Why do you still play? Seriously, I want to know

I still play because there is always an old raid to try to solo, or box, or group.
Or there are always silly old quests with interesting rewards to do.

The replay value in the game.

Give us a couple worn item/in combat item/focus effect item effect slots, and the replay value increases exponentially.

Thread located here: Player suggestion: New gear slots - Worn Effects.

Well it's for sure not the TLP

Personally I like the vast variety and continuous ability to upgrade. I am a member in a mid-large casual guild but play how I like.

I have the ability to solo (2 boxing but me playing two P.C's and two mercs is still playing by myself) when I don't know how long I'll be on, or know that I will be playing with a lot of interruptions and don't want to slow down a group. I like to do this with old content. For instance I'd like to finish all of the partisan and Mercenary quests in the Call of the Forsaken expansion. I'm currently on the Tower of Rot, and for some reason have trouble finding others that are in the same spot of the same quests, (strange right?). But I can work on these quests for 30 minutes or for 2 hours in 10 minute increments and it doesn't bother anyone.

I have a great guild with lots of grouping content. Really fun to kick back with guildies and grind on current content. Usually we are able to play with real groups of six, no one boxed, and no mercenary. Even with many of us in 2 expansion old group gear you can still do most of the current expansion quests, and hunter achievements.

I have three different guilds that let me earn DKP and raid with them on a regular basis. Even though I am not a member of any of the three (In general I couldn't make the minimum raiding requirements). I still feel part of the team as we work through new content and get further each week. For instance, the guild I raid with on Sunday nights, the first time we raided Fear revisited we wiped at the entrance. And after a full raid only guild the first golem. The next Fear raid we cleared the trash, and cleared the first two golems. Finally the following Sunday we cleared Dread, Fright, and Terror. Trying to figure out the mechanics and working through content like that with 35 people is a rush I haven't found in other games.

My guild and my friends in game. The gameplay itself hasn't been enjoyable for me for a long time.

I like high fantasy game only really.

The lore and the lore characters aren't total bs like some other games despite how much there is.

The community is better than about any other game I've played, worse is you get political/religious stuff in general chat sometimes. No one tells me to kill myself, that they'll my family member.

A low number of bots/cheaters compared to other games. Despite the buffs/nerfs etc they don't completely redo my class every x-pac/patch completely changing the class I've played for years.

It's cheaper than most hobbies, no real stress on the body, don't need to drive anywhere, can do nearly 24/7. Meet good people for the most part, older player base, the game still plays a bit slower than most, can actually have conversations in groups sometimes.

There's more stuff to do than most games at max level that I care about, older progression, augs, trophies, tradeskills, epics, various clickies.

I don't have to go to twitter to find stuff out about the game with the little sidebar thing on the eq homepage.

Some of those and others.

95% of the remaining playerbase still plays because they have "so much time invested" into their character, it doesn't matter if the game is not fun or its become a chore to login. We'll still keep playing cause its hard to walk away from the "time investment" and start over in a new game. EQ players will tell you: I've tried new games but nothing is like EQ, well of course it won't be and they will refuse to try and play that said game past a week or two to truly give it a chance.

Mmorpgs isn't the only genre out there you just in case you've become deluded that that is the only type you can play. Have you tried a MOBA, RTS, RPG etc.. some really good games out there and I've picked up a handful on Steam for less than $5 that will keep you entertained for years, less than it costs to sub year worth of EQ.

Just sayin, maybe its time to change the your personal mentality instead of pouring $$ into this game only to see it being poorly spent by Daybreak on other projects. I changed my view about this company about 5-6 years ago. I still play this game, but I don't pay for subs or expansions anymore, let some other goober player do it for you.

A more apt question would be, "Would you still play if none of your friends logged in anymore?"

TLP scumbags drove me away, so I don't pay anymore. Only rarely play now, when I'm bored or when WoW is down.

I play to help my guild, not much more than that. If my guild folded I would quit soon after. I cannot play other MMOs. They are terrible communities compared to EQ and are much less mature. I hate playing video games with immature people. Sure there some immature and annoying adults, but stupid millenials are far more common in newer MMOs.

Some MMOs have spyware too like WoW does. I know EQ may have some due to them somehow banning people for just using certain programs. Not sure how they would even know if you have a program installed at all unless they used spyware, but whatever it is, other games are far worse with bans and spyware.

The game is clearly in decline and the group is game is just baaaad. Nothing fun about it with all the blatant box crews and extremely lame quests/missions some of which are not worth even touching. Group game is all about completion now instead of just hanging out in a group for a while with a bunch of friends or random people like in years gone by.

Not much more to say, the game is really bad imho but my guild is what keeps me playing until the end.

I enjoy the game and the community.

I'm playing because I like the gameplay (even if it's not that hard) and content of the game (even if it was reduced recently). Having a character in which I spent lot of time, a nice guild and friends around matter of course but if I had to start over without friends around (cause they all quit for example) it'd be np for me, the game would still be the same and there would be new people to be friend with. If you like to achieve things in games, Everquest is still very good at that, ofc if you like to hop from games to games without really getting into them, there is probably cheaper / easier on the market.

I like to finish things I start. I haven't finished EQ yet...

The people I play with.

Each person from my server who quits detaches me more and more. DBG doesn't 'get' that.

I like to get loot but I like getting other people there loot even more.

Same. Once I get high score and can enter my initials, I'm done with this game.

From my experience, the difficulty/fun among different specs in talent tree based MMOs can vary wildly.

The problem is, you feel heavily pressured to play one of the 2-3 viable specs, so while they promise more customization in your play, you have to play the specs with strong balancing at the time.... even if it's less fun.