Quote:
Originally Posted by DMN
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it must be sad to live in a world of so many splendid colors yet only see things in black and white.
Truth is, it wasn't as simple as people just didn't have access to cable. While it is true that a significant portion ofthe population could not actually get cable, "the sticks" as you say, i'd wager that the majority of people who didn't have cable or better COULD have had cable. The problem was having to convince mumsy and/or dadsy to shell out 150+ dollars a month so you can more effectively stare at elf tiddies all day, a habbit they are already increasingly concerned with. needless to say, many kids couldn't formulate the right pitch to sell their parent(s) on it, especially since they were already paying for a second phone line most likely. And ya 150ish is about right if they hadn't already been using cable(adjusted for inflation). Even as a young adullt having to shell at that kind of cash when you are just starting out in life is not particularly appealing.
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I wasn't paying any 150 bucks a month for cable in '99, even adjusting for inflation. I first got it in February '99. Neither was I a little kid. However, as you say, things aren't black and white. Having cable was only a partial help; EQ was still designed to run on a modem and had only a limited transfer rate from the host. Cable provided for a stable connection without the frequent disconnects so often suffered by modem users, but it did NOT match the ping and low latency of modern high-bandwidth services. The kids who only got broadband later on wouldn't remember that aspect, either. EQ was playable with a 300 ping, but I wouldn't have wanted to hold a charmed hasted pet with a 300 ping. Cable took that to usually about a 100 to 150 ping which is still slow enough I see millennials here on P99 call those ping times "unplayable" (hah!), which probably highlights the progression of technology. Either way you still had horrible lag and various wierdness in over-crowded zones because that was a function of the limited data rate from the host, independent of connection type.
I do not believe charm or lull mechanics on P99 perfectly replicate those of the original game (it's an emulator, of course it doesn't), but your own arguments also have truth behind them. Even with mechanics pulled straight out of a 2000-era host players aren't going to play the same way they did back then for a large variety of reasons, up to and including it's easy to be brave when you have pocket clerics always ready to login and there's zero threat from death. No single change would completely affect player behavior. If P99 players have proven anything, it's that they're a clever and resourceful bunch who'll adapt to nearly any change.
Danth