Well, about every 2nd or 3rd day I can read on some of the hardcore guild forums how Vanguard is the first mmo to bring that magic back to some of the hardcore EQ1 fans...
I think that there has been some very fundamental changes in the thought process of the player base since EQ first came to be.
First and foremost is the idea now that PUG's (pick up groups) are to be avoided at all costs. The reason this came about is relatively clear (at least to me) and has a lot to due with various death penalties. (for the record I feel that death penalties should be in the game but I digress...) This thought process though has created an elitism that is very popular right now in all MMO's and drives a stake into the heart of what I perceive to be the core of an MMO in the first place. Which is the ability to meet new people and overcome challenges with them.
In all the games I have tried after I left EQ for me, the biggest missing factor was the comraderie/teamwork was never the same.Other games had higher solo potential and/or commonly whole guilds would migrate to a new game together and it always made you feel like an outsider when trying out a new game. No matter your skills you were now just another anonymous member in an unwanted PUG.
Early EQ was a rather brutal place and it seems folks were very willing to band together to get through the early levels and get a feel and understanding for their character. Now in most games the character classes seem SOOO predefined that its not nessesary and its expected that you will solo level to the mid-upper range of the level cap before joining a guild with the eventual hope of being able to raid with them someday.
This lack of banding together in the early years is what to me anyhow is what the "magic" was actually all about.
Early EQ was a rather brutal place and it seems folks were very willing to band together to get through the early levels and get a feel and understanding for their character.
Anyhow just my 2cp
Maybe the reason people banded together is because it is so brutal, similar to people who experience a tragedy together?
You mentioned that death-penalty should be in the game, and I disagree quite strongly. EQ had a harsh death penalty system, but people like me that have multiple accounts are largely not impacted from that because we have a spare account with a high level Cleric that we use for raids/ressing/etc. I think harsh death penalties are neither challenging nor fun, and I would also say that a harsh death penalty system is not a requisite to get people to, as you said, "band together."
In all the games I have tried after I left EQ for me, the biggest missing factor was the comraderie/teamwork was never the same.Other games had higher solo potential and/or commonly whole guilds would migrate to a new game together and it always made you feel like an outsider when trying out a new game. No matter your skills you were now just another anonymous member in an unwanted PUG.
Indeed it is a fair point and I don't think many have focused on it, namely: the advent of guilds of people who are "expert" gamers and who migrate together from game to game, making a closed community perpetuate itself even at the outset of a new game. It's obviously not something that anything can be done about, but it's a social development that substantially impacts the experience of people in these games, both the insiders and the outsiders. I mean, it's rather telling that you can log into a beta on the first day of the beta and come across numerous people who are already in their guild with their friends from other games, and it stays closed that way from the beta right through release and into the endgame. From the social perspective, it impedes the development of a broader-based community, but at the same time allows people to carry in-game friendships across games, which people seem very interested in doing because they find it more fun to play a new game with an established set of friends than they do starting out and trying to find new friends. I suppose it's pretty much human nature, but it's certainly had an effect on the socialization and behavior of MMO communities.
Everquest did it for me.. i have played many mmorgps since, currently playing wow but after a week and a bit i am already bored. Nothing will ever beat Everquest for me.. i played it for 2 years and then randomly my account got cancelled and sony wouldn't even talk to me about why it was cancelled.. i was rather pissed of to say the least, but nothing has ever recaptured what EQ did for me.. I played up till and including luclin.
Would love to play it agian, i dont know if i could deal with the level grind back up to where i was with all the chars i had.. or even one of them for that matter.. would be too much of the same thing.
Was that a thought I just had, or and echo of a thought I was thinking of having? -------------------------------------------- http://www.soundclick.com/wizard-sleeve -------------------------------------------- I produce music, DnB, Trance, Metal Fusion, RaP and whatever i feel like. You might like it -------------------------------------------- http://www.nexusradio.co.uk - Online radio promoting unsigned artists
Everquest is still my all time favorite game although I don't play anymore. You never took exploring for granted as death awaited you at every corner. Dying was not an option. It was my first MMORPG and sitting on the newbie log as a dark elf Necro will never be forgotten. I have yet to recapture that feeling in any game since, not that the games aren't great but as a poster has already said, your first is the one you'll always remember most fondly. Someone else also said the Pre PoP was more enjoyable, I agree whole heartedly. Using my Druid as a taxi was killer, getting tipped by high level peeps never failed to satisfy.
hehe i always gave people free rides anywhere they wanted to (which really pissed off those selling ports) and sometimes people gave me hundreds of plat for being so nice.. was awesome
Was that a thought I just had, or and echo of a thought I was thinking of having? -------------------------------------------- http://www.soundclick.com/wizard-sleeve -------------------------------------------- I produce music, DnB, Trance, Metal Fusion, RaP and whatever i feel like. You might like it -------------------------------------------- http://www.nexusradio.co.uk - Online radio promoting unsigned artists
Someone else also said the Pre PoP was more enjoyable, I agree whole heartedly.
