New expansion in September? LOL, srsly?

The staggered releases are fine really. But having tier 4 hit during the middle of summer probably wasn't a great move. I'm sure more raiders will be ok if the staggered content eventually means higher quality raids. Though as thread bare as the poor dev team is for this game anymore, that's certainly no guarantee.

I like staggered release to a degree. I like having more new things to do and it allows me to better pace myself.

The main things I dislike about staggered releases.
1. Constant re-gearing. I hate having to farm a full set of everything every couple months for small upgrades. It drives me bonkers. Since I don't have tons of play time I never end up getting a full set and don't get time to enjoy being done and working on alts and helping others with their goals.
2. It kills the race. Especially for raiding guilds. "Woot, we beat that 1 singular event faster than you, we WIN EQ."

Currently I think EQ has a bit too much redundancy in gear and minor differences that don't really seem to matter.

If I had my way, staggered releases would do a few things differently.

1. We would get at least 4-6 months with everything released so we can enjoy a certain amount of completion for the expansion. Make it so its not always a rush and a big "?" about what is coming.

2. Rather than having new tiers of gear that gradually get better. Split it up more by slots. Tier 1 drops everything and is a bunch of gimme sort of events. A reasonable number of non-complicated events like CToV. T2-T4 drop the same caliber of gear. T2 drops jewelry and general weapons. T3 drops visible armor and class specific weapons. Tier 4 drops other non-visible armor, unique clickable items and quest completion items. This way people will get obvious reasons to want to farm all the tiers without feeling like they are just spending all their time redoing challenging events for miniscule improvements.

based on what elidroth just said above, we can expect this sort of content releasing to continue. Time to adapt or die.

Staggered isn't the issue, smallish forced packets every 2-3 months is. You guys can release tiers 1-3 at launch adding a few raids to those tiers and more group content later on with a final large tier coming out in the spring.

The other problem is there are only "hardcore raiders" left as you guys redesigned the raiding population by all but eliminating casual, feeder and middle tiered guilds. Anyone who raids now must raid in current content almost exclusively (I am sure there are 1-3 that raid old just to raid old regularly) so it effects all raiders not just those who consume the raid content the fastest.

What's going to cost them customers is the fact that boxers need to spend around $200 just to get the new expansion.

Good PS3 games cost $30 a pop on Amazon. 1 EQ expansion VS 7 PS3 games. That's some messed up deal if you're a boxer.

See, this is why I only have one account anymore and use it to chat. I can't afford this game.

I do still play Vindictus because it costs me nothing to play and I don't need to box in that game to enjoy myself.

If your a Rk3 or lower guild, progressing slower. You are able to retain raiders better. The grass on the other side is the same shade of green. When you have T1-4 released all at once, you lose people in T2 because the 1st & 2nd rank guild is in T4.

Added benefit. You get more bang for your buck. You farm more of the lower level gear and feel like you actually got something good. No resentment because you can't get to T4 and get the better stuff. (group content). Plus with more of the top end in the same zones, lower level players get to see more, all be it in the way of rots, but still it's a bonus.

If your antiquated DKP system and your unimaginative, boring guildmates are dragging you down, keep it to yourself. The rest of us have plenty to work on and the staggered approach is no big deal. In fact, it's nice having people log on to raid for the whole year instead of for 2 months.

Just skip T4. It doesn't even matter. Content is irrelevant when there's no incentive to do them beyond seeing the lore and EQ lore, let me tell ya, it isn't that great.

Your arguing my point. I assume you were replying to the OP.

That was @OP He has the tendency to complain more than 10 women sharing 1 umbrella.

That's all fine and good, but can you stop making warrior only swords look like daggers? =P

jk.

but seriously stop!

Kunark went from level 50 to 60, so to stay in proportion, the next jump should be from 100 to 120.

But seriously, I wouldn't mind no level increase, but T5-T8 zones/gear being doled out quarterly over next year.

Maybe T8 will have better spell damage and such than HoT gear.

Oh, and require RoF T4 flagging to enter the next expansions first tier.

That statement is not nuanced.

A better wording would be..

"You are not forced to multi-box, but there are major incentives why people do, and it comes at a very high monetary cost"

The difference is recognising that multiboxing is not just a choice, it is for many people a necessity to get groups and enjoy the game.

A subtle change in context makes a world of difference.

(and there are special snowflakes who never have issues forming groups on their single account, we know)

be this as it may Oranges, do you have any examples in the MMO sphere where they make pricing changes to support multi-boxing? I think the addition of mercenaries answers the "necessity" to get a group and enjoy the game. I've completed all of the partisan and mercenary quests so far with a ranger, a necro and two mercenaries. I've yet to see Rift, or WoW have a "buy two account expansions get one free" type of thing.

No but then I haven't played other MMO where multiboxing is prevalent. Most MMO don't have such a low input rate and they don't allow you to use a static camp.

Multiboxing is so popular in EQ because input is relatively slow and you can camp (stay in the same spot).

Multiboxing doesn't exist in Vindictus (I'm not advocating it, just using it bc I'm familiar), not because you couldn't launch multiple accounts or because it's too costly (it's F2P), it's just impossible because there are no camps (you run-kill) and because of the high input rate (you can't slow and go AFK, you'd die)



EQ creates an environment where multiboxing is highly beneficial to you. It's hypocritical to me to say that it's just a choice then, because there is major incentive in EQ to multibox. They could easily make the game non-boxable.

You can't have your cake and eat it too. You support multiboxing...but then when the cost of multiboxing is very high and I point it out, people say you don't have to.

What it is..do you support it or not...if you do...then recognise the extreme cost of it...and recognise that a major part of your playerbase does it....and recognise the big incetives and benefits behind it that impact gameplay.

Groupers need to get in the mindset that they can ignore expansion release dates and just come back in July next year when all the content for the next expansion has finished trickling out. The only thing SoE responds to is their wallets so maybe not selling expansions upfront would make them reconsider this abomination of a content release system.

Adapt or leave the game, I really doubt it's good move for EQ as a whole and I absolutely despise it, it's yet another thing that ll make more player leave imo.
Not the first silly move and won't be the last (or will it?).

Yep, saying "adapt or die" to an already tiny player base that is still gradually shrinking sounds a bit counterproductive. Especially when there arent any new players coming into the game to replace the ones that quit. Its actually starting to get felt even when a single person quits these days. One person quitting these days pretty much equals out to about 10 people quitting the game several years ago.

Theres no move they can make on these grand scale questions that won't alienate some portion of the player-base. We all have a point of view, they on the other hand have paychecks involved and I'm fairly comfortable that they take it quite seriously -- even if you don't agree with what is being done.

Buying tires is 100% a choice. Someone who CHOOSES not to buy tires, for whatever reason, is not being forced to buy tires, and by doing so, incurs those high costs entirely of their own vilition.

-Chevrolet, selling tires at $10,000 a pop.

For many, boxing is a necessity to find a group, not just a choice. You're also ignoring the high incentive to box and the fact a very high demographic of your playerbase multiboxes and incurs those costs, and the fact you're dealing with a shrinking population, where the incentive and necessity to box steadily increases year after year.

What's more, if you took away the ability to multibox, many of those players would no longer play the game, which seems to contradict your choice paradigm because it suddenly stops making sense, it's no longer a choice, it is again a necessity for those players to enjoy the game.