I sat for a few hours while staring out the window, smoking my Java-Jolt flavored, Blu e-cig and tried, desperately, to find a way to even start this thread. I'm not even sure I can put into words what I have been feeling and thinking after starting up the game again. Needless to say, “I was not in Kansas anymore, Toto!” Then of course, facing the fact that saying what I have to say doesn’t make a single difference to what happens to this game…why bother? Well, when you’re passionate about something, I’m sure we can all agree, you don’t just shut up and take it/ something, right? Right! However…
Maybe I can’t ever make sense of this or what it is I’m disturbed by. Perhaps someone else can? Maybe no one can? Then I think about you all...the "L2 Community"... I wonder if a lot of you dedicated L2 gamers (that have been around since the initial release in the USA) many years ago, are probably doing the same thing or have done the same thing?
You are sitting in front of your computer, logged in to the game world, looking at the screen, your character, the world and thinking, "Something is not right. Something doesn't feel right. It's almost as if the 300lb gorilla has remained just that...but has flat lined the hardcore elements out. The grind is obliterated so as to help enable the competitive nature with other MMO's of this time and age. MMO’s that have made the flat line ease of leveling and experiencing their foundation. I have seen over the past 10 years in the video game department is this one element that seems to remain a constant, repeating, addicting and copied aspect, “Everyone can now reach max level and have incredible abilities and gear in a very short amount of time. Everything is now catered to you. If you whine about it, we’ll fix it and make it easier so YOU CAN BE A WINNER."
I feel like I'm choking sometimes... like I actually get sick to my stomach. Sounds crazy? Maybe not! Gaming has been a hobby to me since the days of the Atari and Colecovision as I am sure it has been with many of you. When you grow up with something for so long, you get to know it. Everyone is the same in that respect, be it games or not. Sure, while we like new things, often times we don’t like everything changing with that. Otherwise, where is the familiarity that keeps our interest for so long? Maybe L2 and my love for the game stems from that, familiarity? But even that is long gone now.
Other times, I can actually feel part of me still being very much in love with this game whilst another part of me sighs and just can't seem to get into it anymore. It's gone. Something is gone or has gone terribly astray, it's not my love for this game or it's community (good guys/ gals and bad gals/ guys) I truly love every nice player and jerk player in this game because they all make the game feel ALIVE. It's probably the only saving grace right now...the game was very much akin to reality in that you have the opposite extremes out there and all in between. The only thing certain about playing L2 was this: uncertainty. Sometimes we kicked butt, other times it seemed like all we could do was run from what would be (and ended up being) our second, third, fourth ‘death-by-PK’. But it was expected…it was truly an open world with mostly open rules in the PK respects.
But even that is gone. So my head is saying, “Someone, please help me, tell me...what happened to that beautiful game that was entirely diverse from all the other MMO's?" I’m not knocking L2 and yet I’m not praising it either (like I used to, in the past). I have certainly missed a lot! That much is evident. While I can understand the desire to find ways to appeal to a larger crowd (more revenue means hopefully more products) there was still something almost underground or cultish about L2 in the USA. It was not the ‘band-wagon’ MMO. You either loved this game or you wanted to murder its developers and every backstabber in the game you came across. In that, the game became that much more meaningful to play, because the people that played it loved it. Here is why, imo, F2P and watering down/ mainstreaming a past game to match those in the present, is crap.
(I think the problem I am faced with is this…too many questions) There is so much I have read and yet, still, too many questions remain. I started with this game’s birth launch and much to my chagrin I had to abandon it. I still very much want to play but the social status in MMO’s today is a joke. I preferred ‘the grind’, honestly, because it separated the casual from the hardcore players. It weeded out the community, much like ‘boot camp/ basic training’ did in the past with our military. It separated those that really wanted to be there from those that did not. But not just that! Now, ‘everyone is a winner’ it seems. I remember seeing some players that were around 15 levels above me go running by with just the most amazing looking weapon(s), armor, bow, etc… It was (and here is the key word/ aspect I am sure we can all agree on) it was ‘inspirational’. It was a visual piece of meat dangling just in front of you. “Hey, if that person has been able to get it then so can I! I have to keep pushing, keep going, just another level, just another 1k adena” and so on and so forth. Take the top guild on a server for example, with each player experiencing ‘end-game’ content, then take the other guilds that are not in that top tier. People… no one puts time into something expecting to lose time, waste time or lose, that is also something else we can all agree on. Would you really sink every dollar or drop of sweat into something that you knew had absolutely no chance of success? Honestly… seriously… I’m not saying we are bad for being that way but its evolution. We adapt to meet the change and be able to move with it. Or we sink. Mankind has survived and flourished in that respect. We move forward. Forward progress has to be made, lest we lose interest, give up or move on to something else. Now, everyone has the level ‘dumb’d-down’ to reach a lot of what ‘end-game’ was all about. Sure, I am sure you still need a respectable group of friends/ guild(s) to be able to reach some of this. But you all know what I’m getting at… I look at a lot of other MMO’s that were out around L2’s birth and I see they have done the same, sort of! But the social ladder/ status is still present. You have to work your butt to get what you want. You earn it!
