You made a circus out of the game, the world is no longer believable and meaningless.

By this argument all people in real life should never leave their countries of origins. "German people were born in Germany, they should just stay there. Otherwise I don't feel as immersed in real life."

Explain to me again why making these illusions and permitting them to be global is any different? Or indeed bad?

Again, I can understand the ornaments and Hero's Forge, like the ones I listed before, as it seems 100% out of place in this universe. But the mounts...the illusions...the gnome crafted steamwork/clockwork products (It's not like Ak`Anon hasn't been a bit steampunk since...you know...1999) none of these things are out of place really.

But it is new, they are all outside their habitat.

Would you think it's weird if you went to the polar ice caps and saw a polar bear? Probably not.

Would you think it's weird if you opened your front door in an urban city and a polar bear started talking to you? I bet you would.

People feel immersed if the environment allows them to.

I'll go along with your example of Germany.

No one thinks the black forest in Germany having a wolf would be weird, but would you think it's believable if the cashier at your local wallmart was a wolf?

Talking to me? Yes. Acting like a normal bear? No actually. We have zoos, maybe one escaped, or was purchased by some crazy person as a pet.

Also, again, fantasy world.

And again...bears have been illusions since Velious.

And again..let's not nitpick about the things that kill immersion. Know what "killed my immersion"?

In 1999 all female..er...chest..were triangles, their rear ends were like tables, and they never put down their arms. Everyone stands around staring into thin air repeating the same motions every few seconds. There is only ONE child in this entire game (That I can recall) and it's just a shrunk down fully..ermm..'formed' Vah Shir wandering Shar Vahl repeating the same task every single day. When a creature dies it reappears every few minutes standing and/or wandering the exact same spots in was prior to it's death. Everyone in the game has the same 'lore' and 'unique' items I do, Including the epics I completed a long death defying task for only to be told there's "nothing else like it...except...you know....the 500 million others every other adventurer has". Everytime someone dies they just reappear at bind or get ressurected as if nothing happened. They even come with clothes on (even prior to removal of item loss at death, they spawned with the undergarments you have on when naked...) which, when combined with the earlier made respawning point, makes death a complete non-issue as "everyone just comes back anyway". It doesn't matter how many times you solve someone's problem they will still have that problem. Just rescued someone from jail? They still stand there. Killed an ambush party? They get ambushed again immediately after by the same guy(s). Recovered a lost heirloom? They lost it again.

Let's not nitpick here....there is absolutely nothing realistic about this, or any other, game/movie/tv show etc. Because...hrm...oh yeah. THEY AREN'T REAL.

So if we're gonna point out things that "ruin immersion", let's point them ALL out, not just the specific ones that upset you and your opinions.

No actually, I wouldn't. Do you think there aren't people out there with wolves as pets? Tamed ones but whatever. Heck there's people with peacock pets (I want one btw...)

Is it 'normal'? No. But, unless that wolf were to go out and attack and harm someone, who am I to judge someone for what they want to do?

I think the OP is confusing the world of Norrath with one that cares.

So you are mad about illusions and graphics but have 0 problems with...

Swimming in a full suit of armor
Carrying around an absurd amount of weapons and whipping them out of a Marry Poppins bag.
Summoning a horse out of thin air
Imaginary world boundaries

the list goes on.

it is a game full of absurd things just like every other game.

You want me to say it's all black or white, that in a fantasy world everything is acceptable, and that anything that is out of the norm is just as immersion breaking as the next thing.

Well, it's not, there are many things that are in the grey area, and it all depends on the context.

In fact I somewhat agree with your argument about people reappearing at their bind spot, I thought corpse runs, even though they don't offer engaging gameplay, give the world immersion. But I don't think that for example, milk having unknown origin in EQ is very immersion breaking, on the other hand, a talking cow could be very immersion breaking unless they make it a believable creature and put it in a correct environment with a correct story built around it.

I don't agree that it is black or white, most of it is grey, and the more you push those fantasy boundaries the more risk you have of breaking immersion unless you put effort into making the world believable.

Btw, a good example is the uncanny valley, people are able to accept fantasy, but if you try to personify fantasy, you run the risk of dipping into that creepy valley, it's not all black or white, there is a grey area, a balancing act, which is why most games employ a rigid art direction.

This sounds like another good reason to make buff timers count down in the guild lobby. Get rid of the eyesore.

So, even though you know that the fantastical things you're seeing in the GL are illusions and mounts somehow that ruins immersion? It's not like they moved a spawn of drachnids next to the Looking for Guild boards, or a nest of Amygdalans near the Magus....these are players in a magic based illusion or riding a mount, which both can be easily explained (one is magic being used, the other being a magical creature captured to be a domesticated animal to be used). Are you seriously suggesting that players should only be able to use illusions or mounts in areas that make geographical sense to use them?

Don't go to the guild lobby or look around at AFKers when you're there then.

I honestly rarely see this stuff, unless I'm intentionally looking for it.

WoW has Kungfu Panda why cant we have ogres in top hats.

Tuxedo hero forge set were are you?

The dragons are believable, even plausible. They are remarkably similar to the concept of dinosaurs. There are several gasses which can catch fire or freeze something in atmosphere, but stored under pressure are harmless.

Magic as it stands in EQ follows a particular set of rules. It's more of a science than magic. As far as I'm concerned it's just an alternative set of natural laws than the ones we're familiar with in our everyday lives.

As far as the races one must look to the gods of Norrath. There was a point in history where there was a god for just about anything, and they all knew of each others existence. The gods of EQ remind me a lot of the gods our ancestors worshiped, a mixture of benevolent and petty gods that all just want the best for their creations.

I don't feel immersed in this game as I don't have a full environmental virtual reality suit to wear.

I can hear the neighbors, I can hear airplanes fly over. The television is on. No immersion exists.

And I like the changes... I got tired of other players being able to guess what my characters could do. Now they have to guess.

WTB for sures

You're in the Guild Lobby. It's like a fantasy United Nations, or one of those scenes in Star Wars where George Lucas gathers together as many freaky CGI aliens as he can get his grubby hands on. Of course every imaginable beast and costume is together in a place that is intended to be the gathering point for a huge and diverse fantasy world.

In other words: you didn't go to the polar ice caps or the urban city, you went to the circus. You're right that it's a mess, but step outside the Big Top and it's generally far less chaotic.

In an RP world you will not see a paladin and a necromancer working together but we have been seeing that since the dawn of EQ

All that about the alignement is right, but it was in our hands to be role players or not. If we broke the very first role rules, why complain about casual things that "may kill immersion"? If someone need to get completely immersed in EQ, just try the role-player server and act as your race and class leads. If I'm a high elf, will drive me mad to see a dark elf close to me, much less cooperating with them... and things like that. We're the first ones who don't act accordingly to lore and role-playing, so why say a word?

Ha, tangent, but your comment reminded me of my first character, which was a druid.
Despite having tools that made it easier to hunt animals, I refused, unless for a specific purpose (food and armour to make for myself). I hunted undead instead, because they're an aberration and not a part of the natural world.

Dwarfs.