Why EQ1 was better then WoW - Fear.

[jinkobi]

It would be interesting to see what would happen if WoW opened up a "hard mode" server.

Make it so that when you die you lose XP (even if you're at the cap) and can go back down a level. Make equipment 2x as durable, but not possible to repair, so when it's gone, it's gone and you have to replace it.

Make it so that when you die, you spawn at your hearth location and have to run back, naked and vulnerable to aggro, to your corpse, wherever it is (even if it's waaaaay inside a dungeon). And if you die again, well, there goes a bunch more xp and you have to run back anyway. After 30 minutes? An hour? Your corpse decays and your stuff can be looted, but after 2 hours even that decays.

Add elites back into the overall world, remove their ability to be leashed back (so they can be kited across the world to slaughter people).

I wonder how many people would play on that server as their primary.

I bet it would turn into the most overcrowded server in WOW history. We've all struck on something here which I'd kind of forgot myself. That games with a real fear factor aren't made anymore and lots of us old time gamers would love to experience that again.

[kate]

I bet it would turn into the most overcrowded server in WOW history. We've all struck on something here which I'd kind of forgot myself. That games with a real fear factor aren't made anymore and lots of us old time gamers would love to experience that again.

If that happened, they could roll out more servers as needed, and it would probably prove to be a net win for them as they might get some subscribers who otherwise wouldn't play WoW.

Were I queen of WoW and able to wave a hand to make things happen, here's what I'd do:

Make 2 new types of server:

1 - Hard Mode as described above. Roll out 2 to begin with - one is PVP the other PVE.

2 - Hard Core/tournament mode - First day of the month everyone can roll a character on this server, and after that the server is locked to new players until there's only one player left. If you die in PVP, your character is permanently dead until the next time the server unlocks for people to roll again. Once one faction is entirely eliminated, it turns into an everyone for themselves situation - everyone is flagged to every character. Last one standing wins, give them a title they can use on any character they make on other servers.

I don't have any idea how much a server would cost Blizzard to set up and run, but I imagine that such servers would bring in more account revenues than they might cost in initial and ongoing expenses, and definitely would give existing players something else to try that is still wow. Heck let Blizzard charge an extra $1 a month per character rolled on the hardmode servers (I bet people would pay it) if that would defray costs further.

[Lokked]

*EDIT* I went overboard

Yes, if you look at the effects of fear and the cause of it, rather how it is learned, EQ did cause fear to a level where no current MMO ever could.

Fear is a primary response to an event which caused harm (physically or emotional). The worse (perceived) the damages, the stronger the response will become. EQ made you pay dearly with your time should you slip up. I can't think of anything in WoW that causes you to lose something significant. Time, yes, but the loss is minimal, comparitively.