My Jadeon is just shy of 103, but I have switched to playing a Balo since the expansion was released. There's a bit of a bait and switch-- at 90, you stop getting double exp and buffs from Tanis Ka, you start using a ton of Esper energy whenever you turn on invigorate, and you lose 6% of your experience when you die. I didn't hit a leveling wall, really, until I got to 90. 90 to 105 has turned out to be a little harder than I expected from what came before, at least in part because of the things I just mentioned.

And it's gotten just impossible since I started playing a different character instead. 

I used lower level characters to farm the materials for crafting, but you can also buy them from the Shady Dealer in Sunstream, if you're just rolling in cash. I found crafting to be a huge time- and gold-sink, but it wasn't as painful as the old EQ crafting. 

There are so many little things to do in JD that it's really hard to imagine logging in and feeling like there was nothing to do. I came late to the Battlegrounds scene, but that's a lot of fun, for instance, and they've added some odd new features with the expansion, like the Garden, and the achievements window that gives you some new goals to shoot for, if you're goal oriented like that.

 If you liked Evony, you might like Freesky (at fo.igg.com). It's not quite the same setting, though.

Originally posted by Gameloading

Another WoW ruined everything.

You know those old mmorpgs where you had to level for years and spend days to organize your raids? These games still exist. Final Fantasy XI and Lineage 2, except now you probably wrote them off as grindfests because you aren't blinded by nostalgia.

I must just like grindfests, because I really liked Lineage 2 a lot also. I've gone back to it a few times... Darn you, now I am having a strange urge to go re-sub to two games instead of one.  

I probably would have liked FFXI except that the controls were a little too weird for me. I mean, it was easier for me to adapt to Shadowbane's controls, and those kinda sucked, so... Yeah, my several attempts to play FFXI were just frustrating. (I guess I should have made more macros. Alas, I am lazy.)

I like leveling, but I don't raid, so the faster the leveling is, the more unhappy I am, since it means I arrive at the "end game" too soon and have to start a new character. :( 

I am going to be in the minority, but as I see it, when WoW was released, it was essentially EQ. My impression of it over the 6 months I played was that it was a streamlined EQ with a horrid quest treadmill that I hated. Give me grind over having a storyline that I don't give a rat's fat bottom about shoved down my throat any day of any week of any month! The only story I am interested in is the one I tell about my own character's adventures or my guild's successes or spectacular failures in a group activity.

I'd say that EQ has developed some strategies since then that make it less tedious/more fun, perhaps partially  in response to the WoW phenomenon, but having played both, it seems to me that many of the changes are more in response to the changing population and  the demands of  the players.  

I really do prefer New EQ over Old EQ, and I was around for those days too. What's the point in holding people at low levels when there's hardly anyone there to play with? Why keep people in all those starter cities (and believe me, I love(d) Neriak and the old Freeport) when there are so few newbies that they won't even see another player for at least 20 levels if they are all spread out? That would be a sure way to scare off any legit newbies and make it really boring to play an alt without powerleveling. And then there are mercs-- they seem a natural response to lower populations and people crying all the time about how much time they spend LFG because they don't have essential classes. In the end, I think they've made the right call on almost everything, even if it seems to make the game "too easy" to vets.

I am iffy on easing of the death penalties, especially having played two corpse summoning classes, but how many people have you seen on these very forums railing against the death penalty and corpse retrieval, not even knowing the changes that have been made? I've been around here a long time, and there have been a lot of such complaints While some people like the stiffer penalties, I'd say it wasn't a popular feature with most ex-EQ players anymore than FFA PvP was a favorite feature of most UO players prior to changes to that system. (I liked the FFA PvP, and I wasn't a PKer, but I was clearly in the minority on that too.) 

Originally posted by Solude

I have tried over and over to come back to EQ.  Hell I lived in Norrath from 99-05 no complaints but ugh never again.

The UI is awful, the engine worse, the accessibility is laughable... if it didn't make me cry.

And requests for EQ classic I really don't understand.  First thing I did last month on yet another go at it was drop in on Qeynos... wow just wow, how was this ever immessive.  Staring at the hard line that is the zone line, the snakes and other under 10 poly models, completely flat terrain... ugh.  Hey but the combat.... huh slow and inactive.

I will be happy to see EQ Next though ;)

Which part of the UI is awful that can't be changed to suit anything you want ? People keep bringing that up, but I don't know what they are on about. 

Yes, it is also the case with EQ1 that all previous expansions are included with the latest expansion.

