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I've asked SOE to improve the new players experience
delete5230
Member EpicPosts: 7,081
With new players coming and going quickly, reading post after post, and my own experiences in EQ2 about new players leaving the game because they feel alone and no one to play with, I had finally summited an e-mail to SOE support.
PLEASE UNDERSTAND I'm not picking on the veterans, as i'm trying to make a pro - active attempt to help SOE keep and retain new players. With my years of experience of sampling EQ2, only to find that I could never seem to stay beyond 30 days, I believe I have the key ingredient needed for retention.
EQ2 is a full, well developed game with just some minor coding problems. It has many classes with a large list of abilities, it has many cities, guild halls, dungeons, raids, quest, lore, housing, crafting, a good social structure with chat, lfg tools, and searches.
People here on mmorpg.com are always excited to start and enjoy EQ2, but always leave the game shortly after, leaving the population to the original or long term players time after time.
A few months ago after giving this game another try and having the same experience as I had in the past, I had found I had a revelation. I'll admit I voiced my opinion here on this board half cocked and slightly trollish. In doing so I got a lot of negative feedback because of my attitude, but also many in agreement. Nothing ever to prove me wrong.
My suggestion e-mail to SOE support :
Make a new server and " HIGHLY RECOMMEND NEW PLAYERS TO START THEIR ". Anyone can use this server just no character transfers, everyone starts new, everyone is equal.
This can be done in a variety of ways, one suggestion is to show three pop ups during character creation, stating that " it is recommended for new players to start here for a better EQ2 experience ".
Please forgive me for having an aggressive attitude a few months ago. And please only constructive replies back. Hay maybe it's even a bad idea for retention of players, but you have to admit their is a problem with new players staying.
I hope SOE takes the ball and runs with it what ever the solution is because I like most enjoy Ever Quest 2.
Comments
While not specifically for new players, a new alternate ruleset server is in the works which they just mentioned a couple weeks ago. So if you're just wanting to be able to start new along with everyone else, that might be a good opportunity. Probably some months away still though.
one big reason i left !reach lvl20 + you are pretty much soloing!try to find a group for the dungeon good luck you ll need it
the high lvl are at their end the low lvl at their end nobody is in between!lol
come on womenlove it when we re in between how come soe hates it?
See, the problem is that this is an old old game. Its changed and evolved. Thats what happens to ALL games after 5 years. That doesn't mean the game is dead, and anyone using their brain would know that. Eventually the lower classes just fade into almost nothing.
It isn't going to change just like it hasn't changed with any other game.
I've never understood why people freak out in lower levels when the lower levels aren't populated. I've played lots of games long after they were released and I simply understand that certain things are simply a reality in the game world, and I don't freak out about it.
So tell me... if you have been playing online games AT ALL, how is it that you think that some people actually act with surprise when they don't see alot of people in the lower levels? We all know this will happen eventually. Thats the way these games work. Freaking out about it is frankly stupid.
It would be better if they just operated with "one" server that just duplicated zones if too many players were in one zone. Other MMOs already do this.
Im trying to start up, on a 14 day trial.
What ive noticed is that for some reason it runs worse than AoC on max dx10. It seems my card is running cool as well. I have 4 cores and 8mb ddr2 ram. The settings in general is well.....not new user friendly. Now i love advanced user setting in any game to tweak it just right, and i see it as a plus. However im stuck in a nerfed and laggy or beautiful and extra laggy setting.
How the hell do i communicate with people, i say stuff and no one responds. Not sure if im allowed to ask in the "global" channel. This is why im here instead of asking in game.
I found one server with a populated starter area. Its the only decent pop pvp server. Expect to roll a random name generator name on this server.
Also theres a feeling that i dont really know which class to play. I seem to be unable to get a class overview as applied to endgame and on a pvp server. Ive noticed just about every new character is running around with daggers, is the pvp server just that, a bunch of assasins, swash bucklers and brigands? I decided to roll a wizard (or would warlock be more useful later or better in a ffa pvp enviroment?), but if the pvp server is full of rouge class gankers, i might rather choose a tank class (beserker or shadowknight if they arnt useless later on).
