Why, dangit?

[Silound]

Ok, 3 years ago, I started paying 10 bucks a month ot play EQ. My goal wasn't to be uber, or to be the best, just to have fun. I rationalied $10 a month for as many hours of fun as I can stand was a good deal. 2 years ago, tehy changed the fee. Now its 12 or 29 for 3 months. Ok, money isnt issue. However, several expansions were released. Fast forward to today. 5 expansions later for the start, an extra 15 levels, and tons of items/content. Here I am, 3 years later, with nothing really to show for it. The game, I realize, is progressing faster than I am, and I'm being left in the dust. And whats worse, the only way for me to progress, is to devote more time into the game than I already do (I put currently near 30 hours a week into the game). I wear sub-Velious quality gear overall, some old Hate stuff in there. And in 3 years, all I have for 180+ days of played on the bard alone, is 55 levels, 4 AA's, and a few tradeskills around teh 100-200 range. Is this supposed to be fair? Is this supposed to be entertainment? I feel myslf becomng less enchanted with the game, as I more and more realize that I have wasted 180+ days over 3 years of my life on this. But why? Is it too much to ask for something back? When Kunark came out, I vowed I would have my epic before the next expansion. When Velious came out, I sdid the same. Now here I am, waiting on teh 6th expansion, and no epic. I went on 30+ *successful* (meaning she dropped and the scale dropped too) Vox raids, countless failed ones, never got the white scale. Liquidated my gear on my cleric alt and a lot off the bard, finally bought it for 37k. I quit counting the same sort of Naggy raids after 25. And here I am, unable to produce enough cash to buy the Red scale, unable to afford new gear for either myself or my cleric (not that bard gear is easy to come by, the 'better for bards' stuff is nodrop), without my epic, and now even the price of a white scale is under 22k, as low as 19k. Red scale is still about 10k. So I put epic on sidetrack for a bit figuring, hey All I have is red scale and trak, and red scale is easy and not as expensive. So I leveled. Now I can't hit naggy, not that it matters anyway, since people merit scale and CoF to themselves just to sell anyway. My point now is, I'm not going anywhere, if anything, I'm degressing. So now, all that comes of hundreds of dollars and days of time....

Nothing

Silound

[Axterix EnObelix]

>>My goal wasn't to be uber, or to be the best, just to have fun. I rationalied $10 a month for as many hours of fun as I can stand was a good deal.

And that's still the truth of the game. Think about most anything else you could have spent that time on and it'd cost more and/or be just as pointless, although you might be in better shape because of it

You'll never "finish" EQ until you either set a goal and say that it is the finish line or you get bored and just declare it finished.

Now, your bard is 55. He can track, he can forage (although badly). In short, if you really wanted 10k, you have the level, the class, and the abilities to do it. You could go to Wakening Lands, for example, and kill panthers. Between panther skins, haze panther skins, and yew leaves, you can make 10k...if you want to. Or you could kill HGs. Or you could hang around in Gunthak and enjoy the gem drops. Or you could get groups in Veksar. It's all a matter of will and desire. The options are there.

Just beware the consequences. From the sound of it, you're getting tired of the game. If you force yourself to focus heavily on the epic, you might well get it, but it could also be the last bit to drive you from the game. But at least you might leave thinking you've "won".

As my sig says: it's up to you, what you do will decide your own fate.

Choose wisely.

[Sarenna]

I really know that feeling - recently in Europe they put an extra tax on our subscriptions so now it's 17.5 % more expensive - it hurts.

Last time I felt like that I took a break from the game - the break ended up 5months long - after 5 months I came back found my friends and guildmates had all missed me (that was really nice) and I'm having fun again. When it's not fun it's time for another break.

To be honest you get out the game what you want and what you give to it. I am probably more lucky than most - I'm in a guild that is part of an elemental planes capable alliance but on the other hand values real life highly so there is no pressure to be there. I have the best of both worlds - 0 pressure and to try the ele planes, but even then my targets, expectations, desires are not always met and I get disappointed - often that is because of me though not the game, not my guildmates / alliance partners just my own expectation management.

