EQ1 was my first MMO love as well. Never have I been so lost in a game or been more connected to a gaming community. I have been chasing that high ever since.
While I inevitably enjoyed EQ2 more, and put more time into it; like you, it never gave me that 'high' the original EQ did. No game since has been as immersive, thrilling or terrifying.
EQ is what brought MMO's to the Western World, if EQ never happened, the entire trajectory of MMO's would have gone differently, as none of the other games in it's era had come anywhere near set that footprint into the Western Market like EQ did.
Couple that with the fact that WoW was developed by Devs from EQ, chances are WoW never would have been what it became. I mean there would have been a "World of Warcraft" but it would not have been made the same way it was, and because of that I doubt it would have become the juggernaut it became.
EQ's legacy is more than just the game it was, and while for it's time and what it did, it was a great and fun game in and of itself, it was also what it inspired and the great many games that followed it, building from the foundation that it set down.
For me, EQ was a new world to play with, that free from game, where I made my own fun, I could go and do whatever I wanted and progress. I didn't feel that same level of freedom again till GW2, where I was allowed to just do whatever, and progress.
Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.
I loved EQ and then I hated it, or at least part of it. I absolutely loved the game at first and couldn't get enough of it. Even though I dumped a lot of time into it I leveled up relatively slowly because I wandered around a lot and liked trying different characters and even did some server hopping to try PvP.
I have never been so completely immersed into a game before or since as I was in EQ. However, I eventually did reach the high levels in the game and began to experience "the endgame". That is when I began to hate EQ. The design of the endgame was my greatest disappointment with EQ.
To be blunt, raiding sucked. Huge raids like EQ had especially sucked. There was absolutely nothing fun or even remotely enjoyable about it in my opinion. I could go on about why I hated it but why bother. The pre-raid game was incredibly fun and addictive. The endgame was a huge steaming pile and if I had known what EQ was going to turn into I never would have played it at all.
I remember going to the Comp USA and seeing the Everquest kiosk with all the expansions and "whatever" and really wanting to try it but the art design/graphics were so atrocious to me I had to put it down.
It was Lineage 2 that really got me jazzed.
In retrospect I think I would have liked the game. It just seemed so "old" to me at the time.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
I totally missed that boat, i'm probably same vintage as most EQ players here, but my first mmorpg was AC2, then SWG and then fell head over heals in love with EQ2.
My faith is my shield! - Turalyon 2022
Your legend ends here and now! - (Battles Won Long Ago)
I remember going to the Comp USA and seeing the Everquest kiosk with all the expansions and "whatever" and really wanting to try it but the art design/graphics were so atrocious to me I had to put it down.
It was Lineage 2 that really got me jazzed.
In retrospect I think I would have liked the game. It just seemed so "old" to me at the time.
Oddly enough, as is the case with most gaming, if you actually sit and play it for several hours, you completely stop noticing how dated the visuals are, and they become almost realistic. Immersion and enjoyment has a way of altering the way your brain interprets what it sees.
I remember going to the Comp USA and seeing the Everquest kiosk with all the expansions and "whatever" and really wanting to try it but the art design/graphics were so atrocious to me I had to put it down.
It was Lineage 2 that really got me jazzed.
In retrospect I think I would have liked the game. It just seemed so "old" to me at the time.
Oddly enough, as is the case with most gaming, if you actually sit and play it for several hours, you completely stop noticing how dated the visuals are, and they become almost realistic. Immersion and enjoyment has a way of altering the way your brain interprets what it sees.
hmmmmm I get what you are saying but for me it's about something else.
Like I said, I chose Lineage 2 over Everquest. Lineage 2's art design was, for me, far better than everquest.
So I guess it's more about "art design" than being dated. Though, at the time and me being younger, Everquest did come across as older. Even though it launched only a few years before Lineage 2.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Coming from UO, I could not stand EQ. I have friends that encouraged me to try EQ multiple times to no avail. When you have the freedom that games like UO and SWG offer, going to a very restrictive environment like EQ is horrid.
Let's say for sake of argument EQ is the GOAT. How friggin' sad is this genre that a newer, better GOAT couldn't be made in the over two decades since EQ's release?
Sorry, but I had to laugh at your comment since Wow is still king of the MMOs.
Good to read about the game that defined MMORPGs and the litmus I use against every other game I come across. Although I do play a lot of other games no other game compares to my experiences in Everquest. I made the absolute best friends in that game that have remained my friends to this day.
I have spent so many hours playing including 36 hour sessions. I have never done that in any other game. Perhaps it was my youth and now that I am old I can no longer do those long sessions but I suspect it is because no other game has engrossed me the way Everquest did.
