Feldon If you haven’t read the Game Update 57 Feedback thread, it’s a real eye-opener, let me tell you.
I have always seen players who manage find a silver lining in every cloud, and always find something good in each Game Update, even the relatively content-light Game Update 54 “bug stomp” from last fall. However I have never seen such universal negativity as that directed towards Game Update 57. Players have overwhelmingly expressed their distaste for many policy initiatives included, and content excluded in GU57.
Rothgar, EQ2 Lead Programmer, who has been largely taking the brunt of negative feedback, had this to say:
We definitely hear your concerns on GU57 and we would have loved to give you more features and content. We are working hard to make sure that the next update prior to the expansion launch has more for you. In fact we’ve recently decided to release an interim update in a couple months (GU57b if you will) so we can get some content out to you slightly before GU58 is due.
We’re also going over all of the Fan Faire feedback and trying to incorporate as many of your suggestions as possible. Unfortunately Fan Faire just feel too closely to GU57 and we weren’t able to react to some of the feedback that fast.
We’ll also try to trickle some things out via hotfixes in the next few weeks as well.
Yikes! Looking back LU13 wasn’t that big of a deal after all, and here i am really enjoying the game starting all over on the X server with no real complaints.
Weird.
Maybe it’s because I’m not a paying customer anymore? Simply enjoying everything bronze has to offer and working with it.
It’s interesting actually; i have no broker access, but i need food n drink, the good stuff not the weak npc stuff. OK Provisioner is my first craft, thinking Armorsmith or Tailor next, anything Scholar is not needed on bronze.
The only crafting i used to do was Scholar and was purely to get expert’s for free with any rare drop i get (save allot of plat). Now i’m focusing my crafting on better ways to survive Norrath. I totally get pumped when an Adept drops now.
I’m using the NPC vendors in game “ya the ones i used to think were there for show, i mean seriously who ever really needed them there other than to dump crap?”, well to my surprise they actually have important functions when you are trying to survive Norrath without chat or broker, things i used to think were purely vendor trash are useful to my survival.
Hmmm, 1 silver 15 copper for that, i dunno know man that’s kinda expensive bro, gonna have to think about it. I have a level 26 with less than 10 silver and I LOVE IT! Even if they start to offer à la carte options such as broker, i don’t want anything to do with it. Too late they let me taste a more old school survivalist mmo again, and I’m digging right in.
The pure logistics of inventory, GONE, you keep essentials only to survive, the rest you vendor, delete whatever does not sell. No more thinking about it. It’s that simple.
I played pretty heavy over the weekend and after playing i would start that old never leaving the game, you start thinking about what you put on the broker “oh wait”, or the next major purchase for your toon “oh wait”, the next spell upgrade “oh wait”, that’s gone, you walk away and don’t think about the game again until you play next. You are no longer weighed down with game logistics.
Kinda surprised how much more awesome the game is when you take out all the capitalist mentality, it’s just you and Norrath. Can you survive? Take the Bronze challenge today.
Opps i meant to drop this idea in the novel above for Feldon.
Only an idea I’m throwing out there for anyone who likes to make guides. Me, no, don’t have the talent nor the time but i think a “Bronze survivor guide” for EQ2X would be a huge traffic drive. I know I’d be frequently visiting it for tips as atm I’m discovering as i go, like above.
I’m glad you found a way to turn lemons into lemonade :).
What you just described though sounds like a single player computer game, not an MMO multiplayer social game. Nothing against it, but guess just not my cup of tea.
As long as you’re not a completely asocial type, Bronze players really don’t have to play in isolation. I’ve read there’s some guilds that already have a large number of members, and cater specifically to Bronze/Silver players. So you don’t have level 1-9 chat, but is that really a big deal when you have an active guild of several hundred people? Not to mention that joining a larger guild can mitigate the need to use the Marketplace and can enable you to buy/sell items without the broker.
The only problem I see with Bronze is when you start progressing into the T7 and T8 content. Those zones are really balanced for players that have Expert spells and at least some Legendary gear. Not to mention that group balance becomes more of an issue higher up, and you’re going to see a shortage of support classes since those require that you pay extra in order to create one.
So, over the short haul I can see where Bronze play could be considered fun and challenging in its own right, but that’s going to be short-lived. I know I wouldn’t be particularly interested in running a T8 instance with a group of players all in mastercrafted and Adept spells. I guess on the other hand, if you really want to be highly desirable in groups and people literally begging you to play with them, then go Gold and create a bard, enchanter or crusader.