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Reason for the Fall of Everquest
For starters, I played Everquest for over four years and loved the game. I then started playing World of Warcraft and abandoned Everquest. Both games have their virtues and their limitations. Everquest has MUCH more content (and that was with ONLY eight of the now 14 expansions). The reason so many players abandoned Everquest, in my opinion, was the severe experience losses for dying and having to actually LOOT your corpse to recover your items when you died in a dungeon. Not to mention all the failed combines when you were leveling tradeskills. Everquest is a far superior MMORPG to WoW in my opinion, but World of Warcraft is so much easier on the nerves that returning to Everquest is very tough after playing World of Warcraft. As a sidenote, after getting five toons to 70 in World of Warcraft, I have now stopped playing that game as well. Blizzard made a pretty lame attempt at an expansion with The Burning Crusade if you ask me. I think SOE and Blizzard should join forces and create a MMORPG that combines the best aspects of both games into a ultimate MMORPG. Also, if there are any people out there that are trying to decide between Everquest and Everquest II - Everquest is by FAR the better choice of the two .....
Comments
yup wow is a very easy game to get into and play..
everquest can be harder.. but at the end of the day i had a lot more fun playing everquest than i did wow..
Now i aint dissing wow as i played that for about a year as well just ran out of time to play mmorpgs at that point
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Once getting a group together started taking in excess of 1.5 hrs the game quickly started dying. In EQ you can't really do anything that is not combat oriented. Having the non-raid mobs balanced toward raid gear was a huge mistake, and one they still continue.
Yes, EQ pre-PoP was the best game I've ever played. However, the game today flat out sucks, because if you're not raid equipped you can't even enjoy most of the "new" content.
Group content is not and never has been tuned to raid geared players. The content is tested by players using group attainable gear. Yes some of the content is built around group geared characters at the top of the group gear tree but nothing is tuned towards raid loot geared save for RAIDS.
Raiding also has nothing to do with lfg problems which are mostly related to either lack of population or a lack of social skills.
My god what is it with you people? Raiding is fun for some of us. You don't like that's fine no one is holding a gun to your head making you do it. But to blame everything on raiders just gets tiring. Sony caters to casuals like crazy inspite of all claims to the contrary.
The vast majority of content in all expansions save for PoP and GoD was targeted at group players, When they did the itemization revamp of DOD it was the casual gear that got tuned not the raid gear.
The few times group content has been released that was challenging to raid geared toons it was soon gimped out after the outcry of the non-raiders. AG and Frostcrypt for example used to be to the point that as a ranger I actually watched my agro because it was gonna hurt to get hit. Now I regularly tank those zones.
Sony has made its share of mistakes over the years (Beastlords,Bersekers, EQII) But focusing on raiders to the exclusion of non-raiders was not one of them.
EQ's decline is being caused by two things. Sony's refusal to market it and the focus of resources on EQ2 and other titles. EQ paid for all the other yet Sony is unwilling to feed the cash cow. That's the problem with EQ not a focus on raiding and raiders.
Bans a perma, but so are sigs in necro posts.
EAT ME MMORPG.com!
Everquest was always going to get to a stage where there were many people leaving especially as Everquest has got old. People don't really want to play old games over new games. Point in case to remove some of the rose-glasses we could have is to play something like DaoC or AC. I played AC 6 months ago or so and damn that game had aged. Give that a try if you haven't tried it and then think how new people must see EQ.
- Economy is extremely out of whack - top level raid gear from older expansions are sold for a few plat on a farmer's paradise bazaar system. If your not using gear far above spec you cannot tank mobs, period!
- Too many expansions too fast, ruined the economy, with each expansion another mechanic is broken
- Top heavy raid game with very little ability for new players to group, especially 10-50 level's
- The wonder and awe of a MMORPG is gone
- Old city zones are empty and the simplicity formula that hooked most of us have been gone for years
- Storyline has gone loony
This is only to name a few. WoW, EQ2, LOTRO, etc all are competition. EQ1 needs to CLOSE DOWN, leave a classic server (original, kunark and velious) as a memorial to the game, and make a new EQ.Short of a new game from scratch, there is nothing that can help EQ1 be great again.
Next thing I knew, I couldn't even get a group anymore because I didn't have 9K hp's. People were buying plat and then buying gear that had previously been unavailable. And it should have stayed unavailable.
Have you Flipped (chuckles) EQ will never die, its like Milk N Cookies, N Dodge Ram 4x4 N Mud, They may get OLD but never DIE.
