Archived from groups: alt.games.everquest (More info?)
The writing is on the wall. It's all downhill from here for EQL.
For some, this will be a sad time; for others, a relief. Looking at
various server and class message boards over the past six months, I
was struck by how much they seemed to be dominated by people
who had fallen out of love with the game, and had quit, and were just
hanging around the boards to talk with friends, or who were still playing
but hoping that WoW or EQ2 would give them something of an EQ-plus
experience: being just like EQL in all the ways that mattered (to them),
but properly fixing the most glaring, game-breaking (for them) flaws.
The more jaded simply hoped the new games were worth playing for
a while.
The jury has to be considered out on these games for a good six months;
early release kinks to be worked out, of course. Lots of disappointed
people are streaming back to EQL right now; but they can be expected to
poke their heads in to EQ2 and WoW every few months, waiting for the
situations to stablize so they can pass judgement. The great hope is that at
least one of the new games will find a groove that a lot of disenchanted EQL
players like. The great fear is that in both games the devs will miss some
crucial clue as to what the players want, will show no sign of hearing their
input, or will always come up with reasons (which seem solid to them) that
the changes the players want would break the game completely - one
way or another, the devs will keep missing the target the players think
they should be aiming for. And so the players will despair of ever
fulfilling
a personal need in a game designed by someone else, and become more
"mature" (more cynical) and declare themselves to have outgrown MMOG's.
During this period, it may be advantageous to think in terms of what, at
base, you play for. Fun, right? In my last post, I mused on the psychology
of the players, myself among them, who play endless hours, not having fun,
but
in preparation for fun. Some people seem to define "fun" in the game as
being
the ability to do certain things trivially: kill level 40 mobs with a single
spell, earn
good (for a level 30 character) gear in only an hour with a high-level alt,
fight
the endgame encounters...all things requiring large investments. Get to 65,
get
300 AA's, and then, at long last, you can attract the attention of your
server's uber-guild, and will be permitted to apply, so that after 30 days
of good
behavior on raids you've already done to death, they will condescend to
extend
you an invite, 30 days after which they will declare you to have finished
your
probationary period, become a member in good standing, and allow you to join
them in raiding content wholly new and otherwise inaccessible to you. At
last,
the good feelings come.
Some may argue this is not exactly a healthy mindset. A "healthy" mindset,
the
theory goes, is one that holds "fun" to stem from personal interaction, from
the
sense of family and community that comes of grouping regularly with certain
people. And there is much anecdotal evidence of such people flourishing in
the
game. But there are certain limitations and difficulties associated with
this sort
of "fun", which can also drive intensive grinding and investment.
Specifically:
You want to have fun in groups. But not just any groups; you want to group
with
certain people, whatever they are doing. But those people - whether known by
reputation, or by actual time spent grouping with them - are longtime
players who
are dedicated to their mains. Whcih they have been working on for so long,
they are
now top level, and only play in top-level zones. So, if you want to join the
in-crowd,
you grind and invest to get where they are.
This may be an inevitable fact of server longevity: the longer a server is
live, the
greater the percentage of its population leveled up to max, and so the
farther the
newbie has to go before grouping options really open up. Certainly, when I
was
playing a year ago, there seemed to be enough people to group with where I
needed
to go at critical levels: DSP, OT, Dreadlands, Karnor's, PoJ, PoI, all to
get to PoV, where most of the REAL players were, and eventually BoT, where
you
could find the majority of the server population, for whom PoV would be
slumming.
Nowadays, TP, at least, is a ghost town; if you want to level a character
to 62,
you had better either choose a character who can do it solo, or have a 65
main in a
guild, where you can get friends to help you level your alts. There is
anecdotal evidence
TP is the hardest-hit of all servers, and so likely to be one of the first
to merge next summer.
Until then, low population means no one in DPS, OT, Dreadlands, or Karnor's.
I'm looking into the possibility of taking my monk and my SK into Dranik's
Scar, when
people in their 50's and higher are factioning, maybe they will allow my
alts to level
up with them. My poor cleric has simply no place to go: at level 28, there
are no
groups that want her anymore. A cleric!
Obviously, the way to have fun in the Twilight of Norrath's First Great
Age of Adventure,
before the destruction of Luclin, is to stick with my guild, attend every
raid, try to be
among the last new elemental guilds on any server. The Council of the
Fellowship will go
as far as...well, as far as our momentum carries us before we lose too many
people.
