It seems like in the last couple of months, Elemental/Time guilds on my server (Morell-Thule) are having a hard time gathering a raid force. Lots of people have quit the game (mostly old-school level 65 chars with tons of game exp and AA). Most guilds are actively recruiting and pickings are slim.
How are your servers holding up?
Nalitra
My wife and I were able to join a Time enabled guild because of this. Between the spring weather and the frustration caused by the GoD time sink many of the top guilds are losing people.
Pickings are indeed slim. My wife plays a reasonably well equipped magician with 260+ AA's. I have 215 AA's and above average equipment, not appropriate for GoD content. We were both EP flagged with a couple of the flags for Time. So we're not exactly uber by today's standards. Most others applying have around 50 AA's and gear appropriate for tackling much lower level content and are not EP flagged.
Of course the gear issues should resolve themselves, but I'm already hearing the other recruits complaining heavily about the GoD content and we, the recruits, haven't touched the Kod trials yet. They just want to farm Time but the guild is recruiting for the GoD content. IMHO many of these recruits will quit within a month.
So I'd say between GoD and the better weather many EP/Time guilds are losing people on the Tribunal Server.
I should make a qualification. It seems to me that the guilds progressing through PoP and on the verge of becoming Time enabled or are just recently Time enabled are doing well. The guilds that have been in Time a while and are tackling GoD are not doing well with their membership.
On Zeb, at least among the PoTime + Guilds, they were dropping like flies for a while. Seems like the last week or two things are starting to get back to normal. Kinda expecting another slump in a month or two as summer hits.
We're already a low-pop server, so it's slim pickings trying to find recruits.
#2 (ish) guild on MM is doing a huge recruitment push. They dropped all flagging requirments, took several "suspect" apps and spent the last week or so wiping out tier 1+ PoP content to reflag people. GoD really isn't working for me personally and I know lots of older/higher people that are leaving/have left. I'm honestly not sure some of them will be back either. People have always left and come back over the years of EQ, but some of these I honestly believe are gone for good.
Quote from: Tastian#2 (ish) guild on MM is doing a huge recruitment push. They dropped all flagging requirments, took several "suspect" apps and spent the last week or so wiping out tier 1+ PoP content to reflag people. GoD really isn't working for me personally and I know lots of older/higher people that are leaving/have left. I'm honestly not sure some of them will be back either. People have always left and come back over the years of EQ, but some of these I honestly believe are gone for good.
Seems to me Sony has made it extremely difficult to come back for players used to the high end game. The flagging required for Time and GoD is such a time sink that it is prohibitive to fall behind.
Of course GoD offers very little to players not in EP+ guilds. I would not be surprised to see the next expansion raise the level limit. Of course by that time many people will have turned to WoW or EQ2 or whatever.
WoW beta is out.... others are playing SWG.
I think registration is being taken for EQ2 also.
Barring all that, EQ is a huge time sink. And to upgrade your gear in GoD vs TIME.....is just not worth it to many.
Yes there is some OK upgrades....but again is the time worth it??
If your Gear is pretty maxxed out, the desire to play is less.
My Bst has 6270ish Hp (unbuffed), And I have a lot of room for improvement. But those upgrades will be small and numerous. The days of 100-200 HP upgrades are dwindeling...
Raid Raid Raid... oh i got a 50hp increase....wheeeeeeeeeeeeee
Nalitra: Still in a GoB guild here, and we're the same... elemental and struggling a tad to get numbers for stuff.
So many beta tests starting up now, and summer coming along... I am curious to see how things will be in the fall and such when people tend to start playing more again.
We'll see. :)
Raid during the night Mahes and I'll join ya:)
hehe
Yep, lots of very good players are leaving, some just take a time out from playing at all, others are beta testing stuff (well, lineage2 beta ended, but CoH got released) and of course its spring time, longer days, nice weather and the good old hormones are playing up. Add to that study and exam times and you get a shortage on skilled players for lots of guilds.
This alone isnt the worst thing and pretty much happened nearly every year, this year however there is GoD, where there is no clear target yet and broken or not really finished progression together with just extreme timesinkish stuff to do. Time/Loot is pretty bad in GoD especially if you compare it to PoTime which in turn is old for those guilds who have farmed it for months.
hey Tastian, we have done pu's together :)
meow :)
~D~
Makes me wonder if SOE is getting worried about the number of level 65 chars quitting. Might be one reason for their new "Hot Spots."
A way to fast-track players to level 65 and fill in a few empty spots in high end guilds.
Nalitra
Quote from: Ukator IcebloodRaid during the night Mahes and I'll join ya:)
hehe
Hehe. If we raided any later, we'd start at midnight. Of the three PoTime guilds, we start the latest, usually by 2-3 hours. We're dominated by west coast peeps, and an older player-base(read: kids to put to bed) than most high end guilds.
In a way, I'm kind of happy that SOE put in 54 person limits on GoD raids. It allows us to deal with the loss of players lately. Personally, I'd prefer raid content geared towards 30ish people, but it's too far into EQ's life to go that route succesfully. 72 was too much though. You get that many people at a raid in you are gonna have about a dozen sitting around and a good bit more not playing up to their potential. The smaller raid sizes have really seperated the good players from the mediocre ones.
Anyway, this has happened the last few major expansions, not too mention every spring. The only game that I see having the potential to really draw from EQ is WoW. The rest of the Betas will come and go.
Quote from: NalitraMakes me wonder if SOE is getting worried about the number of level 65 chars quitting. Might be one reason for their new "Hot Spots."
A way to fast-track players to level 65 and fill in a few empty spots in high end guilds.