I really don’t know why I even bothered to write all this out as I’m sure a lot of people are going to see this as a ‘whine’. Perhaps some of it is but keep in mind; I’m not asking for a hand-out or wanting one. I understand what is-done-is-done and in order to survive and make forward progress, things have to change and adapt.
But, uh… (Laughing) I am sorry; I have to ask you all, true L2 players… When I spend just a measly and pathetic few hours out of just two days and through exploring an entirely new starting area manage to get enough buffs dumped on me that I could level a small town by myself and break level 20 in L2…I have to wonder…
What_the_hell_happened_to_L2?!
Where is everyone? Where did my family go? :( Are there any players left who take this game seriously, that have been around since L2 initial release? I feel like I'm drowning, so don't describe the water to me please.
Comment, flame, troll, praise, whatever and speak your peace. If you want to love or hate, go ahead, if it makes you feel any better after having read the above, I'll take the time and read how much or little you have to say.
You were and still are the only game community I ever cared about in my years of gaming experience. What is happening to CoH/CoV (Paragon Studios) and those players game, honestly, scares the crap out of me b/c I played that game and it was brilliant while it was alive.
In lue of what happened with the Tera Online/ L3 scandal, maybe a part of me is afraid that L2 is dead and you all are just treading water until (hopefully) L3. But there-in lies a dreadful thought... my gut tells me it's going to be mainstreamed and 'action orientated'. Look what happened to Guild Wars in Guild Wards 2.
I feel sick...maybe I’ll start a support group… “ORWTFH” Out of Retirement and What The **** Happened.
Reading back over it, I guess the whole message could be construed as a "whine". I truly didn't and don't want the post to come off sounding like that. Thank you for understanding, if it's the only one I get, it's the only one I would hope for.
I think my real problem is not so much 'regret' but along those lines. There were reasons I left the game shortly after C2:Age of Splendor, reasons that had I not taken, I wouldn't be able to sit here and write this. So I do not regret my decision...but perhaps, I want that time back. I missed so much with the "initial subscriber" players going through each expansion that I don't even feel comfortable starting over. It's as though the L2 community (myself included) started to read a book, taking turns. When it was my turn, I had to stop and hand it off. Only now I'm jumping back into the story at the end and everything feels out of place, everyone is reading a different book and doesn't want to go back. (Remember the 'forward progress'?) I'm not asking anyone to, I don't want anyone to. So...
Let me at least say this then, "Thank you, so very much, from the bottom of my heart, all you L2 players that stuck this game out to this moment in its time and kept it going". In that, you did win a victory for me and I can walk away with that!
I am just sorry I couldn't experience it all, live through the changes that took place. I don't know if I'll ever be able to fully get back into this game, if it's worth it. Who can put a life expectancy date on a game today? Everything changes so fast. I almost feel like committing a crime against my beliefs by jumping back in this late in the game. Truth be told, I'm afraid to make all those incredible friendships again, only to see them dashed against a "Shutting down the servers". It's like love...would you go back and do it, knowing you could get hurt? Is it better to know it than to never know it again/ at all?
Ok, I'm sure you guys/ gals guy&gal, whatever, understand the concept, "your worst enemy is yourself?"
It's what I've seen happen to a lot of MMO's. With patches, updates, expansions and so on, a game starts to add so many new features that it almost becomes a new game in and of itself. A lot of 'what was' is no longer. Nothing is set in stone (except death I suppose) so we understand, as gamers, these changes are going to happen. But for games that made a huge difference on the market and were not just 'run of the mill MMO', for them to lose themselves almost to the point of hardly being recognizable after so many updates, it makes you wonder... what am I playing now, because it's certainly not what I started playing.
Maybe I'm just too nostalgic or too old school and just can't seem to find my way settling comfortably in amongst the 'leveling cap blur' titles that plague every genre and variation of a video game machine/ console nowadays?
Maybe someone can answer this... Out of your time playing L2, how excited are you to log in and play today, as compared to the past?
