I feel that it is a pretty stark difference between 2020's EQ to 2002'ish EQ. Now, I don't disagree with the changes that we have gone through, at least not many of them, but in my opinion the community has changed more than the game has. "Back in my day..." most players didn't charge a krono or plat, let alone multiple krono, for power leveling. Okay, sure, there were indeed players that did power-level, but no where near as many were offering it as a "service." Admittedly, krono didn't come out until something like the end of 2012? But still, there was a lot of free power leveling going on in the early days. Maybe not quite the same way in many cases but it was often out there, and often free. (I have noticed, on TLP's at least, that many players won't hesitate to stop and buff and/or heal others, especially low levels, for free as they pass by. This always puts a smile on my face!) A lot of players didn't charge krono or plat for "rots" (drops that are 'rotting'), and if none of their friends or guild mates wanted it, they would call it out to zone and general chat to help others gear up. But now days it's rare (or at least uncommon) to see someone call out rots for free. From my experience in recent years, players would rather let it rot than "waste time trying to give it away for free." I understand this train of thought but I am the type of player who still gives it away for free. These are just observations looking back over the years. I typically embrace new technology, I welcome positive change. It is difficult for me to wrap my head around some of the new gamer mentality that seems to be prevalent: - there are a lot of players don't want to level their own toons, they would rather pay krono or plat instead? - there are a lot of players using krono to buy gear off the bazaar - there are more than a few players that would prefer to their epic (multi-quest), paying krono or plat for someone else to do part (or all) of the work for their epic. To each their own, but I would not enjoy playing a character I didn't work for, leveling it myself. I feel rewarded and it brings me joy to do these things myself, without paying someone krono/plat for part of, or all of, my success. It is the same way for me in other games -- I don't make heroic characters or whatever option there is to make an instant 'end game' character. Not only because this often comes at a price in earth money IRL, but because I didn't learn how to play the character by leveling it, I didn't earn it's gear, etc. In my mind, it would be no different than if I logged into a friends account and started playing their characters instead of my own... that does NOT sound like fun. I've done that when I was a kid (MANY years ago!). It was fun then, but it's not fun many times later, especially when you realize this isn't your progress, you didn't earn any of this. There's no sense of reward or achievement -- for your friend, sure, but for you, no, not really. I mean, unless it was your plan all along to selflessly do it for your friends. --- On the other hand (let's get back on track) -- there were character auctions back in the early days, too. I realize it's nothing new that players want to get something for the time and effort they put into a game. I did not make this post to point fingers or knock anyone for doing these or similar things, because I understand some of the reasons why this happens. I have seen my career driven, no-time-having husband do some of these same things (i.e., buy krono to pay for everything in game). I have also noticed these purchases occurring more over the years. I even buy a few krono's myself sometimes, but I typically only use it for trade skill leveling and buying spells when I level new characters. I prefer to craft my own spells and gear, especially at earlier levels. Time is money, and all that. I realize that I have more time to play than the average gamer. But for me, it is always more rewarding to level my own character through my own effort, to earn my own epic, to be mostly self sufficient (even though I often depend on groups or guild mates for help, especially at later levels). After all these years, I don't continue to walk up hill, both ways. I don't call dirty plat buyers 'dirty' anymore. And I don't begrudge anyone for getting their character power-leveled (unless you're a legit new player to EverQuest, don't do that, you miss out on a LOT of learning experience). There are things I miss about the old days of EQ, and the way the community was back then. It wasn't perfect, or necessarily better, it was just different. I enjoy the current community and what EQ has become, for the most part. Toxic chat is much more prevalent now, that's really the only downside that sticks out in my mind. And not a day goes by that someone doesn't drag politics or some other form of tragedy into game chat, ruining my wonderful immersion and Elf awareness! What really makes this game great, in my opinion, is all the team work, and the bonds and memories that form from those experiences. Boxing has become a thing to eliminate some, or all, of the need for team work in many cases. And I don't know how much it has affected the social aspect of the game, but if Truebox vs non-Truebox is any indicator, take a look at the current state of Rizlona versus Aradune: Aradune - In less than half an hour this morning on Aradune, my chat had scrolled so far I couldn't see all of my history. Rizlona - my previous two days on Rizlona didn't even fill up my chat window far enough to need to scroll up to read what was said in general chat the last 48 hours. (yes, it was full or near full at 400 players most of the time, in general2). Maybe boxing has little to do with the social differences between Rizlona and Aradune, or maybe it does. I don't know. All I do know is that I tried to strike up a conversation on Rizlona, twice, and no one joined in conversation. The next day, I asked a question (again, the only 'spoken' word in chat for the entire day) and not ONE person responded in general chat. "Unbelievable," I thought. However, one kind soul did send me a 'tell' and respond to my question. Is boxing a necessary evil? I say evil, because it is! It is also pretty effective at eliminating the need or even desire to socialize with anyone in game. On the other hand, it makes one capable of doing just about any group content, with enough investment in gear and AA's. It minimizes downtime and in most cases eliminates the need to LFG. I have even boxed myself (you know what I mean, not myself, but multiple characters)! At best, I was "okay" at it. The highest I got was 3 characters. Now days, I can't be bothered to box if I can't alt+tab, so on Aradune that means I am never boxing. But I get why people box. It makes the bodies hit the floor. It makes money. You get goodies! And you get to do it as long or as little as you want. Again, not the game I signed up for in 2002. It is what it is. I still love the game. I still keep coming back because it's my jam, and I've tried every MMO that didn't make me barf before purchase! There is something in the EverQuest recipe that I can not escape, and apparently no other game has it, no matter how much I want to believe otherwise. I loved this game like an old dog. We don't play like we used to. But this is our playground and nothing else has that magic! Do you know what I mean?
You can't go back 20 years, too much changed about the players, the game & the world all of this exists inside of. I enjoy boxing, but it depends on my mood, most of the time I prefer to group but boxing is nice when you feel like being left alone/anti-social/chilling or you want to farm tribute items, plat or trade-skill materials or go fill out holes in your achievements that you know you can do in old content, like Hunters for example. Mostly I play for the people, the team work involved in the raids.
Pretty much the only thing that's the same in 2021 as in 1999-2000 is that this game is called Everquest. If you're looking to replicate your experience from 20 years ago you're playing the wrong game
Those are the same reasons I like to box, as well. I usually need/want to farm an item/quest/achievement or I don't have time to dedicate my full attention to a group. I used to try group up with other tradeskillers to farm tradeskill items, but that often meant we needed to farm double/triple, so I found it doesn't always make things easier or quicker. But at least we weren't alone I guess, haha. The online gaming community has aged over 20 years, too. If I wasn't clear previously, this post isn't about me wishing it was 2002 again -- it is about experiencing all of the changes to the game and to the community over the years (both the EverQuest community and the Online Gaming Community in general) and where that leaves us presently. Perhaps my title was poorly chosen, but there's a reason for that, haha. This post originally started out as my reply to this post specifically: https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...ut-down-time-but-not-eq1.274490/#post-4018222 ...but I ended up rambling and writing a lot more than I intended, so I decided to make my a new post instead of posting off topic in that thread.
