Current State of End-Game Contents - A Blog Post from A Japanese Player

[gornotck]

Could a EQ game even survive anymore?

Serious question and I know the term "survive" is a loaded one because in theory a game could survive just fine with 100,000 players if it was cost effective.

But can a MMO survive the budget required to make them nowadays on the EQ model. I've skimmed this thread for a few days and people bring up the MMOs of old, but could those MMOs of old survive this new era of the genre, or is everyone just thinking wistfully of the past?

Everquest and Everquest 2 both survive to this day, sort of. So I believe the answer is 'yes', but it won't attract the same toxic people as so-called Current Generation MMOs do. Entirely different toxic culture, with entirely different toxic goals.
What I find interesting about this debacle thread is that no one, or almost no one, has even suggested things like skill chains and the Battle Regime systems or other player-based methods of combatting and disabling enemies.
They just boil it down to mechanics versus gear, then throw around buzzwords and act as if everything is perfect forever, or would be perfect forever if they'd only just listen to reason (of which none existed).
You absolutely should be able to put together a group of random people through duty finder or party finder and have a reasonable expectation of success. You absolutely should be able to get through if most people know how to play their job, not their boss. You absolutely should be able to over gear for a fight as it gets older, making it quantifiably easier in every way.

You absolutely should be talking and communicating with your party and not treating them as accessories to your murder.