Oh yeah, this was a big problem especially for the rogue class since the beginning. This class design error got balanced a bit with the mercenary feature but it made all classes more powerfull including those that were already able to solo very well. So the mercenary feature is a nice idea that is balanced horribly as it is a silly idea to grant all player classes all merc classes with all power tiers. At some point I created other classes including a cleric as this class was asked the most for groups. As a rogue the lfg time was about 30 minutes but as a cleric it was just 30 seconds. Back in the old days a lot players didn't wanted to have a rogue in the group just because of the pickpocket skill even that the rogue DPS was great ! Other players had similar experiences and this is maybe the main reason why and how boxers were born. Not all boxers are greedy egoists that do not want to share loot, they only came into existence because of serious game concept and balance errors that do exist until today and the players got adapted to boxing.
I boxed out of need to start, then it just became habit. If EQ ever goes out of business, they need to consider selling a standalone game for a final cash grab.
There's not really much of a community at the lower levels. I'm typically the only person in the zone, and frequently it seems I'm the only one in the whole expansion. I often see something like "TheVoid(1)" in the chat header when I enter a zone in a lower-level expansion. In the old days it was easy enough to wander around and find a group, but now there's no one around and LFG is totally blank. If it wasn't for the mass group buffs I pick up in the GL, it wouldn't really be worth playing. Boxing and/or GL MGBs at the lower levels are practically essential since traditional grouping isn't really feasible. [Guilding isn't really for me for a variety of reasons.] Even if they eliminated boxing, I don't think it would really help the lower-level game since there aren't even boxers at that level. Maybe a way to make the lower-level game viable would be to allow multiple mercs to be active at the same time. As it is, the player needs to do something like box (or get GL buffs) since they will be essentially soloing their way up to 90 or 100. If the player could have 2 active mercs, it would allow them to play without having to resort to boxing. Even if it was just for Gold accounts, I think that would be fine. It would be a great way to get people to subscribe. Being able to play without having to deal with the trouble of boxing would be worth the monthly fee.
MGBs are not essential to the leveling the process. Anyone wasting playing time waiting on MGBs is doing themselves a disservice. Boxing though, yeah, unless you picked a solo class it going to be rough.
It would turn the game even more into a single player game. High level buffs are not needed to level up they just speed up the process. Leveling up by moloing is easy even on a FTP account without high level buffs. Some classes like rogue, berserker and monk will be more challenging but it does work for them too.
The thing that can be rough is that the game is predominantly a solo game tailored to groups that don't exist. If they weren't relying on shared code between live and TLP they could address this issue better than the merc system we have today. To answer the OP's question, yes, the majority of players box out of necessity. I moloed a Mage to 105 back in EOK, but it was pretty slow even using Gribbles for the last 30 levels. Not to mention that the repetition got very boring, and ultimately caused me to take an extended break. With the aforementioned shared code, I don't see them making any sweeping changes in the foreseeable future. They've proven me wrong in the past though, so who knows.
There was a recent ban/suspension wave that happened. Not all botters and cheaters were caught, but many, many were.
I would argue that it's pretty much a single player game at the lower levels anyway. I'm pretty much alone in the zone, and even the whole expansion. There's just not a lot of people at the pre-90 level or so. I'm out of luck if I want to join pickup groups, do missions, etc. Solo leveling is pretty slow without the MGBs, which means it is just going to take that much longer to get to the upper levels where the community is. It's certainly doable, but it doesn't seem worth it (to me, at least). The MGBs allow me to powerlevel myself. Having a merc at these lower levels doesn't really seem like it would be that detrimental to the community. Maybe past 90 or so that wouldn't be an option, but I don't think having an extra merc would really change much in terms of the single-player aspect before level 90 or so. The lower-level player is going to be soloing anyway for all practical purposes.
Think of boxing as spending more money and time to have a better JMerc that also allows you to get around the 3+ players req for instanced missions, LDONs, etc. If that content matters to you, and again, you are hell bent to never LFG or make any friends, then boxing may be for you. Daybreak won't mind multiple paid accounts, so long as you aren't AFK botting and controlling a whole zone. If you are willing to make friends, go LFG, etc....well then 1 account and your merc should suffice. It does for me.