Yepper Like BULLDOZERS n TREES ohh did i say trees........ well DEAD trees K
Chuckles.. Goin fishing now ...........
You see, this argument goes both ways.
SoE didn't make EQ a raid game. The player base did this. Remember Vox and Naggy? It was the players that banded together and took these two dragons out, when SoE wasn't ready. Once it was done, it couldn't be undone. Now the player base demanded content that was challenging for 18+ players.
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My dog barks some. Mentally you picture my dog, but I have not told you the type of dog which I have. Perhaps you even picture Toto, from "The Wizard of Oz." But I warn you, my dog is always with me.
With PvE raiding, it has never been a question of being "good enough". I play games to have fun, not to be a simpering toady sitting through hour after hour of mind numbing boredom and fawning over a guild master in the hopes that he will condescend to reward me with shiny bits of loot. But in games where those people get the highest progression, anyone who doesn't do that will just be a moving target for them and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay money for the privilege. - Neanderthal
I have to disagree with the name of this thread. Everquest has been around for over 8 years now and is still going stronger than 90% of MMOs out there. I harldy consider this a fall. It is past its prime for sure but don't make it sound like the game crashed and burned. In fact I think Everquest has and is still setting a benchmark in regards to product lifecycle that all other MMO have to measure up to. Even a giant like WoW has a long way to go. If WoW is still up there in 6 years time - fine. But until then, EQ is still the golden standard in my book.
That is totally wrong...just look at Serpents Spine expansion the items armor and weapons (on regular named mobs in the zones) are equivalent to PoP plane of time raid gear...And all you really need is 7-8k HP for a tank (non buffed-10k11k buffed)and 1 healer with 6-8k mana to kill them duo, and if you're a pet class like the necro mage or beastlord (if your geared right 12-14k hp) then you can do it solo...What I'm saying is every new expansion comes out you can pretty much get a group to get stuff thats equal or better than the older expansions...So once you get equipped with new stuff you're already raid geared and can do older expansion progression raiding for better gear to be more up to date with the new expansion...Honestly (I play in the bristlebane server) and the top guild is Club FU they finish every new expansion progression in about 2-3 months thats raiding 6-12 hours 6 days a week...
IMO the REAL downfall was when they released Depths of Dark Hollow expansion...There was so many monster missions (great idea) but it was poorly executed because I'd say about 75% of the community used it as a way to grind to level 70 and got toons to level 70 OR grind alternate advancements points...(I admit I did it myself) because that was the fastest and easiest way to level up your characters...Until there were changes to it...Experience was awesome and loot was awesome as well...The other 25% of the community didnt need to use it as a method to grind or get loot they were the raiders...Most people got 1000 aa points in about a week if they wanted to...(about 1 aa and half of the experience bar filled per monster mission until of course it was changed a bit)
Bans a perma, but so are sigs in necro posts.
EAT ME MMORPG.com!
1. The economy is the same for everyone on the server. It's out of whack for one, it's out of whack for all. It seems whacky but it's not a huge game-stopper.
2. I really don't think many people play MMOs for the story line. It help but I don't see this as much of an issue either.
3. Expansions are no longer an issue. You can buy all 13 now with $20. Best deal on the market IMO.
I think your third bullet sums it up. People get tired of playing their mains and re-roll, only to find zero people to level with. If a new character is not a re-roll and is a true newbie, there is no real great tutorial (it's ok, but it's no EVE tutuorial) and once the toon is out in the world, there is nobody LFG. I know I've recently talked someone into trying the game. He made it out of the turorial and was lost, clueless, and had nobody to group with (we play at different hours). He went back to the user friendly WoW....
Boycott EA Games. RIP Sim City.
It was a group game but with dragons and lore and quests for later on. The developers thought that people wanted to raid all the time but people just wanted to raid once in a while because it was fun that way. When you raid all the time it sucks.
Boycott EA Games. RIP Sim City.
There are still enough people playing that I can't do a /who all 75 class and see everyone for any class except for Berserkers.
Now I am on one of the more populated servers, but I can pretty much get a group anytime I want (Guild tag probably helps) and the general channels are constrantly full of people forming up groups lfg usually has a dozen or so people looking and the bazaar a few hundred traders. When I run through PoK there are typically 40+ people there and that's with most people not actively grouping hanging out in the guild halls to conserve their buff timers. There is a constant flux of people poping in and out of the guild lobby getting or waiting for rezes. Last time I went to AG looking for a group the zone was pretty much at capacity and that's generally just people at the higher end of the gear spectrum. Yeah there is only one guild on our server in Solteris, but there are a couple working through TSS several at some point of progression in POR or DOD.
