EQ Never

Randin

Trakanon Raider
1,933
892
Please let my ogres and trolls be fatter than fat fucks.
Eh, the ogres kept enough bulk that their body types never really bugged me (however, those creepy-ass eyes they had in both Luclin and EQ2 did; that shit has to go).

As for the trolls, the thing that got me, once they were made thin, was that I couldn't get past the fact that this race of stupid, bestial monsters had perfect fucking posture. Sure, that was technically also true for the fat trolls, but the fatness disguised it (plus, fat as they were, I'm not sure it was physically possible for them to have had a different posture). So I'm going to say, if we get skinny trolls again, that I want a race of hunched-over knuckle-draggers; or, if they're feeling adventurous, maybe a race of hunched-over knuckle-walkers. That could be interesting.
 
1,678
149
Wtf is with the dragon plushie pack. I have little hope for the future of MMORPG's. That's my little pony shit right there.
this
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Mughal

Bronze Knight of the Realm
279
39
The demographic of MMORPG players changed a lot in the past 10 years. Plus why do you have a problem with people buying minipets? They are very popular and profitable without impacting gameplay at all.
 
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But it does impact gameplay, because some of us were introduced to the genre by games like UO and EQ where every single thing a person got in the game, was something they had to play for. You went from very humble beginnings to being a powerful character with glowing swords and whatever else, and it was all something you adventured for in game, and every item you got had a tale behind it. "Oh this PGT, I remember I was passing through Highpass and the damn thing jumped me."

This paying for items thing just defiles the purity of those types of worlds. It's now just a big starbucks mmo where you buy a small medium or large of whatever it is you want. The RMT thing is also becoming almost universally hated by gamers, because it's just not good value for money. Some people used to steer clear of MMO's because they didn't like the idea of a subscription. But at least back then, that was a FIXED price. You paid your 14 bucks or whatever, but for that you got *everything*. Nowadays you get the game for free but your ballache inventory is fixed with $4, and your slow ass run speed is fixed for $5, and your fugly character is prettified for another $6. Before you know it you spent more than a subscription used to cost, and there is still more stuff you 'need'.

Some of us want to get lost in a virtual world where you go on adventures and progress comes from that. This modern way, it's just Malibu Stacy + Accessories. And that's fine for those who want a dolls house and then buy some carpets and furniture for it, but wouldn't it be nice for the rest of us to have a true virtual world?
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Flipmode

EQOA Refugee
2,097
321
The demographic of MMORPG players changed a lot in the past 10 years. Plus why do you have a problem with people buying minipets? They are very popular and profitable without impacting gameplay at all.
I'm certainly not advocating returning to archaic mechanics, but my issue with FTP is all the stuff that's cool looking that is sold on the store used to be in game drops. A long series if quests led to this epic awesome weapon or mount that had particle effects and stood out from the common weapons or mounts. That was the carrot that drove people to camp for this or do that quest line.

The devs used the excuse that those type of items were hard to create or were too time intensive to make. But they have no issue pumping them out weekly on a FTP system huh? Bullshit! It's just greed plain and simple. Stuff that used to be in game is no longer in game and as a player, that sucks and I feel cheated.
 

Quineloe

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
6,978
4,464
But it does impact gameplay, because some of us were introduced to the genre by games like UO and EQ where every single thing a person got in the game, was something they had to play for. You went from very humble beginnings to being a powerful character with glowing swords and whatever else, and it was all something you adventured for in game, and every item you got had a tale behind it. "Oh this PGT, I remember I was passing through Highpass and the damn thing jumped me."
oh please, you walked through highpass and got attacked by a full spawn of gnolls, you were either way above the level or you were fucking dead =P
 

Convo

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
8,792
664
If the current pay model was in place during peak EQ years, all our favorite clickies would of been purchased in the cash store. The industry is basically abandening the people who helped bring them to this point. Companies need to understand that when they make these silly PTW models.
 
