How about a real Old World server?Follow

No thank you too painful to play.

First off, I can't fully agree that the old game was the more difficult game. Guess it depends on what you call difficult. IMO, the mobs and the encounters in the later expansions are every bit as hard as the mobs/encounters in the early expansions.

Secondly, a server that doesn't add content will have a very short life. What's gonna keep people playing?

Lastly, it was fun to do once, even twice. The thrid time was ok but personally I don't want to go to Blackburrow, Crushbone, HHK or Rathe Mountains anymore.

If you want the feel of a game in it's infancy again, then I would suggest playing a new game. There are lots that just came out and lots coming out right now.

here's an idea.
a new sever, that each character can choose which expansions to open and when.

eg. start with the first one and when you lvl enough and do all you can or want to open the next expansion. . a bit of coding to do, but just activate expansions like ading a new AA . one idea to add to that. is you need x amount of quests and kills before you can open an expanion. but you would have the option to not open it. others could go any where whie your limited.

a bit of work but i'm sure in furture it could be done

here's what i do when no one to group with box. a cleric and any other class. if your system can handle it 3 box . i 4 box on my computer. just need to have lowest graphic settings possible and play in 800x600 or the one setting above works for me.

sucks to have to box. but i play in the 20's to 30's range for all my accounts mainly not many others who are not just powerlvling with freinds so they can raid.

5 yrs of eq playing and i've never raided and only entered the planes twice just for lvl suiciding needed to drop from lvl 54 to 51 easier to get aa's a yr ago then solo wise

here's what i do when no one to group with box. a cleric and any other class. if your system can handle it 3 box . i 4 box on my computer. just need to have lowest graphic settings possible and play in 800x600 or the one setting above works for me.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

this is exactly why the low and mid level game in EQ1 is totally dead. why there is no grouping of any kind except for the ocasional WoS group or dain mission. why 99 percent of the over 300 expansions are a video wasteland just sucking up band width for posterity.

no one is forced to deal with other people. and given that choice, they would rather play by themselves.

not just here either. its blatent in every grouping game. no one groups.

there are mabe 200 to 300 on each server at any given time. thats over 3000 people some times. yet you could count the number of groups on all the servers put together in double digits. single digits on any one particular server.

plenty of people, just no interest in grouping. how do you get people to group with other people as opposed to playing with themselves?

Vanguard died becuase of this very problem.

i love the "if i cant find a group..." statement. there are no groups. plenty of people, but no groups. EQ is a solo game. "uber" is defined by the number of accounts you can run at one time. you raid or you solo.

i have to wonder why the content doesnt reflect the playstyle of the majority of players? this is why Blizzard has over 8 million subscribers and low and mid level zones packed with people. their content conforms to the playstyle, the DEMAND, of their targeted player base.

EQ targets the group type playes, yet.....there is no grouping going on by most of their players. there is no real market. just soloers who double and triple box. Vanguard did the same. they went from 200,000 accounts at launch to 20,000 accounts within three months. all that is left is exactly what is left here. a large pack of "groupers" who DONT GROUP.

13 expansions, over 300 zones, 99 percent completly abandoned. i can see why. ray charles can see why. why cant SOE and the players still in this game see why and try and change it?

Yeah, I replied to this on another thread, but what server have you played on. I too have alot of toons under 65, and unlike It, I do play in groups and never seem to have a problem finding groups. I also like to solo, so I do that also, but I have not found the grouping problem that you speak of... I even find groups that go out and just pk, which was unheard of back in the Vallon.


Come to Zek, Ill group with ya.

Not true.

I left EQ recently at lvl70 'cos I couldn't get a group when I needed one. I do NOT consider 'boxing' to be a substitute for grouping personally. If I just wanted to 'play' a challenging game, I'd play something with all the settings up to 'hardest'. The whole attraction of MMoRPG's is interaction with others, IMO. Wether that be group strategy to beat a mob down or showing off your new kit to the folk in 'town'.

Now playing LOTRO at off peak times mostly, and rarely if ever, have a problem finding a group within minutes of realising I need one for a particulay quest.

EQ was one of the greatest, and I will look back on it with fondness, but sadly most people have moved on to newer, shinier (not always better) things.

