It's funny...I was sitting at my computer desk last night after another crazy day of work, logged in to EQ2, played for an hour or so, then logged into WoW, played for about 45 minutes, the logged out and called it a night.

I've been burnt out on gaming before...this isn't really "burnout" as it were...I still plan on logging in tonight, and I'll still enjoy it.

One thing I really miss in gaming though, is Community. WoW, EQ2, and most of the other MMOs I've played have really abandoned any sense of community. Perhaps it's the design of the game, perhaps it's players today, or perhaps I'm just old and grumpy, lol, but it just feels like community in gaming is a thing of the past.

I felt a strong sense of community in EQ (namely Lanys, to a lesser extent Stromm), and a really strong community in SWG (till Sony butchered it), and to a much lesser extent (namely massive lack of players) Vanguard still has one, but nothing to the extent that we had on Lanys.

I'm not for a second saying it was all rosey, and wonderful. We had massive drama, hate spewing everywhere at times, but we also had some of the most tight-knit group of people I've ever met. Heck, for years (may still be happening) xKhanx would have his annual pig roast....was more than just a bunch of toons logging in to kill a pixelated mob, it was a group of friends who took that friendship beyond the game.

Anyways...really not sure what prompted me to post this, it's certainly not meant to be a bitch session, or a complaint that I'm depressed cause the Lanys I knew isn't still around...moreso just a vocalized realization, and a thankfulness for the memories that arose from that server.

Hope everyone has a great New Year!

Elemynt Fyrestorm (Jason)

yeah, I have for the most part quit playing MMORPG because there will never be that thrill again.

Good to see you still around and kicking a bit. There are still some of us on this forum.

(you might remember me as Ghaani)

Hey Jason, good to hear from you.

Some of the community feeling came from the amount of time we all put in, and I think there are probably just few of us who would be able to do that again.

WoW has a community...it's just a horrible, horrible collection of horrible, horrible people.

If I made a list of "Group That I Hate", Al'Qaeda would be #2 behind The General WoW Community.

WoW has a group of people that play, I would hardly call them a community. Community in EQ was a requirement of progression. In WoW, you can get almost everything by yourself, it just takes longer. Funny that people complained so much that they needed to be able to do things by themselves and in reality that was what made EQ so much more than just a game.

The biggest difference remains the fact that in EQ there were consequences for your actions. There are no consequences for being a douche/ninja/whatever in WoW. The server in EQ was SO much smaller than servers in WoW. It's like how being a whore in Houston is no big deal, but if you're a whore in Podunk, Arkansas, the whole town hates you.

Except your customers?

It's really too bad that Verant / Sony allowed Everquest to be a bad game for so long and only cared to invest in evolving the genre when it was really too little, too late.

_________________
Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

I don't see any of the games changing back to a game like the Old EQ was.

One reason for the community, was you had to have a ton of players to take down any named, now all you need is maybe a few players, there is no reason to build a community, or even a group to kill anything, Most named can be taken by a few players, even grouping has gone by the way side. How can you build a community if you don't even need a group to do something.

If EQ would have a new server and offer EQ Classic, would you come and build it up? I know I would try it again. But most of the gaming crowd that built the community are long gone now, it would probably be just a few who would try it again, then give up.

I know I've missed the old style of play for along time.

They are starting a new progression server again soon. Time locked expansions so it wont get completely unlocked in a week or two. Thinking about giving that a try since wow is boring as shit again only a month after Cataclysm was released.

i thought every one of those prog servers were time locked so far?

Anyone know if they've actually restored the original itembase etc or is it yet another "progression server that doesn't really start you in the beginning"?

The original design code they used for the first items is gone, whatever they use now is going to be used for the those items, but probably the original items none the less to some extent.

_________________
"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

I'm under the impression that they had a progression server where one guild beating the end bosses of an expansion unlocked the next expansion for everyone.

Should just create a flag system where you have to kill all the bosses of the current world to advance. The first guild to advance to Kunark could continue killing Vox, Naggy, and Phinigel to keep everyone else out. Nothing creates community like everyone hating one guild!

I guess they would have to come up with some way to start out with the old PoF and PoH with the old bosses until a certain progression level was reached by someone. There is no way you could kill the newer Cazic and Inny at old world equipment levels.

or the new VP!

