Tedious repetition. What happened to EQ2?

I really miss the days when you were level say, 70, and there were other players that were 40, 50, 30, 20 newbies, etc.

People ACTUALLY were around in game. Now? See everyone in the new zone, go to say, a RoS zone or CD or even RoR?

NO BODY THERE.

It makes me said. I do raid, and group. But I miss the actual community being everywhere.

Glad I am not the only one.

Do you remember when it was worth getting some MC armor and accessories, along with some adept 3s, to help get through a level tier? Back when you would actually spend enough time in each tier to get value out of it.

Do you remember when a generous portion of the population was out and about, rather than squirrelled away in a guild hall? I still have the unpopular opinion that guild halls are a massive detriment to EQ2. The only thing the EQ2 team could do to alleviate the guild hall issue, is make the upkeep far more expensive, a few billion plat per week for the entry level guild halls should do it. Easy to adjust upkeep and amenity costs as needed when the economy becomes less of a clustertruck.

Do you remember how easy it was to meet new friends by joining EXP groups? They were a natural and functional means for players to come together and interact.

Times have changed, and I know they aren't going back. DBG cares about contextless engagement metrics, and thinking people are having "fun" because they do Overseer missions. Yay...

sadly familiars, mercs and houses from the panda quests did not last, just gear for us and mounts and yay adornments

i only do the heritage overseer quest in hopes of the reductions and barding thingies....research for anything takes way to long unless you pay for it, with spells you wont even be half done if you level em up naturally, when the next expansion comes out, 30 rl days and such is just nuts, should be 30 game days. i dont recall last time i found a decent spell for my class in a chest.

It's funny, my broker "do you want to spend this much money on..." was 1 gold for almost the entire twenty years I have played.

I remember all of it. And they changed crafting to make it easier, and they changed having to run back to get your soul shard. (Personally, I think that is something they should have left in the game - because the death thing doesn't exactly affect anything)

Templars were able to teleport people away if they were annoying, the economy wasn't broken. Oh, and you couldn't really kill the guards in Qeynos. The stats were actually readable. I don't even know how people using ACT can read the dps and heal numbers without getting a headache.

The friends I made in EQ2 the first time I am still friends with, and I talk with them almost every day. I do have a guild now that I joined that actually helps me and allows me to participate. Which is awesome because no one is here, and and if they are, they don't usually DO the group content. Or they fall apart because people leave.

/sigh

But the guild I am in now is filled with awesome people, which I am very thankful for.

Question: do you guys feel that this expansion has made you want to grind on your alts for 8 more months? Like do you feel that slowing things down gives you things to do? Or are you just saying screw it and either sitting this one out or leaving all together?

Nope, after being ignored by Daybreak long enough I realized this company refuses to change it's ways and that they use player "loyalty" as a way to continue sticking P2W mechanics down peoples throats and they continue to accept it. I swapped to WoW which I can happily say has absolutely no pay to win mechanics, every ability and skill tree does what it says it does, and all in all the game has a million more quality of life things in it that EQ2 should've had long ago, but doesn't. I still have a hole in my heart for the Everquest 2 we once had, but its safe to say that game is long dead and what we have now is just a garbled mess of a game that just tries to pull as many dollars from the remaining player base as possible. I still lurk and read just in the *ever so tiny chance* event that some changes were to go in the right direction in which case I'd gladly come back, but the entire loot crate ordeal needs to be done with and players need to stop thinking it's alright to be robbed blindly by a company. Don't be afraid to cancel your subscription, seriously.. speak with your wallet. Their are MUCH better games out there, even though at first it'll be a major change swapping to something else.. in a month or two you will be far more comfortable and happier than you would be sitting and waiting for this company to pull its head out of the sand.

I get that, I also play Ff14 when I have time ( can’t wait for July! New expansion!) If I didn’t have some awesome people to play with in the guild I am apart of now, I definitely would be gone I think. I finally have people who want to help me out and group though, and I’m not giving up for that reason. It means I will be playing my Channeler forever, but…it is what it is.

I was going to type out a lengthy reply of my love of the memories of this game and the frustrations of what it has become but realised I didn't need to. I made this vid several months back, skip to 14 mins in for my thoughts...

Very politely worded.

