Archived from groups: alt.games.everquest (
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42 wrote:
> Its a balancing act... but if you don't like Santa GMs what do you
think
> of the bazaar... where the 70th level ultra rich dump their garbage
on
> you... garbage that's still 50 levels out of your reach.
>
> No self respecting GM would let you walk into town and purchase loot
> that drops of monsters that dragons couldn't touch at a price you can
> afford after only few hours squishing bugs that can't touch you...
>
> =)
You make a very good point, and one I've discussed with other MMO
players outside of online forums. The bazaar itself is not a Santa GM
environment in and of itself. What makes it a twinky playground has
more to do with the skewed economy of EverQuest; Sony has seen fit to
produce more and more twinked out gear available to upper levels with
every release. Why they are doing this is anyones guess, though I
suspect it has something to do with the Powers In Charcge's only gaming
experience being with FPS and maybe the odd hack-n-slash dungeon
crawler. The reasoning aside, in a well balanced game, the progression
of quality of goods available would scale smoothly as a character
progresses, so that any hand-me-downs would be no more than a couple of
levels higher than would ordinarily be available, and even then in a
properly managed economy the pricing would keep such items
prohibitively expensive.
Instead what we see is a very sharp rise in quality-of-goods available
at the higher end levels, abruptly obsoleting large chunks of equipment
which then just get cast aside at blow-out prices. Certainly some
items go for more appropriate prices, given the rediculous inflation of
the EverQuest economy, but most people are just looking to clear out
their inventory. Ultimately, what would a higher-level character use
the plat for, anyhow? Mobs drop inordinate amounts of plat as level
increases, gear essentially useless to them can be resold for even more
in the bazaar, and the only thing I can even think of they'd want to
spend that money on is maybe a horse or crafting supplies, or the odd
"Uber Equipment", non of which effectively offset income
utflow
ratios.
Now, had the progression been properly meted out, we would not see ANY
of these twink items going for the low prices they are. Any given item
would be a well-earned trophy to be kept and cherished, not discarded
like yesterdays fad. However this also would not readily pander to
Sony's target audience of the hack-n-slash dungeon crawler who doesn't
want role-playing, fantasy adventure, or any thing not instantly
gratifying such as what modern Western society has spoiled us with.
No, Sony's target audience wants more and better stuff so they can
strut around and try to out-do the other twinks.
Having said all that, I do regardless feel there is still the capacity
for EverQuest to be a good role-playing platform. I, personally,
rarely use the bazaar, and use no equipment I did not earn myself [save
a walrus tooth my wife gave me and some belt I accepted in a moment of
weakness]. Many have tried giving me equipment well beyond my means,
apparently feeling sorry for my own 'pitiful' equipment as though not
having the biggest, baddest sword and highest AC armor with stat
bonuses out the wazoo was some form of impotence.
The economy of EQ2 is somewhat improved, going back to the 100-base
instead of the jacked-up 10-base of EQ1, but from what I've seen still
has many problems. If there was some incentive or means to give cause
for all levels to have a more balanced income
utflow ratio, like say
taking damage if you are hungry as in Ultima II and Ultima III and then
making it so the higher up in level you are, the quantity/quality
required goes up as well, might go a long way to resolve this. A more
reasonable NPC vendor pricing of goods would probably do wonders, as
well (How many plat for that plain sword?!).
So, to answer your original question, yes, I feel the Bazaar is a
center of twink gear that most good GM's would never even allow,
however it is not so much the bazaar's existance that causes this so
much as a messed up economy that's been broken ever since the game
first debuted.
To continue in that line of thought, EverQuest 2 has a better thought
out economy, but from what I've seen it is still fundamentally flawed
with oddly priced NPC goods that do not fluctuate appropriately with
the market, and is doomed to the same crash that EQ1 suffered. Project
Entropia has an interesting premise in being built around a virtual
economy, directly tied in to the real-world economy, and as such is
probably the most stable economy, and best playing environment I've
tested so far. However, the human-centered sci-fi aspect is no where
near as appealing as the multi-race fantasy setting. I cannot comment
on WoW, as I've not yet played it; though I've enjoyed Warcraft since
Warcraft II, the lack of a playable reptillian race puts me off the MMO
aspect. City of Heroes is really more of an extended-session FPS than
RPG, with no real economy I could discern (I'm sure there must be one,
and I'm sure someone will go through describing it for me, but the game
just didn't captivate me the way EQ did). Planeshift looks
interesting, but is still too early in beta to judge how its economy,
and subsequently it's twinkishness, will develop; that, and you have to
write a freaking novel about your character before you can even play.
Umm... I think I kind of lost track of my original thought here...
bazaar == good idea, bad thing to do in a messed-up economy
environment. Still a good place to find other items, like foraged
goods for the non-foraging character, pre-crafted supplies for other
crafted items, and difficult to find components. Twink-gear aside,
it's often what the NPC merchants SHOULD be doing.
The festive doll and commemorative coin are OK, because they're
celebratory items being made available to everyone for a limited time.
Celebratory items are an exception to the Santa GM rule: I know many a
good GM who would happily give out some sort of "Yay!" item like this
if
he managed to keep a game going for six years
--
Xiphos - Game mechanics-wise, EQ1 is still one of the better MMOs out
there I've tried. We'll see how I feel about WoW, but I do have to
have my lizardmen.
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