I do--so long as it isn't based on the task and raid system, and actually requires us to research and communicate with others. As much as I loathed requesting my guild schedule an event just for me since I missed the epic boat, it did build relationships. All those players and the guild are gone now, and it's partly because EQ has become a game for molo/solo/boxers--those who dislike lengthy quests and just want to play the game on their own time. Tasks today are just that: tasks. Quick, redundant, and really not fun aside from the rewards, which feign in comparison to the rewards of old. I feel that the reason there are still no new epics, no veteran rewards the last three years, and content solely for the top 5 (maybe 10) levels in every expansion since TSS is the same reason we see tiered upgrading of everything--it's easy, it's lazy, it's just enough to keep those around who need their fix. EQ is a fix now, instead of a lifestyle; and everyone who successfully quits wash their hands of it instead of longing to come back (and we always ignore their voice in these conversations because they are mostly gone. It doesn't mean they aren't willing to return). There's not much to offer a new or returning player except a massive level and AA increase, hoping that is just enough to hook them. If we want to see the success of old, we need to find some way to return to it. Growth and change are inevitable, but that doesn't mean we can't grow and improve. Let's learn from our mistakes the past 8 years and try something old.
First off I'd like to thank everyone who has contributed to this thread. I read every reply up to this point & agree with most, got a laugh out of several based on how they were written & read some interesting stories along the way with Yinla's & Guado's standing out in particular. My back story of why I started play is my cousin who was 10 years older than I am & several of his real life friends & co workers were talking about an upcoming MMO named EverQuest. After discussing it with them & with some help from my cousin I was able to get an account & start playing. I started on the same server as they did which was Bristlebane but by 2001 they had all moved on to other things. I stuck it out until June 2002 but due to real live circumstances was forced to take a break. I came back in 2006 & moved to Prexus because I met a friend online & he was playing there. I stayed there until 2011 and then took a break until March of 2012. I had heard & read about f2p so I figured I'd give it a shot, saw how restricted it was & moved all of my characters to FV & then to Test. Been there ever since between my various accounts. In my opinion here are the things that need to change or be adjusted... 1) The RoF & below experience nerf - It's simply atrocious & bordering on ludicrous. To me it's similar to how the kids are treated in Pink Floyd's the Wall. It also forces us to funnel into one area at 101+ in order to progress & that reminds me of this Frustrating, stressful & irritating. 2) Copy & paste spells, AAs, gear & items - Everything seems like it's just getting bigger numbers & new names without much creativity, ingenuity or passion that EQ was once known for. Perhaps there is a feasible fix to this & perhaps not but it is something to consider going forward. 3) Server merges - With the constantly dwindling population I truly think another round of server merges would alleviate a lot of issues with grouping, having a raid force that can function & a healthy economy along with a better over all server community. I know that certain servers have specific rule sets & that the purists hate these servers or the idea of mixing them with normal servers because the other players on these servers had an advantage that they didn't or some other silly short sighted & hard headed point of view. I think they need to take a step back & realize it's 2015 & things change. Yeah the "integrity of the game" is great and all but in reality it's a business that needs to thrive. You guys should do whatever you can to grow the population while at the same time keeping those of us here who have been loyal and I feel like merges regardless of rule sets will be a boon to the game regardless of how the purists & naysayers feel. There have been purists & naysayers claiming end times since 2000 & every time some big change or anything new is added to the game. Those types will always be around but they aren't the ones that look at the bottom line and have to keep things profitable. I'm sure numerous people on FV, Zek, the progression servers & Test would all love the opportunity to move to another server or merge with another server or 2. I think it's a good way to make a profit off of something relatively easy on your end. 4) Modernize fellowships - The campfires need to be extended to 8 hours, the buffs need to be modernized to 95 to 105, the size of the fellowships needs to be expanded to 18-24 and the campfires need to be placeable by 1 player. Consider adjusting how xp sharing & vitality works for them as well. This would be a very useful adjustment for boxers, small family guilds & groups of friends who aren't guilded but need a convenient way to get around so that they can help each other and continue to group with each other whenever life offers the opportunity to do so. 5) Account suspensions & bans - I'd have someone go over the suspensions and bans over the last several years in particular and see what the reason was and consider unbanning/unsuspending all the accounts that weren't blatant harassment, vulgarity or legitimate exploiting and duping. Now if it was some harassment or someone who was a complete and total jerk or