http://www.eqclassic.org/

hrm yay?

People will talk about it.

People will remember all the good stuff about it.

People will play for a week, remember all the commitment it requires to start with nothing, and do it from the beginning and quit.

I still remember 5 minutes fights with level 1 rats.

EQ1 was what it was because there was NOTHING else like it. Sure, some of us came from The Realm (me!) or UO (I waited for EQ and played UO later), many of us had long gaming creds.

But EQ was completely different and the world blew us all away.

You simply can't go home again. We wouldn't be blown away we'd be sitting around looking at the graphics and how fucking awful they were. We'd be noticing all the flaws of the game. MMOs have improved for a reason, and I'm not spending sixteen fucking hours in Najena camping those goddamn jboots ever again!!!!1111

Ahem.

So yeah. It was great for many of us, there are wonderful memories, but we cannot go back to what was and recapture it any more than we can recapture our childhood no matter how much shit we buy off eBay.

_________________

There will never be another EQ-like experience that you felt when first playing the game. WoW had it's own charm, and sometimes I wish for it back. Rolling my first alliance character in the Fileplanet open beta, then buying retail shortly thereafter (Nov 23, 04) -- there will never be that "wonder" again -- in any game. Ever. Simple.

I might mess around with this when they finish it. If it forms a decent community it would be worth it.

_________________
-Rileigh (aka Golliwog)

I still miss EQ1.

Seriously fuck WoW for being so easy with no sense of accomplishment possible.

;(

I play EQ and I also play WoW.

For me, EQ has always been more enjoyable...but that is because of the community. Hell even years beyond the good days of Lanys, there is still a great sense of community in EQ.

That being said, I honestly don't think I've ever been fair to WoW, because I'm always saying EQ has a better community. There has to be a server in WoW somewhere that has a good community feel, with multiple guilds that are progression based and actually have a plan to develop besides targetting random newb 200 and typing /guildinvite.

I've just not seen it yet...but if and when the day comes that I do, I'd probably become heavily interested in WoW.

I think I'm just old and grumpy, but I get so damn tired of all the kiddies, the constant gold spammers, and guilds who just target people and invite them without so much as a "hi", or "fuck you" first. I also get sick of all these people who have nothing better to do than beg people to run them through every instance known to man without even the "attempt" at grouping first. Like somehow upon attaining level 70 it immediately flags you as a "farm bitch for newbies"

I'm damn lucky that my fiancee and a few RL friends play...that is the one thing that keeps it enjoyable. Going through instances, pushing ourselves doing instances a bit above where we "should" be...and caring enough about each other to make sure that good drops go to who can use them most. This has made the game much better for me...hence why I'm now playing casually.

No game is perfect, and frankly I have to agree with Givin...the memories from original EQ are great, but once people zone in, are reminded how much work it was, they'll get frustrated and quit. The hardcore ones will progress, they will overcome the content and still end up quiting once they realize they've "done it all", and then you have a dead server.

In theory it's a great idea..in actuallity it's a failure waiting to happen.

I'm probably just feeling nostalgic but man, I would love to play some classic EQ again.

EQMac looked fun, so fun that I spent like 24 hours fantasizing about it and impulse-bought some new ram for my powerbook before I came to my senses and realized that grad school and MMOs don't fucking mix.

For someone who has more time than me though (and a mac) it looks like some fun nostalgia and a tight little community - it's been capped at PoP for like three years and the top guilds are still working on elementals, heh. Honestly it'd probably be infuriating after a couple weeks, but fun memories nonetheless.

How is that possible, still working on elementals.

Probably because any progression inclined raider is playing something else. I suspect there's not a bunch of the hardcore lined up to overcome the end game content on a PoT capped EQ1 server.

God that sounds like so much fun. I always loved Luclin/PoP era EQ...

I'm sure if i went back it wouldn't be as much fun... but the memories are great...

Absolute lack of numbers, probably.

