Thinking of returning? Read this first...

The griefing, camp stealing, and general intelligence of the main chat channel now rivals that of World Of Warcraft. As someone mentioned WoW lost 600k subs and evidently some found their way to Everquest.

So if you intend to level or 'chat' this game is no longer viable. It was circling the drain prior to F2P then it was spared and now its being forced straight down it with a plunger. Zero point in playing a game that will probably shut it doors abruptly since the REAL players (ie non-fanbois) are leaving out of disgust at what Sony has allowed to go on.

And now a word from the fanbois...

I'm a returning player as of almost two years ago. I play very casually, usually solo and I enjoy the game as much as ever. I seem to level and camp gear just fine and chat on occasion. General chat does have its moments but its generally fine. Fanboi, heh.

Overly sensitive people like you are just as bad as trolls and people who grief. Taking a random shot at WoW doesn't help your case either.

Strange, I had the opposite reaction to Everquest. I'm a long-time player who took a break to play Star Wars. I came back and messed around with a new character. I received zero griefing, plenty of hellos and greetings, and had a great time.

The game is what you make of it.

I'm a fairly recent return and have casually messed around on a couple of servers. Between the two, maybe put half a dozen people in general chat on /ignore and really haven't haven't seen any similarity with WoW chat. The vast majority of people I have encountered, in game or in chat, since my return have been friendly and helpful.
Sorry it hasn't worked out for you.

Thinking of returning?

As a lower level player in a mature game you will be spending a fair amount of time soloing or "grouping" with a mercenary in empty zones for awhile with no possibility of others griefing you or stealing your camps. In the event someone is playing where you want to play, zones are big and at no level is there only one zone you can play in.

Every server has a general chat channel. While it is moderated and there is a bad word filter occasionally what's said in the channel might offend you. If that's the case or if joining that channel isn't worthwhile in your opinion then don't join the channel.

Both finding others to play with and enjoying a chat channel where people behave themselves is more likely if you join a 20+ member new player or family-type guild. EQ is best played as a social game. Joining a guild increases your chances of enjoying that aspect of the game IMO.

This is correct. I've been playing again for the past month or so and there really is no point to playing it anymore. The chat is full of people trying to be offensive as possible. If you call them out on it, you get shouted down by the other trolls in the channel.

A simple rule should be made in every MMO. If you aren't talking about the game in some way then the speech should not be allowed in public channels. There is no free speech in MMOs. They are private entities. You can be offensive all you like in your own private channels whether that is guild, group, tells, or some channel you make. Public channels should be used for game purposes only not for giving trolls the attention they crave.

Chat is only a small problem of what is wrong with this game today though. If you as a new player can get buy that you'll find a host of other things that will annoy you to the point of quitting. The final straw for me is the complete lack of grouping. I posted about it a couple weeks ago and some people invited me to groups which was nice but it still was not actual groups. It was usually a much higher level mowing through content and me tagging along being useless. Don't misunderstand this either. You will "see" groups in various zones. However, they'll all be played by a single person.

Of course, the messages you will see most in general chat when trolls aren't trying to one up each other with offensive remarks is "WTS PL 70+ 50k per hour or WTB level 70 PL." Because ya, that is all people do anymore. Power level their characters up so that they can "box" them with a high level they have. Don't get me wrong. I don't blame these people for doing so. That is probably the only enjoyment left in this game since there are no groups anyway.

The most populated zone in game (next to bazaar) is now Guild Lobby. Yes this marvelous zone contains a healthy population of AFK players standing in a mass completely oblivious to the few buff requests being sent out. So if you find yourself alone in a zone wondering if anyone else "plays" this game, simply head on over to the Guild Lobby. There you can see actual players standing in place.

Now if you are still okay with these things and want to give it a shot then there is one more thing you need to be aware of. Everquest is now a loot vending machine. It is not like the old days where you would get a unique and precious item from besting some named mob that would be used for quite awhile. No, you will have loot and plat thrown at you so fast that becoming attached to any particular item is a thing of the past.

These are only the highlights I am sure there is much more that could be said for how much things have changed in the game but if you are someone expecting to come here and find "old EQ" you are going to be severely disappointed.

