Back in EverQuest on Ragefire. Again.

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Iksar Monk on Ragefire

Despite having a really hard time with giving Daybreak my money, I was pulled back into EverQuest again. I took a 2 month break from the “progression” server took a few turns for the worse. Daybreak botched the whole poll and actual “progression” part when they basically pushed Kunark out the door right away despite being voted against by the majority. They also straight up BS’d the whole “We can’t change pets” then went and changed pets while leaving much of the other “We can’t change” things alone.

Now they’re back to a 6 month cycle again — for who knows how long — and apparently they’re thinking about bringing in a new server type. At the end of July, Daybreak’s producer letter stated they were looking into doing a server where multiboxing on one computer would be blocked. That’s music to my ears. Count me in! Supposedly it’s slated for sometime in December or “Winter” or something horribly vague, but I can enjoy Ragefire until that happens — if it does.

I was pulled back in to play Iksars with my friend, Damage. He is playing an Iksar Shaman and I am going for a Monk once again. I was luckily able to toss a few plat over thanks to the shared bank, and right now I’m enjoying being an absolute beast with a smoldering brand and a mudman enforcer. I’m also sporting a full set of Wu’s armor which is incredible.

So while I’m giving Daybreak my money, and hating myself for it, I simply love EverQuest too much. Already, in only a few hours back, I am enjoying myself. It’s just my go-to game. Anyone else still on Ragefire server?

  • I think DBG are doing a great job in general. SOE has always been my favorite MMO developer and I think the change to new ownership has, by and large, been a significant improvement. Most of the really serious bad decisions of the past (PSS1 chief among them) I would put firmly at the door of either Sony’s higher management or John Smedley himself (although I’m not a Smed-hater by any means). The NGE, of course, was primarily instigated by LuasArts although the botched implementation may well have fallen to Smed and the SOE management of the time.

    The issues over managing the “progression” of Ragefire and Lockjaw come down to the difficulty of balancing the expectations and needs of a fractured and difficult customer base. The job must be something like managing a recreation center, where a range of customers pay to come through the door but expect a variety of services that compete directly with each other for limited space and resources. It’s not like selling a product that customers either choose or don’t choose. Those six-boxers are customers just like you are – except they spend six times as much as you do and stick around a lot more than you do. If your business depended on it, who would you cater to first?

    In retrospect a single-character server might have been a good option to go with in addition to the regular server from the start but hindsight is always 20/20. At the time no-one really thought they’d even need two servers.

  • I actually jumped onto Lockjaw recently with a couple friends. My favorite is troll beastlord, but since that class isn’t unlocked yet, I’m playing a halfling rogue for now. Made the long trek out to greater faydark to group with my friends playing elves. No deaths and I only fell off the docks once — I call that a success!

    I’m really looking forward to the no-box server too. Will definitely be starting over there once it’s out.

  • I quit when DBG promised 6 months between unlocks, then had an incredibly shady early vote and added up two lesser choices to jump to Kunark early. They said you could move to Lockjaw, where they’d uphold their initial promise of 6 months between expansions, but I knew they were completely full of shit at that point and bailed. Seeing Lockjaw now go to Kunark early puts a smile on my face, knowing I made the right choice after only losing the cost of 1 month’s subscription.

  • I played heavily for the first couple months on Ragefire but ultimately just couldn’t stomach the boxing and bad apples. DBG’s hands-off approach to policing bad behavior ruined it for me. The community in the game is just so much different than what I remember back in the day, though perhaps I just choose to remember the good stuff.

    DBG’s handling of it all really left a bad taste in my mouth. I’m voting with my wallet and won’t give anymore money to DBG unless they come out with something truly compelling. I have some kronos on my account but still can’t be bothered.

  • I find their shady voting and unlocking very interesting, but unexplainable. They must have some sort of master trove of data that says they can make more money this way. Because, let’s be serious, they aren’t a charity.

    But why would a server who attracts hard core, old skool players need to unlock faster, if at all? It’s a mystery. Perhaps they have a bunch playing these servers who are newer. But then you just have to goggle about why and where they came from.

  • Or perhaps the hard core, old skool folks want it all unlocked tonight. Which makes me go hrmm some more. Although this would reconcile with my basic belief that most gamers don’t know what’s good for them. They all want the sword of doom dropping off every trash mob.

  • @Sanz: My hate for how they’ve run the polls runs deep. I totally agree.

    @Misaligned: I hear ya. Same reasons I quit 2 months ago.

    @Jenks: Amen again. Now they’re both at 6 months again. So right now we’re looking at March 2016 for Velious on Ragefire. Watching people rage hardcore brings a smile to my face.

    @Josh: Good to see you, Josh. I’m curious — does Lockjaw have more than Ragefire in terms of population?

    @Imem: I’m following Gorgon from a distance. Haven’t tried it out yet. Honestly, haven’t heard much about it either way.

  • Thanks, Keen 🙂 Great posts on the site, like always!

    You know, I’m not sure on that. I’ll check it out when I get into the office tomorrow. (I’ll also need to make sure I’m allowed to share that info, as I’m not sure if the team is open to talking about that or not.) I’ll see what I can do!

  • Just had a 5 hours play session on my Monk. We got to level 11 and are wrecking Kurn’s Tower. Having a ton of fun right now.

  • Not sure how much time I will have to play given the plethora of other games I have on the go but I caved and installed it last night. Not subbed yet but checked it worked with Windows 10 and setup my UI a bit. Will probably sub at some point this week and either carry on with my existing chars or roll a new one. Hopefully see some of you in game.

    • @Norfen: You should definitely join us! We’re level 11 right now on Iksar Monk/Shaman in Kurn’s tower. Damage has a level 20 Necro, I have a level 22 Bard, and of course my 41’ish Mage. Really loving the Monk right now and plan to take him to 60.

  • Keen, do you even need weapons? Unless they changed the way H2H damage works (because the calculations are the same as Live, when I first start Ragefire) you are gimping yourself. H2H damage outclasses any weapon until end-game Velious (although this doesn’t take into consideration Runes or whatever the slots use).