I just want to fish

[Arclanz]

Seeing the maps on the "Kunark Maps" thread made me long to play old EQ and perhaps fish a little on the docks of east freeport; while seeing the occassional shout of "BOAT" and seeing a player or two hop onto the boats from time to time.

I can appreciate min/maxing, but the 1% who obsess over it tend to chase the other 99% of players away. Classic EQ in todays world means single high level soloers farming camps, powerleveled and heavily twinked toons, and of course poopsocking/batphone/etc.

It is wishful thinking, I know. But if a server could exist where this obsessive 1% weren't playing, I imagine the sleeping giant (more casual players) would trickle in and grow large over time.

Project 1999 had a huge player base (max of 1,500 online concurrently, I think) about two years ago. How many players have tried Project 1999? 10,000...20,000? What happened? Did those players all max out the content and get bored before Kunark launched? Hardly. I imagine only a few hundred did that. Many of the rest were simply discouraged by that 1% interfering with their quiet enjoyment of the game.

Not trying to demonize that 1%. In many ways I admire them and wish I had the time and experience to achive what they have achieved. But put too many of them on one server and you will chase away the casual players.

My intent was to mention how much I long to fish in the old EQ world; the rest was just brainstorming.

[Messianic]

False dichotomy of the playerbase and the not the reason the population is small.

[Ephirith]

The amount of min/maxer hardcore players on this server is way more than 1% but then, I guess you couldn't have used that convenient loaded term?

Everquest in this era is not a game for casuals, it never was. People putting in their time and hard work for greater rewards shouldn't interfere with your enjoyment of the game, just because of pixel envy or whatever weird thing you have going on. I'd say this server has more people like them than you.

If you have one legitimate complaint it is that there are many people in the high-level community who are just toxic, rotten human beings and wage a perpetual campaign of doucebaggery and acrimony. I believe that attitude, and the fact that unless you are in one of two guilds you will likely never see a major raid target, drives some people off the server when they get 46+ and see for themselves.

[Xadion]

i worked with a lady that spend 1999-2004 on EQ and never had a planar character.... she loved doing tradeskills, fishing, wondering around and stuff like that...she bought every xpac and bout her sub 1 year at a time once they started that.

it was crazy...

she then...obviously took to WoW in BC era.

[Houdiny]

I'm sure it is more than 1%. And if anything that particular player base keeps me playing. It keeps me leveling, it keeps me striving for good gear, it keeps me looking ahead towards something. When I see a guy I'm grouped with and he has all the bells and whistles I immediately think hey this guy has put in a lot of time and gotten a lot of nice things. Which is what I want eventually.

Granted I have only been playing P99 for a few weeks now but it was the same way back in original EQ. Players would come to the bank in greater faydark or hang out in the EC tunnels wearing amazing gear. And I would just run around looking at them in fascination. Knowing full well the time and dedication put into gaining those items.

These players by no means "drive away" the casual player as you are describing. The player base in this particular P99 project are very nice and very helpful. They give me buffs, have even ran into some that have given me gear.

If these players are somehow keeping you from fishing then I would see your point. But I don't see how there is any correlation between the two.

[acid_reflux]

Go to toxxulia forest and kill that jug headed erudite by the river and get yerself a +5% fishing pole.... then go to cabalis and fish up one of those 15 pounders...that should keep you busy

[Danth]

The top-end doesn't drive away the casuals because neither group cares about the other. High-end players aren't sitting on Emperor Crush's spawn for 40 hours at a pop, and the casuals don't care who kills Trak this week because they have no intention of seeing it anyway. These two groups of people are playing different games that merely happen to share the same chat.

The folks the top guilds might drive away are the folks who want to raid but don't want to (or can't) join those guilds. Such people would find themselves rapidly disappointed. They also present a typical example of why nearly all newer MMOG's come with instancing.

If anything drives away casual players, I'd wager the forums have driven away more casual players than anything that happens in-game. These boards don't make a good first impression.

Your co-worker doesn't sound crazy to me Xadion. She knew what she liked. I used EQ for about that long and never did any serious amount of raiding, either. Some folks just don't enjoy that gameplay mode.

Danth

[mefdinkins]

I sort of wonder about this too, I used to love exploring and 'wasting time'. It was fun. Now I'm all business.

I think part of it is that I'm more mature, but I think part of it is the result of the evolution of video gaming, technology... and the novelty of a MMO game. I seriously spent my first night playing EQ during classic running around Kelethin hailing guards seeing if they would talk to me. When I saw the first real life character I called my whole family in the room to show them. I wanted to explore everything I tried about 6 classes before I got any one of them above level 15. I explored all the cities. My /played time was ridiculous for how low level I was. Eventually, after seriously FOREVER /played I got my druid up to 40, 50 and never made it past 57 (retired during Velious). I think because max level and hardcore raiding was so difficult to attain for the common player that no one really aspired to do that - people got to define what was fun for them, instead of accepting the notion that endgame this or endgame that is the only thing you can do for fun.