I remember going to the Comp USA and seeing the Everquest kiosk with all the expansions and "whatever" and really wanting to try it but the art design/graphics were so atrocious to me I had to put it down.
It was Lineage 2 that really got me jazzed.
In retrospect I think I would have liked the game. It just seemed so "old" to me at the time.
Oddly enough, as is the case with most gaming, if you actually sit and play it for several hours, you completely stop noticing how dated the visuals are, and they become almost realistic. Immersion and enjoyment has a way of altering the way your brain interprets what it sees.
SWG:Legends case and point.
My faith is my shield! - Turalyon 2022
Your legend ends here and now! - (Battles Won Long Ago)
I agree, EQ was the greatest MMORPG of all time. Unfortunately, I don't believe we'll see another EQ any time soon.
Pantheon sounded good at first but it's clear that it will either not launch at all, or will be so "modernized" by the time it releases that it will be closer to WoW than EQ.
The biggest problem is that the playstyle has changed since 1999....It's a whole new generation now.....I don't think many of them have the patience to play a week and maybe just gain a level (some levels took even longer).......I think Gen Z looks at a game like Pantheon and says "no way dude".......Todays games have to be more about entertainment than challenge....That's why there is so much emphasis on voice acting and cutscenes.
I agree, EQ was the greatest MMORPG of all time. Unfortunately, I don't believe we'll see another EQ any time soon.
Pantheon sounded good at first but it's clear that it will either not launch at all, or will be so "modernized" by the time it releases that it will be closer to WoW than EQ.
The biggest problem is that the playstyle has changed since 1999....It's a whole new generation now.....I don't think many of them have the patience to play a week and maybe just gain a level (some levels took even longer).......I think Gen Z looks at a game like Pantheon and says "no way dude".......Todays games have to be more about entertainment than challenge....That's why there is so much emphasis on voice acting and cutscenes.
I do find it odd that even though people don't want to take a long time to progress in levels but they accept an inordinate amount of grinding for advancement in gear. They will do the same dungeon over and over or gather gold and other resources to increase the stats on gear over and over with a random chance that it may succeed. That seems so at odds with the reluctance to take time to level and progress.
I agree, EQ was the greatest MMORPG of all time. Unfortunately, I don't believe we'll see another EQ any time soon.
Pantheon sounded good at first but it's clear that it will either not launch at all, or will be so "modernized" by the time it releases that it will be closer to WoW than EQ.
The biggest problem is that the playstyle has changed since 1999....It's a whole new generation now.....I don't think many of them have the patience to play a week and maybe just gain a level (some levels took even longer).......I think Gen Z looks at a game like Pantheon and says "no way dude".......Todays games have to be more about entertainment than challenge....That's why there is so much emphasis on voice acting and cutscenes.
I do find it odd that even though people don't want to take a long time to progress in levels but they accept an inordinate amount of grinding for advancement in gear. They will do the same dungeon over and over or gather gold and other resources to increase the stats on gear over and over with a random chance that it may succeed. That seems so at odds with the reluctance to take time to level and progress.
I think it's because they are actually "doing" something. Playing the game/raiding as opposed to grinding the same mobs over and over the same way.
It's almost like a slot machine. There is a chance that they will get "good gear" so they play the slots.
As opposed to just repeating something over and over and over again knowing that in x amount of time they will "ding."
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
I agree, EQ was the greatest MMORPG of all time. Unfortunately, I don't believe we'll see another EQ any time soon.
Pantheon sounded good at first but it's clear that it will either not launch at all, or will be so "modernized" by the time it releases that it will be closer to WoW than EQ.
It will be worse than both WoW and EQ from what I understand Devs are implementing full inventory drop with gold on death, only keeping Equipped items. I will pass on that game.
I think the game is certainly worth a look. I'm excited for when it starts to move forward. After all, Rome wasn't built in a day. However, it was built. (I am implying for the game to release, and with constant feedback, implementing changes. And not these whiny changes, ie. I can't reach top lever, things take too long, everyone looks cool but me.).
This was the essence of EQ. EVERYTHING TOOK LONG. Thus, everything felt rewarding.
I remember going to the Comp USA and seeing the Everquest kiosk with all the expansions and "whatever" and really wanting to try it but the art design/graphics were so atrocious to me I had to put it down.
It was Lineage 2 that really got me jazzed.
In retrospect I think I would have liked the game. It just seemed so "old" to me at the time.
Oddly enough, as is the case with most gaming, if you actually sit and play it for several hours, you completely stop noticing how dated the visuals are, and they become almost realistic. Immersion and enjoyment has a way of altering the way your brain interprets what it sees.
