I just realized I've been away from the game for 10 months. Still have no desire to go back, but I'm curious. Does it seem like a lot of players are still leaving? Or have things stabilized?

Well my account is cancelled but hasn't expired yet so I do login occasionally to chat with old friends. They are the ones who tell me the population has dropped drastically and the raid environment isn't as competitive because well quite a few major guilds collasped and are no longer in existence. So for my server it seems players are still leaving the game or there hasn't been a deluge of new players to replace the old players who have retired.

I don't see a lot of players leaving, i've seen some returning though. Actually in my guild not a lot of players left. And those in other guilds left because of problems with leadership as far as I know. The guild that once was the furthest progresswise in my server faced this problem (with leadership) and they actually are progressing again even though we took the crown for server firsts. Actually a couple of ex-members of that guild raid with us now.

GoD + spring and summre lull + CoH = alot of people seeming to quit.

any are coming back already from their various activities and many are coming back from CoH. Just like DAoC pulled many people away initially, more people returned to EQ than stayed with it, though some will be gone forever.

I detect the rumblings of another potential exodus, though. The Summit kept some people in the game that otherwise would have left. And while there was some communication and actions by SOE right after that, that has died off somewhat. I'm starting to see posts wondering at the lack of action and questioning whether SOE is going back to "business as usual."

What happens in the next month or so, and the release of OoW, will be fairly critical.

I detect the rumblings of another potential exodus, though. The Summit kept some people in the game that otherwise would have left. And while there was some communication and actions by SOE right after that, that has died off somewhat. I'm starting to see posts wondering at the lack of action and questioning whether SOE is going back to "business as usual."

What happens in the next month or so, and the release of OoW, will be fairly critical.Sadly it looks like they spent $80k for a summit and forgot that it was a start that required follow up and maintenance. I think it stopped an exodus in progress with a lot of people staying to see if changes were forthcoming, and although they've started to fix some things that have been broken for years the "go forward" looks a bit dim.

I think the summit was a year or two too late, at least for me it was.

If they had acted on the suggestion of single and duo LDoN's for the casual players that needed a shot in the arm to stay, I probably would have re-opened the account and given it some more time.

However, since that is something they will look at but have no plans to include anytime soon, I have no reason to come back. I do miss people in game that are still playing, but I paid for a game I didn't really play for far too long as it was.


edit: lol I spell gud!

Sadly it looks like they spent $80k for a summit and forgot that it was a start that required follow up and maintenance.

On the contrary, they have indeed followed up; notice how with each patch, they indicate which 'fixes' were requested by players. And they have indeed been working on maintaining relations with various class communities -- considering the amount of dev and CS interaction on the SOE forum, plus the occasional posts from Brenlo here and there, they've definitely made an attempt.

However, about 90% of those "player-requested" changes have been insignificant, with only very few actually having any positive impact on playability.

If someone has just wasted 2 hours trying to form a decent Ldon group, do you think they give a flying $%@ if an NPC was added to trade out robes for tunics? If someone just wasted an hour trying to learn another language so they could get a GM from India to bump their character after 1018 error wouldn't clear, do you think they care if casters can see how many mana points they have?

Sure, some of those changes/additions were nice, but ummm.. can we get the car working before we worry about the paint job?

~Firemynd

Im not in a 'high end' guild but we are growing and we are just sarting out on the road to elementals. Im still loving the game - likely I havent gotten to the worst parts yet. We have done some exploring in GoD - mostly in groups, and at that point I determined that my cleric isnt quite ready for Tipt LOL. Im not too worried about it, I know that both my girls will be fine in a few more months when they get some upgrades and what not.

Although my guild isnt 'high-end' I tend to consider myself a hardcore 'casual' - if there is such a thing. I play alot, I have a job that allows me that luxury - course I start work at 5am so that I can play as much as I do :P

On Xegony we have seen a few of the 'uber guilds' die and a new 'uberguild' formed from what was left of the players when a couple of the biggest went belly up. Its ok for us as a guild because when they get tired they move on - leaving more content for us so that we can progress too. Its nice actually - maybe by the time we are ready to go to VT and elementals some of them will be gone and we will have less competition.

