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I do agree that game was a bit scary at times
I was just discussing this with some folks on another board. It seems like in newer MMO's, you die constantly. And nothing happens. It's like character death is just another thing to have happen, not the ultimate failure that you try to avoid at all costs.
Of course, the idea of death being a bad thing has such a stigma around it that if you try to talk about a penalty or something, people flip out. But I kinda liked the feeling of places being dangerous and of having some skin in the game, so to speak.
Hell, there were a lot of places in EQ where just the adventure of exploring them was fun, because it felt dangerous, or it felt like I shouldn't even be there. And a lot of places I never even saw, because they ended up being too deadly altogether or just looked like too much risk, and I always wondered what was up there, or over there, or behind that door, etc.
Now in most MMO's you can just Leeroy into anything, anywhere, and it doesn't matter. Not only because players now are basically Superman and normal mobs can't even touch you, but also because if you do manage to die, you just respawn about a 10 second walk away with no adverse effects. Aside from maybe an absolutely pathetic token "armor repair" fee.
Not to mention that dungeons in most modern MMO's are instanced, balanced, strictly laid out mini-games essentially. You don't go exploring through them, you don't take a wrong turn into some awful room or get lost. You don't find something unexpected, or find yourself suddenly in over your head deep in Guk.
And yes, for the record, I have loaded up EQ emulators a few times in recent years and done those dungeon crawls and often felt that risk and danger, so it's not just ancient nostalgia talking. The games really are different. But no one wants that kind of game anymore. Meh.
