Norrath is heating up with GU 115: Reignite the Flames!

It's no longer a casual player game. I've played from launch, I've grouped and raided over the years. I'm still paying to play and also spend on station cash to buy stuff when I'm drunk. I've played other games and always come back, it's like a comfy pair of slippers. However grinding the same zones for no real reason, rolling new characters I don't want just for something to do is wearing thin. At the moment there's a large silent majority which are just waiting for a proper casual player game to come along then we'll all jump ship. Sad but imho I think it's the case.

Bless your heart. Have you spent over $2000 on decorations lately? Well there are multiple raiders paying that much and more each time a new pay-to-win item comes out. First was the mount, then the merc and now the familiar buff. On top of that those who truly min/max their toon want a full set of celestial infusers, and they're really quite rare from the crates. So yeah, sorry but the top 20, guilds are probably spending many many times more in the marketplace than the rest of the population.

That doesn't make it a good thing. I despise this aspect of the game.

Furnish copies of personal receipts & statements to make a point in game forum?

It wouldn't prove anything either.

One person (or even a few ) spending (x) $ does not make up a market demographic, lol.

Again nothing for the casual players who pay good money and get less and less in return. Bring back SOE, at least they catered for all players. Been playing since 2003 in eq1 and starting to seriously question myself why? when us solo players / casual players get little or no reward. Ascension quest line is broken for me (can't loot the sword and shield for A chosen weapon (deleted and restarted many times) , petitioned and submitted bug reports and jack squat.

A nice response regarding what they are going to do for us solo / casual players and ignore the raiders for a change. 6 years of no veteran rewards or anything to benefit us, obviously All Access is Maybe Some Access

I'm tuned, sup?

I am very much a casual game player, I've played many games - I have several top level characters on WoW as well as other games. I have pretty much left every game except for EQ2. Oddly enough I left those games because I find that EQ2 has a LOT to offer non raiding, more casual players. I've leveled to 120 in a few months, can fly in BoL and have never done more than a solo, either with a mercenary or a friend.

I was very surprised to read in this forum that casual players are unhappy and feel that they have nothing to do. I've loved doing the crafting timelines and am currently working on the signature questline in BoL with the chest of gear you get at the beginning of the expansion. The overseer's have also given me some pretty awesome gear and I find that doing the questlines give you pretty good loot too. I have no intention of ever raiding so for me being able to stay alive for the solo dungeons and in regular zones to quest is quite sufficient.

I followed the signature quest lines for PoM and Chaos...have my 2.0 and Greenmist spells.(( I'm sure I'm saying this all wrong as I'm a newb (lol) )) I am level 20 Ascension Thermatologist. (did I spell that right?) The only thing I'm missing out on is the raid gear and I don't care about that in the slightest since I don't raid.

From what I understand this patch is geared towards raids, which is a bit disappointing for casual players that have finished all of the signature questlines and crafting lines - but realistically speaking that's what tends to happen just before a new expansion comes out, which I am told will most likely be happening some time this winter. So for now I'll be gathering up materials to get my red adornments, grinding researcher missions to get all the coins I need to purchase all of the goodies I want from the coin merchants and finishing up the signature questline. If I get done all of that...well then I will simply have to complete my over 100 incomplete collections!

I guess my reason for posting is because I am taken completely by surprise to see the posts from people saying there is nothing for casual players to do. Perhaps, after I've been playing for a few years I'll feel the same way - I can indeed say right now that I'm here because I find there is so much more for a casual player to do than in any other mmo game I've ever played.

The website has been fighting me for much too long, I posted it on the forums to make sure it didn't get too much later!

is this a raid toon only GU or can the casual solo player grind their way thru and get geared also ?

Wow!! I thought I was the only one who wasn't overly enthused about that high level. Most of my alts are still around 90 from the last Herioc Character push. Sadly I don't have time or money enough to devote to getting an alt that high. Instead I get to create dungeons that no one goes into anymore because someone thought turning the XP off was a great idea. I also think whomever said "If you build it they will come." wasn't talking entirely about EQ2. Lots of building I've done, and yet only a handful of housing rating trophies. Most of those were from when I started up, nothing recently.

