[Jimjam]

Originally Posted by loramin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Right: that's very much NOT the design philosophy of Classic EverQuest. Over time they tried to "fix" it, and then WoW tried to further "fix" it. Both attempts resulted in far greater commercial success (ie. PoP EQ had way more players than Velious EQ, and WoW had big multiples of both) ... but, neither one was classic EverQuest.

Dying and corpse running are the perfect example: they're not fun. Everyone agrees on this, and that's why WoW completely changed the whole process, and live EQ added spires, PoK, and god knows what else live has now. And yet, over a thousand players play here, and part of it is because of the death. As un-fun as it is it makes the rest of the game more fun.

Game design is complex, and while modern game design definitely has a lot to teach the 1999 version of Smedley and McQuaid (EQ's original head developers), at the same time modern game design has managed to lose something special that classic EQ had. The "not fun" parts are very much a part of what makes classic EQ special.

P.S. You don't happen to work on Dofus do you? An (American) friend of mine really loves that game.

Not playing Devil's Advocate here, I actually like corpse runs. It's challenging and often social.