Looking back my epic I stressed so much about isn't the end of my life - as a chanter sos is replaced by sov - it's replaced now. I think you would find with time you'll feel the same. To get the best from EQ don't always set targets you can't achieve - you're set up for disappointment and only focus on the parts of the game you find fun - whatever other people think

Sarenna

[Cigarskunk]

Here's the ultimate question - did you have fun?

My highest level character is only 54 with a massive 3 AA points (go run speed 3 - woot!) and no epic either.

However, I've been having fun with the game - it's helped me fill many an hour and saved me quite a bit of RL cash when I needed to save money.

Thanks to EQ, even though my friends and brother are now quite the distance away, we can all still stay in touch with each other and keep up our old tradition of a regular night of RPG/board gaming.

Now, admittedly, I've been a bit more aggressive overall and do feel that I've accomplished a few things, but even then, what I've acheived is not considered a real acheivement by the bulk of the EQ community anyway, so even then it's not as if I've got bragging rights or can say that I'm close to "winning" the game.

Sure, I've got unsatisfied goals, but I've also got completed goals - I've strived for many things in EQ - some small things have been completed, others are undone, some big things are also completed, yet others are also still in the works.

What it ultimately comes down to is not sweating the big or the small stuff - there's tons of things to do in this game - forget the epic for the moment and stick with your guild and do something else.

You're a level 55 bard - go on some ToV raids with your guild, work the pop planes for some levels and AA, just work on upgrading your gear and your levels - as those improve then you can farm better items to save up the plat for your dragon scales and eventually organise any other raids you need to do with your guild to get your epic.

[Silound]

Its not that I set targets too high, these have been goals for along time, and I've had ample time and chance to work them, they just seem to keep moving out of my reach. And of course there are the people who farm etc and sell stuff just to sell it, and how am I supposed to compete with that for cash/items? (Point there is red scale, its farmed to hell, and about the only chance is if a friend is spawning Ragefire he might drop one) I took up tradeskills with the idea that that was something easy I can do to amuse myself, and in truth it is. As for cash, I do put forth hours of farming and gathering, but where the cash goes is beyond me, since I rarely buy anything related to tradeskills or gear. My epic goal was just an example, I have others, many of which before have been completed. But perhps its really the server I play on. Prexus isn't the most economically friendly server...

Silound

[Lilosh]

Rather then try to to console or comfort you, or understand it, My first instict is to provide a solution. Some have said it's the nature of being male.

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=3226

Now, it appears to me that there are FOUR mobs in the game that drop what you need.

One, Nagafen, would port you out of the room when you tried to fight him. You've tried to get the scale from Naggy, and not had luck. So we move on.

Ragefire, a triggered spawn for the cleric epic, is a rare shot. Takes a long time toi get the shards to summon him, and It's iffy.

Talendor, however, might not be a bad idea. I know we threw together a pickup raid in my small alliance of levels 40-60. Took down Goreanon in the Dreadlands, who (As far as I know), is a comparable target.

The last one, Nortlav, I have never heard of. If you desire, you might do some research, and lead a raid into The Hole to pry a scale from his cold, dead, body.

Hopefully, this will be of some help.

-Lilosh

[Silound]

Thanks for going that far. I've been around the block with all but Talendor, seeing as hes DOA on Prexus. I decided rather than stress it too much, I'll take a rbeak from EQ, let the last 2-3 months of paid time run out, and if I feel like playing after w hile, I'll get back into it. Thanks guys

Sil

[Tinile]

Nortlav is at the end of the Hole and he can drop any of the dragon scales needed for any of the epics.

It does sound like you need an EQ vacation. Take a couple weeks off, and stay away until you feel happy about the thought of playing. EQ is a game. There are many ways to play it. None of them are wrong (barring violating rules/laws/etc). As a 55 bard you can swarm kite your way to lots of loots and irritate others at the same time!