Theres still people who dress up like Elvis Presley at weekends, it doesn't make Elvis 'current'. And its not gonna make Elvis become as popular as he once was.

Theres plenty of grouping to be dne, with real people running one toon ata time. Just not in EQ very often. Its a fact.

EQ died the day Sir Groogle stopped coming by to regale us with stories of derring-do in the end game....... .

instead of a limited expansion server, how about a server that will not let you attack anything unless you are grouped?
mabe dumb it down a bit so you dont need a perfect slower/healer/tank group like EQ2 did. mabe even upgrade the LFG interface to make it easyier to get a group, then allow the group leader to summon a player from anywhere in the world to the group.

a lack of grouping in a game designed around grouping is what is killing ALL of the grouping orientated games.

there has to be a way to make grouping more time friendly, and less of a hassel.

and the only way i can think of to get people to group even with some of those changes is to not let them play unless they do group, like D&D online did.

the other alternative is a server built for casual game play. dumb down all group content, including dungons and quests to solo content, and dumb down all raid content to group content.

the later would produce more new accounts. Blizzard has proven that. but DO SOMETHING. how can you just let such a huge investment in time and effort die. there really isnt anything out right now that is significantly better to warrent giving up on EQ as just a bottom dollar niche game. and the differances between the game play in WoW and EQ are not so insurmountable that they cant be matched.

really, all you would need to do is rewrite all the quests and provide a means INGAME to find them easily, and be able to determine if they are appropriate for your class/race/level/faction before you do them. and dumb down the monsters or power up the players suffeciently to turn group content into solo content and raid content into group content.

really, only those 2 content issues seperate WoW and their 8 million strong player base from EQ and their 100,000 customer player base.

thats not alot to overcome for a potential staggering increase in subscribers. the world is already built. the servers are collecting dust. the bandwidth is already accessable. the infrastructure is already sitting there. all you need is a little rewriting of existing content, and release it one expansion at a time.

the progression server died when the content opened up turned less solo friendly. adn why would people want to deal with redoing all those time consuming raids again? they left. same thing happned with the stromm server if anyone remembers.

what would it cost to rewrite just the origonal release and launch it on its own server just to see if its viable? certainly less than trying to fix Vanguard.

I think it would rock at first, and then slowely puter out, would start out fun and all, wow, we know the strats, but its all new, but then it would become monotonous again, (grind grind grind) so yeah no sure.

I had always felt like I had missed out on a bit on EQ seeing I didn't start playing until the game was approaching it's third year. I thought this would be my chance to feel the game from it's inception.

Bleh, there were SO many halflings in Misty Thicket you couldn't find a snake to kill, and yes, I felt that I, too, was rapidly falling behind on the leveling curve. I made it to level 14 before hanging it up.

I don't know what the answer is, or if there is an answer, to bring back that EQ of old type experience.

Main schtick is still EQ. I'm having lots of fun and have developed a really great and productive, yet non-pressuing group of people to play with. I almost always have some kind of advance knowlegdge of an area, a quest though. So, the feeling of discovery and apprehension of the unknown is non-existant when I play EQ.

I also play Vanguard with quite the opposite experience. I know little. I encounter a new mob or area nearly everytime I log in. I only have cursory acquaintances and never visit any fan or cheater sites. I'm loving it....and last night my 29 Sorc was able to solo a level 27 4-dot mob for an unprecedented 8300xp pts...WOOHOO!!! (in comparison a level 31 2-dot mob was giving me about 2400xp pts.)

Anyway, we just can have fun, and if we're not we need to reconsider our options.

Happy Monday..

No.

If I wanted this, I'd go play WoW. I like EQ's difficulty level where it is, I like figuring things out. And I'm still confused why you're still on these forums, Shadowrelm, when you clearly have nothing positive to say. Yes, finding a group can be hell at times, but when I'm LFG, I usually get a tell within a half-hour or so. And that's on Firiona Vie, which has a lower population than most servers. Instead of whining that you can't get a group, go out and start one. Announce over general that you want to start a WoS group or something; people will join.
----------------------------------------------------------

creating a WoW style EQ wouldnt be for you. it would be for the other 8 MILLION casual gamers. you know, the other 90 percent of online gamers who want a game as opposed to another job. adn im not suggesting they close any EQ servers to do it, so all you OCD types can still enjoy what you enjoy about EQ.

