What is the ultimate gameplan for Project '99?
 

As far as I can see, with the release of green, Project '99 has gone from a stable, functioning server to a 3-4 year novelty ride. People seem to be living completely in the short-term now with no thought to the future.

I would think one of the founding principles of Project '99 would be that an MMORPG is a long term game. It is not something that is replaced by sequels or needs constant expansion packs. Yet that is in effect what has happened.

I have 4 characters on blue in the 30s and 40s that I have been playing off and on for years. I cannot play them any more, because blue is no longer a functional server.

I am a reasonable person. I am not averse to reasonable change. But the way I see it, I have no options. Even if I deleted and remade all 4 of my characters on green, I would only have 3 or 4 years before the same thing happened again. On top of that, I have no desire to remake my characters. The Everquest I enjoy is at level 30, level 40, level 50, etc. not at level 1.

I waited a few days before I joined green, but I could only stand to see 0 population Mistmoore so many times. I now have a level 11 character on green. But being my fifth, she is only my fifth favorite class, and one that I had withheld from till now. My effective experience in Everquest has worsened. I am replaying easier levels with a character I enjoy less with less variety of characters.

I was ready to play Project '99 as a game with a soft ending at level 50 or 60. I would then explore the world, learning the secrets that were hidden around it. I would make friends with other players and form alliances as necessary. Looking back at the history of Everquest, I see how naive I was. Ruins of Kunark was released within a year. There was never time to explore, learn, discover, use your imagination, and form close alliances. It was not that kind of game.

So I asked a question but answered it myself. I see now that commercial, online, graphical and massive can never be good. Even commercial and online is troublesome. Graphical is out of the question. I once idealized the early MMORPGs from '96-'99, but now it has hit me like a ton of bricks. Where are they now? They were not victims of a crisis that could have been averted. They were just temporal oddities.

The idea from the outset was that Green was going to eventually roll over into Blue at some point after the end of the patch cycle. This is now undecided. If this does happen, Blue is going to be king again as most of the people that rolled Green are going to want to continue their characters rather than start over again. The nature of EverQuest makes it very difficult to continually start over from scratch and there will still be quite a bit to achieve for folks years into Velious. There will always be a subset of players looking for the evergreen experience of constantly rerolling but for the most part Blue will be the place to be if Green does merge into it. Either way, you're safe to roll on Green. Either you'll be dumped back into Blue eventually with everyone else or you'll stay on Green.

I do feel for your current situation though.

Was blue ever meant to be a server that spanned 20 stable years OP? It's a new frontier.

I really think people overstate others resistance to rerolling every five or so years.

Starting fresh is fun, I'll never understand peoples aversion to it.

I hope Green 2 has the old stone UI.

There is some sick gratification when you punch gnome skeletons, don’t get me wrong. But there’s also a big rush when you score a 600+ crit on a velious raid mob with a BFG.

‘Twixt the two, I’ll take the latter.

3.5 years is not short term. We're not planning for retirement; we're playing a video game.

All due respect, Noman Enchanter god, we ARE playing a game that is almost legally old enough to buy a drink, take home, and... well, level up. It’s a marathon for many in Norrath. I don’t think any of us would say we’ve only got 3 more years in us.

Until I make 13 characters max level with epics and BiS gear by the end of the last Velious patch on blue, my work here isn't done.

...and even then I'd probably roll another necromancer <3

Facts.

I think I will try a bard, when I retire. We’ll be around.