Hi All, I wanted to put my two cents out there. I would like if the next TLP server was two-box, or, if need be, multibox. It can be free trade or not, whatever. I think that the true box system 1) is obviously ineffective at preventing what it aims to prevent, and 2) unnecessarily penalizes players like me for not having a side laptop. Thank you.
I played EQ for years on an ancient Dell desktop that was so old the light grey plastic was yellow, as if it had been chain-smoking for 40 years. I had to turn every option down or off and it was still laggy. You can find better computers than my old Dell used for $50, if you don't ask around and just have someone give you one that is gathering dust in their kid's old room. This is not a difficult barrier to overcome. Not liking truebox because you want to single-comp tab mulitibox is a different issue. My guess is at somepoint they do offer the next Ragefire/Lockjaw. I doubt it will be the next progression server if there is only one offered, but it could be.
It is very effective at doing what it was designed to do, limit boxing to reasonable numbers. It's also not DBG's problem that someone can't pick up a used laptop on craigslist, just as it isn't any other game developer's problem that someone can't afford a system that can adequately run their game.
True box accomplishes exactly what it set out to do. There is a reason the true box servers are far more successful.
That remains to be seen. They have yet to do a non-truebox, AoC server. Until they do, we really have no way to judge whether it is truebox or AoC's that made Phinny successful. And, the truebox servers after Phinny have not been any more successful than the previous round of TLP's (Fippy/Vulak) which were not truebox, which again raises the question whether it was truebox, or something else, or a combination of truebox and something else, that drove Phinny's success. Fippy, in particular, had more successful guilds in era than did either Agnarr or Coirnav to this point, and lasted considerably longer than either of those is likely to do. Perhaps the magic of Phinny was simply due to being the first Truebox server after the abuses of scripted boxing on RF/LJ combined with being the first server ever to allow farming of raid content in AoC's after many guilds got shut out of content on RF/LJ. That's my personal theory, and if I'm right, Truebox only played a relatively small role, and only really mattered for the first 3-4 expansions.
People act like this is really hard to figure out. Yes, if you want scientific certainty, there are no peer-reviewed studies. But use common sense. Do a majority of players like to mostly box when they play? (no) Do people that generally don't box like playing on servers where camps are occupied by people boxing? (no) So, are a majority of players going to like playing on a box-friendly server? ...no All boxers do for DBG is buy a few more accounts than usual. Then they proceed to make the server less fun for everyone else. A 6 boxer buys 6-7 accounts and proceeds to block hundreds of people (if not thousands) from camps over their career on the server. Their the disease of EQ. They are a big reason why this game doesn't capture a larger market looking for cheap retro games that are challenging. I find it almost impossible to believe they don't cost more business then they create. Again, you understand this if you play. This game was designed so that one person couldn't just "go get" all the stuff they need without any help on their own time. That's the WoW model. We all see how valuable gear is on WoW. So they obviously aren't buying krono in the long run...they are generating it. Which means some casual guy is buying krono from the shop -- and that krono is being redirected to a guy blocking the paying customer from getting into a camp and enjoying the game.
Your first point is an assumption based upon your own ideology. If given the opportunity and with a bit of practice, I'd argue that the "majority" of people would box at least 1 additional character. Your second point is also based upon your own ideology. With the advent of /pickzones, this is far less likely to take place. In addition, Truebox has not stopped people with unlimited resources from figuring out a way to multi-box through creative use of multiple laptops or software that has bypassed DBG's mechanisms (though the second option has a much higher rate of DBG actually catching it); this is dually applicable whether you have servers that allow boxing or not. Once a server is beyond Scars of Velious (9 months at the current release rates?) the whole tired excuse of "boxers taking camps, blah blah blah..." becomes a thing of the past. Once Omens of War and DON hit, it's completely irrelevant. Long term health of a server has nothing to do with boxing or not boxing. It has more to do with guilds being able to achieve goals like clearing content and finishing an expansion. Even on Lockjaw and Ragefire, all guilds have cleared content IN ERA post Luclin. Therefor, the idea of AoC's is a good one. It allows guilds to continue to achieve success and clear content without the fear of being blocked by other, more powerful or organized guilds. Boxing is not the issue; not having access to end game content is. The short sightedness of saying boxing is the worst thing in the world will be realized when you see a significant decline in server populations after new servers come out and you have no groups, are no longer able to recruit people to your guild and can no longer achieve your goals without at least 30% of your raid force being able to box. Good luck.