Hopefully to the elemental planes.
Alas, all that time wasted...if only I had put in more time on my chanter,
my cleric, and
my SK, they might all be 60 now, and I would be able to simply look at the
LFG tool
and play whatever was in shortage at the moment. As is, Rabotev is no
substitute for a cleric
in OOW or BoT. And DPS is a dime a dozen. Sometimes I can group; much of the
time
I have to find some other way to pass the time than playing the game at all.
Some way like going on Usenet and ranting about this, that, or the other
thing...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Silly observation: One of the graphics patches gave everyone in the winter
zones frosty
breath. A nice bit of realism - for warm-blooded creatures. But the ice
giants in Everfrost?
Sorry, can't spare a dev's time or system resources to code the exception.
So creatures
made of solid ice, as cold as their surroundings, breathe frost like the
warmbloods.
Style observation: Moustaches seem to be "in" this patch cycle; lots of
human merchants
and bankers have them. But at the North Ro LDoN camp, poor Magus Arindri's
hair has
gone white. I didn't think she was that old; she's a high elf, and hasn't
been around as long
as some human or halfling bankers and merchants whose hair is still brown.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EJH
On Tholuxe Paells:
[65 Wizard] Adastraea Starwind (High Elf) of Erollisi Marr <Council of the
Fellowship>
[60 Druid] Rabotev Startree (Wood Elf) of Tunare <Council of the
Fellowship>
[41 Warrior] Gruggoredil Dullwit (Barbarian) of Rallos Zek
[45 Monk] Tosev Starfist (human) of Quellious
[45 Shadow Knight] Neuveniu Sinstorm (Dark Elf) of Innoruuk
[31 Enchanter] Nuneveiu Arworthi (Dark Elf)
[28 Cleric] Celune (High Elf) of Tunare
[29 Beastlord] Grukyn (Vah Shir)
On Drinal:
[22 Bard] Greban (Vah Shir)
On Firiona Vie:
[32 Cleric] Adastra Peraspera (High Elf) of Tunare
The writing is on the wall. It's all downhill from here for EQL.
For some, this will be a sad time; for others, a relief. Looking at
various server and class message boards over the past six months, I
was struck by how much they seemed to be dominated by people
who had fallen out of love with the game, and had quit, and were just
hanging around the boards to talk with friends, or who were still playing
but hoping that WoW or EQ2 would give them something of an EQ-plus
experience: being just like EQL in all the ways that mattered (to them),
but properly fixing the most glaring, game-breaking (for them) flaws.
The more jaded simply hoped the new games were worth playing for
a while.
The jury has to be considered out on these games for a good six months;
early release kinks to be worked out, of course. Lots of disappointed
people are streaming back to EQL right now; but they can be expected to
poke their heads in to EQ2 and WoW every few months, waiting for the
situations to stablize so they can pass judgement. The great hope is that at
least one of the new games will find a groove that a lot of disenchanted EQL
players like. The great fear is that in both games the devs will miss some
crucial clue as to what the players want, will show no sign of hearing their
input, or will always come up with reasons (which seem solid to them) that
the changes the players want would break the game completely - one
way or another, the devs will keep missing the target the players think
they should be aiming for. And so the players will despair of ever
fulfilling
a personal need in a game designed by someone else, and become more
"mature" (more cynical) and declare themselves to have outgrown MMOG's.
During this period, it may be advantageous to think in terms of what, at
base, you play for. Fun, right? In my last post, I mused on the psychology
of the players, myself among them, who play endless hours, not having fun,
but
in preparation for fun. Some people seem to define "fun" in the game as
being
the ability to do certain things trivially: kill level 40 mobs with a single
spell, earn
good (for a level 30 character) gear in only an hour with a high-level alt,
fight
the endgame encounters...all things requiring large investments. Get to 65,
get
300 AA's, and then, at long last, you can attract the attention of your
server's uber-guild, and will be permitted to apply, so that after 30 days
of good
behavior on raids you've already done to death, they will condescend to
extend
you an invite, 30 days after which they will declare you to have finished
your
probationary period, become a member in good standing, and allow you to join
them in raiding content wholly new and otherwise inaccessible to you. At
last,
the good feelings come.
