An interesting Rave from the GU Forums.

http://www.guforums.com/showthread.php?t=11668

I agree with a lot of that... That being said, I would never put myself through that again. I don't think a game can get away with a lot of that shit nowadays, people get frustrated and jump ship to play something easier.

/nostalgia *ON*

That was a great post! Thanks for the link.

I was talking to a co-worker last week about this. Something that EQ had that all the new games don't have is that feeling of immersion. The EQ world was so freaking huge! I played from 2000 to 2005 and there were still zones that I had never been in. In WoW, I have been playing since I left EQ, except for the Black Temple I have been to every zone and uncovered nearly all the areas of my map on my Pally and my Hunter. There is nothing in WoW like the run from Halas to Freeport. I'll never forget the first time I took my Barbarian Warrior into the cave to hit Blackburrow and everything went totally and completly BLACK! I had no clue about getting and using a lightsource. I feel sorry for the people that never got to experience the level of experience that EQ provided

It basically boils down to difficulty. EQ was a HARD game. Getting from level 1 to level 60 (or 50 I guess, I started playing right after kunark was released so I don't remember that) was a true accomplishment. Hell I remember being impressed as hell with geared up level 60 players over a year after I started playing, or how in awe I was of maldan in the 9 months I never left EC, or how jealous I was of the other monks with bubbles flowing off their hands. It was hard fucking work, for all the reasons that post listed. A (mmorpg) game that hard will never come around again, because as draguun said no one would play it. The only reason EQ worked was A. it was unique at the time, not much competition from "easier" games and B. it had a large playing population, so you really WANTED to get "uber" and be respected. That sort of dedication on a large scale basis, enough to motivate others to attempt to achieve truly difficult (time consuming) tasks is gone, with everyone playing WoW (the ultimate "easy" mmo) the switch back to hardcore gaming will never occur again. And if it does it will only cater to...hardcore players, which is a problem because if everyone is hardcore and levels up and plays constantly you lose that respect factor too.

The other big factor is just nostalgia. Not in the sense it seems better now than it was, exactly, but that even if a game came along that addressed all the issues with other mmos and was superior to EQ in fun and every other way (I'm sure some would argue WoW does, especially if they were never into EQ back in the glory days) it wouldn't be the same because everyone's jaded now. If we had to navigate without maps we'd complain it was stupid outdated design, if the levels were still so hard we'd call it a timesink, if the death penalty was still so harsh we'd call it a fun killer. And maybe that's all true, I don't know. But I know despite having my first week of eq consisting of: a. getting lost constantly s in surefall glade and qeynos corridors because my human character was so blind at night, b. getting lost in west karana and taking 3 hours to find my corpse and c. having a shark warp onto the erudin boat in erud's crossing and killing me and then having my corpse pushed off the boat at the zone line and losing my gear, I loved it. More sad than the changes new MMOs have institued were the ones that EQ underwent over the years. Luclin was indeed the beginning of the end, it was a weak expansion and it started heralding in some of the watering down that would destroy EQ later. PoP was actually pretty fun and well designed, but I have to agree it completely destroyed the old transportation system, and every expansion after that was garbage. have absolutely zero doubt in my mind I'll ever enjoy another computer game as much as I enjoyed everquest from pok-pre luclin and then raiding during PoP, but that's also largely due to life change's that would prevent me from ever playing that much again, so I guess it doesn't matter.

I have to say, though, the last month or two I've felt extremely nostalgic for EQ (hence my posting here occasionally now again), it was a lot of fun and I miss it.

To me, there was three really things that made EverQuest special-

1. The "grind" resulted in an immense sense of accomplishment when you finally achieved your goal. Yes, the "grind" was horrific at times, and brutal in many scenarios. And yes, many of us (myself included) would constantly complain about the "grind" in many ways. However, what all of us can agree on is that when you finally got to the end of whatever "grind" you were on... you just had this sense of relief, sense of satisfaction, sense of accomplishment. I remember grouping with Solanthious and a few other players in Sebillis for an entire day, trying to hit lvl 60. And I was one pixel away... and it took a good 2 hours for that one pixel to finally ding me. It was a horrible "grind"... but when I finally dinged 60, it was such satisfaction! That "grind" is nearly non-existent in today's games.

2. When I would log onto EverQuest, there was literally hundreds of things that I could do. Not many days were exactly identical in scope and make up. Sure, the main part of EverQuest was levelling up. However, there was soooooo much more you could do- quests, tradeskills, faction, exploration, selling items, just sitting around and socializing. EverQuest was a message board that allowed you to play a game and talk at the same time, all while accomplishing goals and tasks throughout. The game did not end once you hit lvl 60, nor did it end once you killed a certain dragon- there was always things to do in the game. It truly ended only when you hit "Cancel" on your subscription, and uninstalled the game off of your hard drive.