Any mac owner who games will probably be playing WoW.

_________________

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

WOW haha. That's pretty shitty, honestly. It was a great expansion IMO, but not that great... good lord. Poor guys.

So there isn't 72 people playing on that server at all?

A lack of numbers for over 3 years is a very funny excuse indeed.

72 people willing to raid and who have the same play schedule... probably.

I'd honestly be surprised of EQMac has more than 1000 subscribers, TBH. And few of those would play regularly.

_________________

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

From the short time that I played eq mac I got the impression that there were a few large guilds (65-80 active raiders) a year or two ago then there was massive drama between all the guilds and the people that didn't leave for WoW have found it impossible to patch things up.

Free EQ til July 25th, go here

Just poking around.. I found some interesting comments regarding EQClassic on some random message boards.





And of course... a great quote from the EQClassic FAQ's.



I will indeed enjoy this...

EverQuest was so strange in that, there really was very little questing to be done. Most of my time playing EQ equated to just grinding and farming XP... camps for 3 or 4 hours to try and get half a level...

What the fuck was I thinking? I mean, when you boil it down, EQ was a very simply game with little to no point in playing. I still love it though. I couldn't get into it for that "Legends of Norrath" thing, so I uninstalled EQ1 and EQ2. I dunno, magic just isn't there anymore.

Because at the time, it was a superior formula to anything else available.

Not that it was unique, it was just superior.

The grind was there in Diablo 1. Many a night many of us ran Hell/Hell hoping for a legit suit of Godly Plate of Osmosis or of the Whale. It was there in Ultima Online. Hours upon hours spent holding down the Lich Lord Room in Deceit, or the Ancient Wurm room in Despise or Discord. I think it was Discord. Anyway, Everquest just put a superior brand of spin on the fun and increased the potential to be an individual in a gigantic fantasy world.

It was a pretty remarkable fantasy world also, easy to get into and identify with, just like Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance or any countless worlds that had been created. Locations and NPCs became personal to us because quite honestly, we grew up with them.

We love the memories that we have, not the game mechanics. Corpse runs, corpse decay, non instanced dungeons and contested raid targets.

All bullshit. All horrible features of a MMORPG in all honestly. But we accepted it and put up with that horseshit because A, there just wasn't anything better, and B, thats just how it is, so deal.

And deal we did. For years as we were spoon fed that shit. So much in fact that for some, it is ingrained into their head that "this is the way it is supposed to be and anything else is wrong."

Gaming grew up. The bottom line is, a new venture created in the image of Everquest could only end up as one thing.

Failure.

We also grew up. What we used to consider norm for raiding, is laughable nowadays. 12 hour marathon NToV clears were common. Now there isn't 12 hours worth of raidable content hardly in most mmorpgs.

Not to mention stamina. Day in and day out 24 hour plus marathon raiding. Camping contested spawns, decaying houses, whatever. Giving out your pager number, or keeping in touch via ICQ with the volume on your speakers cranked to full as you went for a quick hour nap and had to be alerted at a moments notice.

And this is all just to be competitive back then, not win.

Fuck all that noise.

Most of us are not young bucks anymore. Family Education and other things have replaced the desire to game for most. I am piss tired usually nowadays by midnight, 1 AM. Sometimes sooner.

I still to this day consider online gaming a hobby. Not a way of life. A hobby I enjoy. If I were no longer able to do it, I would replace it with something else. I was always partial to painting miniatures and model cars. MMORPGs just happened to win out because it was a cheap hobby that entertained.

I'll keep the memories close, and remember the good and bad fondly. But thats it. I do not want another Everquest experience. For that matter I do not want another World of Warcraft experience. If thats what I desire, I know where to look.

Well said, sir. It's amazing what different people all of us have become. Looking back I'm almost ashamed of myself, especially for the petty shit. That said, I wouldn't take some of it back at all. It, oddly enough, helped shape me into the person I am today. I've learned the hard lesson of valuing friendships over success, but also maintaining passion and drive into ALL aspects of my life. Not just gaming.

