So what happened in luclin-pop?

[fastboy21]

Nothing super new to add to a 15 year old conversation...

I'd say, in hindsight, that Luclin/PoP in some ways were the verdict of the decision the devs committed to taking the game: EQ became about pushing the end game content and emphasizing raid forces that needed to devote their existence to gearing up through tiered levels of available gear before moving on to the next rung of content...

Its true that Velious was also like this, but in Velious there was still a spirit of EQ that existed for most of the server that the game was about more than just replacing armor_piece_1 with armor_piece_2 ad infinum. The community was still exploring the game and enjoying the world.

Don't get me wrong, the raid content in those expansions (lucin and pop) was fun...it was what the raiders who had wet their teeth in kunark and velious had wanted EQ to be. The devs gave it to them. And the content was epic, better designed, and fun.

The tipping point, however, was crossed. And the mudflation geni was unleashed forever from its bottle. In hindsight, EQ should have stay small and focused on enhancing the world that already existed, i.e. "Sandbox" style mmo.

Luclin is actually my favorite expansion to play in...but it was entirely absorbed in raiding. Guild groups took on new meaning as you needed to group off raid time to build AA points, farm key bits, etc. It was the beginning of EQ just being about my guild and the raid schedule...instead of about the world we were in.