Yes to boxing, limited to 2-3/ip (so you can box OR play with a spouse/roomie, not both). This allows limited boxing, removes the need for an IP exemption process, can be enforced with the same IP filter and prevents the "I'll 6/12/18 box content on my own"
I don't think $15/mo was ever a limitation (back in 1999 it amounted to a couple lunches at the cafeteria, now it's about 4 cups of coffee or the gas a day's commute), but if people feel that made the difference would it be possible to charge for IP exemptions / IP exemption processing (not game access / accounts)?
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Originally Posted by Glenzig
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The entire point of the whole genre was to bring like minded people together in one place to enjoy a specific form of entertainment.
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Except people often aren't available in a suitable proportion. Being able to wildcard a spot in a group improved the experience for the other 5 that were brought together.
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Originally Posted by Glenzig
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There is a reason why p99 has been successful. No boxing is a pretty big part of that. Don't buy it? Look at the population of the other emu servers.
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Do any other emu servers provide a faithful replication of classic EQ capped to RoK/SoV? P99's success has more to do with the classic experience (box or no). SoE's official progression servers were pretty populated for the first 2-3 xpacs despite the very un-classic classic experience and the multiboxing. And look how many ask for a new progression / classic server on the official forums. It's not about boxing, it's about the classic gameplay (xp loss, non-instanced, no PoK, no guild hall)
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Originally Posted by Troxx
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Boxing is a catch 22. In EQ live as computers got better and this game got older, it was a convenience to be able to box "X" class that was in high demand but low supply ... the rate limiter for grouping. Unfortunately, the impact of boxing on a server or population is a self-fulfilling prophecy of doom in my opinion. Even with 2 boxing, and for those classes that are needed ... you end up slowly killing the community. If everyone is 2 boxing, people will prefer to 2 box - especially those classes that have more downtime. Each "box" that exists takes up a spot for a real player.
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I disagree. People who like to play solo (box or not) will like to play solo. There's plenty of ways to do that. People who like to group will like to group, whether they can box or not.
I was an avid boxer on live and started in classic, back when I was doing it with 2 computers running EQ in full screen with the default 1999 UI (hadn't heard of the alternate mode toggle yet). But for me the group gameplay was what made EQ fun and I always preferred to group with people than duo my boxes. Even when I eventually had 5 accounts I still preferred to get as many actual people in the group for chatter, company and better reaction times and only use the alt accounts to supplant what we couldn't fill.
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Originally Posted by Troxx
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I've seen what boxing does to an eq server over and over again.
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You've seen what boxing + all the other changes that happened do to a server. Boxing existed in actual classic and I would say the community was just great for the first couple years that correspond to P99 content.
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Originally Posted by azxten
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Allowing even 2 boxing would make it very difficult/time wasting for GMs to check people who might go beyond 2. It would also result in 9 people playing 18 characters and locking down a lot of raid content.
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This isn't harder than finding who goes beyond 1. If anything it's easier because you automatically can discount the first box.
Also, the more you go beyond 1 character the harder it is to multibox them and the more obvious it is. You either need to introduce key duplication (extremely obvious), botting (If someone is risking a ban to bot, do you think they're afraid of a ban for boxing?) or you'll suffer very slow response times that makes it easier to spot/test for GMs.