Feldon 
HMS Jersey Prison Ship circa 1782
From Windstalker on the EQ2 Forums:
Good day Norrathians!
We are very busy here on the EQII team and we have something coming up we wanted to make you aware of — a little experiment.
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 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. As gamers, we recognize there are some players who like to step outside our rules.
Drunder will get no customer service support and it will require a maintained membership to access and play. Rather than disrupt live servers in an attempt to join the “prison server,” players can use our /petition system and ask to join Drunder. To be clear: You won’t be able to move individual characters to this server, while maintaining characters from the same account on another server. This is a ONE-WAY trip for an entire account forever.
Ultimately, players who break the rules – or want to – will have a world of their own to do… whatever they will.
As I said, this is an experiment. We wanted to see what happens given it’s not a very common option.
Let’s see where this takes us…
Holly “Windstalker” Longdale
Executive Producer, EQ & EQ2
Commentary
There is no mention as to whether this will mean an uptick in the enforcement of rules regarding Botting. While Multi-boxing has usually been declared legal on the few occasions that SOE/DGC has chosen to comment on the topic, Botting is the use of software such as [Censored] which relies on the framework provided by [RadarXed] to partly or completely automate the gameplay of characters beyond that which a single person running a single keyboard would be capable of.
Even mentioning [RadarXed] on the EQ2 forums is grounds for the post to be removed and a warning to be issued, yet we’ve seen little action taken in-game to eliminate bot armies such as the one pictured below:
How many people would petition to have their accounts banished here? Doesn’t sound like a wasteland I want to end up on.
I worry about abuse too. I have known folks over the years that went out of their way to cause trouble for those they did not like. They used innuendo and passive aggressive tactics to force people off a server or out of the game.
Is this a three strikes kind of thing that could get you banished, like having made a character with Lord or Lady in your name as violation one, getting a post banned on the official forums as violation two, and talking trash to a dev as violation three?.
I think this is a great idea, if it works out the way I think it’s intended.
You don’t lose revenue by banning people using Innerspace/ISBoxer/ISXOgre/BJ Scripts/AutoHotKey/etc; because let’s face it, those people pump a lot of money into the game with multiple expansions, subscriptions and marketplace purchases.
Yet you appease the people who don’t appreciate that style of gameplay, as they no longer have to see trains of auto-follow toons running around casting spells.
As a former multi-boxer, I can totally appreciate having a server like this.
There can be some definite drawbacks that would even reach live. For example they could use these ‘dubious means’ with unbostructed use to kill and get loot before the live servers get a fair crack at it. Exploits used repeatedly without recourse until it was fixed.
It would pretty much be a premium-only server that allows cheating.
So all of Unrest will be there? With the exception of Dellmon and a few others. lol.
In all seriousness this is probably the individuals that are afk killing for xp and the ones that use 3rd party programs to get mob ID’s for use in macro’s. This is rampant on Unrest and has been since as long as i can remember. Along with those items the people that warp to places within zones to get the shinies and bug out afterwards or warp to the nameds.
There was a post on Jan 7th 2014 from Kander that they were going to crack down on this abuse but I dont think they ever followed through with it.
I think victims of REAL abuse would take offense at your suggestion that abuse is some idiot talking shit in a channel on a toon that can be rendered harmless using /ignore.
Online game crap is, at worst, harassment. It’s not abuse, bullying, or anything of the sort. How about a reality check. *boggle*
Doh! that was supposed to be a reply to Wulfen’s post just below this one. *shrug* oh well….my comments stand, even out of context. 🙂
On reading this, I was thinking… hmmm…OK… but when I read the ” never leave or transfer.. forever” part I thought.. Oh, noooo…. Prison? For LIFE?
I would hope that the grounds for such sentencing will fall heaviest on the extreme end of bad behavior. I am too naive even to know what that is, but I know that many, many of us have behaved badly over the years… even me. Not only that, but people who behave badly to others, treat me absolutely with respect. Go figure, but this is true. If they were sent to prison, I’d miss them, and the server would lose some of its flavor. What I DO want, which has been missing particularly this week, is a REPORT button, not for spam, but for individuals who are abusive in the extreme to women, to nationalities, races, religion, etc. etc. I thought we had one.. perhaps the devs got tired of it? At any rate, I feel forced to hit the spam report but that’s not what it is… it’s forceful abuse.