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The nearest thing it reminds me of, is cheat codes. Did any of you play Quake or Call of Duty 1 or something as a kid? I remember I would play games when I was like 9, and sometimes I would struggle and I would enter a cheat code that gave me infinite gold or invincibility or quad damage or whatever. It was fun for 10 minutes and then the game was dead to you. All the satisfaction you get from earning things yourself, is just gone and the whole experience seems hollow and pointless.

When I play Vanguard, that's how it feels. Yeah I can have nice gear and I see other people flying around on the Ice Drake or whatever, but when you can just buy your way to victory, it all seems like a waste of time. And say what you want about these games, but the bottom line for me at least, is that I've had more fun in the past 3 weeks of EQ Mac than I have in past 6 years of Vanguard, AoC, GW2, TSW, WoW, etc..etc..
 

Dashiva_sl

shitlord
50
0
I have no problem with RMT in principle but they have to be done correctly and NOT at the expense of gameplay/players. I remember when station cash items were first introduced in EQ2, the players were promised by SOE that it was vanity items only and the developers making these items wouldn't be taken away from making actual content for EQ2. This was of course bullshit, you had instances of developers posting and fixing issues such as 'omg my furniture set I bought for my online barbie house for $50 doesn't sit perfectly in my house' all the while the game had so many gameplay problems it was insane.

Players who played the actual game have become a afterthought in EQ2, all it is now is some weird place for stay at home moms to decorate their virtual houses (virtual curtain can be yours for 1000SC!). SOE churns out new marketplace items each and everyweek yet there is nothing for regular players. The best drops in the game use old and crappy looking models whereas everything on the marketplace is loaded with particle effects and looks super cool. The entire thing is a big fuck you to the players.
 

Flipmode

EQOA Refugee
2,097
321
I have no problem with RMT in principle but they have to be done correctly and NOT at the expense of gameplay/players. I remember when station cash items were first introduced in EQ2, the players were promised by SOE that it was vanity items only and the developers making these items wouldn't be taken away from making actual content for EQ2. This was of course bullshit, you had instances of developers posting and fixing issues such as 'omg my furniture set I bought for my online barbie house for $50 doesn't sit perfectly in my house' all the while the game had so many gameplay problems it was insane.

Players who played the actual game have become a afterthought in EQ2, all it is now is some weird place for stay at home moms to decorate their virtual houses (virtual curtain can be yours for 1000SC!). SOE churns out new marketplace items each and everyweek yet there is nothing for regular players. The best drops in the game use old and crappy looking models whereas everything on the marketplace is loaded with particle effects and looks super cool. The entire thing is a big fuck you to the players.
Exactly!!
 

Flipmode

EQOA Refugee
2,097
321
As an example of the above, EQ2 had the prismatic quests shortly after their launch. It was a long, time consuming quest, some solo parts, some group parts. When it was done, you got an awesome weapon or held item. At the time, those were the best looking weapons one could obtain aside from raid items.

Now you can purchase shit like that for cash and quests like those stopped being made. He'll last expansion, their weren't any upgrades to the epic weapons. They just threw a quest line into the game to make it a permanent buff because some classes were that gimped without their epics. That's fucking LAZY on the devs part. But bet your ass they can make new shit to put on the station marketplace. It's a fucking joke. This is what FTP leads to and why I hate it.

And yes, my jimmies are rustled over FTP!
 
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The nearest thing it reminds me of, is cheat codes. Did any of you play Quake or Call of Duty 1 or something as a kid? I remember I would play games when I was like 9, and sometimes I would struggle and I would enter a cheat code that gave me infinite gold or invincibility or quad damage or whatever. It was fun for 10 minutes and then the game was dead to you. All the satisfaction you get from earning things yourself, is just gone and the whole experience seems hollow and pointless.

