What Made EQ Great? Tell your stories to a filthy casual

You're my hero.

Vandyn_sl said:

The game was designed for someone who was willing to have almost unlimited patience in order to succeed. It was designed for the basement dweller. It's also why I think that even if an exact replica of Everquest came out today, with updated graphics that it would have a limited shelf life for many. Games are designed the way they are today because a vast majority do not have that kind of patience that you need for EQ. Even the old school who clamor for this type of game again, some in this very thread and in the EQN thread, I don't think would stick around for more than a month or two, tops. I just think the nostalgia and rose colored glass effect would wear off. I know I don't have that kind of patience anymore and loved EQ, there is never going to be another like it.

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EQ was an awful game and there were no alternatives at the time worth a damn.

I still think of it like the video game version of Woodstock. If you weren't around for EQ circa '99-'01 you missed out.

One of these days I'm going to track down the bastard that designed the cleric epic quest and kick him in the balls.

The simple fact that if you turned on auto-attack while targeting a guard, merchant or guild master, you attacked them. This designated that the gameplay possibilities were open for you to define. Rooftop kiting guards in Freeport, pickpocketing Rogue guildmasters during the epic quest, killing Shady in EC.. all examples of things not possible in a game where progress is strictly defined and the player's hand is held.

Also, killing Tunare in Plane of Growth and being KOS to all Rangers/Druids everywhere, it was a decision to make and consequences to live by.

Didn't bother reading passed 9 pages cause I don't want to. EQ can be summed up into "community, community, community". You met cool people. You met dicks and assholes. If this was your first MMO (which it was for a lot of folks), you got addicted. Four weeks camping a shard? Pffft, easy. You camped that shard and you liked camping that shard. What made camping that shard fun was the five other dumb-asses camping the shard. What made it even better was you communicated with them. You got to know people. Some people you did this with for two, three, four + years.

You can still do this with MMO's these days I guess, but for folks who started with EQ, grouping/raiding isn't really the same now. Community was the biggest factor I think, but a lot of small things shined through as well. Open world, attack anything, exploit areas, fuck people over, lose all your shit, and actually valuing your equipment. Used Ro armor from 25-45 and felt damn proud of it. Any who, hope this post was on topic.

What about that first wisp kill that dropped a whole plat ? Holy shit you were instantly rich at the early stages.

Making a beeline for the decaying skeleton cruising across the newbie zone wielding a cracked staff....

dgrabs_sl said:

Making a beeline for the decaying skeleton cruising across the newbie zone wielding a cracked staff....

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Shit I had forgotten about how much those sold for too , I wonder what the avg lifespan of a staff wielding skeleton was in those days......

Not long. I want to say they typically sold for about 1pp 1g or so.

Himeo_sl said:

EQ was an awful game and there were no alternatives at the time worth a damn.

I still think of it like the video game version of Woodstock. If you weren't around for EQ circa '99-'01 you missed out.

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This is basically how I feel. The newness and the wow factor can never be replicated.

When I look back at the time I played EQ, I feel like it was just wasted time. Maybe because after vanilla I was never part of the cutting edge.

But man that first year or so...

The fact that it kept you preoccupied despite your never being part of the "cutting edge" means it was successful. EQ had a lot of ingenuity in its simplicity and there were nuances to the game that haven't been explored since. Developers should take some of their cues from EQ instead of making the same sterile mmos.

Developers did take cues from EQ. They created a game called World of Warcraft. And now everyone is taking cues from that game.

The mobs wielding their special loot as dgrabs mentioned was a nice little touch that isn't in MMOs anymore. I remember camping the Jester in Kurns and when that fucker spawned and he was holding the Iksar Berserker Club I felt a huge rush because I knew he had it so I HAD to kill him. And the loot scaled the mobs stats too if I remember correctly, which meant they were harder to kill when they had the good stuff.

supertouch_sl said:

The fact that it kept you preoccupied despite your never being part of the "cutting edge" means it was successful. EQ had a lot of ingenuity in its simplicity and there were nuances to the game that haven't been explored since. Developers should take some of their cues from EQ instead of making the same sterile mmos.

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yeah but it didn't keep me pre-occupied... I played Kunark for 2 months, quit and came back for Velious, quit after a month, skipped Luclin and came back during PoP. Unfortunately everyone I knew was level 65 already and I was still 55 so people weren't too keen on helping me level since I'd been gone for almost 2 years at that point.

I get why people liked it and were addicted to it.

That didn't sound like a legit furor post, atleast compared to foh. No sense of underlying seething rage

The mobs wielding their special loot as dgrabs mentioned was a nice little touch that isn't in MMOs anymore. I remember camping the Jester in Kurns and when that fucker spawned and he was holding the Iksar Berserker Club I felt a huge rush because I knew he had it so I HAD to kill him. And the loot scaled the mobs stats too if I remember correctly, which meant they were harder to kill when they had the good stuff.

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The ability to drop items/money on the ground was a really cool feature that (I think) most games have foregone. I remember going on my first Vox raid as a newb and following the path of copper coins so I wouldn't fall into the bear pits. I also remember finding a secluded spot in Freeport and dropping twink items on the ground for my alt to log on and grab.

Dahkoht_sl said:

What about that first wisp kill that dropped a whole plat ? Holy shit you were instantly rich at the early stages.

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Na, wisps memory for me (as a warrior) was taking the first swing and getting the message about it being invulnerable and needing a magical weapon to damage the mob. Then the wisp proceeds to beat the shit out of me while I could do nothing at all to damage him.

Biggest WTF, shock, then smile moment for me was my first encounter with an evil eye. Here I am playing and next thing I know my CRT monitor just goes BLACK but I can hear myself getting hit, so I know the PC didnt freeze. I am frantically slapping the side of the monitor, thinking it had died, only for it to pop back to normal a few long seconds later. I then realized the mob could "blind" by reading the combat log. Nearly shit myself thinking my monitor died for a few seconds there!

Biggest moments of awe watching high level players was as a noobie Barb Warrior stumbling across Everfrost and came across Necromancer soloing Ice Giants near Permafrost zone-in. He hands me a couple fine steel swords and then tells me how they drop 40p+ and gems as well! The other big moment was the first Epic weapon I had ever seen being the warrior weapons shown off by a guy in the EC tunnel. They looked absolutely amazing!


**Edit** Speaking of Magical weapon, it reminds me also of when Fungi Tunic wasnt tagged as a Magic item and could be pickpocketed by rogues. Friend of mine made some bank on that scam.

cabbitcabbit_sl said:

My buddy and I hustling people out of millions of plat at the nfp auction. I once convinced a guy that I had a 50 necro on another server that I was trying to trade and that we could talk about it over the phone if he gave me 5k. All he got was a fake number.


I was a real bastard when it came to economics at 15.

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I got a couple of scammers banned for stealing those regen tunics from people (Edit- Ah, Ceremonial Iksar Chestplate, from Traks Teeth, that was it), so I guess that would be a risk/reward kinda thing.

Even got a whiny tell from one of the first guys friends the next day saying "Why did you do that, scamming is part of the game." And like I told him, if thieves are part of the game then so are the cops.

ZyyzYzzy_sl said:

you sound like a faggot

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Faggots are part of the game!