I'll still spend some time logging in to the game and playing it, because I enjoy some elements that still remain. However, I don't think it is possible to appreciate L2 for being L2 anymore, too much has changed, the only thing familiar to me anymore is the title. Who turned my gorilla into a chimp
Well, I have to admit that I am in agreement. I've stuck with this game through all of the changes, but have found in the last month I just can't bring myself to log in. Its just lost that thing that keeps bringing me back. Maybe I'm burned out andjust need a break or maybe I'm right and the game has just lost its soul. All I know is I just don't find it fun or exciting any more...
This is something i must agree. I miss the times of xping with 4 rl friends 3 days straight at a lan, just to get our chars to lvl 20. Back these days no herbs, no newbie buffs, being scared cos mobs chase u while u have no WW buff. The need that been for me as i catched lvl 7 for the first lvl 1 buffs i recived. Hell, the YAY shout of me and my friends as i finally finished my first Class Transfer, getting my wind walk lvl 1 buff, etc. on my old Cleric Main.
That been the days of a real community, and social mmo.
Tho i have to say, i've been away close to 5 weeks and as i logged back yesterday it felt good to see my 6 years old toon again, seeing the names of friends i know over 4+ years.
(But ye, i would gladly take a simple rollback to C1. I prefer the old medieval style of L2 and the old storyline. And it was much more fun to gear up killing the live played chinese farmers and taking their armors :D)
If you're nostalgic, go to a private server (there is plenty of them). I don't understand these guys who post endless messages about how much they dislike the new lineage. If you don't like it, find another server. Nobody forces you to stay here. Or go out and get some fresh air...
Eshellon, I am not sure if you were around just before the GoD update hit the Western Servers. If not let me tell you how it was. The number of servers had been reduced to 2 and their population was constantly dwindling. Even RMT companies had stopped to support L2 transactions. Almost no new players joined the game. In a word, the game was dying. It's spirit died long ago (I prefer not to say more about the reasons behind this). The truth is that L2 was a hardcore game and the majority of players couldn't handle it. Small player base=small revenue with all the later brings (viability issues). The game had to change if they wanted to keep it running. GoD brought that change. Don't fool yourself. GoD is a different game in the same shell. It is so far from clasical L2 that it could have a different title. NC Soft scrapped the L3 project and with GoD based themselves on an existing player base to dish out a new game. That way they managed to extend its life for some extra time. Time will tell for how long.
Unfortunately, games need to change if their original formula doesn't work out or the gamers themselves change.
L2 wasn't helped by the changes in the development team over the years, with people taking over the work of their predecessors and shotting in the dark with the good intention of making the game better, but ultimately failing in maintaining the spirit that made the same game successful. Because, you know, people make mistakes and have the tendency to mistake the intentions of their predecessors.
It's like writing a sequel to "Romeo and Juliet": it can have the same characters, but it'll never contain the same spirit as the original work, because Shakespeare only knew how to keep it. (And a sequel to "Romeo and Juliet" really exists.)
I don't have alot of time to post right now, but I at least had to give the OP the respect of "bravo"!! I feel the same man...alot's changed, and it saddens me.
You are right, this game has changed indeed, but still...
It has something what we like, and somethings that we don't, every MMO changes with every update, some are good, and some are bad.
But well, what is-done-is-done.
What server are you playing on, i really need to have you as a friend.
Have you ever thought of being a president?
I've started to think along these lines before too but I've reached a different conclusion.
When I played L2 back from NACB through C3, I didn't have a career, family or any responsibility other than to attend class and put in a few hours a week at a minimum-wage job. Back then I would play L2 something like 60+ hours a week and I loved--LOVED--it.
I quit L2 in C3 when my clan disbanded, toured the private server scene for a year or so, and eventually moved on when I finished school and got a real job. Now I come back to L2 for a month or so after every update but am lucky if I get to put in 10 hours a week. In spite of all NC's attempts to make L2 more accessible to casual players, without the hardcore grind and PVP the magic is gone.
I think I understand what you mean, I didn't play L2 since Hellbound and all these changes make L2 like a different game, but I don't feel like giving up on it because there's something that keeps me attached to this game, even I cannot explain in words what it is, after all L2 is the first RPG I ever played maybe that's why. I remember camping PKs in Floran when my char was not even lvl 30, obviously it was a waste of time but for some reason dying like that was fun, jumping in the mid of the coliseum shooting at the random "pro players" and getting owned in 3 sec, I felt so far from those pimped guys with red glowing bows, like they were on a totally different level than me. Now when I see a maximized player (with top equip) I don't feel the same as before anymore for some reason, they don't seem cool anymore dunno why, maybe because the armor is so different? the duelist with Imperial Crusader was so cool.
