Everquest 2 Creates Prison Server for Cheaters

 

 

 

Everquest, one of the first major MMO’s to be developed way back in 1999 by Daybreak Game Company. Five years later on November 9th, 2004, they released a sequel. Everquest 2. For over 16 years EQ has been a very popular MMO, inspiring huge titles such as World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online. But, as with any game, Everquest has been plagued with hackers, bots, and etc. Through they don’t break the game, they are annoying and can sometimes give cheating players an edge over those who play fairly. Daybreak acknowledges this, and instead of banning the cheating player, they are going to be testing a new experiment.

The experiment is not some kind of a new super ban, but a server change. Daybreak studios is implementing a new server call Drunder, and it is designated as a “prison server.” In the Everquest Forums. Under the username “Windstalker,” Holly Longdale, Executive Producer for EQ, has stated,

“Later this week we plan to release a server we are calling “Drunder,” which is a “prison server.” What does that mean, exactly? “Ultimately, 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 leaver or transfer to another server.”

Drunder will have no customer service support and will require a maintained membership in order to be played. It will be a One Way Trip to this server, meaning if you cheat and land yourself into the prison server, you are getting a life sentence with no chance of parole. Longdale went on to say,

“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. As gamers, we recognize there are some players who like to step outside our rules… Ultimately, players who break the rules – or want to – will have a world of their own to do whatever they will.”

Though this is a big deal for any MMO, this is still just going to be just an experiment and nothing is set in stone. Longdale wraps up her post by saying,

“We wanted to see what happens given it’s not a very common option. Let’s see where this takes us…”

Longdale states that the experiment will begin sometime this week.