Feldon I still talk about the 1-50 (or 1-89) game in EQ2. I would be naive not to realize that once most folks reach 90, does it really matter how they got there? To a growing population — not really.
However people quit EQ2 all the time. Whether over an unpopular policy, or the draws of real life, a slow trickle of players are always leaving MMOs and they must be replenished. You need new players. All the great players of eq2 had the luxury of leveling up at a pleasant pace, playing fun content from at *least* 35-70 with KoS and EoF.
If you aren’t training up new players, then eq2 is a bucket with a steady leak and no refills (thanks to whomever coined that apropos euphemism).
The last 3 expansion have been all at endgame. I’m not saying they were great. But the focus is in the right place.
But I feel that level grind + aa grind using parlor tricks like RAF, potions, and high xp potions is a sorry introduction to an MMO for new players.
Remember all that time spent revamping named and adding achievements and quests for level 1-50 content?
Imagine if there were optional quests to unlock AA lines. Imagine quests that reward 1-2 aa points for experiencing defining content of the game. Imagine if Alternate Advancement really were an alternative means of advancing.
I know 1-50 or 1-89 is meaningless to endgame raiders. Honestly I want to blow through those levels myself. But you know what happens if you stop scouting and drafting from high school and college games? You get empty Pro teams with no players.
Of course announcing 1 week before Fan Faire that the eq2 subscription servers will be all *downside* compared to F2P servers does not instill confidence either. Nobody wants to start playing a new-to-them MMO on older servers that, by all accounts will be “teh suck”.
I have been thinking this same thing or such a long time, but I also wanted an expansion with 1 to endgame content.
The bucket analogy was mine on a comment somewhere :D, great article, hits another spot that not alot of folks think about
It still doesnt matter. People nowadays mostly join for the end-game, not for the stuff before. I joined WoW and the lowbie zones were mostly empty. Did I care? No. People who have the slightest inkling of how MMOs work will understand that, and why, they have to walk the road to the level cap mostly alone. And it’s not a hard road either.
Instead of wasting time and resources and whatnot into adding more low level content (that will be outdated on launch and then again in a year’s time), they should just hand out a level 80 toon per new account.
Low level content will always be empty and outdated. It’s the crux of all games who are so dumb as to invalidate a big part of their content because they have character levels.
Wasting developer and designer time and money on more and more lowbie content is not gonna make the current population stay. And if you really think there is a chance of a significant influx of new players…………. keep dreaming. Not in this world, not in this life, not for this game.
I picked up EQ2 at launch, was playing SWG at the time and was how i heard about EQ2, sure i heard about EQ before but never bothered.
When i logged into EQ2 for the first time i literally had no idea i was about to latch onto years of friendships and good times which I’ll probably treasure the rest of my life.
Back then 1 to 50 was the adventure and pretty much had to group, I was a solo player, but i lucked out and made some very good friends and we played every night and is what made EQ2 even possible for me to play as solo wasn’t really an viable option.
I vividly remember that getting to cap was never really a concern for us back then? Hell it was never even a topic? The first friend i made in the game, i remember we were grinding giants for a few hours one night, each single giant was a long, life or death event in itself. Why this sticks with me is that when we logged out that night we were so happy that we got “almost” 1% xp. Yes the one little mini-ding bar (one percent).
The journey we all shared is what i have fond memories of, later when i was in a guild we raided, but not at end game there was good raiding to be had all along the journey, it was just a portion of the journey.
To this day i still feel the journey is the most important part of an mmo, not sure what really spurred this new world mmo (race to cap, then raid mentality) but allot was lost in the transition and am glad to see people still want this, or appreciate the quality of entertainment to be had in the journey.
I’ve been harping on this for literally years. The “grind” is just too much for players. Sure we have a healthy population of players who just don’t care about levels and decorate their house and do crafting, etc. But the core population is still playing the game in the hopes of one day seeing endgame content in one way or another.
90 levels, 250AA, upgrading spells, gear, etc etc this is what makes the game great except for that huge empty hole we call 1 to 80, and arguably 1 to 89. This game was released as a GROUP game first and foremost, but what has happened is that the empty grind has transformed many into soloers who realize that it’s much much quicker to solo to 90 than to try and form a group.
The bottom line is that levels 1-90 are just an empty lonely solo grind for many, and that’s when many drop out and go play another game. There really needs to be MORE CONTENT at level 90, with a much reduced grind to level 90. Yeah, get the players up to level 90 very quickly and then give them more tiered 90 content that will take them months to tier thru. This would improve the retention greatly as there would be much more going on.
I’ve never been a fan of the vertical expansion eq2 uses, it just feels like with every vertical expansion there are that many players lost because it’s just that much more of a grind in content that no one plays anymore. They really need to do some more horizontal expansion, things like AA were an awesome example of horizontal expansion, but probably the best example would be simply MORE content.