After reading the millionth post about how unfair Immortals playing morts is and how they abuse all the info they have and etc, I've come to this conclusion:

Its good for the game.

Example #1: Player - "But no one KNEW about that uber-secret item before they went in there solo and got it and killed everyone with it!"
Immortal - "A couple of people had it before. It was hardly a secret."
Result - Now everyone knows it, what it does, they can get it for themselves (maybe with some help) and the elite few who knew of it before aren't info hoarders any more.

Example #2 - Player - "I didn't know that piece of equipment could do that! His set is too powerful! He's using his game knowledge unfairly! He's unkillable!"
Result - As soon as someone started wearing that particular piece of equipment, two other people started wearing it too. Game knowledge spread. I remember having a conversation with someone who said "Yeah, I passed that by at least a dozen times because I never knew it did that."

For all the whining and moaning, you never hear the constant topic of Cathoria come up, who was known to use triggers to kill the 199 people. Immortal-played characters aren't out abusing game bugs or triggers and typically go after the more skilled characters, not the newbies. They usually hold to a higher standard of PK and RP. Why all the complaints? So, your own character got beat down, but did you learn anything from it? There were a whole mess of new characters that were either trying to emulate them or find ways to beat them. I loved it.

Flame me, comment on me, whatever. Always open to both.

The point you make about uberequipment sorta makes me giggle a bit, thinking about the uberset Hunsobo had. Going top to bottom (WARNING: This rundown of H's eq may be boring as all hell to you.):

Ring of regeneration: Knew what this did, *sorta* knew where to get it, thought it was better than it is, never figured on having a chance of getting it (let alone having two at one point).

Etched dragonscale pendants: Knew what they did, knew where to get it.

Happygloves: Had no clue they existed or what they did. Told by a mortal at about 200 hours what they did and where they were, finally acquired them (thanks again Ahiviln and co!) about 250-300 hours later.

Strange bracers: Knew what they did, knew roughly where they were (but had never gotten them with a mortal other than through PK).

Happybracelet: Knew there was some kind of bracelet that did that. Had no idea where it was. Happened upon it while getting an axe for Tragnor one night. Probably could manage to figure out where it came from again, but I wasn't leading that night so...

Humansunder: Knew where it was from but didn't know exactly how to get there (thanks Draktel!).

Various other prep-type stuff: Pretty much found every prep that Hunsobo used with Hunsobo, other than the basics like flight potions. Oh and pills, I knew where they were (sorta based part of my strategy in legacy choices around pills, before I knew there was a lag on eating them. Oops. Still worked out though. :) )

I think a lot of the players assume that just because you're an immortal, you don't have access to every item, map, info, note, etc. Based on playing a lot of Outlander, figuring things out for myself, info I get about imm-workings and such, I don't believe this to be the case.

With what you just stated, you showed you didn't know where everything was at first. There was still a lot of discovery to happen as a mort. Thanks for the input.

I think immortal played characters are good for the game, for the reasons you stated. There's probably lots of others too.

I'm also a huge proponent of dissemination of useful knowledge. I do have my coveted secrets, but in general I think the more people know, the more level the playing field is.

Good post.

--Nightshade

Regardless of who plays them, epic characters break game stagnation. When the game goes through long periods of time with no memorable characters, it is not good for player retention. As long as everything is done fairly, they are nothing but a positive influence in the game. Also by giving rare eq an "airing" it reminds people that it is there, and makes people want to explore.

Really dig the recent questy stuff where those hell mobs keep jumping out of the volcano. I haven't been a participant but I think ~ bi-weekly seemingly random stuff like this is great for the game.

If only the tribs wouldn't hoard it all and spam eq; masturbate now. *pot shot*

--Nightshade