Besides, a real life FL mentality is pretty interesting with the lessons learned

I really can't agree with this more. EQ was more like a summer camp. It has great memories that most of us would return to time to time before we outgrown it. We have pictures, letters, etc. that we look back on and wish we could relive those moments but they no longer fit into our life's puzzle.

When I saw EQClassic, I really looked at this as an opportunity to just play with something I enjoy within my timeline. No matter how hard I have tried to play MMO's or games in general to escape the stress of my job or whatever, it just didn't have it's place. When AOC released, Xolar and I split an account and I think we have 3 level 10 characters. Neither one of us have logged onto the game in 2-3 weeks. EQ2 was probably the last game I really played but, I averaged no more than a few hours a week.

Games have changed to a different generation mainly because the old generation they were geared to has grown up. I'm a Software Admin and a Youth Minister now. I work with Jr. High and Sr. High kids, and believe it or not I have a lot of gamers. This passed week at the Ichthus Festival, I even heard a lot of people saying "noob", "ownage", "pwned", etc. This was all new to them. At first I questioned some kids what they were playing and they all played Xbox Live stuff. That's really the new thing and we have get together's at my house once a month. I set up my Wii and play Smash Tourney's and Mario Kart, while I set up Rock Bank, CoD4, etc. in another room.

Overall, I guess I look for something here and there to play during the fall and winter with my son like Xolar and I did in EQ. Our family are very sports oriented people but, when it's out of season, we are very game oriented people. We just like to have fun.

I do hope that a good game comes out since Computers are somewhat my job and even my hobby that I can enjoy playing. Eventhough I never really played "hardcore" during my EQ career, I do remember several 8 and 12 hour nights during my short raiding stint. I could barely do it then and I would never want to do it now. However, that does not mean EQ classic could not enjoyed and casually checked. I think it would be a lot of fun to just take down Naggy again. Just as I still play Final Fantasy 2, old Zelda's, and Super Tecmo Bowl, EQ will always be a classic and would be added to may casual gaming itch that I would like to scratch. The great thing about life is it usually makes full circle. When my son gets older i'm sure i'll be playing basketball again instead of just coaching, i'll be rushing to buy the latest system and attempting to get the newest game.

The beauty of life's great experiences are they can be shared and it's the only way they are truly relived is when they are passed on and enjoyed my someone else.

Take care,
Muli

Ain't that sad?

I'll be 27 on July 10. My son will be 1 on August 27th.

In 1999 (EQ Live) I was a Senior in High School.

Take care,
Muli

It's even more strange to see Givin writing it.

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

Zinky, Lvl 60 Warlock
Thunderhorn, WoW

It's the John Rambo effect.

I don't slaughter entire nations any longer, but if it comes down to having to...

"Fuck'em."

It really depends. In WoW, I used to game with 2 aussie chicks who would only play at crazy hours. It was worth playing that late at night because we would usualy do a crazy amount of heroics and mass farm badges with our static. That shit got old quick tho.

In EQ2, usualy a good 2 or 3 hour session and I call it a day and fire up something else like Diablo 2 Eastern Sun or any other mindless itemgrind game I have to close out the night.

Your son has the same birthday as me! NEATO!

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

1999-2003 (ish) that was my lifestyle. It was great logging on and seeing my same in game friends whome I only knew by character name and wondering what adventures or rewards they received while I was away at work or real life.

I will give this one a try too....like I have everyone other popular MMO that has come out in the past 15 years. I'm going through somewhat of a drought with games. I even re-opened my old UO account for a month...yup that board.

Muli, believe me, I'm not debating the changes we've made.

I just miss those hours of late night productivity, gaming aside.

