You had no minimap. You had no map. Night was pitch black. Only some races could see a little at night. You had to learn how to tell where North East South and West was. When you died you had to go back naked, or with what you had in the bank, and try to find your body. Nothing would guide you (except if you typed loc to know the coordinates before dying or a necromancer helped you, but I found that out very late in the game). Items had a weight. You got encumbered pretty soon and walked more and more slowly the more weight you were carrying. Factions and deities had a meaning. Evil races had a hard time moving around and crafting. Some combinations where very difficult. Quests where rare and very hard to find and to finish. Falling damage was realistic. Falling damage was increased depending on your weight, including what you where carrying. You could not outrun enemies. Enemies would run after you all across the zone. No locked combat. Mixed level of creatures in one zone. No instant travel. Ships without teletransport. Jump that decreased your stamina. Swinging a weapon decreased your stamina depending on its weigth and speed. No tutorial (except a little one that teached you how to walk, talk to an NPC and climb a stair). You could attack every NPC (and everyone in a red (PVP) server) No instances. Player's bodies were solid. --- What a pain in the ass, right? No. It was an incredible experience, and sadly it seems that is gone forever, since no new MMORPG can be compared to that piece of gaming art.
Disclaimer: there were also bad things but we tend to forget the bad and remember the good I'm sure I also forgot some good things and wrote other not exactly as they were but the general idea is clear I hope.
I enjoyed everything you've listed, but I've always loved classic UO over pretty much any other classic games because there were things that wasnt in classic EQ. Some are
1) player housing especially CASTLES ftw!
2) Steal in town and can get away with it (unless someone's smart enough to call guards)
3) open pvp ( you could even heal the monsters when someone else is fighting them) Also craft a little chest make it EXTREMELY heavy and just hide in the woods and leave it on the ground by the road, if you have high tinkering skills you can make explosion poison or dart trap. Trap the chest someone comes and think someone else left it there because it was too heavy, then the guy tries to take it but notices that its too heavy so he opens it then KABOOM you're dead. Happened to me once and never again. (also read number 9)
4) When someone kills you for no particular reason you can set a bounty for him so then anyone who meets him can be a mercenary and kill or be killed by him. The more they kill the more prices will go up (if everyone who died by him wishes to add the bounty or not) there will be a list of PKer's in the center of every town bank. When you do indeed kill them chop em up take their head turn em in at the town bank where the list of Pkers are for your reward.
5) server refresh (30 minutes of fun without the server saving, so you could do anything you've always wanted without worrying about losing anything)
6) Treasure Hunting with just using sextant (compass) and local and world maps.
7) No raid monsters (meaning any monster can drop uber loot and when I mean uber loot it was anything with magical stat bonuses) But GM made armor and weapons were just as good
8) Str=Hps Int=mana and Dex=Stamina (you had a max of I think 225 total points you can have and devide it by the three) so if you wanted to be a caster type you would choose more int and dex over str, and a fighter type vice versa Str and Dex over Int
9) The Most and Important thing that I could think of is this game is Skill Based not Level Based, and even with skill points into your selection real life skills (common sense, being able to outsmart others etc) comes into play as well.
Anyway BOTH these games were awesome, EQ 1 had some things that UO doesnt and vice versa both were my 2 favortie games. But like I said I still prefer to play UO, i resubscribe to the game every now and then. Also like what Altairzq said there are bad things about UO as well but the good things tend to override the bad things most of the time...
I loved those glory days of eq although I remember a map long before the luclin expansion.
I played from release until Legacy of Ykesha and there was no UI minimap.
Misfit, if you never played classic EQ1 then you lack critical insight. That doesn't mean you can't offer observations, but you don't possess the same credible reference.
I played just after Velious came out, and loved my bard and monk. There actually was a minimap before Luclin, but it was only available in certain zones like cities. It was only after luclin that regular zones started having maps, but they typically sucked.
Personally I like having maps hehe, was a pain in the butt printing off and organizing all those maps.
Venge Sunsoar
Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it is bad.
Many fun nights, staying up til 4am grinding, corpse running, and just talking and travelling. It's a shame that things changed. It was my first MMO, and by the far, the best i've ever played.
