I think it's important to understand that while it is the twilight of EQ2's initial release, the game is actually well-poised for its first expansion and beyond. Remember how little content there was in EQ1 when it was only a year old?
The reason people kept playing that game, then, was because there was nothing else. Now, there are a lot of options with the promise of more in the future.
Unfortunately, this has hurt all MMOs. More people are playing MMOs now than ever before but each individual game has a smaller share of that than Everquest did, originally. In short, the hay-day of EQ1 is over and it will never return.
SOE is still in a bit of denial over this when it comes to EQ2. They accepted it in EQ1 and merged the servers to accomodate change. Their highest hopes for EQ2 will likely never be realized though. Neither will WoW's - nor Vanguard's. Nor any of the players who gripe about how bad they think EQ2 is and move to WoW. I bet if you surveyed those players, most of them end up quitting MMOs altogether or perpetually hopping from one MMO to another because of how 'bad' each of them are. But, as for the companies, they need to realize that they'll never again have 100% of the market share (or even close to that) even if their game really is better than all of the others.
I agree with the poster who said that EQ is for the hardcore gamer and EQ2 is for the more casual player. In its current state, this is true. However, EQ2 is going to see a LOT of new content coming in - remember that Naggy and Vox were the ONLY raid mobs in EQ1 a year from release. EQ2 has already gone way beyond that. Expect the expansions to bring even more. Sure, raiding is limited to 24 people but that doesn't mean raiding won't improve. It will. It'll just take some time - just like it did in EQ1.
IMPO, SOE has to do two things to really ensure the long-term success of EQ2.
1. provide a guild-merger option. It was an honest mistake, but automating the guild creation process has turned out to be the stupidest thing SOE ever did. Everyone is guilded and recruitment is all but impossible. Your only option is to poach from other guilds. At this point, the least SOE can do is provide a merge option so that guilds can do it openly and honestly by discussing it with one another.
2. (and this is the biggie) - STOP MAKING MORE SERVERS! IMO, the game is too small as it is. Sure it's nice to have less competition for quest mobs but you need people to recruit into your guild, you need people to group with.. you need people to raid with. You just plain need people. I'm on Permafrost, one of the most populated servers, and it amazes me that occasionally, late at night (say 4am EST) not one person of any level is LFG. That's astounding - and it would have never happened in EQ1.
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