Its almost to be expected, many people have 'grown up ' in this game and are ready to leave home, not much sony can do about it and it will make no difference how may summits they have. The best bet for them would be to try and focus more on those players that are going to be there for the next 5 years, not the ones that have already left or will be doing so soon.

I continue to see friends quit playing. I personally changed servers recently after my raiding guild of two years called it quits. Reading my original server boards, there seems to be more goodbye posts, but I wonder if I'm simply noticing them more since I've played long enough to actually know the people quitting now.

It's hard to say if there is a meaningful player exodus. People have always left and guilds have folded. On the other hand, players return, new players join and guilds grow.

The guild I'm in is enjoying a steady increase in membership. A major reason is stable leadership -- there has been no change in the 15 member officer ranks in six months.

Personally, I think that the player base is in continuous evolution, not in decline. Like EQ itself, nothing stays static.

Thicket

On my server it has stabilized for now at least. Tholuxe has always been a low population server and the god/spring exodus killed off one major guild and brought a few others to a standstill because of the shallow recruiting pool. Now, most seem to have recruited enough to continue on and are fairly stable. I agree that oow is going to be crucial. If its release is another fiasco like with gates, i think there will be another big exodus of players. If not, there may be continued stability at least until next spring.

SoE is in a tight spot right now trying to do neccesary free fixes / upgrades and making Omens an expansion with Wide appeal. I know they are two seperate groups, but hey are still very connected processes, neither can be proceede without acknowledging the other.

I will agree that another GoDs type expansion will almost certainly lead to server consolidation. Making an expansion that was only designed with the "uber" in mind was a horrible idea to begin with, making it so that the "uber" people did not even like it was just absurd. (Their story about it being designed for a level 70 does not make them look any smarter).

Things on Tholuxe seem to have stabilized some, but it is clearly on the edge. FV seems to be bustling, but then I am only 47 there so it may be to early to tell. I will probally stick around for a while because all access will make EQ/EQ2 a relatively inexpensive combo. For EQ however Omens is certainly put up or shut up time.

As for me, I'm being patient. Big changes like what we need and what we asked for are not easy changes and require big development - and comes during a time when they have been/are crunching to get the next expansion out.

I suppose if Omens is a flop, then I'll have a little less patience. =)

I would have the same patience I normally excercise with SoE except for the fact that I also play a 65 zerker now -- and there is an upset community! I can't help but open my eyes a bit bigger then my druid world allowed before and see the problems SoE has created.

Its really unfortunate, Ive loved this game for close to 5 years. But I see it slowly fading out of my daily routine if this is what I can expect from now on....

(Their story about it being designed for a level 70 does not make them look any smarter)Smart or not, I was just glad there was some explanation. And seriously, in business, there are always decisions made and/or changed by the powers-that-be that make the folks who have to implement them pull their hair out.

People are leaving EQ at the same pace as they have always left, But They are coming back at =) the same pace as they always do to.

So to answer your question: NO there is not a mass exodus leaving the game, and on the contrary I have met Alot of Newbies lately starting EQ for the first time, and alot of the ("Disgruntled, I will never come back to this Sh*tty game", are all lowering there heads and coming back from COH and other activities that have kept them busy)
Chubbs

Well, I still play on guild raid night since otherwise they couldn't raid. Of the accounts I had, my wife and son's have been cancelled, I gave two away which have changed hands since then and I keep my primary account open hopeing for things to get better.

There were 5 or 6 guildies that play WoW but come back for raid night or play between WoW pushes. 3 of the CoH players also come to raid night and one of the SWG players. Mostly it is a wait for WoW game for some but quite a few that went to the summit are playing still with hopes that something will change. The Shamen and paladins from our guild that stayed all went to EP+ guilds and most people are playing alts now (I am playing my lv 48 SK alt and my lv 32 Enc). We have one each lv 65 War, Paladin, Necro, Cleric, Mage, Wizzy and Rogue. We have zero lv 65 SK, Shamen, BST, Berz or Monks. If we get over 20 people for a raid we are lucky. If we get more than one Cleric or Enc for a raid we are really lucky. Last time we did a ToV we had one cleric and 5 druids as healers... Last time we did Vini, my lv (at that time 47) SK was the puller... And this is from a Tier II guild that had 150 active players with over 75 on every night and over 100 for each raid prior to OoW. We went from mostly lv 65 to almost completely sub lv 60 in a couple of months.

