Question about Unrest

[Aera]

<p>I recently did a run through Unrest, still one of my favorite zones in the game.  I know there is a lot of cool lore and secrets to be found in this zone but I had a question about the end of the instance.  When you're running deeper into the caverns below the house there is that segment where the boss says something to the extent of, "I see you hiding behind your pane of glass (monitor)!" and then there's a static filter that goes over the screen and a laughing skull that pops up.  Are we supposed to just take this with a grain of salt and say, "haha, oh that is cute"?  Or have there been instances in the past where NPCs from either EQ1 or EQ2 directly address the player playing the game?  </p><p>I mean, you could go on for a long time talking about how the boss of Unrest must know that he is part of a game if he addresses us sitting in our chairs playing a game.  I just thought this was weird and wondered what any of you thought about it.</p>

[Barx]

<p>It's not a technical violation of the fourth wall. The mob addresses your character throughout the zone, and the 'glass' he may be talking about may be the sparkly wall that you walk past (which is roughly when he says that). Once he's dead the sparkly wall goes away and you can walk through where it was. So at very least there is <em>some</em> explanation for it that doesn't break the fourth wall.</p>

[Aera]

<p>Good point, but is there also any reason why he is unnable to "feel our souls" or whatever he says sometime during the middle of the zone?  I thought that it might have been because the characters we control are "lifeless" unless we are behind the keyboard controlling them.</p>

[shadowscale]

<p>yep, i always found it a fourth wall breaker, a rather good one at that. all threw the zone he is complaneing about being unable to see our souls till he finds it outside of the monitor.</p><p>it basicly comes down to unrest is creepy.</p>

[Cusashorn]

<p>It's just breaking the 4th wall, that's all there is to it.</p><p>It's the first time anyone has ever broken the 4th wall in Everquest. That moment is the one and only, though a dwarf in Thurgadin comes close by almost doing so when he ranted on about not having the time to compair how strong a sword is compared to it's speed of the swing. (EQ1's weapons were rated based on the damage divided by the delay)</p>

[Rezikai]

<p>I enjoy it actually, and advocate more of it for quests / encounters if used as a mechanics to progress a raid/quest. Some say it would break the immersion, I would disagree. It would bring more immersion imo, things like a raid where a symbol flashes in the center of someones screen and they have to do something in the raid. This happens to a lesser extent in-game where while fighting raid mobs it turns a players screen yellow or blue/red and they then have to preform an action in raid to stop the raid from exploding as a fail condition, even before this was the Halloween house item that jumps out and scares the "player" not the toon. To me its more interaction with the player not just the adventurer that would make the game mechanics more fun.</p><p>An NPC recognizing it to me isnt a real big issue. Maybe to a rare few.</p>

[shadowscale]

<p><cite>Rezikai wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>An NPC recognizing it to me isnt a real big issue. Maybe to a rare few.</p></blockquote><p>i could definitly see bristlebane haveing this ability.</p>

[Meirril]

<p>The main thing is that the whole 4th wall thing is done so well in Unrest. Towards the end, Garanel is threatning YOU, not just your character. It is very fun as a unique experience.</p><p>If that mechanic is overused, it will loose all of its charm. So, basically while I wouldn't mind seeing it used again I would want to see it used very carefully.</p><p>BTW: Who else would like to see a tier 9 version of Unrest with a different set of "keys" added to the progression? Kind of a Garanel has lured us back into Unrest by capturing several important people and we have to resuce them in a certain order to progress through Unrest to a second confrontation against this revenge seeking spirit? I certainly wouldn't mind seeing a Nektropos Castle like revamp of this zone.</p>

[denmom]

<p>Oh, I loved that 4th wall break!</p><p>First time thru I stared at the screen, wondering what the hell and yelped when the skull appeared. <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>I had a good laugh when a guildee went thru for the first time with us, and I heard him say over vent "Wait, that's NOT a graphics glitch....".</p><p>What made me yelp and shove back from the computer was in the kitchen.  The taunting zombie popped up on my screen.  First time it ever happened.  We all had a good laugh with that.</p><p>Unrest is one of my fav zones!</p>

[Aera]

<p>Is he also the only boss who sends you mail after you defeat him?  Maybe he just wants a pen pal?</p>

[Giraku]

<p>I like the small fact that he calls it a pane of glass; Garanel would have no idea  what a computer monitor is and does, so to him it'd be a window or a spell, and he called it as such.</p><p>It's like nostradomis trying to discribe a tank he saw in a vision, (If you beleve that he did in fact see the future)</p>

[Cablejunky]

<p>I thought it was a 4th wall breaker and a cool one at that... I remember the first time through Unrest and the event actually made me jump up. </p>

[Rainmare]

<p>made me curse the first time. I thought I had just fried my graphics card or something...until the skull showed up.</p>

[Purtee]

<p>op is your guild any relation to the goon squad from eve and wow?</p>