[Onte]

I play on Befallen, still. I've got an incredibly small guild of 4 or 5 old eq1 players. We're the remains of a 30+ account, 60+ member guild that dwindled down over the last year to pathetic numbers.

The itemization is bland. Sure, there are items you want to camp or quest or items you look foward to using, but if you're a player such as me, one who does not raid, you're wearing player-crafted or sub-par quested gear your entire tenure in the game. Or, if you're lucky, you've gotten a couple drops off a heroic named or two to spice up your kit. I have not had a single evening where I have logged on, joined a group and headed down into EQ2's version of Lguk or Seb to camp an incredibly awesome item that'd completely change the performance of any of my characters. I have never had a moment where I have been completely elated to obtain any item since I started the game in Feb '05.

Personally, I enjoy the game and I log a lot of hours during the week. It occupies my mind and let's face it, I'm nearly 30 and married and don't have the time to invest in the raid scene so it suits *my* needs until I find something else to enjoy. However, after watching every person I recruited to play the game or invited into the guild quit within 90 days of starting, I've put a lot of thought into why I'm losing members left and right. The itemization is bland, the quest system is overfuckingwhelming and the weak retention has created an endless cycle of... weak retention. The huge combat change last Fall chased off an assload of people and I'd dare say that stupid Plague shit that was part of the World Event last summer(?) chased even more people off.

I guess you could say that the game, for a lot of people, does not have enough bang for the buck.