Looking for a MMORPG like Everquest circa 2000-2002 that is NOT ran by Darybreak Games

Pharone

Pharone

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I'm looking for a new (old) MMORPG to spend my time and money on that is NOT owned by nor connected to Daybreak Games in any way.

I prefer the game design of the 2000 to 2002 era of EverQuest. Is there anything out there or in development that fits that bill, or is it time to forget MMORPGs all together?

Oh... and, don't say Pantheon. We all know that game is never releasing. It will be lucky to ever make it out of pre-alpha before they finally run out of idiots to give them money.

Right now, I am looking at Ashes of Creation, but it has a creapy WoW vibe with those button mashes from the game play I have seen. I prefer the slightly more strategic flavor of old school Everquest over just hitting the same keys over and over until the mob dies.

To be completely honest, I have very little optimism that there is a game out there to fit the bill, but I might as well try before just saying fuck it.
 
Mahes

Mahes

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Ashes of Creation is about the only one coming that kind of fits what you are looking for. You could try Guildwars 2 but it will not have the heavy duty raiding that Everquest had. It does however have plenty to do if you need a go between until AoC.

Or, take a break from that kind of gaming....
 
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Secrets

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In terms of 'similar to EQ' and commercial?
I've heard Project Gorgon looks pretty great. Kind of the same size team making it that EQ had initially (2-3 visionaries, few coders/artists working alongside them) and its scope is ambitious.
OldSchool RuneScape's a good one if you can get over the fact that it's RuneScape. A lot of learning to do on that game, and it's kinda grind heavy.
FFXIV has a painfully slower global cooldown and mechanics are entirely strategical rhythm dances. It's a change of pace, but probably not what you're looking for. Mentioned it anyways.

If you can stomach private servers:
Warhammer Online (Return of Reckoning server) if you like PVP being the primary focus with an older MMO feel. It's like DAoC, but a bit more fast paced and closer to WoW.
SWG: Legends - despite the most popular being an NGE server, it's got surprisingly good depth and remains true to SWG pre-NGE in so many ways. (honestly, any SWG server - the game's got that old crappy MMO feel)
DAoC Phoenix server - See above posts. It's probably the closest thing to EQ, but the endgame focus is PVP and not raiding. Community is super focused on PVP.
City of Heroes - It's that era of EQ, metaphorically, with a superhero skin and better customization in gameplay and cosmetics.
The Al'Kabor Project - It's PoP-era EQ using the EQMac client. Playable on windows; 3-boxing allowed though. May or may not fit your bill, if escaping Norrath is your goal.

I'd recommend against stuff like UO and anything that really predates EQ.

Also Ashes of Creation is definitely NOT anything like what you're looking for. I'd say it's closer to ArcheAge / other Korean grinders mixed with post-Cataclysm WoW.
 
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Cukernaut

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Pharone said:
The idea is to get away from corrupt game providers; not choose another one.
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TBH I think we are in the same place albeit for different reasons.

I have thought about fucking with Diablo 2 hardcore again if I could find some people to do a closed community with.

also thought about retro gaming like Zelda and older suikodens - I just haven’t gotten off my ass to do it. The sad conclusion that I arrived at after spending about 6 months considering it is that there isn’t really anything else out there like eq.
 
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Secrets

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Pharone said:
The idea is to get away from corrupt game providers; not choose another one.
Click to expand...

Wouldn't recommend P99 for many reasons - biggest one being the raid scene filtering in to non-raid scene, second one being the policy on camps and refusal to mediate issues that arise as a result. If you do solo self found, maybe it'd be fine.

Much like the retro game community, you kind of have to make a game by imposing rules for 'runs' of the game to make it fun again.
 
Pharone

Pharone

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Cukernaut said:
TBH I think we are in the same place albeit for different reasons.

I have thought about fucking with Diablo 2 hardcore again if I could find some people to do a closed community with.

also thought about retro gaming like Zelda and older suikodens - I just haven’t gotten off my ass to do it. The sad conclusion that I arrived at after spending about 6 months considering it is that there isn’t really anything else out there like eq.
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Aint that the fucking truth.

All my fucking whining and bitching, and you know God damned well I'll be back playing that fucking game in a week.

Damn it to Hell and back.
 
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Octave

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Well aren't we all?

I found that survival games have been the most similar in feeling to the original Everquest.

Games like Ark: Survival Evolved, Conan Exiles, and Outward are examples that gave me that Everquest feel in a new way. It's a shame they're mostly focused on PvP. If they were not, they would basically be an Everquest-like. You can still get hundreds of hours out of them by playing as a PvE type of game. Outward is notably more of a co-op game.

Everquest should be described more as a persistent world game instead of an MMORPG as that term has been hijacked by WoW-like games.