I played it for 5 years. Although i never made it to max level, i had a hellva time with it.
I remember taking the boat from Butcher Block to Freeport. I remember when i fell out the back of the ship, and had to swim to some sort of giant island. I still remember my first guild, and the guild leader. I remember pick pocketing those nobles in HHK when these monks were solo'ing them, and recieving hate tells when they keep asking why the corpse has no pp. It was always fun to run around in East Commonlands tunnel. Packed to brim with people. The game itself was so alive. The players made it alive...
I hope to find a game like EQ one day. Perhaps if they ever decide to make a totally new UO. One things for sure, we'll probably have to wait at least another 4-5 years before we hear anything about a game like classic EQ.
I loved those glory days of eq although I remember a map long before the luclin expansion.
I played from release until Legacy of Ykesha and there was no UI minimap.
Misfit, if you never played classic EQ1 then you lack critical insight. That doesn't mean you can't offer observations, but you don't possess the same credible reference.
they actually put the map in with the LoY expansion, one had to hit the " - " button. I am quite sure of this, but it was EQ and nothing was ever common knowledge... just a huge mystery of a game, no webpages telling you just how to play the game. There existed no certain set of armor or skills one had to claim to be the millionth face in a crowd of the faceless. Nothing will ever come close to it again; mmo companies just won't make it because its all about money now and no one but the few thousand active gamers leftover from EQ1 are even interested in a game like it. Its sad but its America and once we get a taste of the easy road theres no going back.
for me its hard not to look back at eq without mixed feelings. i had such a love/hate relationship with that game after 5+yrs of playing it. that is a crap load of time to invest in a single game. it took so long to do anything. travel was a big time investment. fighting a single mob could take awhile. soloing was almost impossible for any but a few classes, and it wasnt worth it unless you could kill fast or aoe multiple mobs. you needed friends or you could end up being side-lined waiting for a pug. one death could ruin entire play session, and possibly your character. it was hard.
but i loved it. i had so much fun rp'ing a troll shaman. even being kos just about everywhere.
i miss it, but i wouldnt ever go back to it. i tried a little while back when the progression servers came out, and i found it almost unplayable. i had been away too long.
people that didnt play it, or didnt spend a lot of time with it wont understand. it was to me, more than a game really. it was to me more of a simulator. what i mean is, eq was the only game ive ever played that let me get into my character in a way that made me feel like i was there. first person view was default. i only used a different view myself if i was bored, fighting at a camp spot with multiple pullers or basically in a stable spot, or when fighting big stuff. but i always went back to first person. just felt more natural. point being, the scale and viewpoints of the characters helped to enhance the gameplay so much for me. it was really a game built around looking through your characters eyes, and giving you that feeling of being in that place.
i got sick of it though, just like i get sick of every game eventually. my life didnt allow me to pour the endless hours needed to keep up with high end raiding either. my friends started to quit, and by the time we beat PoT, i had just seen enough. my last major memory of that game, was beating whats his name dragon at end of PoT and saying 'thats it?''. heh and for me, it was.
but, enough bs
dunno, i dont really think its fair to even compare what passes for a modern mmorpg to eq. even though eq was technically a game, it was so much more than that. for a majority of people, the actual game part of it was secondary. in eq, norrath was bigger than your character. you were just another part of the world, and had to work hard to make any progress. yuo basically started out as a no-body, and as soon as you stepped into the world you had to bust tail to gain allies. ie you were weak and needed friends. there was no hand holding and newbie friendly areas (except freeport i guess, the others could be harsh). the world was bigger than yourself. there was no solo your way to endgame in 2 days bs.
modern games may claim to remove all the tedium, but what they lost with that is the sense of being a small fish in a big sea kind of thing. wow, for example, is full of the 'mememememe' type of people, but the game is essentially set up to support that. players are just there to use to get what you want, and that is it. you have 0 reason to try to socialize and meet people. there is nothing stopping you from being social and making friends etc, but it isnt really necessary. because the game is so item-centric and 'casual' friendly.
eq had good goods and bads just like anything else. i have just as many bad stories as good. but i will always think of it as superior to any current or past mmo. and from what ive seen of the next gen, id say that the next wave wont be any better either. but thats just me i guess.