I would be uncomfortable until I knew what the actual rules would be for the Game Masters to make this decision. Absolute power can turn badly very quickly. I haven’t witnessed anyone doing something that would be breaking the rules but I have heard plenty of rumors about some of the things raid guild leaders on my server have requested of their players. I wouldn’t mind seeing them moved but honestly how do you know that you won’t be kicked out for something you said or a he said she said type of accusation.
I have a second and third account, I might just be tempted to spit my gum out in public and see if I can end up there. Because I know how hard it is to make another account.
I’ve heard some crazy ideas in my years in EQ, but this one takes the cake. If people are cheating or harassing others, simply BAN THEM FOR LIFE and be done with it. Stop wasting resources and even thoughts that could be better spent on those that comply and follow rules.
You cannot have it both ways. You either permit the cheaters to exist, and take the revenue. Or, you grow a spine, support your loyal, fair-playing customers, and kick the lowlifes off the game forever. If this has been too subtle a response, find me in game and I’ll gladly make it even clearer.
I fully agree with your point of view.
Here on Storms we are not really concerned by the problem of bots (do not think there is a single player trying that) : not enough players online. Sure this will no more be the case after a european merging of servers 🙂
Besides, I am not really sure of the legality of the fact that players must pay (maintained membership) and not have any more support, it would be interesting to see what a judge could say about that !
Last of all, I am always really very suspicious as regards of the unilateral decisions without return that a customer service can set. In game I am a Paladin so : a kind of white knight always applying the law, but in certain circumstances I have a big doubt of what can result of this
Fully agree.
Sad to read this news, showing the team wasting time and resources on this solution.
Your live servers are getting ready to merge for a better life (more ppl means healthier servers) and now you’re offering the cheaters an official way to keep playing EQ2 (and of course, paying for that).
This server sounds to me like a place where anarchy will rule.
Worse: this does not even prevent cheaters to create a new account and come back to the official servers.
Please, forget about this idea and keep your resources on developing content! Your people are still waiting for the International Dungeon Finder …
This turns a ban, which will cause the offender to just open another free account and go on, into a possibility of the account remaining WITH A SUB and just botting all they want. Since most people don’t come from static IPs, etc a perma ban may be less effective than you think.
It’s also an experiment to see how tolerant people are of botting, hence some people will move so they can bot, others so they can buy from bots. What happens when it is the most popular server?
No customer service means whatever happens there cost them ZERO in maintenance.
This could be a big win in $$$ for them, while they clean up the regular servers.
Yes, a plan like this always works so well …
“We have in effect put all our rotten eggs in one basket. And we intend to watch this basket carefully.”
‘Kommandant’ Colonel Von Luger
“… it is their sworn duty to cause the enemy to use an inordinate number of troops to guard them, and their sworn duty to harass the enemy to the best of their ability.”
Captain Ramsey
The Great Escape (1963, July)
I’m not sure if my reaction is WTF??? or AWESOME!
Such a vague vague vague statement. Seeing how this is SoE/DBG I wouldn’t trust that it would be for the ‘greater’ good.
Honestly its been going on so long I am surprised people still get mad about it. I learned to accept it and move on. Its one of the main reasons I dont play anymore. When a guild leader tells the raid to use 123456789 in their macro and just be close to the mob instead of the right click and choose mechanic I was pretty much done with the game.
The funny thing is I never saw this happening until I (from Najena Server) got merged with Unrest (known for being a bunch of cheaters server) Not saying Najena was holier than thou just saying I never saw it there.
We also, went from Najena to Unrest and it was a sad day in deed. I agree, Najena wasn’t perfect but the amount of jerks we had to endure after the merge was amazing. And yes, I could name raid leaders that were also the guild leader that basically told their raid force to start using specific programs or leave.