Just remember, don't stress an epic. If it takes 2-3 years to get it, enjoy it when you get it. I sat on my last piece for about a year. Epics are nice, but certainly not worth stressing yourself out in RL.

[Unidin]

I stressed lashed out, and got pissed about my epic.

Then after about 2 months of having it, I ended up bagging it. I understand how good the bard epic is. My guild's elemental bards still use it. The thing is, it's not the world. It helps but you can still be a good bard without it. BTW...swarm kiting is ALOT of fun...I'd check it out, as the adrenaline rush is amazing.

[Moraganth]

Talendor is actually easier than Gore by a bit. He doesn't dispell (which is so sweet), so you're looking at just a big heavy hitter. His ae breath is a somewhat nasty dot, but he's more doable that Gore by quite a bit. The big thing with all the kunark dragons is their fear, which is a step up from Vox's. 2 groups at 60 can do him without deaths, barrng all the melee don't succumb to the fear first time it hits... well... and you have more than one cleric... and it's not 4 am and everyone is half asleep....(not that that happened to us once /sigh).

It does sound like yah got the blaughs.. i know i've been off and on for a couple months feeling that way. Sometimes a small break is in order.

[Reflan]

You've made some extremely bad choices. Blame yourself.

The truth is often just that harsh. That doesn't make it any less true, though, unfortunately. Nobody is protected from the consequences of their decisions, no matter how smart or earnest or whatever they are. You should have been able to see this coming -- and easily, too.

180 days played and 55 with four AA's? Dozens of dragon raids?

Let me tell you the harsh truth of my experience, much of it culled from the horrible experience of others, including dear friends who have left the game.

You have chosen the path of MOST resistance. How could you possibly expect that you wouldn't feel the grief of it?

A great many friends of mine have stayed 52 for long periods of time to get their bard scale or pally scale or whatever. What's wrong with that? Let me slam it into your skull.

Staying low level(and 52 was low level years ago; 52 or even 55 darn sure is pointlessly low now) just to do dragon raids means you are a SLAVe to them, pure and simple. Always hoping, hoping.... Will the raid leader keep the scale for himself? Nah, that will never happen. What if the raid leader isn't even of the class to use the scale -- will he keep it anyway? No, of course not. Well, at least there's a chance at, say, a sweet cloak of flames, right? The raid leader won't pass that out to his friends or ninja it for himself, will he? Impossible!!! Thanks for your help at the raid though.

Meanwhile, your friends pass you by - at least the ones who are smarter than you are. They wind up leveling, which gives them opportunities to make vastly more money than you are capable of making at 52, and in pretty short order. If you were with them, you could simply BUY your scale or your COF. But you aren't, and you won't, will you? Because you want to do it your way. And hope. And rely on the kindness of strangers, an EQ Blanche Du Bois.

Who's to blame for your having nothing? Don't even blame the greedy and duplicitous raid leaders. Not even the very worst of them. Blame yourself. You put yourself in a position to be taken advantage of. Given the clear choice between doing things the easy way and the hard way, you stubbornly chose the hard way, and waited for the profits to roll in. Well, they rolled in, didn't they? After two dozen dragon raids, they've rolled in, in spades. You've gotten just what you wished for -- screwed. Rid of excess time you didn't know how to handle intelligently, so you just threw it into the grinder until it turned into dust.

Know what? I have a number of friends who did things just like you, but didn't lose -- they won! And what happened? They were so exhausted and disgusted by all the hard work and self-denial necessary to go on those 25 darn dragon raids that once they got their scale they quit the game! Whew! They FINALLY accomplished a cherished goal, and gave themselves the rocket-powered slide out of the game they were hoping for all along. Their ridiculous stubborness made them so incredibly sick of the game(sick of their own bad choices in the game, that is) that they COULD NOT WAIT to get the heck out of EQ once the valve was turned and all the pressure was released on their EQ sphincter of accomplishment. Whew, what a relieeeeeeef! It took all their heart and soul just to hang on one more day at a time to finally accomplish their goal of getting their darn scale while abandoning their friends and everything else in the entire game, and after that ordeal, they could not WAIT to get rid of EQ forever.