All I can say to that is you're not alone, I have no recollection of how much I've went through thanks to this game. I always like the way the new houses look, until the effects from the Bar of Brell and other places wear off. Then I decide to remove a wall here, add in a fire pit there, and then my purse just gets ever so much thinner. Sigh, yes I will continue to support SOE, and hope that one day they'll come back. Until that happens maybe we could organize a PQ involving the house rating system, with the grand prize being that house from LON? Sadly I can't donate that house, never won despite the number of hours or SC I've gone through trying.

"I agree that the raiders need something to keep them around, but the rest of Norrath that doesn't raid needs something to keep us around as well."

As a solo/molo player I agree we need new options for all play styles. I have NO desire to get rid of raiding or raid players nor do I want all solo play. I would love to get to end game playing solo, however, I realize the last few quests MUST be in raid format. If we ever get to a true end, which hopefully will not be in my lifetime, there are going to be some super bada** meanies to kill. It might even take the entire server to kill them.

"You could have included something for us as well as the raiders...instead we get.a few collections that some of us will never see because we don't raid, the out of control economy or the no-trade tag placed on a piece so we will never finish it."

I fully support the removal of no-trade and no-transmute tags. It has a negative impact on so many things: sharing with alts, transmuting skills, building of guild inventory for member use, the game economy, etc... I feel all collection items with a required level on them should be made available to both adventurers and crafters of the required level. Regarding the economy, I do not understand what has caused the outrageous, out of control prices found on the brokers. How are new and returning players going to be encouraged to keep playing? DEVS, I know you work extremely hard and must be frustrated. However, can you please find a way to fix our "out of control" economy?

Personally, I find it appalling how the issue of different play styles seems to be causing splits in the EQ2 community. This IS a "massive multi-player" game which belongs to ALL of us. To me this means a lot of people playing and HAVING FUN, sometimes working together, sometimes not. Happy Hunting and Crafting All!

Very well said!

Thank you. I now see a reason for the continued attention to raid content. Your explanation makes sense to me. Like you, I too would like a solo dungeon or a small crumb.

^^^ Yes! Love it! ^^^

1. I would be interested in knowing which demographic spends the most money too. However, I think finding out would probably only split our population more.

2. It is sad to think some of our players stay only b/c of decorating. If you eat pizza 3 time a day, every day, eventually you will never want to eat pizza again. Maybe this is what is happening to some players. I have loved being a decorator since the beginning and I still have days when the last thing I want to do is decorate.

3. This paragraph was the most telling for me. How are we supposed to get and keep new players into our beloved game? I believe in this game and our Devs. I will continue to support it until one of us dies, which will probably be me first!

Sadly, I think the debate between raiders and non-raiders is too far gone to solve. The bickering has become redundant, stressful and at times just plain rude. It would be nice to see us working together, with each other and with the Devs, to come up with ideas to get and keep new players.

what the devs need to do is give both causal as well as raiders stuff instead of just favoring the raiders so devs are you gonna fix it and actually listen to the causal players and add solos to this update and make it for everyone or are you gonna snob causal players again?

Well seeing as it's on beta in the form it's in, and it goes live on Tuesday, I'd say it's going live in more or less it's current form. To me they missed out on making this awesome by not making it a contested dungeon, and as they decided on an instance, not having a solo version.
It's a shame.

As far as the disregard of the casual player, I too am very disappointed. If it is a money Issue; I bought the Lifetime Membership and I buy every expansion; not to mention the occasional gold purchase. I have played this game for 10 years and the whole reason I came to EQ2 was EQ1 was more for raiding etc. EQ2 had great solo play. If this is the new trend I think they will lose a lot of solo players who don't have the time for the big raids etc.I only hope that if a raid only game is their goal they let us know so we don't waste our time and money and we can perhaps find another game.

I also feel a bit cheated. We paid full price for the expansion that includes the update and the update will have no material for solo players?

“so when are you going to give us casual players a update we CAN PLAY I pay to play this game as well as I guess many casual players do yet your always giving RAIDERS the updates why should casual players continue to pay for this game when you give us nothing in the updates make this update and all the past ones available to causal non raiders thank you or you might start seeing casual players start pulling their memberships back to free accounts why should we help pay to keep the servers up when all you do is give raiders everything?”
I agree - I am handicapped and not fast enough to do heroics and I hate raiding. I suppose the idea is that casual players should just buy more character slots and grow new toons from scratch since there's never anything new for us.