PurelyElf |
06-03-2012 12:02 PM |
Hi Aenor, I actually remember you from VZ (and I think Red99?). I leveled a cleric to 39 or so on Red99, and had to quit suddenly for RL problems. When I was able to come back, I decided not to because the population was so low. EQ PvP without a healthy population is not a fun experience. Maybe coming from VZTZ you disagree, but if all a server has is 2 raiding guilds it is not worth playing on. What happened, in my opinion, was a combination of things:
- EQ is an old game from 1999, and the ratio of PvE players to PvP players was always against us.
Blue server only getting 500 players at peak times did not bode well for the PvP server, with a more limited pool of potential players. Not enough people were aware of the server when it started up, either.
- Infighting and drama queens made the server less desirable to play on, starting before the server even began beta.
The PvP players, as usual, could not come to a consensus about anything, and nearly everyone became a doomsayer when we really needed them to be supportive. The VZTZ crowd hurt the server by whining about classic exp. The SZ crowd hurt the server by whining about there being too many rules. The RZ crowd hurt the server by complaining about lack of item loot. Some people wanted teams, and whined about that. Some people decided that slight exp loss was a serious issue. VZTZ crowd also cried about there not being serverwide chat, and some ridiculous thing called "yellow text". Nearly everyone was mad, and felt entitled to a server that they themselves designed. Many of these people threatened to quit, and could seen saying, "Me not getting my way is going to be the DEATH of this server! Just you wait, because the devs have decided not to cater to people that share my opinion, everyone that matters is going to leave!"
No one could stop complaining and just enjoy the game with a somewhat open mind, and when potential new players saw this doomsday talk on the forums, what do you think they thought about the server?
- The Red99 population really shot itself in the foot by alienating the Blue99 players, and themselves.
It was cool back in real EQ to make fun of the bluebies, and to pretend that we were somehow superior because we played the game with an added level of fun. Not so much these days, though, when we really could have used their numbers. We all could have been inviting, and honestly tell them that the fun and excitement of PvP is really a positive thing that could make their old tired game seem new again. Here we had a pool of players that was used to playing EQ emu, was familiar with our devs and GMs, and didn't even need to patch the game any more than they were used to in order to play on our server. What did we do, though? Trolled them and their forums hard, as we did in the past. "It takes a really HARDCORE player to play a video game like RED EQ!"
Our forums became a cesspool in their eyes, and they got to see the worst of us, once more reinforcing their bluebie beliefs that PvE is superior, if only because the red community sucks and is childish.
- The red community sucks and is childish.
Besides the nonstop whining and trolling potential players out of playing, the attitude that players brought to the game turned away many players, red and blue alike. I'm talking about that "hardcore, me > you" mindset again. It's fun to a point, but when you actually have players trying to grief each other off of a low population server you have to wonder about those people. In my brief time playing the game, Holocaust trained groups of mine a handful of times, and no one would shut up about how much better they were at the game when compared to everyone else. Big egos clashed, and I rolled my eyes along with the bluebies. Playstyles other than the VZTZ "EQ starts at max level, there is no room for roleplaying or casual play, go big or go home" way of life were ridiculed and attacked into nonexistence.
You did this to yourselves. At the time you were of the mind that you didn't give a fuck, don't go back on that now that it's hurt you.
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