Home › Game Forums › Everquest
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Is EQ just nostalgia, or was it really that good?
This discussion has been closed.
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Comments
The actual number was closer to 170 mil, but I don't suppose you care about such things... facts and such.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
I played UO non-stop from about 1999 to 2003.
I tried EQ for maybe 30 minutes to an hour back in 2002 and I thought it was complete and total rubbish.
Meh. To each their own I guess.
You will never experience what EQ was like when you weren't there. Even us players who were there at the start don't go to emulations servers.
EQ was about community, you can recreate the game, you can't recreate the community.
It was about massive guilds, danger, not knowing about MMO, not having everything detailed online, a sense of belonging.
[mod edit]I still have all my characters, but I don't play anymore, the community isn't the same. You had to be there during Kunark, PoP, GoD and OOW to know what EQ was like.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_b9n76F5KQ
Everyone who played EQ during Kunark, PoP, GoD, OOW will get chills watching this video.
Everyone who doesn't is a liar.
EQ was the best MMO with best community, the fact it was PVE and the world was deadly was a major reason, one of the strongest and solid games ever made.
Nevermind.
If someone analysed the 90s EQ gamplay without playing it, they would say the game is terrible.
They would say it takes much too long to kill monsters, a lot of the game doesn't involved playing it but waiting and recovering.
BUT, if you played the game back then, you would know why the game was great. The fact the world was brutal, the fact you 100% depended on others, the fact most of the classes got nowhere without others.
If someone dropped you off in a lonely forest you would say it sucks too, but if you found someone you depended on, it would suck a bit less, if you got to know them it would suck even less, if you started surviving you might make it out, and when the adventure is over you would be best buds forever, every adventure in EQ was like that.
There was no game handholding in EQ, you held the hand of the person next to you instead.
I remember being able to buy candy for 1/2 cent at 7-11 in the 70's. The idea that you couldn't just have 1 piece of candy, you had to buy two was just mind boggling. I wanted my 1/2 cent in change back!
Everything was different back then. You can't compare it to today because everything is different.
Bootcamp in the Marines back in the early 80s was nothing like it is today. I remember the times fondly, but to suggest that things were harder/better/what have you is misleading. At the time... it was the hardest thing I ever did.
At the time... is about all you can really say. Can't bring the past into the present because the elements that were in place back then don't exist now. It's like totally changing the parameters of the test.
Nostalgia... what was... what could have been... not what is and what will be.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
As one who still plays EQ since beta i have to say it is to me the best game ever made and is a proper mmo.
MMos should be about the character and the community and although they mucked your character up by making it too easy to level up you still need a good group if you want to progress with any feeling of actually doing something.
I rember back in the day when i was on my druid and i was only level 15 after 6 months of playing i seen a char with a level 40 toon and i was so in awe as i never seen anybody be able to kill the griffin in East commonlands never mind solo it. I made friends with that guy and soon after i joined his guild and in that guild i made friends who although don't play eq anymore i am still huge friends and i talk with some of them still on a nightly basis.
Then there was the feeling of huge pride when you dinged and announced it in gen chat and got tons of tells of congratulations . And then there was the epic quests and people saying OMG that guy has his epic . It was a quest that took weeks or months to finish but everybody wanted to help and be part of it because they knew someday they may need help or just because they had done it and wanted to help with what they thought was great advice ( which a lot of the time was total rubbish but the guy actually thought it was true ).
Then there is the replay ability with something like 14 to 19 diff races most all with diff starting zones and all the classes that play totally different and it takes you months or years and in some cases never to learn how to play that char well. Add to that the different factions and what they meen and the different spells and aa and skill this game was great value for money.
The biggest thing that spoiled this game was when computers got better more and more people started boxing and so grouping suffered. And making it F2P and putting all the spells in PoK libery really screwed up a lot of the crafters.
I hope that EQN will have most of EQ feel but i have my doubts as i believe most of the player base these days are too soft and spoiled to play EQ of old.
EQ was the first MMO I played. At the time, I was back at home with the parents, had just gotten out of the Navy a few years prior. I made a character, a dwarf paladin I believe, and met up with another noob. Together, we slayed skeletons and died to Mr. Fippy. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
Sadly, my experience lasted maybe two weeks, as I was a young fella who enjoyed going out to bars and drinking/womanizing as much as possible, so I missed out on working through more EQ/playing UO, etc.
All in all, I have to say that EQ got me interested in MMOs as a whole, though my RPG history goes way back to the Basic, Expert, Companion, Master, and Immortal sets in D&D, followed by the 1st edition AD&D.
edit: damn, just realized that 2 posts ago, I had my 666th post. Would have been a nifty lil screenshot.
A 170 million pos like SWTOR in 2013 can't manage having the sun set and weather while in 1999 EQ could.
Sounds so much better for SWTOR doesn't it ?
Graphic explanation:
What EQ felt like when you started playing in the 90s:
What current MMO feel like when you start playing:
I like this one better.
Anyone who played back in the day will understand it, and most likely laugh a little.
