Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormhowl
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Cats on the Moon was the beginning of the end; that much is obvious from step one, when the expansion was named "Shadows of Luclin" (SoL = Shit outta Luck).
AAs, the Bazaar, The Nexus, and the updated graphics all killed the game. Maybe many of us were too young for it to have realized it at the time, but looking back I think many of us can see that this was the expansion, not PoP, that killed the game, because it killed the community by reducing the reliance on Druids/Wizards for ports and eliminated the need to interact with people to trade. Things like AAs, which added never ending progression at 60 and created a schism between fresh 60s and veterans, and the updated graphics engine which forced many people to upgrade their comps when previously there was not a need for such a thing, only added insult to injury.
Even if everything was left as is; new zones with one or two connecting points (e.g., only allowing travel to Luclin via the Dreadlands spires where the Combine originally left from), the graphics engine was left alone, AAs weren't added, Shadow Haven wasn't some "one stop shop" for all your basic needs, and the Bazaar was absolutely obliterated from all memory, I still think Luclin was an absurd expansion. How many of us can actually pronounce the names of many of the higher end monsters? How many felt this diverged from both lore (the combine empire was supposed to be long gone, was it not?) and common fantasy archetypes?
Game would've been fine if we expanded some of Odus, Antonica, and Faydwer (look at a Kunark-era world map; notice a lot of places that were never in the game until like the 12th expansion?) and if they added Kerras as a playable race starting on the island west of Toxxulia.
There, I discussed. :P
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I don't think it was AAs, the Bazaar, the Nexus and least of all, the updated graphics that killed the game. I will agree that Bazaar and Nexus contributed towards lessening the need for social interraction, which granted, is important, but it wasn't the death knell IMO. I will also agree that the advent of AAs, though in many respects a very positive thing, did somewhat contribute to creating a schism in the player base, which is an important point (see below).
Competition from other games and schism in the player base was the tag team that brought the game to it's knees IMO. However, I think the schism between Keyed vs Non-keyed, heavy raiders vs. light or non raiders, was an even worse schism than the one mentioned above. What ended up happening is that casuals - even avid playing casuals (i.e. light or non-raiding types) had to pay for content they would never see, and do without gear they would never get. Because the heavy raiders had such good gear, successive new expansions got more and more difficult for the "casual" type player.
Since EQ2 and WoW both were completing for the same player base, and since SOE was pissing off at least half their remaining dedicated EQ1 players because of the schism, EQ1 took heavy hits.
Having said all that, "Cats on the Moon" was certainly anti-thematic and troubling to many of the old vets at the time. But we played on, most of us. To me, "Cats on the Moon" is more of a symptom than a cause of the havoc that SOE wrought in EQ1. At best it is cluelessly egregious, simply ignoring the fantasy theme. At worst, it showed just how willing SOE was to thumb their collective noses at the very foundations of the game. I think it was a bit of both. A combination of simple stupidity and hubris that ended up being repeated in many ways as the years wore on.
They truly "ruined their own lands".