Is EQ2... Dead?

The Mario people can just go play WoW; they're appreciated there. X-P

Uwk
true soloing and proud of it; never needed a "busy, full server" (though I have to admit, a healthy server = healthy Broker/Guild for when my alts can't keep up with their own demands) ;->

IMHO, there is a disparity. I had started long ago on Freep, later moved to AB. I'd made a baby toon back on Freep recently to review friends houses/ dungeons and decided to play my Freeport toon one day during AB maintenance. The difference on getting a group and broker listings was amazing. There was very little low level gear, if any, on Broker and I queued for a LAD for a bit and gave up (as a tank).

Sad to see, as Freeport was once truly a rocking server. Then again, these days I play during what would be considered EU hours (US daytime)....back when I was on Freep, I worked most of the time and was on NA time (US evenings), so perhaps the server climate changes during the evening.

Kitty

Wasn't Freeport the 'real money' 'based server or something? That alone explains it's demise to me. I think the real money rules were changed later as well.

I agree with a lot of what you say herein, but I'd extend it to many game companies not understanding their core audience well. In several MMO's, I have noticed a focus on the 18-early 20ish market segment, which are not what I see staying in-game and definitely not as ready to open wallets, in ANY of the MMO's I play/ played. No slam to the younger crowd, but they lean more toward content locust mentality, in many cases and move on. They want the games their buds play, etc. My friends in that category are often inviting me to yet another mmo...their staying power is generally about 3-6 months, max.... I ask them to come back to whichever game we'd met in and...."Nah, Kitty...I don't play that anymore, I beat the game."

I think many of those that have stayed in Norrath probably better fit Cold Metal's description; we played real D&D, read Eddings & Tolkien, maybe even The Wheel of Time and actually read Game of Thrones, not watched it Best thing I ever saw in a movie: When Gandalf came over the hill at Helm's Deep on the 5th day, I could not imagine that at 12 years old reading the book...so awesome to see it on screen. One of the best things in an MMO: Years ago in a mixed raid, Killing Druushk in VP. The drop was uber back then. RNG seemed to love me in this game, I got the drop. I STILL carry Soulshattering Band in Kittybock's--my old main's--bag, for luck. Yeah, it's silly...but it meant something. All these shards nowadays, they're just currency. I am excited about these new Ethereals though....

Overall, I think those of us that stay long-term....we are not content locusts, we are explorers....and we love that moment when we get our Soulshattering Band or our Ethereal; our moment when we get our little piece of Norrath.

Happy Friday

Kitty

Yeah, most of the folks in our guilds and most of the ones I interact with on a regular basis on the forums, even if it's "just" reading their stuff and oohing and ahhing over their Norrathian Homeshow goodness, tend to be at least in their 30s; I think even Niboota is like 29? At any rate, we tend not to be the fast-twitch console players, but the folks who appreciate all the variety of the game itself, all the different facets we can enjoy (the few youngsters I see sticking with it were introduced to it by their parents/older sibs, and are growing up in it). As much as I criticize it at times, it really is the best MMORPG out there, imho. ;->

And how the hell does one "beat the game" of an RPG?? If you "win," your character's alive (or at least not deleted) and walking away with special pretties after making sure the world you're in is safe ("Why do you care?! What has [Norrath] ever done for you?!" "I happen to be one of the idiots who LIVES HERE!" --paraphrased from Guardians of the Galaxy). If you "lose," you get your buddies to rez you, help you with a corpse run, or just wait patiently until the game parks you somewhere safe, then you repair stuff. No winning, no losing, no "beating." No high score, even in this computer game. ;->

Uwk
who, strangely enough, keeps the "vendor trash" Kerran dolls every time they're found, for sentimental sake (tried EQ1 very briefly, didn't like much of its gameplay, but played a Vah Shir Beastlord in pen-n-paper EQ1...for the longest time back in 2006, li'l Uwk wanted to be Murrar Shar when he grew up )

You said it yourself, Uwk....we're the Guardians of this Galaxy

I think it was one of them, either The Bazaar or Vox (PvP); frankly, I thought (and still do) that it was a brilliant way to handle all the stupid plat-farming...if you acknowledge it will happen, cut out the illegal middlemen and take that role yourself as the company. Your intellectual property isn't traipsing off down the road, your customers' information is as secure as you can make it (since you already have their credit card info on file), and you can make a bit on the side with your cut; it's like the Amazon.com Marketplace, a lovely idea.

