According to http://mmogdata.voig.com/ there about 20k active subscriptions.  And since the vast majority of these players seem to play on the Caste Lighwolf server, it's actually a pretty populated, active game still.  Compare it to server population stats for WoW, which has ~15k on medium-medium/high servers, that's not bad!

It WAS a huge grindfest, but for the last 6 months or so, they have inputted the "Boon of Hagley" for sale at pretty much every city. 

For 1000 tunar (eseentially nothing), you get a self-casting buff that quadruples (4x!) your XP.  And this buff last for like 2 weeks or something like that, unless you die. 

The "Boon" seems to make leveling in EQOA similar to leveling in WoW...you can make a 20 in a few hours, and doesn't take much longer after that to get to 25, 30, etc.  They also have the "Pickclaw Event" and "Roots and Herbs" that expedite leveling, so the devs really seem to be focusing on wanting us to enjoy the end-game and have fun. 

And with the CLW server booming and friend/group invites bouncing all over the place, I'm having a blast being back ;-)

Sorry to necromance this post, but wow....just logged back onto EQOA for the first time in almost 6 months, and I gotta say it's still my favorite MMO.  And this is after lvling a toon to 70 in WoW and playing EQ1 & EQ2.

I logged onto the Castle Lightwolf server, which is the only server many people still actively play on.  I read the game has an account population ~20k, and I'd say the vast majority of these players have at least one toon on this server.  This being the case, the in-game activity is very high, and much like a moderately populated WoW server.  So, it may be a "dying" MMO, but as the players have taken it upon themselvers to all migrate to the one server, it's actually really bustling ;-)

And the best reason I still love this game - started a new toon, and within 15 minutes, found another player with a new character, we became friends, and did all the low-level starting quests together.  And after heading to a main city, I almost immediately had a group invite from a few people, and we leveled together all night.  I pretty much went from 1-70 in WoW without talking to a single person.  My friends and girlfriend aren't MMO geeks like me, so I have to rely on people I meet in-game for the sense of community that are (should be) central to any MMO. 

If you decide to come back, or are just sick of WoW and the other crop of current MMO's, look me up on Castle Lightwolf - the name's Skotch.

Personally, I'm most looking forward to cross-platform Everquest that SOE has been hinting at.

Let the anti-SOE flames begin.....

But seriously, I've played a lot of MMOs, and none really grabbed me or gave me that true sense of immersion as EQOA on the PS2, EQ1 and EQ2.  Say what you want about SOE and their lackluster support for games.  But I think with the new management heirarchy at Sony, with the combintion of SOE and SCEA, and their focus on MMOs as a true profit point in the future for them, I think we'll all see a change to their dev teams and CS teams.

The Everquest franchise was always able to suck me in fully because of their focus on group play, as opposed to leveling 1-70 by myself as I did in WoW.  PvP is fun, but the real reason I play MMORPG is not to kick the crap out of other players (that's what SOCOM's for), but rather to join a community with them, and via cooperative play, take down some really cool mobs, whether it's in the countryside or in a dungeon.

I hope that with SOE and Smedley's new proclaimed focus on PC/PS3 MMO's, we'll see a reincarnation of their flagship MMO with a new EQ that has the support, polish and flow of WoW, but the community and the immersion of EQ.  Also, I miss being able to play on a console every now and again, and now have to screw around with video settings, etc. Although having the option to play one account on both a PC and a PS3 would be cool, especially if the girlfriend is boaggarting the PC with MySpace or whatever for the night ;-)  Let's go, EQ:X !!  (That's what I'm calling it for now )

As far as adding something we haven't seen before to the genre, I'd keep an eye out for Curt Schilling and 38 Studios mystery project, Copernicus - looks like they're up to something groundbreaking.  Whatever it is, let's hope they get it right the first time, so Blizzard doesn't come along, steal it, and perfect it, and make a billion dollars a year on it.  Although THAT game would probably be really sweet, too.

Originally posted by Devalon

What the difference between the pc verision and ps2?

1. Trading system, or "Auction", works exactly like eBay.  No keeping all of your wares on your toon's body, and staying logged in for days at a time to sell your stuff in the bazaar.  No complicated search functions...just straight up, easy-peasy.

2. Class Mastery System - This beats AA points by FAR.  It's a really cool system that allows you to divert some or all of your experience earned toward stat increases, new abilities, specializations, etc. that allow you to differential yourself from other toons, as well as focus on certain parts of your character that you enjoy.  This is a welcome change to purley raiding or farming once you reach the highest level (60), since at that point, 100% of your xp automatically goes toward CMs.  It's just a much more fun, intuitive, and flexible system than AAs. 

3. More grouping, and more interaction with other players at all levels.  When I played EQ, everyone solo'ed to at least 40 before grouping.  Why not just play FFXII or something?

4. Were-forms: The ability to complete quests to morph yourself into a werewolf, werelion, wererat, weregator, or werebear, or even were-hunter.  Pretty sweet way to further customize your character.

Other than that, it just has some great storylines, a nice history of Norrath before EQ1, and some cool people playing.

Oh man, it is SO much more comfortable laying in bed or on the couch with the controller and the keyboard next to me! ;-)

It is a great game, and I still can't get over how many people still play....the first server, Castle Lightwolf, was PACKED last night...with low-level toons too.

EQOA on the PS2 does indeed support any type of USB keyboard, and chatting is actually easier in this version than on the PC.  Actually, game play in general is actually easier and more intuitive that an the PC, since all the necessary bottons are on the controller rather than the keyboard.  It's actually pretty ingenius...instead of having to search for the correct letter key for an attack or command, it's either the X or O button, or with the direction buttons.   Anything needs some getting used to, but I never found myself trying to keep my eyes on the screen while poking around the keyboard for some button on EQOA.

It is still supported as well, and last night there were a surprisingly high number of people logged in...I couldn't belive it myself!