 I might give FFXIV a try when it comes out. I hope the UI turns out better than FFXI though. The interface turned out to be a deal-breaker for me. 

 I appreciate all the suggestions. I think I am going to try out LoTRO. 

I recently acquired a brand new laptop that will run games made this century, so I am looking for new things to try. I am expecting a new desktop for my birthday in January as well, and it will likely be a pretty good (brand new ) one as well.

I downloaded the Vanguard trial, but it locked up on launching every time, and while a little search revealed that someone else had the same problem (hanging up on "Enumerating Sound Devices" , according to the log) and solved it by disabling their sound card, I decided this was really too much of a pain in the butt for a free trial, and it didn't give me a lot of confidence in the client. I'd heard good things about it from a friend, so I was a little disappointed. I may try it again sometime later.

I downloaded the trial for Warhammer Online, which I am enjoying at the newbie end of things, but I know that it is an RvR game, which I am not sure is really something I am interested in. I might give it a go, but I am skeptical, since I generally prefer PvE.

So, I am looking for a recent release (p2p preferred, but I am not totally opposed to f2p) that's PvE-oriented. (Alternately, if PvP is unavoidable, I prefer FFA PvP over faction-based PvP.)  I like a game with a strong questing system, but I don't like feelng like I am being dragged through the storyline against my will. I don't care about crafting and prefer that it is an optional part of the game. I like opportunities to work together with others in groups and/or guilds. I like interesting places to explore, with neat and unexpected things to find. I prefer fantasy games. I like a lot of options for races and classes, but that's secondary to having a good, solid game.

My long-term love was EQ (1) . I loved logging in every day with limitless options (to work on quests or group for exp or to go hunt loot or all three at the same time. Or to raid. Or to craft 850 shirts in the hopes of getting one skill-up. Or to try to do something crazy, like climbing high objects or trekking to a zone I'd never seen. Or, in more recent times, to run different sorts of missions, etc.-- Less structured play is what I am getting at, I guess.)

Prior to getting the new computer, I was playing Jade Dynasty (which looks great on the new computer), and while there are certain aspects that I love, the game changed radically after level 90 and became a lot more expensive and/or time-consuming. I love the huge number of events. I like the different sorts of achievement and what can be unlocked with those (e.g. romance points gotten from quests unlocking marriage, honor getting you on the leaderboards, unlocking hero scroll quests, and giving you honor gems for getting gear, etc.) I like all the ways to participate in building your clan and alliance, and the benefits that come from being in a clan. I am just not too thrilled with the game post-90, and in particular with the expense of it, and all the ways it seems to force you into spending money just to play, much less to compete. I sort of liked the Chinese fantasy theme.
 

I stopped following new games a while ago, since my old desktop was such a dinosaur, so I only know a little bit about things released more recently. Anything sound like it might be up my alley?

 Oh, this is such a tempting concept -- play whatever I want all week, but a few hours a week have a planned playing session... Could be fun. 

 What? No love for Unrest or Mistmoore? 

Originally posted by Wrender

Uhh no I'm actually laid off from a 22 dollar an hour job making the connectors in your computer that I had for last 8 years. (Man am I pissed off). I'm 49 yrs old, balding, toothless, I play rock guitar in a band, everyone who knows me thinks im crazy for playing computer games instead of sitting on the couch watching fooking football on tv all day like they do,and guzzling beer while thinking of laying thier best friend's wife. I also build gaming computers, And I can out party any of them any time of the day or night! And I have more fun than anyone should at my age I know!   :)~    ...Thank you very much.

And NO I do NOT play the fooking Wii.

Ohh, however I do love to eat Kimchi. I eat a LOT of it and boy, do I stink!

And NO I am not Korean.

lmfao

Amazing... You could be my husband's twin, down to the kimchi. 

The worst was so bad they replaced it-- the interim Nektulos 2.0, before the nice new Nektulos was put in. The first revamp to Nektulos bore no resemblance to the original zone at all. Luckily, they didn't keep that monstrosity.

Now I reserve my zone hatred for the new Freeport. Grrrr.

 Looks like it might be a fun little thing for a walk down memory lane, but it isn't really what people have been asking for. If I were  playing EQ now, I would definitely give it a try, but it isn't going to bring me back, and I doubt it will snare too many other people either.

