Back in live classic it was cool being a complete newb and experiencing everything for the first time.
Then with p99 it was cool to revisit classic eq and do it again, and learn to min-max the game in the way you always fantasized about back in '99 but never achieved.
Peak p99 was getting a spot in one of the 5 simultaneous XP groups in Mistmoore and making new friends you'd journey to 60 with, or full grouping fungi king while /ooc was filled with the 30 other people grinding the zone, and things like starting a fun melee twink and actually impressing someone in Unrest with it. And then to some extent micro-maxing the mechanics at the high end with things like aggro/training/pulling, etc. That's all been dead for years.
Turtle WoW has convinced me (from what I already suspected anyway) that the future of Classic is "Classic+." Adding new content in the same tiers as existing (so not replacing) while not being afraid to do some housekeeping with the class balancing and content difficulty/scaling, and a QoL change here or there that doesn't fundamentally change the design or mechanics. You also want a new client because Titanium is on its last legs and barely holding together. I think short of a new client (Project Lantern still in the works?) and Classic+ done by a competent team the classic EQ emu crowd will approach rapidly diminishing returns as everyone that would play something like this has, and had their fill.
Preserving some terrible balance because the over-worked EQ devs didn't get around to the fix until 3 weeks after P99s timeline, or staring at unfinished placeholder content and items for all eternity, is not what made P99 great. Although I think that singular zealous focus worked for a time by preventing anything crazy being done by the wrong hands at the wrong time. But we're past the point of having to worry about that anymore. Some team needs to get with the Project Lantern guys and then get with Rogean and Co and work something out with him for the P99 database, and start a Classic+ project. Go ahead and get on that, whoever you are. I'd play it.
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