But it doesn't mean any of the zones need to be locked...you can complete progression in open zones just as easily as locked ones. Locking zones behind progression is idiotic and serves no purpose. People who do progression are going to do it anyway, and those who don't like doing it could still experience the content they paid for...it would probably even encourage them to DO the progression. I can understand having an "end of expansion" zone behind progression or keying (like VP), but not ordinary xp zones. It's an outdated concept and serves to do nothing except irritate players who spend money on an expansion.
Locked zones can suck but they can also motivate players to unlock them. When the flag/key process is to hard and to much time consuming like the VP key it definetly can suck. But I still hate it that OS got unlocked because the key was easy to obtain and it was a nice little quest which I still do sometimes even that the zone is unlocked. It made locked zones much more enjoyable and special because not everyone knew how to get into them. It was an adventure and an achievement getting to there which made the achievers proud. It depends on how the unlocking process is being done by design and its difficulty. It is not idiotic by default like Velisaris_MS has noted. Not all content should be accessible easily but it should also not be to hard. Locking to much content behind progression like TDS and to early with a hard difficulty like TBL Trials of Smoke can be frustrating but it is no problem to lock one of seven zones even when the access is difficult. The right balance does matter. Back in the old days about nobody had a problem with three locked Kunark zones as there were plenty of other zones available and only one of three was difficult to access and that mostly because of a lack in informations. ZAM (Allakhazam's Realm) was very small and unpopular and there were not many alternatives. Remember how many zones and doors were locked by keys in original EQ and the early expansions and that some only were unlockable by rogues and bards. The Tower of Frozen Shadow still is and that is good because the zone is concipated to be locked behind progression steps. It would be totally boring without the locks. TDS has a similar progression concept but of course it does make a big difference if it is just a single zone or a whole expansion. Now that we can see world (server based account) achievements, it would not be a problem to add progression flags and keys and many other achievements onto them so that repetitive grinding for alts would be no longer required which I do sense as the biggest drawback. For TDS I have a compromise: Why not earning money with some zone unlocks for older expansions ? Put a zone unlocker into the marketplace (world achievement) that does unlock Caverns of Endless Song, Degmar the Lost Castle and Thuliasaur Island. Price USD / EUR 4.89. Two zones will be still locked behind the whole progression.
The biggest issue in modern EQ with locked zones that I see is it adds another layer of difficulty to a player who wants to play a single account. Everything now is already so group focused, and with the dwindling population (especially of people who will use pick up groups) it adds another barrier to people who want to explore what each expansion has to offer. The way Bloodfalls was locked isn't so bad, at the very worst you can buy a taskadd from someone else to get in. TBL was the absolute extreme of how not to do it in my opinion. It is almost required to box or otherwise have a really solid group of online friends who you can work with (great in theory, but this isn't 2001 and it is harder to find the time to maintain such a group). VP was needlessly tedious and posed an extra challenge of camping named for hours on end for a player who could not take out the missions themselves using friends or boxes (only the end zone though so not a deal breaker). TDS progression isn't that bad and I imagine in era it worked decent due to the lack of difficulty and the fact that everyone was in the same boat. I didn't play this xpac until recently so I don't know from personal experience but it reminds me of what HoT was back in the day. The problem is there isn't much incentive to go back to TDS other than being a completionist (which you would do the progression anyway regardless of locking) or the TBL chase which requires explorer of TDS. All that being said, xpacs that are 2 or 3 years old should be unlocked. If anyone wants to play the progression they will, and anyone who doesn't want to can at least visit the zones to see what they are all about and maybe even change their mind on doing the progression. Norrath is big enough that most zones are empty most of the time anyway, there is no need to maintain a barrier up to keep people out.
There was one genuine problem with automatic unlocks, but maybe they have fixed that? It used to be that you if you had the key, then you couldn't add it to the keyring by using it on the door, if the door was already unlocked. Did they fix that, when they updated the keyring to be achievement-based?
The people arguing against have all made very weak arguments. Sorry, you have. You are wrong. This is the scenario. LFG! We're doing XYZ, want to come? I'm not flagged for that zone. Oh, sorry, maybe some other time! No worries, there are hundreds of groups available at level 100, I'll just grab another and work through my progression. People aren't asking for free achievements and free flags. They are asking for zone access. A L100 not being able to do a L100 hunter group because they don't have access to the zone is stupid. Yes, they should have to do their own work to get their ACH, but keeping zones locked prevents grouping an the wasteland that is below level 115. Every effort should be made to facilitate grouping.
Just allow piggybacking for groups to work. So that if half the group(or some other fraction) is keyed then the rest can get temporary free access.
Yes. The key on the cursor does poof now. That itself is a weak argument because the zone access is an achievement ! Which does mean that people actually are asking for free achievements and free flags.
