Everquest

I used to play EQ until the release of TSS, is it still active? all i saw before i quit was a slowly diminishing population, has it gotten any better?

No.  The population has not gotten better.  It is worse.

Yes.  The game is "active" if you mean taking it off of life support and -gasp!- it sill breaths.

The developers, I think have done some cool and smart things, though:

• Living Legacy (old school zones with good drops; brought back the challenge, fun, and excitement of grouping again);
• Mercenaries (though I do not have a merc, and I do not even have the expansion, it has made duoing with friends, at least, 5 times easier and more convenient);
• Other, not knocking the devs, it is late/early, and I am tired - perhaps I cannot think of anything else, or there is nothing else. 

My style of gameplay, however, is different;  I just group with friends, maybe once or twice a week.  I check old school named mobs from time-to-time.  Might slay a dragon.  /shrug.  Never was a raider, though, I was a Raid Officer (old, old school) and leader of a raid guild.  I am, and perhaps always will be, a sort of explorer, grouper, socializer.... Trying to find a game that has that, and until them, I will play EQ.

Actually, you might want to check on Vanguard soon.  I keep hearing good things, and I will keep following the game's progress.  Besides Vanguard, really, all of the games are lacking, in my view, in imagination, depth, complexity, challenge (raiding is NOT what I mean by challenging), world immersion, customization, fascinating Questing, and social MMORPG features.  I canont log-in to slay 5 things anymore to level to advance in a decision-tree for skills to raid.  Where is my world?  It might be Runescape, a freaking browser game - that is free.

Good review but it made me cry :(

Spent alot of time on EQ and im sad it cant be fun anymore.

As for vanguard i haven't played that yet but i'll try it.

Originally posted by Exort

Good review but it made me cry :(

 

I would cry, too, if i did not laugh! 

MMORPGs must inspire.  It is more than a game.  It is a memory.  It is the business of creating an experience that draws a person in and keeps them there (to pay 15.00).  You can do this through creativity, content, and classy gameplay.  Or, you can do this through a grind, artificial tiers of gear and raid content.

The mindless masses like to get caught-up in armor-tiers and raid grinds.  Millions of others, and myself, like to explore worlds, build communities, customize a unique character, and have fun.

Edit:  And they keep making these quest-grind, armor-tier, raid-thing and PvP-clones of WoW.  When I say different, I mean different; not slightly different, better, or worse.  When I say innovation, I mean new:  entirely different concepts, new forms of gameplay, new player tools, etc.

I got WoW.  I really do.  And millions play it.  Do they want a slightly different WoW?  Who are running these companies? LOL.

Originally posted by declaredemer

No.  The population has not gotten better.  It is worse.

 

I agree with you declaredemer. But not because of the declining population, although you're correct on that.

But because of the relationships I had with people. Many EQ players are too unfriendly now. It's hard to build any sort of coherent community in EQ, it has lost any meaning.

EQplayers used to be recognised for a very helpfull and friendly bunch of players and most were. Now most are nothing like that aynone and most are out to get loot and will do anything to get in your way by training, KS'ing and making your game miserable.

EQ like some of us knew it is gone.

Like this old "community"? This is a copy of an actual players post.....

That was my fave pastime.

Is the Oasis of Mar, you had a lake in the middle. In the middle of the lake was a tower with 8 mobs in it, all of them around lvl 50 or so. Now, this was an lvl 20 ish zone, so they would mean instant death for pretty much everyone.
Agro in EQ is slightly different, in so much that if a mob it chasing someone and goes past you, you will also end up on the agro list.
As soon as I hit 50 I started causing as much grief as possible.
I was a wood elf ranger. I would cast Levitate (so I could run across the water) and Wolf form (50% speed increase) meaning the mobs couldn’t catch me.
I would run over to the mobs, agro them all and head to the land. As soon as I got far enough from them I would cast Invisibility (the mobs could still see me but players couldn’t) and pull them through every single group of players I could find.
I think my best total was about 60 deaths.
Great fun!
 

It's not worth starting if you haven't been playing. It's not bad if you have been though.  (I'm not playing now though. I quit pre-Seeds of Destruction. Tried EQ2 and quit that too. *sigh* I am off the EQ train for good.)

Death penalties? Pffft... Mercenaries will give you a 96% rez and you spawn with your equipment on and your spells memmed.  Death has no teeth at all in EQ anymore. No merc or not high enough level? There's always guild lobby.

As a former SK who went necro, I can't argue with the gimp melee comment though.

Originally posted by neschria

It's not worth starting if you haven't been playing. It's not bad if you have been though.  (I'm not playing now though. I quit pre-Seeds of Destruction. Tried EQ2 and quit that too. *sigh* I am off the EQ train for good.)

Death penalties? Pffft... Mercenaries will give you a 96% rez and you spawn with your equipment on and your spells memmed.  Death has no teeth at all in EQ anymore. No merc or not high enough level? There's always guild lobby.

 

As a former SK who went necro, I can't argue with the gimp melee comment though.

Awful corpse runs were half the fun of grouping lol "oh god our cleric died now i gotta run half a continent!"

The mercenaries sound good though, but the only thing that would bring me back is a steady community which is apparently doesn't have and never will have again.

Screw it, christmas is soon....im gonna ruin my life and waste money to give EQ another shot....I just love it so much :(

Even if its all soloing ill still play