Originally posted by Samuraisword Originally posted by Angelbound I loved those glory days of eq although I remember a map long before the luclin expansion.
I played from release until Legacy of Ykesha and there was no UI minimap. Misfit, if you never played classic EQ1 then you lack critical insight. That doesn't mean you can't offer observations, but you don't possess the same credible reference.
Sorry but that is a ridicules statement. My observations are every bit as credible when it comes to discussing a list of "features" posted by the OP and his point of view based on that list of features he deems to be as great features for a MMO to have.
Games I've played/tried out:WAR, LOTRO, Tabula Rasa, AoC, EQ1, EQ2, WoW, Vangaurd, FFXI, D&DO, Lineage 2, Saga Of Ryzom, EvE Online, DAoC, Guild Wars,Star Wars Galaxies, Hell Gate London, Auto Assault, Grando Espada ( AKA SoTNW ), Archlord, CoV/H, Star Trek Online, APB, Champions Online, FFXIV, Rift Online, GW2.
What I miss is that people did appreciate when a cleric gave you a rez in middle of no where, a necro came all the way to ( for instance) The Hole and summoned you corpse, a Caster did cast Bind on you afteryou have been traveling for hours, when people where gratefull when you throw them a KEI etc. etc. etc.
I've played eq for + 5 years .. then eq2, WoW and D&D .. I have a hard time finding those "teamwork -experiences" - again, except D&D where you have some of it..
This is not nostalgy, this is Imo my personal - facts about what I'm missing -->
A huge unknown world ... Respect towards each others - players between - npc, the world (you didnt want to die alone in Sirens Grotto...) ! .. teamwork rather than a solo trip...Dependency - you class/playstyle/experience meant something.. Commitment towards the group - guild - friends .. rather than Ego - Power lvl - commitment - gimma all phat lewtz..
Edit looking forward to WAR .. hope the RvR element has the commitment thing/ "responsibility" I search for..
for me its hard not to look back at eq without mixed feelings. i had such a love/hate relationship with that game after 5+yrs of playing it. that is a crap load of time to invest in a single game. it took so long to do anything. travel was a big time investment. fighting a single mob could take awhile. soloing was almost impossible for any but a few classes, and it wasnt worth it unless you could kill fast or aoe multiple mobs. you needed friends or you could end up being side-lined waiting for a pug. one death could ruin entire play session, and possibly your character. it was hard.
but i loved it. i had so much fun rp'ing a troll shaman. even being kos just about everywhere.
i miss it, but i wouldnt ever go back to it. i tried a little while back when the progression servers came out, and i found it almost unplayable. i had been away too long.
people that didnt play it, or didnt spend a lot of time with it wont understand. it was to me, more than a game really. it was to me more of a simulator. what i mean is, eq was the only game ive ever played that let me get into my character in a way that made me feel like i was there. first person view was default. i only used a different view myself if i was bored, fighting at a camp spot with multiple pullers or basically in a stable spot, or when fighting big stuff. but i always went back to first person. just felt more natural. point being, the scale and viewpoints of the characters helped to enhance the gameplay so much for me. it was really a game built around looking through your characters eyes, and giving you that feeling of being in that place.
i got sick of it though, just like i get sick of every game eventually. my life didnt allow me to pour the endless hours needed to keep up with high end raiding either. my friends started to quit, and by the time we beat PoT, i had just seen enough. my last major memory of that game, was beating whats his name dragon at end of PoT and saying 'thats it?''. heh and for me, it was.
but, enough bs
dunno, i dont really think its fair to even compare what passes for a modern mmorpg to eq. even though eq was technically a game, it was so much more than that. for a majority of people, the actual game part of it was secondary. in eq, norrath was bigger than your character. you were just another part of the world, and had to work hard to make any progress. yuo basically started out as a no-body, and as soon as you stepped into the world you had to bust tail to gain allies. ie you were weak and needed friends. there was no hand holding and newbie friendly areas (except freeport i guess, the others could be harsh). the world was bigger than yourself. there was no solo your way to endgame in 2 days bs.
