EQ2Wire draws some interesting conclusions from last week's Test Update Notes on Sony Online Entertainment's EverQuest II. The long-running fantasy MMORPG appears to be waffling on whether or not players should level rapidly. Last weekend marked a double XP smorgasbord, but now comes word of new persistent zones on the game's test servers.

These zones include many instances in the Desert of Flames and Kingdom of Sky sections of the world of Norrath, and making them persistent will prevent players from zoning in and out for a fresh set of mobs.

"This is the type of change that makes players the most negative about a game, these "yank the rug out from under you" changes which only serve to make players feel that their time is being intentionally wasted to maintain an artificial leveling pace. It only emphasizes the treadmill characteristic that all MMOs have, but usually try to conceal," writes EQ2Wire's Feldon.

Check out the original article for more commentary, as well as the full patch notes.

Persistent zones appear on EQII's test server originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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