I had to give Redbot's prompt some thought. If the community were to rally behind a position, it must be one with supportive evidence. After reading through some of the responses, I had to give the topic even more thought. In an early episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Commander William T. Riker poses a rhetorical question, "When has justice ever been as simple as a rulebook?" In the case of EverQuest, it is a very complex model to explain, which is why resolving problems is so difficult.
Case 1: Level 1 to Level 13 in The Mines of Gloomingdeep Tutorial.
Starting in the tutorial of EverQuest, a player is fully empowered to ascend to level 13 through quests and monster slaying experience. The difficulty is not overwhelming (especially with a healing mercenary), and a player can complete the introductory quests without taking a single death. Players do not need special software to complete these tasks. If a disruptive player continually camps a named kobold or goblin, it would obstruct progression. If the player is AFK and obstructing the progression of others, it can be interpreted as a social wrong. Forbidding the use of 3rd party software solves this problem without too much argument. There are quality-of-life benefits, such as the enhanced map, but removing MQ or other software does not change the game very much in this scenario. The purpose of this case is to illustrate a clear scenario where MQ is not needed for success.
Case 2: Level 85 in The Grounds.
To save time, a Heroic Character upgrade can be purchased which boosts a character to level 85. Many of the skills are boosted (like swimming) and the spell book is filled to level 85. At this point in the game, the character is specialized. An enchanter would not be swinging a club like in the tutorial. For a solo player, it requires much more skill to complete quests, farm equipment, and gain experience at level 85. Players could find themselves helpless to get any quests done, which is a bad spot. With poor player populations, a LFG request falls on deaf ears in 2022. At level 85, specialization is a given. How can a player's character join a group with other specialized characters at the proper level? The EverQuest game design today depends completely on other players. For example, a character could get level 120 buffs or an acquaintance can power-level the character. However, this again is dependent on other players. Power-leveling services for payment are regularly broadcasted. Work-arounds such as this are not part of brilliant game design, rather they are damage control for a game that has become stratified (layered) by its multi-expansion design.
*Suppose that low pay caused all elementary school teachers in a population between the grades of 3-5 to quit. the school district having no plan whatsoever for the students throws them in with 6th grade students. The surviving grade 6 teachers will expect the students to know multiplication and division as well as some level of US geography and history. To get their kids caught up, some parents may enroll them in special classes to get them caught up, for a fee of course. Necessity is the mother of invention.
This is where the market for third party software is both empowering and popular. The greatest advantage is running additional characters automatically. Instead of paying 3500 Daybreak points and feeling like a sucker as your character dies repeatedly, third software opens the door to superhero-level powers. The villain Sheev Palpatine said, “The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.” Arthur C. Clarke wrote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Just as Deep Blue defeated Chess Grandmaster Gary Kasparov in 1997, computer software can perform tasks in a manner superior to humans. These software products are magnificent for players hurting for help (like superheroes). Need a full group of five more characters, casting spells and hitting disciplines to successfully kill monsters, complete quests, and farm gear? Third party software fits the bill. Like driverless cars, the software eliminates many of the flaws of human players. This automation is widespread in the commercial world. Supermarkets, Home Depot, Walmart, and even Taco Bell have automated stations to purchase goods. Clerks need to use the restroom regularly, take breaks (by labor law), have territorial drama (just like EverQuest players), and call-in sick. Microsoft Excel can process thousands of calculations, faster and more accurately than a human. For many players, including myself, it was a necessary evil. I had no idea how to play other character classes at level 85, and the human players were not available for my characters to progress.
Case 3: Level 120 in Maiden's Eye.
The current maximum level is 120. Most players know what a boxed group looks like. Whether it is a group using /autofollow or the "come to me" macro, the automated movements are in straight lines, revealing the software's unnatural efficiency. Multi-client broadcasts can execute a /say ready command to the entire group at once. The software has made the player a superhero. In Maiden's Eye, one monster drops an augmentation that is not awarded in any chest from the missions. Sic has beautifully demonstrated how to beat every Terror of Luclin mission on video, so any group can farm gear through the missions. It was like a piñata exploding when the timer was just 3 hours. However, since this particular item was not on the drop tables, it required hunting in the static zone. Parking at a camp spot is the specialty of automation software in general. Humans have lapses in attention and become careless or discouraged. The software does not. After several hours, the augmentation was looted. Each character in the group was level 120 and has the maximum amount of AAs.
What is the issue? Well, if you take away the third-party software, very little of the content I just described could be completed. Many mission scenarios cannot be completed with fewer players, unless they are highly skilled and raid-geared, like those impressive solo videos on YouTube. Personally, I cannot convince any of my friends or family to play EverQuest. It is just not their thing. So, it has become a 1-player game for me. I imagine that for other conventional players, assembling a group that can beat the missions and farm a rare augmentation is also a major challenge. The gap is prohibitive, experiencing either superhero success or unplayable failure. Not to be unreasonably negative, but it is doubtful that the game's programmers can resolve this gap.
Case 4: True Box Servers
These rules make sense, just like the banned substances list for the Olympic games. Some players do not want superhero-level characters in their game environment. I respect that.
Case 5: Raiding Guilds
This survives as the highest level of sportsmanship in the EverQuest universe. The ranking is maintained on the Elite Gamers Lounge website. Just as athletic organizations forbid cheating, both guild officers and DBG personnel purge members that use third-party software. This makes sense.
In conclusion, there might be too many angles to define an official community position. As an addict (unreasonable by nature), I continue to pay money for my multiple subscriptions to this computer game because I enjoy it immensely. I re-played levels 1-13 in the tutorial for fun. I played a small band of characters from level 85 to 90, because I lack the steady patience of Maskoi to wait until level 100. In my most mature superhero group, I enjoy gameplay at level 120, well aware of the risks. Being honest, back in 1999 I was hooked, even with that stupid spell book blocking the screen. Fortunately, I have resources to replace subscriptions that have trouble. There is no question that being a superhero violates the game's rules, but whether it is the achievements or that "ding" sound, the superhero-style game is very difficult to give up. The problem I see with an emulated server option is when a superhero player hits the ceiling. Omens of War had a level cap of level 70, well below the current level cap of 120.
Sorry for saying a whole lot of nothing. There was just too much to consider to make it black and white.
. Emulator is attractive for many reasons, and work has already begun on MacroQuest for emu clients. I don't think we'll take down our youtubes or relax truebox restrictions anytime soon. I wouldn't push for anti-features without some type of assurance they'd help our cause. Some safety defaults like those hotpocket suggested will probably be in a commit soon.
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