modern games may claim to remove all the tedium, but what they lost with that is the sense of being a small fish in a big sea kind of thing. wow, for example, is full of the 'mememememe' type of people, but the game is essentially set up to support that. players are just there to use to get what you want, and that is it. you have 0 reason to try to socialize and meet people. there is nothing stopping you from being social and making friends etc, but it isnt really necessary. because the game is so item-centric and 'casual' friendly.
eq had good goods and bads just like anything else. i have just as many bad stories as good. but i will always think of it as superior to any current or past mmo. and from what ive seen of the next gen, id say that the next wave wont be any better either. but thats just me i guess.
Nice post, and fits with what I was saying. People enjoyed the rpg aspect, but the grind/timesinks that went with that many people didn't like.
I know enough about the game to make a comment from having talk to friends who played it to reading articles online about it and understanding the industry.
You said: "Again most people have fond memories of EQ1 because it was their first online MMO"
I have no doubt there is an element of that, but I don't believe it in total -nor do many eq fans. EQ experience was something vastly different to something like WoW. To comment on that without actually playing could be seen as a bit inept. To put it into perspective, if someone played a game I hadn't played I wouldn't be able to tell their experience of that game. Did they like it? Ok I can talk to them and find out they did. Same here people are saying they did, you never played EQ so it is a bit silly to comment. Of course, you will defend this but if you properly think about it you will see the absurdity of it.
EQ went heavily by the 2nd edition D&D rules. Most games seem to go after the 3rd edition rules. I'd say WoW went more after the 2nd rules as well and both were pretty big hits for their respective times. I never did like the any class any race type of thing of the 3rd edition.
As I said before it was a differnt time when MMOs were new. Everyone was new and the devs were exploring new territory as well. EQ classics would be exploited to death if it came out in it's original format with gold farming compaines, power levelers, and people looking for bug exploits to level/gain money quickly.
The game was a lot of fun and is probably the closest representation of D&D using 2nd edition rules if you like that kind of thing. I'd say it's even more what a D&D fan imagined then the current DDO by Turbine.
I liked the trains and running to the zones.
I enjoyed getting lost when I look back on it. It was very frustrating at the time though.
I enjoyed all the high level people coming to the faydark and bugging the new players.
I enjoyed exploring the wolrd which took a very long time to do.
Overall it was a fun experience, but it's done and this is a new world for MMOs.
You had no minimap. Which you don't have to use if you don't want to. You had no map. Which you don't have to use if you don't want to. Night was pitch black. Only some races could see a little at night. See the gamma slider in the options screen?? You had to learn how to tell where North East South and West was. I guess if you didn't know where to buy a compass... When you died you had to go back naked, or with what you had in the bank, and try to find your body. Nothing would guide you (except if you typed loc to know the coordinates before dying or a necromancer helped you, but I found that out very late in the game). It's still that way now. Items had a weight. You got encumbered pretty soon and walked more and more slowly the more weight you were carrying. Hasn't changed. Factions and deities had a meaning. Evil races had a hard time moving around and crafting. Some combinations where very difficult. Don't go to PoK. Simple as that. Quests where rare and very hard to find and to finish. How is that good for a game called Everquest?? Falling damage was realistic. LOL no it was not. Falling damage was increased depending on your weight, including what you where carrying. Whoopity do. You could not outrun enemies. Yes you could. They also didn't daze every 2 seconds. Enemies would run after you all across the zone. Which could be exploited by those with multiple brain cells. No locked combat. Huh? Mixed level of creatures in one zone. That's still pretty common. No instant travel. See those Pok books? Run right by em on your 2 hour trip to Freeport. Ships without teletransport. Nothing says fun like waiting 30 minutes for a slow boat. Jump that decreased your stamina. It's a MMO, not Super Mario Bros. Swinging a weapon decreased your stamina depending on its weigth and speed. Fun fun fun. No tutorial (except a little one that teached you how to walk, talk to an NPC and climb a stair). Which you don't have to use if you don't want to. You could attack every NPC (and everyone in a red (PVP) server) Yeah if you didn't mind the death and exp loss. No instances. Because nothing says immersion like 120 players crammed in a little dungeon without a single mob up. Player's bodies were solid. Griefers loved that too.