someone who was blatantly exploiting then they should have been banned and should remain banned but on the other hand there were some automatic bans that were silly such as the ones related to Apple and Linux users using virtualization programs to run WINE or Virtual Box or VMware Fusion to run Windows in order to play EQ. Others got banned because someone in their group did something wrong. That is absolutely ridiculous and is as bad as punishing a relative of someone who commits a crime. Just very flawed logic that lacks reason. Regardless of the EULA numerous people have shared accounts in the past and continue to do so. Others sold their accounts to people either in game for platinum or kronos or gear or traded accounts or sold them via 3rd party sites. Others took a long break and lost their account details and have no reasonable way of retrieving them. Instead of shunning these players and costing Daybreak and Columbus Nova lost revenue, find a way to work with these players. If someone is willing to spend money on this game in this economy instead of treating them like a scumbag criminal lowlife, welcome them with open arms. Find a way to make it work that keeps Daybreak profitable while not running off paying players. It's been going on since 1999 and the game hasn't died yet. I can only imagine the wasted revenue and man hours that CS put in having to fix this kind of thing. Instead of having to resort to 3rd party sites, offer these services to players yourselves to make revenue & keep all parties safe. It's not a difficult concept and shouldn't be that hard to implement. 6) Player Studio - obviously these people are pretty talented. Give them more tools to work with and allow them to do more. Utilize your player base to generate content for the game. There are plenty of players who have the ability and the interest to create more items for the game, lore, character & creature models, quests, zones and dungeons. I think this is another area that you guys could utilize to make more revenue while cutting some development costs and man hours. 7) Class nerfs, pet nerfs, swarm nerfs, nerf nerfs - way too many nerfs and negative adjustments in the last 2+ years. Instead of nerfing everything under the sun consider trying to adjust other things to meet in the middle. There has to be a large amount of people who either unsubbed or left completely due to nerfs. It's like cutting off your nose to spite your face and has definitely hurt the bottom line in the last several years in particular. 8) Revamps - some revamps are great such as the RoF stuff and NToV but the Freeport, Ocean of Tears, Oasis, East and West Commonlands and North and South Ro revamp was a horrible idea that virtually no one likes. If you can revert these zones to their previous states I would sincerely suggest doing so. Find a way to tie it in to an event, quest line, content release, mini expansion or what have you but do whatever you have to do to get it done. I'm sure I could come up with more but most of that has been covered several times throughout the thread. I appreciate the consistent communication and enthusiasm Holly and look forward to the live stream later this week.
Reverse xp nerf on 101+ toons , undo HA timeout and I will upgrade to new expac for 4 accounts and resub the two that have expired. Oh will log back in after 3 months to. If not wish you all well!
I have played EQ off and on (mostly on) since 2001, I enjoyed some of the quests including epic quests. In fact, I have completed several epic quests and repeated a couple of class epics on different accounts. I have raided various portions of the content but never completed all of an expansions progression in missions or raids. I have explored most of the games zones with an exception of a few instance zones. I have remained loyal to this game at heart from 2001 - present I have put time, energy, and emotion into this game. This is my favorite hangout when I want to relax and spend time with friends. Like many others, we have invested time, money, emotion, and proverbial blood into this game. Thus, I hope you plan on adding new content to explore and new ways to share adventures with friends without asking or encouraging us to leave our favorite "proverbial bar/club."
Mass killing is fun and while you may have ran into a jerk or two, usually you can work together and get into a group with whoever is mass killing to benefit from it. It most certainly does not need to be removed from the game and that dev or group of devs should be commended for his/her/their ingenuity & creativity.
I would like to see some sort of buff machine in guild lobby. its a real pita siting around forever hoping to get buffs.also be nice to see fellowship needing 2 peeps plant flag or count the mercs as a member of fs
I never could get in AE groups on my shaman during Luclin that were doing 1AA per hour compared to 1 per 6-7hrs in a decent grp in say Cazic Thule. The fastest exp I gained during that era was 1 shm, 5 raid geared rogues. During the peak of mass pulling necros solo were still AAing as fast or faster than a SK pulling 150 mobs in Kaesora. AE groups were doing just fine in Kaesora library as well. What I have never understoood is how mass killing during early expansions was ok, but somehow the servers could no longer cope more recently despite more than 10 years progress in hardware, networks etc for both server & client. I love mass killing, but a monk at lv85 in similar gear to a SK can kill just as many mobs doing it 1 at a time. Pretty much the only class that doesn't mass kill low level mobs well is SHM, and SK struggle with green mobs at some levels far more than other classes.