This game is not dead, it is undead. It will continue on for eternity as a shell of its formal self luring unsuspecting mmo players back for one more shot at what made them love MMO's in the first place. Unfortunately the zombie that remains will likely only continue to disappoint. It makes me sad to know with the free to play model there are people trying Everquest for the first time and there only experience will be with this rotting corpse.

Y'all need to tone down the drama.

I'm on The Nameless server. Are there buttheads in the game who like to act like they're the boss of everyone and everything? Sure, of course there are.

But that's every MMO nowadays. Every one. I've played other MMOs lately. xD

I haven't been actively griefed on EQ in years (the last time I was actually griefed was by a level 90 in Permafrost Keep during the first year of the CB/Permafrost Hardcore Heritage revamps, who didn't like where my group set up camp and responded by training us a lot - poor baby!).

I have more recently (and more frequently) been griped at by idiots yelling at me to get away from "their camp" when I'm not even pulling from it and am only passing through to get Explore quest updates. (For said idiots, "their camp" is usually a nebulously defined, giant-sized area in a public zone that they for some reason feel entitled to swarm in without ever seeing another player or losing one creature from their 30+ available killing options.)

But really? That's not much worse (if it even is worse) than the stupid stuff that used to happen in EQ years ago (e.g. Gorenaire getting trained onto level 40 parties in Dreadlands, massive deliberate trains in LGuk/Karnor's/Sebilis for the sake of stealing a camp... and so on).

If all I have to worry about is some 12 year olds (by maturity level, even if not by real physical age) being dumb in General chat for attention, I suppose I'm not too bad off.

For people thinking of coming back... just try the game. What else needs be said? If you like it, play it. If you don't like it, maybe give it a bit more of a chance or see if a friend can help you find something more fun to do in-game... or try something else. EQ definitely isn't for everyone.

Well, they won't be necessarily empty, especially if you do the Hero's Journey quest mega-arc in the TSS zones, but there may not be many opportunities for grouping with self-sufficient veterans who zip through the levels on alts. So yes, soloing or moloing may be in a returnee's future until he is high level and/or in a guild. The good news is that it doesn't take nearly as long to level a character these days.

Yeah, I wasn't sure how you could steal a camp at low levels. I suppose you may run into a high level farmer or PL'er slaughtering everything that moves in a place like Sebilis, but in my experience they are usually happy to leave you enough mobs to kill. And worse comes to worst, you just origin out and go to another zone.

As to actual griefing, as in trying to ruin your day by training or KSing, I don't think I have seen it at low levels in years. No one trains specters and Giants to the docks anymore...

There are also class-specific channels where some people hang out and where you can find useful information. The /ooc channel can get a little juvenile at times, but not to the extent that other games' (like WOW's) general channels do.

Yes, finding an enjoyable group of other players to play with on a regular basis is probably the most important thing. Unless you are heavily into soloing, of course.

Seriously, lol. I agree with this. I didn't read every post in this thread because ... why? I have been back playing this game for a few months now and have been enjoying it without any real issues. I haven't been seeing the problems the OP is talking about.

Bottom line is you can play for free so if you are interested in trying it then don't let some small percent of people stop you from giving it a shot .

This is correct, you can play it for free. Please do go log in and see that everything I stated is fact.

*sigh* ... ugh, fine, I went back and read your post. Lets see.

I haven't seen this really at all playing on Luclin for the past few months. "The chat is full of people trying to be offensive as possible"? Just haven't seen that at all. I haven't played on every server so maybe it is that way on some server, but I doubt it. Even if it was like that (which it isn't) then let me suggest turning off general chat. This isn't A Clockwork Orange. You don't have to look at something that you don't want to look at.

Perhaps you should play on Firiona Vie (roleplaying server) if you think this is correct.

This, I agree with in part. In the low levels on Luclin there were few groups. I also found this to be disappointing, as I came back to EQ hoping to group with people, but I have still been having fun. From what I have seen there is plenty of grouping at higher levels, but you have to get there first. You say that people who were higher levels grouped with you. That seems like people being nice to you ... weird, right? I guess you think that when you are equal level to those people then they wouldn't be willing to group with you anymore?

