Let's just say the Official Boards are often like a stereotyped high school from a movie with the jocks, nerds and so on in a bizarre perpetual war --only it's terms like "casual" that get tossed around. Sometimes as insults, other times as badges of honour. I don't care about that...
What I am interested in is our Allakhazam's community's thoughts on what makes an EQ player casual? Do you see layers or distinctions? Is there more to it than just casual or raider (the two most common labels). When does it matter? Other thoughts on this topic? ---please post!
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- How do you define "casual" in respects to playing EQ?
How do you define "casual" in respects to playing EQ?Follow
To me, there are different ways I would classify someone as casual:
1 - Low play time, either due to schedule, or short play sessions, or whatever.
2 - Avoidance of raiding, and the high end (i.e. latest) grouping game.
I fall squarely into both categories. Play time lately is very erratic (once or twice a week), and even when I play a lot, it's 30-90 minutes a night. And I haven't been max level since the few months before PoP came out, so I haven't seen "current" content in a VERY long time!
1 - Low play time, either due to schedule, or short play sessions, or whatever.
2 - Avoidance of raiding, and the high end (i.e. latest) grouping game.
I fall squarely into both categories. Play time lately is very erratic (once or twice a week), and even when I play a lot, it's 30-90 minutes a night. And I haven't been max level since the few months before PoP came out, so I haven't seen "current" content in a VERY long time!
Tatanka Wolfdancer, 115 Wood Elf Druid, 9 x 300+ Master Artisan, 7 maxed trophies (dang research! :)
Michone, 115 Troll Shadowknight
Anaceup Mysleeves, 115 Erudite Mage, 2 x 300 Master Artisan
Snookims Whinslow, 112 Erudite Enchanter, 2 x 300 Master Artisan
<Inisfree>, Tunare (Seventh Hammer!)
Michone, 115 Troll Shadowknight
Anaceup Mysleeves, 115 Erudite Mage, 2 x 300 Master Artisan
Snookims Whinslow, 112 Erudite Enchanter, 2 x 300 Master Artisan
<Inisfree>, Tunare (Seventh Hammer!)
I guess I fall in that category since I have never seen max level in eq since the day I first played it in summer of 2000. I get burnt out way before ever getting close.
I know its a frowned upon opinion but I feel like this is the reason Wow is so much more popular. In WOW with casual play I had 10 max levels and enough gold to buy 2 years worth of wow token (IE wow's krono) without putting a dent in my gold supply. On EQ I might afford 1 krono MAYBE if I took every single plat off all my alts and found someone willing to sell kinda cheap (like 1 million).. Again that would be a maybe.
EQ is just so freakin boring at high levels. Spend hours just killing the same crap over and over again and even with things like double exp holidays, blessing veteran reward, and the pay2win potions its still crazy slow. That's if you can even get a group which you generally can't now adays unless your max level and good friends with half your server. The only groups I generally see advertised are for level 105's doing broken mirror progression. Since eq is so unforgiving at higher levels usually people will only group with you if they know you. OF course its a catch 22 they can't get to know you unless they group with you. So now your forced to box to get any type of exp gain. I have a 93 SK with healer merc and 90 mage with caster merc and I can handle things like fear itself and if im really careful VOA zones. The VOA zones if a single extra shows up its generally a wipe. Again even pulling one after another with no downtime its painful to earn exp and gets boring really quick.
About the only thing I do now adays is make a new toon and level them to 52, do their epic, and park them at a dragon.
I know its a frowned upon opinion but I feel like this is the reason Wow is so much more popular. In WOW with casual play I had 10 max levels and enough gold to buy 2 years worth of wow token (IE wow's krono) without putting a dent in my gold supply. On EQ I might afford 1 krono MAYBE if I took every single plat off all my alts and found someone willing to sell kinda cheap (like 1 million).. Again that would be a maybe.
EQ is just so freakin boring at high levels. Spend hours just killing the same crap over and over again and even with things like double exp holidays, blessing veteran reward, and the pay2win potions its still crazy slow. That's if you can even get a group which you generally can't now adays unless your max level and good friends with half your server. The only groups I generally see advertised are for level 105's doing broken mirror progression. Since eq is so unforgiving at higher levels usually people will only group with you if they know you. OF course its a catch 22 they can't get to know you unless they group with you. So now your forced to box to get any type of exp gain. I have a 93 SK with healer merc and 90 mage with caster merc and I can handle things like fear itself and if im really careful VOA zones. The VOA zones if a single extra shows up its generally a wipe. Again even pulling one after another with no downtime its painful to earn exp and gets boring really quick.
About the only thing I do now adays is make a new toon and level them to 52, do their epic, and park them at a dragon.
Hi
I'm firmly in the casual category. I gave up raiding many, many years ago when my entire guild defected to WoW. I went and got a few chars to the upper 60's, but WoW wasn't for me. I stopped playing EQ for about 4-5 years before coming back.
I'm a "quester", so I do a lot of them whether I get experience or not. I usually lose interest in leveling a char around about level 70. I have several level 85 heroiced chars, but they are usually used to farm items for lower level chars. Sometimes I "go back" and farm items that I salivated over when I first started. In some cases they are still useful, but I get a weird satisfaction obtaining them.
My play consists of logging in, rotating through a dozen or so chars then logging.
