Are we respecting the journey in Everquest?

[Oldschoolplayer]

Greetings fellow Norrathians! This post is my opinion and perspective.

My question is with rotations and draft weeks are we respecting the journey of Everquest? Are we watering down the scarcity/value of items that keeps a lot of players playing? The long challenging journey to acquire that epic piece, kill that target, see that zone or acquire that item. These drafts and rotations eliminate outside competition of these items to solely competition within ones own guild. Which in my opinion dilutes the journey of classic Everquest.

A lot of my experience on live, and on this server has been that if you want to better your chances at reaching your goals a great step is joining like minded people. For example, one could say in other words if you want to raid certain targets join a guild that does that.

I've heard one argument that states they want to accomplish this goal with their guild and friends. My question would be what is stopping your guild from accomplishing this goal within the confines of a classic experience or the server? What makes other guilds able to accomplish this goal and not yours? Do certain guilds dedicate more time and effort to accomplishing these goals? Should that not be rewarded? Another question would be, does joining another guild equate to you losing your friends?

Another argument I see often is that "people have real lives or have different time zones which is a barrier". My counter argument would be this is the nature of everquest, and also if you have joined a raid guild you will see that mobs are killed or contested in every time of the day. We all have lives and miss opportunities- this is the nature of everquest and also is a part of the journey.


I also believe there are vast projections and generalizations taking place within the draft week.

"Draft week is a time to relax and reset". Some are already relaxed within the nature of the server. They do not need to relax or reset. If some feel that it what is needed, should this not be something done on a individual level? I myself have taken breaks from the game- it has been great for me!

Draft week reduces toxicity". I'm not sure I follow this. Are raid concerns being equated to toxicity? It is only natural that there be disputes on the raid scene, some weeks more than others. People, raid entities see things differently all the time, this is natural, and why when necessary is arbitrated to the GM's. Bringing up these concerns respectfully is the goal to strive for. Are we also generalizing toxicity onto certain populations or guild identities? Are we seeing one individual or a few being toxic and finding that this is the culture of the server? Or is it more a individual that is being toxic to another?

Anywho, just my opinion!

Respectfully,

Oldschoolplayer