i have herd all the "go get a group" crap already. trust me, there is nothing you can tell me about finding a group that i have not already tried. and sitting here, i know on your server too, without even logging in to check, there are probably over 200 peeps at prime time but you could count all the groups actually fighting on one hand. been there, done that.

so has the other 400,000 people who USED to play EQ as it is now.

bottom line, MOST players are not interested in grouping, and not just in EQ, but in EVERY game. it only stands to reason SOE should launch a server geared for the playstyle of the vast majority of online gamers.

as much as you may enjoy it, most people do not. and that is why your server looks like a ghost town.

SOE would have very little to loose and a potentially huge subscriber list to gain. all they have to do is.....THE OBVIOUS. create a server geared for how the majority of people play. instead of trying to force the "vision tm" down their throat, try offering up a supply to the content the greatest number of gamers DEMAND.

currently, WoW is the only one doing it.
---------------------------------------------------------
I think it would rock at first, and then slowely puter out, would start out fun and all, wow, we know the strats, but its all new, but then it would become monotonous again, (grind grind grind) so yeah no sure.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

mabe. when is the last time you logged into WoW. they STILL HAVE PACKED low and mid level content. personally, i know i would get boared, but, there are 8 million paying subscribers who, board or not, STILL PLAY WoW. their numbers are growing, not shrinking. and the new expansion they released did not add ANYTHING to the low and mid level game.

SOE has tried many variations of game play with differant servers in EQ. and they all dried up quickly after only a month or two.

but they have yet to launch a server geared for the playstyle of the overwhelmingly vast majority of players who do not want a second job as entertainment after their REAL JOB.

EQ has around 100,000 subscribers. WoW has around 8,000,000 subscribers. EQ has more content and better graphics IMO. ray charles can see why. its the playstyle the games are geared for.

just launch one server and see what happens.

a completly new game as opposed to a new server would certainly draw a bigger rush at launch. it is a better idea IMO, but it is also much more expensive and time intensive to deliver. especially if your looking at a new graphics engine adn writing completly new code reeguardless of weather you already know what you want them to look like.

but im all for it. i would hope, however, that unlike EQ2, they dont significantly change the entire world. people miss EQ. people WANT EQ. but people are unwilling to commit to the time demand of EQ in its current state.

i would be all for a completly new game, as long as the world only has some minor changes to the zones and not just EQ in name only. some advertising, revamp the quests, and it would be a hit. there are 4 times as many people who played EQ and left than those who stuck it out. and i guarentee you, most of them didnt see more than 20 or 30 percent of the content. couldnt see it. especailly with the later expansions.

sign me up.

Problem is that it would most likely only attract the people who already play eq1 or eq2.
---------------------------------------------------------------

i dissagree. i think it would certainly bring those players back. but i also think it would draw alot of really really board people away from WoW.

keep in mind, WoW did launch a new expansion, but they added NOTHING for levels 1 to 58. adn currently, there is NO WHERE else to go for the players that play WoW because of its timefriendly game play. me for instance, i dont care for the cartoonish graphics at all. nor the world. but i plan on leaving EQ when my free weeks are up adn going back to it, not because i really like it, but because it is the ONLY game i can play without sacrificing my real life or just sitting in some corner grinding levels.

currently, it is the only outlet for these type of players. and i can garentee you, out of 8 million of them, even if only 10 or 20 percent are board of the game but play it anyway, your looking at 800,000 to 1,600,000 potential players just waiting for something to pounce on.

and i would bet there are alot more than 10 to 20 percent of their players ready for something new.

would all depend on how you advertised it, and how well you rewrote the content to appeal more to these types of players.

thats a potentially staggering number of accounts. even 10 percent would make it the best mmorpg SOE has. 5 percent would make it as sucessfull as EQ1 was in its best day.

i honestly dont see how any bussiness could 1. not see this staggering market starving for product, and 2. continue to ignore it.

you can bet someone else is already working on it right now. revamping EQ with its 13 expansions already developed would/could put SOE on the fast track with a product that has already established name recognition and a world already drawn with infrastructure sitting on shelves readdy to go currently collecting dust.

or, they could ignore it, and let someone else jump on it.