Let me make this very simple for everyone. There were about 4000+ players on each server when EQ launched. There was no lack of grouping in EQ. Every zone had people in it. This server simply cannot compare to that. Players will have a much harder time levelling up here than they will in the original eq.
Boxing would help to reduce the frustration of not being able to find groups or being able to participate in a larger economy (more players). However, I am against boxing because I've dealt with it too much on live servers. It's annoying beyond words, but I like the people behind the boxing. They're just like anyone else. I have nothing against them personally. One of them that I know on live is a good friend, but when you do content that's changing and fast paced, boxers really slow you down. They get themselves into a position where they play well on their own but suck when they're having to follow people around and can't call the shots - can't control where the group goes so that they can reduce the chances of a bad circumstance. They slow everyone down and your efficiency falls fast. They hamper your ability to survive. Granted, this is better than not finding a group, but it's not necessarily better than new players playing solo-based classes as their main (will elaborate on this in next paragraph).
How is this server going to have a broad array of classes without enough people to group with?? These circumstances will favor solo-classes over group-classes. 100-500 people is not enough!!!! Especially for new players coming into the game. What's going to happen is that most people will initially play the classes that can solo. If they don't, they may get so frustrated they quit. In any case, they'll play the solo-based classes. This is going to limit their ability in the future to take on the tougher content unless they make alts. So I predict that players will have an added motivation to make alts. By that time they will hopefully have leveled their main up to 50. They'll twink their alts and level them up. They'll focus on speed and will be less likely to group with new players, but this won't apply to everyone. Some people have a generous spirit and will group with new players on their twinks, but this is not a given and is certainly not the preferable choice. Eventually, the higher level players will have accumulated a nice array of alts to take on bigger foes. This is how I see the server playing out at this time. The one question remains: Even if people play solo-classes to alleviate the problem of a small population, there's still going to be the feeling that the world is mostly empty. That can't be good, either.
I guess what I'm saying is that without boxing that doesn't necessarily mean that the server will shutdown because noeone can find a group. Instead, it'll just mean more people playing solo-based classes at first when they're new to the server. But, not everyone may like having to play a solo-class and having to accept that the server has a small population. Some people, when they don't see other players or don't get the opportunity to group, will just quit and move on, despite having the option play one of the many solo-based classes.
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