F2P is the only way to save this game.  If you like this game, you should support F2P, not go against it.

The question about preferring PvE vs PvP, or Open World vs Zoned vs Instanced should not be black & white.  Today games have the capabilities to a blend of these things.  I don't like strictly PvE games, nor do I like PvP shoved down my throat constantly.  A game like DAOC & WoW where you have areas you can level in that are not PvP flagged, then you have specific areas you go to that are contested are my ideal way to play MMO's.  Neither one of these games can be called strictly PvE or PvP games.  I just like a bit of both personally, and I think a lot of people do want the option to PvP when they want to.

As for Open world vs zoned vs instanced, there's absolutely no reason to not have a game developed to be open world, with specific instanced dungeons & raids & battlegrounds.  Even EQ today, while it started the whole open world dungeon concept, have moved into having a blend of open world & instanced content these days.

Originally posted by spizz

Why you guys care so much how many subscriber they have or not, like some would be a major shareholder here.

At the end we did discuss here for weeks and noticed that a part of the gamers like the game and many others not...some will cancel and some will stay. The game wont be better or worse with higher or lower player numbers, at the end its all about you and how you like the game, if you sub or not. The message about their financial quartal report wont change anything with my own decision about this game...so who cares.

If people don't care to post, forums like this won't exist.  So you asked why do people care so much?  Well it's something to talk about, some drama to read during morning coffee breaks, and something to argue over.  Need there be any other reasons?  ;)

In the list of importance for me:

-FUN and enjoyable content, with minimal hassle to login and start playing and progressing my characters.  This means no forced grouping except for areas where you could get the best of the best items (dungeons, raids, etc)

-Good and stable performance, look at Vanguard, a game that could've been much better had it not had all the engine/crashing problems.  People today don't want to lag when they play, they don't want to hitch, crash, and all that.

-Optional PvP, I need my PvP fix but these days I don't prefer FFA PvP anymore.  Pure PvE games always have a ceiling for me, there comes a time when I simply get too bored to continue.  Having optional PvP prolong the game for me and allows me to loosen up and have some fun...sorta like a break from the samo samo PvE.

-Fluid animation, I can't stand bad animation in today's games anymore.  For older games, I can understand.  For newer games, I expect animation to be smooth, combat to be smooth, mount/flying animation to be smooth, etc..  This was and still is a big strong point of WoW, something other games have difficulties recreating.

-Character customization, I don't need a thousand facial expression choices, but I would like to see a wide variety of armor, weapons, cloaks, emblems, etc..  Anything that allows you to look a bit different helps to boost my enjoyment.

I think a good chunk of the people that want a WoW killer because WoW helped kill their favorite games.  As for me, I had a good time playing WoW so even though I'm not playing WoW currently, I see no reason to wish for a WoW killer.

Sometimes gamers are just weird.  They want a WoW killer, and a game comes out that's different than WoW, but all they could do is to nitpick how this and that looks/acts like WoW.  It's like games today can't have *anything* that WoW currently uses or else they'll be accused of being a WoW clone.  If you think about it, it's pretty darn hard to create a game today that does not at least use some functionalities that WoW uses because WoW sort of have a bit of everything.  Honestly I think gamers just like to create drama and talk trash on the forums for fun.

Originally posted by Dibdabs

 I mean I knew it was an old game, but it really hasn't aged well at all.

For a 13 year old game, it hasn't aged well?  Please show me a game that has aged well that is equally as old lol.

It's old and different yes, but it's due to it being old and different from the newer games today that people still go back to play it from time to time.  I personally don't spend as much time playing it these days, but I still enjoy my time when I do play it.

Good news indeed, EQ1 going hybrid F2P.  For those paying monthly subscriptions, nothing changes, except you get additional 500SC to spend.  For those wanting to check out EQ again, you can for free.

http://www.everquest.com/free/#Q24

==copy/paste==

Newsfeed | ShareThis | 

EverQuest is Going Free to Play!

/Tell Norrathians INCOMING BUFFS!

Hello everyone - I hope you all are doing well early on in the New Year! With an exciting Veil of Alaris expansion just released in November, we're thrilled to announce the next big adventure for EverQuest®. After listening to your feedback and suggestions over the past few years, I'm happy to announce that in early March 2012, EverQuest will be going free-to-play.

