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How's population?
Lethal920
Member Posts: 112
in Everquest II
Thinking of returning with my brother for something to do until some of these newer games are released. Is the population healthy enough to enjoy it? I hate running through ghost town MMO's.
Comments
4 days and no reply, maybe that's your answer?
EQ2 was my game for years (since beta) I just got so frustrated with it last fall. It was really hard for me because i've always been a passionate player, not hardcore. But that is what the game forces any vet to be now because if you don't raid everything else is so baby land.
Over the last couple years the spamming of SC purchases for cosmetic stuff ended up be the entire focus of the game. These features are actually really cool, but the way they shove it down your throat constantly just seemed almost desperate. Even at gold member status.
From a development aspect the game has so much potential. The stories are good, the features are richer than anything I've seen. From a production standpoint it's just been poorly executed, and the consumers are constantly being milked at every end, especially the veterans paying the sub fee. This has been a negative trend that SOE has implemented to try to get surge income from new players instead of actually building a player base. The populations show this, the game became a waste land, unless you were signed up for high end raid zones or the occasional new zone which forces you to compete with everyone else trying to complete quests etc.
There were also several other fails in pvp based around weaknesses in the platform and programming that I can't imagine is easy.
I got Guild Wars 2 as a gift as I was about to swear off playing all together. Amazing game. No sand boxing yet like in Eq2, but....
1. The game actually doesn't punish you if you are not grouped. ie, you can harvest the same node as someone else, you can run up to an event or mob that another player is hitting and share all of each others buffs and loot w/out being grouped.
2. Even though the graphics are 10x better it still runs smoother than EQ2 even though it's running on a ten year engine. And the game is just beautiful and massive.
3. PVP, yes PVP and good PVP, not open world ganking, you zone to pvp but it's amazingly fun. And World vs World vs World, is insanely fun.
4. Leveling / level. Personally when I made my toon, I never felt a "need" to grind up. The game was so engaging I just played and before I knew it I was max level. Going to zones that are below your level remain challenging... personally I like this a lot. Doing any of the pvp your toon is auto adjusted and you remain competetive. If you don't quite know how to play your character you will have difficulties, being lower level will not give you some skills or extra armor buffs, but it is no way game breaking. Plus there are still a huge amount of things you can do as you learn the game w/out insta death. Either way even at level 80 from launch I only have 40% world discovery, and even with good gear I always find a good challenge in every area I explore.
5. Population - two fold. I might be in an annomaly here because I somehow hooked up with the most amazing guild. We have about 400 some members, that we've been kind of picky about inviting and have a system to root out those that play for a bit then quit. We usually have at least 100 active members on at all times, and usually at least half of that in voice. Living in a PVE server and being a PVP type player mostly, we have a pretty split guild here. Split but active and mostly mature :-P because of the standards the leaders made. But just having made a new "alt" and trying to level in zones i've never seen I still see dozens running around with me in even the most newbie areas, or unusual places or anywhere. And the mechanics are actually inplace to encourage helping those around you. This is what an MMO should be about I never saw in EQ2.
6. FTP. EQ2 now has 6 xps ftp. They are amazing and diverse. Good luck finding a group to roll with though. Once you quickly level up to "relevant" content you will need to purchase that expansion at full price. If you're just with your bud then you probably won't have any problem even doing raid content in legendary gear. GW2 is pay to play, not any different after those free parts. Except GW2 has NO requirements on a monthly sub to have a certain membership level at all. Gear, level, etc. You purchase the disk you are good to roll. And no pressure. In fact GW2 is actually a FTP game (after original purchase) but they do not shove "buy this crap down your throat or else" on top of a monthy sub. They don't even have a monthy sub option. And their version of SC store is actually kind of weak. I will probably buy the next GW2 Xpac like i did the previous 12? EQ2 ones, but will do it knowing exactly what my purchase was and no strings attached nor a montly payment to actually be able to play it.
7. Fun! It's my personal opinion, the game in GW2 is just more fun and electric.
I love EQ2, i have many fond memories over the last 10 years. I'm not sure how it failed so badly tbh, even before their ftp illusion. Personally i would suggest spending a few dollars to buy GW2 because it will save you hundreds shortly.
EQ2 is now for those that like decorating (I do miss my houses sometimes), you can create your own dungeons if you buy those expansions too which is cool. Unless you make it to the hard core raider you won't find much challenging/fun after a while IMO.
These are just my opinions.
Citadelli ~ Destroyer of Ordanach
http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Destroyer_of_Ordanach_(painting)
this question gets asked a few times a month in different forms
what ive stated in previous threads:
the 2 most popular servers are Freeport and Antonia Bayle (AB)
you are *guaranteed* to see other players at low levels on the Freeport server
will be even more players today considering that many ftp restrictions were lifted
EQ2 fan sites
While 20% may visit, I doubt that more than 5% ever post, or make just a couple.
That said, I am seeing a lot of new people in EQ2 these past few weeks - some are returning refugees, but many others are obviously new to the game. I am on Oasis, one of the lower-pop servers, and am waiting to see how this change in fewer restrictions on F2P goes - I think it will help a lot at the low and mid range level players, not so sure about the high end (raiders and maybe-someday-I-will- raiders. Since you pretty much have to be a Gold subscriber for the very high end content, it might take a while for the new players to "trickle up".
I am on AB and it is still very active. Prior to that I was on Guk in a raiding guild and they are still active. With these recent changes going into effect today I will say like Nadia probably a lot more people are going to return
Koldbludd
I N S T I N C T- Antonia Bayle