Originally posted by Lidane

What killed EQ for me wasn't a particular expansion. It was the fact that I'd had to take a break due to school and work commitments only to come back a few weeks later to find my guild 20+ levels above me and doing nothing but raiding every night.

The thought of spending 20+ levels on my own trying to catch up while they were still advancing at the same time was the last straw. I quit and never went back.

Oddly enough, for all the hate that the PoP expansion gets, I loved it. My Druid was no longer swamped with tells demanding that I stopped what I was doing to port someone across the world. I could just play the game in peace. Also, the books made it much, much easier to play non-porting classes, and for my boyfriend and I to try different race/class combos rather than starting in the same area. It was great, and really opened up the game world, IMO.

Yes it did make things more convenient but I don't play games just for convenience sake. PoK, books, Luclin Spires, Nexus, Bazaar, Cats on a Moon, etc etc .. all poor design descisions and poor lore decisions. These things killed the wonderful feel of EQ. For you it appears if they add something that makes the game more convenient no matter what it is then it is welcomed. For me it is how does it fit in the world and does it enhance the lore or make it absurd.

Say they decided to make travel easier by adding big slingshots you get into to shoot you across to world or expanded the world by making planet stinky with aliens that fling poo. Yes this stuff would add to the game but would it fit in, I don't think so. My question is if they wanted some instant travel that didn't hurt the world, and wasn't obtrusive in the wonderful fantasy landscape EQ had, why not add some wizards to each city to transport you instead of the horrid books? Why add PoK at all to kill the wonderful cities the game started with and faction system?

That is my thoughts. I think they could have added some instant travel but they should have been more careful on implementing it.

Velious was the killer for me...The fun was just gone...All my hard work with getting the nice gear in Kunark and the original EQ was nothing special anymore.

The game isn't really ruined for me. It's just different. It's not even the same animal as the original game, back when it was, "Here's your guild tunic and a dagger-- good luck, kid!" Even with all the changes, I still find it a far more interesting game than EQ2 or WoW. I liked the original experience, and I like the game now, but they aren't the same game by any stretch of the imagination.  If you only like the original game, I can totally see where an easy plat, no corpse run, quick-to-level EQ is a ruined EQ. 

As stated earlier: I was not a fan of the PoK books. I did not liek the world shrunk to such a degree. The wizard spires and teleporting spells were enough.

As far as expansions go...Shadows of Luclin. I hated the theme, the look, the class/race introduced, the layout. Despite this I played until Omens of War and then quit. I could not stand the constant release of expansions instead of fixing and/or improving current content. I came back when Secrets of Faydwer was released. I even tried starting over since I was returning with an EQ virgin. Man...what a waste of $50+.

I guess I was just trying to recapture those long lost memories from way back when...I still hum the theme song every once in awhile. I should have left it buried...back when Verant was calling the shots. Back when 3D environment MMORPGs were new and fresh.

Planes of Power ruined it , the most fun in EQ1 was running, teleportation just ruined it for me

Gates of Discord. 

That is the expansion where Sony made all raid bosses virtually immune to cold and fire damage.  My druid was an evocation druid (cold and fire nukes), so this change wrote my toon out of the game.  I liked the role of damage dealer/backup healer,   Switching to full on healer build was not the type of class I wanted to play and a druid healer is  a second rate healer.

WIth about 900 AA's, that is a lot of leveling that went down the drain.

LDON, took the vibrant world questing and grouping in open zones and hid them away in 6 person instances, made the world seem dead.  I couldnt find a soul out in KC or DL or anywhere I was running with alts and some of them (esp my cleric) were not solo friendly.

Although POP zones were not that much fun the nexus and POK pulled poeple together so at least once you were high enough to get to POK the game was more alive with people (KEI at bank!) etc

I think that kunark was my fav expansion. - was sooo disapointed how EQ2 did it, making all those zones crapy quest chains for solo play /meh

Shadow of Luclin was the expansion that ruined it for me... 

come'on, going to the moon was retarded.

GoD ruined it for me.

All of a sudden my main (shaman) wasn't wanted in EXP groups but my alt (enchanter) was since slow really was useless on the mobs anyway.