Two-Boxing

[Danyelle]

I never said that I was for or against i, though. I simply was stating that using the "ban boxing because boxing being banned is Classic" argument is stupid because it is, in fact, not Classic. I never stated I was pro or anti-boxing though.

In fact I'm in the middle ground. Letting free boxing is indeed bad, but cutting it out completely can be just as harmful. Especially in this situation.

Let's put it this way. On one hand, if you permit free boxing, you have people rolling up however many toons their computers can handle. For some they may barely be able to handle one account as it is, others may be able to load up around 30 at once. I personally can load 12 if I manage it right. There would be some differences. For example, without MQ2 availability, boxing all those toons would be hard as hell if not impossible. Although, arguably, by being able to load them all in it may encourage them to try to use MQ2 regardless of rules being set against it or not. Also Titanium handles like shit with modern PCs. While Underfoot or Live clients etc can load up that many, Titanium may cause issues with it. Cutting that number in half. Either way you look at it, once someone gets 6 toons in he/she never groups again. This breaks the "multiplayer" aspect of Everquest and destroys the game's foundation.

On the other hand. We have people backed up for like 4 freaking months waiting on IP exemptions just so they can play with their children, spouses, or friends/room mates. I don't care if it's a free server or not, that's unacceptable. Especially considering many people have donated, in many instances, several times. At that point, for them, it's no longer a "free server". Whether it was by their own will or not, you owe those people good service. 4 or so month backups on IP exemptions is not good service. No corporation would be able to get away with something like that, why should this be any different? I obviously realize that you have a lot of other things on hand to deal with. But if you can't keep up with that kind of thing you have 3 options. "Hire" more staff, enable limited boxing, or remove IP exemptions altogether. It doesn't seem the devs wanna go with option 1, and option 3 would piss people off lowering the pop even more than it already is. That leaves you with option 2. I can promise you this delay in response time is a large contributing factor to low and declining server pop (in addition to things like response time to petitions, time between content release, and massive petty trolling feuds between top end guilds and players that never get resolved).

The best course of action, in my opinion, is to enable 2-3 toon maximum accounts up at any given time per IP, and then do away with IP exemptions entirely (and revoke IP exemptions already handed out). This will permit people to come in with family and friends under the same roof and get right to playing, as opposed to waiting an eternity. It will still leave room for grouping. It also covers things like "I don't ever have enough time to sell in EC because when I'm not doing real life things, I'm out xp grinding or raiding" or "I play at night/am in a different time zone when few people are on and can rarely find a group" or "I just had some asshole steal my stuff while trying to do an item transfer..." either because "....he was a thief and /ex'd" or "...because he found the stuff I dropped and picked it up" etc etc.

Besides, if there are indeed that many people strongly against it, I doubt those people would box even if it was permitted (if you do, that's kinda hypocritical don't you think), which means that the only people boxing would be those few NOT against it. People using the raised IP limit to play with family or friends under the same roof aren't really boxing and don't count. So I fail to see how that small number would cause any harm, unless you all would give in to the tempting evil vice that is "boxing" the minute the IP limit got raised, despite your firm stance against it.

[pharmakos]

if boxing was permitted i would start to box

i prefer it not be permitted though

[Slave]

Originally Posted by Moneysacks [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

i can tell ya bazaar is one of the things that ruined player interaction and im very very against it . If u dont like to sit in EC and sell there is a few people that sell stuff for people . USE THEM its legit

[Politely as possible]

Typical EC conversation:

"How much for HBC?"
"2000"
Silence.

It doesn't foster a whole lot of player interaction as opposed to things like grouping and killing monsters, which you can't do when you're sitting in EC spamming your sale list because there's no bazaar. You sure as hell can't get every item in the game you need on your own in any kind of reasonable time period.

If I didn't HAVE to sit in EC all day buying and selling things once in a while I'd have a LOT more time to group and make more friends.

[maahes]

It is an argument that has its pros and cons. I personally know a dozen people that would still be here if they allowed boxing. Basically a server is going to come along that allows boxing but also claims to respect the "classic" feel everyone wants and will slowly claim population. In the mean time more people who nerd rage over boxers will join this server. Only time will tell.

[Honest]

Originally Posted by Slave [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Politely as possible]

Typical EC conversation:

"How much for HBC?"
"2000"
Silence.

It doesn't foster a whole lot of player interaction as opposed to things like grouping and killing monsters, which you can't do when you're sitting in EC spamming your sale list because there's no bazaar. You sure as hell can't get every item in the game you need on your own in any kind of reasonable time period.

If I didn't HAVE to sit in EC all day buying and selling things once in a while I'd have a LOT more time to group and make more friends.

I like EC (obviously my own opinion). I Like being able to haggle. Having a trading area for goods that exchange hands from player to player is part of the immersion. There have been times where i've grouped for xp and have done so in full groups in near silence. If you don't want to sit in EC, post your wares on the forums. I have a friend who does that pretty regularly. Seems to workout for him.

[pharmakos]

what if they allowed boxing but only on red =p

i of course understand why red players might not want this. it would do a lot to bring up red's population tho =p

[Kevlar]

Originally Posted by pharmakos [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

what if they allowed boxing but only on red =p

i of course understand why red players might not want this. it would do a lot to bring up red's population tho =p

I'd think it would be welcomed. Being a solo melee on a red server is even worse than it is on blue.

[Harazzer]

Boxing in a pvp situation is very self correcting. TzVz allowed 2 boxing (2 chars per ip vs 1) yes you could "solo" aka duo a lot of stuff, and 3 people 2 boxing could form an incredible group to do a lot (like planar runs). The only issue is that the server has around 400 or so at peak times, if people could 2 box i think the population would rise somewhat plus there would be all the boxed characters in game it may push the server pop near 4 digits again. With the vast majority of the characters being in the 51-60 area at this point the server probably could not support it. TZVZ never really got near the population levels of p99. However I believe red99 would be an excellent candidate for this since its population has dwindled to pathetic levels.

[Slave]

Originally Posted by Honest [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I like EC (obviously my own opinion). I Like being able to haggle. Having a trading area for goods that exchange hands from player to player is part of the immersion. There have been times where i've grouped for xp and have done so in full groups in near silence. If you don't want to sit in EC, post your wares on the forums. I have a friend who does that pretty regularly. Seems to workout for him.

It's great that you like to play EconomyQuest but the waning server population is going to preclude GroupQuest soon, and part of the reason for that is that there are 60 players in EC at nearly all times who would probably be playing EQ instead of EconQ if they were allowed to buy and sell their goods in a reasonable way instead of having to do it for hours and hours in a dimly lit tunnel using the shift button in a volume that nature never intended.

Have no fear, there will still be plenty of people like you, and you can continue wearing out your shift + up, and the alphabetical keys that make up the word 'offer', 'ty', and 'np', but most of us have learned the value of a semi-automated bazaar system over the last 13 years of the internet.

[Honest]

Originally Posted by Slave [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

there are 60 players in EC at nearly all times who would probably be playing EQ instead of EconQ if they were allowed to buy and sell their goods in a reasonable way instead of having to do it for hours and hours in a dimly lit tunnel using the shift button in a volume that nature never intended

There are many, myself included, who sit in EC when they don't have attention enough to play in a group. I usually sit in EC while at work, watching a movie, doing shit around the house.

Regardless of your opinion or mine the point of the matter is I don't think it's changing.