Game worth coming back to?

[Rijacki]

Short answer: yes

It is a game that many enjoy for a variety of reasons. It's also a game that many feel passionate about whether or not they still play.

Many of those who haunt the forums these days are passionate about the game, though hyper-critical. Some of them don't even play the game any more but still like to spend time on the forums complaining about the game for which they still have a lot of passion.

Ironically, many of those respond 'no' to someone asking if he/she should come back or start playing are ones who complain about the dwindling number of players and complain about a lack of advertising. They would never understand the irony of, in one turn of their head, complaining about a lack of other players and, in another turn, telling someone bluntly and publically 'don't play'.

The real answer: Only you can really decide if the game is worth coming back to. The things YOU find enjoyable might not be the same things the complainers don't like in EQ2. The things you would find fun my be the exact thing they say are 'ruining' the game.

Best advice: Ignore the forums for a bit, play the game yourself, and see if it's fun for you. If you have fun, then it's worth coming back to. If you don't have fun, then it's not a game for you and not worth it for you. It's really that simple.

You shouldn't need to solicit anyone's approval in order to determine what is fun for you.

[Kenazeer]

Bwar@Mistmoore wrote:

I played quite a while back when the level cap was 80, since i quit the server i was on (mistmoore) appears to have merged with permafrost, im fairly broke (<30 plat), and i dont know anyone anymore. Is there enough new and interesting in the game for me to consider playing again? Has F2P put some life back into the game or is it still on the down slope? Thanks.

Run in the other direction as fast as you can. Seriously.

You know that famous quote from Niemoller, "First they came for the..." Same stuff around here. The playerbase wouldn't stick together so they have taken turns alienating different player groups. Sure as you find something you love and immerse yourself in it, you will find it abandoned or changed to where it is no longer as fun as fun as it was. Adventurers, check; Tradeskillers, check; Solo players, check; Raiders, check; etc... It is just a matter of time before it is your turn in the barrel and find yourself frustrated.

Unfortunately, SOE development is ADHD like. If they were at least more consistent you could make decisions appropriately about what thing you want to embrace and do so with little fear of finding it majorly altered.

[akin99]

The game is rather fun.

SOE is going from bad to worse. Constant ninja changes, lack of comunication, lack of direction, no support for the playerbase.

Things like bugs going on for months and months without SOE saying a word about them. Promised features never put in or halfway done etc etc etc....

I am still playing and I probably will til my current Subs run out but I will not resub unles things improve.

[Raffir]

Bwar@Mistmoore wrote:

I played quite a while back when the level cap was 80, since i quit the server i was on (mistmoore) appears to have merged with permafrost, im fairly broke (<30 plat), and i dont know anyone anymore. Is there enough new and interesting in the game for me to consider playing again? Has F2P put some life back into the game or is it still on the down slope? Thanks.

Don't let the general negativity of the boards influence you.  Its F2P.   Just DL, sign in and see for yourself.

Its still a good game.  And there is nothing.... yet, that even comes close to replacing it.

Raf

[Coffee_Hound]

Bwar,

I normally prefer to stay out of arguments like this, but you shouldn't put too much weight on some of the negative comments here.  I think the game is very fun.  When I came back, I played FTP to start off because I didn't know if I would keep playing.  I was having so much fun, I subscribed again.  Give it a try again - it costs you nothing.

[Juravael]

akin99 wrote:

The game is rather fun.

SOE is going from bad to worse. Constant ninja changes, lack of comunication, lack of direction, no support for the playerbase.

Things like bugs going on for months and months without SOE saying a word about them. Promised features never put in or halfway done etc etc etc....

I am still playing and I probably will til my current Subs run out but I will not resub unles things improve.

Exactly how I feel word for word. I never stopped liking Everquest or Everquest II. I just can not handle how SOE is handling things anymore.

[Taladorm]

Impact@Splitpaw wrote:

No it is not worth coming back, unless you like paying a compant which has no respect for its customers.

^^This^^

The game can be fun and engaging for a new player for several months but long term the outlook is bleak.

The in game population is in a general decline, it has been for several years and even FTP hasn't been able to boost it significantly.  Core mechanics and itemization are a mess with no prospects of being fixed.  That combined with the general lack of communication from Holly (the MIA producer) and the rest of the now downsized dev team leaves much to be desired.

In short this was (still is to an extent) a great game run by a terrible company.

[Rhymers]

After the stunt they just pulled with SC, I would say STAY AWAY, FAR FAR AWAY!!!

