What are you looking for in a server?

[NostalgiaEQ]

Originally Posted by ChaosSlayerZ

I agree. EQ frame was borrowed heavily from DnD, but in DnD your group is ALWAYS with you at the play table. So: there was no soloing, and your friends were always tried their best to get you rezzed ASAP.

Dancando, this is the reason I want to discuss things. I didn't play DnD so this insight is particularly valuable. This isn't about me wanting to use the eq engine to make my own game or to worship the released game as god and unchangeable, this is about picking eq back up after launch with the mindset of 1. no expansions 2. tweaking and smoothing out the experience to increase fun and immersion levels as well as cooperation but also making solo possible and a focus on the journey rather than the destination 3. attracting a new generation of players. 4. Non-profit open source mentality. I have never surpassed lvl 27 in eq and I started playing in 1999 as a 13 yo so I have had these memories of classic eq experience brewing in my mind for over half of my life and I feel like I can take up the mantle that was lost to the hands of corporate execs at Sony. It will take me a while to ramp up and acquire the skills I need but I'm hopeful I will be able to produce something exciting.

[DanCanDo]

Originally Posted by NostalgiaEQ

focus on the journey rather than the destination 3. attracting a new generation of players.

I never played DnD either, as matter of fact, I never became interested in any
type of game like that until I was introduced to EQ in 2003. I was all FPS before
that.
After I started playing, while many players were focusing on that "destination",
I was having a blast enjoying the journey. But the only problem was the fact
that I jumped on board at a time in EQ when the "solo boxing" player was
becoming more popular. The solid raiding guilds would not even let you in unless
you were x-level with x-aa's
Progessing was difficult, so while you were busy trying to improve your toon
enough, the rest got too far ahead. So when you're ready to do PoTime, the
raid guilds have no interest. By the time I got my war to 65, there was 2
more expansions brought out.
But right now, something that is even more common on these servers, is that
solo boxer focusing on the destination.
I have a few players that are actually taking their time but nobody grouping
yet. opportunities were there, but no interest. Everyone doing their own
thing.

[NostalgiaEQ]

Hmm good observations. That "state of the game" 2003 eq with always playing catch up sounds like hell. I'm glad I was saved from experiencing that. Well I kind of did in a mobile MMO. That is exactly the opposite of what I want to achieve, the size of my release game will never change. Mabye new parallel content zones will be added if population exceeds like 3000 lol. But ya as far as the solo mentality, it is really hard to avoid that. Unless you only want to log in with your friends and never on your own, everyone is going to end up different levels. This is how the mmo differs from DnD. The way the mmo gets around this is large amounts of players so there are always other people your level even if they aren't your original friends. This is obvious but I think it is valuable to think of it like that.

If there is one thing to learn from P99 it is the key to success is advertising, advertising, advertising. The amount of youtube videos and articles with "Project 1999" in the title are astounding.

Another way around this is to scrap levels entirely or make them much less consequential so everyone can play with everyone. Solo friendly leveling and focusing on endgame is another way to achieve this so everyone plays together once they reach endgame. The original game that inspired mmo's was ultima underworld, the "endgame" was when you finally left the dungeon but then the game was over.

So anyway I don't really know the right way forward but for now I think what EQ did best was the journey so my server will be all about that journey but when I make actual games in the future (from scratch using a commercial engine) I may do things a little differently and make it so a "max level" character is twice as strong as a lvl 1 so they can play together from the beginning and focus more on parallel content rather than vertical progression.

To make a popping EQ server focused on the journey requires a large playerbase and thus requires lots of advertising.