Everquest - Live Servers

I mean, like 90% of people who did the epics just followed a guide on allakhazam or their class forum. I bet 95% of the rogue populace that got their ragebringer only actually did half the epic quest, since most of the side-quests that get you the info needed to complete it were optional if you don't need the info.

In the raid game, the fact that you had basically an army behind you fighting giant ass monsters was and still is cool as hell. Also the fact that you could basically carry that army with like 10% of the players actually being good and the rest could just be warm bodies, but fun / cool warm bodies, and you could succeed.

Kuro said:

I mean, like 90% of people who did the epics just followed a guide on allakhazam or their class forum. I bet 95% of the rogue populace that got their ragebringer only actually did half the epic quest, since most of the side-quests that get you the info needed to complete it were optional if you don't need the info.

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For a good while those guides were shit and you still had to put effort into figuring shit out on your own. Not to mention, some epics were near impossible to complete for a long time unless you were in a cutting edge guild. The "where's mine?" crowd that WoW developed would have never been able to deal with the hardships and scarcity those quests provided.

There was that and the fact that you had plenty of time to just talk/type about anything while waiting for pulls and setups and such, made it easier to enjoy the company of the community. You might raid 4 hours with 30 minutes of actual boss combat. You spent most of the time clearing trash and recovering.

Valderen said:

I'll be honest, I am not sure I would do that these days either anymore.

I had Enchanter, Rogue and SK epic weapons.

I did the Enchanter one almost entirely without a guild. I had a pretty good reputation on Tarew Marr, and was regularly invited by a few top guild to help them in raids when they were short on enchanters.

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Yet another thing that made EQ great: your reputation mattered.

daly said:

For a good while those guides were shit and you still had to put effort into figuring shit out on your own. Not to mention, some epics were near impossible to complete for a long time unless you were in a cutting edge guild. The "where's mine?" crowd that WoW developed would have never been able to deal with the hardships and scarcity those quests provided.

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Not to mention if you handed in an item to the wrong questgiver you lost it all and had to start over. I was scared to death at times doing hand ins.

Sloshed said:

Not to mention if you handed in an item to the wrong questgiver you lost it all and had to start over. I was scared to death at times doing hand ins.

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Or the actual quest NPCs just eat your shit for no god damn reason. This NPC ate a piece of my warrior epic and Oribi was the Server GM for Brell server who replaced it for me. (This predates AB server before I moved)

Not sure if you remember this one but if you were knocked unconscious you could still type but not hit enter (or back space either I'm pretty sure). That was rather brutal.

Another great one was if you tried to alter the line of a macro, it would just erase the entire row and you had to retype the entire row over.

Escaping as an evil erudite from Odus and getting past Qeynos was also quite a feat without a port.

Kuro said:

I mean, like 90% of people who did the epics just followed a guide on allakhazam or their class forum. I bet 95% of the rogue populace that got their ragebringer only actually did half the epic quest, since most of the side-quests that get you the info needed to complete it were optional if you don't need the info.

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Yeah but honestly, even just following a guide made for a quest line far, far more interesting than anything WoW or other newer mmos ever did. Just REACHING some of the places, even at a higher level, could be an adventure in itself in EQ, especially if you did it solo. And a lot of the epic stuff could be started earlier on. I know I was doing some of my monk epic stuff in my 30s and 40s to prep for it later.

EQ just had awesome, complicated, involved questlines that made you do research and think about it at least a bit, which is more than you can say for anything post-WoW.

I didn't enjoy sitting in fucking Sol B for 16 hours coming back to the computer every 20 minutes to see if my named spawned, I'll tell you that much is true.

I got a kick out of talking in 3rd person back then. I would constantly say like "Ok, Xarpolis will keep the one on the left under control."

Xarpolis said:

I got a kick out of talking in 3rd person back then. I would constantly say like "Ok, Xarpolis will keep the one on the left under control."

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Shit like this makes me wonder if I'm as socially retarded as the rest of you.

Not gonna argue with you on that one. I was a dumb kid. Glad I grew out of that self-imposed shell.

Anyway, WoW did have a few awesome quests. The long string of quests for opening the gates of Ahn'Qiraj. Granted, only a few people were ever able to complete the entire quest chain before the gates opened, but you could do 99% of the quest up until the final reward of legendary scarab mount any time you wanted (before Cataclysm came out). It was pretty awesome in that regard. I really liked that quest chain.

The Scepter of the Shifting Sands quest chain

Some of Furor's better work. I also liked the "original" Alterac Valley, with battles that would last well over 24 hours. That was fun also. I remember seeing the alliance team somehow pull their king all the way to the horde king's base. It was brutal.

Alterac Valley was a shitshow, but it was definitely awesome listening to 40 people yell at each other on vent. Some good times there, then it became a 7 minute race.

Did anyone ever participate in those server best of the best PvP battles?

PvP in EQ was shit, it was pretty funny to watch.

A lot of the stuff being mentioned in this thread are things that used to annoy the hell out of me. I'd never want back the tedium and time sinks that existed in much of EQ. For me, the things that made EQ great were all the little things that made it feel like a real world:

- The ability to drop items and money on the ground. This is such a small thing, but players found really creative uses for it and it made the game feel more realistic. I was sad when they removed the ability to drop coins.

- Religion. I loved that you could pick a god at character creation and it would have ramifications for faction (see below) and crafting later down the line. It allowed you to have a more complex character, such as playing a good race/class that worshiped a bad god.

- A complex faction system. Combined with religion, it added another layer of customization to your character. It also added some life to the world, where you had to be aware of the type of people that inhabited certain areas. Different parts of the world actually felt like different parts of the world. What's the difference in WoW between Elwynn Forest and Dun Morogh? Snow? As long as you play Alliance there is no difference beyond the cosmetic. Compare that to the difference between East Commons and Gfay. As a human necro I'd be tolerated in EC, but likely at high risk in Gfay, despite both being the home of "good" races.

- The ability to attack any NPC (just don't bind it to a key you'll accidentally press). If I want to turn against my friendly city guards, why not? It was the player's choice--not the developers'--and that made all the difference.

EQ had so much freedom, and especially the freedom to make mistakes.