Serious question here...

[EQLZ]

/rant on

Do any of the current players even want new people to start playing on p99? The reason I ask is because I've been playing for about 3 weeks, I've been in every starter zone, starter dungeon, and spent some time in EC and from everything I've encountered the experienced players on this server decidedly DO NOT want new players to join the community. You can tell who is experienced and who isn't by their twink gear and how they act. For example, a 10th level ogre warrior wearing 30k in twink gear, a 54th bard in full SS swarmkiting 90% of the open area of LOIO, mobs that are at least 15, probably 20 levels below him, leaving few mobs for anyone else to pull. Or the fact that experienced players will KS you anytime they want, the fact that after hunting in EC for over 6 hours, politely asking for buffs about every 30-45 minutes so as to be as little of a pest as possible, that aside from SoW every now and then, a 10th level shaman who buffed me to his full capacity more than once (and was handsomely tipped for it), very few people even acknowledged my presence.

I wasn't begging for plat, I wasn't begging for free gear, I was politely asking for buffs to help out a newbie and recently returned player. I've not leveled very far because I'm trying to NOT beg. I'm trying to bootstrap my toons like we had to back in 2001. I'm farming low blues and greens for tradeskill mats; I'm working baking, brewing, blacksmithing, and tailoring with every spare copper I have so I can be as self-sufficient as possible. But for my work, I've experienced very little in return from the sense of community standpoint. Almost nothing, very little help or even interaction at all.

And now back to my question, do any of the current players even want new people to start playing on p99? The reason I ask is because when I played EQ in my prime EQ days of Kunark, Velious, and Luclin; a toon couldn't walk 3 zones without someone throwing a sow or buffs at them without them even asking. KSing wasn't as rampantly experienced by me back then as it has been since I came to p99. I've played other games, DAoC, AoC, WoW, CoH/CoV, SWG, DDO, you name it. What I am looking for is the sense of community in a game that I experienced back when I played EQ, and I think my concern as it relates to what I want from a game is very valid considering what I have experienced thus far. Don't get me wrong, it's not all bad, but when there are 175+ people in EC, at least 35 people above 45 in the zone at all times in a six hour period with people filtering in and out as they do...and the only guy to throw me buffs is a 10th level shaman that I actually banded for on discount week ago? That makes me wonder if I am wasting my time even trying to come back and enjoy this game. A game can have the best play ever, but if the community is a bunch of elitists too busy auctioning gear in EC to interact or buff a newbie player in crap gear not 10 feet from them, then what is the point of even trying? Someone please tell me, because I don't know what to make of it...