I jumped in just this week, and after the initial "hey, this is cool to be back" I spent most of my time chatting in General to catch up. Mercenaries, greatly increased experience gains (can max a character to level 100 in 4 days if you're keen), player quests that offer amazing gear reward and XP, instant travel everywhere via new veteran items, just totally outlandish item mods and augments and ... it was all too much. Everyone solos or molos and most of the game is an empty wasteland. EQ was always about difficulty, rewards that had to be really earned, and grouping (and guilds) i.e. the game forced you into community in a good way. The new EQ has utterly lost all that.
I spent the next few hours in chat reminiscing with some really old school EQ players about the pre-Luclin days of EQ. Then I realized, I really should be playing p1999. So here I am. And by the way, the Velious style UI is just awesomely minimalist and elegant compared to all the bloated nonsense that went on after it. I always missed it, and now I don't have to.
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