Ten years of EverQuest Comments by Egon Superb

Great article, as someone who played both eq and wow I found it very interesting. Something else that was special about eq was the sense of danger, the mobs were mixed up a lot with high levels in amongst the low and it had zones like Kithicor which were lvl 10 by day and lvl 40 by night. Imagine a small party of young adventurers heads there for a spot of hunting and night starts to fall for the first time...

The aggro rules were chaotic by today's standards and this meant you really had to keep an eye out as you wandered around or pulled. WoW felt like a bit of a nursery by comparison, my hand was being held by a warm and firm grip. The aggro rules in eq meant there was plenty of scope for griefing, and much went on, but it never soured the fun. There were so many funny and absolutely terrifying experiences that came from those rules, they shouldn't have been dumped wholesale as the genre became more accessible and slick.

"Ten years is a long time for anyone, but when you're 20 (or 15) those then years are pretty significant. So now most of our players are veterans, not just of EverQuest and other MMOs, but in their lives as well."

Wow, that means I just need 2 more real world levels and I'll be a veteran too!

I've recently tried the EverQuest trial thingy. Last time I played this game, Ruins of Kunark had just been released and Velious wasn't even on the horizon.

First logon to the trial -- whoa, where did all those windows come from? They now have a window for finding NPCs, for listing quests, for looking for groups, for containing storyline (!) advancements -- amazing. Interfaces for things you had to do by hand via text commands, and interfaces for things that didn't even exist back then. There's even an in-game map. Maps! With your position shown! You veterans, remember EQAtlas? Clicky areas to control pets and set combat abilities... Wow.

I can't say the windows look very slick, but they seem functional, and the UI has some features that even WoW lacks. Can't say how I like the game because I stopped playing the trial after twenty minutes, but if you're a veteran and mostly ran away from EQ's clunky old interface, maybe you find this interesting.

As for me, I'm playing Shards of Dalaya when I need an EQ nostalgia night :)

5years is newb, as everything in the article shows.

God, I remember sitting for HOURS in one of the Luclin zones soloing Rock Elementals(?) - as a Monk, I could solo them (especially if Intimidate worked) but it was an edgy business. And my kill rate was about 3 an hour, as it took a good 15 minutes to recover to full health (even with First Aid skills.)

I think I became bored with EQ when I realised just how utterly unforgiving it was. I got to 58 (two from max level at the time) and when I realised that not only would it take me another six months to get to that level (even grouping, which I did a lot with a mate of mine from real life) to then get my AAs would probably take another year.

And people think LOTRO's "Kill 300 Hillmen" Deed is a tough one!

His name is EGON SUPERB. That is what I've taken from this article.

"The genesis of the modern MMO industry was, ultimately, in the hands of Sony Online Entertainment (originally Verant and 989 Games)"

Nope it was Ultima Online. Everquest was an evolution from UO (and Meridian 59), the big steps were going true 3D and making player-killing optional. And then Warcraft was an evolution of EQ.

"the beauty of "Old World EverQuest".. was that most of the game - and I really mean almost everything - was left unexplained"

Thats partly because huge chunks of it were unfinished at release (and continued with every expansion that came out - something Warcraft learned from but still hasn't completely fixed) and partly because the way Everquest was played wasn't the way the game was designed. Levelling wasn't supposed to be the point, the game was supposed to be a roleplaying sandbox. I can still remember the shock of the desingers when someone killed Lady Vox.

Slow levelling, corpse runs, inscrutable quests, were as much accident as design.What Verant did, and it's something I wish Blizzard did more, was to design the future of the game around how people were playing it. Brad McQuaid in particular increasingly had problems with this and got kicked out for arguing too much with the rest of the team.

Just imagine how he's addressed in a restaurant. 'Here's your order, Mr. Superb'.

Brad McQuaid collects Microman.

I approve.

Oh wow, this takes me back.

There really wont ever be another game that had the same amount of adventure, excitement, and community that Everquest had. Compared to modern MMORPGs you can really see the differences, and when you think about it, some of what EQ did just isn't accepted by gamers these days.

