How do you justify the amount of time everquest requires? How do you play the game?

[HippoNipple]

I think there are a lot more casuals on Red - I have seen a lot of level 1-20 in the last few weeks. I have never played on Blue so it is hard for me to even understand the end goal of it. I play on Red to make alliances and take down whoever else I can. With level limits on who you can attack you are always relevant in your bracket. There is no rush to level or see new content because there are most likely always others in your range to hunt down.

PvE is also important and the more hardcore players focus on this, while the casuals try to stop them from progressing by ruining their raids.

[diplo]

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

Here's how I balance life and EQ:

I use EQ as motivation to study. I know it sounds crazy but there's a method to this madness. Essentially I pick AFK camps, some camps that you'll only have to do something every X amount of time (30 min for Xalgoz, for example) and I study for the rest of the time. This motivates me to actually study because I have to sit there for 30 min anyway, I might as well get some work done.

EC is also a good place to do this, hit the auction button every 10 min or so and check occasionally for tells.

This makes it so I'm playing a game which I enjoy, while studying which I enjoy significantly less. It balances it out. Its great getting a fungi tunic while writing an essay.

It is a ton of time invested but you get what you put into it, and its obviously fun as fuck if we're all playing on an emulated server of a game that was released 13 years ago.

I do this all the time, well when I was in school, but whenever i work from home or fold laundry or have to clean or some shit...it's really therapeutic.

[stormlord]

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

Since coming back I've had my own struggle with this. At first I wanted to play a cleric, like I had on classic, but I pretty quickly realized that when RL can call at any time, it doesn't make sense to burden other people with my schedule. Having a wife/kids/other household obligations is definitely a limiting factor on what you can do.

But EQ is also a good game for us casual people because of the pace. EQ is a much slower paced and less concentration demanding game than modern MMOs, because there's so much time medding/waiting for mobs to spawn. I rerolled as a soloing class and love it, because I can step away whenever I need to, and often it was time I was just going to spend sitting there in the game anyway.

The great thing about EQ is that since so much of the game is in the leveling process, you can always log in and do something that has long-term meaning for your character. In a game like WoW, if you don't have time to do all the dailies/gear grinding for any given patch cycle, you will just be behind until the whole thing resets - the value of the casual amount of playtime gets wiped away every six months. Here, even if you can only chip away at the leveling grind 45 minutes a day, that 45 minutes a day of XP will always have value to your character.

This is especially true for necromancer,druid,magician/hybrids/etc. Anybody that can solo, really. I think the necromancer has to take the shiny, though. They're kings at this. FD is insta-afk too. Only downside to the necromancer is their lore. I wish there was a good-aligned class with their overall abilities.

You're right that downtime in the game actually enables things like going to the bathroom and taking the garbage out and/or cooking something. You don't lose anything by going AFK when medding. Whereas, in most modern games, if you walk away then you lose something since there's no downtime.

A good point you make is about the expansion cycles with new games. They're always adding more levels and progression and mudflating at rapid rates, so it's easy to fall behind in them if you take long breaks.

I'm sure this game, assuming no disaster or SOE smackdown, will go on for a few more years, at least. And the most it will have is velious. So mudflation and increasing numbers of levels is minimal here. What the OP fails to notice is that he/she is almost 60, the highest level. The OP is effectively in endgame content. I really don't think the raid content in this game is all that impressive. But that's just my opinion. Even in a game like EQ2, there're a lot of players that never do any raiding. Grouping and soloing is their whole game.

And btw my highest level character on p1999 is lvl 23. Most of them are under 19. I made it my goal to not go into my 20's and 30's but to instead reroll so that's why most of them are so low. Weird? Ya, sure. But that's just how I decided to play. I wanted to be a actual part of the new player community. Why should it matter? I got to level 85 on live and over 1000 aa. I don't care as much as others do. Plus, I like familiar places.

[stavio]

I'm just another casual player. I play this game to have fun, help others, port people for cr's, buff lowbies in tunnels, etc..

I have a lvl 51 thats over 2yrs old, and a lvl 9 enchanter thats even older.

I originally joined the server for nostalgia, I had to run the Stein of Moggok quest!! Even with a ton of plat in the bank I still run that quest on my enchanter.

I don't consider any of the time spent on P1999 or Live (only played to kunark) a waste.

[Treefall]

Getting the best gear and raiding, no. However, it's like that even in modern games like WoW. Sure, in WoW you are handed epics and shiny gear as a casual, but you're never given the best gear until the top tier raiders have been maxed for a few months, but by then they're on the next tier.

I think on here it's pretty much the same in that regard, only instead of epics/welfare gear you have to grind mobs or farm plat or join decent groups to farm the gear you want. (I wouldn't call gear bought with plat welfare gear at all.)

The group game can definitely be done casually. A big issue, though, is sometimes camping spots for a long, long time isn't feasible. In that regard you might miss the spawn or drop when you're offline, but that's life.

As for leveling, I think it can also be done casually. But, you'll need a team for max efficiency or you'll need to play an amazing solo class. Necro, Mage, and Bard seem to level pretty fast without massive twinking, from what I've read, solo. All the other classes though, the exp sure seems to drop off unless you spend your time efficiently with a group.

But seriously - 2-3 solid hours every other night with a good group should progress you at a decent rate. Throw in one or two 8 hour days here or there when your kids/family are out and you're home and you'll be capped in no time.

[Groo]

I look for other people who play as casually as I do and try to group with them on my cleric. In the past, I'd make friends, and they'd play all day/every day while I was at work or out doing stuff after work. They blew by me in levels, and I was left sitting alone LFG all the time. Or they'd suddenly quit playing, again leaving me with nothing but people who have way more time and dedication for EQ than I do nowadays. Just as I was about to quit for good, I stopped caring about leveling, basically. Now I'm having fun again. Most of my playtime is reserved for weekends and holidays, though.