Some may argue this is not exactly a healthy mindset. A "healthy" mindset,
the
theory goes, is one that holds "fun" to stem from personal interaction, from
the
sense of family and community that comes of grouping regularly with certain
people. And there is much anecdotal evidence of such people flourishing in
the
game. But there are certain limitations and difficulties associated with
this sort
of "fun", which can also drive intensive grinding and investment.
Specifically:
You want to have fun in groups. But not just any groups; you want to group
with
certain people, whatever they are doing. But those people - whether known by
reputation, or by actual time spent grouping with them - are longtime
players who
are dedicated to their mains. Whcih they have been working on for so long,
they are
now top level, and only play in top-level zones. So, if you want to join the
in-crowd,
you grind and invest to get where they are.
This may be an inevitable fact of server longevity: the longer a server is
live, the
greater the percentage of its population leveled up to max, and so the
farther the
newbie has to go before grouping options really open up. Certainly, when I
was
playing a year ago, there seemed to be enough people to group with where I
needed
to go at critical levels: DSP, OT, Dreadlands, Karnor's, PoJ, PoI, all to
get to PoV, where most of the REAL players were, and eventually BoT, where
you
could find the majority of the server population, for whom PoV would be
slumming.
Nowadays, TP, at least, is a ghost town; if you want to level a character
to 62,
you had better either choose a character who can do it solo, or have a 65
main in a
guild, where you can get friends to help you level your alts. There is
anecdotal evidence
TP is the hardest-hit of all servers, and so likely to be one of the first
to merge next summer.
Until then, low population means no one in DPS, OT, Dreadlands, or Karnor's.
I'm looking into the possibility of taking my monk and my SK into Dranik's
Scar, when
people in their 50's and higher are factioning, maybe they will allow my
alts to level
up with them. My poor cleric has simply no place to go: at level 28, there
are no
groups that want her anymore. A cleric!
Obviously, the way to have fun in the Twilight of Norrath's First Great
Age of Adventure,
before the destruction of Luclin, is to stick with my guild, attend every
raid, try to be
among the last new elemental guilds on any server. The Council of the
Fellowship will go
as far as...well, as far as our momentum carries us before we lose too many
people.
Hopefully to the elemental planes.
Alas, all that time wasted...if only I had put in more time on my chanter,
my cleric, and
my SK, they might all be 60 now, and I would be able to simply look at the
LFG tool
and play whatever was in shortage at the moment. As is, Rabotev is no
substitute for a cleric
in OOW or BoT. And DPS is a dime a dozen. Sometimes I can group; much of the
time
I have to find some other way to pass the time than playing the game at all.
Some way like going on Usenet and ranting about this, that, or the other
thing...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Silly observation: One of the graphics patches gave everyone in the winter
zones frosty
breath. A nice bit of realism - for warm-blooded creatures. But the ice
giants in Everfrost?
Sorry, can't spare a dev's time or system resources to code the exception.
So creatures
made of solid ice, as cold as their surroundings, breathe frost like the
warmbloods.
Style observation: Moustaches seem to be "in" this patch cycle; lots of
human merchants
and bankers have them. But at the North Ro LDoN camp, poor Magus Arindri's
hair has
gone white. I didn't think she was that old; she's a high elf, and hasn't
been around as long
as some human or halfling bankers and merchants whose hair is still brown.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EJH
On Tholuxe Paells:
[65 Wizard] Adastraea Starwind (High Elf) of Erollisi Marr <Council of the
Fellowship>
[60 Druid] Rabotev Startree (Wood Elf) of Tunare <Council of the
Fellowship>
[41 Warrior] Gruggoredil Dullwit (Barbarian) of Rallos Zek
[45 Monk] Tosev Starfist (human) of Quellious
[45 Shadow Knight] Neuveniu Sinstorm (Dark Elf) of Innoruuk
[31 Enchanter] Nuneveiu Arworthi (Dark Elf)
[28 Cleric] Celune (High Elf) of Tunare
[29 Beastlord] Grukyn (Vah Shir)
On Drinal:
[22 Bard] Greban (Vah Shir)
On Firiona Vie:
[32 Cleric] Adastra Peraspera (High Elf) of Tunare
0hhs01fge509478qh8ef3d0qq7a881c3m@4ax.com: 
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