Nalitra
I dont think Sony cares what the levels are . They just want subscribers. As a matter of fact, SLOWING the xp would keep people playing more and keep the subscriptions coming. Bored level 65's with hundreds of AA's are more likely to quit than people who's main is in the 40's still... Remember, its the high level guilds really feeling the pinch.
SOE, and VI before it, were always talking about making less utilized zones more tempting to people. They've been revamping things for a few years, but that might be too labor intensive. Much easier on them to just adjust xp given in a zone to make it more popular, than to unveil a whole new revamp.
Finally, ANYONE who has been playing for awhile knows how to PL their way to 65, with or without Hot Spots. I HIGHLY doubt that will really expedite any one's levelling. Besides, with a few prelimary bits of data now showing up, its clear that SOE fulfilled EXACTLY what they promised: an experience bonus SIMILAR to the way Paludal WORKS, not EQUAL to Paludal... nowhere did they say that the bonus was the same, nor did they say that you'd be able to level through your 50's somewhere as fast as you did in your 20's in Paludal.
On Veeshan we are seeing some attrition.
Fires of Heaven have all but gone away to World of Warcraft and waiting for World of Warcraft. They no longer raid and are only minimally online.
Fiends recently broke up due to 'issues'. Many quit EQ, moved to other servers or are running solo.
Cestis Dei is concentrating still on GoD content and have apparently left Plane of Time behind them.
Circle of Eternity is concentrating on GoD and occasioanlly rip through Time in record times.
Sovereign also seems to be concentrating on GoD and occasionally rip through Time in record times.
Our Japan Contingent still does Plane of Time regularly (thus screwing us out of Phase1 loot constatly --hehe)
Kratos (guild Im in) is still fairly new to Plane of Time having recently made our first Quarm kill. Im sure we have many more months ahead of us in Time.
We are seeing attrition in Kratos. We are not losing numbers in droves, but we do seem to see some people less and less.
All guilds have been recruiting farily consistantly for many months now.
I suppose EQ is losing its userbase with consistant numbers every month. Im thinking EQ is not in its death throws yet, but it is, and will be, slowly dying over time. Its just the way it is. After 5 years the game has held up very well, but with new generations of Computer Gamers coming in to the market they will have higher expectations then we do....
Prexus is definitely seeing a slow down. Our top two guilds are basically at the same point in GoD content and complain about the buggy content. For us, we're seeing old-timers returning more than anything since we have only been in Time for a few months and have 3 Quarm killings down. I expect that we'll see a decline in numbers as the farming continues. Many in the guild have already expressed frustration over GoD, so once people have their dream items, I think we'll lose some.
2-3 I'm leaving eq posts a week since just after GoD came out.
Lucky to get 60 people on a Time clearing day.
Yeah. You could say people are leaving.
Quote from: MahesQuote from: Ukator IcebloodRaid during the night Mahes and I'll join ya:)
hehe
Hehe. If we raided any later, we'd start at midnight. Of the three PoTime guilds, we start the latest, usually by 2-3 hours. We're dominated by west coast peeps, and an older player-base(read: kids to put to bed) than most high end guilds.
In a way, I'm kind of happy that SOE put in 54 person limits on GoD raids. It allows us to deal with the loss of players lately. Personally, I'd prefer raid content geared towards 30ish people, but it's too far into EQ's life to go that route succesfully. 72 was too much though. You get that many people at a raid in you are gonna have about a dozen sitting around and a good bit more not playing up to their potential. The smaller raid sizes have really seperated the good players from the mediocre ones.
Anyway, this has happened the last few major expansions, not too mention every spring. The only game that I see having the potential to really draw from EQ is WoW. The rest of the Betas will come and go.
We used to get the numbers by 6pm eastern, then 9pm. now its 10pm or eleven - which means late late raids for east coasters, and if you work you just cant do that every night. Its getting really bad and was that way even before we got into POTime(a month ago).
I agree, the flags are killing us too. My father has a 65 druid with 300+aa and no flags. He wants to join a guild but the flags are keeping him out. He will need all of them. He had leveled and AAed in POP with no flags just based on his levels. No hes bored and has no where to go :(
Hes 65 years old and not the most computer literate - but hes retired and plays alot and does a good job - hes just too far behind.
I'm one of the ones that have said goodbye. A lot of it was due to how bad test ended up becoming. Last time we were at quarm was in jan and it's not due to us not being able to get there. It was due to so many game stopping bugs/god beta that a lot of people including myself got fed up and said screw it. Of course WOW beta and COH helped them leave. I'm currently playing COH and loving it. No more 6 hour raids and grouping is a complete blast and does not even feel like grinding. Not saying I'll never be back but I would like it to be that way. Just don't know if I can completely drop the habit.
I have not had the slightest want to log in since I left. I asked a buddy how the guild was doing these days, he said other night on a saturday there were like 26 guild people on. Used to be 60+ I understand that the guild we used to rotate Time with is all but gone now due to WoW beta.
Played for 5 years and loved it. 2-3 months of GoD made me walk away and never come back. I guess to a degree, in that light, it makes me somewhat sad - just not sad enuff to care to play EQ again. Lineage 2 is ok - it's not as fun as EQ was in the early days pre-RoK, but it's more fun than I was having plucking my eyeballs out with a spoon (aka raiding GoD)
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DEFINITELY not unexpected. AL leaving has been a long time coming I think...
Very, only shock is it took this long.
Looks like Arch Overseers just beat Uqua (TR killed boss but script was messed up yesterday), so maybe this will help those high end guilds out. Knowing that its actually beatable finally.