I disagree
Whatever you like, you like. It's not for me to challenge anyone's personal preferences.
But for me immersion is not the product of just photorealistic graphics. It's ambient sound, the soundtrack, combat sound, music, art style, animations, art placement, etc., etc. It all comes together to produce an effect, or it doesn't. EQ came together for me. But it didn't for everyone.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
The thing about classic EverQuest was it's uniqueness. To me it was like beta-testing of the MMORPG genre, where a lot of ideas were tried out and some ideas worked and others didn't.
We will probably never see a game like EverQuest again. Consider the massive trains of mobs, for one example. People were creating hotkeys just for /shout 'TRAIN TO ZONE!!!!' as warnings to other players sitting at the zone of what was coming.
We'll probably also never see an MMO that had such a severe death penalty. Not only loss of experience, but also just the fact of leaving all your gear on your corpse where you died. It often took hours just to get your things back after dying. What MMORPG would do that to players now?
The thing about the severe consequences of dying is - it made players really think about the situation they were in, and what possible ways there were to escape from dying. In most other MMOs, you die and while it may feel disappointing for about a minute, you can almost immediately be on your way and just go somewhere else. But in EverQuest, when you were faced with the possibility of spending the rest of your afternoon on a CR (Corpse Retrieval/Run), it made it all the more important to figure out a way to survive a close-call fight. Those close-call situations really made for some cool bonding experiences with other players too.
Anyway that's my take. EQ for me is the GOAT, because it was so challenging. Hell they even put high-level mobs in the NEWBIE zones!! Yeah. You could be a innocent little newbie and start wandering around the low level area looking for snakes and beetles, and suddenly get attacked by some high level mob. And if you didn't know your way back it could be painful just to get your things back. What game does that now to new players?
The uniqueness and the challenges unique to EverQuest are what made it so great to me.
I remember going to the Comp USA and seeing the Everquest kiosk with all the expansions and "whatever" and really wanting to try it but the art design/graphics were so atrocious to me I had to put it down.
It was Lineage 2 that really got me jazzed.
In retrospect I think I would have liked the game. It just seemed so "old" to me at the time.
Oddly enough, as is the case with most gaming, if you actually sit and play it for several hours, you completely stop noticing how dated the visuals are, and they become almost realistic. Immersion and enjoyment has a way of altering the way your brain interprets what it sees.
I disagree
Whatever you like, you like. It's not for me to challenge anyone's personal preferences.
But for me immersion is not the product of just photorealistic graphics. It's ambient sound, the soundtrack, combat sound, music, art style, animations, art placement, etc., etc. It all comes together to produce an effect, or it doesn't. EQ came together for me. But it didn't for everyone.
Yes, EQ had pretty horrible graphics. But the graphics were nearly top-of-the-line for 1999. People are too quick to judge old games by more modern standards. 800x600 in 16bit color with animation is about as polished as the graphics could have been at the time. With EQ1, it was the other things that added the immersion.
For me, I thought the original character models were okay, the only thing that I had problems with was the use of the same models for vendors everywhere. It would have been nice if there were some personalisation, even if it were just outfit colors. The music in EQ1 was well done, and served to keep me from noticing the pain of playing over a 19.2 dial-up modem. The connection was the biggest immersion breaker for me.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
I remember going to the Comp USA and seeing the Everquest kiosk with all the expansions and "whatever" and really wanting to try it but the art design/graphics were so atrocious to me I had to put it down.
It was Lineage 2 that really got me jazzed.
In retrospect I think I would have liked the game. It just seemed so "old" to me at the time.
Oddly enough, as is the case with most gaming, if you actually sit and play it for several hours, you completely stop noticing how dated the visuals are, and they become almost realistic. Immersion and enjoyment has a way of altering the way your brain interprets what it sees.
I disagree
Whatever you like, you like. It's not for me to challenge anyone's personal preferences.
But for me immersion is not the product of just photorealistic graphics. It's ambient sound, the soundtrack, combat sound, music, art style, animations, art placement, etc., etc. It all comes together to produce an effect, or it doesn't. EQ came together for me. But it didn't for everyone.
Yes, EQ had pretty horrible graphics. But the graphics were nearly top-of-the-line for 1999. People are too quick to judge old games by more modern standards. 800x600 in 16bit color with animation is about as polished as the graphics could have been at the time. With EQ1, it was the other things that added the immersion.
For me, I thought the original character models were okay, the only thing that I had problems with was the use of the same models for vendors everywhere. It would have been nice if there were some personalisation, even if it were just outfit colors. The music in EQ1 was well done, and served to keep me from noticing the pain of playing over a 19.2 dial-up modem. The connection was the biggest immersion breaker for me.
