I'm never going to play past gates of discord

To be quite honest.. I was away from EQ for a while and came back to the Live game.

I figured out what auto-grant was and suddenly - just like that - I didn't "feel" the character anymore. It was like all the AAs I had earned in the past and time I had put in were meaningless in that moment. It wasn't an expansion, it wasn't the content, the graphic updates, the bigger numbers - it was about that loss of connection.

I didn't feel like I "knew" the character anymore.. I didn't participate in the character's development. It seemed like it was just a 'reset' of sorts. Guess I couldn't relate to the game anymore. The mechanics aside, I lost my 'emotional' connection to that character. Sure from a 'mechanics' standpoint, that caught my character up. But from an enjoyment standpoint, it killed it.

I didn't play EQ again until TLP servers were launched. Been here on various TLPs ever since, with occasional breaks. Because I decided that I would rather just start all over from scratch again 100% than to be given all that advancement on a plate. And I'll do it over and over and over again - as long as whoever is running EQ will trade cash for that experience

Right or wrong, that's how I felt.

All MMOs, Classic or Live are just a hamster wheel. You Group, Quest, and Raid to get gear and XP -- so that you can Group, Quest, and Raid to get gear and XP.

That's the pragmatic truth of it.

The rest is about how people emotionally enjoy the game.

I meant no offence, I simply mean that the degree to which they prefer Pre-PoP was clearly not a sufficient motivation to outweigh the other motivations they have, kinda like the image below:

s'all good. Agree to disagree.

As I stated in prior post, it's all subject to opinion of what you enjoy. Just don't say you are an EQ fan and only play the first few expansions imo and then claim to know about tlp lifespans, attrition, etc.

As Skuz said, that doesn't even make sense. This is a video game intended for enjoyment. If a person loves pre-POP content, they aren't going to pass up the opportunity to play it, regardless if they dumped money somewhere else or not. That's like textbook insanity to play content you don't like when the content you do like is available to you.

I don't go to an amusement park, buy a day or season pass, and only go on rides which I don't like while everyone else rides the roller coasters.

And as I said to him I was relating my own experience at another time in my EQ years. As for your opinions that having a guild I liked wasn't enough reason to not jump on the latest pre-pop tlp, you're entitled to your opinions. At that time I preferred pre-pop but stayed on for several expansions past it because I liked my guildies. I guess the social aspect is more important to me than to you. So, I guess I'll do me and you can do you.
At this current stage I don't have a horse in this discussion's race because I'll be playing on Vaniki, I was simply defending another's opinion that I felt was sound and that I agree with, that someone playing in a server post-pop doesn't necessarily mean that they prefer post-pop content.

there is no pre pop content at the moment... so yes there are tons of people playing post pop who usually dont

but to the point, there are tons of people who want to try new things, maybe had a bad experience the first time. maybe are thinking "this is the class ill get past pop" or "this is the guild ill get past pop with" or "well, theres no classic yet so i guess ill try it". lots of people want to see if they agree with you guys that pre-pop is garbo and the closer to live the better...

It costs something to merge servers. Judging by how long they have left empty servers sitting empty, it doesn't cost much to leave a server running. Several times they have had servers sitting with literally no population at all for 3+ years.

Gates of discord isn't remotely at all like live. It is far closer to classic than it is to live. Far, far closer.

There are seventeen years of development between GoD and live.

What do you enjoy about Kunark and Luclin? If you only play a couple months and raid a few weeks, I dont think the expac matters. You just like a couple expacs for whatever reason and dont play outside of that.

I highly doubt you have seen the game beyond GoD. You probably played during like... DoDH and went "welp thats live and I hate it"

For me, it's because EQ became too 'linear' in terms of progression. In Classic-Luclin, you really weren't forced into a specific path for progression.

You could raid Hate and Fear - then do Kael and gear up. Or you could jump into Kunark dungeons to gear up, you could even do ToV in gear from Classic or Kunark that was available in a number of zones and skip Kael completely. It seemed like an 'open world' - you could take many paths in those expansions that kept you at least somewhat viable in the next expansion and then the one after that. Any mix of that worked, really. I recall raiding Kael and ToV in hate gear, and while it was a bit of a challenge, it was doable. Not sure GoD content is very doable in PoP Ornate Armor which is from the previous expansion and pretty positive Luclin gearing would = fail in GoD, by and large.

PoP started to change that, then GoD solidified it. There was a single path to progress. The numbers inflated along with the linear flagging progression that put a person into a situation that if you didn't do "A" you couldn't complete "B". And when real life kept you from doing "A" - then you felt lost and too far behind to even bother with trying "B".

LDoN is pretty much proof that they knew this situation existed for 'casuals'. When it was released initially, every casual player and guild I knew rejoiced over having an alternate path to advance to more current content.

One of the games I tried post-EQ was "Age of Conan". It had outstanding graphics and a really good story but progression was so boringly linear I couldn't get into it. If I wanted Linear progression, then admittedly I would play AoC for the graphics, but I'll take single player GTA with an open world over a MMO with a linear path anyday.

Just reading the posts on Facebook and Discord the comments for people asking about returning to live are more or less, "Get mercs, get to level 120 - then you can find groups". Really doesn't sound terribly appealing to me.

There's a reason games like Fallout, GTA, and Elder Scrolls are so very popular - because they are a 'world' and not linear progression, like a ride at an amusement park.

