Lonely MMO
 

Hi!

I just wanted to say that the high-end of this game has been a major disappointment and definitely not classic-like in any way, shape, or form. It likely has to do with what some of what is being discussed in this forum lately. When I played Everquest in 1999, I was 9 years old. I had learned to play by reading the thick-book manual that came with the game, as well as watching my brother. At the time, I had stupidly chosen the hardest class ever to play - a warrior! I also played a necromancer. Both were a blast and some of my fondest childhood gaming memories are from that time. Back then, I never had trouble finding people to play with. Basically anywhere, anytime, you could find something to do with a group of people. I even remember when I finally got outed as an 12 or 13 year old in my guild - sitting in Siren's Grotto killing random trash and asking my guild why everyone in my group was joking about Pearl Necklaces dropping. Good times!

But now, none of that. Can't find things to do with anyone, anywhere, in zones where there is XP. Seems like high-end guilds run with do-not-invite-outsider policies in most zones and full camp them non-stop. Do you all even keep your chat screens on or do you just block /ooc and anyone looking for groups?

I'm sure some will say I'm just complaining about being low level or whatever. Honestly the pixels don't mean anything to me, I was just looking for a decent experience. I was probably a total trash player back in 1999, but at least people wanted to play together...such a shame that we lost that here.

Have a good night! Peace be with you!

And also with you.

Sorry you didn't have an enjoyable experience. That has not been my experience. Take care.

What level are you?

The last invite I got was level 6 at orc camps outside crushbone. I’m level 19 now. Not only have I never gotten another group invite, I haven’t seen much chatter in /ooc in any of the zones I’ve exp’d in, other than the occasional “camp check”. I do see some people in duo’s or trio’s and assume they probably rolled chars together

So I can concur for low levels that everyone keeps to themselves and generally doesn’t talk. High level people are usually pretty helpful and toss out buffs and even offer free ports sometimes. For me, not getting invites is no big deal, I’m not asking and if they did invite I would politely decline because I’m 100% focused on farming plat for my first p9@ char (amassed about 2-3k already by level 19 just from vendor drops). Eventually I may want to group, but only when I’ve made enough pp to be comfortable with sacrificing my pp intake for the sake of exp

I've been playing on green off and on for about a year, and there have been times I've felt like this. Days in a row where it seems like I would play for four hours and do nothing, just run around looking for groups or open camps. Those days where pretty demoralizing, but it isn't always like that. Now with the Hole out there's a centralized zone with tons of people grinding, it's the liveliest endgame area in a while. Most guilds don't seem to be in guildie-only mode (I can't speak for everyone obvs) it's just easier to organize when you share guild chat and a discord.

Good luck, I hope tomorrow is more fun!

The social aspect is mostly what I remember but people are older now so act slightly differently. People do get more distant as they get older I find.

Many feel tht way about classic wow too. It's honestly just hard to find a good MMO anymore, FF14 was fun until i hit max level/finished main story quest. I'm just not a fan of the type of grinding/raiding it presents. I'll resub when the next expansion comes out and run my SAM through some new story content.

The last two decades have produced a dozen or more masterpiece single player games. Things that you never would have imagined back in 1999 when EQ came out.

Give those single player games a go. The immersion might be better for you than having uninterested online folks running around who are giving you less attention then some of these single player game experiences might.

You're right that P99 does have a lonely feel by default. Everyone eventually realizes it's better to play alone than to group. Just play a min/max class and solo camp items 50+, solo for exp, etc. The only reason to talk to others is to raid. Equipment isn't worth getting because it's easier to just level higher which gives more platinum and easier ability to camp things yourself. This isn't classic but it is the way things are at the moment. Experience rates are non-classically high resulting in a higher level average. Channeling spells is too successful making it too easy for casters to solo especially in dungeons. The other big part is live EQ had 2-3k players at a time and P99 has 1k on Green. I played here back when there was 200 players though and it was still fine.

That is the default situation though. Here is some actual practical advice.

1. Join a guild. It's just the way it is. People don't talk in ooc because they're talking to their guilds and usually in something like Discord not even in game. They're using voice chat talking to guild mates and not even reading chat. Find a guild that is a "leveling" or casual guild as it's easiest to get groups and be involved.

2. If you're LFG don't ask in ooc and then give up. Actually move to the camps especially if you know others are there and ask them directly if you can join. Again many people don't read the chat but if they see you walk up to them and stand there they'll read it. Also send tells. People setup alerts on their logs for when they get tells and such. It can be different than ooc even beyond the text color and such.

3. Make your own groups. There are a ton of players out there who are sitting around with "nothing to do" and feel the way you do. Use /who all and find people to make a group. Start by finding a Druid/Wiz and then you can tell others you have a porter to bring them to the group. You can pretty much never fail to at least find a trio doing this. Yeah it's great to have the social MMO experience of just running into random people doing interesting things you can join in on but you won't always get it.

4. If you're new to P99 there is likely a lot going on that you don't understand. Personally I almost never group and have no guild but I get a lot of in game socialization because I know the game. I know the best camps for the level ranges I'm playing at and you run into others there. These spots are often a bit obscure and beyond just "X dungeon." You say the places you try "have exp" but that is a lot different from the best exp. Right now I'm sitting deep in a dungeon where I'm bound between multiple named mobs. This is a hot spot most players know nothing about. Everytime I login there are people here splitting the camps, PLing, and so on. Again we're way back in a dungeon you can't even get here solo unless you're a skilled player. You need to know how things work on P99 and where the real hot spots are.

By live standards this server would be old. Remember servers back then we're constantly opening up so when you joined you probably went to a newer one. That constant influx of new.people and new servers is what keeps lower level areas thriving.

Any mmo, not just EQ you really wanna be there.the first 6 months of the server lifecycle