Well now, this thread got hijacked sideways. As someone who has played through over 12 MMO's and has had plenty of experience, I'll add in my two cents for whoever cares.
The way I see it, Everquest is a program developed by Sony Online Entertainment that contains maps, models, a GUI, and a basic set of functional rules that the client is governed by. Everything else that exists in the "live" Everquest world is simply an arrangement of the content provided in the client.
I am fairly certain based on my programming classes and discussions with game devs that the server code that SoE uses is designed to be highly variable. Just as an example that is not an MMO, take the source engine and half-life 2. If you open up say, a file for the weapons, you will see about 3 pages worth of #define 's that allow for quick changing of stats such as weapon speed, damage, etc. Albeit this is not in the database, and is in the actual code, it is designed in a way that allows for a quick change if needed.
This is how I feel the server code for EqEmu should be handled. Everything should be designed in a way that makes it fast and powerful, but also fluid. Not only would this help individuals who are not masters at C++/programming, but it would allow for quick changes to emulate events that happen on places such as EQLive. I wouldn't mind 1000 "rules" as long as they are properly arranged and designed with proper documentation to make them effective, if it meant that entire functions would not have to be adjusted if something changed on live.
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Hmm.
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