When I play Vanguard, that's how it feels. Yeah I can have nice gear and I see other people flying around on the Ice Drake or whatever, but when you can just buy your way to victory, it all seems like a waste of time. And say what you want about these games, but the bottom line for me at least, is that I've had more fun in the past 3 weeks of EQ Mac than I have in past 6 years of Vanguard, AoC, GW2, TSW, WoW, etc..etc..
Well fuck me running... I actually agree with you for once.

I ran in to this same exact thing years back when I tried out some emu EQ servers. Walking through plane of fire one shooting raid bosses just completely destroyed the game for me.

The chase is necessary to keep the reward enjoyable. Old EQ made the chase too long while WoW made the chase too short. There has to be a happy medium somewhere in the middle.
 

Flipmode

EQOA Refugee
2,097
321
Well fuck me running... I actually agree with you for once.

I ran in to this same exact thing years back when I tried out some emu EQ servers. Walking through plane of fire one shooting raid bosses just completely destroyed the game for me.

The chase is necessary to keep the reward enjoyable. Old EQ made the chase too long while WoW made the chase too short. There has to be a happy medium somewhere in the middle.
You're probably right about a happy medium. But hitting max level in 1-2 months shouldn't be something that's possible unless you play some absurd amount of hours a day. But then you have the issue of those same people locking down markets, spawns, and generally cock blocking players too.

Generally, when a player has the power to block another person or grief them, they will. That's just the Internet asshattery on display. That's what lead to locked encounters and what not. Griefing.
 

Tolan

Member of the Year 2016
<Banned>
7,249
2,038
The demographic of MMORPG players changed a lot in the past 10 years.
Thanks to SOE turning MMO's into a front for pushing virtual goods. Build it and they will come.

Plus why do you have a problem with people buying minipets? They are very popular and profitable without impacting gameplay at all.
I remember when selling EQ characters and loot online was frowned upon. The game experience then was so good that people were putting up hard cash for rare drops and high level toons. Once SOE realized the virtual trade industry was raking in money, they decided to change their business model and the product itself.

The original player base is upset with this because game quality has suffered as a result. Where's the motivation to create an epic online RPG when you can make a half-assed sequel, with the same NPCs, in the same time period, in an alternate universe (again), focusing your design resources on pushing virtual goods?

You're now targeting a "player"base that doesn't care as much about the game's quality and community richness. I know this because, if SOE was targeting such an audience, we'd all be busy playing EQ2 instead of clinging to the latest EQ classic server.
 

Rezz

Mr. Poopybutthole
4,486
3,531
I doubt the current generation of MMO players would stump up $2800 for a BoC or SoD.
A lot of that has to do with access to content. Not being perma locked down (in a reasonable timeframe sense) means items like BoC or SoD lose quite a bit of value. If you can try and fail an encounter but still learn from it and eventually knock it down, that is one thing. If you have to wait for an expansion to come out to try and fail an encounter (hopefully the items aren't still sought after by the 100 people out of 2000 on your server with the highest playtimes/no timezone restriction) then hopefully learn from it, it is an entirely different beast. Certain items like the BoC/SoD enabled people to potentially tackle more intense encounters with a bit of leeway. Shit like Primal (F-prismatic) changed what tier of content you were on by simply getting 2-3 pieces since the jump in direct power was so large. The potential to see shit before it was nerfed/perma-camped by someone else was worth the cost of a bit of RL money to some.

And -that- is bad design. Timezone/playtime shouldn't directly dictate access to content, but in EQ it 95% did. Rarely was it directly correlated to player skill/ability/whatever.
 

Royal

Connoisseur of Exotic Pictures
15,077
10,642
I remember when selling EQ characters and loot online was frowned upon. The game experience then was so good that people were putting up hard cash for rare drops and high level toons.
Are you talking about the game experience that these people were willing to pay hard earned money to avoid?
 

Nirgon

Log Wizard
15,041
24,744
Blade of Carnage when it first dropped didn't have its proc and tbh wasn't worth the effort. When they revised the item... yeah.. Jeebus, what a warrior item.