I disagree with getting rid of the quest journal, it is very handing when you haven't played a char to know where you were up to and remind you what you were doing. I do agree with getting rid of the clickable keywords, more people read the background of the quest before that was introduced, but I do fear it has been in game too long for it to be removed
Just pondering my thoughts.....As you all can see the players are extremely interested in advancing this game. Why not form a Daybreak "sponsored" group of Daily, Average, Hardcore, etc players (groupers, raiders, boxers, ***99'ers***) say 100, 150, whatever...And have them take part in some sort of NDA covered poll about future content? The forums are great and all, but they seem to attract too many "extremists" so id recommend a secondary way of finding these players. Anyways, Such a poll could give Devs, even the art crews, a general direction that they could branch off of that (i assume) based on the statistics would show a somewhat accurate of what is wanted throughout the population. Coming from a player, i'm sure many more would be at heart knowing there was a organized group of real players (again, *not the forums*, this place is a breeding ground of 1%'ers and extremists) helping production in some way before the content is made to the point where its no return minus minor tweaks.
I reread the original post and felt it important to note (possibly again) a comment about the time for the planned meeting. Seriously, this was scheduled for when most people are still working, just getting home from work or making dinner?!? Wow Talk about not understanding the needs of your users! I realize you cannot fulfill all the needs of a diverse world wide player base or even a national one with any specific time. Thus, it might have been more appropriate to schedule multiple twitch meetings one different days at different times to gather a greater variety of commentary for richer analysis EQ player needs and desire. Researchers rare use one focus group for any study, so why use one meeting to learn about what EQ players need and want? Please add more twitch meetings times and dates
Then you don't get how EQ was the most amazing thing to do. Epics were so involved and time consuming that at the end you were the happiest camper on the block and your reward was the best item for your class. This is something EQ need to embrace once again and bring it back to us.
My problem with the quest journal is it makes things TOO EASY. I want my mind to be the journal. I wouldnt mind sticking to named quests like the journal currently is, but the steps and details in it should at the very least become broad and vague. (Which goes back to my main thing about EQ, bringing back the adventure)
So then you've done all the 'hidden quests that were released in the past few expansions? The ones that most people never hear about because they don't use the task window.
Knowing the reward ruins it for me, so not really. Like the doll one that takes place in evantil (think its a doll based reward) I ended up knowing the reward before i even found the quest so i never bothered with it. Really the same principle as me saying ****** dies in the season premiere episode of the Walking Dead pretty much ruins it for anyone who hasnt watched it
I play because i'm addicted to the Ding, I do not really like achievements because there is no ding when you finish one! I love to level and get more AA's on my characters, between all servers i probably have well over 2000 levels of characters between my accounts. I'm never concerned with having the "best" gear, focus or spells, just has to be good enough to finish the content i'm working on. I also love the lore, I was the person who max'ed out my faction for both sides of the Plane of Justice prisoners just to talk to them and posted what they said on the old boards lore section, it bugs me that Nedaria is still asleep after all these years, I want to hear what she has been dreaming about all this time! I used to be a hardcore raider and really enjoyed that style of play up to GoD expansion which disintegrated my old guild. after that i was in a few mid level raid guilds but i was never super serious about it again, mostly because i got married and had two kids, just did not have the time to devote to full time raiding anymore. This is also why I box and do not group with others very often, looking after two kids (well three if you count my husband) I often have to go afk for extensive times, I would not wish to inflict a normal group with my presence. This is why things like HA's are perfect for me to play in I can walk away from the computer for a hour and pick right up where i left off and not worry about a wandering mob wiping out my team while I'm AFK.... I actually never have to worry about lockout timers, it usually takes me 2+ hours to do a Grimble anyway!
So you just want to be the first one to complete quests? Or be sequestered away from an internet connection so you can't see the communication and information exchange that's been happening between players since the game came out?
Sounds like you think very much as I do! I look at the quest to find out what/where I am up to after that I try and figure out what I am doing on my own, I rarely refer to any sites unless I get really stuck, if I ask anyone anything though 9 times out of 10 I get told to read the bottom of the quest. I like having all the quests on achievements so I can see what I've missed/still have to do. Got to do them all!
Keep the journal, keep the achievement window, but add some more secrets to the description. You can also use the clickable words, but just add phrases into the sentences that you need to know later on, or that send you somehwre and before you did not go to that person the new step in journal or achievement window will not be shown. The idea with hailing a NPC 1000 times was totaly idiotic, it does not make people read it, it makes them click faster and spam, that is all. One good example for people following the conversation was the one NPC in TDS who wanted to be called Sir, you could click the word but without saying Sir he did not react. Or the NPC in front of ashengate where you had to remove your weapons before he talked to you. Stuff like that makes people actually read and not a Hail NPC XXX 100 times.
I'd also think about switching quests to /tell. That way the places where multiple people are talking to the same quest npc's there isn't duplicated message spam. Just a thought
