And please I'm still curious, why don't you just hand out suspensions for people who troll OOC with racist, bigoted, homophobic nonsense? EQ has the report feature, I'll gladly report every time someone calls someone else the N Word.

Is it too hard to then suspend those folks for a couple of days? It'd clean up chat fast. Same with this board. Look at how many people call each other gay and derail threads with horrible image macros and crap. Just suspend them.

A reasonable xp bonus modifier allows players to have a balanced social and work life outside of elfquest.

Killing a static mob on a 6 minute respawn timer alone in the middle of the Karanas with the same 2 spells for 1000 hours straight versus 100 hours straight doesn't make you a badass hero. It makes you an unbalanced individual that is probably neglecting other important aspects of your life.

These are the types of unbalanced individuals that post the batphone list of the enemy guild in the M4MMMM section on craiglist and hack kickstarter so they can steal your elf pixels.

The game came out in 1999, most of the normal people on this server are either approaching or have reached our 30's.

Let's all make sure our kids are properly fed and taken care of and then login to enjoy a little pvp.

Did you read the post, or just assume that I said remove all XP bonus' and any form of global chat?

Also, PvP server.

Because we don't have the time or manpower to sit and play babysitter to global OOC.

Plus, half the people on the box would be suspended.

Most importantly, we shouldn't have to, and new people who roll here shouldn't automatically be subjected to some of the BS that goes through global OOC.

Yes, I said reduced rate. The question still remains. And yes, PvP is conditional on their being other players to PvP. In your post you say EQ is fun because of the grind, which to a PvPer is a boring, tedious distraction.

You don't have to babysit. People report, you get a guide to recommend the suspensions. If half the server gets suspended for a day or two then they probably will stop spamming the N word.

Taking away two things that attract new players isn't going to bring more people.

If anything add more incentive, not take away the only incentive there is. If it is a pvp server, then let it be a pvp server - focus on PvP rather than PvE..

Edit; well maybe global ooc doesn't attract people, but when the population is so low, it facilitates social communication. You're going to have trolls and noxious people regardless that's the core of eq players on this box.

Reduced rate = scaling bonus + group xp bonus (one of the ideas I suggested in the post)? Pretty sure that's not reduced.

And I said nothing about the grind. It's the journey and your experiences along the way. The PvP you encounter, the bonds you make, the enemes you create, and the attachments you form on your way to the high end is part of what makes EQ fun and retains players.

this is all well and good when you have a large population, until then it's just a form of idealized nostalgia that has no basis in reality.

So the solution is to continue stuffing the top end, burning people out when they get there and causing them to quit because they have no real attachment to their character with only a handful of days played to reach 52+?

Not necessarily, you say that they have no attachment but the reality is that unless you have friends, it still takes time to get to 60.

The problem with the server isn't the bonuses, it's both ironically the people who play & the lack of people who play.

I will add that some of you have valid points in regards to the community. Raising the population on red is a server-wide effort. There is only so much we as a staff can do to foster a positive environment for new players.