Everquest was a revolutionary game. There I said it. But there was alot wrong with it and the developers dropped the ball in a serious way from day one. None of that stuff you mentioned has really changed. If you stil want to play "hardcore mode" you still can, but if you have anything resembling a life you use the features they added because after all it's just a game for entertainment on the side. Right?
Night was pitch black. Only some races could see a little at night.
About the DARKNESS/BLIND spells effects: The way it was done was bad design however. Your UI become dark as well as your whole screen, which lead you to think the computer crashes rather then actually experiencing the game. See, the whole screen been pitch black = not playing the game anymore, only your character vision area should be black, not the whole screen.
Maps are a necessity for the following reason: You cannot give total 3D orientation to players and thereby have to compensate elsewhere. It is not normal that most peoples are lost most of the time.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
It's actually a lot of fun to be lost at times. You really can't get lost easily in MMOs these days. It's not that big of a deal though. I believe a lot of those things were part of the fun, but just don't fit in today and were to much of time sinks for people. Lets face it if you want a lot of people to play your game you can't make a game for those who just sit and play games non stop. You have to make a game for people who only play an hour or two per day.
Camping in dungeons was fun by the way. I think it was both the thrill that you might die and lose all your eqiupment and also the competition with others over spawns. I'm not really into the competition thing anymore, but I was when I first started playing MMOs.
The reason the entire screen went black for blindness spell was because classic EQ1 didn't offer window mode since that made it easier for cheaters to use 3rd party programs. Back then the entire screen was your visual range. The spell effect didn't last that long unless it was recast successfully and if that happened you were probably going to die soon anyways because someone was probably beating on you.
I like the whole darkness aspect of night time in EQ1 and the racial differences for sight at night. Barbarians had a real hard time seeing at night while Dark elves had ultravison which made it easy. Racial abilities made it a lot more interesting and realistic.
UI minimaps are totally unnecessary and cheapen the experience. Once you learn the terrain, you don't need a map, and exploring is supposed to be part of the experience. It is normal for someone to be lost in unfamiliar territory. That is why you usually keep a point of reference and venture slowly until you are familiar with the area, unless you are foolish.
Reading you defend the blindness bug is quite funny.
But such a weak design that lead a new player to think the game crashes each time he is affected by a blindness...it wasn't serious, it was changed for the better.
Been lost sometimes can be fun, all the time is bad. But since you only have an angle of 45 degree, you have to add something to help the players understand his surrounding...and maps is the simple feature they put in.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
They did have something to use. It was called sense heading. Maps are never required, but they do speed things up if you don't enjoy the exploring part of the game. We all survived without maps and learned the layout of the zones pretty well. It's just another product of trying to cut down on time wasted in MMOs like speeding up the leveling proccess in todays games. One day there may be no levels at all and that might not be such a bad thing if it is done well.
Comments
I enjoyed everything you've listed, but I've always loved classic UO over pretty much any other classic games because there were things that wasnt in classic EQ. Some are
1) player housing especially CASTLES ftw!
2) Steal in town and can get away with it (unless someone's smart enough to call guards)
3) open pvp ( you could even heal the monsters when someone else is fighting them) Also craft a little chest make it EXTREMELY heavy and just hide in the woods and leave it on the ground by the road, if you have high tinkering skills you can make explosion poison or dart trap. Trap the chest someone comes and think someone else left it there because it was too heavy, then the guy tries to take it but notices that its too heavy so he opens it then KABOOM you're dead. Happened to me once and never again. (also read number 9)
4) When someone kills you for no particular reason you can set a bounty for him so then anyone who meets him can be a mercenary and kill or be killed by him. The more they kill the more prices will go up (if everyone who died by him wishes to add the bounty or not) there will be a list of PKer's in the center of every town bank. When you do indeed kill them chop em up take their head turn em in at the town bank where the list of Pkers are for your reward.
5) server refresh (30 minutes of fun without the server saving, so you could do anything you've always wanted without worrying about losing anything)
6) Treasure Hunting with just using sextant (compass) and local and world maps.
