I voted in favor of Luclin models, for several important reasons:
(1) First of all, it is improper to pretend that Luclin is not "classic EQ." It most certainly is classic, being that it was the last expansion which was fully developed by Verant. It is not a "Sony expansion," so please stop referring to it that way. Verant developed Luclin and in fact, they had even started working on the initial stages of PoP when they finally sold out completely to SOE in mid-2002. I have had this explained to me directly by none other than Brad McQuaid himself, via some casual messages that we exchanged during the beta testing of Vanguard. So perhaps this opens up another issue for the P1999 administrators: why don't you simply continue patching the game right up through Luclin..? That way, all of the legitimate, classic Verant content will eventually will be covered. You may not have cared for Luclin for whatever reasons, but your preference does not make Luclin any less valid as a classic EverQuest expansion. It was a 100% Verant-produced expansion to the classic game, period.
(2) Speaking as a texture artist, the rejection of the Luclin models is irrational, as they are generally superior to the original models. I think what we're seeing here are emotional responses based upon nostalgia, rather than objectivity and common sense. Which is fine... everyone is entitled to their feelings. But claiming that the Luclin models look bad in comparison to the originals is just plain ridiculous. And also, it should be pointed out once again that those upgraded models were developed by Verant... not by SOE.
(3) Lastly... and this has been touched upon many times within this thread... I do not think this issue should be decided by a poll. The results of polls are often dominated by status quo's and cliques. It makes more sense to decide this issue based upon INCLUSIVENESS. Do you want the ENTIRE player base to be happy with their options..? Then enable the Luclin models for those players who desire them. Do you prefer to be dictatorial and insist that everybody MUST be seeing the exact same things as everybody else..? And does everything we see NEED to be compatible with 1999 EverQuest..? Then you can start by forcibly removing the 2005 HUD elements, disabling widescreen graphics options, forcing low-res textures on EVERYTHING, disabling quite a few console commands, and... need I go on..? The entire attitude of "I only want you to see blah blah blah" is utterly ridiculous. Personally, I have the ability to hack into my game files and make sure that all of you appear completely naked on my screen, with big purple smiley faces on your backsides. I could do that in a heartbeat, if I wanted to. Do you really care..? Well, you shouldn't. It's my screen, not yours. The entire "shared experience" argument is thus worthless, as there will always be too many variables... thus it is impossible to ensure it. Let's just give up on that tact -- because it is not valid, nor is it enforceable.
I think we should look at this in the same way that our lawmakers look at the "gay marriage" issue. I personally am not in favor of gay marriages. Lots of other people are in favor of them. And in every state where that issue has been put to the vote, it has been shot down by a small margin. But the law, in its wisdom, realizes that deciding such issues by way of a vote (or a poll) is simply opening the door to unfair discrimination by the majority against a minority. Imagine if we held a poll in some of the more redneck southern U.S. states, and asked the mostly white population if blacks should continue to be allowed to vote, or be able to sit in the front of the bus. You can imagine how such a poll would turn out... but would it be fair..?
To sum it up: I feel that to be as inclusive and as fair as possible to ALL of the players on this server, the players themselves should have the option to select which character models they desire to see on their screens. And if the object of this poll was to "gauge interest in having Luclin models available," then the admin should recognize that according to the results, a full third of the player base has expressed such an interest. That's a very sizable number of players, all thing considered... hence it should be concluded that there is in fact a very strong interest amongst the players to have the Luclin models be made available as an option.
PS -- for the record, I began playing EQ in late 1999 and continued up until mid-2003, at which point I just couldn't take the dumbed-down SOE content any longer. I am as veteran as it gets, pretty much. But I won't allow my nostalgia to blind me to the fact that options are always better than a lack thereof, so long as they do not significantly impact upon the core gameplay.
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