I started L2 shortly after beta. Without a doubt I think it was a far better game back then when things were tough and you could spend a month grinding to 20. I remember when the castles were held by NPCs because noone could take them.
I loved the game intensely, but I will also admit that most players don't like things as tough as I do. I'm odd, no doubt about it.
That said, I still enjoy L2 and I choose to play it without all the 'boosts' now available. If L2 had stayed tough, it probably would have died. It is better to have a good game that still exists than to remember a great game that closed.
If you're nostalgic, go to a private server (there is plenty of them). I don't understand these guys who post endless messages about how much they dislike the new lineage. If you don't like it, find another server. Nobody forces you to stay here. Or go out and get some fresh air...
he dont post about nostalgic, he just ask about the HIERARCHY system we used to had. Before this free stuff we had on Naia+Chronos less the 1800 lv85 with 100%, and we had 8,5k ACTIVE NOMBOT PLAYERS. ON THAT TIME, if i had more lv than u, it means more equip, more time spend and if u just come to my spot, I LL WIPE THE FLOOR WITH U AND REMOVE THE KARMA, this dont work now, sometimes someone with green name, killd someone, but ends with one kill. That time i reach the top lv farm by my own, without free iss buffer account to help me. If i wanted one buffer in that time, i needed to pay for it, and level him to buff and party with me.
Eshellon, I am not sure if you were around just before the GoD update hit the Western Servers. If not let me tell you how it was. The number of servers had been reduced to 2 and their population was constantly dwindling. Even RMT companies had stopped to support L2 transactions. Almost no new players joined the game. In a word, the game was dying. It's spirit died long ago (I prefer not to say more about the reasons behind this). The truth is that L2 was a hardcore game and the majority of players couldn't handle it. Small player base=small revenue with all the later brings (viability issues). The game had to change if they wanted to keep it running. GoD brought that change. Don't fool yourself. GoD is a different game in the same shell. It is so far from clasical L2 that it could have a different title. NC Soft scrapped the L3 project and with GoD based themselves on an existing player base to dish out a new game. That way they managed to extend its life for some extra time. Time will tell for how long.
SOOOOO WRONG!!!!!! we didnt had rmt before, cos the TRIAL ACCOUNT cant shout or do pms, thats why u almost didnt saw that, but once and while they appear at gks spaming regular texts about adena, IN THAT TIME, IF U WANT 1 AUTO PARTY, U LL HAVE TO PAY FOR THE ENTIRE PARTY, THE PRICE OF ADENA IN THAT TIME WAS 5X TIMES MORE THATN NOW. NOW IS FREE, THEY CREATE HOW MANY ACC THEY WANTS, the adena pick dont end, THE PRICE GOES DOWN AND DOWN, cos they dont have cost.
^^ in the Naia+Chronos time we had 8.5k active players, today with 5 server we had the same amount of active players BUT NOW WE HAVE LOTS AND LOTS OF BOT TRAINS. L2 WAS LIVE WITHOUT THAT FREE ****, AND ALWAYS LL BE, COS IF U LIKE L2 U LL PLAY, NO MATTER WHAT. THE GAME IS THE SAME, BUT NOW WE HAVE SOME GLOW ON SOME NEW MOVIMENTS, I CANT PK NONSTOP LIKE WE USED TO DO WITH OUR MAIN TOON BUT IS THE SAME GAME.
i think MAGMELD SERVER HES COING TO BE ERASED SOONER OR LATTER, because the server is sooo dead (only bots picking and transfering adena) . go to bartz server u ll find gludio castle on the hands of 1 lv94- clan, THATS PROVE that bartz dont have LIVE PLAYERS DOING SIEGES, and the amount of ppl is too lower that one clan full of 94- hold a castle.
please just work with facts, not with false informations or private player common sense, Elmar already post here that nc lost more with this free stuff than with the old l2 system.
Unfortunately, games need to change if their original formula doesn't work out or the gamers themselves change.
L2 wasn't helped by the changes in the development team over the years, with people taking over the work of their predecessors and shotting in the dark with the good intention of making the game better, but ultimately failing in maintaining the spirit that made the same game successful. Because, you know, people make mistakes and have the tendency to mistake the intentions of their predecessors.
It's like writing a sequel to "Romeo and Juliet": it can have the same characters, but it'll never contain the same spirit as the original work, because Shakespeare only knew how to keep it. (And a sequel to "Romeo and Juliet" really exists.)
