Exactly; that's what I meant when I said free multiboxing wasn't allowed (free single-boxing wasn't allowed either; SOE wasn't a fan of anything free back then).
Depends on how you look at it, I guess: my point was, there's nothing un-classic about the GM's choices re:boxing on this server (as was being asserted). In the classic era no one could create and run multiple free accounts at once. "Free multiboxing" never was and never will be classic, so there's nothing un-classic about the GMs decision to ban it. Paid multiboxing was classic, but P99 can't charge so it's impossible for them to re-reate that classic aspect.
I totally agree with you that that's true of lots of people. But a non-trivial amount of people
would have noticed "hey I spent an hour in BB and got X blue bubbles from the fangs, then I spent an hour in WK and got Y blue bubbles from killing lions, and X > Y."
There's a world of difference between:
A) taking an item that drops off a raid boss (back when relatively few people even got to face, let alone beat such bosses)
B) figuring out that you can use that item to circumvent a quest's faction requirements (on another continent)
C) knowing that one can abuse the buy/sell system to recharge that item
D) sharing that info with others, and not just keeping it a secret with your raid-boss-killing guildies
vs.
A) getting XP somewhere
B) seeing that you're still getting XP there
C) staying there
or:
A) getting XP somewhere
B) exploring for a bit ("let's see what this West Karana place is all about")
C) realizing "hey I was getting way better XP with those fangs than I am killing these lions".
D) returning to the place you got good XP
It's funny that you mention that: I specifically remember an article written back in the day explaining EQ players' behavior in terms of an experiment involving rats pushing levers.
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As I've said, I'm not arguing "obviously everyone", I'm arguing obviously some non-trivial amount of people. When 1/3rd-1/4th of the server population passes through a dungeon, and there's a nothing secret about an XP gain there (the "secret tech" of getting that XP is just doing what you've already been doing), some players are going to notice and take advantage of that XP. Even if only 10% (of the 1/4th) thought "lions suck compared to gnoll fangs" when they left BB, and then came back to BB, there would have been enough level 20+s in Blackburrow to make us remember them.
But if you don't think so at this point, I'm certainly not going to convince you, so we'll just have to agree to disagree. Given the research done by others in this thread, it's an entirely academic argument at this point anyway.