Hell, even the original VP was crazy difficult in Kunark gear.

I played on the first progression servers when they opened, I'm *kinda* sure that how it went was that once a guild defeated all the content in the current tier, the next tier opened up after X amount of time.

Of course, the problem with the system was pretty obvious from the start...everyone knew the content already and very well organized and determined guilds moved in quickly for the bragging rights. Combine that with the fact that there really weren't a lot of gear blocks early on and the progression just flew forward at a silly rate.

The servers opened in...July I think? Despite the presence of obvious attempts at cockblocks (Ex: Must do ALL the epic quests before Kunark is considered complete!) and the time-lock method, I'm pretty sure that Planes of Power was finished before the year was out. In fact, in only a year, they had caught up to "normal" servers so the entire thing was just scrapped.

The only reason it took that long at all was the time-lock part of the system.

Moral of the story: The Progression idea just didn't pan out all that well. Even the dev's expressed disappointment with how things went.

The new progression server is actually time based, not content unlock. Kunark will not open until X number of months have passed. Same with Velious, etc.

I've been giving this some thought, whether I would give it a go or not, I came to the conclusion, I'm not sure I could take the corpse runs again, the long camps, and the farming for tradskill items, There are parts I really do miss, but going back to try and catch the old feeling of gaming, I'm not sure its possible, like the old saying " you can never go back home again" might ring true.

I know most of the people I knew back then have gone on to RL or other games, I dont even know where they went to, so can't even get in touch with them to have a get together. But would it be the same? Most of the Old grafics are gone, Freeport looked like some Slum Lord got to it. Commonlands is one big zone now,, High Keep has changed, I'm not even sure anymore how many zones have changed. but maybe that wouldnt matter if the server had a real solid player base.

I'm kind of thinking the new server will go the way the other 2 did. But I could be wrong.

The only real way to get original EQ is to find a Emu that dedicates itself to such.

It's nice to take a trip down memory lane and discuss the past, but you people must be crazy if you truly want to go through that stuff again. We're talking staring at spell books, hell levels, running everywhere you want to go, recast timers on long spells (like the Necro succor spell, whatever it was called) not going while you were offline, no binding for non-casters, etc. Bronze armor is awesome.

Yeah...I've found several over the years (Even - and sure, someone can laugh - emulated PvP style servers) and they are a lot of fun.

Unfortunately there's always the bad apples that come in with the usual hacks and such and the admins/servers are ill-prepared to deal with it. So they don't always last too long.

If I did it(big if), it'd have to be ultra-casually. Maybe a level a week or something. That'd be enough to fulfill any nostalgic wantings but not even close to my old average gametime =)

Guk wept.

It was all perfect timing...

The game, the people, the time in their lives. Games have changed and this generation of gamers are completely different then we were...

I was enjoying EQII PvP and it just became more and more of a ghost town each day. WoW: Cataclysm is fun but I grew tired of it rather quickly. I'm beta testing Rift and its been about the best experience i've had yet. I'm hoping it holds true.

I will be trying Rift and giving it the best chance that I can since its the first game i've played from the ground up in awhile that's not actually an expansion that just dangling a carrot in front of my nose.

I miss Lanys and the people but its something you will never ever be able to duplicate.

I resubscribed to Everquest. That is how disappointing Cataclysm is.

I still don't get how it took you a month to get bored of Cata =p Should be one week tops for any non-fanboy or lorewhore.

Why are all these games LoTRO, DDO, EQ II, et all free to play, yet Everquest is still $15 to play?

_________________

Musnicki

Because it's a hell of a drug.

I got bored a few weeks ago. Still doing dailies and weeklys but nothing else going on really. It's hard to remain interested in a game that imposes time based restrictions on your advancement.

Funny thing about Everquest is they have an in-game market like all free to play games but still charge a subscription. They might not have a huge player base but they are double dipping and loving it.

Shameless plug: there IS an oldskool EQ server, frozen in time at PoP, with a small but tightknit community and all the old Lanys-esque drama you could want!

http://www.eqmac.com/forums/index.php

I goof around on Al'Kabor (as noojens mentioned above). At first it was just to revisit that old school EQ feel. There are no augments or 75879342 damage 18 delay weapons (not that those are bad...they just don't exist on the Mac server) or people with 40K+ health. It’s all very limited to whatever was available with PoP content, which is fine with me.

