Race and Class Combo Clash: Round One Results

Several thousand votes were cast by automated voting. Several folks cheated to get what they wanted. And they got caught.

As to the conspiracy theories, if we wanted to make Dark Elf Rangers we could. Why have a vote if we didn't want people to use it? What could we possibly be getting out of a rigged vote? It's more work for us, not less, and forces us to use resources to monitor the results for fairness.

Spoken like someone in on the conspiracy, Piestro! It's just as I feared, this goes all the way to the top! (..of the community manager chain anyway)

It would be pretty cool to someday be involved in a conspiracy. Beyond getting the donut I want on donut day. I am actually involved in a conspiracy in that regard.

Why the idea that there is a conspiracy at play here is silly:
a) If they were truly had pre-decided what new race/class they wanted to make, they would have just made it. The players were never promised a vote that they suddenly had to deliver on, they could have just said "here's your new race/class combo" and been done with it.
b) If you ignore that first point and assume some pressing need to post a fake poll, why would they have ever allowed the displayed vote count to swing against they way they wanted it to go? Since it's all voted on and displayed through their servers (as opposed to some third-party intermediary), they could have just programmed it to never swing past, say, 48/52 in favor of their chosen combo.

People really need to understand the principles behind Hanlon's Razor a bit better before they start pointing out shadows that don't exist.

this morning looking back at the results it showed Dark Elf Ranger won with 62% and Dark Elf Bards 68%
I truely think they need to redo the system and do revotes, they did not fix all the exploits, can still vote more then once a day

You're allowed to vote daily:

It also locks it so you cannot vote again during that day, if they didn't want you to vote more than the once they'd have locked it for good after the first vote.

And don't worry Piestro, I don't think this was a conspiracy. I'm just very very disappointed that the majority of people actually wanted Dark Elf Rangers Drizzt! And that the only people that apparently wanted the sexy kitties to be sexy druids were cheaters....and me.

Why don't you just make it so every race can be every class. I wannabe anything I want. Its not like the starting races really effect stats anymore with how easy ti is to max them.

No! They did this in EQ2 and it was horribly homogenous. There was very little that was unique about the classes or races. This is a terrible idea.

Meh I'm ok with that idea. It opens up a lot of roleplay options.

I already roleplay the "evil race gone good" or rather neutral. Fixed good aligned factions through hard work etc, and despite being technically agnostic I proclaim that I worship Luclin.

There's already very little unique about what people play on EQ...anyone that can be a dark elf, is. And anyone that can't, buys gold tickets until they can. I mean i love dark elves, but they are so ungodly over populated on Norrath. That, and the Drizzt names, is honestly why I'm so opposed to this DE Ranger stuff. But....meh...whatever people want. Can't really change it. And if you try to, Sony catches you and takes my sexy kitty druids away

I have to agree the idea of a Troll Wizard would make no sense to me.

So aside from the issue that this is something that not everyone wants, there are certain issues with implementing certain combinations.

For example adding robes to trolls is a non trivial task, or adding animations so dwarves can tiger claw. Adding combinations that have significant issues like this is a different amount of work than the proposed combinations.

If you're interested in exploring some of these limitations more find a friendly enchanter who will cast illusions on you. It quickly illustrates some of the problems that would need to be addressed.

which is false if you know how you can vote more then once a day still

Because the founders of EverQuest envisioned a world where the races had rich, unique cultures and we are carrying on that tradition.

The rich, unique culture stuff can stay intact just let people pay 10000sc (so likely $25 minimum even with triple SC and 500sc re-occurring, alternatively make it a direct purchase only like subs) for the chance to choose one from a list of every PC race illusion, pretty sure they all exist as GM items, copy those, make them base 10+ hour duration, FV No Trade and not work with Project Illusion.

Thanks to the friendly Enchanter it's trivial to test out a racial appearance and class combo and be aware of Robe, Tiger Fist or whatever issues and only make the purchase if you're satisfied with Troll Wizard or Dwarf Monk as is. Next up 10+ hour Petamorph items and 10+ hour illusions other than PC races.

It's obviously something the players are interested in, it's obviously something that would generate far more money for Sony than it would take to implement and if Dwarves appearing to be Monks broke anything it would have already happened in the last 10 years or so since Project Illusion AA and Essence of Dwarf are in the game.

Instead you're spending more time on running a poll that it would take to make every racial illusion available to every class and generating less income. Now do you understand why you have staffing cuts? You're more interested in rich, unique cultures and 4 layers of tamper proofing a poll than making money.

Psst now Gukta can be monks (well in March) and they can already be shaman, the next combo should be Gukta Beastlords! With mosquito pet, just like Piestro's illusion!

Dark Elf Ranger? Get out of town. Evil is Evil regardless of the forgotten realms and Drizzt Do'Urden. Any class should be able to be any class as long as it falls within Good, Neutral or Evil possibilities in the Fantasy Genre. No Dark Elf, Ogre, Troll or Iksar should be able to become a Paladin, Ranger or Druid.

I just hope the name filter is able to take care of all these Drizzt Do'Urden.
It may not be that bad, though. The younger generation may not know about Drizzt. D&D is so '70s.

As long as it is what Devs want....

That culture has already seen itself start to break down in ways that the original game's vision doesn't really apply anymore. As an example, every race and every class can start in Crescent Reach. As a starting city, Crescent Reach, and the Plane of Knowledge right off of it, are cultural melting pots of various races and beliefs meeting together.

I'm not saying that we should go back to the olden days of forcing everyone to start in their racial city, but right now, with the way that things are, this really is a moot point to say the least.

Player choice is going to win out at the end of the day, regardless. There can always be a lore explanation for something, just as the devs were able to make all of these particular (some of which are controversial) race/class combos work through writing.

As a complete and total aside: It's of course expected that a dark elf is likely to win, considering that most people play Dark Elves. I think the last poll I saw in EQ2 years ago had Dark Elves ahead of the curve in terms of players represented by a rather large amount.

Then open up the combinations that don't have technical limitations, of which they are a ton.