Quote:
Originally Posted by Troxx
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
The institution of the PNP was not the revocation of an intended classic mechanic. It was reaction to poor behavior on the part of a bunch of children and man-children who thought that being in an online fantasy computer game world meant that basic human decency could be disregarded. Verant assumed that people would know it’s not ok to ninjaloot, deceive, kill steal.
|
The mechanic was intended, this is not an accurate take. ACTUAL kill stealing was a thing in MUD's, where the games were sometimes coded so that whoever got the last hit on a mob got all the exp. They changed it for EQ to most damage dealt, so as to
remove kill stealing. Dealing the most damage is an easy-to-understand method of competition. Whoever is most powerful wins the prize. If they wanted to code it so that only the first group to engage was allowed to fight, which was what some MUD's did, then they would have. That's not how they chose to code the game.
Competition in MUD's and games like Ultima Online revolved around players directly attacking each other, and the EQ designers didn't want all the servers to be about attacking players directly. Hence they had to come up with some other form of competition, in the case of disputes. What you describe as "poor behavior" is layered gameplay. Players have the choice to make decisions, which other players will judge them on. The game is supposed to be you exploring the world and reacting to what's happening around you, including what other players are doing. Sitting at static camps and blocking out the
possibility of competition is not interesting gameplay.
The PNP was a reaction to $$$. It was the
easiest way for them to "fix" the game for the sheep. The company was looking at the dangling carrot of selling the most copies of the game and getting the most subscriptions. They didn't instead focus on why "kill stealing" was such a turn off for some players - the static content, overcrowded servers, imbalance of mechanics, and the overly time-consuming nature of the game (ridiculously slow regen rates being a sizable culprit here).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Troxx
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
You have a warped, grandiose and twistedly fantasized view of what early Everquest before the PNP was actually like.
|
This is you projecting. I was there, I know what happened. There's plenty of other player testimonies too, not mention the developer's themselves. People had the
choice to compete for whatever content they wanted. Some people, the majority of people in fact, chose not to. That's their
decision. They felt more comfortable not having to take risks or impose themselves or face the possibility of "losing". However, that layer of gameplay being present is part of what made the world more immersive and dynamic. Even if it only happened once a week or something, it was still the mark of a living world, where who knows what would happen next.