What happened to PvP servers?

Yes, I know they're long gone but why?

Not enough people played on them to keep them open, that and the classes aren't balanced for pvp.

Wasn't that mainly due to battlegrounds being a thing? It essentially gave every server the ability to do grouped pvp matches, which made the pvp servers have no plus side to them. Yeah some classes weren't balanced for pvp, but there isn't really a good excuse for that since spells have different affects from pve to pvp. EQ2 had some of the best pvp out of any mmo i've played, just seems sad that they most likely will never consider it again.

/b/ was never good...

Battlegrounds were removed and the PvP server still could not keep enough players to be viable.

I would guess from what I read here on the forums and personal experience in other games, it was just a gank fest where 5+ grouped up to hunt newbies and feel good about it.

You would have to love pvp in Eq2 to have survived, because you could accidentally come across a group or more of people when solo and get rolled over, but people did not actually make 6 man groups or raids to run around and hunt solo players, there is no fun or thrill in that. That's just a ridiculous hyperbole from salty kids. Solo players were just sometimes in the wrong place at the wrong time when these groups of players were looking for or fighting other groups.

I died so often when i was first learning the game many years ago on Nagafen but I enjoyed pvp so I didn't run to the forums to whine about how unfair my deaths were. Every pvp'er has experienced for themselves what the people on these forums were complaining about, it's just not a deal breaker for us, it's part of being on a pvp server.

Honestly, the down fall of Eq2 pvp could have been do to a generation change. An environment that once supported thick skinned players who could take a loss or an insult turned into a more sensitive, instant gratification group. That's not only Eq2 but pretty much any mmo now.

Eh...I was there...it was mostly about the gank, especially towards the end of nagafen. There were actually networks set up to notify lowbie hunters when solo players were sighted. Solos were sometimes relentlessly hunted and would eventually just give up and log. Don't know how thick your skin would have to be to ignore multiple groups tracking you because of their hyper aggressive needs.

And most of the pvp posts on forums are from people who have been gone for years and suddenly reappear and rant about how it sucks so bad that pvp is no more.

The only word i would change in this quote is "most" to "all of the pvp posts"

Rant is a poor word choice for people coming back and asking if pvp still exists lol.

The actually issue is the salt that comes from players who don't like pvp, derailing the threads of people just simply asking a question. Instead of a simple no, sometimes they get attacked lol. It's pretty ironic considering pvp servers and its players are suppose to be the toxic community.

Have pvp in any title on here now and its starts a war no matter how peaceful the op's original comment is.

I, personally, don't care much for PvP and I got my start at that in EQ1 on Sullon Zek server. However, for those who do like it, I encourage it. This game is big enough for us to have fun, as long as we don't hurt each other. If you roll on a PvP server, leave your troubles, complaints and owwies there. You knew what you were getting into by starting a toon there. So no sympathies from me on that respect. However, PvP can be a lot of fun if done right, but there is always some jerk around to make it unfun... the secret is to make it unfun back for them also! Done that more than once in the past. Got jumped by 2 lighties as I explored near the city of Paineel. I ended up fearing one of them over the edge of the Hole to get lucky and send the other one over it also! I left knowing they were in a fight to recover their bodies, this was early/mid velious time in EQ so not lots of ways to recover your body from the Hole then.

I am far from a "salty kid", I probably have kids older than most people in this game, kids that were far more mature at 5 and 6 than most players in this game. I never played PvP in EQ2, I stated from what I read on these forums and personal experience in other games that are now over 20 years old. There was no option back then for anything other than PvP servers.

In the beginning it was alright, most of the time it would be 1 Vs 1, in the end it became 6 Vs 1, this is when it became unfun. The gank squads would hide just outside of town and any new or low level player that left town would be OOOooOooooOO in seconds and then the gank squad would rez kill them so they could not get back to their corpse. A new player could start in any town, there was no safe area. So don't call me a "salty kid".

Lol rez kill. I got killed in common lands and kept getting camped on by the darklight woods camp rez point. It was actually hilarious watching someone get off on being so overly zealous to another player and I wasn’t even getting mad which was probably his goal- to make me mad. I just called out for help on gen and within a couple minutes he got murdered and logged.

They aren't "long gone," they're just gone. There was Deathtoll, the gold sub TL-PvP server that was only opened then shut down again in recent days. The real question here is, "Where were you, and if you couldn't show up to financially support an open PvP server, then why are you whining about there not being anything now?"

The last PvP server lasted approximately a year, if the wiki site is correct (started 2015, closed 2016). There isn't enough support for PvP in EQ2 from PvP players or from the people who work on the game. There is only so much they can do and they have to set priorities based on where the players are playing.

That salty kid statement was not targeted at you at all, so I'm not sure why you're getting so defensive.

To complete my earlier comment.

Remember when /b/ was good?

See above.

In my opinion one of the biggest mistakes the people at Verant made when developing EQ is cave in to the small, vocal group of people who were whining, begging, and demanding that PvP be in the game. I'm not going to complete the lengthy thought from there, though. Aside from having written it out too many times already, It should be obvious why by now.

I honestly think it goes all the way back to when they introduced the 'writs' for kills. I can't even remember much about it other than it wasn't well received. Flying mounts didn't help either, neither did titles.
I don't think them closing had anything to do with players not wanting to PvP, it had more to do with some poor/odd decisions on SoE's part.
Battlegrounds also put a nail in PvP's coffin. Battlegrounds in my mind are not real PvP.

People seem to constantly get the wrong idea about PvP servers. What some see as let's call it aggression, for the sake of moderation, was honestly passion. PvP was serious business in EQ2 to the point it was common for toons to have spies on the opposing side. Remember the level 1 camped at TT spires? I remember that fondly tbh.

I'm guessing I won't make much sense to anyone but myself but that's ok.

Hardly an accurate assessment if you are referring to Deathtoll TLE pvp server, that server was abundantly popping with a huge population in the beginning. It was just a big money grab and run by DBG because they provided no customer service including class balance and regular PVE adjustments even tho is it was mandatory pay to play on the server.

Pure scam by DBG. They got people's money for 30 days and did nothing but line their pockets.

what kills pvp no matter how balanced it is,is the fact that people start killing off the lower levels for fun, that stuffs frustrating when you have a higher level sk picking off easy kills just to be a menace, you will only sit and deal with so much of it until you say forget this im leaving the game.

The practice of necromancy is counterproductive to the desire to see things remain dead.