So what happened in luclin-pop?

[Rygar]

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

how much interaction do you have with your taxi drivers(porters)? i'm just using their service to get some place and pay them. The most interaction i have is telling them where I am going and giving them my money. if i could instantly teleport to work i think i'd be a lot more happy than a one hour commute.

Paying porters was a revenue stream though, I agree that you aren't making friends on a port but you are giving them money which they may use to buy items. Maybe you want to get in on the action and create an alt to level up with porting in mind.

I don't know about you guys, but I also enjoy seeing every porter's recruitment tag line trying to earn business. Someone had one that tickled my funny bone.... was like 'Come with me if you want to port - now porting to WC / GD / etc'. I paid for a port and told him to keep up those awesome terminator references and he was like 'Affirmative!'. Ba-zing! Just one of those little things I like about the game.

[Dacien]

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

how much interaction do you have with your taxi drivers(porters)? i'm just using their service to get some place and pay them. The most interaction i have is telling them where I am going and giving them my money. if i could instantly teleport to work i think i'd be a lot more happy than a one hour commute.

It's also a logistical thing. Will I find someone to port me? Will I be able to make it to the port area without dying (A real concern for a 46 Paladin in Velious)? Then comes the interaction. They agree to meet me at Kael Entrance! Cool. They heal me up, buff me, and take me where I want to go. Super grateful, we both say thanks.

That whole deal is much more interesting and immersive than clicking a book.

[mr_jon3s]

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

It's also a logistical thing. Will I find someone to port me? Will I be able to make it to the port area without dying (A real concern for a 46 Paladin in Velious)? Then comes the interaction. They agree to meet me at Kael Entrance! Cool. They heal me up, buff me, and take me where I want to go. Super grateful, we both say thanks.

That whole deal is much more interesting and immersive than clicking a book.

This argument is moot as the book wouldn't take you to Kael. So if you are talking about the Wakening lands entrance to Kael you would still have to call a druid. If you are talking about eastern wastes you would still have to run to great divide for the book or for a caster to pick you up and port you out.

Luclin & PoP were the best expansions dispite what some of the players on here say. Numbers don't lie PoP had the most subs and was the peak.

[renordw]

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

how much interaction do you have with your taxi drivers(porters)? i'm just using their service to get some place and pay them. The most interaction i have is telling them where I am going and giving them my money. if i could instantly teleport to work i think i'd be a lot more happy than a one hour commute.

I'm getting so sick of this argument. Druids and wizards give up a LOT on utility spells to be able to port. I quit my Wizard when POK came out, because I could teleport around the same fucking way on my Enchanter, who has dozens of more useful utility spells.

[Psionide]

Anyone comparing POK books to druids and wizards is a fucking moron that needs to go play a different game. Yeah, lets take away one of the only completely player run aspects of the game. Fucking brilliant.

[Tuurin]

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

Anyone comparing POK books to druids and wizards is a fucking moron that needs to go play a different game. Yeah, lets take away one of the only completely player run aspects of the game. Fucking brilliant.

This guy so eloquently illustrates the real reason why people don't like POK books. It has nothing to do with the thrill of adventure that you get from staring at a dock for 20 minutes, then at the deck of a boat for another 30 minutes.

The reason there's so much vitriol about POK books is because the porting classes want to keep charging a tax on travel, and people are willing to pay it since the other option is mind-numbing boredom and a waste of RL time.

[Cecily]

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

I'm getting so sick of this argument. Druids and wizards give up a LOT on utility spells to be able to port. I quit my Wizard when POK came out, because I could teleport around the same fucking way on my Enchanter, who has dozens of more useful utility spells.

Uh... Druids are 100% utility. Wizards are a specialist class, with porting to give them some utility. I'm not seeing where they gave up "a LOT" for ports. All I'm seeing is that you gave up a damage specialist for a different kind of specialist b/c you were upset about ports not being your defining class feature.

[Spyder73]

I have a theory on this, and it has to do with the gaming climate of the era. Back in 1999 you had 2 options – Ultima Online or Everquest. Both games became massively popular and were generating HUGE revenue streams that gaming developers realized could be exploited…thus the age of the MMORPG was born. Around the PoP era EQ had devolved into a MASSIVE time sink (it still is) that very much was about exclusiveness. The casual player was all but relegated into obscurity. But there was a light at the end of the tunnel, new games similar to EQ were being developed. Soon we had the releases of Asheron’s Call, Dark Age of Camelot, Anarchy Online, Final Fantasy XI, multiple Ultima Online X-pacs, Shadowbane, EVE, Starwars Galaxies, Lineage, Horizons….All of a sudden gamers had TONS of options, and Everquest all of a sudden became synonamous with the “Obese basement dwelling man child” that we like to make fun of on these forums all too often.

So when the “new” wore off these new games and people tried to go back to EQ, they found the land of Norrath COMPLETELY different than when they left…Cats on the moon, AA’s, Plane of Knowledge, OMGERD – WHAT HAPPENED!!@!@!#????

So it is my contention that why people here love Velious so much is noting but a symptom of “good ole days” syndrome from when they remember actually enjoying EQ before they left to another game.

[SirAlvarex]

The POK books really took me out of the game. All of a sudden there were these books sitting near cities that you could click and go to a plane where *everything* was. It just made the game feel more like a video-game than a world.

Luclin brought the Bazaar (which I loved) but introduced new and better leveling spots from level 1. That made the old world more barren.

[Centurionx]

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

The POK books really took me out of the game. All of a sudden there were these books sitting near cities that you could click and go to a plane where *everything* was. It just made the game feel more like a video-game than a world.

Luclin brought the Bazaar (which I loved) but introduced new and better leveling spots from level 1. That made the old world more barren.

I know exactly what you mean. The books ruined any sense of "adventure", there was no
journey anymore and to me that was almost half the fun. I did appreciate the bazaar, but after leveling to 80+ on live a couple years ago, I noticed pretty much all the old world, Kunark, Velious, hell even luclin and most of the planes were DEAD... Even on a server with a fairly high population. P99 seems way more populated than the live server I played on lol.