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Stick a fork in it.
bpharris9014
Member CommonPosts: 36
The sad thing here is this is an awesome game, but SOE mismanaged it to the point that it's done. It has far better graphics, immersion and depth of content than WoW, and it's a ghost town.
I played EQ2 at launch. It had a ton of people. But over the first six months, SOE kept redoing things. I don't mean tweaking things, I mean redoing things. It was like paying $15 a month to be a beta tester. At least half the promises they made pre-launch about crafting were completely inaccurate (ie. trade caravans, an economy dependent on crafting, crafters being as viable as adventurers...). After starting as a top blacksmith, the adventurers far outdid me for wealth about three months out, and I was grinding at least 60 hours per week.
Then SOE completely redid all my tools and made it harder to get pristine stuff.
Then, when I got to the top tier, they jacked up the mat prices so it wasn't profitable at all anymore.
So then I quit.
And I came back last week. Now, everything appears to be worked out. Even the nodes drop better, which was a huge time sink... Not that SOE has ever minded a time sink.
Except, nobody plays now. Antonica, which used to have 3 or 4 instances running almost all the time, is empty. BB is empty. ROV is empty. The whole server is empty, except for a few level 70s.
Unlike EQ, WOW and EVE, there are very few players left from three years ago. There are still people in EQ who were playing in 2001, if not before. Not so in EQ2...
And it really is a cool game, but SOE messed it up so bad that everyone quit.
What a shame. Hopefully they won't push the Pirates of the Burning Sea's management into ruining that game.
Though I have to say, the greatest player screwing of all times was when SOE let everyone in SWG become a Jedi. That far outdoes any method by which they've screwed players in EQ2.
Way to go SOE... Oh well, at least it looks nice.
Comments
i just started playing on AB server a couple weeks ago and its pretty packed, so mabey its just that one server, but the game seems to be going quite well stil and the expansion will bring new and old into the game, with all kinds of new crpa and a lvl cap raise, and its a super all in 1 pack for new ppl
*sighs* not again. someone else to come and complain about the game. If you don't like it, why can't you leave a game peacefully instead of coming to a web site to do nothing but complain how horrible it is?
See... I disagree with you. Its not dead at all. I never have a hard time finding a group. I never see it empty. Maybe its the times you're playing at.
See, I was on before dinner and it was plenty busy then. I saw people everywhere and even received two requests to group (which I promptly turned down because I'm sick right now and my reaction time is slow so I'd be no fun in a group atm).
If you find that you're not liking the game, just leave. Peacefully.
Im sorry the OP feels that way, it is after all his opinion and is no way even remotely close to fact.
Sure gone are the days when we would see an Antonica 2, Antonica 3. But the servers ar far from empty as you would imply.
While EQ2 is not perhaps a ghost town it is a bit player deprived, especially at the lower levels up to teens. The game just isnt drawing in alot of new games, and it is current enough with graphics and gameplay that it should be. Like the OP said, the game has so much more to offer then WoW yet WoW is killing it with players. We dont have to get into the quality of players here because we all know where that will go.
The problem with EQ 2 is advertising and that is SOEs fault. You cant go into a game section, close your eyes, turn around three times, point, and not be pointing right at a WoW Box. You can hunt for hours and not see an EQ2 box. I never understood that, and SOE has been like that all along. They think that word of mouth will bring people in alone, true they provide a better product for the most part but word of mouth is not doing it alone. Advertise in magazines, make a commercial or two, hell get on South Park. But above all that dont make it near impossible for someone to even find the game to buy it.
Even if EQ2 is great game and not exactly "ghost town" I know what OP mean. I played EQ2 beta and it was really great, zones has more than 2 instances every time and you can see ppl everywhere it was really good feel.
.
Now tell me if there is a server where are more than one instance of something?!?
Yeah maybe in beta all people were in one spot with same lvls, so it seems like a lot of them, but still it looks very good and I also miss these times
_____________________________
Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.
in comparison to 1st 6 months of EQ2, yes it is deserted.
I havent played EVE, but the same is true for many games more than 6 months old
EQ, DAOC, WoW, and maybe LOTRO
the starting areas are *not* empty but they are a pale comparison to when the game was new.
if you compare EQ2 population to its 1st 6months,
you will be disappointed.
