EQ2 Allakhazam Poll - 12/12/06Follow

I chose the best option of the four presented in your poll but the truth of the answer to your question is not in one of the options that you gave. The truth is no matter which MMO and no matter the content it grows old regardless. The thing that keeps people in these games for years is the friends they make along the way. Social interaction is ultimately the answer to your question. Don't believe me? Take a look for yourself. Look at the brokers to see what sells for the most. In virtually all of the games I have played it has been social objects. You know a dress to wear around town or a baby dragon for your home, ect.. So the best thing for the longevity of MMO's? Keep expanding the social structure in-game. Hold functions for players to get together. Continual work and care in this area helps to build stronger relationships and keeps people logging in. I can't tell you how many times a week, in Guild Chat, I hear people saying how bored they are. And when asked why they continue to log in to a game that bores them, why they continue to pay a monthly fee for it, the answer is always the same... "Because my friends are here.".

Personally I think that contested group content is the best for longevity in an MMO, with uninstanced content you get a better feeling that there is a community around you and there is more talking in ooc to others. There are always idiots who you have to deal with in non-instanced zones but I think that dealing with people is a part of the game. Going back to EQ1 I remmember zones like sebilis much more than I do for LDoN zones.

Both are key. It is obvious that there are significant portions of the gaming population that want to do both at the end game.

Some people don't have the time or inclination to raid. Give em some 6 man dungeons to run. Enough so they don't get too bored before the next expansion. Also give them some legendary gear that is worth the effort.

Then there are some people who need to raid. That is their focus.


The kicker is that the raid types tend to be the ones that blast through content fast. Therefore they demand more, more more. Which leaves SOE in a "damned if you do & damned if you don't" position. If they don't put that extra detail on the raids well then people are gonna get bored and leave. However if they do put the focus on raids then solo/casual players are going to feel neglected and under appreciated and leave as well.

Thankfully EQII dev team has been doing a better job as of late of walking that fine line of pleasing both communities.

I just said contested group because there was no "fun quests" option lol

Raids are great if you have a huge guild.

Me Im part of a small guild family orientated and we dont recruit just anynoe in fact we quite often do x2 raids but nothing more.

Group stuff with better rewards would be great but what can we do?

Myself I love eq2 for my friends I play with in game and just for the fun of watching the chatter sometimes. you know we all love to see the moaners in chat it makes us laugh....

I voted instance group. Because, you are almost always garanteed some good loot, you never have to camp anything, and instances can offer some fun puzzles and challenges. Not to mention, group instances can be done by a small amount of players, unlike a raid.

One of the things I liked when first playing EQ2 was when I didn't have a group or didn't have the surplus to stay on the screen at all times there was always the much needed tradeskilling to do. With a teeny amount of attention, family guys like me could pass the keyboard once in a while, starting a new sub-combine and so on. And our products were highly valued.
The crafters mostly feel useless nowadays, and I lost many friends when that happened.

My point with this whole rant is that many people like variety in game as well as in RL, and the old crafting system was a variety.

To hold my interest in a game, I'd have to be able to keep my friends and keep experiencing different worlds or gamestyles. I am a casual player who LOVES to raid, to craft to chat and to just feel useful to my friends.

Yeah I know your feeling about how instances kill the mmo experience, but high level players that come back to solo instances meant for groups, makes shared instances very lame.

I was in a group where we waited for this solo monk try to kill a monster 2 or 3 times. He failed over and over in hopes of getting better attack rolls or something. So finally we came in and said ok we are taking out the group and "playing through" like in a golf course because he was holding up gameplay for all of us.

We wiped "his" boss and he was angry as hell at us:). My thought was he should go play an offline game 1 player. Elder scrolls is a good game...

And there lies the problem with non-instanced dungeons, while it may be exciting to get a rare spawn monster, in many cases it is just a exercise in frustration and quibbling over this or that being "my" monster.

But in any case I want to come up with a new EQ2 etiquette rule for groups/soloers that can't drop a boss. Don't fail to drop a boss, then feign death or res back and expect it to be there. If you fail its because you are an inadequate solo dufus or an inadequate group:). You can't call a boss as yours and expect everyone else to respect that in shared dungens.

There lies the problem in non-instances stupid fights over stupid mobs...



Edited, Dec 30th 2006 1:17am by cfletcher