Jason said:
What do you typically do in games like EQ and VG when you have one or more maxed out characters ? Do you keep making alts ? Do you level up in all spheres ? Do you spent time helping newbies ? Do you raid and raid for better gear ? A bit of everything just mentioned ? What do you do when threre is "nothing more to do" ?
I do raids 'till I know what I am doing in them/get a piece or two of gear. I don't do much more then that because I don't see the point on getting stronger so I can do the thing I just did again but ever so slightly easier. That and raids only happened like twice a week. Other then that I may farm or (if I don't hate it) I level up another sphere. What I really like to do is take my character that I worked so hard on and use him to make my friends life a little easier. If they aren't on I level up one or two alts if I enjoy the class and play style. After that I leave the game. I've done everything I wanted to do and there is no point in logging on anymore imo.
...I may also RP with NPCs if the game has good and evil factions... but.. you know... you can uh... just ignore that. Yep.
One time, early on in EQ2, I had about 2.5 plat. Now that was a tonne of cash at the time. 1 plat could gear you in top tier gear all the way to lv 30. So I went to a graveyard (don't recall the name, low lv zone for players lv ~4-10) and I waited. I judged peoples names. After I found one that wasn't what I would call stupid (such as Narutofan4467) I gave him a plat. He was absolutely ecstatic. After that I left and never saw/spoke to him again. That was pretty neat.
Pharonethegnome said:
WoW and the MMORPGs that came after it are anti-social. That's why people focus on the levels, and that's why they are gone as soon as they hit max level.
I disagree with that. In fact it is because WoW is so social I hate it (I am not very social. Not that I don't like people, just that I get as much joy from doing other things as well). I would argue that WoW is in fact the pinnacle of the social mmo. It has to be. The game is to short for people to stay for anything else. It's a glorified facebook. That's why it killed EQ in terms of raw members and continues to do so today.
Create a game, and you will have gamers for a while.
Create a virtual world, and you will have customers for life.
I could not have said it better myself.