3. The people I met were great... but moreso, these were actual real people. They were not just NPC's who would spew out created text... these were actual people. From all across the world. I was able to encounter thousands and thousands of people, have actual dialogue with them, and eventually meet a few of them in reality. These people were friends, they were acquaintances, they were enemies. But the bottom line was... they were actual people. And to me, the ability to chat with someone in Australia while playing a game was something that I had never been able to do before EverQuest.

Those three things are what made this game special. I highly doubt another game will ever have the same sort of addiction that I had with EverQuest...

_________________

Can you elaborate on this point some?

_________________
Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

I just spent half an hour writing a very good post in response to this thread, darn it, and it is all gone - not rewriting. This isn't the first time this has happened .. when I went to submit it, it said I was logged out! What IS the time 'window' one has to compose a post before the system boots you (without tell you that it has until you go to submit) or did you just set this 'feature' specially for me? /smile Usually my long posts are NICE posts, folks - and in this case the post was a nice reminiscence I think. Fooey!

When I'm writing a long post I highlight it all and click copy just for a backup before I submit. Then if it goes poof, log in, open new post and paste. I've had that poof happen before and it's annoying.

That's what makes the forums so special. If it were easy, we would get bored.

^^ win.

_________________
Hope is the new black.

I found your post that got eaten and reposted it, Chiasma. You're welcome.

after taking a look at instant replay...

no, ^^^=win

What made EQ special to me

The learning curve and abusing the game.

I figured out how to play EQ at school. I was teaching Art, and had couple kids that had completed their work standing behind me, watching the stupid Ogre stumble into a NPC camp, and suddenly find myself running for my life while the kids stood behind me cheering me on and laughing their head off. They talked about that all year. Eventually 2 went on to create some incredible computer graphics, often involving an ogre or a Troll.


Some other of my fondest memories were while abusing the game, or using it in a manner that was not intended. Playing hide and seek, or naked ogre races, the dance challenges, or emote duels with Carolsue, or stumbling into an Iron Chef cooking contest between two players come to mind. Yeah, to the “hard core� players, it might have come across as silly and a waste of time, but really, did it make more sense to quest for that pixel, or to level?

Klan ov da Grok made it special for the both reasons.

I miss da Grok.


What killed EQ for me……

Requiring groups to do anything productive, and the real world encroaching on my game time.

The guy who wrote that post made some awesome points... Makes you wonder why no one has really re-done the EQ game.

I think he hit the nail on the head of the fact that: No matter what level you were, or where you were hunting, the game genuinely was entertaining. Endgame race wasnt required to enjoy yourself... So many parts of that were so very true...

Good old nostalgia. Made me remember failing a vox raid like 10 times.(when there were a ton of people actually raiding it...)

Some of hte greatest times i had was finding some of the unintended or new aspects of the game first... Like finding kedge right after game release, finding the way on top of all the buildings and the outer-walls in Felwithe, using levitate/dmf to sneak into Vox's lair the back way... etc...

I still remember that fateful raid Almoron led into fear. Might have been my first raid lol. The game was actually scary because of that o so possible chance to lose all your gear in that hellhole of agro lol


Then later on the FL aoe fear raids. Those were great.

Lol, PoFear was my first plane raid and I was forced to go in first to be a scout because I could "FD" but no one told me about the roaming monsters in the zone-in! Good times...no more instances on newer MMOs please.

I think instancing is such a double edged sword. While it allows everyone access to content rather than the 1 or 2 guilds that can brute their way to it first, it also removes so much of the community interaction.

yeah. that's why wow blows. no community except your guild. (if that)

incoming wow fanboys

What everyone else said, pretty much.

Messing with the economy was pretty cool, too.

Scaring the piss out of people in commonlands with werewolf illusion was pretty awesome too.

Sarissa Candyangel

Scaring the piss out of people in Oasis with Spectre illusion was pretty awesome too.

People still play WoW? Aren't we all waiting for Warhammer and Conan?

_________________
Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

Man I'm a sucker for nostalgia, that post really brought back memories. I remember that feeling of immersion when I started playing a troll and never dared to leave the swamp for weeks... The world was huge and dangerous, and you really felt thanksful when high level people went out of their way to find a lvl 5 corpse in some crocodile's stomach.

When I think of the years I devoted to a mere game I feel no sense of loss. I think community, friends, achievement. I don't regret it one minute. I just miss it. Probably because I forgot its downsides :p

I would argue that the community we all remember wasn't built by EQ. It was built by this board.