We're excited to be expanding the EverQuest experience by making the game more accessible to every type of player so that you can choose to play the game in a way that suits you best. Anyone who wishes to start, return or continue to play one of the "Best Games of All-Time" can simply download and play EverQuest on their terms – think of it as Free to Play, Your Way. Recurring subscriptions, non-recurring subscriptions, Silver or Free memberships, item unlockers, and more. The game will now be setup to be flexible so that *you* can decide how much to pay, based on how much fun you're having.

EverQuest players are some of the most loyal, long-standing players of any MMO in existence. With the gaming landscape changing every day, we want to ensure we continue to evolve the game to keep players engaged and bring in even more new players to further expand the community. With no up-front costs or required membership, we might see a new player or two along the way, and more people is always a good thing!

Once we go free-to-play, here are some of the upcoming features and events you can expect:

• On Friday, March 16th, EverQuest becomes a teenager: 13 years old!!! We will be having some extra added events in the game starting that week leading up to that Friday and we're introducing some new items within POK to let you know what's in store.
• With the free-to-play launch, a renovated everquest.com website will be unveiled and after that, we will bring you upgraded EQPlayers pages.
• We have improved the functionality of our Map system! Some improvements include being able to view appropriate level content for your character on the map, allowing you to find zone lines much easier; and also showing you your wisps on the map to help navigate to where you want to go!

Also at the free-to-play launch, all players will receive a Welcome Pack containing items to add to your gameplay experience. You'll be able to summon a unique Mercenary to fight by your side and we're including some Bayle Marks to help pay for the services of your newly summoned Mercenary. A couple of Experience Potions are also included to help you increase your experience gained while adventuring. For all the collectors that like to show off all the great wares to your friends, we're giving you an item to display in your home and add to your collection. And finally, you'll be able to customize the appearance of one of your weapons with a Weapon Ornamentation - also included in the Welcome Pack. So be sure to check the claim window for your free gifts.

We, the EverQuest dev team, are very excited about this new flexible system. Free-To-Play is the best fit for EverQuest and we are looking forward to supporting the game and our dedicated fans for years to come. This is a great year for everyone associated with EverQuest and SOE. We think you'll be pleasantly surprised at what's coming in 2012.

One last note, we will be doing a Community Webcast on Thursday February 2, 2012 covering all of the exciting free-to-play details. Please be sure to send in any questions you might have via the Facebook page or Twitter so we can respond with answers during the Webcast.

See you in game very soon!

Thom Terrazas

EverQuest Producer
AKA "Phathom"

For more information on the transition to free-to-play please visit the FAQ and free-to-play matrix.

===

Definitely Guild Wars 2, I enjoyed GW1 briefly before, I'll enjoy GW2 much more with WvWvW PvP.

After GW2, I'm personally waiting to hear more about EQ Next.

Rest be assured, there will probably be LFD tool added to the game in the future.  It makes sense to not have it during the first few months of launch.  But wait until the game loses the usual % of subscribers after the first month, and however many for whatever else reasons. 

Two timelocked progression servers run by SOE are still going, they're up to Luclin now.  One of them, Fippy, is still quite populated.

In case anybody is interested, SOE's offering triple station cash today only (Dec. 17th Saturday).  With triple station cash you can easily purchase the latest expansion (and be flagged for all expansions prior) for just $13.  Pretty darn good deal in case you've been holding out and haven't upgraded yet (like me).

Just FYI :)

They are wrong about this, they know it that's why they are dodging it.  After a week they haven't said one word after so many complaints.  Just to link the two threads where guild leaders are absolutely ticked off with what they did:

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts/list.m?topic_id=181118

http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts/list.m?topic_id=181129

They made the choice to screw their loyal subscriber over, they've lost me for this expansion.  If they come out and do better next expansion I'll probably buy it.  But this time around I've only purchased 1 copy for 1 account out of 4 I own.

Originally posted by vesavius

I would imagine, at the heart of it, those games were made with passion and love. The follow ups, once they had become money machines, where then designed by accountants to appeal to the largest possible markets for maximum possible profit.

Unfortunately I believe that's a big part of it...all these companies started off wanting to do nothing but make a great, fun filled, game.  It was all about attracting a fanbase from scratch, getting people to trust you, making gamers happy, creating fun and exciting game elements, etc.   You have developers that just got their first dream job, creating games for a living, omg.  So they were highly motivated, they had a lot of pride in what they do.

Then they had success in what they do, they made a great game and people flocked to their games.  The execs see the $$$ rolling in, so they get all bold and want to create something bigger, shinier.  The developers started to view what they do as just another job.  Mythic & Mark Jacobs could've easily created a DAOC 2 and made their fanbase happy.  But what did they do instead?  They sold out to a bigger company, got a much larger budget to work with ($$$), and made WAR which failed hardcore by any standards.

