Of interest this week is a rather stunning announcement that Everquest 2 will be opening a Prison Server called Drunder in a week. This means they have contemplated and planned this for some time.
…players who are caught breaking our rules and disrupting EQ2 live server gameplay will be flagged for this server, and no others — ever. Characters on these accounts will be copied to Drunder (the “prison server”) and can never leave or transfer to another server.
This is a server our Customer Service Game Masters have requested over the years in order to manage disruptive players. They will determine who goes there.
They’ve Made a List and Checked It Twice
The Game Masters would indeed know who the troublemakers are. They may have banned and unbanned the same people over and over for years. Argued with them on forums. Found them to be guilty of cheating in many ways.
Cells are Ready, Tin Cups are Extra
I wish I knew more of the technical side of things, some days (most days not). They prepared a server and expect a particular load/population. Hand Picked!
They will have already flagged the accounts for themselves, right? It is just a matter of notifying players.
Why make them pay? Say they have marked for themselves a portion of the population they want to transfer over. Once it is all official and the server is open, you just move all the ruffians over there, the entire account (s). Poof gone from live servers for good no matter what. No GM has to ever deal with them again. You let the account holder know their people are incarcerated and if they ever want to see them again, jingle some money their way. Only the hardcore will go for it right?
Those things aside, I think it is interesting that they call this “a little experiment”. You know what that means.
All the very worst players, tossed together. Very excited at first to have made the cut! They can do what ever they want, noone to stop them muhahahahaha! Prey on the weak! Prey on the weak some more!
While the players are up to their usual foul deeds, the company can learn a lot from them, right? They’re now a microcosm and can be observed to see how they do what they do.
Why Would Anyone Pay To Play Here?
Perhaps they’re attached to their characters just like the rest of us.
Maybe they’ve played since the game went live and they love the world.
Could it be they think they know the game better than anyone? Now they have free reign to play it the way they want to.
Maybe they want to be part of a Grand Experiment.
Good Luck to everyone!
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