Hybrid XP penalties

[kaev]

[caveat]I am extremely grateful for this server and the opportunity it provides me to relive the old-school EQ experience that I fell in love with back in 1999. None of the things I disliked about pre-PoP EQ on live, nor the things that I dislike about p99 today, stop me from appreciating EQ then or p99 now. This server is grand, thanks to all who made it what it is![/caveat]


I used to believe that EQ's various XP penalties (and the absurd "punish all those foolish enough to group with them!!!!!!!!!" implementation) were the ultimate poster-child for amazingly terrible dev choices marring an otherwise fantastic game. But...

Consider the amazing strategy of removing the opportunity to obtain some valuable non-transferable advantage like the Guise of the Deceiver or the option of binding yourself in the firepot room, but not removing the advantage(s) from the characters who have them, and then whining about players selling accounts. Wow. Just wow. It is very difficult to find words to describe the astonishing lack of awareness of common and easily predictable human behavior presented there:

"Hey guys, let's provide an overwhelming enticement for players to do something we don't want them to do but can't really prevent them from doing. And then let's get up on our high horse and bitch about it when they do it! Yeah!"

All faithfully reproduced here, including the hand-wringing and moralizing by the devs, :becauseitsclassic:.