WROOOONNNGGGGG, THE GAME IS THE SAME THE NEW DEV TEAM JUST APPLY SOME WOW STUFF DO THE GAME, I LL TELL U WHY!
the new dev team dont build the game, THEY DONT HAVE THE CREATORS ESSENCE, that essence was fired, and now the L2 CREATORS have TERA ^^. the new dev dont know the correct line to continous improve l2, thats why THEY OPPENED THAT THREAD TO REBUILD WHAT THEY RUINED.
YEAH WE PLAY THIS GAME BECAUSE THE CLASSES, THIS 8 AWAKEN CLASS WAS A SHOOT IN THE DARK AND A BIG FAILURE, and they admit the failure, and we ll get some of our old and glorious game back.
the problem of writing a sequel, IS THE CREATOR. U cant think like the person so start the thing, thats why u cant reach the same sucess.
ps: ON THIS SEQUEL, THEY WORK WITH ROMEO AND JULIET WITH 12 AND 13 YEARS OLD OR THEY FAKED IT TOO?
I've started to think along these lines before too but I've reached a different conclusion.
When I played L2 back from NACB through C3, I didn't have a career, family or any responsibility other than to attend class and put in a few hours a week at a minimum-wage job. Back then I would play L2 something like 60+ hours a week and I loved--LOVED--it.
I quit L2 in C3 when my clan disbanded, toured the private server scene for a year or so, and eventually moved on when I finished school and got a real job. Now I come back to L2 for a month or so after every update but am lucky if I get to put in 10 hours a week. In spite of all NC's attempts to make L2 more accessible to casual players, without the hardcore grind and PVP the magic is gone.
THE GAME IS THE SAME, HE DONT ASK ABOUT THE OLD DAYS, HE ASK ABOUT THE ESSENCE OF THE GAME, think with me, take of the path to awaken but let the mentor system, so u ll get lvs fast, but u ll have problems with equip like u used to be. THE NEW DEV wants all to reach 85 to SEE "THE MARVELOUS NEW CONTENT", thats why u get ur free stuff, but without it and without free ISS buffers accounts, u would had the same grind we had.
another point that they screwed, was the FULL DROPS FROM EVERY INSTANCED BOSS, they fix this a little but the full drop still exist. If they didnt that, u ll seeeeeeee so many dorfs on town with private manufacture stores AND I HOPE THEY REMOVE THIS NONSENSE FULL DROPS IN THE NEAR FUTURE.
the grind is here u have to kill and kill and kill to lvup, the diference is: U HAVE A FREE ACCOUNT TO BUFF U, AND THEY GIVE ALL THE FREE EQUIPMENT to u, BECAUSE PRIVATE/FREE PLAYERS NEVER LEARNED HOW TO CRAFT OF FARM GEARS.
can i asume here, if they remove ur free iss account an the free gears,that u are going to quit l2 again?
I agree considering the changes is why i havent been on in the past 4-5 months. The GoD release was the last for me. One of the BIGGEST appeals to me in this game was the viriaty of characters/classes you had to choose from and the different roles each had. The only way i would honestly come back is if they made some servers just for players that is Pre-GoD. Now in saying that i know they wont but yea...i come on here acouple times a month if that just to see if any of my old friends post like DrachaVonDracon and some others. But the game is far done for me. Sad it had to happen after i got 3 of my 4 characters to 85 that i played a few months before GoD. O well i guess thats tipical NC soft for you.
I wanted to clarify I still love this game, I love Lineage II world, and I love the graphic, the music, everything related to it. I just turned on the sound in Kamael village. The music makes me feel nostalgic.
Do I miss old chronicles ? Not the chronicals itself. I miss the spirit behind it. Currently the game is to shaft between level 85, 90, 95 and 99. There are no quest between those levels, gaining one level means almost nothing. Instances ? You can farm there daily and they are very easy to go / do. So people just don't talk, they don't have the need.
The constant stress added by RMT spammers in town just break the pleasure to play. Why try to talk when your message will be deleted in 0.3 seconds ? The constant stress from the game itself at NCWest doesn't help things. We get patchnote and patch notices after the patch. Each wednesday is a new surprise. Most of NPC translations are wrong, or their text is seriously bad written. Since Goddess of Destruction launch, I can still see this campaign window where the two buttons are "I accept" and no decline choice. There are several bugs ingame, crashs are almost weekly, in fact it is not a gaming atmosphere, when you log on the server you are already stressed, thinking about everything I said and wondering what will be the next cataclysm (not pandas), and fearing it effects
The constant stress added by RMT spammers in town just break the pleasure to play. Why try to talk when your message will be deleted in 0.3 seconds ?