It is a small community. The first time I ran into noojens was hilarious. I had just started playing and was in PC trying to level. He happened to be in my group. We were talking about something about old school EQ days when the topic came up about people falling asleep since someone mentioned they were getting tired...then we started talking about people falling asleep during raids...then about a particular Bard falling asleep on raids...and then we realized we were both talking about Leo and that we were both from Lanys. What are the odds that two people from Lanys came back to the game years later on the same day, joined the same newb group, and knew the same person?

I don’t play to be the most uber toon in the game; it’s just fun to goof around with it and do what I can with the time I have to play. I don't have the time to take it too seriously, nor do I have an internet connection worth a crap to do the things I used to love doing without putting my toon(s) in grave danger of being wiped out from the lag monster while I fight or kite. Nonetheless, it is fun and it gives me something to do on my Mac. (Are there other games even available for the Mac? LOL)

The server is frozen in time (or Time, depending on how far you wanna take that pun) and all I will ever get to experience, should I play on the server long enough and get in with an uber guild to be able to do that content, is the top-tier PoP stuff. And, you know what? That's good enough for me. It's not an obsession like it used to be for me and there is still soooo much I never got to experience the first time around up through PoP that this is like a second chance to see that stuff; e.g. I’ve never been to VT, VP, Time, etc. It's a server with lots of great people that don't take the game WAY too seriously like when Fires of Heaven reigned over the game (or Soul Assassins, or whatever other "uber" guild you can think of). There's not a ton of drama, everyone seems very willing to help (but not let their generosity be abused), and it fills that little void of extra time I have on weekends that gives me that sense of community that I miss so dearly from the Lanys golden years.

You can find me playing Zing, Bwahaha, Muahaha, or Imarez there. If you ever find yourself on the server, say hi.

And, Muligan, I think you said it best. It seems like the "stars aligned" for us to during that time. I still consider those early years of EQ on Lanys the best online gaming experiences I've ever had.

People like Shutter come to mind...an individual everyone knew and loved. Tons of people made arrow hotkeys to kill the bunny she emoted whenever she popped into a zone. Almost every day of the year, people would say “Happy birthday Shutter!” in ooc, shout, or guild chat. How many other games have you played that have that kind of fun in their community?

People like Leolan that everyone knew and looked up to...yet we could all laugh about whenever we reflected back on all the times he fell asleep at the Bard wheel during a raid or what have you. You fall asleep in a raid these days and you might as well be the second coming of Hitler.

People like Hheather that was so kind and generous to everyone...I could always rely on her to offer a kind word.

GMs like Jhek or Frizznik. How GMs in other online games have you met along the way that you can say, “Man, that guy was awesome!” Now when a GM shows up, they are all business and not willing to engage you in humorous banter (most of the time).

There were just so many people that made our server special will forever make Lanys an example of what being an online gaming community should be, but rarely ever is anymore.

Times have changed. We are more cynical now; our expectations are so much higher than they were when MMORPGs first came out. We are less sociable; we text instead of call. We use dating websites instead of going out and meeting people to date. We want our reward and we want it right now; screw this multi-day camp for the rare spawn! When EQ came out, online RPGs were still very new to us and with the time sinks Everquest demanded we succumb to, we were almost forced to be around one another for hours on end and become a family of sorts. This generation seems more distanced from interpersonal relationships and seems more about immediate gratification vice getting to know the person you are playing with.

Those years on Lanys...those can't be duplicated because everything has changed. It'd be like trying to relive the 1950s in this day and age. I am sure there are a lot of people that can fondly look back at the 50s and recall how people were different (and probably better) than they are today. I think the same can be said about early Lanys years and this day and age of gaming.

*sigh*

Not even remotely funny

_________________

World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Yeah since lanys closed I haven't had the same experience I started with EQ though cakvala is still live and kicking but I don't play him anymore.

