>Um. That is part of playing on Test.
Um. You'll notice from my previous post that I understood the necessity to
wipe the player base, but not the manner in which they conducted it; ie,
they didn't forewarn anybody.
All things considered, it wasn't the smartest thing to do. Now they've got
a few hundred 'newbies' running around. How are they going to continue
testing high level spells, songs, skills and zones? Wait for a few months
until people are of a sufficient level? More likely, the GMs will do what
they did before and buff a select few to the level they require and they'll
be back to square one again.
I can guarantee that the majority of people who get buffed to 50 or 60,
dumped in a zone and told to test it will not do so objectively. The only
people who should test such places and situations are those who have
actually attained that level, either in test or live, in a progressive
manner such that they understand how a character should be played at that
level. You can't dump a buffed newbie (or even a buffed 30's or 40's
character) into a situation that requires level 50 knowledge.
IRL, I'm a Quality Assurance Analyst. I need to know every nook and crannie
of our product in order to effectively test updates, enhancements, nerfs
(they do happen ;) and changes. The same goes with EverQuest. Sure, any
Tom, Dick or Harry can find geometry errors, typos, broken quests etc, but
you need someone that knows their class abilities inside out to effectively
test the complexitites of their spells/songs and skills.
People treated Test like a live server and played there because the
population is substantially less than on the others. But even so, it would
have been a simple courtesy to warn players a few days to a week before of
their intentions.
And when was the last time they did a complete player wipe? Certainly not
recently, because Lyrnia's bard was level 50.