[Lagaidh]

I love most classic EQ, but the book just never made sense to me. I can agree with it encouraging social behavior in groups like the original poster said. However, EQ being a pioneer in its genre and influencing all MMOs that followed it, there are some things they just got "wrong" out of the gate.

I just feel like you should always be able to monitor yourself and your immediate surroundings in a video game. This is opinion, but it seems to be shared by the masses. EQ was (and ... is) a visual treat. I always hated staring at what amounts to a user interface menu for major tracts of my casters' lives.

I can get the pro arguments fully, and even agree with them on some level. For instance, the notion that regenerating magical energy might take a trance-like concentration from the individual, and as such, he or she ISN'T aware of the immediate surroundings. In my perfect world, this would be handled in some other way visually. Think warped graphics kind of like being drunk, but the warp flows from your avatar in 3rd person view. Meh I dunno. Blahdee blah!