They say a picture is worth a thousand words....

Well, not necessarily broken. Mages were/are OP for Classic yes. But most classes just perform better with less assistance. Wizzies are always powerful with their nukes. It's only a few spells you hit depending on encounter. So it's easy to box these. Rangers, once they get the right aa's it's as easy as /autofire on and hit a disc when needed. So no broken, just convenient.

That is indeed the bottom line. I mean, is this what we want for all MMORPGs? For the developers to design it with each player being one character and vice versa, but then as soon as it releases to players, they all want to control 6/12/18+, and teamwork, reputation, etc are all out the window and meaningless?

I mean, you could say that wasn't how it was in the original days of EQ, and it wasn't. But now people know this is possible, and not just the ultrapowergamers. Random casuals do it too. And after these years of tolerance, some folks might not be willing, even in a new game (or not for long), to accept that they can only wield the influence of one character. Even the developers might be tempted to carry this over into new games knowing the revenue it will bring (which was probably an inconsequential amount of EQ's revenue in the beginning, but a huge part now).

So players need to decide what they want, and developers to decide if they're going to develop boxing-centric games or one character per player games. I guess the one unknown factor in future games will be combat design. Many games are shifting toward action combat where you must at least somewhat aim your weapon (compared to EQ where you just target and cast nuke for caster, or hit autoattack and stand close enough while facing). Action combat means that boxing characters effectively would require programs that can duplicate the aim of the primary character; maybe that would be seen as going too far and change player/developer opinion on third party assistance. I mean, it would practically be an aimbot. Though, I must say, I've seen disappointing effort in catching shooter cheaters from gaming companies as well...but at least they would never even entertain the idea of officially tolerating an aimbot.

Some thoughts:

1) "Game like it's 1999". Please provide screen shot of 21 boxed mage armies in 1999.

2) "too much of a good thing is still bad".

I am boxing now very closely to how I did it back in 2000 when I started. Two characters using two PC's, monitors, keyboard and mice. Yes, I will admit, I did forego the two phone lines on my 56k modems this time for the high speed internet I now have. The other line has been dead for years, but is still in the ground running from my house. The 1st slogan is DBG's own advertising campaign. It shouldn't be too unrealistic for people to be upset with what is currently happening. 24-36 bot mage armies isn't anything like 1999. Point #2: A few dedicated boxers here and there running an extra toon is like early EQ. If any of the above statements defending a one man massive mage bot army were true, namely they are good people just having fun, then they would be on the live servers and not a nostalgia server. There is only one reason to start over on a TLP server with 6 months of classic. F*** over people who have a decent sense of moderation. A lot of people are here trying to game like it's 1999, why aren't you?

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

Nothing is preventing you from playing as others play except yourself. The rules are set the way they are and if you don't want to play that way it's your choice. I'm tired of people bashing people because they are playing a way that is within the rule set.

I'm leveling a set to help my guild get into the planes. I pay out of pocket for my subscriptions and I'm tired of the crap people dish about it. People talk about boxes all the time but they've consistently used the behavior they claim others use against me. They've repeatedly nosed in on my camps, stolen my named mobs, trained me, and attacked me verbally. You want to see who the horrible person is you have only to look in the mirror.

Don't hate the player because they are playing by the rule set provided. Hate yourselves for being ignorant and then taking it out on good people who are just playing the game by the rules.

You should all go join the KKK cause that's the discrimination you bring to the server.

They're playing the game in a way that was never intended and it's ruining the experience for a lot of people. And comparing anti-box armies people to the KKK is quite the stretch.

I'd wager that 80%+ of boxers don't pay a subscription but by time with krono on either of the 2 TLP servers.

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;o( Tripe practicing where the gettin's good.

Want to say not in my/our Norrath but gotta keep that statement for the winter TLP server with the new ruleset. I greatly hope it will, despite some players' opinion, have enough solid implementation and some enforcement as to provide those of us who want to journey through Norrath with at least a majority of individual players as opposed to THE INSULT depicted above, the means to do so.

Honestly it does annoy me and even surprise me that some part of the larger community of EQ players are served/seem just fine with this sort of crap and say only one server's worth of players on the special ruleset will bother to play there.

We actually have people coming on these forums now who run these large armies subbed on the TLP servers via utilizing other players' kronos and co-oping what is considered to be the 'norm' in Norrath. (*Imagine the money you'd make DBG if all these abundance of accounts were EACH ONE PAID VIA CURRENT CASH OUTLAY?!)

Some players who do what is shown in the above screenshot are literally crowing about the taking of Norrath and morphing it into a bastardization. That isn't the game moving 'forward to 2015' btw, it is malcontent and malicious people utilizing advantages inherently available in this oldschool game without the advantages of some of the tech available in more recently released MMO's.

Its a good thing that there are various playstyles available and your fun may be different than my fun; but it is not true that there are no absolutes, nor normed standards even inside the gaming community. Btw right there with you Gorian147, it IS disappointing.

Its difficult for me to believe that of those who are interested in EQ because of their prior connections to it, will not want to play on such a server, away from ones where misfit playstyles are the majority. And I'm not referring to the occasional two boxer bringing along his Shammy for buffs -- the shot depicting the actions occurring in the above screenshot is quite different of course.

I guess we shall see. If provided with good implementation and reasonable enforcement will the winter TLP server provide a long lasting population for several years and stay contained, or will it in fact impact players on "other servers" because it provides a much truer EQ-esque playstyle than has been achieved or available in many, many years?

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*Raises a glass of damned good rye to Necromonious!

After 6 pages I was genuinely hoping to find new thoughts and concerns regarding boxing. As that no longer seems possible at this point we're just going to go ahead and close this one down.