Lots of EverQuest news today. The official rules/outline of the Ragefire Progression Server were released. Looks like we’ll be playing Classic EverQuest for 6 months, then Kunark will come out and we’ll have 6 months before Velious, etc. Rumor is that the beta will start here really soon, maybe even this week(end).
You can read up on all of the rules elsewhere. What I want to focus on are two specific details: (1) XP Pots and (2) Newbie Gear.
XP Pots
Buying experience boosts from the cash shop just rubs me the wrong way for a few reasons. First off, we have to pay a subscription in order to gain access to the progression server. To then sell experience potions — a huge advantage — goes against the spirit of the game as well as hurts the community by fragmenting the payers from the non-payers.
EverQuest was never about rushing to the end for me. Yes, it was about progressing, but I don’t see wanting to play to progress as the same thing. To pay extra money on top of a subscription just to get through the game faster seems counter productive to why we are playing on a progression server.
Newbie Gear
There’s this whole debate about whether or not gear with stats that wasn’t in during the classic days should be added to the game. It will be added, but the “revamped” uber gear won’t make it it until at least a year and a half (or two years?) from now. Ultimately here’s my stance: As long as the gear they add does not detract from or alter the natural desire and or progression of gear as it stood without the newbie gear then I am fine. In other words, people should still want the gear that dropped and the “newbie gear” should quite literally be newbie gear.
I’m not in the group that’s quite as fussed about it existing at all. It’ll definitely make the game easier if the difficulty curve remains untouched. It’ll be the equivalent of a minor twinked character. I twinked all the time in EQ. I’m twinked in P99 thanks to a friend. I’m fine with that.
There is quite literally no way on earth to please all the people who might want to play on this server. With the official endorsement of P99 there is now at least one viable alternative for anyone who isn’t happy with the choices Daybreak make.
Short of building your own time machine, whatever these two projects offer is the best we are going to get right now and it’s a lot more than fans of almost any other MMO are going to get. In the end neither of these projects can turn back the clock; they are alternative ruleset servers, something EQ has offered since the very beginning, and the choice is the same as it always was: play under the ruleset on offer or don’t play at all.
If people want to buy xp pots and wear out-of-context gear to level faster on a server that will be level-capped at 50 for six months that’s their problem. Nice long wait twiddling their thumbs waiting for Kunark they’re going to have.
@Bhagpuss: As long as the vocal minority isn’t in control, I’m fine with that. The people who will 6-box, buy xp pots, and be level 50 with raid bosses down in under 3 weeks will radically alter the ‘feel’ of the server and be pitching a huge fit. Just look at the official forums. Before I stepped away from the computer last night, the official forums were slammed with the vocal minority hating the fact that we’re in classic EQ for 6 months.
I don’t know if I’ll even come close to 50 in 6 months. I sure hope I do. This will be my main game for a long while. But I’m also not in a rush. What’s in it for the VAST majority? Every raid boss (Fear/Hate/Sky) will be completely camped and locked down. The fun in this will be in the journey and reliving the memories. I’m struggling to think about that as something I could ever want to buy my way through faster.
It’s already double xp with no race/class penalties. In classic having a troll SK in your group was xp murder, even in a party of 6 you felt it. I don’t even know what kind of xp potions are sold but with any kind of boost on top of what everyone is already getting, there are going to be people raiding in the first few weeks. I think that’s unfortunate.
@jenks: Indeed.
So I have come to realize lately that I am old and never boot up my pc at home any more because I have my phone. So probably mmos the way I knew them are dead.
But for the niche players like me who would even be tempted with a classic hardcore EQ server, selling xp pots is 180 degrees from the whole appeal.
And before you say, don’t buy any, a large part of the initial appeal over a decade ago was because nobody could buy any. I will never forget when I first saw a player levitating over the sand, and thinking not only am I months away from his level, I am the wrong class. And there are no respecs.
So this is a crash grab by the new owners. One that will fail horribly because your true niche doesn’t want it.
I said Smed had 13 months from the acquisition. I’m still right about that. Tick tick. Resume refresh time.
As someone who has never played Everquest 1, this is still a bummer. I am excited about classic server for the reason of its a difficult and longer game. I want a game where it takes time to do things, where I can log on at any point and the smallest progress is great because its progress. Now a days in MMOs you have 2 hours to spend? Great you just went 30-40. I want 2 hours to mean 5% of a lvl.
Most current MMO players see this as a bad thing, but the charm of MMOs to me was making small progress, not these wholesale spam dungeons and be geared in 2 days of playing.
I used to play ffxi for an entire weekend and I was ecstatic to just go up 2-3 lvls. Or sometimes all I did was knock out a super important quest that opened up access to a zone I could lvl in.
This seems like nothing more than a cash grab (and it will work). I mean chances are Ill purchase the xp pots. But in the end I’m not happy about it.
As much nostalgia as I have EQ (started p99 last week) sitting in GFay for countless hours watching orc trains was nearly as fun as say Unrest, befallen, or the hole. I’m excited to go do my own epic quest as well as participating in other doing theirs. I’m willing to camp Trakanon all weekend again(bard). I’d subscribe to this.
I remember EQ doing a milestone based progression server. I hope this is the case. People will always squander what others hold precious, that’s just life, I remember guilds locking people out of the elemental planes in PoP by camping Solsesk Ro(sp?).
I would personally estimate 4 months per expac is a good speed, rolling out 4 a year over 5.5 years. At least 16 or so of these would be new to me.