[frefaln]

Nice post by Nilbog, even nicer post by Paxton and I can back it up 100%. I was a software engineer at Microsoft for more than 3 years and I completely empathize with the Devs. In my case there were team members all over the world (might be the case here too, I don't know), and let me tell you, when you're dealing with source check-ins from umpteen different time zones, some of which only had one line of changed code yet managed to break a whole damn build, it is an indescribable pain in the ass to reconcile and rectify these things.

And in my case, that was just for small-scale internal applications. I'm very certain that EQ server-side code isn't small-scale anything, and given how many times Live Devs used to admit that things weren't built to be scalable, I have no doubt that it's chock-full of spaghetti/patchwork code and an absolute mess to sift through.

When I play EQ, I'm usually successful at taking off the Dev cap and just enjoying it in my ignorant player bliss. And yes, it gets tempting to just say, "Why don't they tweak X or get rid of Y?" But I'm quickly jolted back into reality by own experiences and I know how even the smallest "X" or "Y" can have a ripple effect of mammoth proportions. And God knows I wouldn't want to be the Devs checking these forums where people seem to have very little courtesy or patience. I'd get very frustrated if I got paid, let alone did it on a volunteer basis.

In short, Nilbog and Paxton aren't talking out of their asses, folks. What they've achieved here really is something spectacular, so it would behoove us to become their biggest cheerleaders, fanbois, whatever term you want to use.