It's not yet too late to save the live servers ......

Interesting read, don't disagree with any of it (AoM capped what was the original EQ2 experience, and was fitting given it was a return to the Island).

(background)
Played this game way more then I should have up through AoM then stepped away after experiencing all different play styles (casual solo to scheduled required attendance raiding). Easily put ~10% of my life into the game collectively over a 15 year period (multiple accounts, and can't imagine the amount of $$ spent in SC/Krono) nothing I'm particular proud of but just being honest but at one point the game had me bad.

I came back for Stormhold TLE (didn't make it out of Vanilla) and I had high hopes for EQ Next. Then later Fallen Gate (playing fairly consistently for the time that server was opened through SF) but ultimately stepped away again (about 2 months before Kaladim was announced). Tried to play on the live servers a few months back and progressed through the ToT - PoP signatures and was feeling really positive about the PoP story line and feel of the game. Then CD was a punch in the gut barely finished the sig line then left out of frustration having no idea how i was even going to be able to get to a point of viability for T1 content. Really bummed me out...

EQ2 is still the best game I've ever played (been gaming since 1980), but at this point I have no desire to play it again on TLE or on Live. I'd be more then happy to follow the lore to a new iteration of the game, the game is just to fragmented with patch after patch of stats changes or new stats to try and counter issues with old. Additionally the economy is just a mess... having to deal in hundreds of thousands of plat or millions for even the most simple thing.

Wish I had suggestions... but reality is the development can only do so much (only so many hours in a week and I don't wish "crunch" on anyone having been down that road in my career, also the $$ vs staff struggles you can only employ enough to make sure the suits are getting their %). They've tried their best, don't envy their position, it challenging to try and provide new content/patch bugs and trying to keep any piece of the population active.

Unfortunately EQ2 is in hospice, the "lifetime" sub last year was a red flag for me. I'll come back when its time to "pay my respects" and I'm sure a few of my friends will have one last grind hora (walking through the content from Vanilla to AoM). Just hope that it goes peacefully (wish the best for the devs when that time comes) and that the lore doesn't die with it.

~Onodi

I'm not sure what this is all about, but I just came back, and I am having more fun than ever *shrug* EQ2 is one of a kind, and no other MMO even comes close.

I think it is to late people have left and no one seems to listening to the player base most have played for a decade or so.

Never too late.

The only way to do that, and there is but only one way, you must MAKE EQ2 GREAT AGAIN!

I just don't understand these kinds of threads. If some of you hate EQ2, stop playing and do something else. If you are trying to give your opinions to make the game better, maybe go a more constructive route? If you won't because you don't feel like you are being listened to, start something and make something out of it to try and get your voices heard. I can tell you this isn't the way.

basically the gap between the two groups of players is widening to the point where it might never come back. The casual player who rarely, if ever, breaks into true endgame play (questers/crafters) and the heroic/raider's. The grind and confusion about how to get to end game grouping is staggering for a casual player and for the most part, the heroic/raider's don't want to take the time to drag casuals through the content to get to where they need to be and thus exclude them completely. Im not saying they are wrong for doing so, because the time and effort (and yes $$$) it took them to get to where they are was plenty already, but if the player base isn't enough for guilds and groups to do the end game heroic grouping and raiding, what should be done?

just a side note. I have subbed since launch and will continue to do so

I played this game for years, years. And I just logged in the other day and it was just too overwhelming to even try to figure out all the mechanics of this game to even want to play. Logged out and that was it.

The game isn't fun anymore and it's so convoluted in who you progress from tier to tier I couldn't even bring myself to play my all time favorite game.

How can it be your favorite game, but you can't be bothered to learn simple mechanics?

That's what I don't really get either. This game is as simple as reading what buttons do then pushing them in the right order. Every knowledge based game is going to be the same way. The game, even up into high end raiding, can be done without ascensions if you so wish. All of these threads are people complaining, "I came back and played for a day/a few days/5 minutes and couldn't figure it out so I quit again. Game too complex." Well of course, knowledge takes time and effort. The game isn't as easy as it used to be. That sucks...? But if you dedicate pretty much any time into it the game gets considerably more simple.

The mechanics of level 80 gear switch at level 90 and switch again at 100 then again at 110. The progression to get the best gear for those tiers and in the way of how to earn them or with what "currency" you need per tier. It's ridiculous how asinine it all is. Then (years ago), when I played this game (hince it being my all time favorite) stats had a point. They don't anymore, it's only about finding gear that will give you 10000 potency or Crit bonus. Hit Points in the 10's of millions. Thats so freakin stupid. Look at your own Signature Block. 68,000% Potency. Absurd!

The funniest part about that is that I don't play that character. It's an alt that I keep to run solos because I main a priest.

Why does it matter to you that the numbers are big? They mean the exact same thing as before, now you just have to think about it in different notation.