When I first started playing EQ, I had no idea there WERE server boards. So my experience was very much the same as it has been in WoW. Mostly interacting with guildmates, with the occassional pug here and there. When I first found the lanys boards is when I began to feel plugged into a MUCH larger aspect of the game.

And that wasn't one EQ provided. We forged it for ourselves.

Just my .02

_________________

I would agree 100%, Rugen. When I went back to EQ after a periodic break in playing to find Lanys merged with The Seventh Hammer, I looked around to find message boards associated with the server. I didn't really expect to find the (IMO) unique community which existed on the Lanys board when the majority of members were actively playing EQ, but I hoped to find something in the same vein. I was very disappointed by what I did find.

Id have to disagree, most the people i met were ingame from DT, FL, 7D, MW, etc...

The boards just added extra drama and reading material.

_________________
My sig got eated by the bit bucket...
Fellenwhite Moonsong
Sixty-Something drunken freak of Lanys
Formerly known as:
Dashkast Justifyer
75 Gnomish Puppy kicker

Have to agree with Dashkast on this one. Most of the community action took place in the game IMO, I met and interacted with far more people in the game than on the boards. The community took place moreso in the game, although the boards added a lot of flavor to it. Problem is that there was still a good chunk of people on Lanys that never even read the boards(or rarely visited), yet helped significantly in forming the community as we knew it.

The game is where we had fun with our friends, grouped and raided. I think most of us came to the boards after all was said and done for the night. The Lanys Boards were more of a community nutritional supplement to the main course.

Another reason I say that is that there were a number of other server message boards that had the same claim that we did as far as having a community. Upon examination of these other boards, I do think we can say we had something unique in this board in the sense that we had perhaps a more close-knit mature community, but I don't think we were unique in the respect of having a feeling of community in general. EQ fostered communities through annoyance of grinds and requirement of grouping to get things done, and perhaps a general feeling of it being more interactive/roleplayingish when compared to games like WoW.

.evequest.what.is.it.about.

everquest to me is just that simple feeling when you awake up in the morning and you know you gotta dos omething important that day and you realize it is to play everquest with your guild. go on a raid or something. like in other gamers its just like hey, im gonna do nothing today maybe i click that icon see whats happening but with EQ it was like you had to play it all the time or else you miss something important. like your guild gonna do rumblecrush but they cant start without you cause youre the best player in the guild and then when you dont show up some other guild gets the kill and your loots. with other games its just like who cares who gets the loot i just might as well play spider solitaire this is boring. lol.

droma.signingout.peace

Are there other message boards of servers that have been gone for 3-4 years that are still active?

I can see Venen and Dash's point. For a lot of people the community focus was definitely ingame. I'm sure for the people doing end game content, guild boards were more important. Back then I never really expected to reach that level and the Lanys board was a big part of the community experience for me. Especially the SL.

The in game community paled in comparison to what these boards were.

_________________
Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

The fuck it did, the difference was it actually took *people* to accomplish things, even leveling. You didn't get a real big choice, you had to get to know people, so you'd have a group. I know plenty of people who played druids and necros and solo'd up that were loners and really never involved themself with many other people because they were never actually forced to interact with them on any real level.

_________________
Marauder Harabakc Goat

Perhaps my viewpoint is different given that I leveled up with most of the same people throughout the course of the game. Much of the 'community' I remember in game (aside from my guild obviously) is people training me, stealing my spawns and/or my named.

_________________
Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

Thats funny you mention it...


Do you remember way back in the kunark days where i traded you something for one of the 50s pets? I think it was the monk or the rogue... It happened in OT at the outpost, and for some reason i remember not liking you that day. I think its because I had just inherited/started playing Dash, and you told me something like, 'He promised me he would give it to me' or something similar, i remember talking to the original dash like 3 times that day regarding that conversation, rofl...

_________________
My sig got eated by the bit bucket...
Fellenwhite Moonsong
Sixty-Something drunken freak of Lanys
Formerly known as:
Dashkast Justifyer
75 Gnomish Puppy kicker

Yea I think it might've been the rogue pet. Man it's been a while though.. As I recall he was thinking about leaving or not playing as much, and he recently acquired the rogue pet from soloing in the Skyfire Mountains and I asked if I could have it before he left, heh. We were pretty far apart in the game though when he said he would give it(or trade for it? I can't remember which), so he said he would work it out the next day. Had a lot of fun with that rogue pet, too!

Original Dashkast was a really great guy. We duo'ed a whole bunch of stuff as necros. I had given him a number of spells and such earlier on so I think he felt sorta obligated to help me when he got the 53 pet.

we sure have a lot of necros that post on this board....

Giant fire snake fuck a nigga up.

Yeah hes still around, i talk to him pretty frequently, although we live in different states now which is a bummer. I think hes finishing up his masters and CPA and starting work in the real world...