cant eq get a new engine too? it would make me go back, along with some new servers and a revamp of the economy

Why can't EQ do it?

Because they already made EQ 2.

What's the point?

Count yourself lucky that they keep EQ 1 up and running, not to mention that they even still create expansions for it!

I'm already back to AO but I attribute it more due to nostalgia if anything else. I don't know how these old dogs would attract new people even with the updated engines.

Have you not been keeping up with EQ?

Zones are getting a graphic revamp.
Slowly, but it it being done.

Pre-EQ2, there was supposed to be a complete EQ graphic engine replacement.

But, then SOE put all their future into EQ2.

Oh well.
I think they would have been much better served by working on EQ and relaunching it as EQ+ or something of the sort.

What I want now most out of these NOOBS is a 'Classic Server'.  Luclin max, maybe Velious max.  No higher.  NEVER PoP.

Probably never happen, or will happen so far down the road that it just won't matter anymore.

It is, after all, SOE.

You know, I don't care about a new engine. The idea I'd like to see SOE/EQ steal from Funcom/AO: Make the original trilogy free to play. At least there would be a constant influx of new people, and *maybe* some of them would hit level cap and decide to subscribe to the full game.

I've been thinking about going back to EQ for a while now, since I got bored of WoW over a year ago and became homeless. I recently tried the free trial, Escape to Norrath, and man it was horrid. I want to believe that, due to some gross oversight, they didn't use a new engine/graphics for that, but something tells me they wouldn't be that stupid. It actually looked worse than I remember the game.

I don't think that revamping the engine will be enough, honestly. I think it's required. I think, to lure back more than a tiny percentage of former players, they need to do more than just a graphics revamp. The game is just too big, I think, and the economy is not set up in a very sustainable way. They need to rethink a number of mechanics to address issues like this before a lot of people would come back. That said, maybe they already have; I haven't played in a long time so I'm basing this on what I remember. Since there's no real free trial I can't see the actual game without paying, and EtN shows me that's not worth it.

Personally, I would not return unless (1) all my friends did, which won't happen since some of them hated EQ to begin with, or (2) they made the game better (yes, subjective). By "better" I mean better graphics, which I think is a given, but also altered gameplay. The world should be smaller and make more sense. EQ has the best lore in any game I've played, but that seemed to decline with Velious and almost disappear with Luclin. The world should be more dynamic, and not stupid scripts like the Halloween monsters in the commons. It needs NPC wars and other in-game events that shape the world and make it change. EQ could actually be a pioneer in this area. Let me explain...

For example, hopefully most people know about the "war" between Qeynos and the Gnolls (remember Flippy?). There could be a system which governs the "breeding" of Gnolls outside Qeynos, slowly spreading their reach outward from Blackburrow. As this reach spreads, more powerful Gnolls inhabit the lower regions of Blackburrow, and in-game spawn points start to appear outside. Once it reaches SFG, the Gnolls may build up an army and attack SFG, possibly taking it over, and further increasing their society. If it's not quelled by lower players killing spawn points and higher players killing leader mobs, they keep spreading out eventually into the Karanas and Qeynos. If left alone, maybe they could even take over Qeynos. If everyone on the server is high level and busy raiding, it could get even worse. At the same time the Aviaks have taken over SK, NK, EK, allied with the giants, and basically the old world gets overrun. These aren't things that happen quickly, and there would be some randomness built in, so players aren't constantly going back to open up Qeynos every week. You could do the opposite, too: kill enough of the Gnolls and they start to disappear. Maybe something else takes their place, maybe they migrate elsewhere...who knows.

Eventually people take notice and have a hell of a time restoring balance. If they don't, people can't use these areas, so no new players in those cities, no quests there, etc.. Further effects can be put in place to keep people from not caring, such as "no resources are coming from Qeynos any more, so we can't sell X", something like that.

I think a level of dynamic environment like that, which AFAIK has never been done, would not only draw back old players but also probably a number of new players looking to enjoy their game and not just have the biggest e-peen. Alternately, it gives people a reason to play that doesn't involve grinding to level up all the time. You could potentially stay level 20 and keep warring against Blackburrow for a while, if you want to (and don't play very much).

Also get rid of anything after Velious. I know that'll never happen, but other ideas are, include voice overs and chat bubbles (I'd like to hear them talk and "talk" back, due to the [keyword] model which I like). Better first-person view and animations, spread out AAs to customize characters as you level (kinda like WoW Talents)...

Okay so this is getting long and whenever I reload it's locking up my browser loading the editor, so I'll submit while I still can.

You needed another option on your poll. "NO! Sony totaly fucks all mmo's it touches!" lol

I learned that from EQ an have never went back to it or any other mmo with sony attached to it. Good thing to cuz all I ever hear are horror stories about the rest of thier games. Sure they did good on the playstation console but when it comes to mmo's they dont seem to give a shit about what the players want. They just keep pumping out crap and far to many crap expantions. Its like.. "oh.. you want us to fix this problem you have all been bitching about for years? hmmm nah here have another expantion insted."

aye like someone said they are already revamping the zones....but for me that was one of the problems...i loved old eq graphics and luclic graphics looked too cartoony yet most of the new functions (such as mounts) required the new graphics and now all these new revamped zones look retarded and like wows....bastards....i really like the old graphics i think they were fine and could probably have kept it and pursued it from the angle of low end gaming like ultima....and they are doing something along the lines of changing history because old blackburrow is now a 70+ zone and several others i cant remember becuase i havent played in months (unfortunately it was such a big part of my life i return to it occasionally to see how much more has been messed up and to do a lil research on how not to "upgrade" games lol) but its not interractive and we werent a part of that change so yer point still stands but they did have a special server where events like that did happen and such i think it was legends unfortunately you had to pay like 40 a month for that crap  (but people still did it) and they had scheduled events on a public calendar on their site like one i remember seeing was a minotaur assault on ak'anon and you could either join the gnomes or meldrath and his minos ( through their spirit shrouding system i believe) i wish i could have seen how that worked out but i believe because of absurd pay they cancelled it, but to constantly be streaming new content like that would probably be a pain considering that most companies arent purely focused on one project and it would probably take a lot more than the normal amount of scripters/designers ( or whatever else is needed) and would be very time consuming and distract them from other major goals of theirs (which probably still suck just as much but we are all here arguing about this horrible crap and returning so we cant hate it as much as we say we do eh?)

If by revamped you mean, someone other than SOE runs it and gets rid of the lame cash shop (I mean com'on a subscription AND a cash shop, greedy!), then I would come back to EQ.  SOE just seems to like to run thier games into the ground, just so they can make a buck in the short run.  Alot of the EQ community was driven away from SOE and thier greed (expansion every 6 months is way too much...GREEDY!)  SOE charges you for what other games give you for free.  You only get an update to fix a bug or something like that, not new content.  Other games you get free new content all the time.  If SOE was gone, then EQ would probably still be number 1 mmo in the world.