This is the most bugf*** idea I have ever heard of in the long history of my association with this game.
Honestly a stupid waste of resources
The average player does not really know the effect this will have. It’ll be a huge pain in the butt for botters because many own like 5 accounts. BUT these players probably control a lot of the plat on the servers. I am really curious to see what this will do to the economy and the player base. It’ll be hilarious when random guildies start vanishing from guilds OR people actively trying to move there.
I like the idea, very unique. Some people like the game better using 3rd party software to bot etc others don’t. This gives both parties their own playgrounds.
what is there to keep somebody who gets sent to prison server from creating a new account. Same thing happens now when a person gets the banned. I can point at a certain person from Guk, who I shall not name and he got banned on 3 accounts, and he kept making up new accounts to get around the ban, until dbg finally banned his entire ip.
The problem with banning an IP is that more than one person can use one IP, so you could be banning innocent family members as well as the person responsible for bad behavior.
I have no better suggestions, just hate punishing the innocent to get to the guilty.
Traduction française de l’article de Feldon sur http://www.guerrier-celeste.fr/48-frontnews/518-allez-en-prison.html
et de celui de Holly sur http://www.guerrier-celeste.fr/drunder-un-serveur-prison.html
Honestly, I think they should have done that a long time ago, but put them on Nagafen. Knowing jerks from chat might be getting their digital asses handed to them would make for some sweet dreams. XD Also, this might have given the PVPers more to play with and kept their server viable.
They do need to refine how they give warnings though. I’ve gotten one for a typo (I meant to say I’d kick someone in an area they were talking about, but I hit k instead of L, and the GM didn’t care what I said. It was pretty friggin obvious I was angry at the person if they read the whole conversation, not wanting to lick them.) , and one for talking about my cat (someone else twisted it into the perverted sense, and I told him is was male, and I got a warning. o.0) So does that mean if I typo one more time, and someone in a bad mood decides to report me, I’m screwed? o.0 I typo a LOT. 0.0 I have a bit of spinal damage and my fingers are numb most of the time, on top of som arthritis. I celebrate when I get through a sentence without having to go back and click the red lines. XD
Also, I tend to 6 box with auto follow for writs. It’s not boting, but it looks like botting with 5 toons standing/running/flying behind me. I got my guild to 100 by having them autofollow while I killed for the writs on one toon, called the guild hall, grabbed another set of writs on each one, and took the flag back to Jarsath wastes. Is that “illegal”? XD
And what about having more than 4 teleporters in a house? 14 of them in one house work just fine, it doesn’t affect game play, but rumor has it, that is a bannable offence (although I have yet to see anyone get banned for something that silly).
How bout that time they sold out the Euro players and Feldon here posted that cartoon? Would his account have been banned with no hope of return then? :\
And on the other hand, they really don’t seem to care about people who pretty much can ruin the game with what they say in tells or general channel. A guy tried to cyber me (very descriptively -.-), stalked me, kept making new toons to get around my ignore lists, he didn’t go much as get a warning. He kept gloating about how SOE wouldn’t do anything to him. I’m guessing people like that won’t get sent to the Prison server? -.-
I dunno. I really do like the idea, but the details will get messy. The optimist in me hopes chat will get less disgusting, but the realist expects it to be a big mess, then deleted.
I agree put them on Nagafen and dont remove that server.
This isn’t going to be Siberia. It’s going to be Australia.
Anyone ever see the John Carpenter film Escape from New York?http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082340/ ’cause that worked just so well for society. I see parallels of what that server will look like and what New York looks like in that film
I have to say I find this Drunder …ummm… “solution” to be …umm… “intriguing”.
First, in Winderstalker’s announcement is quite vague as to what will constitute a banishment to Drunder.
Seriously what does that mean? What constitutes breaking their rules? What are their rules? Are we talking the EULA and the Play-Nice-Policy? That would imply to me that the breaking of the rules that Daybreak is already condoning or turning a blind eye to will now be enforced. Her quote is about as elastic as Dell-Mom saying “maybe, we’ll go for ice cream if you are good, maybe”.