A number of my friends quit the VERY DAY they got their epics! (I've been playing a long time now, seen this a few times.)

Think about that.

Is that an achievement? Is that how you would really choose to define recreation, leisure, and fun in a game?

If so, is it even close to fair to blame the results for the boredom and frustration, and loneliness as all your friends outlevel you and leave you behind, the disappointment as each raid either results in nothing or your prize going to someone else and in any case takes HOURS and hours of wasted time -- on the game? Or isn't it much more fair to say that you made an extraordinarily stubborn and bad decision that you really should have known, and almost certainly did, from the outset was an exceptionally bad decision? Wasn't the decision to absolutely refuse to buy your scale or COF or whatever it might be sometime in the future - who knows and WHO CARES when -- a form of willfullness, spiting the gods, as it were?

You know for sure there are easier ways to do things. You have seen others do it. You know of still more who have done it. The bard epic is an exceptionally good one, but leveling can buy a bard his scale just like it can buy anyone else their scale, or COF, or what have you. Two of the richest people I know are bards; they can make money at least as well as anyone else. A 60 or 65 bard is a very strong character and well able to make decent plat.

As long as they play the game and dont' sit stubbornly on the sidelines, refusing to improve.

I know the above probably sounds quite harsh, but I have seen wonderful friends get themselves into the same trap you have, and justify it with every variation of the replies that this post may well generate. I miss them! Some won their scale, some lost. So many of BOTH quit the game unnecessarily, and went out thinking what a cold, cruel world it is.

The reality of the game is what it is. Refusing to adapt is not a worthwhile strategy. How could you expect to take the obviously least intelligent strategy and come out on top? Freud said gamblers want to prove they are beloved by God. Yet, the bible says Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Not that I'm religious in the first place, but you see where I'm going on this? Don't beg fate to screw you in places not fit for such activities and you won't end up regretting dropping the soap.

Level. Buy your darn scale. Don't be stubborn and expect a pay-off. Don't put yourself into situations tailor-made for grief, frustration, and boredom and expect happiness. What's that saying -- a zealot is one who loses sight of his goals but redoubles his efforts. 25 dragon raids? I'm not sure you should have gone on more than one.

Try baking. You'll probably be able to buy your scale shortly.

For heaven's sake, forget the AA. Get some levels and earn 1000 or 2000 plat an hour as a high level, and you will be able to afford your scale in a week, not in 3 years.

Again I apologize for how harsh this might have sounded, but I am tired of losing EQ friends and guildies to foolish, self-destructive decisions, the obviously lousy results of which anyone of sound mind could have seen coming like a freight train a thousand mile away.

[Silound]

Much as it hurt, you have a quite valid point, and drove in the run with that one. The only thing that doesn't quite cut was raid leaders keeping thigns. Those were raids I avoided. I actually lost all 30+ rolls on the white scale, once when there was only one other bard. I think I'm just grumpy lately. Gotten sick of soloing goos/flies in PoD or trees/ravens/spiders in PoN. I need some friendly groupage. Hope the Velks revamp is nice, I might group there again.

Silound
Retired Smith and Troubadour of Prexus

[Tinile]

Just out of curiosity, why didn't you host your own dragon raid and default the scale to yourself? I've seen that done a lot, as long as it's known beforehand.

[Silound]

I have no leadership skills in game. In RL, I have training and things I can rely on to lead successfuly, but in game, its really a matter of how much confidence I can inspire and how well peopel will listen. With pickup raids, that's a give no-no, at least on Prexus.

Sil
Retired Smith and Troubadour of Prexus

[Lilosh]

Reflan, I gotta hand it to you.

You may not have sugar coated it , but that was some **** solid advice you gave.

Apparently , it worked too, since Silound seems to have taken it to heart. Excellently phrased.


-Lilosh