Boxing Is The Plague Of EQ

I recognize the nostalgia of thinking back to the early days of EQ and high level of social interaction, but that ship has sailed. And what exactly is the goal of OP here? To force people to socially interact through elimination of boxing? Frankly in regular group play, I find playing one character boring most of the time. On raids, it can be nice and efficient if the guild can support mostly single player and go at a fairly quick pace. Outside of that, some people like to go after ever insignificant achievement out there and some box support can really make things less frustrating.

I think fundamentally there can be plenty of social interaction in EQ these days, it just happens in different ways. Really, it's far more guild-centered now. It happens on discord group voice channels and stuff. People share RL stuff like cooking or cool cars and whatever. I've had a couple of great guilds on recent TLPs that were semi-casual filled with a wide range of single players and six-boxers with everything in between. The highest level of interaction and cooperation came on raids, but there was plenty of small-man events and static groups.

If you like super tiny guilds or get all your LFG action from general chat and pickup groups and get frustrated when some random person isn't sending you a tell--yeah you'll be disappointed. I don't even log into general chat. Guild chat is general chat. The game has moved on, it still brings good times for lots of folks though and I'd wish people would get off this high horse about boxing. I think the game would have already sunset without boxing.

I recommend Helldivers 2 if you are interested in somewhat forced group play. It's pretty fun but you will want some other people to do Challenging+ Difficulty.

TL;DR

8/10 on this thread!
3 pages in a couple hours, and its a nice break from the all the "no one (named me) wants true box let me ks in next tlp" posts.

People playing multiple characters: OK*
Using automation software: NOT OK
*per the rules of the server. Playing multiple characters on a Truebox server must be Trueboxed. Playing multiple characters on a limited Box server is limited to the rules of the server. Do not drive or operate heavy machinery while playing multiple characters. Ask your doctor if playing multiple characters is for you.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

No one is defending the use of third party software...

Many are claiming that playing more than one character is unfair and should not be allowed...

Some even think True Box means NO BOXING.

I started boxing on Coirnav because I was maining a rogue, who couldn't solo anything. After sitting LFG For days in classic and Kunark, or spending an hour forming a group just to grind for 30 minutes, then have the Cleric or tank leave or ninja AFK, it got really old. Finally I got a group in Sebilis, and we had the SBC drop, which was ninja'ed by the healer who just dropped group afterwards. That was the last straw. So I bought a second computer and started two boxing. That way I could at least kill easier mobs during downtime, while waiting for friends / guildmates to have spots in their groups. Since I was boxing a healer, it helped me get groups on the rogue when they came as a pair.

Over time, as more and more people left the server, eventually there were just no groups to be had. So gradually over the course of 2 years, I bought more and more computers and added one character at a time. The next TLP I played on, I realized it was easier to just box my own group. I didn't have to rely on other people's schedules. I could take breaks when I wanted and then have a group when I came back. I could go to any camp I wanted to, and didn't have to worry about a group mate ninja looting anything. It made my quality of life, and enjoyment of the leveling process much better.

TLDR: Boxing isn't the problem. It's a symptom of poor population, inconsistent groups, and bad players.

Don't blame the symptoms until you fix the problem.

This is as far as some people read before HEATHEN! THROW INTO LAKE TO SEE IF HE FLOATS

They may have been a response to losing players, but they only caused more player loss IMHO. That's when I gave up in any case.

I'd rather box than merc, at least on lower lvl servers.

If this isnt the single most important quote that I wish people understood, I dont know what is.

Hate to break it to you but EQ is a boxing game. If it wasn't for boxing this game would of died a long time ago. Not allowing boxing outside of running a bunch of cheap PC is just dumb.

This game needs to make money to keep the servers. You spend 17.99 a month I spend over 300. When they create true box servers the boxers will not play at all so they lose out on all that money from us. People like you complain non stop but will always play on the new servers. I know you said you wouldn't play but you will. You guys always do.

If you don't want the box rmt armies on your the true box server STOP paying them to level your alts.

every guild i have played in some guildies and myself box, has eq population becomes older and have health issues boxing is a god send ,if you have medical issues,take the kids to school pick them up etc you can afk,oops the washing machine has finished her cycle afk put the close in the dryer, afk to cook etc boxing is a necessity in eq for a lot of players.

My worst times in this game are almost exclusively from doing PUG's. For whatever reason many people (probably a good portion of the boxing haters) seem to think being attentive and playing somewhat decently is mutually exclusive from having fun. You can have fun and not suck at the same time, it's not a hard game.

I disagree. I've never seen boxers allowed to use swords and magic

The game would literally be dead if you stopped boxing.

That is a lot of money being lost on Live per month plus all the expac sales.

Truth.

This strikes me as an extremely bizarre outlook. For one thing EQ was literally designed to be group oriented. For another: blaming everone who IS grouping because you are not???

Rose-colored glasses yo. There are a lot of bad EQ players. You might even be one.

Yes, this game was meant to involve grouping. It's fair and appropriate that a group of people can accomplish more than a single person, though I suspect many boxers would disagree.

Eq would not exist today with out boxing. You can't argue that.