Look at Norrath compared to Azeroth, also look at Norrath in Everquest 2. Both EQ2's Norrath and Azeroth are designed, crafted, for the game. Low level areas lead off into higher level areas, which in turn lead into even higher levels. There is a clear set path the designers want you to take. In EQ1 the world of Norrath was designed and the game was fitted around it. Start an evil Erudite? Until they introduced Luclin you were stuck in Odus unless you wanted to risk a run through two cities that want to kill you or could arrange a teleport out of there. Barbarians, one of the races with the worst vision, started in the cold north in a literal maze of mountains where it gets dark quickly, and to join the rest of civilization they needed to pass through a dungeon first. It just wouldn't happen in the current scene.

I keep hoping that someone will try to create a new game for those of us who used to play Everquest, but aren't satisfied by the clean, corporate, friendly MMOs that you find these days, but I keep getting disapointed. Vanguard looked hopeful, but lo and behold it sold out to the lure of money. It became a tool for pleasing the masses and forgetting about what it was originally meant to be.

I lost a lot of my life in Everquest, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. It is game that really made no sense if you stop and think about it, and we'll never see another like it, and that in itself makes me sad.

- Fudce Omenbringer
Former Shaman of Lanys T'Vyl, and Antonius Bayle

I actually thought the midi music was excellent - the Kelethin theme especially.

I spent a good few years in this and there really hasn't been anything like it since. Like the article says the community was just incredible.... on my server (Torvonnilous) it seemed like 90% of the server posted on the community run message boards. If you were a dick you got found out really quick and everyone knew about you.... I guess this must be how it feels to be an old person looking back on better days!!

I remember when there was no auction house, everyone just used to congregate in an area known as "The Tunnel" on a Sunday afternoon and yell what they were selling or buying in the /ooc channel..... you could make a lot of money wheeling and dealing there.

Also there was definitely more of a sense of danger - if you die in WoW now there's basically no penalty worth mentioning. I remember Veeshan's Peak, the zone where you could lose all your high level items permanently if you messed up. Also what the article said about instancing.... the drama when two guidls squared up infront of a dragon that would only pop once a week..... WoW just seems so tame in comparison.

I played EQ for about 3 years from when it launched until just after to the Shadows of Luclin patch. Truth be told, the early and mid teen levels are fairly fun and simple to solo but as you progress the grind becomes crippling. The blue exp bar advances by a lousy pixel for a solo yellow kill and there might be 10-20 minutes of recuperation. Sitting in Kunark for HOURS meditating isn't fun. Sitting in the tunnel auctioning crap to raise money isn't fun. Watching a huge chunk of exp disappear when you got killed wasn't fun. Waiting for a boat for 20 minutes or locating / dragging your corpse wasn't fun. The fact is by the time you hit level 20 you're playing out of compulsion not for any specific reward. It didn't help that the UI at the time was terrible and didn't even let you multi-task while playing, so you couldn't be reading email while medding or do anything else to alleviate the crippling tedium.

I have to thank Verant for causing me to cancel my sub. The Shadows of Luclin expansion was so botched that literally the game would go down without warning several times a day for over a month. Even if you didn't buy the expansion. They forced everyone to upgrade their client software which meant suddenly the game ran terribly on the same hardware and the client was glitchy as hell too meaning client side crashes on top of the server ones.

All these interuptions snapped me out of the delusion that I was enjoying myself and I'm glad of it too. Sadly things really haven't improved much for MMOs in the intervening time. Yes they look slicker and yes they have more inventive ways of adding grind but its still there. They might force you to pay for fast travel (or foot slog the distance), or they might require you to maintain weapons. They might keep money scarce so you're constantly raising funds for aforementioned travel or upkeep. But it's all grind designed to slow you down so you keep playing month after month. There have been a few exceptions but MMOs in general really have been stuck in a rut these last 10 years.

Fair enough drxym, you're right about some things... I enjoyed it at the time though although I imagine going back now it would be shocking.

You reminded me of one thing though - I liked the way you had to wait 20 minutes for boats, it was stuff like that which made the community stronger as there might be three of you waiting at the docks and you'd chat for a bit. It also made the world seem a lot larger than it probably was (the boat rides themselves were usually through a zone litered with islands, you could jump off at any point).

"Many times it was left up to the whimsy of the player to work out what to say. Much like the average player's conversation with a woman."

Please EG, teach me how to talk to women. :-(

On a less serious note: I tried playing the EQ Trilogy free trial when I heard the next Warcraft would be a mmorpg. Man, was I worried I would hate the next Warcraft...

I wish...I even pray that SOE brings Everquest to the PS3.

"...and the communities surrounding them were close-knit and hard-working."

Hahaha!!!