So to answer your question.. Yes some people are coming back, but usually just part time. Lots of people are waiting for something to happen. Lots of higher level key classes are leaving. And lots of new people are trying out the game.

On the one hand, the zones I play in have significantly more players in them (i.e., I'm usually not the only player there). On the other hand, my server (Maelin Starpyre) just got moved to the "preferred" list. I'm not sure that there's been much change at all recently. Too bad they removed the number of players logged on from the server list.

Vestix
64 druid of Tunare

Hiya pana :)

im 95% sure you are Panamah from drinal ... if so we in UF are doing great "we miss ya though" thhings on drinal at least seem fine . still LOTS of people playing . /HUGS too you :) Oh and by the way I pull LDoN really well these days .. fer a shaman :P

BTW if im mistaken and this ISNT the Panamah from Drinal .. just disregard this post :P

She is (one of?) the creator(s) of the Drinal Flag Rebellion, and the reason flag limits were put in place! ;)

Blast from the past: http://pub207.ezboard.com/fthedruidsgroverants.showMessage?topicID=949.topic

I miss Miss Fowfyre. Mer sigs were awesome and this is one of the best quotes I have ever seen. Its in reference to people not wanting in game change because thye feel it diminishes their accomplishments. Sums up my feelings very well.

It comes down to this. If you look down on others for using more numbers or for zerging, and you think they shouldn't be in the next zones, w h o t h e h e l l a r e y o u ? Do you play a computer game to feel superior to others? Does it make you feel good to look down on others? Over stuff that doesn't really exist? Over a game? If this is you -- oh the humanity! -- you should take a look at your own fragile ego.

Hiya pana :)

im 95% sure you are Panamah from drinal ... if so we in UF are doing great "we miss ya though" thhings on drinal at least seem fine . still LOTS of people playing . /HUGS too you :) Oh and by the way I pull LDoN really well these days .. fer a shaman :P

BTW if im mistaken and this ISNT the Panamah from Drinal .. just disregard this post :P

Hey Grim Bear! Glad to hear you're still having fun on Drinal in UF. Lets see... its been 10 months since I quit and haven't really wanted to go back. Now I'm a CoH addict. :)

Stewwy, is your X key broken? You meant Miss Foxfyre?

Nah I'm just a sucky typist.

I no longer play... however it will be interesting to see if many leave when WoW comes out... to me thats the next big thing which will pull EQers away from EQ.

EQ2 comes out before WoW? I think that might affect things in EQ too. Between EQ2 and WoW, I think it'll gut EQ. It'll probably gut CoH too, I think a lot of people are just playing CoH until those two come out.

But Pirates of the Burning Sea is going to pwn them all! Just you wait and see! (Just kidding, I know that I'm excited!).

Pirates of the Burning Sea? Shiver me timbers! A Pirate MMOG? Where do I sign up for Beta?

I suppose if Omens is a flop, then I'll have a little less patience. =)

I think that is what I am waiting to see. I have always been a big defender of SoEs, but they are so completely out of touch with their player base now, even their efforts to get in touch jsut make them appear to be more out of touch.

GoDs is what happens when you let people in a Division run amuk, because it is Cash Cow. They do something so incredibly stupid, the utters just dry up. Obviously they dried up enough for John Smedley to take notice, but it is still unclear wether or not he can pull it out.

The only thing I am certain of, painful as it may be, the game was better of when it had a Vision. We may not have always (or even usually) agreed with the Vision, but at least there was one. It is pretty clear that EQ is a rudder-less ship in a huricane.

www.piratesoftheburningsea.com of course!

And while we're waiting for the release of this EQ killer, me beauty, then there is time to brush up your your pirate talk, ye scurvey bilge rat!

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/

And I am Bloody Jenny Bonney (http://www.fidius.org/quiz/pirate.php)

Your pirate name is:


Captain James Flint



Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!