That is so true! Love this post we need to take back our games.
First of all, thanks for who actually open up this thread. Second, Kobold thanks for you I am posting this.
I can careless about people who as of today still trash EQ. But the only reason I am posting is due to Kobold post. It's actually the best post and honest post a person who actually lived the experience of playing eq have felt through this past mmo gaming years.
As for me, I started playing EQ-1 on November 4, 1999. Yes I am proud to say the day that I picked the best gaming experience I've ever had. Below are some of things I remember the most of my EQ1 game experience:
1. I played on the Tunare Server by the name of Philip Gonzalez, a big Oger raise in Kelethin lmao.
2. The run from Kelethin to the pick the Boat that lead you to Queynos
3. Camping Dvinn in Crushbone, Ohh damn what a time!
4. Who can't forget the word TRAIN!!! Mistmoore, Crushbone, or my favorite a Karnor Castle Train! damn how I miss those.
5. Camping the hand room in Karnor Castle
6. Dreadland while camping the walls
7. Velketor trying to reach the top and then failing down Lmao
8. HighHold Pass, not many people wanted to run up the hill but I loved HighPass
9. If you were a Warrior like I was you felt proud when you win a COF
10. Been at SK or any Druid Rings or Spires asking for a Port and paying your teleporter
Hell YES!
11. SOW, Clarity, Levitate, Invisible, Resurrect, and For corpse retrieval OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHH YES!!!!!!!!! Necro Necro please summon my corpse and avoid me the pain!
12. But by far the best element that I miss the most was the Market, the economic Market in Greater Fay, do you remember yourself always porting back to Gfay and going to do your negotiations in there on the channel
yeaahh.
KOBOLD WAS RIGHT, HE WAS HONEST, IF YOU WERE NOT THERE IN PRE-KUNARKS, OR AT LEAST 1 YEAR AFTER VELIOUS.
I AM SORRY FRIENDS, BUT YOU MISSED OUT THE BEST MMO EXPERIENCE THAT EVER HAPPEN!.
I was very popular on my server on that time and theere's some of players I havent connected in years that I remember. So i will list some of the names i remember. Tunare server.
1. Sannen
2. Mosk
3. Askane - kick ass Monk, my brother
4. Frostito jajaja - this dude was the leader in leaving corpse in Velketor
5. Silverwind - the best Ranger i played with
6. Ultramiciea - a kick ass SK
Well there's many and i forgot but wow this got nostalgic jajaj
Professor Philip
I had 10 corpses in befallen and no key to get to my gear. I logged off out of frustration, I logged back in an started talking to people and started asking for help, they called in a higher level and we fought our way back to my corpses.
At that point I realised EQ was not about just the gameplay, it was about the community. Knowing people mattered, your name had a value to it, other names had a value to them, together you were stronger, much stronger.
I depended on them and they depended on me.
Another good Video series is the EverCracked youtube videos. For those people who never played EQ, it gives them a real sense of what made EQ and how it became what it was and still is. All of the episodes will take you over an hour to watch, but they are a pretty good watch.
We had lost xps , not gotten uber loot , nor some silly point system points that made some "rank" go up , we simply needed to work together and get all our gear back from a dangerous dungeon.
And we talked and had fun before , during , and after.
Now there are more players who whine about not getting enough rewards when they LOSE an instanced PVP match.
Not only do I long for a dx10 or 11 version of EQ up through Velious , I want to be around the crowd who wants the same thing.
Every mmo doesn't have to cater everyone , I just want one that caters to me and the others like me in this thread for example who are along the same lines.
I liked talking in the east common tunnels to haggle to buy goods , I want it to take a year for me to hit max level with my reduced playing time from kids and career , I'm patient and that's fine with me.
If I login for an hour one night and do nothing but pass out SoW and chloro from my high level Druid to low ones in a low level zone and just chat in ooc and enjoy the atmosphere , I've gotten far more of an hour of enjoyment from that then I do from most every mmo launched since vanilla WoW.
My time has been cut down for playing since 99 but my tastes are still the same. Ill take only an hour of fun without much progression over an hour of rushed , lets afk and get our loser points in a PVP match , mentality any day.
Both AC and DAOC were technically superior to original EQ in every way, but neither game held the same effect on its players that EQ did. Maybe because both of those games came after EQ and you already had an idea how to play them, but neither had the community EQ had.
If you talk about original EQ, you have to get your time periods correct. Original Everquest was two, and only two, expansions. Kunark and Velious. That's it. Luclin is NOT considered a part of original Everquest. It played counter to the vision of original EQ. If you are talking about "quad kiting in the Plane of Fire...."lol, that is well beyond the time frame of what we are talking about.
So basically 1999, 2000, and part of 2001. That's it. Everything after that does not matter. The game changed for the worse. Here is one example. Luclin added portals from the wizard Spires to a central Hub on the moon....effectively destroying the world in terms of travel time. Planes of Power added an auction house....and anyone can tell you the very FIRST day of that expansion, the GFay and Eastern Commons zones were forever ghost towns.