Absolutely.
In PoP, there was too much zerg-raiding (all these gods to kill) and forced-grouping. Then, in Gates of Discord, which is the worst expansion in the history of gaming (I believe) it took zerg-raiding to a new level of horror (not fun).
Excellent posts. I play Everquest now, mainly because all of the new games are the same thing (although I like EQ 2 a lot and seriously consider buying the game but waiting on new expansion).
Everquest's features worked in 1999-2001 but would not work now, with exception of an authentic and genuine world (pre-PoP).
Neither WoW nor EQ2 do it for me, and I'm not holding out for Vanguard.
No it will never happen again. EQ didnt have that affect on you because of how good of a game it was. It had that affect on you because that was your first time experiencing something like that. If eq2 or WoW were released when eq was then this post would be titled "Will there ever be a game that recaptures of the magic of classic WoW?" Nobody seems to understand this though. I have a few friends who never played EQ. They entered the MMO world with FFXI. About a year ago they both decided to play EQ just to see what it was all about. Now if it was the actual game that gives people this mmorgasm then both of those friends would have been mezmerized by the game and would still be playing....but they tried to play it and just couldnt do it because it was so bad (compared to todays games). Go back and think about all of your firsts. The first time you do anything that you find amazing will always be the best time and it will NEVER happen again. Geez im really venting, I just hate this topic so much. None of this is an attack at you by the way, I just dont understand why people insist on reposting this same thought over and over again That is 100% true. That's what happened with me and EQOA. I miss that game.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ =The best bash.org quote ever= Curt teh Juggler: our graduation ceremony was today, and right when some gamer nerd got his diploma, someone in the audience played the zelda "get item" music and he did the zelda spin-hold-out-item stance Curt teh Juggler: it was quite possibly the most amazing thing ever.
Part of the magic of EQ was "fear of dying" and the "unknown world". I never knew all the quests that were hidden out there in the game, and the cool hidden sewers under Qeynos, I did not notice the first time I was in the city. Just lots of extra unknown stuff and the danger and excitement of travelling.
I'd bet the fear of dying in EQ was akin to the fear of being whacked in a PvP game. If you don't have fear in these games, you don't really have excitement.
this is a good point... like in WOW.. recently started playing cos my girlfiend plays and wanted me to and bought me the cds and pays for me.. hehe.. but the fact that you dont lose xp, there is no chance you will lose your body and items, the fact that you dont have to search hard for quests people just have a light above their head.. plus many individual complaints about wow as well.. most of which are comparrisons to EQ but there are a few things that i just dont like about it.
In fact.. i am SOOO tempted to start playing EQ again..
Was that a thought I just had, or and echo of a thought I was thinking of having? -------------------------------------------- http://www.soundclick.com/wizard-sleeve -------------------------------------------- I produce music, DnB, Trance, Metal Fusion, RaP and whatever i feel like. You might like it -------------------------------------------- http://www.nexusradio.co.uk - Online radio promoting unsigned artists
I'm right here with all of you when you say you miss EQ and feel like there'll never be another one. I love everquest1 (I don't play anymore because it changed so much). I will always find everquest 1 to be the best game to ever have been created.
I miss that feeling just like all of you. I miss it a lot! It never quite goes away...
What do you guys think of this idea? Companies keep trying to make new games and pumping them out and they're ALL THE SAME. They're all just like wow and they are not even 1/100th of the game eq 1 was.
What if they did this: Round up 100 people like us who played everquest back in around 1999-2001. Listen to all 100 of us talk about all the things we loved from the game (spells, items, mobs, leveling, community, cities, races, classes.,, etc i could go on forever ). Have some sort of conference where we all go over how much we loved EQ and why. If a gaming company listens to us 100 people who loved eq talk about what we loved about it and then records it all and basically makes a new game that is what everquest was in 1999-2000 they would have a hit! IM SO SICK OF THIS WOW bullshit games. I just tried out LOTRO and it's (surprise surprise) exactly what WoW is. I feel no drive to level, talk to the community, quest, or get a good inventory. I immediately feel bored from it. It's so sad. I come to every new game looking for even 1/100th the feeling I got from EQ and i can't find it anywhere.