I recently started a couple of characters on Vox, and have seen that there are a lot of low level characters on that server and am hopeful that there will be groups at lower levels because I do hope to have some nostalgic low level grouping. Vox is not free to play, though. There is also the progression servers to try if you get a gold account. Max level on Fippy is 75 now I think.

People do powerlevel in this game now. I believe it's so that they can get to high enough level to group with friends, etc. People who have been playing the game for years and years probably don't have that same nostalgic feel anymore when they are trying to get leveled up. The idea that there is no grouping at higher levels doesn't seem truthful to me, and I know that you don't have any high level characters so you don't really know that. Once again, let me ask: Do you really think that the high level people who took time to group with you as a low level would really not want to group with you once you caught up in levels to them? That just doesn't make sense.

Okaaaaaayyyy?.... People do go afk in the guild lobby.

This statement also shows that you haven't actually leveled very high on your return to the game. The truth is that they have made the game easier to level now so people can get caught up to more current content without spending a year to do it. So yeah, at lower levels you get gear and grow out of it quickly because you are leveling up.

This isn't the same game it was when it came out. If that is really what you thought you would find then I don't know what to tell you. Try the progression servers if you are willing to play on a gold account. If it's not worth it to you to pay to play then I guess you don't really care as much as you act like you do.

Free to play is still a great way for someone who isn't as particular to return to the game, or for someone new to try it for the first time, though.

Are you sure? I fired up a silver account a few minutes ago and created a new character on Vox as a test. Everything worked fine and I found myself in the main tutorial zone with 49 (!!) other characters.

Based on the server list that my Silver account can see, it's the progression servers that are not available to Silver accounts.

Oh sweet, no I just thought it was not free to play because it was up there on the server select with the progression servers. That rocks

Yeah, when I made my toons on Vox a couple of days ago there were over 30 other characters in the tutorial also. I haven't been able to play much since then unfortunately so I can't say what it's like after tutorial yet.

It was a bit shocking to see the tutorial chock full of characters. I am not sure why they were mostly level 2-5 rather than more evenly spread across levels, though. Perhaps they grab the charm and a merc and then head outside?

I don't know. I didn't really pay attention to the levels of characters when I was in there. I did notice that there was a lot of people asking "newbie" type questions so I'm sure that many people on the server were authentic new players lol.

It could be that some don't finish the tutorial, not realizing the good gear they can get from doing the quests in there. I remember one level 3 necro who was in crescent reach asking how to learn spells.

The chat thing has been fixed.

Type
/list <return>

You will get something like
Channel: 1=newplayers(92),2=general(277),3=Enchanter(23)
Now type
/leave 2
Half your problems are solved!

Of course /ignore works, but this is broader in its scope. Been playing MMPG for a while. I have yet to hear anything said anywhere in general chat, auction, or ooc that I have considered worth the electrons. I mean there is the possibility a million monkeys at a million typewriters will come up with a Shakespeare play, but I don't look for it to be first published in an EQ chat. Bright side is: If I don't hear it, it isn't there.

There are a couple of things that occasionally get me a bit frustrated, just not often anymore due to a lot of effort put forth by the developers. More like I am puzzled then anything else. I find when running quest, some power gamer will have all the text macroed! I mean every response is set up to be automatically spewed with a single click. If you happen to hit the quest giver at the same time, your responses go scrolling off the screen and you have to search for them. Not a lot of these guys around, only two in the last two months.

Other then that, just not a lot of irritation to be had. Every single time I have run into someone who KS, I have gotten an immediate apology with something like "Sorry, didn't see you."

Hi all! yep, I am coming home after an 11 year absence!

So let me get this straight, I'm a fanbois simply because my experience is different than yours? I came back last Thursday (That'd be July 21st, 2013). I played in the tutorial for the first 12 levels. In the 18 levels since then, I've seen TWO other people in the zones that I've been. The first was in Najena and we both had more than enough mobs to share. The second was in MS, where we grouped and wiped everything.

Yes, the general chat was a wreck on Saturday, but /leave 1 works amazingly well. So does /ignore <player>. It's up to you to manage your game enjoyment.

To that end, try this:
1) Come back when you're not 12.

That's it.

I am curious why do you feel it is better to attack the person who wants SOE's own rules enforced instead of those who are breaking the rules?