_________________
"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

There's a great emu server http://www.thehiddenforest.org/ that I currently play on, it's free and customized with an active community and gm staff, feel free to check it out and hit me up in game- leading a guild called Evil Empire

You're so right Bello, I can go through the list of people, good and bad, and the memories start pouring in. It so odd that it never happened again. I say that meaning as an adult now, listening to teenagers talk about WoW or whatever game they are playing, they cannot share even close to similar stories. Its a shame that games evolved so far away from where everything started. I guess no one would play a game like EQ, it just wouldn't fly, in today's standards.

At one time, I think I could say I could go into any zone and know someone, strike up a conversation, or know of the people already talking in a zone while I passed through. I can think of numerous times I ran into groups or individuals in a zone and get or give waves and shoot the bull and then just keep on moving. Lanys was really something unique, it was fun, and the people were so memorable. We had so many characters and I don't think I have met people in any other online game that were so helpful, stubborn, or fun to play with.

It's funny when I see people talk about World of Warcraft and how "hard" things seem to be, and I look back at the HOURS i spent doing things in EverQuest just blows my mind and no one ever knows what Everquest was .. haha

_________________
"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

I just remember logging on from 11pm -7 am doing nothing but grinding in Howling stones only to have a bad wipe erase that entire evening's worth of exp lol.

_________________
Larreth Wolfsong (long retired)
Lanys T'vyl, Everquest

Zinky, Lvl 60 Warlock
Thunderhorn, WoW

I miss that damn pig roast too.

Neesha's right... people yearn for the old days, but the old days sorta sucked. The reason EQ built so many strong communities is because leveling, questing, and raiding was brutal... and I didn't even go through the worse (I can only imagine origianl Hate raids).

Think about it, there was so much down time camping and raiding that you didn't have a choice but to talk and get to know your fellow gamers. Most friendships were born out of suffering through something together. And once you got to 60... there wasn't a whole lot to do (so some people went around shooting bunnies, PL'ing strangers, or porting for gold). Of course, it took me a year to get to 60, so if I ninja looted, it wasn't like I could spin up a new Death Knight and be to 85 in 2 weeks.

So yeah, my dad made lifelong friends in Vietnam, but that doesn't mean he wants to go back.

Ugh, yea Hate sucked. Seemed like it took forever to just setup on that big wall as everyone ran around on the sides from the entrance.

Don't forget the Fear corpse runs. As a necro, I was expected to go in and get a rez team going... I sucked at it =) I remember the first time being asked to go in by myself. WHO? ME?

It was brutal, it was bad. But in some ways, I feel like it was "fun" bad with its imperfections. In a way similar to lifting a large amount of weight during a workout. It's not the most enjoyable thing to do in the world, but I felt like I still got something out of it.

If you miss Lanys, you may want to join up with some of us in Rift.

LOL

_________________

I miss the old Lanys server and everyone there. Tried Fippy Darkpaw server and realized it's just not the same as Lanys and all the people we knew. I'll keep playing Eve Online which has the drama and community that in some respects like how it used to be in EQ.

Rift, Belmont.

Wow! All the memories here! I'm so glad I got the email today about this board....I lost the link to the new one years ago and have wondered from time to time if it was still up and running somewhere.

I miss the old EQ days too. WoW is fun to play but you guys are right...you don't need a community to play so most people don't bother. Even the guilds aren't the same...on EQ guildchat was always so lively and fun...on WoW it seems like guildchat almost doesn't exist. It's just sad.


sigh......I miss the old days...even if they were a lot harder....going through that hell is part of what made it awesome.

Kelly aka Stinki Sweezulsteex (Britches before a GM took it for being too "descriptive" lol ) Druid of Lanys.

Welcome back, yeah this board is more for general gaming and ranting now then. I still play EQ on the Xegony server a lot of folks now are on Rift on the Belmont Shard server. Fun times!

_________________
"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

I found my way back due to an email as well. It's fun to see so many names that have been branded into my memory from my EQ days.

I just looked up Noni's info and I didn't see her creation date but it does list time played: Total Time Played 217 days 19 hours 16 minutes

That is a lot of time spent hanging out and chatting, trading, raiding and camping with you people. I guess I shouldn't be surprised at how familiar some of you still are. I think I spent more time with you all than I did with my kids!

ooxx's

Rift, yo.

I received the e-mail also.

/wave

Bolpuhr got the email and smiled when he read "Lany's." Great memories, even better friends.