EQ2 fan sites
actually in AB i've seen Neriak with a 2nd instance a couple times in the last month or so. The population is fine in general, but you have to choose your server right.
And, yet, many other games, including EVE, WOW, CoV and even SWG have very busy starting areas and zones full of players.
And I'll tell you why you should be thankful people don't just quit without complaining -- because, if they did, the reasons for which they're quitting wouldn't get fixed.
Believe it or not, SOE, Blizzard, NCSoft, all of them read these forums, reviews, all of it. And, as they plan future games, they take into account the loudest public complaints.
That's why newer MMORPGs have less grind now, more balanced PVP, fewer time sinks, faster customer service response time, less lag, and adjustments, though often slight, to most major problems that people typically flamed up forums with for years.
The truth, in-game and in real life, is that if nobody complains, things don't get done. There is no incentive to fix something that everyone seems at least complacent with.
for WoW thats not true
try starting a blood elf or a Dranaei
you will see less than 5 people under lvl 10
(if anyone at all ! )
I dont count places like Barrens or Goldshire
EQ2 is a much more spreadout landscape
- even without expansions
EQ2 fan sites
BTW, just to let everyone know, only Greater Faydark and Neriak split instances any more. No matter how many people are in a zone other than those, it will not split. This was changed by SoE before EoF because guilds were packing contested zones with people to make it split for resources and contested. It was an exploit, so SoE removed multiple instances from everywhere but these two zones. In fact, it might have been around KoS time.
We had almost 200 people in Rivervale alone a couple days ago, and it never split. Loping Plains hits over 100 a lot and Qeynos Harbor is nuts. I don't even use the broker there any more because you can hardly see him except early morning and late nights.
Edit: And this is on a medium server, not even top 10 for population.
"Granted thinking for yourself could be considered a timesink of shorter or longer duration depending on how smart..or how dumb you are."
I think most older games (3+ years) experiences this phenomenon where the starting/teens area are deprived of players. Even in WoW which boasted over 9 million players have their newbie zones empty (try checking out the new dranei and blood elf area and you'll see at most 5-6 players / rerolls quickly grinding out and moving on to higher level zones). The reason for this is because the majority of the population are high levels and max level characters who most likely are hanging out at the max/high level areas. The same thing with Everquest 2 as the newbies you see are the rerollers, returnees.
The population is booming.
The amount of content is breathtaking.
It is solo friendly, group friend, and raid friendly.
The crafting is actually meaningful and fun.
It is accessible to both casual and hardcore (perhaps the only game that achieves this)
And an awesome expansion is about to be released with: 1) new raid content; 2) new race; 3) new group content; 4) new zones; 5) epic weapons for casual and hardcore; and 6) much, much more.
EQ 2 is alive, well, and booming. This is the game to be apart of, and its community is the best out there (possibly ever, some would say, and I might be one of them).
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WoW and fast food = commercial successes.
I neither play WoW nor eat fast food.
To give credit where credit is due I played the FAE 7 day trial a few weeks back and I found a few lvl 10's and below in the new area on Antonia Bayle. They seemed to all be alts and guilded. I tried a couple of other servers though and they seemed really empty in comparison.
Might as well face it the game is pretty old and that naturaly means top heavy. Also it does not offer much that has not been done better in other games, even it's crafting and pretty graphics have been surpassed by games like LoTRO. Best advice I could give a newbie just starting the game is roll on the Antonia Bayle server and find a guild ASAP, I doubt you will find many PUGs below lvl 60 or so.
It's still a good game at the core though and I would not tell anyone not to try it. I enjoyed it a lot for a couple of years.
I miss DAoC
Funny this is brought up today.
Last night I'd had a conversation with some of my guildies as to whether to roll some alts and start a lowbie/training/teaching guild because there were so many new people on that they were filling up chat (I listen in on all levels) to the point where it became hard to follow the scroll.
