I played until right before Age of Discovery. In a raiding guild.
The thing that put me off was when they introduced the new "Raid Tier" and the Normal Raid gear completely usurped the Heroic Raid gear I had on my character. And Heroic Raids in EQ were *not* easy especially since the game doesn't have Add-Ons like DBM that hold your hands through the raid.
I just lost all motivation to play after that, and just unsubbed. The game went F2P soon after.
I did install it since to get into it again, but the engine runs so poorly on my new laptop that it's virtually unplayable.
Yesterday. And I'll be playing again in a few minutes. They have the best housing system on the market and I find it relaxing, especially when I'm seriously stressed out to the point of tears and a stomach ache like I have been for the past year. I rarely quest unless it's to get an item or recipes for my housing. I have three houses at the moment, though I'm about to tear one of them down because I don't like it since it doesn't remotely compete with the beauty of what I've seen elsewhere in the game and I think I can do better.
Really the only thing that has kept me away is the terrible engine. I have extremely good hardware and can't run this maxed out at over 30 FPS or so outdoors. It's completely unacceptable.
I just completed my third piece of Visionary armor this morning. The Experimentation crafting at end game certainly makes crafting a lot more challenging and rewarding!
I played the heck out of this game for years. Got burnt out and left but I still have really good memories. In particular I found this to be one of the most immersive games for RP at least on the A-B server.
I have returned a few times, recently at the progression server launch. I usually find it great the first week reminding me of times where everything had not gone full-themepark and enjoying a game that is actually advanced. The following weeks I am reminded of all the good things and the bad things and how eq1 is superior on almost every level. I get bored with leveling and grouping, and by the one month mark I only really do tradeskills which is awesome.. until I realize that is kindda pointless as well. Still.. I had an awesome time from launch day and 3 months forward - So why do I not like it now ? I think I got hypersensitive with themeparking (aka railroaded story driven games) from playing those so much.. Probably why I can't play mmorpgs anymore; but one day .. maybe .. there will be a mmorpg that turns away from themeparking ?
I always want to, but there's always something else too. /shrug
That's how I am. The last time I played was probably about 3-4 years ago. It was a fun game back in the day with a lot to do. I even enjoyed Legends of Norrath as well. However, every time I think about re-installing/re-starting I just remind myself I have other things to play that are slightly (or vastly) more fun and just as time consuming. Then I just place it on my back burner for another 6 months or so until revisit the idea again.
I played right up until Sentinel's Fate. I was also in a casual raiding guild. It was great fun at the time. However, after Sentinel's Fate released the majority of my guild left and the game really went down hill for me. I really didn't like what they did with Epic weapons either. I worked my ass off to get my Epic and in Sentinel's Fate they changed how they worked. An Epic weapon was basically useless unless you completed another long questline.
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The world is going to the dogs, which is just how I planned it!
The thing that put me off was when they introduced the new "Raid Tier" and the Normal Raid gear completely usurped the Heroic Raid gear I had on my character. And Heroic Raids in EQ were *not* easy especially since the game doesn't have Add-Ons like DBM that hold your hands through the raid.
I just lost all motivation to play after that, and just unsubbed. The game went F2P soon after.
I did install it since to get into it again, but the engine runs so poorly on my new laptop that it's virtually unplayable.
Still.. I had an awesome time from launch day and 3 months forward - So why do I not like it now ? I think I got hypersensitive with themeparking (aka railroaded story driven games) from playing those so much.. Probably why I can't play mmorpgs anymore; but one day .. maybe .. there will be a mmorpg that turns away from themeparking ?
"I am my connectome" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HA7GwKXfJB0
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
Really put a bad taste in my mouth