If you cheat in Everquest II, prepare to be sent to jail.
Well, maybe not jail, but Drunder—Drunder is what Daybreak Game Company is calling the server where cheaters will be exiled. “Players who are caught breaking our rules and disrupting EQ2 live server gameplay will be flagged for this server, and no others—ever,” they announced in a forum post. In the Drunder server, players can still play Everquest II, but they are separated from non-cheaters.
If Drunder were a real prison it would probably be shut down for inhumane conditions. There is no customer support for Drunder and no chance of rehabilitation, either. Once you’re in, you’re in for life. The inmates also still have to pay for a full Everquest II membership to play on Drunder. Unlike a regular server, Drunder affects a player’s entire account—not just the character being played at the time.
Players can petition to be moved there, if they want to play without oversight or rules. Or any chance of getting back to the regular game.
According to the forums, this is an idea the Game Masters have been tossing around for years.
“We wanted to see what happens given it’s not a very common option,” said the developer who made the post. Drunder will basically be the MMO equivalent of “Lord of the Flies.” It’s an experiment whose outcome remains to be seen. If players are content with the punishment, it could end up being beneficial for Daybreak (the developer of Everquest). After all, they’ll still be getting paid by the players, rather than terminating their accounts and losing them entirely.
Players will be eligible for exile to Drunder in lieu of account termination if found in violation of “Rules of Conduct, Naming Policy, AFK Policy, Terms of Service, and/or EULA.”
Everquest II is a multiplayer online fantasy roleplaying game that has been around since 2004. It’s the successor to Everquest, which was launched in 1999 and was one of the very first MMOs.