Amen!
I was trying to talk to my clan leader yesterday and it was impossible in clan chat. I suppose i could go on teamspeak but this was a new clan for me and I didn't have the TS info. People were welcoming me and i couldn't get the names so that I could respond. It made a happy experience...miserable.
That was probably the most accurate post i have ever read. The concept where you now get everything for free has to me, made the game lose it's fun. I like working for my armor and weapons and even skills(remember when you had to buy your skills ^-^) but now everything is handed to you for free and it just doesn't feel special any more. The game doesn't feel like a challenge, it doesn't really make me feel like i have any goals to set towards. Like you said, when armor used to drop and you got that awesome weapon , you felt so proud. Though it wasn't the best in the game, it was still awesome! But now the best of everything is handed to you for free. To me that's is what really changed the game. I don't mind for the classes all emerging into 8. I just want the challenge back into the game! i want to work hard and be proud of what i had accomplished because i don't feel that way when getting free stuff!
Plus, i agree with the PK situation. They are trying to get rid of the PKR'S. PKR'S are another aspect which makes the game fun and i am very disappointed in how they are trying to get rid of them. :/
I wish they could just stop dumbing down the game and bring back the old L2 :'(
(They should make 1 or 2 servers for players who want to play the old L2 again! so it leaves the current one for some players who enjoy the game this way but also adds back the old rockin' l2 for whose who want the hardcore classical!)
A lot of the magic is gone because of the players who cheated, and ruined the game by trying to get ahead faster than legit players. Prices have sored, NC doesn't do enough with bots and now is trying to do poles to figure out what the players want, it makes me laugh.
I started this game when you could get drops from players by having them die to mobs, even if someone was 10 levels higher than you, you could still pvp them. You could pk anyone and work it off, no matter your level. You had to watch you back and it made it even more exciting, now people see a red and just leave them alone, or they see a pvp going on and just watch and say g/f to the "winner" instead of jumping in for a pvp point.
Botting wasn't a big deal but now it's crazy on the level that players accept it. Pvp is now considered going to seiges. Instead of what it was when you would walk out talking island gates and see 40-50 people fighting each other. That was exciting, the level cap kept growing which to me is the biggest down fall, because you can only put the bar so high, so they had to make gettting to 85 easy, so now they implement a mentor system. So the reward of hardwork for some people to get close to 85 is worth nothing. That might have sealed the deal for a lot of players, they might have stayed to see what it would be like but eventually quit.
Change is going to happen, and everything must change, but it feels like with the changes needed to keep the game fresh, killed the players base that is most important and the game's spirit. I totally agree with the OP, I logged in a day ago and decided I am done. I will not bot, play 8 hours a day to not enjoy the game when I already did it for 6 years. So I wish everyone good luck with this game, and no my stuff will collect cyber dust and will not be given. If I didn't have 6 years actually play time I wouldn't care but my accounts mean more to me than that, and even so NC pretty much hands new players things I worked years to earn. Later!
P.S Careful CM is deleting post, and editing post more than ever, makes you wonder why all of a sudden.
I think you should go and Google what is RMT before answering any relevant questions about it. Unless you do believe that RMT started after GoD...
One last thing, there was RLMT trading before god but the person's account would last maybe 30 minutes and bannned, now they pretty much get away with it, so please don't compare, cause that is like comparing Oranges to Apples!
u should go back, and read the entire line again, before posting.
ps: and u still wrong.
I did. Here is what you wrote:
SOOOOO WRONG!!!!!! we didnt had rmt before, cos the TRIAL ACCOUNT cant shout or do pms, thats why u almost didnt saw that, but once and while they appear at gks spaming regular texts about adena, IN THAT TIME, IF U WANT 1 AUTO PARTY, U LL HAVE TO PAY FOR THE ENTIRE PARTY, THE PRICE OF ADENA IN THAT TIME WAS 5X TIMES MORE THATN NOW. NOW IS FREE, THEY CREATE HOW MANY ACC THEY WANTS, the adena pick dont end, THE PRICE GOES DOWN AND DOWN, cos they dont have cost.
You claimed that we didn't have RMT before before there were not people shouting at the towns. What is wrong is the phrase I made bold in your comment, not my comment. RMT existed before, but it didn't advertise like that. I do agree that prices were higher but it still existed. Ask any older player in case you don't know.
One last thing, there was RLMT trading before god but the person's account would last maybe 30 minutes and bannned, now they pretty much get away with it, so please don't compare, cause that is like comparing Oranges to Apples!
