My opinion
I saw a flash movie somewhere a while ago that showcased pictures and music from classic EQ, and it brought tears to my eyes ..silly as that may seem, but EQ was so magical when I first started playing it. Everyone was using classic character models, someone with an epic was Godly, etc. Luclin hadn't been envisioned yet. Now adays, EQ is a lot different and as the point was made earlier (Wiz I think), nobody wants to wear a +2 DEX ring when they can easily get a +10 DEX ring. Hell even newbie armor is better than what we started with back in pre-kunark days. Cloth, leather, and if you were substantially rich, chain of some sort. More on this below.
In EQemu I would enjoy a classic server for about 20 minutes, tops. You see, in EQlive I HAVE to level up. There are no commands, and if I choose to play EQlive, I have no choice but to work for what I want. So if I want to level up and work for gear, I play EQlive. But in EQemu, on many servers, I type #level and #si and #scribespells. So why would I dabble around playing on a server where I would have to level up, and have to work for those +2 DEX rings, when I could easily switch to another and have time gear within minutes? Because that's not the way I like to play EQemu. The reason a classic EQ server wouldn't work in EQemu is -For many people including myself, EQemu is a way to see what high-end EQ is like (for the most part). It's an escape from EQlive, an escape from mad hours spent on my ass hitting the Q key and drinking soda. As I have seen first hand from running my own EQemu server, people want Time and GoD gear. People complain about things such as, my ring of prismatic visions disappeared when I zoned, omg!!!11!1 and, Are there any custom items on the server and OMG you NERFED 11000??????!??!11?!?!11 ..not ONE person complained about plague rat tail drops on large rats in qeynos2. I had to increase the exp multiplier on my server to keep people happy, because they wanted to level up quickly. I added an NPC that gave players level 20 right away. Guess what happened? The player base skyrocketed from the average 2 people a day to 15-20 people a day and more. This happened because most people don't WANT to dabble around for hours. They want what they want, and they want it NOW, not next week. I left that oppurtunity open for my players, and they grabbed ahold of it and began to dance with it. Not one player on my server chose to ignore the Headmaster and level, not one. Now, I'm not saying that there aren't people who enjoy spending endless hours earning that 12AC breastplate and leveling up, there are, and sometimes I do myself. But not in EQemu, not when the oppurtunity for better is always there, ready to take in an instant. When people know there is better out there, and know it is easy to get, they're going to go for the better. That's human nature - If you were offered a Pinto or a Ferrari, which would you choose?
To sum it all up, EQ classic is gone, and not to return. You can create all the max level cap 50, time gearless servers you want, butIf someone wishes to have a classic EQ, they will need to create an entirely new game, with new surprises and new gear. That feeling of magic, myth and mystery that we all felt will only surface if we log in to the server and have no idea what to expect. We all know in our hearts that EQ classic is gone, some of us just need to be opened up in different ways before we finally accept it. And when we do finally accept it, perhaps the reality of things will fall into place better.
Sir Kane the Destroyer
ServerOP, Claws of Veeshan
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