Quote:
Originally Posted by cd288
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I've never understood this mentality on a classic EQ server. One of the whole reasons classic EQ is what we like is the lack of instances and the whole mentality of "I want to be able to do what I want when I want" not necessarily being catered to. Part of that includes competition during raiding, sometimes heightened competition.
If competition is a reason you wouldn't want a server to be more populated, then why play on a non-instanced server at all? Why not play on a server that has instanced raiding?
Just seems like going to like an Italian restaurant and wanting them to have Mexican food. Like why not go to the place that has what you want?
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IMO it isn't competition that's the issue per se but that it has been e-sport level competition with little in the way of meaningful punishment for rule-breaking and/or blatant cheating. Even where a punishment has been substantial, eventually it's been quietly walked back. The larger the population, the more scarcity of and demand for loot, the more likely there will be that player who will secure each win by any means necessary, outperforming competitors every time, leaving them to choose between losing and breaking rules/cheating as well. None of that is appealing, personally.
So, in that one way, there's a positive to the lower population. People are way more chill, which is how things seemed to have been in classic on most PVE servers.
The downsides of a lower population are obvious though. As someone who prefers grouping over soloing and raiding, most zones have now been reduced to soloing or bringing your own guild group; without any of the previous fancy ZEM changes, those zones remain largely empty. That said, they are decent options for soloing, though less so now for bards due to the anti-swarm rule in dungeons.
It's not worth pitchforking/torching over, but the time to establish that rule was years ago when the population was high and groups were abundant, forcing those problem players to either solo outdoors or join groups indoors, assuming anyone would have them after ruining their server faction. On blue, much of Norrath is basically an RPG. As unclassic as that feels, it can be fun experimenting around, finding new ways/areas to solo. This is the game, for now at least.