In WOW, I got to max level very early during vanilla and many of the expansions. 'Leveling' was my obsession until I was capped. At that point I kept playing and had the opportunity to raid, to get gear, to go for achievements, to max up my fishing, cooking, secondary skills and trade skills. That's when people got to choose what is fun for them. I spent a ridiculous amount of time saving up money and getting mounts (I think I had 115 when I left WOW) because that was fun for me. Others laughed at that and only raided. Others chose pvp, whatever they liked.

In EQ it's almost impossible to prioritize lvling over the other things you find fun (because you'd never get to the fun stuff). When I created my druid I immediately jumped on the XP grind - I was pretty dedicated and I'd like to think got to 50 in a very efficient time. However, it's impossible to just grind out 1-60 before doing anything else in the game. So now I've taken the time to relax and just enjoy 'playing' - exploring, camping, etc.

A lot of the players here have experienced 'most' of what EQ has to offer already, so I understand if they have identified endgame raiding or high level content to be what is most fun for them. As such, it makes sense that they have primarily focused on that. I still think every player should take some time to 'stop and smell the roses' but as for those who don't want to until they have their epic or full-planar... I understand.

[Telron]

Lets not forget Casual doe NOT mean easy. I don't get to play as much as back in 1999 but the fun is still there. It was a beautiful era of MMO gaming where you had to work for stuff and even now that it takes me a long time to get anything done I have a blast doing it.

[Telron]

i worked with a lady that spend 1999-2004 on EQ and never had a planar character.... she loved doing tradeskills, fishing, wondering around and stuff like that...she bought every xpac and bout her sub 1 year at a time once they started that.

it was crazy...

she then...obviously took to WoW in BC era.

This is frickin awesome btw.

[SirAlvarex]

When I was younger I was one of the adventurous types. On here I'd agree that the only ones playing are the original 1% (Yes, that term is accurate as to what it was during the 99-02 period that I played). The other 99% either burned out, have died, have grown up, etc and don't want to play an old MMO just for nostalgia.

Or, a lot of them start, get to level 12, see no groups/people telling him/her "Don't play a melee character. Play a caster so you can farm money and your life will be easier". Seeing monks running around in Fungi's probably doesn't help either.

I know I had trouble catching onto the server because a quarter of my groups were "Oh wait, you don't have 20k worth of gear? I'm going to make fun of you for not being a necro/mage".

So yeah, that's why the "1%" (which is now the 90%) negatively affect the population. But that's minor. If there were enough casual players so that "90%" becomes the "1%" again, then it wouldn't be an issue. The only problem is, how the hell do you get enough casual players to play a game that is the equivalent to beating your head against the wall? That I don't have an answer for.

Oh, and the forums. Tons of trolling goes on here.

(Yes, there are tons of nice people on this server. But sometimes all it takes is 2 or 3 experiences with the crappy people to turn off a new "casual" player).

[Flunklesnarkin]

P99 isn't the only game in town.

There are other classic projects out there that will be as classic or even more classic than P99 which are in the works. (not just eqemu projects either)


P99 is sort of a stop gap measure imo. relive semi classic eq.


If you google it you will see other alternatives in the works that have more dev support than here.


I would mention some by name but its a bannable offense (even to mention other specific eqemu projects also)

[Spitty]

Hoping the most enthusiastic player base will go away so less enthusiastic players will "trickle in" is really bizarre.

[Flunklesnarkin]

Hoping the most enthusiastic player base will go away so less enthusiastic players will "trickle in" is really bizarre.

Well said.

The other option of course is for more casual players to try out a different server or P99 to run another server (which I don't see happening)

[acid_reflux]

Was this thread about fishing?

[Telron]

/fish...
Your rod has broken.


/fish...
You have spilled your beer.

[Snagglepuss]

I don't think it's so much the higher end scene because most casuals have no real desire to sit and poop-sock mobs and be told where to camp. As the OP said, everyone defines their own fun and has their own goals. When I first started on live, I made 5 different rangers and explored all the cities- and loved it!

I think this server has attracted a lot of 20 somethings who are in school and have the time to take a more hardcore approach to the game. I feel because we attract such a small percentage of all EQ players, by default, we will get a more hardcore demographic. Again, as another poster said, there are other projects being developed that have a bit more of a casual community following. I know for fact many of their members are interested more in lore, adventuring, and socializing more than raiding and looting.

On a final note it is somewhat discouraging starting out "classic" with tarnished bastards sword while you have a level 10 rogue with a ragebringer in your group.

[Urbanzkopf]

This thread made me have a revelation. It's brought home to me the EQ I loved most and always will, I need to get back into the style of playing like that woman that always had the expansions, 1 year sub but just went around Norrath minding your own. The game isn't all about raiding after all, if anything mostly defined more now thanks to modern mmo's (that crap they call warcraft :) )