The whine boards are still relatively active and our guild is just one of many who manage to feild 54+ 6 nights a week for raids.
EQ suffers from the perception of so many people that old=bad and new=good.
Now I'm not going to dog these other games they are different games. I personally don't like 3rd person view and I find the character models in WoW to be cartoonish. But in the end it comes down to the fact that I've got 7+ years invested in progressing my character I've taken him from a noob falling off the platforms in Kelethin to one of the top rangers in the game, from strugling to beat down an orc pawn to loot a rusty 2 handed sword to defeating an end game event to loot one of the best 2 handers in the game.
EQ is still a good game and most of what people complain about it no longer applies yet people continue to comment about how bad the game is based on the state of the game 4+ years ago. Others are a matter of personal preference or jealousy.
I see people constantly complaining about raiding and the gear raiders have access to. When the only thing that prevents them from the same accomplishments is their own choice not to raid. And that's fine the provides plenty of oportunities to people who choose not to raid. There are grouping oportunities as well as gear options that are more than sufficient for their purpose and are just as much an accomplishment in their own right.
And there are plenty of players who primarily play the group game who get the vast majority of their loot from group options and in many cases end up better geared than the majority of raiders. People talk about raiders and their gear as if every raider was like me in an end game guild and base their expectations on that. Completely ignoring the fact that the vast majority of people who raid in EQ are in more casual guilds who may have 1-3 raid nights a week and their primary focus is on grouping and the social aspects of the game. I know plenty of people who are in these more casual guilds do to their own time constraints or choices.
Some don't have the time commit to get into an end game guild and some don't want to deal with the attendance requirements which can range anywhere from mandatory % of attendance to loot to more casual like ours which is if your online and the guilds raiding you get yer butt too the raid. I know one person in particular who joined a mid-tier guild because even that sort of minor requirement was too onerous for his preference which was to raid when he wanted to or to tradeskill or what ever he feels like doing at a given time.
And most guilds fit that mold rather than the hard core raider mold.
Raiding is also a lot more interesting and fun that it was back in the pre-pop days. The scripts are complex with numerous tasks to accomplish and certain effects that can cause the mistake of one player to wipe an entire raid. long gone are the days of getting behind the mob hitting auto attack and going afk. Everyone has to pay attention not just the 10 or so tanks/healers/leaders while the rest of the guild is drug along on their coat tails.
The game has been kept pretty current as far as technology and graphics with the singular exception of the character models which there is suposedly ongoing efforts to revamp those as well. Many of the new models are very nice. Lethar the Black forexample looks cool as hell.
It's not a game for everyone but for people who like a challenge care more about gameplay than graphics and want years worth of stuff to do. EQ is still a good choice.
Personally I'm starting from scratch after having left for years. I had to get rid of my old account losing my original release characters, which in themselves weren't terribly great nowdays anyway since I left a LONG time ago *the cap had just been increased to 60 0_o*. Not something I wanted to do but it was something that had to be done due to a life emergency. I have the fortunate backing of my girlfriend who has been playing for years and is well established to help me get up to where she is so I can join in with her guild and get to doing things. I can see how things could be a bit disorienting and difficult for new players without such connections though. There really is next to nobody for them to group with so getting to where everyone else is, is both daunting and disheartening. More importantly, boring. This seems to be the problem with adopting new players in older games and puts off a lot of people from trying them. The fact that everyone else playing is already at the cap, and it's going to take forever to catch up to them.
Bans a perma, but so are sigs in necro posts.
EAT ME MMORPG.com!
Bans a perma, but so are sigs in necro posts.
EAT ME MMORPG.com!
I am so good, I backstabbed your face!
Raiding.
It makes groupers go away (when they understand it, but at first, they give the game a chance because they just don't understand the implications). Without groupers even raiding guilds eventually crumbles to nothingness.
Raiding can't be put ahead of grouping, it can't make peoples better at grouping (then groupers themselves). As simple as that. You need the Anofalye to be LFG and grouping non-stop (this requires the optimal path to group uberness been by grouping), as well as all the other groupers, especially all the PUGers. You need a community, the reclusive guilds-oriented players are not enough on their own.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Everquest fell? This e-mail I just got about another expansion must have been somebody pranking me!!!
why I awwta!