Tbh....EQ is a huge game already, im currently enjoying the the new DoN expansion and also have to say that OoW is definatly one of best expansions I have played over the last 5 years on EQ, however having said that i really think SoE should upgrade the zones they already have there are dozens and dozens of older zones that could look just as pretty as OoW with a bit of thought and effort.

For me the best thing SoE could do to improve the EQ experience is simply to open it all up, especially the older areas EPs, Time, Vex Thal etc and make them lvl based , The hardcore raiders have already been there, seen it and done it all 2 or 3 years ago, however i think its safe to say that over half of the EQ population has never seen a glimpse of it, purely on the basis that they work full time or they cant stay up 5 nights a week till 4am in the morning to raid.

I really enjoyed going into Sol Ro after doing the efreeti guy in WW, was like a breath of fresh air!! there is so much content out there in EQ but its all hidden away , locked up behind closed doors unless you play morning, noon & Night which is fine on the new expansions but in zones that are 2 or 3 years old? such a waste imo id bet anyone who prefers the friendly/Social guilds as opposed to Pure raiding guilds would love to explore the old high end content.

Giving people in the high end game new material to play is important, but denying the social / casual gamer from seeing content that is 3 years old is criminal imo...they make up atleast 50% of the player base and probably wont ever see half of the game, im not surprised they are going tbh

just my 2 cp.

Warning: Long post

Since I don't have a few million dollars to invest in my own MMORPG I'd also like to post my thoughts EQ. It seems to me that what caused this is just normal game development practices. When a game gets old the new version comes out and everyone usually changes to that one.

I see EQ as 2 separate businesses, one is the old school development where the focus is on the new version(Expansions). The other is a service component of keeping up the current content. Like most development companies the majority of development is spent on creating the new version, not on fixing the old version.

EQ has set out to do everything it was originally intended to do. Groups were always intended to be necessary for EQ progression, and game was designed to be challenging and entertaining for long after lvl 50.

However the content continues to grow for those who have reached the end game and the ability for those of us who aren't there yet continues to decrease.

I can't blame them for publishing more expansions as this is one of the main things that has been working for them over a number of years. My only complaint is some of the items that I feel should have been improvements to the overall game, not something you should have to buy an expansion for.

I agree that folks will spend extra for additional zones to visit and new classes. However things which effect general game play (in game maps, potion use, bank space) would have better served EQ overall by being available to everybody. Also by splitting apart spell drops and distributing un-equal equipment you are invalidating other content.

Over all EQ just has a lot of content available which makes it difficult to turn away from. The problem is that this content is mainly available and tuned for the folks who are in raiding guilds. As long as this is the target audience Sony should be able to continue as is and just make sure that the next expansion content is exciting and interesting enough to keep the raiders happy, and make it easier to get younger folks to the point where they can join the Raiding guilds.

I currently spend more time on World of Warcraft because it fits my playing style as a casual player better.

1. Class balance - In World of warcraft it possible to form a group and progress without the need of any specific type. In WoW with some good friends I while away the time without needing to track down a healer of any type. I haven't been able to deal with anything but very trivial content in EQ without a healer.

2. Quest integration - The quests in WoW are much more integrated with general play. From the ease of finding equivalent quests for your levels, to the time and rewards dealing with completing them.

3. Time-sink factor - EQ has been changing a lot in this area, but it still seems to drag on. I never found a decent guild doing anything for the time-zone I lived in, so I leveled to 65 over 4 years with a small group of friends and a lot of 3-boxing. Fighting in bastion of thunder for 6 hours for a few AA saving up for a special ability just doesn't leave me with a feeling of accomplishment. (Though finally achieving Dire Charm was cool.)

To any who actually spent the time to read this post thank you. Felt good to finally voice an opinion on the subject.

If you keep making improvements, I'm never going to make myself start playing SWG!!!

Sorry bout tripple post this computer is horrible.

Edited, Tue Apr 19 03:40:20 2005

I've been in eq for up to 4 years now, and with all the expansions and patches and changes. ALot i didnt agree with but delt with anyhow. One thing i wish SoE would bring back were the unique armor graphics that they wiped off the game so easily. Giving unique armor graphics for armor sets (Thrug armor, Kael Armor, Ele armor, Qvic armor, etc) WOuld at least make the people who play this game feel more unique and identifiable then just being bright gay pink or all black. Or like in the old UO Days, you equip a cloak.. you WORE THE CLOAK, it showed on the character. Little things like that would really livin up this game. Let the players feel unique and special again, not just another 70 BLAHBLAH PST.

More hints on what we could be getting in the future leading to the "what if we give them this" and "maybe this will work" while here in the now we still have problems that need taking care of, we still have things that we've got now you need to get to actually work and yep you guessed it, it's still going to cost us money.

Now admittedly there are quite a few of us playing this game, some more then others and some for longer then others, and as the line goes you can't please everyone all the time (or something close to that), but how about pleasing most of us at least once and fix the things that are wrong with the game now instead of promising us things in the future.
Yes we all know server population is a problem and so is finding groups for those not able or willing to group with guildies, those we hope will be fixed by the mergers ongoing.

