[Rthen]

The End of Everquest (or, the end of the game for those 80% of players not in a massive guild)

It is happening right now as I type this, its the slow trickle of people: leaving the game for good but not canceling their main account due to the fact that most people will not ditch 2 or 3 years of work, taking extended breaks to play other games, or simply canceling their accounts now in disgust. I doubt SoE will see a financial impact for some time, maybe an entire year. At least not until some other MMOG has a firm hold on the disgruntled customers and proves to be just as good or better then EQ.

There have been plenty of posts like this thoughout the past 3 years and I am certain they were better written and for the most part written by more game knowledgeable people. No one has pointed out what I am about to say recently so I decided to proceed with this post.

There are some key reasons why I believe we have reached the end of the road for most of the EQ customer base:

1. The access method in place to get to PoP content discorages the recruitment efforts of high end content guilds (and any guild that is in PoP tier 3+ zones already). The number of key quests and flag encounters you will need simply discorages taking on recruits that do not already have close to the same access that you have. People do not like redoing contant constantly. Guilds that loose large amounts of players due to SWG, SB, and other games will fail. If you are a player that has not yet been flagged for tier 3+ PoP zones then your best bet is to quit now because getting help to get flagged is not going to be easy. On the 2 servers I play on it will be impossible.

2. The nerf to soloing in PoP has decreased the options for AA and exp advancement for the 61+ crowd. It has insured that only the following classes can effectively solo now: Druids and Wizards, followed by a distant second for: Enchanters, Necromancers and Shaman. By effective I mean earn enough exp per hour by soloing to make it a real alternitive to grouping if you cannot find a group. The days where most classes could rack up at least AA exp in numerous zones and still be productive without a "perfect" group are over. Once you hit level 65 and are not amoung the classes that can effectivly solo you will need to find a group, plan on being LFG for hours unless: 1. You are a Cleric, Warrior, Enchanter, Rogue, or Shaman. Monk's and Shadowknights ocasionally find work as pullers but for most popular exp camps they are not required. or 2. You are in a top guild (thus the 20% of players) and have a guild group all set and waiting for you evey time you log on.

3. Class balance, fixing existing bugs, and upgrading exisiting content have been ignored in favor of adding new content. When level 65 non-primary class characters are sitting LFG on PoV and PoS for hours on end there should be no new content added unless its content to help them solo if they cannot find a group.

My prediction is that after the next 12 months some of the following will end up happeneing:

1. Everquest will be left with around 25% of its existing customer base (I averaged the percentage of high end game players ont he servers I play on) as people most heavily affected by the issues leave for new games. These departures will not have a real financial impact on SoE until their owners cancel their accounts. You might see some server consolidations. I predict that Legends customers will be moved back their their home servers by the time EQ2 is released.

2. People that play classes that cannot solo at level 65 effectively or find groups easily will quit the game. The number of Magicians, Palidians, Necromancers, Beastlords, and Shadowknights will drop drasticly. No one will care and life will move on in EQ. This has already been slowly happening.

3. SoE will dumb down the game to continue raking in profit as folks leave for new games - 1. The flagging system will be made eaiser to enable more people to gain access to higher end content in PoP as ubers leave to play other games like SWG. 2. All classes that are not group needed will obtain content or abilities to solo better.

4. SoE will do nothing and hope the departures from EQ are headed to SWG or EQ2.

In my personal opinion I think that the worst thing SoE did with PoP is the way it handled access in PoP, this closely followed by insuring my class and others that used to solo somewhat well were now faced with having to spend hours LFG. PoP killed the casual player and also insured that more dedicated players had a harder time keeping guilds together due to the amount of of "keying" that needs to be done. Miss a raid or 2 and your far behind your guild mates.

The casual player is the vast bulk of EQs revenue base and alienating them from even exp progression will kill this game.

Perhaps it is in their plans to kill the game so people will play SWG and EQ2.

It will be interesting to see what this new expansion is all about. I doubt it will address any of the above issues I listed