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EverQuest: House of Thule Interview
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
MMORPG.com writer Michael Lafferty has both a look forward and a look back at the phenomenon known as EverQuest. As the game gets ready for its seventeenth expansion, House of Thule, Michael had the chance to sit down with EQ's Thom Terrazas to talk about House of Thule and about what it's like to work on a still successful title that's nearing eleven years old. Check it out!
An MMO that lasts a handful of years is considered a success; the original EverQuest has done much better than that. Launched in March of 1999, EverQuest is considered one of the elder statesmen of the 3D modern MMO genre, and while it may look its age it seems to have no thoughts about acting it, slowing down or ceasing to expand the world of Norrath and give its subscribers new content and adventures.
Read more of the House of Thule interview with Thom Terrazas.
Comments
What's EQ's population like these days?
Playing - EVE, Wurm
Retired - Final Fantasy XI, Anarchy Online, Mabinogi
Waiting - ArcheAge, Salem
I recently re-subbed after many years. If you can get by the graphics (the spell effects are actually quite good), the gameplay is still challenging and it's pretty much void of the kiddies. You can hire mercenaries now to help you level since it is tough to find groups. I didn't have any trouble finding groups in the free trial but I'm sure the lvl 10-80 content would be tough. EQ is not for everyone but I enjoy it.
I have to applaud EQ for staying alive and well all these years. Kudos!
I was able to look past the graphics, but just couldn't get the controls to where it felt natural to play. Even after a few days I was still fumbling with buttons.
henchmen are ok but they start getting expensive to run. I was playing my SK and from 70-80, it was still hard to find groups
That was the same issue I had.
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
Makes me wonder if my 59 warrior with his epic weapon (even though had to use 2 super fast and fairly weak swords to keep agro instead of it and had a much better damage dealing sword, lol..), crafted greaves/breastplate and a bunch of gear from the plane of growth is still around or is now "crap" or "noob equip" heh..
I really did enjoy everquest way back when, really was (is?) more unique then any mmorpgs in the many years. Never babied you and was always hard/required lots of a teamwork.
Think I honestly enjoyed it most out of MANY mmorpgs over the years. Think I got frustrated with the high level grinding at the time being insane and the schedule of raiding mobs with guild as they spawned constantly though.
To answer your question, with the level cap at 85, soon to be 90, it's safe to say that 59 isn't what it once was. And your equipment would be pretty crappy by current standards, unfortunately.
The good news is that it wouldn't take you too long to get better gear and up to speed, if you wanted to come back. (You could maybe /claim some defiant gear right off the bat (unless that's been changed.) The bad news is that you'd really have to come in and look at it as a whole different game, rather than expecting it to be the game you played way back when, or you will be sorely disappointed. Yes, it's really that different.
Not saying you should ruin your memories by trying to return; I am just saying that if you (or any old vets) do, you have to kind of keep an open mind about where the game has gone since you last played, and remember that all those changes are for the people who played the whole time and are still playing it as their main game.
I apologize for posting again, but I was going to throw in a note of sympathy here-- I played long enough that the controls are still second nature to me, but I had to remap movement to WASD and also move some other command keys for my son (13) in his recent venture into Norrath. We got it all sorted out, including having attack mapped to two different keys, so I could preserve the weird key I am used to and he could have it where he is used to.*
I didn't really see what was so hard about it until I watched someone play who was coming in fresh from other games. My son felt about the controls the way I felt about the controls of FFXI-- too much work to make it playable.
(*I have attack mapped to numpad 0, just out of habit, from back in the days when attack was on 'a' instead of 'q' by default-- many a new player met an untimely demise when they forgot to hit enter before typing something while having an NPC on target. When you get to an 'a' and hit them, they hit back... Ah, the good old days. )
What a load of... EQ is as easy as any other game. And please spare me the "Hardcore" player'" bull. There are no hardcore players in EQ, we all left with the Guildhall expansion.
"It’s great to be fun and whimsical with our designs and sometimes we’re able to get away more than we care to say,"
Thom Terrazas
Seldom have truer words been spoken. Thier devs have run amok at times. What ever you do if you play on the test server do not insult them about bugs etc or you will regret it. You have been warned.
Everquest was my first mmo. I have played many games since. No other game has ever compared to Everquest. Unfortunately none of my friends or family will play the game with me.
I know what they are talking about when saying way-back-then. I remember the 20 minute hikes for a corpse run because only casters could bind outside of towns. I remember waiting on boats to go from one continent to the other only to go afk and miss it, then having to wait for the next one. I was there when you spent 8 hours camping 1 mob for a quest piece. I was there when it took 100 people to kill AoW!
Now-a-days it's all about pvp and trying to be better than the next guy. Getting to level cap asap so you can play with the big boys. No trade, level required, tiered (green, blue, purple, gold, etc) gear.
Sadly Everquest has jumped on some of the bandwagons. I know if I ever make a full return, I will basically have to treat it as a new game.
Thank you Everquest for some very fond memories. Thank you to everyone else who played pre-PoP and enjoyed it. We will always have ecommons tunnel. To some it's just a rectangular hole cut into the side of the mountain. To us it was the first bazaar.
I remember going back to the game a year ago. Having been a EQ gamer since Velious expansion I wanted to see the old towns (freeport etc.) only to find out they had redone everything completely.
Combat while grinding is tedious because it takes 3 minutes to kill a spider. I suppose we've been spoiled with the current round of games out there in that aspect.
It was a good game, but it has had its time. Just bury it and let us keep our fond memories. Also, please bury EQ2 because its a steaming pile of shit.
Out of "random boredom" I looked it up and it's really changed since my days, heh. I had like the absolute best everything almost and now it's would be garbage almost, but that's to be expected I guess. Was just wondering randomly before I actually checked it all out.
But them changing stuff like the "raid zones" and all the bosses of those zones/other areas are now mostly soloable/small partyable really make me feel a bit disheartened. More I read up on it the game has truly become something else entirely..
Kind of sad, was glad that EQ1 still functioned to this day, but seeing how different it really makes it seem..
All I can say was,
I was a guide for quite a while in EQ1 (not the kind that sent players to their death if they offended me), and I played on dial up. Eat your heart out, 2010.
That's the thing about old MMO's. They have their fanbase, and returning back is like going back in time.
I'm glad to hear that it's still going well after a decade.
Well, I`ve been back on EQ1 for about 9 months now and I love the game more now than I ever did. I pre-ordered HoT although I`m just lvl 77 (with 776 AA) but I will get to HoT content soon hopefully. I was lvl 65 when I left the game in early 2005 and I had maybe 50 AA at the time. Pretty much all the LB mobs were kicking my ass. The Defiant gear really helped me in my return to the game. The gear is a must have for any returning player. Also, I found a good guild (after 3 tries) and that was a huge help. Also, the Mercenaries are a huge help in leveling (although I prefer not to use a Merc). Overall, I would say that EQ is still very much a group game, but at least you can solo some content now. I wish i had more time to play EQ, but real life comes first. I still try to play a little everyday and on weekends.