What made EQ great in 1999 can make it now - Campaigns

Your public schools have failed you.
That's still not Darwinism, at least go read something before you reply again.
Educate yourself.

The Op has an extremely bad memory of the history of EQ or is wearing glasses so darkened by roses that he only sees the reflection of his own pupils.

One of the most popular expansions ever added to EQ was LDoN. LDoN was the first expansion to add instancing and EVERY zone in the expansion was instanced. Instancing became so popular that the Devs went back to PoP and instanced Time (Time was not an instanced zone when PoP came out).

After Time was instanced, many guilds where screaming to have more zones instanced (i.e. the elementals).

Your correlation between TLP server popularity and open world content is seriously flawed and would earn an F- if your thesis were a college report.

Your correlation between TLPs failing once they hit GoD is also seriously flawed but true for different reasons than you believe. GoD fails TLP servers for the same reason that it failed when it was released. It was a level 70 expansion without the level increase until OoW was released(God was also a failure because its release coincided with WoW and EQ2).

The most recent examples of open world content are RoF tier 3, 2 group mobs and PoWar. Both are horrible failures and rarely used. In fact PoWar is a ghost town most of the time. If your thesis is true, they should have been hugely successful to this day(especially PoWar since they have some awesome rewards).

My last thought is just repeating what many others have posted, in that open content is a horrible idea for live servers under current conditions because they bring out the worst in the player base, they will not be able to be scripted properly, and it will reduce the number of raids that the campaign will offer (they will not be additional content).

Social Darwinism there buddy, your private schools have failed you. The rich want to become richer and more powerful while wanting the less powerful to have their wealth and power further decrease. Social Darwinism is based off of the concepts of both "survival of the fittest" and true Darwinism. And just like real life instances, the concept of Social-Darwinism can lead to many toxic political and economic foundations. And sadly, you are already seeing these putrid environments forming in the TLP. You have laissez faire open world concept leading into a select few gaining too much power who then controls pretty much the entire raid-scene of the game. This represents the eventual totalitarian fascism and autocracy that virtually all raid guilds would like. Those who say otherwise are lying through their teeth. Why on Earth would you not want to have all the raid targets for yourself? It means you are the best and will continue to be the best. You destroyed the competition and claimed virtual superiority over the inferior players through your cunning battle tactics and fervent playstyle (sarcasm off). Anyways, They (the select few guilds) control the power and nobody else can have it. Now the GMs stepped in and sent them back down to everybody else's level.

All open-world content is highlight the concept of Social Darwinism. It rewards nothing more than the most competitive. The most competitive in this game are those who I mentioned before. The ones with backwards priorities compared to the norm of society. It's those who stay in the twilight hours of the night for spawn cycles, who skip work/school, who piss and moan when the average players is rewarded not for their "effort" but for them being a customer. They do not want to see the average joe to be given anything special because "they put the time in and the others didn't." You see arguments like this all the time with prestige items, zone-wide rare drops, unlocking of older raid items, etc. It's those type of people who want open-world everything so they can curb stomp the rest of the player-base because of their insecure, narcissistic view of their superiority in a game.

And besides the concept. My point still stands. Open world content brings nothing more than toxicity and power-struggles. You are stuck on a theoretical definition rather than the conversation. Enough with the red herrings.

Your idea of open-world content crumbled around you so you have no defense but to nick-pick trivial and inconsequential phrases. Just give it up already man. You're a minority in the open-world content idea.

I liked it when folks would 1 group the Guardian of Coirnav then gate when the event started, myself. SoE even had to put a "if you failed really really badly, the event respawns sooner than usual" mechanic to combat it.

Rage essay!
Wouldn't it just have been easier to admit you were using a word wrong?
Red herring? I answered the only direct question you asked... Yes i have heard of Darwinism, i'm so aware of it i can easily spot you using it wrong.
Watching you flop around between Darwinism, natural selection, survival of the fittest, and Social Darwinism is like watching a fish out of water. Desperate for correct contextual usage, when you hardly have a grasp of the concepts themselves.
I'm glad you noticed this thread died a while back, it makes your initial reply even suspect, why revive this dead thread, on the way down the list? To flaunt your lack of high school level knowledge?

Wow, I thought people only confused open world "competition" with skill on the TLP servers, but apparently I was wrong.

Open world raiding does not encourage beneficial interaction, because for every five guilds that are going to be open minded and work together for mutually beneficial arrangements, it only takes the sixth to come along and ruin everything for everyone.

Where's Demolished when you need him?!

I can't wait to see how TLP does when they get to the major CBlock events... Trak for VP, Emperor for VT, and any Ele god for PoTime. I guess if they have a rotation in place there won't be as many shenanigans though.

It saddens me you didn't join this thread sooner.

*literally* can't remember the last time I saw Illa so flabbergasted they resorted to a facepalm meme, so that's saying something about the thread quality for sure.

I feel the best way to contribute to this thread would be to spam facepalm macros until roshen locks it.

Please continue.

We are playing a fantasy game after all...

This place is not a place of honor.

No highly esteemed deed is commemorated here.

Nothing valued is here.

This place is a message and part of a system of messages.

Pay attention to it!

Sending this message was important to us.

We considered ourselves to be a powerful culture.

You already said this 3 pages ago. Try again please.

The only way open world content works is with guild shadow lockouts (like Vanguard) or with corresponding instanced versions of those same encounters, so the people that don't want to bother with negative gameplay can avoid the gameplay without avoiding the game.

Hey, could they make it so that the character models fart audibly at least every 3 minutes, and you can't turn the sound off? I think my gassy friend that I played with was what made it great in 1999.

Also, double farts for High Elves and Erudites.

You must be referring to the TLP forums. I'm not seeing that in the normal forums aside from the sporadic post. Your tone and attitude certainly seems like it has originated from that cesspool.

That registers on an emotional level.

Damn. Just when one thinks there couldn't be any more quantum logic leaps in this thread...whammy!

You know, your talking about how people have a negative attitude, and to do so, you have a negative attitude. I imagine that the attitude to take when confronting negativity is similar to the sun on the raisin bran box. Sure, all he has is awful raisins, but if you do the best you can with it, that's what changes the atmosphere.

You know, more like...

Hey guys, I see there are a lot of issues with open world content. How else can we foster the ideals of a community? Remember to eat my cereal!

or...

You guys are my favorite. I still think my idea is good. Lets all put raisins in breakfast flakes and play air hockey.