Everquest - Live Servers

Hosix

All labs matter!
4,737
6,642
I loved the community it fostered. Early on your reputation mattered. If you were a shitbag you could eventually be forced out of groups. If you were a solid player and made friends? You would get tells from all over for groups.

It was cool to be able to look at a person and know where they have been. You could just see the gear they have and know the zones they have hit.

Early on travel was a fun part of the game. Running from place to place...running the walls of Kith at night with no SoW? Getting lost running around HHP and invis is fading as a KoS class? Getting lost in the CT maze?

That all made the game for me.
 

etchazz

Trakanon Raider
2,707
1,056
High level mobs in low level areas. The world never felt safe. Dying sucked.
 
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a_skeleton_02

<Banned>
8,130
14,248
Living breathing world.

Design choices that reflected "does this make sense in a fantasy world" over video game 101 design.

Great community that rewarded good players and punished baddies.

Skinnerbox style gameplay.
 
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Obsidian

<Bronze Donator>
755
1,187
As others have stated, the community was vibrant and real. Also, the internet was still in its relative infancy and everything in game was not data mined and posted online 6 months before release. I remember visiting allakhazam or whatever website it was every day to see what new items were found
 
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Tarisk

Pathetic Reaction Bot
1,568
370
Living breathing world.

Design choices that reflected "does this make sense in a fantasy world" over video game 101 design.

Great community that rewarded good players and punished baddies.

Skinnerbox style gameplay.

Going to second the part about the community. You could get blacklisted on the entire server for your actions, etc.

Even better when there was the epic drama over loot. Female players selling themselves to officers for loot etc.

We had one who lived with 3 separate officers rent free in the course of a few years.
 

Valderen

Space Pirate
<Bronze Donator>
4,538
2,752
Giants and Griffons in newbie zones killing everyone. :)

Which leads to what I miss the most...a sense of danger. EQ was a dangerous place that could kill you. Combat was tuned aggressively to be challenging, death penalties that made it so you didn't want to die, long travel times to get back to your corpse.

Not saying all these were good, but they added to the sense of danger...which simply doesn't exist anymore.
 

Theodlard

Golden Knight of the Realm
19
2
Not only a sense of danger but also Sgt Slate coming an KSing you in commonlands just to piss you off.
 

Hosix

All labs matter!
4,737
6,642
Not only a sense of danger but also Sgt Slate coming an KSing you in commonlands just to piss you off.

This....I remember getting to 50 on my SK and making a point to kill him every time I was in EC.
 
Frankly I loved the idea that you started out just "Boom here you are, get stronger" .. I loved the idea of no maps, no quest arrows, just immersion. Slower killing and medding actually added to the experience, not to mention the convo's in some areas were great.

My first Mage was Erudite and sure enough first thing I did was get lost, run into that evil fisherman, got blinded and feared while his skelly pet whooped my ass. It was awesome.

Forced first person and a survival aspect to EQ would add alot as well.. lets get ready for VR!

The only thing I would change in EQ was more loot and spells. I was watching a documentary about MoTG and the one thing stood out to me, was the idea that not everyone had to have everything, let people find ultra rare spells and items that may affect strength but also affected gameplay.. I want to play a class that is always aspiring to get more powerful and will go seek out new skills even if its just to showoff. I know more loot could be bad, but I have to admit I do love Diablo type loot (well for me Path of Exile) .. Not loot pinata's per se but just lots of options and variety. Loot variety and rarity were the only things I don't miss from original EQ.
 

Louis

Trakanon Raider
2,836
1,105
RE: What made Everuqest Great?

Sydsloot Halflingpunter, 50 Barbarian Warrior...guy seemed like a god to me as a lo 20's scrub inspecting him to see the best gear available in vanilla.

Hah, had a moment like that also. I was in a group camping the FBSS at pretty much the minimum level that group would take you. Had a guy named Byzantine from Sanctuary on 7th Hammer in the group who was level 60 with epics. No idea why he was even in the group, anyways FBSS drops after I spent like 6 hours of camping it. He wins the roll, opens up the trade window, and just gives it to me. Jizzed me pants.
 
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Deruvian

Lord Nagafen Raider
659
123
Terrible sense of danger and gravity of your actions. Die deep in LGuk in 1999? Plane of Fear? You might lose your corpse and the thousands of hours of gameplay that came with it. Add comes when you're group is deep in a zone and you're trying to land a slow or that last heal, knowing your next 45 minutes rests in the balance - either running to your corpse and watching the group break up, or putting on half a level and joking about the epic save. Real penalties made for real adrenaline.

Also, just being a boss was always a plus. Cruising around in full purp in e comm tunnel? People out of blue trying to politic with you because life is hard as an up and comer? The social game was as good or better than the actual combat.
 

Fezziwig

Joviality incarnate
161
68
Community of old school people playing D&D from UO/Meridian & other Old School Bartle text MUDs, C64 era Bards Tale....
Definately!

FoH / RR / ReRR epitomizes that community still.

Community > all

Right there. Plus the newness of it all... being able to play a graphics MMO that had a rich mythology. The marathon sessions were just like the Bartle MUD and Island of Kesmai all-nighters I used to play, only now with extra-delicious graphics.

<getting choked up with nostalgia>
 
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kevincheese

Lord Nagafen Raider
48
3
Forced first person perspective. Adds a lot to the immersion.

Yes, there was third person, but it was garbage and unplayable like that for the most part.
 

etchazz

Trakanon Raider
2,707
1,056
Frankly I loved the idea that you started out just "Boom here you are, get stronger" .. I loved the idea of no maps, no quest arrows, just immersion. Slower killing and medding actually added to the experience, not to mention the convo's in some areas were great.

My first Mage was Erudite and sure enough first thing I did was get lost, run into that evil fisherman, got blinded and feared while his skelly pet whooped my ass. It was awesome.

Yeah, this times a thousand. I loved the fact that you were just dropped into the game, no tutorial, no quest hubs, no arrows or maps telling you where to go, and no ! telling you who to talk to. Had to figure shit out for yourself. Today's MMO player wouldn't have lasted five minutes.
 

Randin

Trakanon Raider
1,931
890
Where other (single player) RPGs felt like I was being told a story, EQ felt like I was being dropped into a full fantasy world and being told to find my way. Granted, EQ was too much about the grind, so I can't fully blame other MMOs for trying to add more meaning and context for your actions, but they did it by sacrificing that major distinguishing feature that EQ had from single-player games: presenting the player with a world rather than a story.

Fuck, I'm still salty about EQN; the adaptive AI stuff was the first time I'd heard a major developer talking about a new way of making an actual world, rather than just shoehorning in another single-player story, in a long-ass time.