Yep. And, here's the thing. After our last attempt to go back, both my brother and I said the same thing, "I can't believe we used to find this fun."
When you get right down to it, EverQuest really didn't have THAT much going for it other than nostalgia. They had two and a half decades to add meaningful additions to the game. Instead, they regurgitated the same content year after year with slightly higher hit points, mana, and ac.
After you take a step back, allow the nostalgia glasses to fall off, and take a real honest look at the game, EverQuest is a very, very shallow game with little more to do than grind levels, alternate advancement points, and gear. That's it. Nothing more... just three basic things you see in just about every single MMORPG made since.
Where EverQuest could have shined was elaborating on what made it special; character interdependence in groups and raids. They could have further refined the game to allow users to play multiple characters WITH OUT using 3rd party software. Instead, they shoved their collective heads in the sand and pretended that nobody used 3rd party software to run their own groups and insisted that a nearly 30 year old game still has a massive vibrant player base that can easily put groups together of necessary classes all played by individuals.
Like it or not, EverQuest is a super shallow game that only exists to this day because people like us won't let it die even though we all talk about how much we fucking hate what it has become.
My last trip down nostalgia lane showed me that. There's way better options out there in the MMORPG space.
Put the nostalgia glasses away, say your goodbyes, and let it die already. I only pray that the majority of the losers that caused the innevitable death of EQ at SoE/DBG/DPG never get in positions of making meaningful decisions for other MMORPGs. If anything they have proved, it is that they have no right to be in the industry. Don't get me wrong, there have been and still are some damn good people working on EverQuest, but those people generally are not the ones making the decisions.
The decision makers are the problem. Looking at you Jchan. Looking at you.
