I also think there was a wide consensus that "everyone" was going to vote for the next expansion so there was no need to even think about voting. Now this is entirely their fault, but I'd argue there was a large portion that didn't care or were just to discouraged by all the spin in the community that a no vote was "stupid". Just something to consider.
There was also a huge fluctuation in population as more and more peeps actually heard about the tlp servers once they heard about Sony offering them free play time after the huge security breach. That being said I think the majority still wanted the unlocks to happen when they did whether they voted or not.
This. I think a "Classic" PVE & PVP server is overdue, but a handful of low pop servers is a terrible idea.
From what I saw, the people who wanted the unlocks were certainly more vocal. As to whether thisreally dissuaded people who opposed the unlocks from voting, who knows? I suspect that a fair number of those folks had already quit actively participating in the server, but I won't claim that I have proof to back that up.
The majority of complaint i see on fippy is from the heavy majority of casual raiders - that content is unlocking too quickly. An actual time-lock, not voting, progression server. set at say 120days per expac would be even more popular imo.
They are not going to open 5 TLP's when then cant even keep the populations viable on the 2 servers they already have. Partly due to no f2p but mostly due to after 60 days the playerbase evaporates everytime, like clockwork. If there was this massive pool of players you guys keep talking about clamoring for Classic EQ, Fippy and Vulak would have passed a single vote even to this day.
That isn't due to the classic playerbase as much as uber raiders wanting to rip through content and get dem firsts. Not that either of those servers were classic, anyhow.
So the massive pool of classic players -- and apparently the casual raiders, too -- got outvoted by the uber raiders? Not likely. I don't doubt that there is a sizable segment of players who would like to try a classic server. But Fippy and Vulak don't support the notion that this is a vast number of people or that the folks who would like that sort of server would hang around on a long term basis. If SOE ever decides to create a classic server, I might very well create a character and play around on it some. However, the reality is that even a non-uber player can do everything interesting that there is to do on a classic server (by which I mean classic trilogy) in a fairly short period of time. As I've said before, if SOE ever decides to throw a bone to the classic server crowd, it will most like involve the Al'Kabor server. SOE could either: 1. Create an SOE-supported gateway for Windows users to Al'Kabor. The problem with this is that Al'Kabor is FTP, so SOE gets no return on its investment. 2. Convert Al'Kabor to a regular server using the progression server code, with the expansions locked at PoP. This would screw the Mac users, and there might be problems with transferring characters to the new server. But at least they could require gold accounts and thus make a return on their investment. I'd be surprised if SOE even did that, and I'd be even more surprised if they did something more than that. But hey, SOE has surprised me before.
Casuals out numbered the raiders in Fippy and Vulak at the very least 5 to 1, probably 10 to 1 for months, if they wanted it to stay classic, there would have been an overwhelming majority blocking that vote with a no. The truth is there is a small segment, but very vocal small segment, that just cant take no for an answer, and embelishes the actual support to try and sway SOE into making a server that will be a ghost town 5 minutes after "OOHHHHH Shiny!!!" wears off.
If you remember Classic was open for 90 days not 60 like every subsequent Expansion. I think 90 days was pretty much right on par with what most people were looking for. The classic 90 days was actually probably too long just because of a lack of raid targets and things to do in general, but Kunark+ could easily support a 90 day timeline instead of a 60. I think it should have been: Classic: 60 days Kunark: 75days Velious: 90 days Luclin: 90 days PoP: 90 Days LDON/LOY: 30 days GoD: 60 days OOW: 90 days Why does every xpansion have to be the same? Why not have different time locks for each expansion?
I doubt either of them will happen. I was just giving an example of something that SOE might actually do in the real world.
There were some of us who warned, even before Fippy launched, that 90 days was way too long. The old world is just too small and too limited to sustain a full server population in this day and age. Playstyles in 2012 are different from playstyles in 1999. It's a lazy Sunday morning here, so I'll tell you what I would do if I was in charge of setting up a new TLP server. This would require a level of time investment and programming that SOE would probably never consider, but what the heck. On day one, the old world, Kunark, and Velious would all be open. However, certain features, NPCs, and zones would be disabled. If you tried to zone into one of the disabled zones, you would just bounce off the zone. If someone found a way to get to one of the disabled zones, it would be unpopulated. Rather than list what I would disable, I'll do it in reverse and tell you what I would enable and when. At first, the level limit would be 50. You could go to Kunark and Velious at level 1, though the higher level content would be disabled. This means that the population could spread out and use zones like LoIO, Kurns, Crystal Caverns, and the like. There would be some out of era loot items (snow cougar earrings, Tizmak armor, etc.), but really nothing game changing. The best armor sets in the game would be Hate and Fear, though there might be a specific piece from Kunark and Velious that was better. When Kunark "opened," the following zones would be unlocked: Karnors, Chardok, and Droga. The NPCs for the key quests for Old Sebilis, Howling Stones, and Veeshan's Peak would spawn for the first time. The outdoor Kunark dragons would spawn for the first time. The NPCs for the epic quests would spawn for the first time. The level limit would increase to 60. When Velious opened, the following zones would be unlocked: Velks, Thurgadin B, and Plane of Mischief (if we're keeping it in Great Divide). The zoneline from Kael to Wakening Lands would be enabled, and the WL and CS port spells would start to drop or become available on vendors. The storm giants would spawn for the first time in Kael (this includes the Tormax area, the Arena, and that other area that people used to farm for plate armor drops). The NPCs for the shawl and ring quests would spawn for the first time. The various cultural armor recipes would be enabled for the first time (except for the handful of recipes that were originally linked to Kunark). I'm probably missing a detail or two, but that's the concept. Don't jam a horde of people into the old world. That's like seeing how many college students can fit into a VW Beetle. (For those of you from younger generations, just use your imagination.) Give people room to spread out and have fun. If there is some drop that you think would be unbalancing or unfair, just disable until the proper expansion opens.
Why does there have to be progression beyond velious? The experience rates and the fact that even level 50 raids aren't truly trivial makes it have staying power.
You should have to "beat" the current expansion before moving to the next one. You can loot a token off of Nagafen and Vox, for example, to move onto Kunark.
Or if the population dies down enough in certain areas that it becomes difficult to find people under level 53 to help you do your own progression.