Any advice to these issues would be appreciated. Like i said, im in the mood for an epic quest/community based mmorpg. I dont care if theres pvp or not, however i prefer being in a ffa pvp enviroment. Any class suggestions (applied to being on the pvp server) or even suggestions to switch servers? Any advice to get EQ2 running optimal on a gtx260? A way for a free trial player to ask this stuff in game?
Thanks!
I think that you are trying to get the devs to address what is more of a community problem then a game problem. I would think even with a brand new server you would still end up with the same thing as what you got on the rest of them. The hardcore would form their same cliques and power level themselves to max level in a few weeks some new guilds and friendships would probably still happen and everyone else would be left out in the cold as they are now. This by no means is unique to eq2 eventually all mmos get to the point where trully new players become more of a rarity then the norm and if they either do not join up with several more people from the get go or somehow find a way to break into the existing community you are going to play a massively single player experience.
I wish that I could have found one of those friendly helpful guilds in eq2 but it never happened for me I don't blame to devs for that nor think it's an issue they can fix. I even tried to make a guild for the new and the homeless in eq2 when I inherited the guild that I have and all I got now is a one man guild composed of my alts. Absolutely no one on my server of oasis had any interest in leveling a guild and playing through the lower level content all the comments I ever got were along these lines.....
"Oh your not a raiding guild I'm not interested"
"you dont' already have a fully equipped guild house? I'm not interested"
"I only play with my wife...husband....girl/boyfriend....second cousin....mailman.....dog....I'm not interested"
So I'm at the point where I've given up on the game again since from the way it looks I'll have to play all the content alone which since I only have a few hours a week to play I'm ok with but then if I ever would get to "the endgame" I am completly locked out of the content since I don't already have every instance mastered even if I have never played it before and I don't have the gear or aa's specced out what the commmunity feels is the way the game should be played. This again is more of a community problem then a game one although you can blame the devs for the game mechanics that lead to this type of situation.
In the end everyone has the right to play the game as they see fit I'm not going to sit here and say "ok I've logged on now I demand to let into your guild or group" that's just silly but I would say there is definitely going to be a percentage of players who have the same type of experiences that I and seemingly several other posters have had and end up quiting after a short time and quite honestly I don't know how you could ever fix that because it comes down to just some random chance that I'll meet in game some people in the same situation who would be willing to band together to make our way in the game or finding one of those awesome friendly guilds that dole out plat and armor like candy to every new member they get which I have yet to encounter in any mmo not just eq2.
Part of the problem is having a segregated starting area like EQ2 and many of the newer games have gone to. In a game like EQ it was quite common for higher level chracters to hang out in the newbie starting areas to buff/heal/rez starting players. I also remember seeing crafters handing out gear to those just starting out. I know the idea behind the trial islands or starter zones is to cut down on gold sellers, but it really hurts the community when veteran players cannot interact with the new folk.
I just have a real good vision, that a new player server would work, EQ2 can send out e-mails, or cards in the mail, a small advertisement here as they had done so in the past. However this time it would be different, some vets would be helping the new players after all there not bad people, they just always had agendas they were trying to fulfill for the nights. You would see new hope, many casuals from the past would see a new lite, and raw new players will for the first time in a long time really feel welcome. It would be nice seeing new guilds pop up.
I would be back real fast, I'm far from an expert, but can help people get around, and so many others would do the same.
What would SOE have to loose. If its server time cost, all they would have to do is merge a few low pop servers, and they would have a freed up server. How can they not see something needs to be done, unless they are happy with just box sales.
yep i agree!check aika!very simple they put the rift right in the middle you cant avoid it lol everybody in their 20S(the mid lvl have to pass there so the player never feel alone wherever they are in the game be it lvl 50 or lvl 25!some might thing its silly .yep until you actually experience it then you think men this is actually brilliant no mather what your level is in aika unless the gaame is empty and dead you ll never feel alone for maps and maps and maps(week at a time ,)not gona happen because they have daily rift fight they have cs on a weekly basis witch make player move all over the map!