[Pink_Poodle]

Kenazeer wrote:

Bwar@Mistmoore wrote:

I played quite a while back when the level cap was 80, since i quit the server i was on (mistmoore) appears to have merged with permafrost, im fairly broke (<30 plat), and i dont know anyone anymore. Is there enough new and interesting in the game for me to consider playing again? Has F2P put some life back into the game or is it still on the down slope? Thanks.

Run in the other direction as fast as you can. Seriously.

You know that famous quote from Niemoller, "First they came for the..." Same stuff around here. The playerbase wouldn't stick together so they have taken turns alienating different player groups. Sure as you find something you love and immerse yourself in it, you will find it abandoned or changed to where it is no longer as fun as fun as it was. Adventurers, check; Tradeskillers, check; Solo players, check; Raiders, check; etc... It is just a matter of time before it is your turn in the barrel and find yourself frustrated.

Unfortunately, SOE development is ADHD like. If they were at least more consistent you could make decisions appropriately about what thing you want to embrace and do so with little fear of finding it majorly altered.

Are you seriously applying THAT to EverQuest II?! Dislike SOE's business all you want but comparing it WWII is ridiculous.

[SpineDoc]

Bwar@Mistmoore wrote:

I played quite a while back when the level cap was 80, since i quit the server i was on (mistmoore) appears to have merged with permafrost, im fairly broke (<30 plat), and i dont know anyone anymore. Is there enough new and interesting in the game for me to consider playing again? Has F2P put some life back into the game or is it still on the down slope? Thanks.

There is still some fun to be had in eq2, especially if you just play the silver free membership IMO.  There is still a lot of the heart and soul left from the developers through the years who really cared about the game.  Currently the developers either don't care about the game, or sadly are driven by a management who only cares about profit.  I don't blame them as a company, but it seems like there was a time when it was possible to make a profit AND stay true to your players.

The other thing you should be aware of is a major paradigm shift from people socializing and grouping to most people just soloing and treating grouping as something distasteful to be done quickly, with little conversation, and get out of there asap.  I can't say this is SOE's fault as it's pretty inherent in the vast majority of other MMO's.  You may like it, you may hate it, but just don't be super surprised when you encounter this mentality.  The "grouping" game has moved on to raiding, it's kind of where you go if you want a very social cohesive experience taking down tougher mobs.

Last there is the declining population, but more so the huge shift towards monetizing everything.  The heart and soul of the developers go into marketplace/station cash items and it's painfully obvious they have little attention left for non station cash things.  Along with that is what's called "selling loot rights", which is players selling gear to other players who had no participation in defeating that encounter.  I'm not drawing judgements here, but it's something to think about depending on your values and sense of entitlement.

With that said I still glean some fun from the game, at least enough to continue my year membership but most probably not after it expires.  I log on, BS with guildies, raid a couple nights a week and maybe solo an alt or 2.  Try the silver membership and get a good feel for how the game is today and let that decide if you want to become a sub again.

[tempz]

Dont waste your time with this game. That is my honest opinion assuming you want a game to get into for the long run. The devs here spend almost all of their time on marketplace items rather than game content. Delay after delay is all you will read on promised content and updates from them. All while when you do finally get the content almost everything will be broken and will take them MONTHS to fix it IF you're lucky. The people who run this game have stated that they dont even play this game but an hour every few months. That being said, i am not surprised they dont put any effort into any of the itemazation, content, etc. It is pretty clear this game is no longer about the pleasing the players but doing enough to keep the addicted players within their grasp while they leech out all the profit from the maketplace.

Do yourself a favor and instead of putting the time to get into this game, go buy yourself a fresh MMO single player or online where the people in charge actually care about the community and their work.

[Bwar]

Wanna thank everyone again for all the replies, ive played pretty much every decent mmo available right now so im pretty much just lookin to kill time before guild wars 2 (assuming i like it more than the first one). Maybe i'll reinstall this weekend and poke around some. Maybe i'll see whats going on in lotro D:

[sapman]

No. 

Absolutly not. SOE has the worst F2P model in the market. No reason to play again unless that changes. 

[LadyMist]

Oh please this whole pay for your sub with SC is Brand stinking new and imo was a Bad ideah. But then again I have been a real sub payer since launch so I guess I am not used to the mooching route

You still can buy your sc codes with your plat.

I am GLAD they dumped the whole pay your sub with sc because really all it is, is pay your sub with the plat you got ingame to buy sc to pay for your game

This game is loaded with content and fantastic. The freeport server that I am on is heavilly populated with new players arriving every other day. I believe this is what the player was asking , not how we can make this game More Free than it already is giving him your complaints of not having a 100% free to play game.

