Rules Decent Players should abide by...

[Zenren]

As a returning player, having been back to P99 for about a month, I have noticed that the game can be a struggle at lower levels, especially if you don't have any gear. What makes the game even more challenging are the twinks and people power leveling in the game, that monopolize or take the camps lower levels needs. This is not the Everquest I remember and I think in part the reason this is such a big problem in P99 is because we don't have the luxury of starting a new server because things are crowded. With that in mind I thought I might remind people how things worked in Classic EQ or at least how I remember it, maybe I'm wrong.

1) You gave up a camp to a group of people appropriate level that wanted/needed to level there, especially if you gained no experience from the camp. If you needed a specific mob, then you made it clear they could level there, but you were camping the "boss".

2) If you were power leveling someone and additional people showed up, you either let the other people join the PL group or you moved somewhere else so they could use that spot. We didn't believe that just because we had reached 60th that meant we had the right to be selfish, rather it was our chance to help other people out that were leveling up.

3) You let people join your group regardless of what gear they had or what class they were. We didn't worry as much about "gimp gear" or "that troll shadow knight getting all the xp!" We considered ourselves a community and tried to help each other out.

4) We tried to follow a need before greed rule, in fact EQ was where that term came from. This means that if a cleric item dropped at a camp and a cleric was there, you let the cleric have the item if he needed it. If they didn't you rolled.

5) You helped your fellow player out. I don't know how many times I was running back to my corpse, ten zones away, and suddenly a "so and so wants to rez you" message popped up. No one asked for money or needed anything in return, they were just doing what was considered the right thing in that community. Random buffs were common at that time. As a gnome rogue I had people constantly buff me as I ran by (I'm sure sympathy played a large part).

6) We weren't fan bois. We didn't believe everything was alright and we called people out on their BS. If someone was doing something wrong the community addressed it. If someone ninja looted, it was just a matter of time before people found out. If a guild consistently behaved poorly, then they were treated accordingly. People didn't try to push these things under the bed or act like they weren't happening, they addressed them in the moment.

Okay... so those are the things I remember, maybe I'm waxing nostalgic, maybe not. However these were the rules that guided me throughout the rest of my MMO days. I remembered these things and I could tell people who had played EQ because, more often than not, they were following these rules as well.

Also, I know more people than not try to be decent, but I also know that a lot of people have forgotten these things. Maybe it is overpopulation that drives people to behave poorly, poverty can drive people to do crazy things, however this doesn't mean that we should forget that this is a game and that we're here to enjoy it. I try to respect everyone and give everyone the chance to be a part of the game, because that's how I learned to play. I know a lot of people feel the same way.