Hello all Zeknafien here, been player since day 1 and love eq2 so much I just started paying for it again even though my computer doesn't hardly run it lol, but I want the game to stay alive. How does a game like eq2 stay alive? by community, and how does a community come together? By playing together! ^_^ I think we should ask the dev's and the powers that be to let us play together, why have several servers that have low population when you could have a couple server with high population. Population and community brings in more population. Ever log onto a MMO and there is no one there...not likely to keep playing cause it will seem dead, well I think there is enough EQ2'ers to keep this game alive, I get the time locked server idea, it's cool too, but all the other servers, just merge em together so we have a population again right? I really think the dev's should hop on board with this because we could breathe new life into this game through word of mouth or social media, because we don't need a new game, this game is great, we need more people to experience it, the game is so multifaceted and has depth most games don't and I think with the right push and support it can be great again! Just my 2 cents <3 Zeknafien the Brigand - Antonia-Bayle p.s. Go to the BG's guys PVP is the BEST! (6 year naggy vet)
i kinda agree , AB used to be the most crowded server and lots of us choose this server because of this I think a merge with another server like skyfire would be good.
Hi Zeknafien. That name is familiar. You may have known one of my alts? Does Druzzt, Wolfgar, Artamis, Gondalf, Ligolas or Sauran ring a bell? Anyways, my opinion is that full merge of standard Live servers should be pursued with caution. From a gameplay standpoint, it would be nice for us to all be on the same server, but it could backfire. With just one standard Live server, CN execs may ask the question, is EQ2 worth investing any money into further development? Or just keep a mostly automated light on, until interest level drops to a point they pull the plug (eg: EQOA, Vanguard, Dragon's Prophet, Free Realms, Wizardry Online)? The suggestion from Semisus to merge AB into Skyfire makes much more sense, and would be a less bleak indicator of the games status.
the game doesn't need any mergers at present, what it needs is for the devs to stop making new servers and causing the spreading out the population of the existing servers.
I hate to be one of those "the sky is falling" people, but I've got my suspicions that Norrath's days are numbered already.
AB does have a low pop. They have had a lower pop than the other regular ruleset servers since the last round of merges 2 years ago, so it's nothing new. AB also seemed to be the most hurt by the opening of the prestige servers. They are going to merge Stormhold onto AB, but that's not going to help anything population wise since most SH folks have long since moved elsewhere. They need to also just quit with the propping up of IoR and merge that into AB as well and see if that does anything to help the population. I doubt anything at all is going to happen until after the expansion drops though. Expansion sales and the numbers of people who start playing again regularly on the standard servers rather than Fallen Gate will give them a more accurate view of things. The devs also really need to do something about the name situation with merges before they do anymore large scale merges. Sure they are going to do a name purge soon, but the requirements to keep names are going to be pretty loose, so even the people who logged in just to grief people during the last round of merges and never logged on again will still get to keep their names, leaving active players to find new names for their characters.
if i were in charge of the name priority of server mergers i'd do the flag period silently (and then only inform people afterwards) if you are active on your account within that period you can keep your name over some old toon someone would just log in to troll in any announcement ahead of time flagging process. after that if two people met that req and if it were possible the priority would be who held the name longest gets to keep it (so no using a day 1 toon to nick someone's name that they had since they created their toon) if you changed your toon name at some point it isn't fair to get the name over someone that has held it longer and who is active. as is it's too easily to lock down a name on a toon gathering dust just by logging it in for a minute.
Nobody forces me to ptw.I feel I owe it to my Raid guild to be the best I can be,That has resulted in me becoming a "wallet Warrior". After a cost analysis it became obvious that I was not getting good value for my money.It just seems hard to level ascensions any other way and is an obvious cash grab.With xpac incoming there will be a new phase of Milking,I'm not gonna be the cow this time.If the game was more interesting there would me no need for server mergers.I think we are headed to one server tbh.
I don't think a server merge would change much. In my opinion, it's just that many players are disengaged at this point. For a few different reasons: the brutal grind this xpac brought about, solo PGS becoming a thing to get gear (PGs remove you from your server and chat, giving a less populated feel on the home server), and it's really late in the xpac. That's not to say this go round didn't drive players out, but the new xpac will probably refresh things. This could of course be temporary if the next xpac makes the same mistakes as this one.
Thinking server merges will solve anything in a game whose management is constantly spawning new gimmick servers. Sorry, no.