A few years ago, while trying to develop an indie-MMO ( Storyvale: Tales in Auradin - I stopped), I found that expectations when you use the term MMO are very different from what I had in mind. It confuses a modern audience when you use it to describe a Everquest-like.

Anyway, the future of our genre of Everquest-likes would be better served if we drop the MMO term all together. It creates wrong expectations.

Some things that are expected of modern MMOs:

  • Skill rotations
  • Theme park style quests
  • A personal character story where your character is the hero
  • Quick-match dungeons
These things aren't fun to me but make up the expectations of the genre as we understand it today.

The quickest path of an Everquest-like may be to take a game like Ark and make a private server for like-minded players with some minor customizations of a map, drops, leveling, named mobs etc. that are only available on that singular server. This would look something like an EQEmu server.
 
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Grizzlebeard

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If you feel like brutalising yourself and not seeing daylight for weeks then you can't go wrong with FFXI.

Granted, NA launch was 2003.
 
S

Secrets

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Octave said:
Well aren't we all?

I found that survival games have been the most similar in feeling to the original Everquest.

Games like Ark: Survival Evolved, Conan Exiles, and Outward are examples that gave me that Everquest feel in a new way. It's a shame they're mostly focused on PvP. If they were not, they would basically be an Everquest-like. You can still get hundreds of hours out of them by playing as a PvE type of game. Outward is notably more of a co-op game.
Click to expand...

Watching streamers play Rust actually does give me EQ vibes. It's that sense of community and making your reputation matter we want, not the actual crappy experience.

7 Days to Die is another good one I've been playing. Zombie survival meets Minecraft. The skill trees are ridiculous enough to the point where you're gaining power doing nothing.

At the end of the day, though, I think people are just looking for an online RPG with actual, meaningful character progression with none of the time or money commitment that other games like WoW, EQ etc require. That's actually the direction we are taking on EQEmu's Classless 3.0 server. No one gives a fuck if a game is 'balanced', just that it works, is fun to play, and mindless enough to where you can just drop it at any time.

Maybe that's why I like Warhammer Online (especially the private server with the modifications they made, Return of Reckoning) so much. I can stop playing and actually do... I dunno, other things when I am done playing, and am not inconveniencing anyone by dropping out from that time commitment?

Where as I am socially terrified to play an EQ TLP because I know I will be stuck in a group finding a replacement for 15 minutes which is absolutely bonkers to anyone over the age of 16 with a full-time job, really.
 
Pharone

Pharone

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Secrets said:
Watching streamers play Rust actually does give me EQ vibes. It's that sense of community and making your reputation matter we want, not the actual crappy experience.

7 Days to Die is another good one I've been playing. Zombie survival meets Minecraft. The skill trees are ridiculous enough to the point where you're gaining power doing nothing.

At the end of the day, though, I think people are just looking for an online RPG with actual, meaningful character progression with none of the time or money commitment that other games like WoW, EQ etc require. That's actually the direction we are taking on EQEmu's Classless 3.0 server. No one gives a fuck if a game is 'balanced', just that it works, is fun to play, and mindless enough to where you can just drop it at any time.

Maybe that's why I like Warhammer Online (especially the private server with the modifications they made, Return of Reckoning) so much. I can stop playing and actually do... I dunno, other things when I am done playing, and am not inconveniencing anyone by dropping out from that time commitment?

Where as I am socially terrified to play an EQ TLP because I know I will be stuck in a group finding a replacement for 15 minutes which is absolutely bonkers to anyone over the age of 16 with a full-time job, really.
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That social pressure with TLP is something I am running in to right now honestly.

With the suspension of my two accounts from EQ, I am having a lot of thoughts of trying to finally cut the cord from EQ and move on with my life. Then every time I log back in to Discord, my friends and all my guildmates make me feel like an ass for even thinking about abandoning them. It's like trying to give up drugs, but still hanging out at the drug house. You ain't going to give it up for long.
 
Korzax Stonehammer

Korzax Stonehammer

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Project Gorgon is what you are looking for, good couple months worth of just solo newb stuff to do, then you get into grping and raiding. And the only MMO where death is a skill that you lvl up and get rewards for doing so.
 
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Xerge

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Elderscrolls online is my everquest 2. Surprisingly a lot of ex EQ players play ESO as well.
 
C

Cynical

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Foler said:
Is that the one with the aliens?
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abyssrus1.jpg
 
Sadre Spinegnawer

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Zaide, i did eq2 hard from 2004-2008 and I can't complain about certain "eras" of the mechanics. Avatars and contested. Pumpkin headed horsemen. My guilds did decent, although I did not make the cut for NPU because really, I am good at best, and it's time I stopped fooling myself. I'm reliable. I liked to nab the contested then destroy the loot b/c it was on farm.

I cannot imagine how a proper eq2 emulator or tlp could actually make me happy. The damn mechanics were constantly changing in that game. I TOPPED PARSES. It was crazy land.
 
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