RECREATE EQ!! Lol, an encore of it or something. If they listened to the 100 of us say what we loved about eq and made a newgame (not the same as EQ) but a game that basically is EQ in the form of another game I"D PLAY IT ! Lol. Just make a new game with different cities and races and classes but basically modeled exactly around what eq WAS in 2000 and they'd have a great game.
I miss it . It seems like nothing else will measure up.
And nothhing is more annoying and patronizing than having someone tell me "you only liked eq so much because it was the first game of this type". THAT'S NOT TRUE!!!
Oh and psychosis, I am constantly tempted (whenever I thinki about eq) to get back into it. Unfortunately that path is a dead end. The game is stupid as shit now, no community. There's like an average of 2 people per zone per server. 9/10 of the zones are COMPLETELY uninhabited (freeport =(, ec =(, karanas =(, halas =(, etc...) and that leaves 1/10 of the zones filled with around 6 or 7 people per zone.
I want to get back into eq, i'ved tried a few times but you'll find nothing that you once loved in that game anymore. . God it hurts me right now to type this.
It would take a lot for me to come back. They would basically have to revert the entire game back to pre-Velious, preferably pre-Kunark. I'm talking old school Cazic Thule zone layout where the lizards drop rubicite armor, i'm talking the Froglok Assassin still dropping the pre-nerf Guise of the Deceiver. It would have to be PVP. Something like this will probaly never happen, I don't know why they can't just release drastic servers like this, I guarentee you something like this would be more popular than the "progression" servers, you'd probaly need multiple servers. I just want all of the old zones to be filled up again, I don't even want Kunark because that drastically reduced the populations of old servers.
Neither WoW nor EQ2 do it for me, and I'm not holding out for Vanguard.
No it will never happen again. EQ didnt have that affect on you because of how good of a game it was. It had that affect on you because that was your first time experiencing something like that. If eq2 or WoW were released when eq was then this post would be titled "Will there ever be a game that recaptures of the magic of classic WoW?" Nobody seems to understand this though. I have a few friends who never played EQ. They entered the MMO world with FFXI. About a year ago they both decided to play EQ just to see what it was all about. Now if it was the actual game that gives people this mmorgasm then both of those friends would have been mezmerized by the game and would still be playing....but they tried to play it and just couldnt do it because it was so bad (compared to todays games). Go back and think about all of your firsts. The first time you do anything that you find amazing will always be the best time and it will NEVER happen again. Geez im really venting, I just hate this topic so much. None of this is an attack at you by the way, I just dont understand why people insist on reposting this same thought over and over again
I disagree -- but lets say you are right, its just because it was the first MMORPG we played, whats it matter. Remake it , thats what we like, thats what were used to, dont act like were idiots saying how you hate this topic, we arent asking you WHY Everquest felt that way, we just said it did. WoW gives me no feeling, but DAoC gives me a slight one and I played WoW and GW and Lineage before DAoC, and so many other people have too, proving your theory wrong, or only half right on some people. Regardless, EQ had a unique, strange feel to it. (E.G. The way the magic looked, the awsome community, the Factions, fear of the uknown. All MMORPGs nowadays guide you down this path of, go here, level to 10, go here level to 20, so on, Everquest was "Go wherever you want -- if you dare.) This is not an attack, but an opinion to an old post.
I totaly agree I have played a lot of them out there and they never got me going like EQ did for me. that is probly why I have returned and started all over....
It is not dead people still play and the people who are there are some really nice people. wel on my server. To me the only thing wrong right now is that I can't get a group as fast as I was a while back but I still can and I can go lvl my weak sauce 34 SK!!!!!
Neither WoW nor EQ2 do it for me, and I'm not holding out for Vanguard.
