my observations and why I chose not to play

[concerned_citizen]

Hello all,

I've been lurking P1999 forums for some time considering whether I want to play here or not. After years at the other classic project forums waiting for their project to release, I found P1999 on a thread there and starting looking into this server.

I've always been skeptical of emulation servers for mmorpgs because I've never felt there is as much security involved in the investment of time. Remembering how much time I spent back in 1999 leveling up/playing my character, I thought I should be cautious before investing time here. I think my lurking here paid off in this respect.

From what I gather about this server from threads on every board, I figured the best place to write this would be here since anything negative on the server, regardless of what is expressed, seems to end up here anyways.

This is a composition of observations that I've developed from reading about what goes on on this server on the forums. I write this so that others may get a better idea from my experiences.

A few main reasons I've decided not to play on P1999:

1. I used to love EC tunnel back in P1999 so I decided to check out how healthy the economy is on this server on the forums. I was disappointed to find such a large array of characters being sold for plat; even this guy named Bob who levels up your character from 1-50 for plat. You see, back in 1999 people actually cared about their character, it wasn't just some commodity that was traded around freely. I know from the many hours I put into my character back then I wouldn't let it go for the world - it was me in an imaginary world. Here, it seems that characters, especially end-game characters, have no connection with the player controlling them. That was very disappointing for me to see and totally destroys the classic-environment of the game for me.

2. From what I gather concerning GM decisions, I see that many people are punished without any indication, proof, or formal explanation past "we know it from our logs" for the punishment. There doesn't seem to be many immediate punishments either - just ban forever. What is most troublesome to me is that reading through some of these posts of peoples' experiences it seems possible that there was an error in judgment when issuing punishment. Instead, they are just told "you cheated", then mercilessly ridiculed. This sort of environment actually make me afraid to play for fear I'll do something wrong and be banned without ever knowing what I did wrong. The worst part is it seems a majority of the player-base trusts the GM decisions entirely even when no proof is available to them, which, I don't know about anybody else, seems very odd to me.

3. It seems to be that power-gaming is the norm here with a rush to the top the goal for many people. I conclude this based off the general interest on the forums in choosing "the most needed classes", "best leveling spots", "best farm spots", account selling, and the number of top-end guilds recruiting 46+ in comparison to the server population. From what I read from guild drama, the end game raiding is basically poop-socking, kill stealing, and feuding over interpretation of the rules - with the GMs supposedly playing sides. Aside from raiding, endgame seems to be all about farming items and plat. If this was the experience of you all back in 1999 then I feel very, very bad and sorry...for you all. For the reasons I've mentioned, this server really doesn't seem any better or worse then the typical WoW server, which I find very disappointing.

4. People seem not to genuinely enjoy the fact that the game is social. Instead, they seem to enjoy doing only that which benefits themselves, and comparing their worth based on the gear they've accumulated on their character. I feel this is the modern mmorpg mindset, something people here proclaim to dislike yet can't avoid themselves. In saying this, I find it hard to believe in the poll on the main page that near 60% of you played back during classic era. The environment of the game was very different then from the attitudes expressed here on the forums. I guess I asked myself at that point, why should somebody want to play a 10 year old game with outdated graphics when the social environment is no different then any modern mmorpgs?

Everquest in 1999 was a different world from what P1999 is today. In my opinion, it's not about the game you play or the world that you inhabit, but the people you play with that makes a mmorpg worth playing. It seems many people here don't share that sentiment. Combined with my observation of how the server is run and the rampant selling of characters, I feel P1999 would just be a letdown.

I hope you all enjoy playing the type of game P199 is. I just don't think it is for me.

Thanks,
Roger