I just want to fish

[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.