Ok here's my final take on both of these two issues. I think everyone will
agree the camping vs dungeon crawling problem is a direct result of a bad
design decision when EQ was just an idea in the programmer's mind. I think
everyone will agree that server overcrowding is a direct result of bad
forecasts by Verant on how long it would take people to reach 50 and how
long it would take them to complete the expansion. They obviously
miscalculated.
The key issue as I see it is does Verant have a solution that will fix both
problems? It might be that Verant doesn't consider camping a problem and
have no intentions of ever changing the design. The recent discussion on
possible ways to implement dungeon crawling could all be wasted words.
Verant has said all along the game was designed where once you get to 50,
you retire your character until the expansion comes out and start a new one.
So what happens when the expansion comes out and a few months down the road
you have a bunch of level 75 characters complaining about overcrowding again
and threatening to cancel their subscription if they don't add stuff for
level 75 characters to do?
The bottom line is that Verant is in this to make money so its in their best
interest to appease their clientele. Until they tell us their intentions
for the future of EQ, all we can do is speculate. I do think it would be a
smart move on their part to share their future plans with us so we can
provide feedback now instead of when its too late and already in the game.
My personal opinion is that we are unlikely to see resolution on any major
issue affecting EQ until EQ2 comes out. As a result, I'm not going to let
it upset me whatsover at this point. If I find that down the road I no
longer enjoy the game as much as I do now, I'll just move on to another
game. In no way will it detract from my EQ experience. EQ was the best
money I ever spent on a computer game. There are a lot of good games that
have come out since April 99 that I haven't played because of EQ. Diablo 2
is just around the corner so I know for a fact I won't be playing as much EQ
when it does. Neverwinter Nights eventually as well. By the time I get
tired of these two games plus any others that come out, EQ2 will most likely
be out. I'm looking forward to playing a new incarnation of Galtin when it
does.
Galtin of E'ci (who always tries to remember to change the subject line
because he's the one guilty of starting most of the OT threads)
> > People are lazy about changing the subject. :) I wasn't very
> > interested in the overcrowding thread, but someone made the
> > comment that they got a chance to play the game as Brad
> > intended - dungeon crawling. Then I said crawling and camping
> > were mutually exclusive. Then a bunch of people posted ideas
> > about how to make the game crawling-based instead of
> > camping-based, which is when I started putting (OT) on it.
> > Sorry about not changing the subject line.
>
> Ok you win, sorry :-). I still say it don't have a chance of ever flying
> until they solve the over crowding problem though.
>
>