But, apparently, it failed; not sure what happened, maybe it wasn't profitable enough, or participated in enough? /shrug

Uwk

Is EQ2 dead? IMHO NO! It still has a lot of life left in it but that depends on if DB will recognize that the players who have stuck with the game are ADULTS not the younger folk. They're looking for games they can s speed through and "beat". Personally I'm want a game I can take my time and enjoy it. As far as servers go I'm on Butcherblock and I like the lower population. I have no desire to go to AB.

pvp is dead. no fixes noting... and one Full PVE server where soon sure is empty

That would make a huge difference as most NA servers would have at least 4X the population in the evenings you would see during the day. It's not comparable at all.

Agree entirely! I spent the last week or so leveling a toon on AB just to see what all the Hoopla was about, and it just wasn't very different from Guk in my experience. As this was my only toon on the server, and starting with nothing, I really wasn't worried about low-level gear on the broker, as there was no way I could afford it anyway. The game is very stingy to a new player with no friends or "big brother" toons to help out. I think I had 60 gold by the time I was level 18, but that was only because I did the first two quests for Ol' Moneybags Quo! Without that quest, I might have had 20-30 gold by level 18. Buying from the broker was out of the question--even bear hide backpacks were 23 gold each (16 gold on Guk)--so I only bought one and got by with my own crafted waxed-leather 12 slot bags instead. I also made my own armor and weapons (using some drops)--a full set of bronze vanguard plate, followed by blackened iron at lvl 16. Anyway, my point is that the broker availability for NEW low-level characters is just a moot point, as they cannot afford anything there anyway!

Totally agree on taking my time in the game. That is my biggest problem with grouping--people want to rip through the dungeon so fast, I do not even get to see the architecture or even begin to learn my way around. It wasn't always that way. I remember in EQ1 my old guild did tend to take our time, and my GL, a very naughty Rogue, did tend to wander off sometimes! I still remember her getting caught by some mobs in a room a couple of doors down the hall from the group, in an LDON. I was on my cleric, and I was throwing a heal to the group, running to the GL and throwing a heal, then running back to heal the group--over and over--kept them all alive, but was crazy! Fun, but crazy!!

Yes, EQ2 is dead. The need to remove of the M's and just call it a MO.

It depends what you're calling dead. It has a plenty big enough population to support itself if DB would stop being lazy and purge names / merge servers. (And stop making dumb excuses, every other MMO in the world can purge names no problem, no one cares about their level 12 bard that they haven't played in 11 years)

Wow fast typing lag.

Yes EQ2 is dead. They need to remove one of the M's and just call it an MO.

Well, I greatly hope that I still have fun, ZEUS. I've resubscribed. I'm just letting it download now.

People started quiting in droves with RoK though?

If this weekend was any sign, I can assure you it's definitely not nearly dead. There were a lot of people running around newb zones and the General chat was very lively--though the topics were very disappointing. Listening to a bunch of grown human beings argue about politics and unions gets old VERY fast on a fantasy video game.

idk, I logged in for the first time in idk how many months a few days ago (saturday or sunday). and 3 things were said in All the chat channels combined for 15-20 min. I then said in channel how bored I was and that boosted it up to 5 things said in channel (someone replayed to me). I then stayed logged in while I played a match in League of Legends (30-40 min), checked back in and there was ~9 things said in the channels. I mean..this was on the weekend

Yesterday when I got on I did encounter an active general chat channel. I did see a few in the starting zones. At the same time, with how long I've been away, it wasn't a good indicator as far as how population goes, as I've missed out on a lot for a while.

I'm getting on tonight.

You're the guy that was 100 in 3 hours when AoM launched. Got bored and haven't logged in in months.

So many things in game to try and 'prevent' you from leveling that you just bypassed, but ruined the game for so many players. That is the part I just can't fathom.

Maybe, i wouldnt log in either, but i have a healthy raidforce and some good friends online at eq2 and some casual fellows

But, every mmo needs someone to work with, imho.

So yeah, its pretty dead, but it still moves, so