Red99 Stimulus Plan (some constructive feedback)

[hotstud]

Here's the sad reality guys...

Almost everyone who played EQ before, currently has a life. Jobs, children, relationships, and so on. That doesn't leave much room for MMORPGs.

There's no adjustments that can be made to exp or anything about the servers that will increase population.

The only way to increase population is proper advertising and marketing of Project 1999. There are literally millions of people out there looking for free video games and MMOs specifically. Stop trying to draw EQ players, that has already been tapped, instead focusing on gamers in general who may have never even heard of EQ but want free games to play.

There is one major problem between this huge market of potential players and Project 1999.

Project 1999 does not have the rights to distribute the client, they have to tell you to go find it yourself. The average person is not going to think, "Hmm.. maybe I'll try this game out.. Oh, it says I need to buy it? I'll go download it instead..."

The average person is going to think, "Hmm.. maybe I'll try this game out.. Oh, it says I need to buy it? *clicks back button and goes to the other 10,000,000,000 free games available where you can click play and it just works*"

I've said this before and I'll say it again...

The only way to increase population is if someone not associated with P99 creates a website where you can download the client or at least link directly to a torrent, preferably a custom created torrent for an EQ install that already has the required changes and launcher preinstalled, and then advertises that website instead of project1999.org. This creates a legal buffer between Project 1999 and the customer which allows the "one click" option to get people started here.

No one who hasn't heard of EQ wants to download a torrent, download two patches, extract them into the install directory after completing the install, create an EQEmu forum account, create an EQEmu login account, edit the host file, and then create a shortcut with a -patchme option in it. Are you fucking kidding me?

Resolving this down to clicking a download link and extracting an EverQuest folder that has all required changes and the P99 launcher that automatically updates the required files and then a SINGLE account signup process and then doing some basic advertising like posting a link on gaming forums would cause the population to skyrocket.

[Danger]

Originally Posted by hotstud [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Here's the sad reality guys...

Almost everyone who played EQ before, currently has a life. Jobs, children, relationships, and so on. That doesn't leave much room for MMORPGs.

There's no adjustments that can be made to exp or anything about the servers that will increase population.

The only way to increase population is proper advertising and marketing of Project 1999. There are literally millions of people out there looking for free video games and MMOs specifically. Stop trying to draw EQ players, that has already been tapped, instead focusing on gamers in general who may have never even heard of EQ but want free games to play.

There is one major problem between this huge market of potential players and Project 1999.

Project 1999 does not have the rights to distribute the client, they have to tell you to go find it yourself. The average person is not going to think, "Hmm.. maybe I'll try this game out.. Oh, it says I need to buy it? I'll go download it instead..."

The average person is going to think, "Hmm.. maybe I'll try this game out.. Oh, it says I need to buy it? *clicks back button and goes to the other 10,000,000,000 free games available where you can click play and it just works*"

I've said this before and I'll say it again...

The only way to increase population is if someone not associated with P99 creates a website where you can download the client or at least link directly to a torrent, preferably a custom created torrent for an EQ install that already has the required changes and launcher preinstalled, and then advertises that website instead of project1999.org. This creates a legal buffer between Project 1999 and the customer which allows the "one click" option to get people started here.

No one who hasn't heard of EQ wants to download a torrent, download two patches, extract them into the install directory after completing the install, create an EQEmu forum account, create an EQEmu login account, edit the host file, and then create a shortcut with a -patchme option in it. Are you fucking kidding me?

Resolving this down to clicking a download link and extracting an EverQuest folder that has all required changes and the P99 launcher that automatically updates the required files and then a SINGLE account signup process and then doing some basic advertising like posting a link on gaming forums would cause the population to skyrocket.

[inimegalg]

Originally Posted by hotstud [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Here's the sad reality guys...

Almost everyone who played EQ before, currently has a life. Jobs, children, relationships, and so on. That doesn't leave much room for MMORPGs.

Lol I would have never guessed that with some of the play time I seen on the server

[Potus]

Originally Posted by hotstud [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

There's no adjustments that can be made to exp or anything about the servers that will increase population.

Have you read the thread? It's literally full of people saying they'd be able to play if the server reduced grinding/upped the exp rate.

[hotstud]

Originally Posted by Potus [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Have you read the thread? It's literally full of people saying they'd be able to play if the server reduced grinding/upped the exp rate.

