I just want to fish

[Houdiny]

I'm sure it is more than 1%. And if anything that particular player base keeps me playing. It keeps me leveling, it keeps me striving for good gear, it keeps me looking ahead towards something. When I see a guy I'm grouped with and he has all the bells and whistles I immediately think hey this guy has put in a lot of time and gotten a lot of nice things. Which is what I want eventually.

Granted I have only been playing P99 for a few weeks now but it was the same way back in original EQ. Players would come to the bank in greater faydark or hang out in the EC tunnels wearing amazing gear. And I would just run around looking at them in fascination. Knowing full well the time and dedication put into gaining those items.

These players by no means "drive away" the casual player as you are describing. The player base in this particular P99 project are very nice and very helpful. They give me buffs, have even ran into some that have given me gear.

If these players are somehow keeping you from fishing then I would see your point. But I don't see how there is any correlation between the two.

[acid_reflux]

Go to toxxulia forest and kill that jug headed erudite by the river and get yerself a +5% fishing pole.... then go to cabalis and fish up one of those 15 pounders...that should keep you busy

[Danth]

The top-end doesn't drive away the casuals because neither group cares about the other. High-end players aren't sitting on Emperor Crush's spawn for 40 hours at a pop, and the casuals don't care who kills Trak this week because they have no intention of seeing it anyway. These two groups of people are playing different games that merely happen to share the same chat.

The folks the top guilds might drive away are the folks who want to raid but don't want to (or can't) join those guilds. Such people would find themselves rapidly disappointed. They also present a typical example of why nearly all newer MMOG's come with instancing.

If anything drives away casual players, I'd wager the forums have driven away more casual players than anything that happens in-game. These boards don't make a good first impression.

Your co-worker doesn't sound crazy to me Xadion. She knew what she liked. I used EQ for about that long and never did any serious amount of raiding, either. Some folks just don't enjoy that gameplay mode.

Danth