[mixxit]

Rumours about Kunark before it came out

There are suddenly lots of things going on in the EverQuest community. Much of it controversial, but then isn't it always? The new proposed expansion pack. The new proposed 'race war' server. The reduction of the experience loss for death. I'm sure there are many more, the majority of which revolve around the old "my character class sucks!" and "your character class is too powerful!" crap, which I tend to ignore anyway. And since I like to keep this short, I'm going to ignore them now too.

But I wanted to spew out a few thoughts about the other three topics.

The new expansion pack sounds great. The new lizardman race sounds great. And I can't wait to see the new continent. What is that? We shouldn't have to pay to get the new continent? They promised us five and only gave us three? Well, the folks that have been following this game on the net were told three, not five. But the early boxes (I hear that it's been changed on the new ones) said that there were "...five enormous continents," for us to explore. Some people feel that they were lied to, that Verant is trying to rip them off by promising five and giving us three. But to me that's obviously not true. For months before release Verant was telling us that there would be three greatly enlarged continents, not five. Somebody, whoever was responsible for the creation of that box, screwed up. There's no way it was done on purpose. I can't even figure out how it is that some folks think that lying to the customer is something that a service industry can afford to do. The number five of the box was a mistake, a stupid mistake and nothing more. How about this, Verant... put the following on the box for the expansion: This expansion pack includes a new race, dozens of new enemies, new quests, and much new adventure! We are also throwing in, free of charge, a new continent! Maybe that will make all things well with the lawsuit crazy folks out there. Heck, not even Jag and Bunboy are calling for someone to sue Verant...

But the new pack will also be raising the level limit to 75. Now I think I understand this move, but I'm not sure that I like it. I understand it as a corporate decision to keep the powergamers playing. Some folks have already reached the 50 level limit (a possible topic of a long rant on its own), and Verant wants them to keep paying to play. So raising the limit makes sense. It really won't affect the rest of us much, to my 7th level bard a 50th level rogue is just as dangerous as a 75th level rogue. But as a player it worries me a bit. I have nothing against powergamers. Many of my close friends are powergamers. But isn't in their nature to 'win' a game and then move on? As a roleplayer I would be much happier if Verant would let them win, let them finish and move on. Let the game settle in and allow the roleplayers to take over. Thin out the powergamers by letting them move on to Quake 3. After all, I'm still hoping that EverQuest really is, as it says on the box, a roleplaying game.

The race war server. Now there's an interesting idea. Create a server where Trolls are all +pvp with all High Elves, where all Teir'dal are able to sneak up and kill any Dwarf. It's not a bad idea. And it's certainly a step in the right direction. Add faction hits for killing PCs and you might have something good here. But there's an idea I like better (well, actually there are several ideas that I like better, but I'm only going to talk about the one that's closest to the race war server). I'd rather see the division made along lines of religion. The difference would be subtle, but very important. Ally the gods into groups that make sense, make four of them if that's what you want. Let's base conflict on the ethos of the character, not his birthplace. If I make up a Human ShadowKnight, it would be reasonable that I would be +pvp with paladins of any race. Most of this would still fall along racial lines. Most gods that a race can choose would be aligned with each other. But maybe Innoruuk and Bristlebane aren't aligned. That might mean that the thieves and priests of the Tier'dal don't get along so well... hey, that makes sense!

I understand that the basic idea behind this new server is to allow a broader range of pvp activity while leaving homelands fairly safe. And that's a noble idea. But wouldn't it be far more interesting if you use the gods to align characters, and if you felt the need, put a limit so that no characters under 5th are pvp. The race war thing will not stop a determined Ogre from slaughtering all the Human newbies he can find. And heaven forbid that anyone should start a Half-Elf in Qeynos, he'd be open season to any Human in the city... With the religion idea everyone is a bit open, and no race (like poor half-breeds) will be isolated.

Picture the same scene on both proposed servers. A band of Teir'dal run into a band of Humans. After much threatening and bellowing, they get angry and decide to kill each other. On the race war server, they all fight until it's over. But on the, um, god war server the Human ShadowKnight can't attack his brothers in War. He can kill the inkie warriors and wizards, but he and his fellow knights of Hate and followers of Innoruuk cannot harm each other unless they declare a formal duel. And that makes sense, lots of sense.

This idea might also make for some interesting side effects. What if priests could actually convert people? Want to switch sides? Then you need to find a cleric to the god you wish to worship. That cleric will have to perform a quest (one that would require a high level cleric) for you in order to get one use of a scroll that contains the power to convince the god to accept you. And he takes a tremendous faction hit, from your old god and his as well. And of course you would become hated by all followers of your old god and not be too trusted by those of the god you now follow...

But the thing that has me the most interested is the reduction of the death penalty. Please, please read Onnie's article, it really hits on the emotion of this change. It's really a tremendous loss to the game. I've been playing solo a lot lately, before the patch. I find that other people tend to get me killed (I tend to try to save people from their own mistakes). So I travel alone with most of my characters. I hated getting killed. It wasn't too devastating (I wanted an even larger penalty for death), but it was enough to make me wary. But since the patch, you know what I do now? I sit my warrior in BlackBurrow, at the top near the exit to the Hills. He just sits there until someone decides to let a scrawny Gnoll get away. I hunt the Gnoll down and kill it. I wait until trains come rolling up from the underground, and I intercept them. I play the street cleaner. And he's only 8th level, meaning that I get killed a lot doing this. But it costs me little. And since I'm not a caster I don't have to relearn my spells (a huge pain), I just run back, get my stuff, and set to watching again. I rarely get experience for any kills, as I'm usually just finishing them off for those that are too lazy or too stupid to do so themselves. But my character has been gaining experience this way anyhow...

Sorry, but I really hate this decision. I hated it when they made it so that low level characters don't lose any experience for death. Hell, they gain food for dying! I know that the idea was to convince people to stop playing it safe. It was designed to pull people off the zone borders and into the depths of the dangerous zones. But it won't work. Those that are not willing to risk the experience loss in the heart of a dangerous zone will not be willing to lose their equipment either. Those people are going to stay on the zone borders and earn their 'zone warrior' merit badges many times over. Those that are braving the scary places are going to do it anyway. You may have pushed a small few off the zone edges, but not many. And you're stealing the heart of the game from the rest of us. You're stealing the thrill of a good fight, the accomplishment of a risk well rewarded. Hell, leveling is easy, so you're even stealing the value of being a good powergamer.

Well, it's time to put this issue up, so I'm done with this editorial. But I'm not done with these issues.

Editorial by Absor

Please enjoy this issue of EQX!