I am sympathetic to the people who want a classic server, even though I also feel that EQ is better now than back in the day. And, yes, I was there,  back when you got a dagger and a cloth shirt and kicked out into the world to find your way. It was great at the time, but I prefer new EQ. Still, people keep begging and pleading, so why not give them a server and see what happens? If it doesn't work, they can always merge it later. 

Keep in mind that the default UI isn't all that great, and you'll definitely want to sort out your chat boxes ASAP. (Luckily, it's all highly customizable, and you can get mods from eqinterface.com.) 

Some games cover the ladies up. EQ2 comes to mind. 

I don't necessarily want my characters running around in a chainmail thong, I also don't want to wear ugly overalls and oven mits. (I mean, I do wear oven mitts when I am taking stuff out of the oven, but I don't walk around in them.) Sex sells, sure... Also, it's  fantasy game, and having characters that look like that is as close as a lot of us ladies are ever going to get to looking like that.

There's a thing about realism... it's generally not fun. If it were, we'd all turn off our gaming machines and go have another big dose of REAL instead.

 I  ended up in the cash shop too. I couldn't go another day without more bag space and bank space, and I'd rather just pay the cash than hunt for the best price from players. 

 Prior to the release of EQ2, a bunch of the people I played with moved to CoH, and then right into EQ2 when it came out. Others simply disappeared to WoW. But a lot of people stayed and a lot of people are still playing. Some people came back after a while. 

EQ had server merges at one point to correct low populations (and, knowing how business works, probably to reduce expenses). This sounds like it's a bad thing, but it turned out to be a good thing-- populations went up, the server cultures/guilds eventually integrated (at least where I played) and it gave the whole community a boost.

The people playing EQ now are people who seriously want to play EQ, and are choosing it over other games, and I think that's the group the devs are really catering to now. (And, as you may have gathered from reading this site, EQ continues to get new expansions and development, even now.) I think the "playing EQ by choice" factor shows in the community too, in both good and bad ways. 

I don't really know what's going on with FFXI and FFXIV, since I haven't really been following those. I only played FFXI briefly and couldn't adapt to it for a variety of reasons, but I do hope it works out for you fans of FFXI. There will probably be people crying doom and gloom about what will happen to the game, but if I were going to give FFXI fans some advice, it would be to keep playing and having fun, keep your community as positive as you can in the face of change, and if you can make sure the devs know how passionate you are about the game, that's even better.

That was a pretty good list and an amusing article, but I think I would have put SWG a little higher because some of those other games made people mad at the time, but the SWG mess is a fire that doesn't show any sign of going out, and every time SOE does... well, ANYTHING... it fans the flames all over again.

Originally posted by Arthineas

 

True, but the point is its cheap entertainment that is there anytime you want.  I myself am a very casual player anymore.  I usually only play on the weekends and maybe a day during the week.  Thats still alot cheaper then going to the movies which only lasts you 2-3 hours. 

 

I have heard the movie comparison before, and I believe I've used it myself, but I have come to understand that going to the movies is about getting out of the house and doing something with real flesh-and-blood people, maybe even REAL friends or loved ones (unless you're that creepy guy who goes to matinees alone so that there's no one to ruin the viewing experience). That's something no MMO can even pretend to do. The difference in price is well justified for what you're getting. That 2-3 hours at the movies lets you connect to the world around you. The MMO only lets you connect to an imaginary pixel world on the Internet.

Knowing people on the Internet does NOT count as knowing them at all.

Originally posted by GreenChaos

I have purchased many many many single player game that cost me over $50 and lasted about 3 days. So $15 for a full month is great. How many single player games costing > $50 did you play for a full month?

A few, but not many. So the $15 month is actually a great deal.

I spent the $50 upfront on the MMO games I bought in boxes, and then paid for them again many times over, even when they were getting frustrating and when I was hardly playing at all. And then you can start to tack on what I have paid for expansions.

On the other hand, I do NOT buy many single player games, but almost all the ones I do buy are very replayable, and I play them for years without ever paying for them again. I will get on an Age of Empires 2 kick and play random maps and LAN games for weeks at a time, and then I'll be off playing something in the vein of The Sims or Tropico, or something of the Civilization sort. (I have a love/hate relationship with Civilization... That game makes me lose whole days.) 

And I might add that I just don't have time to play more than one game, so when I go on a single player (or LAN multiplayer) game, I don't play the MMO I'm paying for at all. That's why I am not quick to want to pay for any on a monthly basis at this point.

I think the end conclusion of this thread almost has to be that $15 is an absolute steal for some people, but is a waste for others, in terms of how much entertainment they are getting for their money.