If you played EQ in those first three years, you played original EQ. If you played after, you played a totally different game. I hate to pull the "grumpy old man" card, but that is the truth. So disregard any post in this thread that contains anything about Luclin or the Planes of Powers, or Alternate Advancements....because that was not original EQ.
At this point in time, only the name is the same. Everything is different. There are progression servers, but there is no real point in playing them.
For me, it really was (is) that good. I have played a lot of games since EQ1. I have had mutli year stints in some of them. I always go back. There is so much that could be improved in that game, but they got so much else right that no one else is willing to take a chance on, that it remains my favorite.
I don't mind some of the modern games. I'm playing and enjoying Rift right now, but my main is on P99 as well as Fippy, although I'm losing interest in Fippy since the newer expansions just don't do it for me.
Make no mistake, there are things like graphics, animations and responsiveness that other games do much better. They just do everything else wrong that, in my opinion, EQ did right.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqhvTlR1WSc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXucCOAOdOA
I made an account so i can reply to this posting.
I played EQ from release till Planes of Power. No game to this date can ever fill that void of gameplay that EQ gave me.
I think the main thing these new mmo's are missing is the content. Whats the point in having dungeons for lvl 20s,30s,40s, when people mad dash to the level cap to experience the end game. You have never seen any other MMO to date that a item you get from you lower levels can still play a role in your gaming experience at max level.
After a few times of getting my kills stolen in EQ, i adapted my playstyle to do more dps or pull to different areas. In everquest nobody was unntouchable. Even players with big egos had their bad days that made them move closer to becoming more humble.
I remember being Kill on Site to freeport guards. I had to use the secret tunnel to get to the boat zone. Me and a few KOS players would be huddled up and do a mad dash to the boat. When your on pier running straight at the boat hoping it doesnt cast off just yet with a guard chasing you also. Nothing has be able to capture that excitment ever for me on a online MMO.
The world was huge. And someone said it earlier, doors for the most part opened. They werent just there like a painting.
EQ had bugs and faults. I would rage sometimes out of frustration, twice i deleted my character and they restored me after i begged for another chance.
It was fun pushing our limits. Duoing sebilis with an enchanter guildmate. Being part of a raiding guild and getting items that practically nobody had. Before instancing you could be unique. Before my guild took over the top spot as the top raiding guild on our server we had to work for it. We had to get organized faster. Keep tanks alive, do great dps and learn the encounter. Play our best everytime.
I was a mage and i would go to lower level zones and hide my air pet. Let it invis and then shout that whoever finds my pet (insert name) would get 10 plat.
And leveling up skills after leveling up. If you wanted to be great at different weapon types, armor you had to wear it and fight with it to increase. Other skills like languages, foraging etc? Todays games its just given.
EQ isnt going to be liked or respected by the players post WOW because it was hard. Nothing was given to you besides your newbie start weapon, tunic/robe and food and water rations.
EQ classic was far superior to almost all other MMOs out there today. If EQN captures the essence of classic EQ (kunark + velious) and balances it with modern day sensabilities then I will be well pleased. I prefer the slower progression. I liked that I could travel the world (I was a wizard) and decide what kind of adventures to get in to. I would spend time in South Karanas killings gnolls or aviaks...selling my common drops to npcs and saving my money...then running to EC (couldn't port to RO at the time) to see what kind of gear upgrades I could buy. And while I was over there maybe i would level at the oasis or ro deserts.
As I advanced I was thrilled to be making GOOD money porting/transing people...especially transing...fast easy money to buy new gears with
I would usually solo somewere while trying to find a group. Once in a group, chaining mobs was fun cause the action was constant and the exp was great, Once I got my stun spells I could keep a drolvarg stunned while while the group took it down...it would only land a few shots on the tank and once it was down the next one was on deck waiting to be killed.
Finally getting to a high enough level that i didn't have to stare at my spellbook while medding.
I just thoroughly enjoyed blasting the shit out of mobs.
SoW potions for the quad kiting.
Slow combat and normal mobs actually posing a threat made the game more enjoyable. I hate action button mashing arcade style combat.
Although some people describe combat as pushing the same buttons over and over it never felt that way for me. I was engaged in the world and having fun.
Being able to collect, use, then resell gear. I hate bind on pick up loots.
Being able to form different types of groups depending on what classes where available. Several classes could fill different roles so there was variety. Sometimes you could get away with a bard or ranger tanking if you had lots of dps. Other times you needed a tank. Just the variety of classes was great.
A huge open world that was challenging to traverse and feeling a sense of accomplishment just getting from point a to b.
Learning new zones. Getting to a new zone and having to learn the lay of the land and the camp spots took some time. You didnt just follow your map indicators because there was no map. You had to explore cautiously and use /loc to have any idea where you were. It would be scary getting too far away from the zone line of an unfamliar zone cause you might get lost and killed.
There were so many things I loved about EQ but no one has been able to recreate it with modern appeal. WoW was an EQ clone but it was still a very different game then EQ.
Here's hoping EQN will recapture that Everquest feeling.