An idea to address long term retention

[One Tin Soldier]

In the interests of full disclosure I should admit that I'm one of those people who will never see any raid content on this server. So, yes, my suggestion was motivated purely by my own selfish desire to have something more to do. At this point with my main I'm basically done with the server and leveling alts is too boring when there aren't enough other people around at my level.

I quit playing last spring or early summer. I came back for the red server but that was a bust as far as I'm concerned (low population=no fun). So now what? My main is 53 but I explained in another thread why I lose interest as I approach max level. It seems pointless to grind out those last levels just so I can retire him at 60. I've logged in with a level 20ish alt a few times lately but the low level game is too dead and soloing is too boring.

I'll admit even I have some doubts about my suggestion but I was just trying to come up with something. As it stands right now I have no desire to log in and play and I'm basically just waiting for Velious so I can revisit some of those zones. If we could get a whole wave of people all going up through the levels again I could ride that wave and have fun again for a while.

[Fazlazen]

For a guise, maybe i'd be willing to lvl to 60 again.... Hmmm I dunno

[Flunklesnarkin]

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

In the interests of full disclosure I should admit that I'm one of those people who will never see any raid content on this server. So, yes, my suggestion was motivated purely by my own selfish desire to have something more to do. At this point with my main I'm basically done with the server and leveling alts is too boring when there aren't enough other people around at my level.

I quit playing last spring or early summer. I came back for the red server but that was a bust as far as I'm concerned (low population=no fun). So now what? My main is 53 but I explained in another thread why I lose interest as I approach max level. It seems pointless to grind out those last levels just so I can retire him at 60. I've logged in with a level 20ish alt a few times lately but the low level game is too dead and soloing is too boring.

I'll admit even I have some doubts about my suggestion but I was just trying to come up with something. As it stands right now I have no desire to log in and play and I'm basically just waiting for Velious so I can revisit some of those zones. If we could get a whole wave of people all going up through the levels again I could ride that wave and have fun again for a while.

It sounds more like there are things to do in p99 but you have no interest in accomplishing.

Maybe you could try another game for a while then come back if you get the feeling for p99 again.


Could also play more than one game at a time.. nothing says you gotta be exclusive to p99... (i don't see a ring on that finger ;p)

[Grozmok]

Raiding is what killed the game in the first place.

Let's not repeat history, shall we?

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[One Tin Soldier]

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

It sounds more like there are things to do in p99 but you have no interest in accomplishing.

Yes, that's about right. I have no interest in grinding out the last seven levels on my main just so I can get him to 60 before I retire him. If I felt like there was something for me to do after I reached 60 then I would probably be motivated to continue. But as things stand right now there isn't anything for me to do at 60...and I know it....so I have no motivation to go on.

Maybe you could try another game for a while then come back if you get the feeling for p99 again.

Yep, I did that. I went to play on the Daoc emulator. I had never played that game before so I wanted to try it. It was ok but I can't say it really grabbed me and sucked me in. I lost interest in it after a while.

Could also play more than one game at a time.. nothing says you gotta be exclusive to p99... (i don't see a ring on that finger ;p)

Yes I understand that. I'm not as stupid as I look, you know. I'll probably buy Guild Wars 2 when it releases and there is another emulator I've been thinking about trying. But playing other games won't change the problem I have here. The problem quite simply being that I enjoy the game from level 1 to 50ish if there are lots of other people playing around my level but after that I lose interest due to the aforementioned reason.

I mean, it's not a big deal or anything, I can find other games to play. But I can't be the only one who feels this way and sooner later everyone is going to run into a similar problem.

[Flunklesnarkin]

Wasn't trying to beat you up man... its just what i do when i get frustrated or bored of a game... I try another until I get the itch to go back.

[cmdrrickhunter]

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

At this point with my main I'm basically done with the server and leveling alts is too boring when there aren't enough other people around at my level.

I'm going to suggest something very "off the wall," so take it or leave it: try Roleplaying.

EQ, like every MMO I've seen (other than EVE) is patterned after single player games where you play a bit, get more powerful, reach an ending, then put the game down. Only they don't want you to put the game down, so they add something like raiding which slows down the "get more powerful" phase asymptotically so that you never "reach an ending."

WoW (might as well discuss everything, even the "hated enemy") tried to solve this once with dailies. Their solution there was "make the game so much fun to play that you don't mind sitting still with no progression. It almost worked... got darn close.

The only solution I have seen is to build your own game within the game, and that's what RPing accomplishes. Make your character into something more than two dozen numbers and 75ish polygons. Use your imagination to go beyond the game, and then you're only limited by your own imagination, not the game mechanics.

When I RPed on live, I knew a cookie vendor who would do nothing but wander around the EC auction area, selling cookies. For fun, he even invented his own quest (complete with text in [brackets]) to get people to interact with him more. I, myself, was a shapeshifter for a few months. Its terribly amusing playing an enchanter who wants to melee in illusionary forms.

Of course, RP requires a culture who is willing to play along and make things interesting... one RPer often gets laughed at, but in my opinion its the highest form of play EQ allows. It harkens back to the original purpose of DnD. And it needs not a second of time from our illustrious developers, leaving them all the time they need to keep the poor raiders on the treadmill.

[One Tin Soldier]

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

I'm going to suggest something very "off the wall," so take it or leave it: try Roleplaying.

I wish that could work for me but I know myself well enough to know that it wouldn't. I think I'd feel a little too much like Don Quixote; a madman wandering around pretending to see things which aren't really there.

The inability to ever actually change things in the static world makes any attempt at roleplaying a little silly in my opinion. I mean, in a truly player run world with a player run economy I could see roleplaying happening almost accidentaly as a natural consequence of the game's dynamics. But EQ is not that world.

Anyway, I know it wouldn't work for me as a long term solution. Even if I could find people to do it with, it wouldn't hold me long. Really, how many times would people be willing to listen to my tale of being the rightfull heir to the throne of Qeynos and how I have a heriditary birthmark on my left butt cheek which proves it. And for that matter, how many times would I be willing to tell the story even if someone was listening? I'm afraid it would quickly go stale.

[Mardur]

EZ Server has remorting and it's terrible because you have to grind 1-75 or whatever the max is there 100 times to do raid content.

[Ryba]

When the original p99 runs out of expansion material, double-down on the server and allow people at level cap on old p99 to trade in their character for a modestly geared level 30 of any class on a new p99 running vanilla EQ. Then just follow the same progression timeline as before.

It fragments the population, but so does doing nothing. I would say release Luclin if it was possible to leave out the cats.