I often wondered what EQ1 would be like today if it keep getting updated (Made current) like WoW has. Not sure why SoE and Daybreak didnt get what EQ1 fans have been asking for, for so long.
Oh and I left out lighting and weather. My starting area in EQ was a forest shrouded in heavy fog. I have searched every square inch of that forest and remain convinced I missed something important. Places like that infuse you with both curiosity and dread.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Comments
While I inevitably enjoyed EQ2 more, and put more time into it; like you, it never gave me that 'high' the original EQ did. No game since has been as immersive, thrilling or terrifying.
Couple that with the fact that WoW was developed by Devs from EQ, chances are WoW never would have been what it became. I mean there would have been a "World of Warcraft" but it would not have been made the same way it was, and because of that I doubt it would have become the juggernaut it became.
EQ's legacy is more than just the game it was, and while for it's time and what it did, it was a great and fun game in and of itself, it was also what it inspired and the great many games that followed it, building from the foundation that it set down.
For me, EQ was a new world to play with, that free from game, where I made my own fun, I could go and do whatever I wanted and progress. I didn't feel that same level of freedom again till GW2, where I was allowed to just do whatever, and progress.
I have never been so completely immersed into a game before or since as I was in EQ. However, I eventually did reach the high levels in the game and began to experience "the endgame". That is when I began to hate EQ. The design of the endgame was my greatest disappointment with EQ.
To be blunt, raiding sucked. Huge raids like EQ had especially sucked. There was absolutely nothing fun or even remotely enjoyable about it in my opinion. I could go on about why I hated it but why bother. The pre-raid game was incredibly fun and addictive. The endgame was a huge steaming pile and if I had known what EQ was going to turn into I never would have played it at all.
It was Lineage 2 that really got me jazzed.
In retrospect I think I would have liked the game. It just seemed so "old" to me at the time.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Immersion and enjoyment has a way of altering the way your brain interprets what it sees.
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
Like I said, I chose Lineage 2 over Everquest. Lineage 2's art design was, for me, far better than everquest.
So I guess it's more about "art design" than being dated. Though, at the time and me being younger, Everquest did come across as older. Even though it launched only a few years before Lineage 2.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
I have spent so many hours playing including 36 hour sessions. I have never done that in any other game. Perhaps it was my youth and now that I am old I can no longer do those long sessions but I suspect it is because no other game has engrossed me the way Everquest did.
SWG:Legends case and point.
The biggest problem is that the playstyle has changed since 1999....It's a whole new generation now.....I don't think many of them have the patience to play a week and maybe just gain a level (some levels took even longer).......I think Gen Z looks at a game like Pantheon and says "no way dude".......Todays games have to be more about entertainment than challenge....That's why there is so much emphasis on voice acting and cutscenes.
It's almost like a slot machine. There is a chance that they will get "good gear" so they play the slots.
As opposed to just repeating something over and over and over again knowing that in x amount of time they will "ding."
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
This was the essence of EQ. EVERYTHING TOOK LONG. Thus, everything felt rewarding.
Just my 2 cents.
But for me immersion is not the product of just photorealistic graphics. It's ambient sound, the soundtrack, combat sound, music, art style, animations, art placement, etc., etc. It all comes together to produce an effect, or it doesn't. EQ came together for me. But it didn't for everyone.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
We will probably never see a game like EverQuest again. Consider the massive trains of mobs, for one example. People were creating hotkeys just for /shout 'TRAIN TO ZONE!!!!' as warnings to other players sitting at the zone of what was coming.
We'll probably also never see an MMO that had such a severe death penalty. Not only loss of experience, but also just the fact of leaving all your gear on your corpse where you died. It often took hours just to get your things back after dying. What MMORPG would do that to players now?
The thing about the severe consequences of dying is - it made players really think about the situation they were in, and what possible ways there were to escape from dying. In most other MMOs, you die and while it may feel disappointing for about a minute, you can almost immediately be on your way and just go somewhere else. But in EverQuest, when you were faced with the possibility of spending the rest of your afternoon on a CR (Corpse Retrieval/Run), it made it all the more important to figure out a way to survive a close-call fight. Those close-call situations really made for some cool bonding experiences with other players too.
Anyway that's my take. EQ for me is the GOAT, because it was so challenging. Hell they even put high-level mobs in the NEWBIE zones!! Yeah. You could be a innocent little newbie and start wandering around the low level area looking for snakes and beetles, and suddenly get attacked by some high level mob. And if you didn't know your way back it could be painful just to get your things back. What game does that now to new players?
The uniqueness and the challenges unique to EverQuest are what made it so great to me.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests