My only problem with SZ was that the actual game was nearly unplayable for anyone not in the one guild (Hate) that ruled everything. And it's not so much that they had won the right to rule everything as it was just a consequence of the fact that 70% of the players chose the evil team, presumably because evil is more l33t and because evil had the best PvP classes, so the evil team's top guild pretty much couldn't avoid finding an automatic, unchallenged throne at the top. There was some conflict early on in the server's history between Hate and Ruin (both on team evil, for the record), and I think that was the only instance of real competitive PvP ever found on a large scale on SZ. Once that was over and Hate had established themselves as the winners, they were guaranteed to win the server simply because the rest of the evil team would rather join them than compete with their own side, and the neutral and good teams were too small to have a realistic chance. As a consequence of all this, due to the absence of rules on the server, the game became almost unplayable for anyone outside of that privileged group. The non-Hate evils couldn't raid anything worthwhile because it was claimed by Hate, and the other teams couldn't because Hate would effortlessly thwart any attempt. If the teams had started out each with 33% of the playerbase and access to the same classes, the result of SZ could perhaps be considered an achievement. Since team evil always had two thirds of the players and monopoly on the two strongest PvP classes (necro and SK), it was kind of determined from the start. And thus, anyone but members of Hate were severely limited in what content was available to them, and could not hope to compete with Hate on a meaningful level because of the vast difference in gear and numbers. Lack of instancing was what made Everquest's PvE so unique and dynamic, but it was also what made a no-rules PvP server a nightmare for anyone who sought actual competitive PvP. On SZ, you were either the helpless underdog who knew you could never put a dent in the opposition, or you were the ruler who knew you could never lose because of the server's design and starting population. The only interesting PvP (if one regards PvP as a somewhat equal contest where both parties have a chance of winning) was the random occasion when someone from Shadows and Pain ran into someone from Black Prophecy in the middle of nowhere and duked it out. Anything else was a one-sided flexing exercise.
| 
08-12-2011, 03:36 AM
Hybrid Mode
