Quote:
Originally Posted by Daldaen
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I don't even get the PoK books hate. You can travel to home cities but still need rides to places like Cobalt Scar, EJ, Dreadlands, Karanas, Surefall, etc.
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I know and I understand your point, but I think it boils down to some of the aspects of the mechanics that go beyond sheer mechanics and utility see?
Hope I can make myself clear
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It is not hate, because that is too strong an emotion, for me anyway. What I mean is something a bit deeper.
See, not everybody is equal, much less when gaming, and even more so within a game as complex and so loaded with emotional baggage (for some, myself included) as Everquest.
I do not hate, nor hated the expansions per se, (again , hate is too strong a word for me) but I saw sharply the way social mechanics suddenly went off the drain when the game began to grow and grow and grow and the social norm of the day went bust.
I am no expert, and I could be totally off the hook here, but what I remember vividly from those days was how expectations (and I include here your very solid viewpoint on mechanics and self-reliance and not pigeonholing classes into these crude niches you describe, which is a good point) suddenly changed in the social sphere of the game.
Back then I was in Povar, I raided little, never been my main interest here, but mostly exploring and enjoying the virtual landscape and the fun social interactions, this to tell you that my focus on gaming was to walk around, be a bit social and then stroll randomly as I chatted here or there with this or that person, persons I knew were real (in so far as a virtual representation of them could be "real") and to this day, and here I candidly confess it, have never had friends like those I got in EQ, a feat beyond my means in any other mmo I have been through the ages.
I spent about two years in the Test Server when I grew disillusioned with the way EQ was going and remained there due to the small community, despite Test having even more mechanic changes and earlier access to xpacs, community was super tight, I even ended up on the Botsquad with Sinbot and his dreaded drama ladden Raid Alliance haha, but I loved the small sense of community.
This guy was bad, this one was fun, this is a scammer, this other is weird, etc, etc.
Now I am digressing, back to my point,
Having explained this, again, I saw how on Live the shift from Velious to Luclin changed, specially due to the Bazaar and the Nexus Spires began to shrink distances, both physical and mental by giving utility, but for me at least, began to widen the gap between players.
It is a purely social construct for me, that goes beyond mechanics and roles, and here I hope I explain myself, english is not my first language haha.
So yes, that is what happened in my experience, and have seen it over the years in many other mmos, last one being Eve Online and how the game changed mimicking closely my prior experience in EQ.
It seems, that when everything is constrained, community is small and you get to know people, there is a thriving social aspect that I totally love, not because I am super social, honestly I am a bit of a loner, nothing special there, but I thoroughly enjoy seeing "real" people around, killing this or that, leveling, joking, being human in virtuality, enjoying, despite wildly different backgrounds, sticking pixels, killing them and feeling great or good or focused about it. Kinda weird but you know what I mean
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To be honest again with everyone, mmos have been the only constant things in my ultra chaotic life, so there is that.
Certain expansions just injected so much chaos , new social norms and hierarchy structures that ended up shattering what little stability I enjoyed in these games at first.
Though growth is inevitable, fixed settings, like I am now discovering P99 is, are just marvels to me
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Again, sorry for the long post, if you read all of this I thank you, if you skipped here to the end, thanks too haha.
Love to you man and love to the game!
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hugs!