But i started a good discussion over in /r/mmorpg about gear planned obsolescence. Since this game i consider very close to early EQOA and i am really looking forward to it, i figured it would be worth sharing.
This will probably get moved to Off Topic, but I'll reply anyway.
EQ certainly had some useful items here and there, but 95% of your gear had a direct statistical upgrade from classic to Kunark for all classes. The same is true of most expansions.
Clickable items are great, but I think you're overestimating a little bit. There are maybe 5-10 useful clickables from very early EQ that are still useful today, and that's 5-10 out of probably ten thousand or more pieces of equipment in the game. That is a fraction of a percent.
EQOA is an interesting beast, but at level 60 most characters were pretty similarly equipped. EQOA only ever had one expansion, so it didn't really have time to develop a gear treadmill. I have a feeling that if EQOA had stayed alive with yearly content launches, that itemization resets would have become standard as well.
Liav said:This will probably get moved to Off Topic, but I'll reply anyway.
EQ certainly had some useful items here and there, but 95% of your gear had a direct statistical upgrade from classic to Kunark for all classes. The same is true of most expansions.
Clickable items are great, but I think you're overestimating a little bit. There are maybe 5-10 useful clickables from very early EQ that are still useful today, and that's 5-10 out of probably ten thousand or more pieces of equipment in the game. That is a fraction of a percent.
EQOA is an interesting beast, but at level 60 most characters were pretty similarly equipped. EQOA only ever had one expansion, so it didn't really have time to develop a gear treadmill. I have a feeling that if EQOA had stayed alive with yearly content launches, that itemization resets would have become standard as well.
I don't know though, i mean..the game lasted 9 years and never became a gear treadmil. I can honestly say too that from day 1 to the last day that game always felt exciting and never really got boring. Even if there ever was more content launches, i still think it would have hada good chance of still have a lot of the end game loot being viable. You can always add content and new gear, without increasing the player level, item lvl or armor lvl and still have a game that can keep it's players entertained. The game actually did introduce a lot of new content believe it or not with different isles and zones, they just were never classified as "expansions".
EQOA lasted 9 years, but most of it was charity. That game rapidly became unprofitable to maintain.
EQOA is probably my favorite MMO that I've ever played, but I can't say that it is a sustainable model for a long term higher population playerbase. The endgame of EQOA for me was mostly constantly rolling alts, which is what a lot of people did. There was a very finite amount of progression compared to most games.
A few hundred people that are happy with such a game can't possibly bring enough revenue to make it work. While I'd love to see EQOA resurrected as a non-profit emulator project, that's about the only way such a game could ever work.
