Whats the EQ1 newbie game like these days?

[Gorky]

do new players even try to enter the game anymore or is it simply heavily twinked alts of level 70s zipping through the low end? Could a casual explorer/crafter type have fun playing mostly solo? I saw EQ Classic + first 5 expansions available for 9.95 on direct2drive download and it looks very tempting. I used to play a uber casual 48 shaman back in the old days and loved the flavor and feel of the world.

[HRose]

do new players even try to enter the game anymore or is it simply heavily twinked alts of level 70s zipping through the low end? Could a casual explorer/crafter type have fun playing mostly solo? I saw EQ Classic + first 5 expansions available for 9.95 on direct2drive download and it looks very tempting. I used to play a uber casual 48 shaman back in the old days and loved the flavor and feel of the world.

They redid the newbie experience recently: http://mobhunter.com/000061.html

[Daydreamer]

In other news - everything between 20 and 60 is still hell and underpopulated to boot, unless you have a guild backing you.  And even then its unpleasant.

Server maturation is one of the biggest problems facing new players (and old untwinked players to a lesser extent), especially since every MMO save WoW and CoH are fairly group centric.  I've tried going back to EQ1 and DAoC a few times, and left midgame because groups are hard to come by and soloing is unpleasant.  And my favorite spots like CrushBone and Keltoi Fugi are useless to me without more players.  Oh and the grind still sucks. 

I wonder if its possible to keep the early and midgame as or nearly as lively as they are at launch permanently?

[jpark]

After thinking about this it reminded me of ANOTHER great mistake in EQ2 that it appears EQ itself will mirror on the test server:

Abandoning racial starting areas.

Racial starting areas added a lot of immersion in EQ and surprise were kept in WoW but dropped in EQ2.  Shame that with declining player populations they will use Plane of Knowledge as a surrogate newbie area for "new" EQ players, who will never be exposed to their racial homes in a meaningful way.

EQ is a better game than EQ2.

[HaemishM]

The funny thing is that even in the release days of EQ1, in the pre-Kunark days, the level 1-10 content was decent AND soloable. It was the level 20-50 content that was mostly unsoloable (except for select classes) and where the grind really hit. Esepcially around level 30 when skills stopped being handed out every level or two and the hell levels kicked in. If you've never done level 35 and 40 in EQ during the hell level days before the release of Velious... fucking ugggggh. I'd rather have teeth pulled without anesthetic. Godawful.

EQ is a better game than EQ2.

Unfortunately, this is all too true.

[penfold]

EQs new expansion announced, Depths of Darkhollow.

What makes it sort of interesting is no one really noticed, and no one really cared.

http://games.slashdot.org/games/05/06/16/1227213.shtml?tid=209

OK, i know the Games section of /. isnt the busiest anyway but i thought the first post was amusing. It sat there for ages before someone made a first post (an obsession on that site) and that was about the lack of response rather than the expansion itself.

[HaemishM]

I noticed and gave not a shit.

You can play monsters, interesting, you can "exemplar" yourself down to be pets or something for your lower level friends. WTF?

[Shockeye]

Information about the new EQ expansion came out a few days ago. If I thought anyone cared I might've posted it.

[El Gallo]

lonely as hell, from what I hear.


There's a much bigger noob crowd on Winter's Roar than a SoE server, I bet.  That's a good place for nostalgia trips.