What are you talking about Leo, out of those late night sessions how many of them were you actually awake for =p

_________________
"I'm the best there is at what i do, bub, and what i do isn't very pretty"

Maybe it's just nostalgia then...

His title isn't "The Sleeper" for nothing you know

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This thread brought to you by a tremendous dickhead!

Some good points re: EQ and nostalgia.

I think, or at least hope, that most of us have matured to the point where we realize, as Givin mentioned, that 12 hr gaming marathons are just plain silly.
Back then we did it because we pretty much had to if we wanted to be top dog (and for most "powergamers", that was the end goal, wasn't it? to be the best equipped player around).

But I think these days, it would be playing for the sheer nostalgia of it all.
There wouldn't be the massive rush to get to 50+ ASAP.
We'd just take it slowly, playing a few hours here and there, and laughing at the shitty graphics, inside jokes, and memorable places (i.e. kithicor runs at night; grimfeather deaths in Karana; "LOCKJAW!!"; etc.). Or at least that's what I'd be aiming for, anyways. Can't speak for everyone.

But then how much of the game would we miss, I wonder, if we skipped all those disgustingly long camps for the good gear.
Or if we only ever gamed for a few hours a night, would we ever tackle Trakanon again? or Nagafen? (especially considering the time to assemble and travel to some of these areas). Fear and Hate would be a complete writeoff, especially in the event of a possible wipe.
Those are the things that turn me off of what I would otherwise be quite interested in on a casual basis.

*shrug*

I downloaded it. Logged in. My account was there, but, Worthy was gone.

Thought you Ebayed Worthy?

Anywho I logged in, went to PoK >> Overthere and killed the cliff golem and got a 1AA from the kill. I was amazed then logged off.

Fun times.

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

Naw, never E-bayed anything.
I figgured I would come back some dqy.

Worthy, don't bang sheep with out a condom....

You thinking of Waring? He ebayed and for a while the ebay version was a "Community Leader/Class Rep" on for Sony/EQ. Dunno if he still is, I quit ~

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Oh my

Wrong server perhaps?

Haha, the guy I sold Sola too is still playing, under the name Togah Bolts....619 days played and he's only done about 100 of them.

God damn I played eq way too much.

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"I'm the best there is at what i do, bub, and what i do isn't very pretty"

Found him!
You where right, wrong server.
I forgot I did not go to the Lanys Combined server.
I had gone to Polvar.

http://eqplayers.station.sony.com/character_profile.vm?characterId=528281005316

Not uber like some of the characters online, but, he was my first.

My computer locked up when I loaded him tho. I need to upgrade.

I was able to turn off all my background programs and play last night with my buddy who is a 60 Ranger. We farted around in Permafrost just ganking stuff for fun.

Any suggestions where the 2 of us could hunt and get experience?

damn near everything is unkeyed now Worthy, you could check out BoT or something, proly decent XP for you there

I do miss the old EQ sometimes, all the negetive's about the game are correct. But it still holds a special place in people's memories.

For me it was the adventures I had with My sister ( Shylee ) in the game. You see my sister passed away Last November, she was the one that got me started in the game, we did so much together in it, we talked everyday about it, she helped me so much with quests and stuff.. she was a Druid I was a Ranger ( Wildiiana )

Maybe the Old game should stay just memories, I found this video and seems to fit my thoughts on it. She is a memory now and all the fun times we had, maybe the game should be that too. She will always be in this time frame for me.

http://www.eq2center.com/db/article.asp?ID=456

People talk about the long camping, and how long it took to lvl, but looking back on it all, I think its what made it so special, the chat in groups and in OOC was so much fun, and how you got to meet so many people and they seemed to be so real.