Nope, we're not on Antonia Bayle, either.
also on AB i've seen this with the commonlands area - though until now i had no idea what that 1 and 2 actually were when zoning in
to the op right after release everyone was low level and there were less starter areas for that levels so nearly everyone was hanging out in antonica or commonlands in the lvl 10-20 range. now there is greater faydark and darklight woods too that have that level range covered too, as well as people are split up over the level range from 1-70 not only from 1-30 like in the first month of eq2. so yes its unlikely that you will see that many people in the starter areas like you did at launch.
but you can still find other people to group with in all level ranges on all servers especially in the main play hours of these servers.
I dunno, maybe it's my server. I'm rolled on Befallen. I have several toons there ranging in level from 14 to 32 and I don't see groups for any of them, anywhere.
On an up note -- there are plenty of resource spawns. I can mine for hours and never see a soul...
I rolled up a troll SK on AB -- Sunday -- and was the only toon in the starter area.
And I would try rolling in the Fay area but, thing is, that involves buying an expansion... to a game that looks really dead... That's a pretty big leap of faith. But I would like to see Crushbone again, in lush, modern 3D graphics.
For the record, I started EQ four years after launch at it was teaming with new players. I started WOW two years after launch, and it was teaming with new players. There are very few games with this few servers that have this few people on them. I would be shocked if EQ2 has more subscribers than EQ.
Impossible.
Let's meet at a time this Sunday together and both start new characters.
That is utterly impossible. I was online last night and there were 86 people in the noobie area. 86 people in a game of "zones," many instances (not only dungeons but homes where people trade and craft), and other instanced content.
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WoW and fast food = commercial successes.
I neither play WoW nor eat fast food.
Because I have... what incentive to embelish my story? Why would I make up something like that?
It's not only possible, I was there. I rolled a troll SK on AB last Sunday and the Isle was completely empty.
I mean, what, do you think I want to be playing a game that's dead empty so I have something to bitch about on the forums? Believe me, if I just wanted something to gripe about, I'd be in the Tabula Rasa forums right now explaining what a boring grindfest that piece of crap is -- but that game is so far gone it's not even worth it.
EQ2 could actually be a thriving game if SOE didn't run off all the players with their backhanded imitation of "management."
FOR A T T E N T I O N. You lied, misled, and stirred people up for attention.
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WoW and fast food = commercial successes.
I neither play WoW nor eat fast food.
the evil isle could have been empty
(altho no more empty than starting a WOW blood elf)
unlike WoW and other games,
you can leave the isle at LEVEL ONE and start questing immediatly in Freeport or elsewhere.
Neriak is a better starting area
Darklight woods is *much more popular* for questing from level 1+
- it was added FREE content from May 2007
DarkLight supports questing from 1 thru 20 in one area
eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Darklight_Wood_Timeline
even as a evil half elf,
I leave the evil isle at lvl 5 and run over to Neriak for DarkLight Woods questing.
the following races can start in Neriak
eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Neriak
You can start a character in Neriak regardless of whether you own any EQ2 expansions. However, you must own Echoes of Faydwer in order to create an Arasai.
EQ2 fan sites
I thijnk the biggest thing is that people who want to play EQII, have already played it. It really is a limited game as far as the game play. It is still pretty much the same game that was released 3 years ago as far as the gameplay goes other than the raise the level cap occasionally to give the upper level guys a new ceiling to grind against, new areas aqnd new quests etc have been added but it is still primarily a PvE game with raids as a endgame and that pretty much sums up the entire game.
I miss DAoC
The EQ2 population is very good on the Butcherblock server. Toons at all lvl ranges can be found.
I started playing WoW again approx. 2 months ago (still playing EQ2 also) and, although I am having fun with WoW, I noticed its population is dismal at times. Most toons are top heavy lvl wise. I`d never write a article saying Stick a fork in WoW or say that Blizzard has ruined WoW because the start zones are weak with toons. EQ2 and WoW have been out about the same time in length and it`s natural that the populations of the games would have more high lvl toons.
As for me, I`m probably going to keep playing WoW as long as it`s fun, same with EQ2. I`m just looking forward to the EQ2 Rise of Kunark expansion for new content. I know a couple of my friends are not playing EQ2 right now but are really excited about the RoK expansion. I just hope people realize that a lot of people are going to be playing the higher lvl zones with their mains especially at RoK launch.
Sorry you are upset OP... AB is packed. Not sure what you are talking about.
eqnext.wikia.com