No big surprise there I suppose. The last time I was on EQ my benchmark for population/activity, the number of vendors set up in the Bazaar, was looking pretty grim.
I did not get notified directly about the merger like some did, but my account is lapsed currently. I guess they don’t send such notifications to their inactive user base, despite my having signed up to get such mailings in my Station preferences.
And they have not mentioned server merges on their Facebook page, where they seem to be focused on their Memorial Ding! contest.
If enough people become fans of the EverQuest Facebook page, they will raise the spawn rates for rare items this coming Memorial Day. They have already handed out rewards in-game for meeting their 12K goal, but to get a 100% boost in rare spawn rates, they want to hit 18K. Go social networking.
Anyway, when I did see the server merge announcement, I took a minute to go back and look at my predictions list for 2010, which was written and posted on January 1st of this year, just to see how things stood. And, sure enough, I had server merges on the list.
EverQuest – The next round of server consolidation will happen, and it will be a good thing
I wasn’t really going out on a limb there I suppose. It will no doubt be a good thing too, though I cannot remember what happened to my original EQ server, E’ci.
But while I was looking into that, I also noticed another prediction I made, about which I had completely forgot when the events came to pass.
Most subscription MMOs that sell vanity items like pets or appearance gear will sell custom mounts by the end of 2010. WoW and EQ2 will be the benchmark.
WoW and EQ2 to sell custom mounts. Well, I think I’ve got that one covered with the Greed Steed and the Fat Cats both selling for $25 a pop. And it isn’t even June yet.
I also predicted StarCraft II would ship in the second quarter of this year, so I missed that by 27 days. That ought to be worth some partial credit.
The Ancient Gaming Noob 
Oddly, I did get the server merge email. I haven’t logged on to Everquest since EQ2 launched (Which is 5.5 years ago, if you are keeping score. Of course, if you are 3000 years old, like me, that’s a mere blink of the eye.) I don’t know what’s more surprising, that they still have my email address, or that it hasn’t changed since then.
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But you still have an active SOE subscription, correct? I do not at this point.
I logged into my Station account and I am still opted-in to those email lists, but I am going to guess that the “not paying us a dime currently” flag is set, so they don’t bother to send me anything except “come back and play, free weekend” messages.
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E’ci was merged with Tunare in 2005, which is now merging with The Seventh Hammer.
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Well the server merge may be a good thing, but it’s also an extremely irritating thing for me, because I am unfortunate enough to have all 10 of my character slots filled on Stromm and several of my oldest, favorrite characters on Luclin, and guess which servers are merging.
I’ve spent all day today clearing banks and trying to get enough unfavorite characters clean for deletion. Of course it’s the least played characters who’ve ended up as storage for the rest. Mrs Bhagpuss is going to have to delete one of her Stromm characters to make way for my favorite character of all, my Druid on Luclin who is on the account that we originally shared back in 2000 before we realised we really needed an account each.
All in all, a pain.
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It’s sort of due. It’s been at least five years since the last merge and they had far more servers than many new games out. I think it’s a good thing for players, more people to group with.
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Partial credit for missing by 27 days? Are you a banking industry executive now or something?
;-)
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No, I’m trying to get a job at Dell.
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