Yes it was a nice touch giving us the ability to put our original server name on the end of our names, but do you realise that now there's time by the time you get the skill or AA title on there then your name and surname then server name (not to mention if they go into trader mode) you end up with writing so small in some cases you need a telescope to read them with it's so small. A minor gripe probably but just used as an example, please don't add any more junk you can put on your name we have enough on there now, instead of smoke and mirrors how about giving us some meat to sink our teeth into. New faces would be good, the ability to pick white or black would also be nice for armor or robes, personally I think everyone should have the freedom to dress in black if they want to so long as it doesn't lag the game out with adding those two colors to the thousands we can combine ourselves.

Shortening cast time on some spells, taking away some of the agro of some of them, these are all good starts please don't let it end there and go off on a different tangent with them. Lets try sticking to one direction instead of trying to go off in ten different lines of thought or ten ideas your staff comes up with over coffee or whatever someone comes up with after a bad pizza at 2 am, those ideas never work anyway.

I have to agree on one thing if you're going to make something no drop make it worthwhile no drop and not something that we can upgrade in the bazaar for 40pp while the thing we worked hard on getting the right faction or killing the right mobs is gathering dust taking up space in the bank, or distroyed to make room for the stuff we just got in the bazaar for 50pp to upgrade the 40pp junk with.

You have the crystals you can get in the new expansion tradable, how about making the point in LDoN usable in any camp and not just the one you got the point in, make them combinable so you can get that thing you've been working so hard for and dragging your friends around the wrong camp when the thing they need points for is in another camp. Maybe then you'll get more people back into LDoN instead of getting a "well I need this camp not the one you want". The augments you get as drops in LDoN how about making them upgradable or even *gasp* tradable the way some are now then you're not stuck with the low no drop ones taking up space in your inventory or on your items when you're lvl 70 and can get the uber ones. Let's be able to trade them back to the LDoN merchants for the next one up.

And oh yea give the dwarf the crossbow just make it historically correct and take four times as long to load as the bow... sorry but there's a price to pay for everything

SOE take a lesson from the best game ever Legends of Kesmei, you kill the mob you get the drop, you kill the quest mob you get the flag (not like it is here: you kill the quest mob and the spectre despawns before anyone can hail it). Oh and lets talk respawn times shall we. LoK, 1 hour tops. On any mob. Why you ask? So everyone who pays to play has the same opertunity to recieve rewards. Some day there will come along another game like it and EQ will be out of bussiness. What happened to LoK? Kescorp got bought out by EA and killed it hoping everyone would go to UO. They didn't of course they came here. Just my honest opinion. Happy Hunting all.

Here is my 2 cp's , Server population has become a big issue. But, at the same time, all the new expansions that have come out broadened the play field widely. Sony greed for more money via expansions has over whelmed the game. I used to zone in and there was always people in a given zone anywhere. Now they are empty. NO more expansions or new zones. Build on what you have. Re vamp some of the zones to equal the drops in GOD, OOW and DON. We now have way to many multisystems within the game. LDON alone has its owned purchase system for each zone. COMBINE this. It doesnt make since to the practical player. Why earn points in one zone that doesnt work in another. I welcome combining servers. It will increase population. which in turn will increase grouping. The old zones need to catch up with the new zones in equality of equipment drops. Another issue I have is that chanter were given there special ability to mez and control, so in the last few expansions sony worked to make almost all mobs non charmable. WTF dont take away each class specialty. That what they were breed to do.

Here is my 2 cp's , Server population has become a big issue. But, at the same time, all the new expansions that have come out broadened the play field widely. Sony greed for more money via expansions has over whelmed the game. I used to zone in and there was always people in a given zone anywhere. Now they are empty. NO more expansions or new zones. Build on what you have. Re vamp some of the zones to equal the drops in GOD, OOW and DON. We now have way to many multisystems within the game. LDON alone has its owned purchase system for each zone. COMBINE this. It doesnt make since to the practical player. Why earn points in one zone that doesnt work in another. I welcome combining servers. It will increase population. which in turn will increase grouping. The old zones need to catch up with the new zones in equality of equipment drops. Another issue I have is that chanter were given there special ability to mez and control, so in the last few expansions sony worked to make almost all mobs non charmable. WTF dont take away each class specialty. That what they were breed to do.

Well I played EQ2 and I quitted the game because of the graphics. I have a high end computer, with high end graphics card and still wasnt able to make it run without lag. Instanced zones didnt fix the issue, just made it more complicated.

Ohh the game looked good, but i play a cleric in all these games so i need that extra 0.25 of a second to react to a chanter getting banged on, so because I play a cleric I have to choose between good looking graphics or group wiping?

I want a game that runs smooth on my high end computer with my cable internet connection. EQ2 wasnt able to give me that or I had to make the game look crappy. I dont want this in EQ. If it happens I will go and try WOW.

Thank you.

I'd like to see the creation of a hybrid that would be similiar to the bst in melee skills, yet not a wisdom based caster but an int based caster - not quite mag not quite necro , but maybe something evil alligned/in those type of casting lines ... just a thought...