I agree with the first part of your sentence, but I can't understand the second. What did I compare? I simply said we had RMT before GoD, against the claims of AwakenBR who said we didn't.
Well being here since beta myself I agree with the OP. The game really took a sour turn after it went free to play. It wouldn't have been so bad if the cheaters and RMT bots would have been kept in check. There was cheating before F2P, it just wasn't as noticed because of the low populations on Naia and chronos, the only two servers we had. There's no challenge to leveling to 85, gear is given to you all the way through R grade. You can buy xp boosters, vitality stuff and other enhancement items rather than NCSoft running a XP event you can have one all the time!
There's no Friday night XP efforts with clannies anymore, no reason to do the raids under 85. The gear they drop has no value thanks to path to awakening. How this game was originally played is so far from what it is now. I'm glad the game is still going, I love it and haven't found anything close to L2 that I like.
First of all, people talk about the grind to level "20" back in the day, but they fail to mention that the level cap was what? 52? There's still a grind to this game, it's just at the tail end mainly. Yes, they made 1-85 super easy, but if there were still an uber grind then almost no one new would come here.
The game is different than it was pre-GOD, but as someone else mentioned, the game was near dead toward the end of the Gracia series. There are things they need to do, like stop instancing everything so there is more world pvp, but adding a grind to the newbie levels isn't one of them.
I'm sure this game doesn't have the same spirit as it used to, in fact I'm certain of it, but it's also an old game. That's life, nothing remains what it was, for better or worse. Personally, I'm bored to tears at 99 because there just isn't anything to do, everyone will BSOE/PR from pvp unless they seriously outnumber you, and the only mass pvp I see are at sieges and sometimes the EG boss. Instances were the real hit to this game.
On a final note, the RMT advertising is annoying, but RMT itself and botting have always been around. I remember the legion of dwarves that used to attack the guards outside newbie towns so they could delevel, trains pushing you out of the catacombs, or not being able to turn anything into the manor 1/2 a second after it opened.
What I am about to say may offend most (if not all) of the old playerbase of L2 but nevertheless i want and have to say it.
It's true L2 is not what it was supposed to be (though i don't have any memory since i started playing post GOD), but what pulls back players from pvp is the harsh penalty it has always given upon death. Even though to you it might not amount to much (though i don't think that's true) 0.80% loss upon death is to much for free players that DON'T have the time or will to farm for 3+ hours straight, especially since they may not even know how to effectively do so.
But what I can't understand is that harsh attack on the path to awakening and the mentor system. Ofc it reduces grinding time and mental burden (you have to admit excessively hunting/grinding/farming in 1 place isn't for the weak willed), is not the ONLY option to lvl, it's just the easier. If you don't like that part of the system then just don't use it, no one forces you too. If you have the will to grind from lvl1-99 in the old c3 ways then by all means do it, no one stops you.
From my point of view I only see the old players whining because the new ones can get easier what they had spent so much time to acquire. But even then old players of L2 have something that none of the new will have. WILLPOWER.
As i said at the start of the post most of you if not all will hate me for posting this, but even so i had to say this.
Haven't been here long, but what makes one player leave a game, will make another join, it's just like that you may enjoy the fact that you had to farm to get to level 20 or something like that, but that may put another player off. And from what I know of the game so far it had to change i've played another game which I have been playing from the start that did they exact same thing and I hate the changes so I can relate, every game does at some point I like the game so far and will be going all the way. The only question you have to ask yourself is do you enjoy playing L2 or are you loging in just for the sake of it But hey, what do I know, ima truly free player
It's true L2 is not what it was supposed to be (though i don't have any memory since i started playing post GOD), but what pulls back players from pvp is the harsh penalty it has always given upon death.
It's not even that because in a war it's like nothing, it's the pk system that hurts right now. Before I'd go red no problem, now not so much.
But what I can't understand is that harsh attack on the path to awakening and the mentor system. Ofc it reduces grinding time and mental burden (you have to admit excessively hunting/grinding/farming in 1 place isn't for the weak willed), is not the ONLY option to lvl, it's just the easier. If you don't like that part of the system then just don't use it, no one forces you too.
The thing you don't understand with us oldies is that our gear that we busted buns to get was rendered worthless when PtA was launched. It killed the market and resell value on it. All the resources,parts,adena and time put into crafting was just handed to you new comers. I think it's fair we can be ticked about that.
From my point of view I only see the old players whining because the new ones can get easier what they had spent so much time to acquire. But even then old players of L2 have something that none of the new will have. WILLPOWER.
As i said at the start of the post most of you if not all will hate me for posting this, but even so i had to say this.