[Meta-Shadow]

Agreed the the poster above me!

I don't agree with many of the things that's happened in the game, but I'm still paying to play happily. I think this game is great for any new player.

[Cratoh]

Certainly not worth playing on the free to play model, and with so many alternatives out there, certainly not worth investing in on a £15 a month sub plus having to buy 2 expansions to really enjoy the content.

As a long time player here, and an actual die hard fan of the game it's hard fo rme to say this, but absolutely not worth it for a new player.

[Seidhkona]

I have been playing EQ2 for YEARS now, the only exception being The Great Long Downtime of Doom. During that downtime, I tried every fantasy MMORPG I could find, and for me, not one measured up to EQ2.

I have three toons at max level, and many more working their way up. I enjoy solo questing, I love racking up that quests completed number.  And with every alt, I manage to find quests I never knew existed before. My Halasian paladin mentored all the way down to do the new quests in New Halas when that came on line.

I also raid. I raid because it's fun to work and think about tactics and what you can try next, and how satisfying it is when your raidforce pulls together, everyone "gets the rhythym" and you kill that dang thing the first time. In any good raidforce, you try to gear everyone up evenly more or less for the success of the raid, so gear is not something I've ever had to worry about.

I craft, also. I make a respectable amount of plat doing commissions for people and lower-level mastercrafted gear for people starting out new characters but whose older toons have plenty of plat in their pockets.

If the only thing that motivates you in the game is better loot, then I suspect it can be easy to burn out on EQ2. The people who tend to stay with EQ2 in the long haul have multiple interests: exploring, house decorating, questing, collections, what have you.

The only person who can determine if EQ2 is worth coming back to is YOU. Why did you leave before? The basics of the game are still there, so if the game didn't suit your personality or playstyle before, it may be the same now.  But if you are willing to look at the huge depth and breadth of the things you can do in Norrath, the game never gets old.

[ShinGoku]

I have been playing for years too and tbh, I haven't bothered to log in for about a month and haven't missed it at all tbh.  The new stuff is so sterile and rinse/repeat you will get bored fast imo.

Isn't it sad that I have come to this place when back in the day my wife and I would text each other throughout the day talking about what zones to explore etc etc and meeting up in RL with guildies.  Most of my old guild are gone now, they have all moved on to greener pastures.

[decator666]

The expansions are free if you save you 500 sc each month.  It takes months to get to 90 anyway. 

[Gealaen_Gaiamancer]

decator666 wrote:

The expansions are free if you save you 500 sc each month.  It takes months to get to 90 anyway. 

500 sc per month is with a recurring subscription only, right?  Just wanted to clarify that for anyone who didn't already have a sub and wasn't sure which kind to get.

To your latter point--and I'll say it nicely before someone else trolls it--it doesn't have to take months to get to 90 if you plot out a least-time course.  Having said that, I personally think it should take a few weeks to a few months to do it right (ie, play up, not PL up; actually learn how to play the game and the character, with time to stop and sniff the digital roses.)

[Gealaen_Gaiamancer]

Sigrdrifa@Lucan DLere wrote:

[Snip]

The only person who can determine if EQ2 is worth coming back to is YOU. Why did you leave before? The basics of the game are still there, so if the game didn't suit your personality or playstyle before, it may be the same now.  But if you are willing to look at the huge depth and breadth of the things you can do in Norrath, the game never gets old.

Best point for answering OP's question, ever.  Also strongly agree with Sigrdrifa's other comments that I snipped to make this post shorter--there is a wealth of stuff to do in EQ2, as long as you're less sensitive to pre-DoV2 gear being essentially worthless in comparison to WL and SS gear.  If you take the time to enjoy the game, not just devour a minimal amount of content to get elite gear quickly, it can be fun to play at any level in any playstyle for a [word omitted to avoid drawing MODHAMMER] long time!

The age old "process, not progress" argument in gaming.  If this were a JOB, then going strictly for the best gear always would make the most sense.  But (for me, at least) we're here to have fun ... so go look at the sights, take time leveling up (arguably boring without a friend, but reasonably painless if you enjoy the sometimes spectacular sights in the out-of-the-way zones) and find what is fun for you.

[urgthock]

Glenedhel@Antonia Bayle wrote:

I hope a lot of people end up leaving.

Haters gotta hate.