Couple of things.
The EQ2 engine does suck badly, its pretty up close but gets there by brute force. GPU power means next to nothing and outside of i5/i7 not many processors can put out the brute crunch needed. Yes, AoC, Aion, CO, WAR, LotRO... all look good and perform a boat ton better.
Guild Halls killed vets in starter areas, not the area themselves. The starter isles for FP and Qey are going away soon so it'll be Gorowyn, Neriak, Kelethin or Halas for noobs. Should be starting there anyway since its a better experience. Given you need those vet players to catapult you into the end game I'm not sure a noob server would result in happy people anyway. What they are due for is a server merge. During SF launch week, servers had 1-3 instances of the new zones. Now back to 1. When a server's entire pop can't fill an instance... time for merges. Then go ahead with the planned progression, rp, ruleset mod servers with the freed up hardware.
Seriously though, its same as other MMOs, get into an active guild, run dungeons for AA, bumb rush to 90 and use chrono to do what you missed. You can solo 1-90 in about a month casually. The hardcore can do it in under a week. This is especially true if you roll a class your guild needs up top.
for new players or those of lower level; the lack of people to group and level with to reach the populated level bracket of the game it does seem dead.
it doesnt matter if you have 10million max lvl players If those trying to work their way up to max lvl get discouraged by the lack of those to work with towards that goal. and lets face it EQ2 is not going to ever again see a big enough influx of new players to make leveling appealing/tolerable.
They need to make Solo leveling way faster or as the OP suggested open new servers where those new players can be a part of the momentum from the start.
yep !if you cant reach the good stuff before getting discouraged your dead
blizzard catched that!one big reason for cataclysm!blizzard wanted to attract new player !how you do this ?
the cataclysm way will permit them to bring in million of new player that would have skipped empty content lvling till lvl 70+and now probably more like level 80!
but its a bandaid !the problem will comeback! (later)!the aika way is better on the long run!yes its not the most polished some graphical error or graphic card maker dont support it whatever the reason it need polish (i can see under the hill in most map!)
but the fact of the mather is, 1 portal that is strategicly placed so all no mather where they are ,see it be it lvl 20 or lvl 60 is brilliant
it might be applied in different ways in the futur but this idea is here to stay in mmo!
main reason non of the veterans is low lvl, is that it is incredible fast to lvl to 80+ solo in eq2. even for new guys who knew about MMOs prior Ive seen go through it in 3-4 weeks, sure if you are into the journey, you need to server jump try find ppl who are intrested and try gather up on 1 server I guess. just hard to realize, since is rare to find a full group wanting to play the classes needed for a ok group setup, and have about the same game hours.
either way, ,you cant make ppl replay the game, I for one have more alts than I care think of, and no way Id play through it again...even if were awesome. but that just me ofc
already setted mind on another MMO, so flavoured suppose p
but really SOE shooting themself in the foot, they used to have an awesome game, then they turn it into something completely diffrent in the pursuit of Blizzard.
either way bottom line....5 yo game that now is way easy to solo lvl up in. easy to do the dungeons with 3-4 peeps if got the right classes, with all the new low lvl quest rewards.
Well Stagnant if you go back a few months on this forums you will find all sorts of information there is one good post called Most interesting class and several about what server to choose, I will dare to say that you most likely will NOT be happy on Nagafen as a new player. There are several good threads on the official forums too check them out. I would recommend that you roll a newbie in Gorywyn on 3 - 4 different servers, and see if you like any of them. Your tech problems are best answered on the official tech help forums.
Chi puo dir com'egli arde é in picciol fuoco.
He who can describe the flame does not burn.
Petrarch