Quote:
Originally Posted by AenorVZ
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Others have correctly pointed out the distinction between Everquest and WoW. I wouldn't still be playing the game 23 years later (not currently playing on P99) if it wasn't for the direct competition over content. When I played WoW beta and saw the implementation of instancing, I didn't make it past the first month of launch. Even though every server I've played on prior to Green I was on the losing end of those bottlenecks, it was the challenge of the competition between the haves and have nots that kept me coming back.
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I originally thought this too when I first played a game with instancing (was it WoW?), but then I realized it's superior. If you're a normal person with a job and a life you have limited play time and it will be in prime time if you're in the U.S. so the game is crowded, so you may never get a camp for an item. It's not even a competition at that point, it's just the simple fact that with your limited time you will find the good camps always taken. Want to camp the AC for those boots? Good luck. Maybe if you stay awake until 3 AM and someone gives up the camp.
Now every MMORPG has instancing. It lets you play at your pace and not have to poopsock or sacrifice your life.
I don't think DAOC had instancing, did it? It also didn't have much of a need to camp spawns in dungeons. It wasn't that kind of game. That's the game I left EQ for shortly after Luclin launch. EQ was fun but required way too much of a time commitment. If you weren't playing for hours every day and sacrificing your life on weekends to stay online you weren't getting the gear you wanted, and the game is all about getting gear. With DAOC it was a pleasant mix of much more casual and life-friendly PvE with fun PvP, neither of which required poopsocking and becoming a monitor-tanned shut-in.
Guess WoW was similar. I started in WOTLK and was already used to a more casual and life-friendly PvE, having left EQ's poopsocking far behind.
Not complaining that P99 emulates that. Not at all. The lower pop compared to live at the time and the simple fact that I only play games very casually now means that camping doesn't bother me. P99 is played for nostalgia and relaxation now and I actually can get camps here at the times I play.