If people are turned off by boxing so they quit the game...is that likely to happen in the first few expansions or 10 expansions in? I agree access to the content is what this is all about. It's 1 person using multiple characters to farm something 1 person usually cannot. In the process, they block others that in popular farm spots that have a line of people that want to be there. But you want to deflect and talk about the casual boxing a healer here and there and trades in EC while grinding, or some other harmless crap no one had a problem with in the history of EQ. That includes me. I don't care and most don't care about a little bit of duo or even trio boxing here and there. While I find that players that pretty much always box to be more annoying, I agree a shaman/warrior truebox won't destroy the game. I obviously referring to the 6-box community that DBG continues to let dominate many of the endgame camps throughout classic. And if boxing is so damn popular as a playstyle...what is it about truebox that seems to make servers more popular across all eras? Why was EQ in decline by GoD without boxing even being a huge issue on live? Maybe the fact that more people are prone to play the first few expansions cannot be accurately explained by "people like boxing content," which is what you argued there. I simply think you are factually wrong to suggest if given a chance to play a only-1 box environment, the majority of EQ players would want to instead play on a "truebox" server that had a habit of letting high profile 6 box krono farmers to go unstopped for months and years on end.
The only way 6 box RMT farmers impacted my gameplay was in super popular camps like Efreeti. Otherwise, there are enough pick-zones of popular content to get what I needed. A whole lot of unnecessary drama in that post for little reason.
Ragefire/Lockjaw are absolutely disgusting servers. I logged on and went to PoK and it was like 5 people standing around all boxing 20+ toons. Disgusting. Why anyone other than super boxers would EVER want to play with that rabble is beyond me - I would wager a majority of the TLP community would agree with that assessment.
You're funny. What server did you log into? When did you log in? You realize we are in DoN right now and almost no one goes to POK right? Everyone is either in the guild lobby, their own guild hall or randomly doing instances across the world. I know on Lockjaw, we have 2-3 people that box any more than 2 groups. The two largest boxers on the server (20+ characters) quit playing 4+ months ago. We have 4 real guilds on the server that are all doing just fine. Also, calling people you have never interacted with "Rabble" doesn't really make your case. So you logged on once! Woohoo! Are you in a guild? Do you know the dynamics and interactions of the guilds on the server? No? Ok, guess you should sit down and stop making claims that the "majority of the TLP community would agree" with your ""essment.
You answered your own question... Truebox and AoC's have gone hand in hand since the advent of both. There has been no experiment to pair AoC's with non-Truebox in the non-test environment. The reason why it's more popular is because of AoC's, NOT Truebox code. My recommendation to Day Break Games is this: For the 20th anniversary, roll up 2 new servers with the following rule sets: Server 1: 3 Month Automatic Unlocks Standard RF/LJ XP Rates Truebox AoCs Free Trade Loot Server 2: 3 Month Automatic Unlocks Standard RF/LJ XP Rates Non-Truebox AoC's Free Trade Loot Don't allow people to transfer between them. Once the new servers are caught up or ahead of current era with RF/LJ and/or Phinny/Coirnav/Agnarr you could allow people to transfer to them I guess based upon the Truebox vs. Non-Truebox ruleset. This solves a number of issues and gives the community varying playstyles to choose from. It gives the people that want Free Trade a server to play on. From a business standpoint the recognized revenue from Potions, XP Pots and Krono will be something that has never been seen before on previous TLPs. And more importantly to the forum warriors, it will finally prove out what is more recognized as the "highest value feature" from a customer perspective.... Truebox… or AoCs. Day Break Games can use that "research" as a template for releasing servers in the future. Test and Learn if you will.
There are only a certain number of people that are interested in TLPs, so setting two up at the same time will dichotomize the population and result in one, if not both failing (plus if you wanted to prove the AOC was the draw, then they should be AOC and non-AOC.)
No. I'm trying to prove whether Truebox is a draw. If one is Truebox and the other is not then you have a valid test. We can all agree that AoC is a good thing and that is not my argument. I'm saying AoC is the deciding factor. Also, I think you underestimate the draw that a free trade economy would provide. I think you'd have people that play or played and have since quit FV wanting to reroll from the beginning and that you'd have some of those players rerolling up on both servers. For those that are dead set against boxing, you have a longer term home in one server and for those of us that like to box 1 or more groups, you have a longer term home for them. Let's face it, the economies of Lockjaw and Ragefire aren't amazing. The populations of both servers were significantly impacted by the release of Phinny, Agnarr and Cornaiv. Those servers may continue on in some form or fashion for what; another 2 years before it gets to a point where there is one or maybe 2 guilds left on each and they will struggle to cannibalize each other until there is no longer progression. Agnarr's population will bleed as people get bored and guilds on Phinny will continue to cannibalize. Cornaiv will hemorrhage post Planes of Power. In addition, you have outside factors such as Classic WoW and Pantheon (whenever that happens). They need to do something new and they need to appeal to multiple types of players.
As some that boxes up to 6 on agnarr before I quit i would never step on a non true box server period. RF and LJ was one show and was enough for one lifetime.