No it will never happen again. EQ didnt have that affect on you because of how good of a game it was. It had that affect on you because that was your first time experiencing something like that. If eq2 or WoW were released when eq was then this post would be titled "Will there ever be a game that recaptures of the magic of classic WoW?" Nobody seems to understand this though. I have a few friends who never played EQ. They entered the MMO world with FFXI. About a year ago they both decided to play EQ just to see what it was all about. Now if it was the actual game that gives people this mmorgasm then both of those friends would have been mezmerized by the game and would still be playing....but they tried to play it and just couldnt do it because it was so bad (compared to todays games). Go back and think about all of your firsts. The first time you do anything that you find amazing will always be the best time and it will NEVER happen again. Geez im really venting, I just hate this topic so much. None of this is an attack at you by the way, I just dont understand why people insist on reposting this same thought over and over again
I disagree -- but lets say you are right, its just because it was the first MMORPG we played, whats it matter. Remake it , thats what we like, thats what were used to, dont act like were idiots saying how you hate this topic, we arent asking you WHY Everquest felt that way, we just said it did. WoW gives me no feeling, but DAoC gives me a slight one and I played WoW and GW and Lineage before DAoC, and so many other people have too, proving your theory wrong, or only half right on some people. Regardless, EQ had a unique, strange feel to it. (E.G. The way the magic looked, the awsome community, the Factions, fear of the uknown. All MMORPGs nowadays guide you down this path of, go here, level to 10, go here level to 20, so on, Everquest was "Go wherever you want -- if you dare.) This is not an attack, but an opinion to an old post.
Many things that made classic EQ so fun for me are being discarded by next gen MMOs. Here are a few things:
4) Raids. EQ fell victim to this. Games are too heavily reliant on raids. Groups is what made classic so fun. Not the lame raids. EQ was able to build a 500k subscriber base, because we all grouped together. Not because we all raided together. Look we they are now. Less than 175k subscribers.
Just a bit of trivia here, it wasn't SoE that made it a "raid" game. It was the players. Vox and Naggy. Vox and Naggy weren't supposed to be killed when they were introduced into the game. It was my understanding that they had a future plot use and SoE placed them as an intro, then before SoE could move on this - the player based discovered that neither Vox nor Naggy could be group killed. OUt of this, your first player organised raid was formed and Vox was killed.
SoE just saw what the players were doing and read the writing on the wall - if they put one groupable targets in the game, then multiple group players will triviliaze it. They needed something for everyone in the game - and raids were the answer.
Don't try to blame the players. Naggy and Vox were the smallest, tiniest, and most insignificant part of the game. Even in Kunark raiding was only done by a sparse few players, and it had a small effect on the game. Now the game is raiding.
SOE thought they could get people hooked on raiding, because of the nice rewards and insane timesink. It backfired big time, and they refuse to bring raid items in line. Better yet bring group items up to par.
Neither WoW nor EQ2 do it for me, and I'm not holding out for Vanguard.
Linear games can never capture the magic of EQ1. EQ1 was about giving the player just enough freedom to get themselves killed. No pre-planned quests paths to lead you from one area to the next. You simply logged in, looked at a crude map and decided "oh, I think I'll go to Kithicor Forest today, if I can get there without getting killed."
I think Vanguard is a good candidate if they can keep this momentum going by fixing bugs, improving performance, and adding fun and interesting content.
I just recently resubscribed to the game, and I was a big-basher of it for its early release, but it is making a remarkable turnaround. I think many people still hope for Vanguard. It certainly has the vast world , classes, and other features for it.
I think Vanguard is a good candidate if they can keep this momentum going by fixing bugs, improving performance, and adding fun and interesting content.
I just recently resubscribed to the game, and I was a big-basher of it for its early release, but it is making a remarkable turnaround. I think many people still hope for Vanguard. It certainly has the vast world , classes, and other features for it.
Vanguard certainly captures the spirit of EQ in EQ's present state.
Comments
For me... not even close.
Despite some bugs, its a great game.
Just a couple of ramblings...
I think that there has been some very fundamental changes in the thought process of the player base since EQ first came to be.
First and foremost is the idea now that PUG's (pick up groups) are to be avoided at all costs. The reason this came about is relatively clear (at least to me) and has a lot to due with various death penalties. (for the record I feel that death penalties should be in the game but I digress...) This thought process though has created an elitism that is very popular right now in all MMO's and drives a stake into the heart of what I perceive to be the core of an MMO in the first place. Which is the ability to meet new people and overcome challenges with them.
In all the games I have tried after I left EQ for me, the biggest missing factor was the comraderie/teamwork was never the same.Other games had higher solo potential and/or commonly whole guilds would migrate to a new game together and it always made you feel like an outsider when trying out a new game. No matter your skills you were now just another anonymous member in an unwanted PUG.
Early EQ was a rather brutal place and it seems folks were very willing to band together to get through the early levels and get a feel and understanding for their character. Now in most games the character classes seem SOOO predefined that its not nessesary and its expected that you will solo level to the mid-upper range of the level cap before joining a guild with the eventual hope of being able to raid with them someday.
This lack of banding together in the early years is what to me anyhow is what the "magic" was actually all about.
