The Glade 4.0

For the next 2 weeks you can create a level 85 character equipped with all the proper aa's free of charge if you have a Gold (subscribed) account. Silver free to play account should be able to upgrade a current character.

If anyone is interested it might be a good time to pop in and take a look around.

Ding 85!

Woot!

I wouldn't know what to do with a level 85 character, other than to run around and explore, which I can already do with my old level 65 Ranger (Midgen).

Wow, I'd have to think about which character to upgrade ... Elf Ranger on Zek? Probably get de-leveled pretty quickly ... Dwarf Rogue? That might be fun. Or, maybe my Troll SK.

Problem is going to be gear, no? I barely have adequate gear for the levels those characters are at now.

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Heroic characters come equipped with a Merc, 12K in plat, a Fast mount, food, and 2 bags all appropriate level weapons and armor.

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Holy crap.

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

*sigh*

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

WoW is doing something similar. Unavoidable at this point; no one wants to grind to that level.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

The AA list for EQ is daunting alone. Just looked.... OMG..

Anyone wanna try this?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

you can now choose to have your character auto granted all the available aa's per level up to Underfoot expansion.

Heroic characters are created with around 4K AA

Why play then?

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

Because for some people, the game doesn't start until they've got themselves up to spec.

This is a problem all MMORPGs suffer from, deciding what is the target "game". Is it the exploration of the world, and learning the lore, and incidentally leveling up while doing that? Or is the game what you get to do once you've endured all that grindy crap?

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Sorry but no one is interested in playing single player EQ up until level 80.

So when I left EQ I was one of the top rangers serverwide. That was ten years ago. The level cap is 100+ now. I don't have the time or the inclination to grind from 70 up to cap, and rack up the AAs that would be required to get back to where I was when I left. To say nothing of gear requirements. Hell, I'm far behind the curve even for casual play, and I'm just not interested in that type of a time investment just to get up to casual grouping.

Even back when I played, I wouldn't have recommended a new player start from level 1 without some help catching up from an experienced player. The player base was too concentrated at the top end. Oh sure, there was significant activity in the 50s, but how long did that take? What level do you have to be to start seeing the action happen given that the level cap was 70 ten years ago? It's a multi-player game with nobody to play with for however many months it would take a casual player to get that high.

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

A lot of truth in this. TESO isn't even out yet, and people are already screaming about the "endgame". Unfortunately, this sort of play tends to take over and dominate a game, partly because over time players inevitably concentrate at the top end.

In most games, it's a struggle to keep ahead of the "content locusts". EQ doesn't have this problem because it's SO old that players can hardly be blamed for having devoured the old stuff, but the "stop and smell the flowers" crowd in newer games tend to get run roughshod over by the max-level progression people; even PVPers get stomped on in this manner in themepark games.

That's why you don't see nearly as many MMO expansions that add "all levels content" like Kunark did, or adding new races and stuff that can start from scratch. They tend to pile it in the top end. You do see it to stimulate interest in alts and such and resubscriptions, but the vast bulk of content in most MMOs is aimed at keeping ahead of "progression". The cardinal sin is not HAVING an endgame (SWTOR).

EVE gets away with violating this rule because it's EVE.. but there's not much room for more than one EVE. EVE basically breaks every MMO rule there is.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

If your players run out of things to do, they're going to stop playing your game. At that point you have to choose who you're going to market to. Is it the guy who wants to start over repeatedly and try out new characters, or the guy who has one character he really likes?

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

It's the exact reason that EQN is going to focus on horizontal progression. In an attempt to give players access to anything they might want to do, they are hoping to avoid the stale level-to-max-then-raid paradigm.

The game is what you make of it. I never reached the EQ endgame, but most of the time, I didn't feel poorer for it.

It's always been about the journey for me, the friends and memories made along the way. I guess that's why it hacks me off.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

That's true. Unfortunately, there's the type of player that considers the grind to max level "not something to do", does it as fast as he can, burns through the max level stuff as fast as he can, then complains there's nothing to do - loudly. There's also a lot of "competitive" players that think they're there to beat everyone else.

MMO makers have consistently demonstrated that keeping up with the extremes of these communities stretches their capabilities to the limit.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

That's the problem, Rori. You will never make a friend in EQ today without being endgame.

I took many years off of EQ and just came back a year ago at my wife's encouragement to give me something to zone out on instead of just working. I ground out about 1K AA's and went from level 79 to 86 in that time period. I just mess around. I finished most of my DoN progression. Kill old boss mobs. Things I wasn't able to do long ago because of faction requirements, level, not being a raider, etc...

I I've made quite a few friends. Granted not the same type of friends when I used to play 10+ years ago, but neither I, nor they are playing every night all night. But nice helpful people that I add to my friend list and can all on, group with or chat. There is a fairly large group of people coming back after time away to do the same kinds of things I am, and other that have stuck around varying their play styles and characters.

Quick daily missions for experience go faster grouped and with the anniversary events I even did a couple pick up raids for fun that went amazingly well. I just mess around. A lot of others do too. Sure, there's the grind and goal of the "end game", level 100 and 12K AA's but not nearly as many are into that as you might believe. It just comes for the most part of you're after it. Levels you can grind pretty quick if you want but they'll come anyway.

EQ can never be for me or any of us what it once was, but I can now run around and lay some smackdown now where I couldn't before, and do it faster and safer.