I think to stop boxing, they simply need to ban more than two logins from the same ip. Anyone who wants more than two is boxing. How many "families" have more than 2 who will want to play classic eq? None. Of course, I bet there will be a bunch of boxers on here saying they have 14 children living with them who love primitive graphics and hard gameplay. Yeah, right. Its simple...p99 is by far the most popular server of the eq emulators - so I bet this one, especially if they ban kronos and do hardcore classic (how dare I want Daybreak to go broke! thank you boxers for being so worried about Daybreak's fiscal health) will be the most popular server they have. If its the success I suspect it would be, Daybreak can figure out some way to make money on it...if not, they can simply drop the ruleset and merge it with another TLP.
I do know a set of spouses with one adult child that shares their home (and a bro-in-law that rarely plays there while visiting) - but only that one outlying case. And that's "only" 4 from the IP.
Yes ban the use of gaming cafes to play eq. The first person to log in gets to play the rest get banned! Oh dont forget schools, work and other large networks with lots of people using the same core IP. The horse must be beaten to death !!!
Yeah, I go into a gaming cafe and 20 people are all playing EQ. Seriously dude? I'm sure there will be legitimate cases where people are prevented from playing at the same time...but there are a large number of other servers where they can play and we all know it will be relatively rare. Not sure why it upsets so many that there may be one server where that isn't the case. 40 slot bags for pay? Why not? If there is no Kronos they have to get all access to play on it, if the server is as fun as I think it would be there may actually be an increase in the number of allaccess players.
You're saying it's alright to prevent some people from playing by hardcore policing tactics? You do understand that if they only allowed one client per IP then any other person using that IP on that network would get banned under your beliefs. You couldn't log into different servers since the IP would come during the login period. Are you saying that DBG should separate all servers and have independent login clients for each server? I feel you should worry less about how others play and play how you want. Unless someone is directly grieving you or harassing you, then I do not see how you case holds much validity. (Everquest is part of DBG's business)
I am guessing he wants the new TLP server to be a Project 1999 clone, because he mentions restrictive boxing policies, hardcore classic, and P99. I certainly would never play on such a server. I'm curious too why he is so upset about boxing. Did he have a bad experience with a boxer? Or is he one these people who believes people should only have one account because it adds to the social experience and forces everyone to be dependent on each other? I'm all for being social, but with a family and fulltime job, I don't want to be forced to be social for everything. I'd rather log in my box cleric and rez up, if I am short on time, than beg a necro to come out and summon my corpse.
I recall when TLP first started that some of the refugees from P99 complained about things like the aggro range of spectres in SRo. People who've been on live all the time pointed out that they've always been like that. Other people from P99 pointed out that it wasn't uncommon to see people in their single digit levels with Epics and assorted BIS gear with the rumor being that if you wanted to gear up then there were ways to do RMT that the owners apparently made money on. The first point just illustrates that when it suited them the devs for P99 made it easy mode and the second is that perhaps it's not so pure after all.
When our accounts are up I typically play 2 and my wife plays a third and our son is anxiously waiting to join us. Before we moved, I'd often go to a cousin's place where he, and his oldest son, another cousin(he'd also play 2) and often a friend would join us. All of us on 1 IP, all playing eq(although not altogether). Was more than one occasion where guilds I had been with in the past had members from across the country meet up and play. I've never been to the EQ conferences(whatever they're called) but from photos posted I assumed they have areas where people can play. most likely all on 1 IP. Well maybe 1 lucky guy will get to play in Vegas while the rest watch him? Only thing you can do is adjust your own attitude towards it.
Boxing is not the problem and never has been the problem. It is the use of 3rd party software by people who choose to be jerks and ruin the game for others. EQ needs a PnP and enforcement of such. DBG should step up and actually take action against those individuals who choose to run bot programs. If someone is caught botting or cheating then the punishment should be so severe that it would actually discourage other cheaters. Perma-banning all accounts associated with the individuals and deleting all their krono would be a decent deterrent. I'm completely confident that people running EQ are highly intelligent and could fix the issue if they were allocated the resources. Unfortunately, I doubt the ownership even cares as they are just out to make a quick buck and then will just move on.
Boxing itself isn't the problem. It's the people behind the boxes and a total lack of any kind of social contracts. Some folks just don't give a damn about anyone but themselves and unfortunately with the lure of Krono and zero enforcement of any kind of PnP policy (assuming they even exist anymore) there's just no incentive at all for them to behave like decent humans. Someone can run around with 27 automated mages for all I care as long as they otherwise play by the same rules as everyone else. But they don't, almost solely because there is zero incentive for them to do so. Even if DBG were to put up a "no-box" server, unless it is policed by Guides with the power to actually do something about problem players in accordance with a properly enforced ruleset it's going to be exactly the same as Ragefire and Lockjaw. And all the other TLPs before it. The issue isn't with the software, the issue is with the wild-west environment DBG seems to encourage. And it's not going to change any time soon, pretty much anything they could do to strictly limit boxing and the incentives to do so would result in less income due to fewer subs and lower sales of Krono. It's a bit of a vicious circle that occurs when you allow in-game and real currencies to meet without seriously considering how that confluence is going to play out in the long term.
To be fair, if they care to monitor it - I'm sure they could see how many IPs are from a single location and then do pop-ins with their handful of staff every so often to verify they're not using means that are frowned upon for the server with a ton more efficiency than elsewhere where one form of problem software is allowed and the other is often indistinguishable from the legal one. Not saying they will (or should) - but if they chose to they could pretty efficiently narrow their field of people to check by doing such.
Why is my underwear all in a knot? Why are you boxers so afraid of this server? There are zero replies supporting my position and yet there is a lot of support for it (or it wouldn't even be being discussed). Seriously? My underwear in a knot? You have 300 other servers to play on. Let me try and explain it, old EQ is about gaming and community and as a multi player game it is a given that there will competition. By boxing you are removing yourself from the community, taking spawns that groups could use and, most importantly, trivializing content. I don't think anyone cares that someone boxes another toon to port, rez or toss a buff or two out but the mage armies are absurd. How can you not see it?
The actual mechanics for EQ are "wild west" and always have been. SOE tried for years to do the whole PnP thing and eventually gave up on it. People on live learned to accomodate and respect each other. It's when the TLP's come around that we see this sort of demand that "something be done" and have Guides and GM's enforce arbitrary and sometimes silly policies with such things and /ran simply because they can't possibly do otherwise. Calling upon Daybreak to create a server based on the toxic hellhole that is P99 doesn't win you any friends either. There have been enough people through the years to try that server and ruleset to know that it's definitely not the answer.
I think it is likely that someone cares. It has been said repeatedly here that EQ is about content. While I think it is about community, others differ. Maybe it is somewhat about both in varying degrees. Boxing allows people,to experience content in a different way. That can't be denied. We have many different desires and goals in EQ and they don't all necessarily combine nicely. Really glad DBG tries to give us some options for different styles of play.