Turbine could've made an AC2 that actually was more like AC1, which is what people wanted.  But they created something completely different, almost saying "eff you fans".  Naturally AC2 bombed.  All AC1 players wanted was a new revamped engine, newer graphics, but similar gameplay.  Turbine went reaching for the stars by looking to attract a larger crowd.

SOE created EQ2, which again is a game nothing like the first.  EQ2 never got anywhere near as popular as EQ1, never hit EQ1's peak subscriber #'s,  they ticked off their loyal fanbase that have stuck with them for a long time.  All EQ1 players wanted was a game with a newer engine, newer graphics, newer player models but similar gameplay as EQ1.  EQ2 was nothing like EQ1.

These companies are doing a disservice to their loyal fans by making such huge mistakes.   The truly sad part of it all is that we will probably never see a DAOC 2, something I was really really looking forward to from Mythic awhile back.  We'll never see a new Asheron's Call game where player characters don't look like stick figures.    And as for EQ, there's an EQ Next coming out, so at least there's a lil hope.

This is the wrong forum to be to expect posts regarding EQ unfortunately.  You want to check out either the fippy community forum that nadia linked above, or SOE's official forum.  It's my experience not many EQ players frequent this forum as compared to the other ones.

Fippy is the server to be, it's the more populated of the two.  You will likely want to look for an active guild, it really helps when you are in a guild (like the good 'ol days, you wanted to be in guilds).

Right now most people are higher than the level you are at, but if you are in a guild it will help with looking for group.  When Luclin opens, there should be an influx of people rerolling the vah shir race, so the newbie areas may fill up again.

I would say today, most people expect to see pretty graphics, a game that's fun to play, and a well built engine.  Asking people to choose graphics vs gameplay, traditionally you'll find a lot of people on the forums picking gameplay over graphics.  But in reality, games with bad graphics just aren't as populated today anymore, as people do expect games to look good.

Originally posted by markonam

im thinking we might take an even bigger hit on player population after this next round of releases, I know alot of vg players that are going to go swtor,... this might be the end for vg =(

VG doesn't cost SOE much to keep it running, so I don't see SOE shutting it down.  As long as there are people that are willing to pay for a game that hasn't seen development in over a year, they'll keep that game turned "ON" because it's like free money to them.

Games that have higher expenses, with development team and such, have more to worry about when newer around of MMO's release.  They stand to lose more, thus having a bigger chance of hurting and shutting down.

Been there, done that.  And no, guilds don't work for me.  For a period of time when guilds didn't work for me, I ran my own guilds.  But after getting burned by the inevitable drama, your main tank leaving for another guild that was *one* step ahead of you, and different cliques causing issues within the guild, I'm no longer interested in spending my time and organizational skills to run guilds anymore either.  So guilds, be it other people's guild or my own, I'm simply not interested in them anymore these days.

I think they'll be giving VG some content updates, but they won't go F2P due to how much dev resources it'd take for them to convert the game into F2P.  So I suppose Vanguard players can be happy that there may be something new coming for VG, however small the updates are.  But I wouldn't get too excited about F2P as Smed will likely not allow that much resources be put into VG.  Remember in order for them to make a game F2P, they'd need to add content and cash shop items for purchase.  That's how they get paid with their station cash model.  For Vanguard, that's a lot they have to do to implement it.

It never cease to amaze me how much they've been stringing the VG players along though.  They keep saying oh yeah you may be surprised, or oh yeah we're looking at the possibilities of ... and ...  Then months and months have gone by and nada.

Originally posted by zethcarn

So I haven't played EQ1 since about 2004.  I've heard about you being able to hire mercenaries to assist you with soloing and such.  But if you are a new player with nothing more than your Rusty Short Sword and Tunic* can you afford to keep them around?  Any info would help, thanks.

First make sure your account has at least Seeds of Destruction expansion on it, as mercenaries require SoD expansion flagged.  Or if you buy the starter pack or the latest expansion, it'll include it as well.

And yes mercs are designed so people starting with nothing can afford them.  If you hire your merc before you reach level 10, they are free to hire.  If you hire them after level 10, they cost money to hire them.  As for the usage cost, they charge you a small amount of coins every 15 minutes they are active (no charge if they are set passive for full 15 min. or put away).  The usage charge is very cheap, it goes up a bit as you gain levels, but they are very affordable.

Good luck!