Boomers didn't finish high school and provided for a family on 1 income. Gen X walked out of high school and got a solid start with a basic education and 2 incomes. Gen Z is getting 4-6 additional years more education Gen X told them they needed, are buried under mountains of student loan debt Gen X told them was worth it, and can't afford homes on 2 incomes because of the massive disparity in cost/income compared to previous generations. Gen Z isn't asking for hand outs. They are asking for opportunity. The same situation is occurring here. Veteran players who played content in era had plenty of grouping opportunities to complete progression. New players can't find any people to group with and sometimes when presented with an opportunity, it is blocked due to a progression system that doesn't work anymore. Unlocking zones is not a hand out. It is expanded opportunity. All the unlock does is allow you to do the work out of order. The work still has to be done. They are asking for flexibility in the absence of opportunity, not free hand outs. Very, very different. Let me add a little extra perspecive about Gen Z and nexters. I've gotten pay raises since I bought my home and the prices of homes have gone up so much since I bought my home that I could not afford to buy my home from myself on my income.
Traveler ACH. Lol. You know what I noticed. No one panics when things go according to plan. Even if the plan is horrifying. If tomorrow I tell the players that they can campfire into mearatas for the traveler ACH, or they can taskadd for the spellbound lamp, nobody panics, because it's all part of the plan. But when I say one, little old zone is going to be unlocked, well then everyone loses their minds!
Your view on the generations is funny but I do not take it serious. According to Klaus Schwab generation alpha will own nothing. But this is a lie because it is only one half of the truth. Gen X-Z do also own nothing. If you had already bought "your" home, how does it come that you cannot pay for it ? It should be paid already. But maybe you just think that you bought a home, but you only delegated the buy and a bank is the owner until you delegated the full payment to them. Then you might be the possesor but not the owner nor the landlord. But now think twice its magic: As long as you think that you are a person, and identify with a person, you won't own anything. Identifying (= equating) does implement the existence of two beings. One is dead and has an owner, the other being is alive and cannot be owned (but enslaved).
My house when I bought it cost X. Now it costs Y. I could afford X. I can not afford Y even with raises. I'm not going to tell someone they should do what I did, because I can not do what I did then, now. People criticizing Gen Z / Nexters don't bother to understand the different situations. They lack humility and perspective. That other stuff you rambled about doesn't add anything to the conversation except build your ego because you think you are educating someone, but really you are just being condescending, contributing nothing, because the philosophies you shared are known but simply hold no real value, because you can't put a bed in a philosophy. Edit: Sounds off topic, but it's the same debate/attitude towards low level/returning/alt players trying to LFG that is used to prevent easing the curve.
I really do not understand this student debt argument that keeps getting trotted out. There are multiple options available to high school graduates to pursue higher education without taking out student loans. The average cost of tuition at an in-state public two and four-year institution is $3,400 and $9,400 respectively. That is well within the means of most high school graduates. There is just no need for most people to take out student loans.
Yep you are right. In Arizona the instate tuition is over $25,000 and that does not include books which are usually $100 each But they do have "scholarships" or some sort of funding that does drop that to $4,000. Good luck getting one lol
What college are you trying to go to? In Phoenix at Maricopa Community College system, cost per credit hour is $85 dollar for a Arizona resident. Total cost with books is about $3,500.
With regards to college now and then, the difference is that now a HS student has to practically have an accounting degree to figure out the numbers in order to graduate with reasonable loans. Oh, and they need to be a top 1% student who takes all AP classes in order to get the scholarships to bring down the costs. Back in the 80's none of that was needed. An aimless flunky could go to college 100% on loans and leave with an amount of debt that could be reasonably be paid off with low- or mid-paying jobs. Now the students need to be laser focused on costs and academics if they want to graduate with reasonable debt. As this relates to locked content, back in the day when content is first released, there are hordes of players doing it. As long as someone stays with the population bubble, they can be carried along with the waves of groups going through the content and reasonably get whatever unlocks they need. But years later there are no players doing it. Not only are there no players in the required zones, there may be no players in the whole expansion. Getting through locked content is going to be a lot more challenging when you have to solo it all yourself rather then just going to the zone and getting a PUG by shouting "LFG".
Associates degrees are 60 credits. $85x60 is $5,100. The price is almost double what you think it is before fees, books and etc. Associates are usually general academics with pre-reqs for a bachelor's program. Bachelors are another 60 credits, so double that again, except that is a community college which usually don't have bachelor options, they are just budget options for the first 2 years to a state college, so you probably have to go to a state college for a 4-year option, so double it again. And $85 is very cheap. SPC is $120/hr and USF is $200/hr. Also, that's the price for in county residents. If someone needs to go to that school and s not a county resident, the price is $472 per credit hour. $472x60 is $28,320. They list the price so someone must be trying to enroll from out of county. Edit: which is another reason why it costs so much to get an education. It's cheaper to live on campus and get your residency changed than it is to live at home rent free.