I don't have, as far as I can tell, any character that can do this expac. And DX11 is a block for me as well.

Bummer dude.

Though, to be fair, you're not missing much in terms of leveling and status requirements. Which is pretty much kinda what this expac is.

I agree. With some vehicle repairs, and some dental work needing to be done, I have different priorities this year.

For the most part, I'm skipping BoZ. I purchased it, and I think the best part of it is the artwork. Although I have two toons that can do the content (I got one of them started on both the crafting and adventuring timelines), I went back to playing my lower level alts because I really enjoy the older expansions/tiers. (There's still a lot of the 'old' game that never got around to back in the day, as well as a bunch of things that I had a lot of fun with then, and I still do today.)

I cancelled my all-access subscription a few months back and I'm about 90% sure that I won't be re-subbing in May. I was quite impressed by what Velo had to say about WoW (#27) and I'm thinking about giving it a whirl. (I've never played it at all and I don't personally know anyone who has, so it'll be brand-brand new to me, which sounds really appealing; something fresh to see and do.)

I think that Avirodar's characterization of what returning to EQ2 has been like after all these years (#4) is *precisely* how I've been feeling about it lately. (Your words really resonated with me & I wouldn't change a single one of them.)

For awhile, (after I found out about it) I regretted not having been around to take advantage of the 'lifetime' subscription that was offered several years ago, but now I'm kind of glad that I didn't. If I was one of those lifetime subscribers, I think I might feel a bit like I was chained to a sinking ship. I think it's time to move on.

I played WoW for the first time ever a few months back, before BoZ came out. Although it wasn't for me, it was a nice change to play something completely new. If only Ashes of Creation would come out.

It's usually the definition of "winning" that moves the goalposts. People that treat MMOs like Marathons instead of Sprints still seem to think that there is no finish line to cross first.

EQ2 is pay2win, on both live and TLE. Whether your goal is creating the best looking house or killing Mayong_Mistmoore_029 first, you're more likely to win the more you're willing to pay.

Ultimately, maybe someone isn't competitive. Sure. However, someone choosing not to compete is fundamentally not invited to the conversation to dictate the terms of the competition, or what is acceptably advantageous.

It is unfortunate how many un-fun mechanics are in game, and also how much stat bloat and skill bloat there is. I would absolutely be thrilled see the team make a concerted effort to tackle these things --- but the question is at what cost? and would players be patient? Would it ultimately bring back more players? I'm kind of to the point of just accepting those things for what they are, it's just easier than letting it bug me.

I also think the number of stats could be consolidated, and improvements made to the adornment system. Problem is now it's hard for players to find meaning in so many stats/big numbers/number of adorns.

The "leveling" of mounts/mercenaries/familiars. I'd like to see this re-worked from clicking a button and waiting, to having them level as you use them.

I am not confident that the devs are active players of the game, and if they are, they must be getting directive from higher ups to design systems that don't add fun/value/interest to the player.

I can't believe you were passing up all those shinys!

Better yet - Familiar, mercenary and mount training and buffs should be separate from the individual familiar, merc,,mount.

You posed a question: Would it ultimately bring back more players?
My answer is: I doubt it. Why? I believe it would be far too little, way too late.

Fixing all forms of bloat would be a tremendous QoL improvement for current players. But it does little to address the multitude of reasons people have moved on. Shortcomings with systems and mechanics, depth and balance of game design and game content, engaging things to do that bring players together that are also enjoyable. A balance of risk and reward, meaningful catch-up mechanics, a viable economy, and a game not decimated by the blight of RMT. Tending to the list in a practical way would be a gargantuan effort, beyond the scope of the current team. They struggle to eke out what passes for an expansion these days, hoping for anything more is folly.

SOE bled EQ2 dry, both financially and also with Dev talent, trying to create EQNext. Stating the obvious, the expectation from SOE was that EQNext would be bigger and better than EQ2 ever was, else why would they be trying to make it? However, it ended up being nothing more than an absurdly expensive sales pitch and vaporware. Smedley and Smokejumper put lipstick on the pig that was EQNext when selling the company to everyone except Columbus Nova , who inevitably realized EQNext was a lemon and buried it, leaving EQ2 to suffer the heaviest toll for the failure.