I think that's what most people miss. I know it's the case for me. And perhaps some of the newer content isn't so linear - but then we get back to the "Get level 120..." thing. Just that I would rather group up with people and level from 1-65 than a merc from 1-120.

I believe this is the reason that Mischief is SO popular. I started Classic there, for like a month, but RL took over. When I came back to Mischief during Luclin, I was able to gear up quickly... thus providing an alternate path to advancement, even if it's via a credit card.

And sure, as much as I would like to start up on a TLP and just continue to live - we run into GoD hitting in the spring-time, just as I have much less EQ time.. and I'll likely fall behind. Which puts me back in the same situation as not having kept up on live servers. So rather than try to play 'Catch up' all on my own (Or having a guild just drag my tail along), I just prefer hitting 'reset' and grouping up again.

-Buys gas station sushi, eats it, and gets sick
-All sushi is terrible and I hate it
-Ignores all the quality sushi restaurants widely available that don't make low end dog food labeled as sushi

That's because progression didn't exist. At all.

Well, to me - gaining levels, getting upgraded gear, completing content in new expansions and such was in-fact character progression. I certainly felt like I was progressing my character.

I didn't need nor want a 'stated single path of progression' though. I liked progression from the aspect of character development - not check boxes on a list or the roadblocks those check-boxes created for entire expansions.

I wanted to feel like I was developing a character in a vast fantasy world, not progressing through stops, "a", "b", and "c". In that order. To me, nothing kills a 'vast fantasy world' more than a single path to advancing through it.

Totally subjective, I know. I don't at all fault people for keeping up with current content and doing those paths either.

To be fair, there definitely were roadblocks as early as Kunark. Seb key, VP key, HS key.

I will give credit where credit is due. Because of my ignorance years ago being a big time raider, I never saw issue with locking zones behind raid progression. However, it is now that I agree more with locking group-based content/zones around said progression. It is something that devs agree with as all zones in new expansions are fully unlocked.

I still find it perfectly reasonable to lock raid content, even within group zones, behind some form of progression. The game is called EverQUEST and one should quest/raid to progress to encounter Epic-like content. Not every random Joe should, in my opinion, be able to waltz up to the biggest baddest dude on the block and wave hello.

I also don't find it unreasonable having exceptions to the base rule of open concept and locking particular zones behind some form of quest/progression. Proving your worth before being able to enter a primordial planar realm such as the Plane of Fire shouldn't be seen as a negative. However, that progression doesn't necessarily have to be raid-based or multi-tiered. A quick trial would suffice.

Why are you even posting here? You have two servers that are literally past PoP right now and you can continue to enjoy. Why do they have to make new, post-PoP servers when you already have quite a few to choose from?

Isn't it literally one of the most common excuses in the book for people on this forum to claim "it's just easier to start fresh than play catch up"? I find that excuse when people give their reasoning for rerolling at the minimum on a weekly basis. That's almost assuredly the number one excuse plastered on these forums. The other being that lame generic "playing an an old server just isn't the same as starting fresh."

I'm not saying that's Skuz's excuse (He actually progressed through an entire life cycle of a TLP so starting over on a fresh server seems logical and natural), but why are you even asking such a self-explanatory question?

Another counterpoint to your question: There is literally a server permanently locked in what many vocal people claim to be the only good content of EQ so why not just all congregate and keep rerolling new characters on that server (Agnarr)?

You must have missed the dozen or more posts I made explaining this already.

TL;DR "catching up" on a server that has already been running for a year ish is a miserable experience that I already did twice, once on live once on Phinigel.
I would love for a bloody change to be able to play my favourite class from the beginning of a new TLP.

Long version:
I used to play a Warrior on live, towards end of 2004 I got fed up of being massively undergeared because of how the guild I was in ran things, being the butt of the jokes for over a year eventually wore my patience thin.
Began playing a Berserker once GoD launched & eventually left that guild with the intention of joining a high end raid guild - that was a long, mostly lonely, miserable grind I never forgot - I needed a ton of AA to be worth considering for every high-end EU guild - I got there and had the best time ever in SoD & Darkwind before Darkwind started to struggle to retain enough players each expansion, eventually with the guild quitting raiding in 2008 I left EQ.
Returned to EQ in 2015, after a stint on live played a Cleric on Ragefire from Classic to the end of Velious only doing so to help the guild, Phinigel launched & decimated the guild so I took a break until Phinigel unlocked GoD - where, yet again, I did the catching-up bulls**t.
I went from GoD all the way to Live status on Phinigel, as a UK player for the first few months of CoV I was even playing with USA guilds.

If you have not exclusively played Berserker maybe you just couldn't understand, your class was always available from the start.

The other consideration is that Mischief & Thornblade as Free Trade servers are total dead ends for any EU player - they will merge with FV only and there are zero EU guilds on FV.

5 pages deep on arguing why someone enjoys something and why they should enjoy what you enjoy

I dont really have an issue with people having a preference on eras/xpacs, but this reasoning seems off.

You are lumping classic and 3 expacs all together and using that to show a possible non-linear progression. You could do the same with basically any 4 expacs.

I would wager the real answer is because you are familiar with classic-luclin and where you can go within those zones. That, coupled with a desire to not learn new zones, is probably closer to your actual reasoning.