What caused the decline of EQ as the #1 MMO?

[Nazgull2k1]

Originally Posted by burnsai [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The game was made way to easy .. the only thing that I wish p99 had was shared bank *and the updated tradeskill windows for less carpal tunnel pain* I think that should have been in classic...

Fixed

[Stumpes]

WoW beta is what caused EQ to no longer be #1. WoW and EQ2 beta had large betas, and a lot of guild mates at the time left to play those games. Most of those people never returned when those games launched, and the population declined further.

[Spud]

I would say it's a combination of WoW which had a more theme park like design thatattracted MILLIONS of new players and bad ideas such as "cats on the moon" and Plane of Knowledge.

[Kika Maslyaka]

Inherited flaws that were present since day 1. EQ2 was inherently better game at its start than eq1, but then SOE put so much effort to catch up with WoW, they ruined it too

[aubie]

Said best here - yeah it requires analogy/metaphorical comparisons, but human nature is predictable:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years." This quote is attributed to Alexander Fraser Tytler. In 1814, John Adams said "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."

Alternatively, when tracking wild game, they will always take the easiest path with the least obstacles to their destination, so this trait isn't limited to humans.

A free emulater with hardline overseers is the only way original EQ will continue because of the two above truths. So to the developers...if you want EQ to continue, stay strong and DO NOT listen to your customer base - that would be the surest way to destroy your dream.

[Eternalnoob]

funny that someone mentioned ngruk aka curt rip drow....played on unrest in antonicas nameless from eq2 launch till i quit pretty much drow period got aot of favoritism but w/e

[Odeseus]

Only 1 or 2 people have brought this up, but this was my biggest gripe with EQ:

I was NEVER able to get to a point where I was comfortable in the progression of my character because I was simply not able to keep up with the expansion every 6 months schedule. It started with Luclin, got worse in PoP (where only 2 guilds on my server were even in PoTime by GoD, let alone clearing it consistently) and got insane in GoD where the vast majority of the expansion was locked to those not in the upper raid guilds. That drove me nuts and it was never really addressed.

I also never understood EQ2, at least while keeping EQ1 still active. All you were doing is splitting your development resources and your playerbase. It was as if Sony really wanted to kill EQ1 and figured EQ2 would do it. Like all of us would just naturally switch to EQ2. Unfortunately, we didn't all go to EQ2 but it opened the door to exploring other games. WoW came in at the perfect time and instead of many of us going to EQ2, we went to WoW. Personally, after the devs seemed bent on pushing me to EQ2, that gave me all the reason I needed to avoid it completely. I bounced from WoW and EQ1 for years till I found P99.

WoW too will fall, as all games eventually will. Look at some of the current MMOs coming out that hope to be WoW killers. And they have hope because many, many people are growing tired of WoW and are open to new games. The problem is that none of the games have been polished enough to hold people's attention, nor has Blizzard made any huge missteps the way Sony did. If Blizzard makes a mistake and releases a dud of an expansion, and if at the same time another MMO comes out that is just as good, you'll see WoW die as well. It is just that that time hasn't arrived yet.

[Harrison]

WoTLK was terrible, yet it still survived...

I can't wait to see WoW die so some actual innovation in the market can finally occur.

Everything now is a fucking WoW clone. It isn't financially feasible for a company to try and produce a great game that strays from its design. So, we're stuck with a stagnant market until it does die.

I'm enjoying Cataclysm right now, but it's mainly due to raiding with a guild of mostly RL friends. (That's where me and my RL crew went when this server devolved into poopsock faggotry again.)

While raiding in WoW is fun, it's just...not rewarding enough. You get excited when you finally nail your strategy and down a boss, but who gives a shit about an incremental increase in stats on your gear that 90000000 other people have? It's not exclusive enough.

[stormlord]

Actually, from what i've heard, WoW switched from being an MMORPG to a MMOG a few years ago as far as its goals are concerned. The developers that made WoW a hit don't drive things anymore. The game went in a different direction. Some say it's worse now than it was in 2005. I recall finding a link to this some years ago. Maybe if I googled it I could find it. Basically, one of hte high brass at WoW said that.

[Harrison]

You have a good point stormlord.

40 man raids are no more. So, the game is more of a multiplayer MMO-lite now. You don't ever have to leave your city nearly now. You can just hit the queue button to enter a random dungeon or a specific one of your choice. You can level basically from 10-85 without leaving the capital cities.