7) No raid monsters (meaning any monster can drop uber loot and when I mean uber loot it was anything with magical stat bonuses) But GM made armor and weapons were just as good
8) Str=Hps Int=mana and Dex=Stamina (you had a max of I think 225 total points you can have and devide it by the three) so if you wanted to be a caster type you would choose more int and dex over str, and a fighter type vice versa Str and Dex over Int
9) The Most and Important thing that I could think of is this game is Skill Based not Level Based, and even with skill points into your selection real life skills (common sense, being able to outsmart others etc) comes into play as well.
Anyway BOTH these games were awesome, EQ 1 had some things that UO doesnt and vice versa both were my 2 favortie games. But like I said I still prefer to play UO, i resubscribe to the game every now and then. Also like what Altairzq said there are bad things about UO as well but the good things tend to override the bad things most of the time...
I missed spamming Sense Heading 10 billion times just to find out where I am facing.
Exploring with my bard was the most fun I ever had in everquest, and escorting my group with light speed.
I played from release until Legacy of Ykesha and there was no UI minimap.
Misfit, if you never played classic EQ1 then you lack critical insight. That doesn't mean you can't offer observations, but you don't possess the same credible reference.
I played just after Velious came out, and loved my bard and monk. There actually was a minimap before Luclin, but it was only available in certain zones like cities. It was only after luclin that regular zones started having maps, but they typically sucked.
Personally I like having maps hehe, was a pain in the butt printing off and organizing all those maps.
Venge Sunsoar
Ok I remember now I looked up the maps on websites and also did print outs so I didnt have it actually in game.
Many fun nights, staying up til 4am grinding, corpse running, and just talking and travelling. It's a shame that things changed. It was my first MMO, and by the far, the best i've ever played.
I played it for 5 years. Although i never made it to max level, i had a hellva time with it.
I remember taking the boat from Butcher Block to Freeport. I remember when i fell out the back of the ship, and had to swim to some sort of giant island. I still remember my first guild, and the guild leader. I remember pick pocketing those nobles in HHK when these monks were solo'ing them, and recieving hate tells when they keep asking why the corpse has no pp. It was always fun to run around in East Commonlands tunnel. Packed to brim with people. The game itself was so alive. The players made it alive...
I hope to find a game like EQ one day. Perhaps if they ever decide to make a totally new UO. One things for sure, we'll probably have to wait at least another 4-5 years before we hear anything about a game like classic EQ.
I played from release until Legacy of Ykesha and there was no UI minimap.
Misfit, if you never played classic EQ1 then you lack critical insight. That doesn't mean you can't offer observations, but you don't possess the same credible reference.
they actually put the map in with the LoY expansion, one had to hit the " - " button. I am quite sure of this, but it was EQ and nothing was ever common knowledge... just a huge mystery of a game, no webpages telling you just how to play the game. There existed no certain set of armor or skills one had to claim to be the millionth face in a crowd of the faceless. Nothing will ever come close to it again; mmo companies just won't make it because its all about money now and no one but the few thousand active gamers leftover from EQ1 are even interested in a game like it. Its sad but its America and once we get a taste of the easy road theres no going back.
for me its hard not to look back at eq without mixed feelings. i had such a love/hate relationship with that game after 5+yrs of playing it. that is a crap load of time to invest in a single game. it took so long to do anything. travel was a big time investment. fighting a single mob could take awhile. soloing was almost impossible for any but a few classes, and it wasnt worth it unless you could kill fast or aoe multiple mobs. you needed friends or you could end up being side-lined waiting for a pug. one death could ruin entire play session, and possibly your character. it was hard.
but i loved it. i had so much fun rp'ing a troll shaman. even being kos just about everywhere.
i miss it, but i wouldnt ever go back to it. i tried a little while back when the progression servers came out, and i found it almost unplayable. i had been away too long.