Anyhow just my 2cp
Maybe the reason people banded together is because it is so brutal, similar to people who experience a tragedy together?
You mentioned that death-penalty should be in the game, and I disagree quite strongly. EQ had a harsh death penalty system, but people like me that have multiple accounts are largely not impacted from that because we have a spare account with a high level Cleric that we use for raids/ressing/etc. I think harsh death penalties are neither challenging nor fun, and I would also say that a harsh death penalty system is not a requisite to get people to, as you said, "band together."
Great post and ideas.
Everquest did it for me.. i have played many mmorgps since, currently playing wow but after a week and a bit i am already bored. Nothing will ever beat Everquest for me.. i played it for 2 years and then randomly my account got cancelled and sony wouldn't even talk to me about why it was cancelled.. i was rather pissed of to say the least, but nothing has ever recaptured what EQ did for me.. I played up till and including luclin.
Would love to play it agian, i dont know if i could deal with the level grind back up to where i was with all the chars i had.. or even one of them for that matter.. would be too much of the same thing.
Was that a thought I just had, or and echo of a thought I was thinking of having?
--------------------------------------------
http://www.soundclick.com/wizard-sleeve
--------------------------------------------
I produce music, DnB, Trance, Metal Fusion, RaP and whatever i feel like. You might like it
--------------------------------------------
http://www.nexusradio.co.uk - Online radio promoting unsigned artists
hehe i always gave people free rides anywhere they wanted to (which really pissed off those selling ports) and sometimes people gave me hundreds of plat for being so nice.. was awesome
Was that a thought I just had, or and echo of a thought I was thinking of having?
--------------------------------------------
http://www.soundclick.com/wizard-sleeve
--------------------------------------------
I produce music, DnB, Trance, Metal Fusion, RaP and whatever i feel like. You might like it
--------------------------------------------
http://www.nexusradio.co.uk - Online radio promoting unsigned artists
Absolutely.
In PoP, there was too much zerg-raiding (all these gods to kill) and forced-grouping. Then, in Gates of Discord, which is the worst expansion in the history of gaming (I believe) it took zerg-raiding to a new level of horror (not fun).
Excellent posts. I play Everquest now, mainly because all of the new games are the same thing (although I like EQ 2 a lot and seriously consider buying the game but waiting on new expansion).
Everquest's features worked in 1999-2001 but would not work now, with exception of an authentic and genuine world (pre-PoP).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
=The best bash.org quote ever=
Curt teh Juggler: our graduation ceremony was today, and right when some gamer nerd got his diploma, someone in the audience played the zelda "get item" music and he did the zelda spin-hold-out-item stance
Curt teh Juggler: it was quite possibly the most amazing thing ever.
But my answer is still no, the magic was in it being the first time you experienced something of its kind. You can't recreate someone's first time.
Part of the magic of EQ was "fear of dying" and the "unknown world". I never knew all the quests that were hidden out there in the game, and the cool hidden sewers under Qeynos, I did not notice the first time I was in the city. Just lots of extra unknown stuff and the danger and excitement of travelling.
I'd bet the fear of dying in EQ was akin to the fear of being whacked in a PvP game. If you don't have fear in these games, you don't really have excitement.
this is a good point... like in WOW.. recently started playing cos my girlfiend plays and wanted me to and bought me the cds and pays for me.. hehe.. but the fact that you dont lose xp, there is no chance you will lose your body and items, the fact that you dont have to search hard for quests people just have a light above their head.. plus many individual complaints about wow as well.. most of which are comparrisons to EQ but there are a few things that i just dont like about it.
In fact.. i am SOOO tempted to start playing EQ again..
Was that a thought I just had, or and echo of a thought I was thinking of having?
--------------------------------------------
http://www.soundclick.com/wizard-sleeve
--------------------------------------------
I produce music, DnB, Trance, Metal Fusion, RaP and whatever i feel like. You might like it
--------------------------------------------
http://www.nexusradio.co.uk - Online radio promoting unsigned artists
I'm right here with all of you when you say you miss EQ and feel like there'll never be another one. I love everquest1 (I don't play anymore because it changed so much). I will always find everquest 1 to be the best game to ever have been created.
I miss that feeling just like all of you. I miss it a lot! It never quite goes away...
What do you guys think of this idea? Companies keep trying to make new games and pumping them out and they're ALL THE SAME. They're all just like wow and they are not even 1/100th of the game eq 1 was.
