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Are you losing high-end toons on your server?

Started by Nalitra, April 28, 2004, 06:45:14 PM

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Nalitra

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

seamusmc

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.

Mahes

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.

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.

seamusmc

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.

Katonca

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
Katonca
Feral Lord
Brell
KatzCrap

JillieMT

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. :)
Lady Jillianna Silversoul and Cody
71.181 Halasian Feral Lady - Morell-Thule... erm, Erollisi Marr
Faveo Sulum Ipsemet Ascio

Ukator Iceblood

Raid during the night Mahes and I'll join ya:)

hehe
Ukator Iceblood and Wolf
70 Beastlord

Kator Kerrath
Berserker

Tunare's Benevolence
Xegony

Dummkopf

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.

Morganti

hey Tastian, we have done pu's together :)

meow :)

~D~

Nalitra

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

Mahes

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.

JillieMT

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.
Lady Jillianna Silversoul and Cody
71.181 Halasian Feral Lady - Morell-Thule... erm, Erollisi Marr
Faveo Sulum Ipsemet Ascio

Kashmiir Battlekat

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....

tiggerroo

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.
Tiggerroo N'Blinky
70 beastlord kitty
Talionis - Prexus