people that didnt play it, or didnt spend a lot of time with it wont understand. it was to me, more than a game really. it was to me more of a simulator. what i mean is, eq was the only game ive ever played that let me get into my character in a way that made me feel like i was there. first person view was default. i only used a different view myself if i was bored, fighting at a camp spot with multiple pullers or basically in a stable spot, or when fighting big stuff. but i always went back to first person. just felt more natural. point being, the scale and viewpoints of the characters helped to enhance the gameplay so much for me. it was really a game built around looking through your characters eyes, and giving you that feeling of being in that place.
i got sick of it though, just like i get sick of every game eventually. my life didnt allow me to pour the endless hours needed to keep up with high end raiding either. my friends started to quit, and by the time we beat PoT, i had just seen enough. my last major memory of that game, was beating whats his name dragon at end of PoT and saying 'thats it?''. heh and for me, it was.
but, enough bs
dunno, i dont really think its fair to even compare what passes for a modern mmorpg to eq. even though eq was technically a game, it was so much more than that. for a majority of people, the actual game part of it was secondary. in eq, norrath was bigger than your character. you were just another part of the world, and had to work hard to make any progress. yuo basically started out as a no-body, and as soon as you stepped into the world you had to bust tail to gain allies. ie you were weak and needed friends. there was no hand holding and newbie friendly areas (except freeport i guess, the others could be harsh). the world was bigger than yourself. there was no solo your way to endgame in 2 days bs.
modern games may claim to remove all the tedium, but what they lost with that is the sense of being a small fish in a big sea kind of thing. wow, for example, is full of the 'mememememe' type of people, but the game is essentially set up to support that. players are just there to use to get what you want, and that is it. you have 0 reason to try to socialize and meet people. there is nothing stopping you from being social and making friends etc, but it isnt really necessary. because the game is so item-centric and 'casual' friendly.
eq had good goods and bads just like anything else. i have just as many bad stories as good. but i will always think of it as superior to any current or past mmo. and from what ive seen of the next gen, id say that the next wave wont be any better either. but thats just me i guess.
sgt slate to tunnel!!!!!!!!! , bronze armor 1pp per ac!!! .......... luvd that game
Misfit, if you never played classic EQ1 then you lack critical insight. That doesn't mean you can't offer observations, but you don't possess the same credible reference.
Sorry but that is a ridicules statement. My observations are every bit as credible when it comes to discussing a list of "features" posted by the OP and his point of view based on that list of features he deems to be as great features for a MMO to have.
Games I've played/tried out:WAR, LOTRO, Tabula Rasa, AoC, EQ1, EQ2, WoW, Vangaurd, FFXI, D&DO, Lineage 2, Saga Of Ryzom, EvE Online, DAoC, Guild Wars,Star Wars Galaxies, Hell Gate London, Auto Assault, Grando Espada ( AKA SoTNW ), Archlord, CoV/H, Star Trek Online, APB, Champions Online, FFXIV, Rift Online, GW2.
Game(s) I Am Currently Playing:
GW2 (+LoL and BF3)
What I miss is that people did appreciate when a cleric gave you a rez in middle of no where, a necro came all the way to ( for instance) The Hole and summoned you corpse, a Caster did cast Bind on you afteryou have been traveling for hours, when people where gratefull when you throw them a KEI etc. etc. etc.
I've played eq for + 5 years .. then eq2, WoW and D&D .. I have a hard time finding those "teamwork -experiences" - again, except D&D where you have some of it..
This is not nostalgy, this is Imo my personal - facts about what I'm missing -->
A huge unknown world ... Respect towards each others - players between - npc, the world (you didnt want to die alone in Sirens Grotto...) ! .. teamwork rather than a solo trip...Dependency - you class/playstyle/experience meant something.. Commitment towards the group - guild - friends .. rather than Ego - Power lvl - commitment - gimma all phat lewtz..
Edit looking forward to WAR .. hope the RvR element has the commitment thing/ "responsibility" I search for..
You said: "Again most people have fond memories of EQ1 because it was their first online MMO"
I have no doubt there is an element of that, but I don't believe it in total -nor do many eq fans. EQ experience was something vastly different to something like WoW. To comment on that without actually playing could be seen as a bit inept. To put it into perspective, if someone played a game I hadn't played I wouldn't be able to tell their experience of that game. Did they like it? Ok I can talk to them and find out they did. Same here people are saying they did, you never played EQ so it is a bit silly to comment. Of course, you will defend this but if you properly think about it you will see the absurdity of it.
