Givin Wetwillies wrote:
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.
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