[TwistedFaith]

MMO's are nothing without players and there is no question that the playerbase for EQ2 is declining rapidly. The game is in maintenance mode and is not going to improve honestly. SOE have fully embraced the F2P and sell everything model and it's obvious to anyone who has played the game for any amount of time that the quality of updates had dropped massively.

Bottom line, the game is dying, the content is still there for new players starting out but the playerbase is getting smaller and smaller.

[OnoremDil]

LadyMist wrote:

Oh please this whole pay for your sub with SC is Brand stinking new and imo was a Bad ideah. But then again I have been a real sub payer since launch so I guess I am not used to the mooching route

You still can buy your sc codes with your plat.

I am GLAD they dumped the whole pay your sub with sc because really all it is, is pay your sub with the plat you got ingame to buy sc to pay for your game

This game is loaded with content and fantastic. The freeport server that I am on is heavilly populated with new players arriving every other day. I believe this is what the player was asking , not how we can make this game More Free than it already is giving him your complaints of not having a 100% free to play game.

Pay for your sub with SC is 'not' new...and after seeing it so very, very many times in your posts recently...I have to ask. What is an ideah?

I agree that it was a stupid system with how they were handling plat and SC for subs. I certainly took advantage of it while it was there...though never by buying SC with plat.

The FTP model is horrible. The community is the only good thing about this game right now.

[Dinfire]

Definitely not worth coming back to.  This game has entered "maintenance" mode as others have put it.  Or standby.  Whatever term you prefer that is similar to "static."

SOE isn't interested in investing in this game.  They're hoping their new Farmville version of EQ will pay out the millions they're investing in it.  Honestly I hope they go bankrupt from it.

[UnderToad]

I'm a returning player, having re-subbed last month after a couple of years vacation.  For what it's worth these would be my initial impressions..# Ignore Free To Play.  It's a horrible, crippled experience and will probably do little more than frustrate the hell out of you. Just pay for a month and if you don't like it, you're only out of pocket a couple of quid.# High end (85+) gearing may take a while to get your head around.  Best to ignore it for the most part and use what you get for solo questing.  # Keep in mind that the mercenaries provided by the latest expansion have a huge diversifying impact on solo play.  Always having a magic tank or healer in your pocket means a lot less downtime waiting for groups (or less time in a group waiting for a tank or healer to complete it).# Be aware of population.  The game is seemingly pretty empty compared to when I left.  It'd probably be a good idea to get into a guild ASAP.  You'll have more fun and things will be a lot easier on you.# The economy's gone a little nuts.  Last time I played the top tier rares cost about 8-10p on the broker.  Now I'm selling them for 20-50p on Splitpaw.  Expert (mastercrafted) spells seem to start at around 30-40p for my class.# Get (quest or buy) a flying mount.  It's hard to overemphasise how handy they are for traversing even old zones and seem pretty much required for high level zones.# Don't be put off by other peoples bad reactions.  The game has some problems with direction imo, but it's still fun to play and some of the mechanics are great.  I just wouldn't necessarily assume the game will be around in a healthy form for many years.

[LadyMist]

OnoremDil wrote:

LadyMist wrote:

Oh please this whole pay for your sub with SC is Brand stinking new and imo was a Bad ideah. But then again I have been a real sub payer since launch so I guess I am not used to the mooching route

You still can buy your sc codes with your plat.

I am GLAD they dumped the whole pay your sub with sc because really all it is, is pay your sub with the plat you got ingame to buy sc to pay for your game

This game is loaded with content and fantastic. The freeport server that I am on is heavilly populated with new players arriving every other day. I believe this is what the player was asking , not how we can make this game More Free than it already is giving him your complaints of not having a 100% free to play game.

Pay for your sub with SC is 'not' new...and after seeing it so very, very many times in your posts recently...I have to ask. What is an ideah?

I agree that it was a stupid system with how they were handling plat and SC for subs. I certainly took advantage of it while it was there...though never by buying SC with plat.

The FTP model is horrible. The community is the only good thing about this game right now.

It is new to people who been with the game 8 years, not new to the people who been here the last few months. Even when Freeport server launched there was no pay for your sub with sc then

[OnoremDil]

Edit for:

...meh...

[Grawler2]

I was away for a while from the game for personnal reasons and now I am back and funny to see the forum has not change one bit.  Do what some of the responded told you try the game yourself.  I have played for years different games online and no matter what game it is you will always have the complainers.

If you go by what people say on the forums you would never play a game online at all. Go to the forum of the games people say they are playing now instead and you will see the same thing. complain complain and complain again. Best thing for you try it yourself. You are the only one that really knows what you like.