I can't wait for the human race to die out, we have clearly failed.

What a great article! I was playing Ultima Online for almost 8 years and there the story was more or less the same.

Thank you

EQ went down the crapper since LDoN, and it gets worse each expansion. I have played this game 7/10 years(7th veteran unlocked) and it's really sad what the game has become. Why? Scrubs, casuals. Soccer Moms and Weekend Dad Warriors. The scurge of gaming.

As for WoW, it only killed the mmo genre. Well, almost, there is always EVE, let's hope their upcoming vampire game isnt a blizzard clone.

C'mon, you don't need to play a game for five years to write an article about it to EG. Usually two hours is enough.

Haha! I know! I know what you are refering to!

You've only gone and brought up that high-larious Darkfall review incident! Oh the controversy! How we did laugh. Those were innocent times - but such good ones!

Shenanigans!

EQ went down the crapper since LDoN, and it gets worse each expansion. I have played this game 7/10 years(7th veteran unlocked) and it's really sad what the game has become. Why? Scrubs, casuals. Soccer Moms and Weekend Dad Warriors. The scurge of gaming."

Your skills of parody are great - I almost believed I really was reading a 'hardcore' gamer spouting off about how casual gamers had ruined MMOs! Keep it up dude!

Good article, brings back many memories! 3 year veteran here, quit soon after Luclin was released. Also played ''classic'' WoW (left after getting to level 69 - TBC just wasn't the same).

You raise some good points (as do the other posters) about the game being SO unforgiving - it certainly was. But, as has been pointed out, people bond together more tightly in the face of adversity. All the things that made EQ so tough also made it awesome - I was struck when I first played WoW just how hand-holding it was (though many steps forward in other ways). Waiting hours for the boats, for respawns, camping etc....all fantastic! I'll just include my most vivid memories of the game...

1. The first time I grouped up at the plat in North Ro to kill Dorn B'dynn, the ridiculously under-con'd dark elf at one of the Derv camps. The satisfaction of finally taking down the guy after years of inadvertent deaths caused at his hand was palpable!

2. Oasis of Marr: soloing spectres at the island in the middle of the zone! Tough as a paladin...

3. Estate of Unrest: Oh man, what a zone! The ultimate haunted house, and so tough. Does anyone remember the absurd trains that CONSTANTLY formed there? Even pulling a single mob could result in the entire zone running after you (and, unlike WoW, they only stopped chasing after you zoned!). Brilliant, brilliant zone that will never be recreated again :(

All in all, I'd say that EQ holds some of my fondest gaming memories. It's a game the likes of which will never be seen again in a post-WoW world, and created a sense of dread and danger unlike any other game has since (remember your first steps into Sebilis?).

- Denadiel, Paladin, Innoruuk server 1999-2002.

I have to echo some of the other posters here.

At the time, EQ was a nightmare to play often - i have a particular memory of nearly ending up in tears on the night of my english gcse exam, because a failed fear run had caused me to die 13 times, loose 2 levels, and forced me to log leaving my account details with a guildy in the hope he could get my corpse out.

Equally, sitting in skyfire, night in, night out, levelling to 60, killing the same mobs, sitting on the same rocks, over and over.

I think what this article got spot on though was how this harsship created some of the closest online links I've ever had.

sitting in a spot doing nothing for 5 hours tends to generate some great conversations:)

EQ is possibly my fondest gaming experience ever, and what saddens me is that it feels impossible to recreate now - I probably wouldn't put up with its hardships and ridiculous design flaws anymore, nor would we even see them in games, and yet it seemed to bring out the best in us, as gamers; something which has been lacking since.

Sephiroth d'Soulstice

Bristlebane, Necromancer

I cut my teeth on EQ as well and we all have great stories from those rough and ready early days when there were almost no spoiler sites and what lay beyond the vast plains of West Karana was described in a few horror stories from lowbies who got lost. . .

My personal high points were the first planes (Fear was so aptly named), Kunark and Velious. I think Temple of Veeshan was the pinnacle of the old massive-raid paradigm. WoW guild trying to keep 25 people interested? Pshaw! We regularly ran with 55-75...

It was a very short, very special period of gaming history and I'm glad I was there. I couldn't do it again though :D

Warrior, Veeshan

Nice article, interesting read.

You do realise Orcman took 50 levels to get out of the Karanas Fwing :)

Wilu / Kareoke - Veeshan