Set EverQuest Free
Jan 17, 2006 22:24:00
Submitted by Brent on Jan 17, 2006 22:24:00 CST (comments: 7)
Jan 17, 2006 22:24:00
The dirty secret is this, I miss EverQuest Classic. I didn't mind the camping. I didn't mind the PoK lag. I didn't mind the ever expanding gap between raiders and casuals. I didn't mind the stilted player character models. I didn't mind LFG and grinding and powerleveling and ninja looting and poor quest rewards and boss mobs with 80 gazillion hitpoints. I didn't think my class (monk) was nerfed, I didn't think necros needed to be nerfed, I didn't mind the holy trinity, or the bazaar or the inflation or the KEI. Poor documentation, clumsy UI, awful patch scheduling and crowded login servers, I complained but got over it. The bottom line is that it is complicated, elusive, challenging, and unfair. Call me crazy, but I sort of like it that way. But EQ2 released and I showed up in the new world on day one. That transition didn't go as planned. Today, there are a variety of MMORPG icons on my desktop. EverQuest, EverQuest 2, Lineage 2, City of Heroes, Guild Wars, Second Life, Project Entropia and World of Warcraft. Of those, which ones have active accounts or have been logged into within the last 90 days? Just World of Warcraft. I enjoyed them all but they have their reasons for being closed or idle, be it temporarily or otherwise. And that brings us to EQ Classic, the one I didn't really want to leave, but was lured away nevertheless. Where I'm going with this is: I'd like to have my EverQuest account open. In the last year, I have opened it and closed it three times. I'd open it because I noticed the icon on my desktop, or got an email from an old EQ friend, or saw an upcoming raid on the old guild's board. I'd go play Friday night, poke around with old friends on Sunday morning and then let the account go idle for 2 months before canceling it, only to reopen it in a month or two ... and the cycle continues. I guess I can afford to have an extra account open, heck I've had as many as 5 or 6 MMORPG accounts active at the same time before, so why does this one plague me? I think it is because I know I'll never become a regular EQ player again, not every weekend, much less every night or every morning. It would be sporadic, but I'd want to have the option of swinging in from time to time without laying out another $15 monthly fee. I imagine there are others like me who feel the same. We close the account simply because we know it is stupid to keep it open and not play, but we pine for the freedom to login in up from time to time. This got me thinking. I know EQ has a massive amount of content, and I know they're still actively supporting and expanding it. But any company that releases a sequel to a game should probably recognize that they shouldn't be charging the same full price for the original game. And yet, this is exactly what SOE is doing. Does this make sense? We know that the expansion sales probably cover a large part of the development and support costs for EQ and the StationPass does effectively lower the price for EQ players who are currently devoted to another SOE game, but what about those of us who would rather play WoW or CoH or L2 AND EQ? And what decision will the rare but des irable new EQ players make when they see that the lavish and modern EQ2 and WoW have the same monthly fee as the elderly EQ Classic? It doesn't add up. Myriads of arguments from players and SOE alike can shoot this theory full of holes, I know there are business factors that I am not privy to and comparisons with other games is subjective and EQ2 isn't really a sequel (and so on and so on), but this is one player saying: "SOE, I'd open up my account again if your subscription for EQ Classic was inline with the market, say $5 or $8 per month. Chances are you'd still make money even if you only charged me for the expansions, so ease up the fees on this ancient game system and I'll continue to pay you for several more years, if you leave the lights on for me." I'm probably not the only one. |
Submitted by Brent on Jan 17, 2006 22:24:00 CST (comments: 7)
Comments:
'you're right, you're not the only one feeling this way' by aerodancer
Submitted on 2007-12-27 13:52:15 CST
frankly I LOVE EQ classic, i miss the exact same things you do, despite all those clumsy UI, trouble updates, frustrating lags and bugs, I loved it and I still do now. I am now using MacOS now, it is impossible for me to get back to the "old days". So I tried to find another MMORPG that might give me a lllllittttlle touch of EQ, but of course there is no comparison.
'Seems unlikely' by scytale2
Submitted on 2007-12-27 14:46:04 CST
I guess at the moment, the idea was to breathe new life into it by bringing out the cardgame drops. As you've said, Brent, it's not the game you miss, but the players and nothing is going to bring them back, as they are scattered to the four winds now there is a plethora of options to choose from or maybe they have other interests now.
I think the other issue was the repetitive nature of EQ. It simply is not acceptable any more and even LOTRO has less grind. When repetition was all there was people lived with it. Now there is a disparate range of games minimising grind, most people don't put up with it.
Still...reducing the price is an idea. Unless it went free to play (which seems very unlikely) price reduction is likely to simply give away money and as mentioned before it cuts across the card game synergy they recently came up with.
'EQ Was Special' by mrdarklight
Submitted on 2008-01-31 01:40:44 CST
I could go back to EQ now, but the problem is that the low-level zones are all vacant. In fact practically the whole original game world is vacant, because they designed the expansions poorly. There's no reason for players to go back to Karanas or Commonlands or Greater Faydark. They are totally empty now. It's so sad. I wish they would just launch an original EQ server with no expansions. But maybe that wouldn't even help. Maybe the world has just moved on.
WoW has nothing on EQ, or at least it would have nothing on them if the designers hadn't totally botched EQ2. They screwed it up so bad I can't even stand the thought of signing up again.
But ah, to see the Faydark again, full of players... Crushbone, trains, griffons, that bastard Kizdean Gix! Absalom, absalom!
'EQ Classic will come back' by EQClassic
Submitted on 2008-05-29 11:28:40 CST
I do not want to take too much of anyones time here. I would just like to let you all know that there is an answer for those of us who loved EQ the way it ws played way back before Kunark.
There is a server comming online soon and it is called EQ Classic www.EQclassic.org
The Idea is that this game with only the original game content and never progress past Velious with the Lucin expansion. The beauty of the game will be maintained. The way Verant meant for it to be.
www.eqclassic.org
'EQ Classic' by EQClassic
Submitted on 2008-05-29 11:30:03 CST
Did I mention EQ Classic will be free?
'Mr. Plow?' by Wilhelm2451
Submitted on 2008-05-29 16:38:07 CST
And EQClassic is fully licensed and endorsed by Sony Online Entertainment, right Mr. Classic?
'Plow?' by EQClassic
Submitted on 2008-05-29 18:57:52 CST
I honestly do not know the answer to that, but I highly doubt it Mr. Willhelm2541.
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