Oh you mean this thread that has all of 91 posts in it with the majority of those by the same people? Yeah, I don't think increasing the population by even 100 people would make much of a difference. People don't play 24 hours a day. I'm guessing there is something like 10,000 accounts for R99 which gives us our average 300 pop size.

I want to see an online population of 1,000+ like EQ is supposed to have. Changing server rules is never going to get us there.

In fact, I would guess that increasing exp rate would actually harm population in the longterm. People who play all the time will leave because casuals will be clogging up all their camps and raid mobs, people who play casually will leave when they reach 50 quickly and realize there is nothing left to do now but fight over raid content which requires hours on end to actually accomplish anything, and everyone else won't be as attached to their character when it takes so little effort to hit 50. If people aren't having enough fun before hitting 50 to keep playing the solution isn't to make it easier to hit 50.

Server population is going down specifically because server population is too low. It's a vicious cycle that is going to leave this server with less than 20 people playing on it within the next 3-6 months. I haven't played in the last week after grinding to 35 because it is clear to me that this server is dying and it's not worth putting in the time.

All you have to do is ask yourself why there isn't even an auction zone that provides a central hub of activity on this server and you have your answer why the server is dying. The population is too low for it to be worth it. PvP at the bank in the auction zone and so on were always hallmarks of EQ PvP and they are 100% absent here.

Like I said, the only way to increase population is making the game more accessible to people who want to play a free MMO and then doing some basic advertising. Anything else is rearranging deck chairs on the titanic. It doesn't matter if some change you make results in 50, 100, or even 200 more people being on at any given time. PvP servers need closer to 1,000 online at a time for them to be enjoyable.

I for one have quit playing because I'm fucking sick of seeing the same fucking people every time I login and everywhere I go. I mean honestly I probably know more than half the people online at a time. I don't want to login and see the same fucking people at the same camps every single time. There is nothing happening on this "PvP" server except a bunch of people grinding experience thinking that getting to 50 is going to somehow make the PvP fun and a bunch of people complaining that the experience grind is too slow and needs to be increased to save the population. There is no auction zone to go hang out in, there is no guild battles going on, not a fucking thing is happening on this server except people grinding experience with blinders on to the reality that this is a blue server with PvP enabled due to the low population which will only be increased by making the server accessible and advertising it.

[Potus]

Originally Posted by hotstud [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Oh you mean this thread that has all of 91 posts in it with the majority of those by the same people? Yeah, I don't think increasing the population by even 100 people would make much of a difference.

Oh ok, so instead of going after people who are stating they want to play the server if the exp rate was increased, you want to instead:

1. Have another website warez the EQ client and put the P99 code on it, exposing themselves to the legal wrath of Sony
2. Then magically scrounge up money to advertise to people who play free MMOs hoping they'd come and play a 10 year old game they've probably never heard of
3.
4. Profit

Great idea.

[hotstud]

Originally Posted by Potus [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Oh ok, so instead of going after people who are stating they want to play the server if the exp rate was increased, you want to instead:

1. Have another website warez the EQ client and put the P99 code on it, exposing themselves to the legal wrath of Sony
2. Then magically scrounge up money to advertise to people who play free MMOs hoping they'd come and play a 10 year old game they've probably never heard of
3.
4. Profit

Great idea.

Increasing the exp rate will not only attract players it will also cause others to quit.

1. They don't have to put the client on the site, only link directly to it, which is not illegal. It's simply overly risky for P99 but wouldn't be for someone not associated with the project.
2. No, I suggest that Project 1999 get listed on the many sites that have listings of free MMORPGs. It doesn't cost anything. I would also suggest a volunteer workforce here that is dedicated to promoting the server by posting on gaming forums, etc.

People here just want their specific idea of EQ PvP. They want item loot, they want no level range, exp bonus, blah blah blah. Wake me up when more than 300 people are even playing at a time and maybe then it will be worth discussing changes that have already proven to be less popular than EQ PvP already was. RZ wasn't as popular as VZ/TZ because it had item loot, SZ wasn't as popular as RZ because of no level range and whatever else it had.

I can guarantee you that in the long run increasing the exp rate will destroy the population here. You're still talking about trying to attract maybe 1-200 people which will result in an "online" population increase of like 20-30 if you're lucky. It's a total fucking joke, give it up.

Fuck if I care though, I'm already done playing here. Go ahead and double the exp rate, add item loot, and everything else that will turn this into VZTZ 2.0 complete with its 20 player population.