I guess it really wasnt the game it was the people behind each characther that made it so special. It's maybe why people jump from game to game, never really finding what they are looking for, maybe it is all the old EQ times people really do miss. The battles that took forever, the messed up quests. but what I remember is the times you would hear Griffen near Inn, and in OOC someone would say I'm on it and all the diff things people would say to let you know a train was coming. It seemed so awsome when a high lvl would drop by the newbie lift in Gfay and offer buffs, man you thought you where uber, and you would hurry off so as not to waste a min. Now its all in the guild lobby. No real sence in where you came from. The starter cities are empty now, standing silent, like a guard of old, waiting for the return of times gone by.





I'm not real sure how to do a link in the forums anymore but I hope you can see these sites, I wish I had picks of my sister to post but think of her when and if you watch these.

Shylee you will always be in Norrath with me.

Wildiiana

I actually got a little lump in my throat reading your post. I'm sorry for your loss but it's great that you still have those fond memories of her and you have that connection. Thanks, in large part, to a video game.

Wow, that post got ot me as well. Sorry for the loss, but glad to see you have a lot of fond memories.


here is my personal fav eq flashback vid:

http://eqvids.com/Flash/memalbum/memalbumf.htm

Re: Missing the game or missing the memories

True, a lot of people had to move on from that kind of gaming, but I'm sure there's new gamers who'd love a game with that kind of involvement. And even from those of us who experienced EQ in its youth, there would be some who'd still manage those 12h a day playsessions still.

A new EQ-like MMO would definetely not be a WoW-threathening hit, but 50k-250k players would not be unattainable for a quality hardcore MMO. Those people who miss the EQ experience (and aren't just missing the memories of good ol' times) are not necessarily against new technologies and new graphics, but against casual-friendly spoon-fed games like WoW.

I remember very well the nights of playing till I was about to fall asleep on my keyboard, the trusted friends to share an account with because the guild may desperately need my cleric or leaving mIRC on loud with keywords so my guildleader could wake me up after 2h of sleep, because the server crashed and Naggy was up at 5am. I miss that. Not because it was a fun time, but because it was a game that truely filled my gaming time.

I did hardcore WoW raiding. I had fun, but ultimately it was not even close to the experience of EQ. Not because EQ was new, but because EQ was happening all the time. In WoW my 'end game' guild raided 4 times a week for about 6 hours a day. Raids were clearly scheduled - we never had to hurry and kill a boss before another guild killed it. Sometimes we wiped a lot - it wasn't a big deal even on those days when I had to repair from red several times. My hard-earned gear was never in danger, my entry to an instance was never in danger. In fact there was never any risk, or really any urgency.

If a game built on old EQ gameplay came out now would I have the time to dedicate to it to play it like I would like to? In all honesty, no. But I'm damn sure my wife would be all over it. In a few years my oldest son might love something like that. If I play my cards right, in another 10 or so we might have enough money to retire and I could have that time once again. But in the meantime I'd definetely buy an account or two and play my measly 6-8h a night hopefully getting to do some casual raiding (casual by old EQ standards).

I dont play that much a day maybe an hour a day, but with the revamps I can do quite a bit of EXP now in short amouts of time. which is fantastic, In WoW it was becoming harder and harder to just exp grind or do quest, maybe its just a change of pace and ill grow tired of it and go back to WoW and level up some more. Who knows.

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

Apparently the eqclassic server got bitchslapped by SOE. Their website is down.

The website had a calvin and hobbes comic up yesterday talking about sueing someone to make money and today the site is apparently up for sale again. sucks =x

damn the man!

The domain is hosted at GoDaddy now but it's just a blank page with,
"Please be patient and bear with us.
Thank you!"

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Moyraine Minzwisper, (Retired) Coercer of Tunare, Tribunal Server
~~~~
Khahleen Peredhil, (Retired) Hierophant of Tunare, Lanys T`Vyl Server
~~~~
Reninia, (Retired) Paladin of Rodcet Nife, Stromm server

they have their IRC chat linked to the site now.

When I retire I'm gonna do something worthwhile, not sit around all day playing Everquest hardcore.

What a waste of life, man. And shame on you if you ever introduce your kids to it.

Oh, lord.