Guilty as charged.
/sow
/snare Slate
/invis
wait for snare to break
run to tunnel while holding agro
zone out
zone back in carefully and watch the chaos and slaughter
EQ went heavily by the 2nd edition D&D rules. Most games seem to go after the 3rd edition rules. I'd say WoW went more after the 2nd rules as well and both were pretty big hits for their respective times. I never did like the any class any race type of thing of the 3rd edition.
As I said before it was a differnt time when MMOs were new. Everyone was new and the devs were exploring new territory as well. EQ classics would be exploited to death if it came out in it's original format with gold farming compaines, power levelers, and people looking for bug exploits to level/gain money quickly.
The game was a lot of fun and is probably the closest representation of D&D using 2nd edition rules if you like that kind of thing. I'd say it's even more what a D&D fan imagined then the current DDO by Turbine.
I liked the trains and running to the zones.
I enjoyed getting lost when I look back on it. It was very frustrating at the time though.
I enjoyed all the high level people coming to the faydark and bugging the new players.
I enjoyed exploring the wolrd which took a very long time to do.
Overall it was a fun experience, but it's done and this is a new world for MMOs.
Everquest was a revolutionary game. There I said it. But there was alot wrong with it and the developers dropped the ball in a serious way from day one. None of that stuff you mentioned has really changed. If you stil want to play "hardcore mode" you still can, but if you have anything resembling a life you use the features they added because after all it's just a game for entertainment on the side. Right?
My youtube MMO gaming channel
About the DARKNESS/BLIND spells effects: The way it was done was bad design however. Your UI become dark as well as your whole screen, which lead you to think the computer crashes rather then actually experiencing the game. See, the whole screen been pitch black = not playing the game anymore, only your character vision area should be black, not the whole screen.
Maps are a necessity for the following reason: You cannot give total 3D orientation to players and thereby have to compensate elsewhere. It is not normal that most peoples are lost most of the time.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
It's actually a lot of fun to be lost at times. You really can't get lost easily in MMOs these days. It's not that big of a deal though. I believe a lot of those things were part of the fun, but just don't fit in today and were to much of time sinks for people. Lets face it if you want a lot of people to play your game you can't make a game for those who just sit and play games non stop. You have to make a game for people who only play an hour or two per day.
Camping in dungeons was fun by the way. I think it was both the thrill that you might die and lose all your eqiupment and also the competition with others over spawns. I'm not really into the competition thing anymore, but I was when I first started playing MMOs.
The reason the entire screen went black for blindness spell was because classic EQ1 didn't offer window mode since that made it easier for cheaters to use 3rd party programs. Back then the entire screen was your visual range. The spell effect didn't last that long unless it was recast successfully and if that happened you were probably going to die soon anyways because someone was probably beating on you.
I like the whole darkness aspect of night time in EQ1 and the racial differences for sight at night. Barbarians had a real hard time seeing at night while Dark elves had ultravison which made it easy. Racial abilities made it a lot more interesting and realistic.
UI minimaps are totally unnecessary and cheapen the experience. Once you learn the terrain, you don't need a map, and exploring is supposed to be part of the experience. It is normal for someone to be lost in unfamiliar territory. That is why you usually keep a point of reference and venture slowly until you are familiar with the area, unless you are foolish.
I agree with samurai.
Reading you defend the blindness bug is quite funny.
But such a weak design that lead a new player to think the game crashes each time he is affected by a blindness...it wasn't serious, it was changed for the better.
Been lost sometimes can be fun, all the time is bad. But since you only have an angle of 45 degree, you have to add something to help the players understand his surrounding...and maps is the simple feature they put in.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
They did have something to use. It was called sense heading. Maps are never required, but they do speed things up if you don't enjoy the exploring part of the game. We all survived without maps and learned the layout of the zones pretty well. It's just another product of trying to cut down on time wasted in MMOs like speeding up the leveling proccess in todays games. One day there may be no levels at all and that might not be such a bad thing if it is done well.