Kittik said,

....
When I was introduced to this game by a boyfriend , I played it to hang out with him.. ( yes yes I know I'm a lemming), when we parted ways , I sat down in front of my computer and looked at eq2 with the thought "do I still want to play this?"
I really Looked at what playing this game well would mean, this in not a game of fish or checkers .. this game is really a hobby . even at launch this game required as much learning, practice and involvement as learning a new skill set. it was for me at least compatible to learning tatting from a book with no live teacher to show me, or learning to read a crochet or knitting pattern and learning how to work the stitches as well .
...
its not a past-time for someone who wants to have it all handed to you or like some games click once and watch it play it self out , there is a learning curve that has to be met to enjoy it and do it well .
...
having said that chasing down all the mechanics , tracking stats to the last digit, checking a parse and spread sheet to chase down every number ... really isn't the players job or responsibility . granted some players do it ,and for the hardest end game raid scripts its a necessity . for a just returning player, not so much...someone just coming to play and have fun its NOT a necessity .
...
a couple questions asked in general chat , what are the relevant stats currently ? look for that on your armor and jewelry , reforge to get it .. go play ,if you die readjust try again .. I think that's called playing ...

The game has moved on since you left. Not the game's fault that you lack the gumption to embrace those changes and play now. That's okay though...there plenty of easier games out there for you.

id say it's the gates and time sinks that are the problem, not mechanics

Resolve is pretty much the same gating mechanic as the old Crit Mit, which they took out and said they wouldn't do again.

OTOH, it was easy enough to get Resolve in CD; what you needed, though, was a lot of POT and Crit Bonus and Fervor, which are hard to get enough of to make the transition from PoP to CD regular heroics. It can be done, but you have to bend over backwards to do it, and it's not a series of steps that are intuitively obvious or new-player friendly.

I really do think gating mechanisms are lazy programming. Resolve makes it so that you have to run the same instances over and over to get higher resolve gear, plus the stuff to break down for infuser fragments, it's just an artificial slow-down. Please, devs, make the mobs progressively more challenging via scripts and existing mechanics, and lose the gating mechanisms!

I'm sorry, but I don't believe anyone that says EQ2 is their favorite game and that it's too complicated to learn. In fact, I think a good portion of the hateful comments here are fabricated. For example, those saying the game is on life support are forgetting or completely ignoring new content coming to the game (not to mention an expac).

I am here because I like Everquest. I have played around 15 or so MMOs. This is the only one I stick to.

Today I had a choice of rebuilding my Win 10 hard drive, or posting here and gaming as soon as EQ II downloads to my Win 7 computer.

I'm posting here and going to play EQ II today. Rebuilding that hard drive can wait.

Agreed, but the introduction of new character stat mechanics just overcomplicates an already complicated system and often results in imbalances of many sorts. It isn't new content, but new complication and it isn't necessary or helpful to the game.

The last expansion has far too much solo content required to obtain the necessary stats to run group content (heroics). It never used to be this way and it is a big departure from the group/player socialization that MMOs are known for. The design of this game seems to discourage heroic pick-up groups and emphasizes solo grinding.

Bring back good rare drops in heroic loot tables to encourage grouping. Give people a reason to continue running heroics, instead of getting the gear and never doing them again. Streamline character stat mechanics (if that is even possible at this point). Many of us want to come back, but I don't think I'm alone in saying that we aren't going to pay a monthly subscription for a game that requires many, many hours of monotonous solo grinding. There are too many free games out there that are more interesting than that. And get rid of public quests. They are really public zergs and are boring, laggy and unchallenging.

I'm guessing that you haven't played in several years, or longer. What it comes down to is that your favorite game doesn't exist anymore. EQ2 as it was at the time it was your favorite doesn't exist. My favorite game of all time is EQ2 during the Scott Hartsman years (KoS-RoK). In my mind that was a great game, as perfect as an MMO can get. That game is gone. EQ2 is a different game now. The stats are different, the game design is different, that's the nature of any long running MMO. EQ and WoW have experienced the same thing. The difference there is that those games have, or will have, and outlet for people who like to play the game as it was in a previous iteration, EQ2 has no such outlet and for me that sucks. Thankfully, for me however, my second favorite game of all time is EQ1 during the classic era and there is definitely an outlet for that.

For what it's worth, I agree with you about the current state of the game. I definitely feel that it has some serious mechanic bloat from the various systems that have been stacked haphazardly one on top of the other over the years. If you've played through it all with little to no break you don't notice it, but even taking a couple years off of the game and coming back can leave a person thoroughly confused, if the last time you played was even further back, it'll be even worse. Anyone coming back has to decide whether or not the game is worth relearning and worth the effort to play catch up.


On another note, you have people who swear up and down that the game's health is perfectly fine and that the game hasn't hemorrhaged players over the years. To that you only really need to look at the server status on the home page. Not at how full the servers are, but how many of them there actually are. If you count right now, the game appears to have nine servers running. Well, one of them is Stormhold, so that makes eight servers. Nagafen is an event server, so we're down to seven full time servers. Kaladim is cool, but it's a specialty server. Six full-time servers with the live version of the game. Then you have Isle of Refuge. That's a special rules server and is also dead. Five live servers- Antonia Bayle, Halls of Fate, Maj'Dul, Skyfire, and Thurgadin and from what I've gathered on these forums Skyfire and Thurgadin are in their death throws, I don't know for sure, I don't have any characters on them. I'm going to assume that the game is still profitable as it's still in active development, but to pretend the game is absolutely fine is dishonest at best.