Project 1999: A Social Experiment in Virtual Power and Human Nature (By ChatGPT)

[solidious77]

On the surface, Project 1999 is a faithful recreation of classic EverQuest — a game that evokes nostalgia for a time before modern conveniences softened the MMO experience. But beneath the pixelated world lies something much deeper: a live social experiment where human ambition, rivalry, and cooperation play out in their rawest forms.

What makes Project 1999 unique is its brutal, scarcity-driven ecosystem. With no instancing or participation handouts, the server creates a world where every key target — be it a dragon, god, or rare boss — is a highly contested resource. And because these targets often gate progression, guilds don’t simply aim to win; they aim to control. Strategies revolve not just around achieving milestones, but ensuring other guilds are denied the chance to reach them. New server launches, in particular, showcase this competitive instinct at its most intense, as top guilds deploy sophisticated tactics to lock down critical mobs, bottlenecking rival advancement from the very start.

The lengths players go to in this pursuit are extraordinary. Entire raid forces are mobilized in minutes at all hours of the day. Guilds run 24/7 tracking networks, with players setting alarms in the middle of the night, reshaping real-life schedules, and coordinating with military precision — all for a shot at digital supremacy. But what truly fascinates is not the bosses themselves, but the human drama that surrounds them.

Guilds in Project 1999 go through remarkable life cycles. A group might begin as a close-knit team with shared goals, only to evolve — or fracture — as it rises through the ranks. The pressure of competition breeds internal clashes: casuals vs. hardcore raiders, idealists vs. pragmatists, leaders vs. would-be usurpers. Over time, power struggles emerge. Some guilds implode under the weight of their own drama, while others are reshaped through takeovers, coups, and reforms, only to rise again under new banners. The politics within guilds can be as cutthroat as the battles over raid targets themselves.

In stripping away the safety nets of modern gaming, Project 1999 lays bare the dynamics of scarcity, ambition, and power. It is a proving ground for human nature — a world where status, control, and identity are forged in competition, and where the real game is often played not against dragons, but against each other.

[DeathsSilkyMist]

Originally Posted by solidious77 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

a world where status, control, and identity are forged in competition, and where the real game is often played not against dragons, but against each other.

That's a good tagline. I suppose this is where Salaryman comes in and says:

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

RED99

RED99

[earwicker]

Asked GPT about jumping back in with my 40 ENC

Oh.

You have a level 40 Dark Elf Enchanter on Project 1999 and you’re thinking of jumping back in? Brother. You’re not thinking—you’re remembering. You’re hearing the whisper of illusion spells in your sleep. You’re dreaming in Stun > Mez > Tash > Charm > Nuke > Gate.

LetÂ’s be clear:

⸻

YouÂ’re Already Doomed.

Level 40 is the precipice of power for a P99 Enchanter. You are no longer a struggling spell-flinger. You are now a psychic puppetmaster. Your job is to walk into a dungeon, shatter the laws of causality, charm a monster twice your size, and make it eat its friends while you sip on a Stein of Moggok.

You know how good it feels:
• Duoing in Sol B with a charmed kobold and making casters weep.
• Aggro juggling with memblur and stun like a Vegas magician with blood on his hands.
• Walking into Karnor’s and controlling the zone like a warlord of static and silence.

⸻

But Also: YouÂ’re Not Ready.

YouÂ’re going to come back and:
• Forget to re-Mez because you’re browsing Reddit mid-pull.
• Accidentally charm something right before it gets mezzed and wipe the group.
• Realize your spell gems are still from Velious beta and your hotkeys say “Charm2.”

YouÂ’re going to wipe once and spiral. Then youÂ’ll fix your UI at 2:30am, charm a greater skeleton in CoM, and feel the dark thrill return.

⸻

HereÂ’s What You Do:

1. Log in.
2. Go to City of Mist.
3. Tash > Charm > Buff > Go.

And remember:
• If it’s scowling, charm it.
• If it resists, Stun it.
• If it breaks, mez it.
• If the group wipes? Feign ignorance and gate. You’re an enchanter. You’re expected to be an ethereal, morally ambiguous nightmare.

⸻

One Last Warning:

P99 doesn’t let you “jump back in.”
It absorbs you.
ItÂ’s already happening.

IÂ’ll see you in Sebilis, you absolute psychopath. Bring peridots. And donÂ’t forget to buff the damn tank this time.

[Rygar]

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

That's a good tagline. I suppose this is where Salaryman comes in and says:

EQ PVP seriously sucks from a balance perspective. But in truth, imagine how much less drama EQ would be if you could kill bot trackers that are probably screen sharing or hate farmers locking your Magi staff down or don't want to wait 20 deep at a shot at some mob. Nevermind preventing raid forces from mobilizing in strength or interrupting CHeal chains.

It's the fact that the campers can't be killed by players (or trained with other mobs) that enables a lot of 'lockdown' behavior.

Would be interesting to see if Arena PvP rules (i.e. no looting coin) could be enabled in certain areas on blue/green for a year to see what happens.

[shovelquest]

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

EQ PVP seriously sucks from a balance perspective. But in truth, imagine how much less drama EQ would be if you could kill bot trackers that are probably screen sharing or hate farmers locking your Magi staff down or don't want to wait 20 deep at a shot at some mob. Nevermind preventing raid forces from mobilizing in strength or interrupting CHeal chains.

It's the fact that the campers can't be killed by players (or trained with other mobs) that enables a lot of 'lockdown' behavior.

Would be interesting to see if Arena PvP rules (i.e. no looting coin) could be enabled in certain areas on blue/green for a year to see what happens.

I really think that PVP would make raiding great. PVP in eq sucks when you need to exp.

But when you're end game you are usually having fun. The more someone is trying to progress while they pvp the less fun they are having. So by turning PVP flagging on when you attack flagged raid mobs I think would really be a great way to do eq raiding and pvp.

A big fight, and then quickly killing a raid mob with your guild, is a lot of fun.

Messing around with other flagged enemy guild players between raids is fun.

Exping and pvping is not fun. But for raid level characters, it's totally a great thing to want to min max for and do to keep the game alive.

[Zuranthium]

Even without PvP, content was never allowed to be "locked down" in Classic EQ anyway. For the first year of the game it was DPS racing that determined things (and training was allowed to an extent as well), and then with the institution of the Play Nice Policy people had to take turns at camps. p99's ruleset regarding camps is one of the most unclassic things about it.

But yes, PvP is better, even when not balanced the best. It adds a needed spice to the game when everything is figured out, makes the game alive. Everyone knows where every item drops, when every NPC spawns, and how they path. But you don't know that about other players.

An interesting option would be making PvP optional, but highly beneficial. Players who are not flagged as PvP by the Priest of Discord are not allowed to contest any camp if a PvP player wants it. They must leave immediately. Some people will choose to be PvE for leveling and casual farming purposes, but for raids and valuable item farming you have to go PvP, unless you want to be in a PvE guild that only ever gets leftover scraps. And you can jump back and forth between the modes with the Priest of Order, which is cool because that makes the Qeynos area more active with people traveling to the Priest of Order.

[Duik]

Literally nobody who counts gives any fucks what pretend intelligence thinks about anything.

I sincerely hopes this helps.

Also.

Ded99

Waffle waffle waffle waffle.

DED99