than the others before it, but RL took over I got behind and that was it.

Then Vaniki came along and I'm still there, not quite max level, a week or so behind again due to RL.

Live servers do not have enough to keep me entertained, its fun to try new rule sets on TLP servers.

I've noticed there are a lot of live players around who only play TLP servers from May until December when the next expansion comes out, rather than just raiding on live during that time they do TLP servers most start out again on a new TLP server each year where there are plenty of opertunities for grouping. Very few try and catch up on their old server.

Oh wow, this is a tough one to answer. Instead of trying to explain it, I'll just share what I have experienced over the past decade or so.

Understand that I played EverQuest as my main game until WoW launched. Since then, I have been back uncountable times, but I was gone for so long that I never got caught up on how to play the current game. Instead of taking the time to learn it all, I thought, "I'll do it later. Right now I just want to have fun for a few weeks until this other new MMORPG comes out and I am going to go play that and see how it goes..."

And of course, I inevitably end up back playing EQ because nothing is ever as good as I remember EverQuest the first time around!

Instead of going to a live server, I keep coming back to TLP's because the disparity between the content I know and the content I never learn grows larger and larger each year.

Jumping onto Firiona Vie and trying to catch up with change, learn all the new, feels very intimidating -- sticking with the familiar, early TLP stomping grounds feels much more familiar and welcoming!

Every year just before the new TLP launches, I think to myself, "you know, it would be just swell if I could stay on one server this time around and make it all the way to 'the end'! Then I would be all 'caught up' after experience each expansion, and then I can continue playing live EverQuest almost like I never left!"

Then I remember that most raiders/players have left by the time PoP is done, and realize that I'll most likely be limited to the "group game" for the rest of the servers life, which means new content will get increasingly difficult and I'll end up not being able to complete "current" content... unless I try to play nice and make friends with the players who are boxing raids, while I feel like a fish out of water trying to join them for a tag along since I don't often 'box' multiple characters.

Believe me, I've tried boxing, I just can not stand it for more than a couple months and then it gives me no joy at all. I've tried it in a few different games to see if it would grow on me maybe if I tried it in a different game? Nope. Ha-ha.

When Mischief launched, I was so sure I was going to stick with that one all the way through. The loot rules made it pretty attractive for the purposes of sticking it out, in my mind. But I got caught up in guild politics and drama again, and ended up taking a break to enjoy greener pastures in another game... again...

I have no one to blame but myself, for not sticking it out with each TLP.

It's just "easier" to give up and catch the next one -- there's this little devil that pops up on my shoulder by the time Planes of Power is just about over, saying "the next TLP will be easier!" Or, "the next TLP will be better!"

And by the time LDoN is over, I 'give up', if I haven't already. "Yes, the next TLP will be much better. I'll make a guild of friends that just agree to tough it out and do group content all the way to end, if that's what it takes!"

And here I am again...

It's so easy to start out strong while everything is easy and familiar! I know I can make it all the way through a TLP until it catches up with 'live'. For some reason, I convince myself not to.

I REALLY need to not do that this time. I'm not getting any younger. Ha-ha.

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This past year my husband and I have talked about just starting on FV and playing live instead. But for some reason, it just doesn't sound nearly as fun as growing our characters through each expansion "as it happens."

We could go through the achievements and content, and just do what we can to experience the expansions as we level, but THAT IS NOT AT ALL THE SAME THING! Ha-ha. We don't get to share the experience with a server full of other players experiencing the same thing. We won't even have a guild to share the experience with, if we start on FV or any other live server.

So... here I am convincing myself that the new TLP this year will finally be the one where I make it all the way through. Convincing myself that I won't leave when a new, shiny MMORPG comes out and all my old gaming friends hit me up to come play with them! Convincing myself that I'll stick with the new TLP no matter what drama comes and goes, and no matter how many players I hear are going to "call it quits" until the next TLP.

It is so very easy for me to be excited and enthusiastic for the first few months of a TLP. And it's not so much that the excitement and enthusiasm wanes as the months go by, it's that the familiarity disappears, and players who I normally see every day for months stop logging in. I then let doubt fill my mind and I lose my hope.

At least I know what NOT to do this time around, I guess?

Well said Aiona, probably spoke for many people that dread learning the mountain of content that they have no knowledge or familiarity with.

With the precedent set by annual TLP releases, its easier to just play the familiar era and wait until the next server comes out. Then it's time to do it all over again, make new friends, join a new guild, and progress until everyone disappears again.