So now they intend to create the historical Australia of EQ2 servers. Do they really think creating a playpen of bad behavior and making players continue to pay will work?
To me this is the throwing in of the towel while still holding out the donation plate. We (Daybreak) have chosen to allow you to continue to break OUR rules because we don’t want to stop you cause there is a slight chance you might still pay us to do so…
I give the Drunder experiment a life expectancy of six months.
It means people have to be much more careful about diligently reading their Terms of Service agreement…
I keep seeing people say this is a waste of resources. You seem to be missing the fact that anyone kicked to this server HAS to maintain a paid account to keep playing and DBG isn’t spending any time or money on customer service or policing. This is potentially a big win for DBG in terms of resources.
As far as “they’ll just make a new account on the regular servers” goes, remember that this game has been around for a long time. It’s not that easy to just walk away from an account with 7+ max level chars. :p
My only concern has already been voiced by numerous people. They’ve been vague about what constitutes an offense that’ll get you banned to this server. There are a lot of people who’ve never used a 3rd party program in their lives, yet randomly get suspended for using one.
1. waste of resources. compare: where’s the news about the next big content like last year?
2. Threaten the people who pay you to obey the rules or … ? Thank you but no thank you.
3. Future rules which you dont like? Too bad for you but of course you can always join that exile server if you do not like these rules.
4. never had a problem for 10 years and suddenly you get reported for whatever? Too bad for you.
What this sound likes is going after the boxer/botters running one account paid for, and all the others free to play, they can send them all there and get more money.
Only problem is most of them will just quit……..
Except most of them have active subscriptions on ALL their accounts. They SLR gear for plat and use the plat to buy Krono to keep all their accounts active.
That’s what I’ve been saying for years. Pisses me off when they steal what I’m trying to get, or when they hog an area, but they are paying more into keeping the game running than I am. XD
If only DBG would use the “cluster” idea that “Dark Age of Camelot” used. It opens other servers (like instances) to zone to for every one, incase of bots hogging or just overcrowding. (Keeping names/identities is a definite bonus).
Just let all the boxers come to Nagafen, im sure the other 4 people left after tle launch wont mind a bit
I wish people would stop using boxers and botters as interchangable concepts. They are very different. Besides the fact that someone who chooses to two box (or more) is actually paying and playing each account. One is against the rules = see botting, and one is not see = boxing.
Other than the content for at least the last two expansions has not been bot-able, so everyone running around with more than 2 characters and saying they are boxing, are complete liars.
And Feldon, getting moved to a prison server as a botter who SLRs gear will make them quit as there will not be as many people to sell to who can’t just do it themselves.
It’s actually sorta funny how often the crazy high prices for SLR items are botters buying stuff from one another.
I actually do know the difference, it was meant to be silly given the state of MY server AT THE MOMENT wasn’t trying to offend botters OR boxers. I for one could care less wtf anyone else is doing. Sounds like you have BOT anxiety I recommend a three finger shot of your favorite whiskey 😉
It seems like it would be just as easy to make one server that is by the book, and allow the cry babies a free transfer to that server. Anyone caught on that server violating rules will be perma-banned, or as close as is possible.
I don’t think some of you realize the impact this could have on overall populations. Sure, you get rid of the botters, but what happens when all the people that actually liked having them around follow suit? Or the people that are just close friends follow? The economies, available people for grouping, you name it, they will all follow a steady decline into nothingness.
Honestly, I don’t care either way, make it happen, or don’t. But you wait and see, the very people constantly whining about not enough people, or those whining about botters, will almost overnight start crying out that suddenly, their servers are completely dead.
And the new king of the hill server?? Drunder, highest poulation server in less than a month.
I’m not convinced this plan will work in the slightest – many already know they risk a ban and have multiple accounts already, or are happy to just make a new one if this or a ban happens. And forcing people to pay but with no support provided is iffy to say the least.
If DBG can make Drunder a PVP server, so they can annoy each other properly tho, that might be fun.