Archived from groups: alt.games.everquest (
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"Tony Evans" <postmaster@[127.0.0.1]> wrote in message
news:4315194e$0$38044$bed64819@news.gradwell.net...
> In alt.games.everquest, "Fonedude" <fonedude@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>>> A few people buy the game at the same time, because they want to start
>>> playing. So, they all install it, they live in different places, but
>>> they
>>> have chatted a bit before hand, and they start a few characters. They
>>> figure that if they have a cleric, a paladin and an enchanter they
>>> should
>>> be able to get a good start.
>>
>>Sounds like a good plan. It's always great when friends play together.
>
> Indeed, and playing together doesn't mean 'playing the same game at the
> same time', it means for me, working together with each other in the same
> place to achieve the same goal.
First goal to work toward: Get stronger and then find a place to meet. Get
it? -- mutual goal with real challenges. The journey is the adventure, not
the destination.
>>> How the hell do those three friends play the game together, without PoK.
>>> Oh, well they can't choose those races, they have to play other races.
>>> But
>>> they don't want to, they want to load up the game, pick a race that
>>> sounds
>>> FUN and start playing and have some FUN.
>>
>>It's really quite simple if you're not always looking for the easy way to
>>do
>>any task.
>
> No, it's really quite annoying if you don't enjoy playing on your own at
> the same time as your friends playing on their own trying to move
> somewhere
> to do what it is you actually bought the game to do.
>
>>You have fun getting your characters all to the same place.
>
> No, I won't have fun doing that. You might. I wan't *choice*.
You have choice -- I don't.
>>You
>>agree on a place to meet an keep each other updated on your progress. Of
>>course a smart player would spend a little time leveling up a little
>>before
>>trying to meet in HighHold or somewhere similar.
>
> So, I play the game on my own, and spend the time telling my friends what
> I
> just did. Well, I can also do that in a single player adventure, and tell
> them what I'm doing and how far I got. That's not playing *with* my
> friends that's playing *at the same time* as my friends.
Of course it's playing with your friends -- you're all working toward an
agreed upon goal, right?
>>Well, I never had any trouble running to docks or surviving boat rides.
>
> Ah right, so it's totally trivial then? Wow, and I thought the game got
> made easy, it must have been totally trivial for any level 1 player to run
> from Kaladim to the docks without getting killed?
You, in an apparant effort to be argumentative, have made a leap to
something I neither said nor implied. You indicated it was too much trouble
to run to the dock and catch a boat. I said it's not that big a deal. Of
course it's not totally trivial.
>>People who died on boat rides usually did something stupid like jumping
>>off.
>
> Or, usually got dropped when the boat moved off before they zoned, or some
> display lag left them in the water with the boat too far away, or a number
> of other issues, which are game caused, not player caused.
>
>>And I hope any sensible cleric would be able to handle an orc pawn before
>>leaving home.
>
> But I don't WANT to level my cleric alone, I WANT to have fun levelling my
> cleric with my friend. Play WITH not AT THE SAME TIME.
This is the concept I would like to do away with on at least one server --
level one characters with access to any zone they want, just because they
WANT it.
>>In any case, the first thing you do is get a bind when you
>>get to a new location so you don't have to spend time getting back to your
>>friends.
>
> Oh, bind points, weren't they added later on in the game? A later
> expansion added those I seem to recall, making it too trivial and easy.
Bind points were part of the original release.
>>These are all things that can be handled with a little effort and
>>brains. Of course, if you just want to play a game where everything is
>>accessible and laid out in front of you then you have what you want
>>already.
>
> No, I want the grouping experience with my friends to be challenging, but
> I
> don't want it to be a challenge to group with my friends - how does that
> not make any sense?
>
> When I play with my friends, I want to be challenged by the game.
> When I want to find my friends to group up with I don't want the game to
> obstruct it.
>
>>> Oh yeh, a boat load of fun that is.
>>
>>Actually, it is fun -- it makes getting killed a serious event. Adds
>>excitement to the game.
>
> No, being grouped with friends, pulling mobs in a dynamic environment with
> risk is fun. Dying because you don't quite know how to move through
> Faydark because you've never been there before but you got the boat to
> Butcherblock to meet a friend who's been playing the game 1 hour as well
> isn't fun, it's frustrating.
Leaving the newbie zone before you've played one hour just doesn't make
sense. In an hour you should be able to level up enough to run through just
about any zone in the original game you need to -- if you're careful and pay
attention.
> Having the *choice* is the key here. Having the *choice* to use the boat
> and explore the world, OR, to be able to get to where your friends are to
> have fun challenging the content *together*.
>
>>> By some MIRACLE they continue playing the game, and make it to level 20.
>>> They're still hanging around in Crushbone because it's ok XP. Another
>>> friend they've made sends them a tell, got a group going in Highpass
>>> Keep,
>>> excellent fun, having a blast, would love you to come and socialise with
>>> us
>>> and have fun, room for 3 more.
>>>
>>> Sure, be there in an hour.
>
>>Nonsense. Crushbone to Highpass shouldn't take more than ten minutes if
>>the
>>server is properly populated.
>
> So, Crushbone -> Greater Faydark -> Butcherblock -> Boat (however long
> that
> takes to arrive, and then move you around) -> Freeport (several zones) ->
> East Commonlands -> West Commonlands -> Kithicor -> Highpass -> HK in 10
> minutes? Sure.
>
> Or do you mean you stand in GFay and hope to beg a passing druid or wizard
> to move you to WC? So they can earn a living?
On a properly populated server, there's almost always a wizard shouting for
passengers. Hop to W Commonlands and run the wall through Kith to HP. 10
minutes easy.
>>Ah, choice. That's exactly the point. I want the choice to play on a
>>non-expanded server. What you do is entirely up to you. I am not asking
>>that the entire EQ world be returned to 1998, just one server.
>
> I wasn't responding directly to your post, this is usenet, welcome to
> thread drift.
>
> I was responding to one element of your post, about travel being a
> challenge, in light of the several posts recently about how EQ has been
> made too easy and that it was 'much better when it was hard'.
Today's EQ is, in my opinion, too easy. I don't ask that then entire game
universe be set back to the way it was, just one server. That way all of us
who think the game has been dumbed down would have a place to go and leave
you, and those who agree with you, alone.
Larry