What if they did this: Round up 100 people like us who played everquest back in around 1999-2001. Listen to all 100 of us talk about all the things we loved from the game (spells, items, mobs, leveling, community, cities, races, classes.,, etc i could go on forever
). Have some sort of conference where we all go over how much we loved EQ and why. If a gaming company listens to us 100 people who loved eq talk about what we loved about it and then records it all and basically makes a new game that is what everquest was in 1999-2000 they would have a hit! IM SO SICK OF THIS WOW bullshit games. I just tried out LOTRO and it's (surprise surprise) exactly what WoW is. I feel no drive to level, talk to the community, quest, or get a good inventory. I immediately feel bored from it. It's so sad. I come to every new game looking for even 1/100th the feeling I got from EQ and i can't find it anywhere.
RECREATE EQ!! Lol, an encore of it or something. If they listened to the 100 of us say what we loved about eq and made a newgame (not the same as EQ) but a game that basically is EQ in the form of another game I"D PLAY IT ! Lol. Just make a new game with different cities and races and classes but basically modeled exactly around what eq WAS in 2000 and they'd have a great game.
I miss it
. It seems like nothing else will measure up.
And nothhing is more annoying and patronizing than having someone tell me "you only liked eq so much because it was the first game of this type". THAT'S NOT TRUE!!!
Oh and psychosis, I am constantly tempted (whenever I thinki about eq) to get back into it. Unfortunately that path is a dead end. The game is stupid as shit now, no community. There's like an average of 2 people per zone per server. 9/10 of the zones are COMPLETELY uninhabited (freeport =(, ec =(, karanas =(, halas =(, etc...) and that leaves 1/10 of the zones filled with around 6 or 7 people per zone.
I want to get back into eq, i'ved tried a few times but you'll find nothing that you once loved in that game anymore.
. God it hurts me right now to type this.
I disagree -- but lets say you are right, its just because it was the first MMORPG we played, whats it matter. Remake it , thats what we like, thats what were used to, dont act like were idiots saying how you hate this topic, we arent asking you WHY Everquest felt that way, we just said it did. WoW gives me no feeling, but DAoC gives me a slight one and I played WoW and GW and Lineage before DAoC, and so many other people have too, proving your theory wrong, or only half right on some people. Regardless, EQ had a unique, strange feel to it. (E.G. The way the magic looked, the awsome community, the Factions, fear of the uknown. All MMORPGs nowadays guide you down this path of, go here, level to 10, go here level to 20, so on, Everquest was "Go wherever you want -- if you dare.) This is not an attack, but an opinion to an old post.
It is not dead people still play and the people who are there are some really nice people. wel on my server. To me the only thing wrong right now is that I can't get a group as fast as I was a while back but I still can and I can go lvl my weak sauce 34 SK!!!!!
I disagree -- but lets say you are right, its just because it was the first MMORPG we played, whats it matter. Remake it , thats what we like, thats what were used to, dont act like were idiots saying how you hate this topic, we arent asking you WHY Everquest felt that way, we just said it did. WoW gives me no feeling, but DAoC gives me a slight one and I played WoW and GW and Lineage before DAoC, and so many other people have too, proving your theory wrong, or only half right on some people. Regardless, EQ had a unique, strange feel to it. (E.G. The way the magic looked, the awsome community, the Factions, fear of the uknown. All MMORPGs nowadays guide you down this path of, go here, level to 10, go here level to 20, so on, Everquest was "Go wherever you want -- if you dare.) This is not an attack, but an opinion to an old post.
Beautifully said
SoE just saw what the players were doing and read the writing on the wall - if they put one groupable targets in the game, then multiple group players will triviliaze it. They needed something for everyone in the game - and raids were the answer.
Don't try to blame the players. Naggy and Vox were the smallest, tiniest, and most insignificant part of the game. Even in Kunark raiding was only done by a sparse few players, and it had a small effect on the game. Now the game is raiding.SOE thought they could get people hooked on raiding, because of the nice rewards and insane timesink. It backfired big time, and they refuse to bring raid items in line. Better yet bring group items up to par.
Linear games can never capture the magic of EQ1. EQ1 was about giving the player just enough freedom to get themselves killed. No pre-planned quests paths to lead you from one area to the next. You simply logged in, looked at a crude map and decided "oh, I think I'll go to Kithicor Forest today, if I can get there without getting killed."
EQ1 was the greatest of games.
I just recently resubscribed to the game, and I was a big-basher of it for its early release, but it is making a remarkable turnaround. I think many people still hope for Vanguard. It certainly has the vast world , classes, and other features for it.