Quote:
Originally Posted by Daldaen
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EPs were a great idea though, atleast all of them except PoAir 1.0. They gave elite-cutting edge raiders a playground to get the best exp, the best groupable drops, the best tradeskill drops and access to the final pieces of some long-chain quests. As well as some solid raids to farm + the 4 elemental gods (some of the best, mechanically speaking, raids to grace EQ).
VP in Kunark, ST in Velious and VT in Luclin all were crappy cause they were raid only. EPs allowed some exclusivity to them while also allowing groups to occur there.
Tl;dr - PoP best expansion ever.
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I could not disagree with this more. The EPs elaborated and perfected the premanent separation of EQ players into larger population of casual scum who might maybe get a few content crumbs and a minority of privileged players who got to play the game that everybody payed equally to play. It was this divide in the player population that led inevitably to EQ's decline. Fewer and fewer players found enough interesting about the game to keep paying a subscription. When you're effectively locked out of vast swaths of content, why would you pay to continue developing and elaborating that content?
Quite a few casual and/or RP players could see where EQ was headed once they got a good look at Velious. Many of my friends, both RL and those I had made in-game, bailed on EQ early in Velious. More left early in Luclin, most of the remainder bailed as soon as it became clear how PoP content worked. Amongst gamers who were not obsessed with ordering their real lives around high-end EQ raiding, PoP sucked ginormous necrotic donkey balls for exactly the reason you are applauding it.
PoK & PoK books were stupid, but they're not why PoP sucked. PoP sucked because it offered next to nothing to the overwhelming majority of the players who paid for its development. Velious prepared the stake, Luclin held the stake in place and handed up the mallet, and PoP struck the killing blow, driving the stake mercilessly into heart of EQ, killing the greatness of the game for all time.