We aren't whining that new players can easy breezy to 86 with free gear all the way to 86. What we get sick of hearing is new comers whine about that it's not fast enough, not enough adena. What do you need adena for? Everything you need is provided to you through PtA or the L2 store.
Old L2 players got a kick to the junk when all of our gear was basically worthless, some of our exclusive items are or were being sold in the in-game store. Items that took a lot of random rewards to finally get that one item. Raid jewels as a bonus item for buying ncoins, raid jewels temp or permanent as rewards in events. That NEVER happened before F2P. Naturally according to you we should like that. Of coarse we have willpower, we can farm an item for weeks or months off a raid boss hoping to get it. Now it's like handed out like it's nothing while we sit here thinking "wow that took me months to get, or 3 tries to craft." Shouldn't we be allowed to be slightly annoyed? I don't have a major issue with PtA,but it did suck having your gear become worth whatever the NPC pays you because no one wants your dynasty,vesper or moirai gear when it's free from the PtA and you'll be R grade shortly anyways.
ETA: Also you new people rush to 86 and graduate so fast you don't have any clue how to play your class. Not to mention a lot new people come from private servers and are incredibly rude. One of the things I liked about paying per month despite the server being low population, you KNEW a lot of the players. You wanted to do a big raid and your clan numbers didn't add up we knew who to pm and who could be trusted and not mention whose alts were whose. Now pfffft good luck.
This is so true...
The game sucks right now. Me and some friends came back to it for the nostalgia factor... but if not...
There are plenty of private servers out there which are pretty nice, i even got into one which was interlude... great chronicle IMO!
I mean, the fact that all those NG weapons, D grade weapons are USELESS @ store, the fact that there is no PVP action between those old clannies from lvls 1-40, that a cleric completely useless, a mean to a end, just cause you get great buffs from NW helper...
Imagine what would have happened if they would just expand the array of weapons in plain A grade (no S-R 88961345 ****) so characters could be built in a myriad of different ways... imagine to have new revamps to social features, like the ones from territorial wars!! Features like duels, the cursed swords, THOSE were community wide and social features worth of mention!. The manor system... those were the days. If only the admins would have put attention to class balance and would have done this polls back then... the game should have been expanded in the social, macrogaming sense, not individual...
A great game turned into another ****** copy of that ****** game (WoW)...
So sad.
P.S: Good god... Soul Bow and Dragonslayer were always the most beautiful weapons for me. More than any of those ****** lookin new toys.
I was trying to talk to my clan leader yesterday and it was impossible in clan chat. I suppose i could go on teamspeak but this was a new clan for me and I didn't have the TS info. People were welcoming me and i couldn't get the names so that I could respond. It made a happy experience...miserable.
It just made me want to log.
Just remove shout . trade from options and leave clan ally party chat on. problem solved.
Nice thread ! Thread from Lineage 2 players!
Gratz for share this. Sace, send this to Korean Team.
This thread have better point of view of game than all ideas talking about new Korean class division (this path will be applied on our servers if people like or no, the poll is only a fake).
I am not a old player and came after GOD but I agree with you as I felt the same thing with other games i played for long and also as I really like L2 but am sad about some parts of it...
PtA is kind of a joke indeed: still hard on new players that do not study the forums and help site when starting: many do not even know about PaT TBH or i would not sell 100k SSD on my noob crafter daily...
So PtA does not work fully as intended..
And yes I can understand the disappointment of old timers that played for years from 0 to 85 to see everything been handed free asfter GOD
Could have done like GW at the time: make ppl create new chara already lvl 85 with full gear and make game 85-99 only LOL
Crafting:
Crafting is and has always been a very important part of any game: interesting and rewarding to find recipe, farm what is needed and make your own gear or sell the crafted result: rewarding to create.
Crafting is zero in that game and that is a big FAIL IMO.
Back to PtA above, stop make drops from 0 to 85 and give 85 to everyone if the game cant handle crafting...
PKing:
Another joke indeed, from what I have been able to read on forums, PKing seems to have been a fun part of the game...
Today state of the game: Kill a cheaper = get penalized... FAILED
And apparently worst is coming.......
Now, to the OP, and that could probably be related to all or most changes around all of us in real life:
BLAME WALL STREET and FINANCE:
Shareholders want money, companies have shareholders, 1 customer lost, 1 new customer showing up, keep cash flowing or shareholders will move away... No place for individuals..
This is not specially about this game, this is the case of everything in our daily lives...
Only recipe: don't pay much and enjoy while you can, enjoyment stop, move away..