The problem with server merges is that just as many people are standing around AFK in their guildhalls, and just as many people are passively waiting for a group instead of starting a group on their own. Also, when you merge servers and get a high population, you also get LOTS MORE LAG. The more people are in any given area, the more lag. Ask people from Antonia Bayle (which used to be the most populated server) about lag, for example. There's nothing stopping anyone from buying a server transfer token and moving elsewhere, of course (unless they're on a TLE server or other server that doesn't allow such transfers).
And that's without going over the obstacles to PUGs these days. I'm a pretty good and well geared Defiler who can't get bite one LFGing and can't seem to put together enough when I start inviting. Everyone's so paranoid of undergeared toons and players not up to snuff it's just pathetic now. Nobody takes a chance. Now spread that out over gimmick servers and PGs and everyone wanting their own guild and you have a ghost town in a crowd.
the key to pugging successfully these days (at least for me): 1) form a partial guild group (get 2-3 other guildie players preferably tank, dps and healer) and pug the other 2-3, 2)from those runs make a list of the PUG people that were competent to good. 3) after long enough you'll have a friendlist of people you can trust to do decent 4)if you can't get those good players refer back to step 1 5) if one toon is bad (as in have to carry them bad), kick them if they aren't a guildie and don't feel bad about it. that's the way to avoid most train wreck players. once you have a decently populated list anyway. to be honest i feel a ton better sitting back and let guildies i trust build the groups.
When you do run into a "trainwreck" player, put them on your /ignore list, then press Y to open it and put in a note reminding you why you don't want to group with them again. My historical favorites: The healer who wouldn't cure in a zone that required constant cures because "it takes too much power". The fury who wouldn't heal because "I'm DPS". The tank who wouldn't taunt, and after being badgered to do so, did /em taunt. We laugh about those PUGs now, but we weren't laughing at the time
AB had a healthy population for a long time. What hurt AB was prior to the merges, that they said initially couldn't be done, was that they bent over backwards to encourage people to transfer off of AB to the lower population servers and many did. Then to add insult to injury, they decided that the merges could be done and they proceeded to merge all of the other servers except for AB. Then by adding specialty servers in the mix, AB was pretty much doomed. Merging us with SH won't help. Also, some of the players on IOR came from AB and still have characters there, so potentially merging them with us wouldn't help either. It also didn't help when they merged the EU server Sebilis with AB as that server was all but dead any how. The only thing that might help AB is if they merge us with Skyfire, but they won't do that. They have said many times that they don't intend to merge the live servers any more. I guess I am staying on AB for the duration as I refuse to pay $25 per character to transfer and I would lose my guildhall in the process. I agree with the OP in that empty zones and a low population is not only frustrating for existing players that are affected by it, but also discouraging to new or returning players as well.
The issues can all ultimately be traced to game design: 1. Deteriorating quality -> people are leaving. 2. Few people are playing alts because of grind requirement, so people that got it done early aren't interested -> so people are leaving. 3. Shift to p2w, which for all practical purposes is more than p2w, it's a pay wall and cash grab -> people are leaving. I doubt you will see another server merger before the game is unplugged, but who knows. Maybe.
I think part of the problem with these discussions on the forums historically has been that people think too small. Someone mentions a population problem and the predictable responses often can be reduced to either, "It's fine for me so it's fine", or, "I don't want to be inconvenienced so you deal with it". I don't think it matters if people get a letter added to their name or lose a tag on their server if the alternative might literally be the plug being pulled on all of them. What's best for the game as a whole is what should be discussed, not what's convenient for a player or a group. I'd guess that they could merge all of the live servers down to maybe 2 at this point and be fine, but the people with the real numbers aren't talking so there's no way for us to do more than speculate. So, in the meantime, I'll keep occasionally logging in to AB and have whole zones to myself sometimes for hours at a time while I wait to see what does or doesn't happen.
Yeah I was a super hardcore raider, one of the best Brigands that existed because I was crazy addicted to being better than everyone, but I also wanted to help everyone because what is the point in a hardcore raid toon without helping out the regular peeps, so I would group with casual players and run em through heroics I could do myself but I really liked getting people new gear they really needed so I just liked helping lots of people cause it's really satisfying to see someone get gear they really need and that is an investment to future groups, cause now they have good gear ^_^ But I digress, now I'm a noob again, for now.. >_<