I'm a "quester", so I do a lot of them whether I get experience or not. I usually lose interest in leveling a char around about level 70. I have several level 85 heroiced chars, but they are usually used to farm items for lower level chars. Sometimes I "go back" and farm items that I salivated over when I first started. In some cases they are still useful, but I get a weird satisfaction obtaining them.
My play consists of logging in, rotating through a dozen or so chars then logging.
I am casual, playing once or twice a week, a good week is when I log in three times and a couple of them are two days in a row ;-)
I do feel the resentment of the more 'serious' players when I don't set enough of my 'real life' aside for the guild, but they don't miss me other than someone to look down lol.
I do have maxed level/aa toons, four of them to be exact.
I thank the extra xp granted on FV for that, and that was the major reason behind moving most of guys to FV, the xp I knew I wouldn't get on any other server, with my horrible playtime.
As to what is casual?
I think If you are in a family/casual guild and you are in a leadership position...you don't fit the casual tag anymore.
You are dealing with so much more than some random dude(me) who logs in with no responsibility or commitment to anyone but a few friends and yourself.
My hat's off to all those in leadership positions in every guild.
Be it guild leader, raid leader, class leader, recruitment leader, hell...treasurer/bank leader or tradeskill guru/leader.
You guys are the ones who keep a guild together and moving forward!
I do feel the resentment of the more 'serious' players when I don't set enough of my 'real life' aside for the guild, but they don't miss me other than someone to look down lol.
I do have maxed level/aa toons, four of them to be exact.
I thank the extra xp granted on FV for that, and that was the major reason behind moving most of guys to FV, the xp I knew I wouldn't get on any other server, with my horrible playtime.
As to what is casual?
I think If you are in a family/casual guild and you are in a leadership position...you don't fit the casual tag anymore.
You are dealing with so much more than some random dude(me) who logs in with no responsibility or commitment to anyone but a few friends and yourself.
My hat's off to all those in leadership positions in every guild.
Be it guild leader, raid leader, class leader, recruitment leader, hell...treasurer/bank leader or tradeskill guru/leader.
You guys are the ones who keep a guild together and moving forward!
Over the last 15 months, we've traveled to every corner of the United States. I've now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.
Barack Obama
Laen - 105 Dru
Haam - 105 Sk
Laosha - 105 Shammy
Lutan - 105 Bard
Barack Obama
Laen - 105 Dru
Haam - 105 Sk
Laosha - 105 Shammy
Lutan - 105 Bard
I think I would define casual based on the degree to which your playtime must be synchronized with other players to achieve whatever it is you're doing in the game. If you're mostly logging on and playing by yourself, or with whomever just happens to be on at the time, you are a "casual" player. Even if you're boxing and tackling tough content, it's still casual because you can choose to log on or not as you wish without any significant impact to others. I think that once you're coordinating activities with others, and there's an expectation that you must be there for their game to progress, then you're not casual anymore.
Obviously, the occasional planned group or raid thing isn't a big deal. But if a good portion of your play requires other people (and theirs requires yours), even if just as one of a group of people (like in a regularly raiding guild), you're not a casual player. Honestly, I don't think levels or gear or content really matters here (although obviously, certain level raid content can't be managed by a "casual" player under this definition). It's really more about how "serious" your play is, and how much it affects others.
Edited, Jun 20th 2016 4:45pm by gbaji
Obviously, the occasional planned group or raid thing isn't a big deal. But if a good portion of your play requires other people (and theirs requires yours), even if just as one of a group of people (like in a regularly raiding guild), you're not a casual player. Honestly, I don't think levels or gear or content really matters here (although obviously, certain level raid content can't be managed by a "casual" player under this definition). It's really more about how "serious" your play is, and how much it affects others.
Edited, Jun 20th 2016 4:45pm by gbaji
King Nobby wrote:
More words please
Very simple: if you can look OBJECTIVELY about how much time you spend playing EQ and it makes you feel guilty about it, then you're NOT casual. Gotta be able to be objective, though.
Sippin 115 DRU **** Firiona Vie ****Agnarr
FV: 115 WAR ENC CLE MAG WIZ SHD SHM Master Alchemist ROG Master Tinkerer & Poison-Maker
Master Artisan (300+) * Baker * Brewer * Fletcher * Jeweler * Potter * Researcher * Smith * Tailor
Agnarr: 65 DRU ENC SHD MAG CLE ROG WIZ BRD WAR
FV: 115 WAR ENC CLE MAG WIZ SHD SHM Master Alchemist ROG Master Tinkerer & Poison-Maker
Master Artisan (300+) * Baker * Brewer * Fletcher * Jeweler * Potter * Researcher * Smith * Tailor
Agnarr: 65 DRU ENC SHD MAG CLE ROG WIZ BRD WAR
Quote:
Very simple: if you can look OBJECTIVELY about how much time you spend playing EQ and it makes you feel guilty about it, then you're NOT casual. Gotta be able to be objective, though.
No "casually addicted" category Sippin?
ROFL
Over the last 15 months, we've traveled to every corner of the United States. I've now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.
Barack Obama
Laen - 105 Dru
Haam - 105 Sk
Laosha - 105 Shammy
Lutan - 105 Bard
Barack Obama
Laen - 105 Dru
Haam - 105 Sk
Laosha - 105 Shammy
Lutan - 105 Bard
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