Instances destroyed EQ

[Kope]

Actually I've been wanting to ask you all about this because it's made no sense to me and I'll explain why:

I played on TZ (pvp server) where people literally fought over raid mobs. Whatever guild could kill the opposing guild as well as the raid mob won the day.

Instances kill this because there was no longer fighting over raid mobs. It basically turned the PvP server to a blue server in any raid contested mob zone. I'm not saying blue servers are bad, I'm just saying from the mentality of the PvP servers at the time, it took away the entire reason for raiding on a PvP server (at least mine).

How did instancing and safe zones hurt PvE servers? I honestly just don't see the detrimental effect.

[Matalus]

tz died when GoD came out, yes, but at the same time WoW came out and didn't wanna fight through another expansion. Ldon was a nice addition and had instance grouping, plus added other abilities which made it better pvp/groups. Don't think instances killed tz, think eq just had it's time up at that point, at least on tallon zek

[Vohl]

Originally Posted by Kope [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

How did instancing and safe zones hurt PvE servers? I honestly just don't see the detrimental effect.

I don't think it did, much. Personally, I didn't like how they were used -- they removed the immersiveness from EQ. The idea of some dream quest where you relived the life of some long-dead ice dwarf or subterranean squid man sort of made it work; otherwise, running through a zone without any PCs outside of your group seems a bit counterintuitive.

[Kope]

Originally Posted by Vohl [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I don't think it did, much. Personally, I didn't like how they were used -- they removed the immersiveness from EQ. The idea of some dream quest where you relived the life of some long-dead ice dwarf or subterranean squid man sort of made it work; otherwise, running through a zone without any PCs outside of your group seems a bit counterintuitive.

Ahh that does make sense. Thanks!

[greatdane]

It killed the spirit of Everquest. It's a game designed for a big population inhabiting the same world, which is why dungeons often have half a dozen or more "camps", i.e spots that can occupy a whole group. That's what EQ was all about: the life and dynamic of the server, the community and relationships you formed with others, and the fact that your behaviour actually mattered because it had an influence on others. This fostered a much more tolerable community than found in more modern MMORPGs where instances and cross-server groups remove any chance of consequences, leading to the increasingly widespread trend of people doing whatever the hell they want and acting like total imbeciles. You wouldn't get away with that in EQ, but the invention of instances was the first step towards gaming communities that have now become unbearable.

[Ennoia]

SOE's poor knowledge of their own game killed EQ.

[Kevlar]

Instances killed EQ yes.

WoW instances. They took the good parts of EQ, the dungeons, and made them fun for everyone, not the top 5% of the player base who could lock everyone else out.

[Snaggles]

Trying to pin-point the terminal failure of EQ is like trying to figure out the cause of death of a 1950's mobster buried in the Las Vegas desert.

The game was exponentially effed over post Velious.

[Clutter]

Once Verant lost the reins the game went south. I was a beta tester for Vanguard and it was sad as hell seeing it go through the same terminal cancer as EQ before it even made it to release. It's like SOE evolved and got even better at killing MMOs.

[Cujoy]

isn't that about the time VI sold to Sony?

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm