Back in my day...

[Deepmemories]

That's why EQ failed.

[Anzel]

I didn't play EQ. I played EQ in space otherwise known as SWG. Lots I miss from that game but I have to say I prefer SWTOR.

[morbidillusion]

Back in my day when you pressed a button to cast a spell your character casted the spell.

[JDTC]

 

 

THATS THE WAY IT WAS AND WE LOVED IT

 

 

 

 

now get back in assisted living

[Jinzouningen]

people kill me with comments like thats why a certain game failed I tried EQ out after i was already playing UO and it wasnt for me. EQ and EQ 2 ran a long time and like UO theyre still running. They had their day and made loads of money even at 10 bux a month ( UO ) and new things showed up and grabbed people which is perfectly normal. I played and loved the first 2 warcraft games and never thought id ever try the 3rd one or the mmo. If that game lost 6 million players this yr no one could ever say thats why it failed. omg the money that thing generated, and now theyre a subscription based game acting like a free to play game and making money hand over fist. anyway..but yeah thats why games that made hundreds of millions failed

[PrestigeWWide]

I played EQ for a long time..although in that one casuals like myself were not really going anywhere and just playng to waste time. I basically solo'ed a Cleric up to about 45-50 and that literally took 20 months or so! I remember getting that zombie bite dispell and having people ask constantly for the buff. I did like the slow leveling, the way that you got better at spells just by using them...divination, conjuring etc. I wish there was another game closer to EQ in the leveling and awesome crafting but without the lack of maps and exp loss upon death.

 

I think every onc and awhile about going back but it could never happen. To get to a level in that game where most people are would take me a decade. I bet there are people that can solo planes and one sht those giants in the desert!

[KaiLunn]

I played EQ, starting about 6 months before Kunark was released. (It was a late Christmas present from a friend who played.) I don't really miss it.

 

As a matter of fact, the guild I play with in TOR is the same guild. It's changed a lot since then. When EQ2 & WoW came out there was a bit of a split that came back together in WoW. Intermittently we tried other games, but WoW was our common denominator. Just before Cata came out, our guild population dropped off and didn't survive much beyond that

 

And now we're back together in TOR. It's nice seeing and playing with people you know and like after a 1 year break.

 

I have to admit, without the forced socialization of EQ, I wouldn't still be playing with these people. But after you play an MMO with someone 8 - 16 hours a day, every day for years, you become close. Heck, our "guild mom" sends us Christmas fudge most years. (And it is delicious!)

 

That said, I'll never play an EQ-style game again. I don't have the time to devote. And I work off hours, so playing *with* people I know (and trust) is almost rare.

 

Furthermore:

 

• I have no interest in working 8-10 hours at my job only to come home and go to work in my current MMO.
  
• I have no patience for losing a week's worth of work for 1 death.
  
• I'll never play a game where I have to sit LFG for 6 hours and log off with nothing done.
  
• I'll never do another quest that requires a spawn with a 4 - 10 day respawn.
  
• I'll never race another guild to another boss mob. I don't want it that bad, and they can have it.
  

 

 

I didn't really think it (EQ style gaming) was fun then. I kept playing for the people I was associating with. So yes, the community was better.

 

I agree that having a map and in game quest directions does make for lazy people. I've seen it happen, even though my EQ trained brain prevents me from it. Unless I am in a new area, I always know where I am, even if it's not the most direct route.

 

Same with people knowing their class and avoiding death. My early experiences with EQ generally make skill with my class and not dying a point of pride. At the same time, a small death penalty has generally lead me to be more creative (and successful). On the other hand, easy death penalties have made it easier to succeed, so the skill really isn't there.

 

TL;DR: EQ's punishing gameplay did make for a better players and better community. It sucked for just about everything else, imho.

 

-Kai-Lunn

[imtrick]

That's why EQ failed.

 

EQ didn't fail. It was the WoW of its day, and a major success.

 

EQ2 is a whole different story.

 

And in my day you could hit level 40 every day for a damned month.

Edited January 11, 2012 by imtrick

[Shaz]

That's why EQ failed.

EQ didn't fail. It was the WoW of its day, and a major success..

 

Exactly. EQ was a HUGE success. EQ was what proved that MMOs could succeed. EQ is the reason WoW exists.

 

There is a lot I miss about EQ. Even some of the 'hard' and 'annoying' stuff.... and I don't miss it BECAUSE it was hard and annoying, I miss it because of the environment and community it fostered. I knew the people on my server. I still keep in contact with many, and I'm not just talking about guildies, but even random other people from my server. You honestly developed relationships with people, due to the time things took. And you knew that you couldn't be a complete <expletive deleted>, because your reputation mattered. Really and truly mattered.

 

Leveling to 50 was hard. You knew that someone at level 50 knew how to play their character. If they repeatedly did something stupid, word would get around that they were bought off Ebay, and they'd likely be shunned.

 

So, while a part of me doesn't want to have to, in games now, do all the work that EQ took... another part of me really misses what all that work fostered. EverQuest's height was both an MMO golden age as well as a dark age, and I really miss the best of it.

Edited January 11, 2012 by Shaz

[Beansoup]

Back in my days we had to compile everything for atoms, with our bare hands! Even the rocks that we ate for dinner! You kids have it easy these days, stop whining!

 

...Now get out of my lawn already!

Edited January 11, 2012 by Beansoup

[jdela]

I miss my trains. Oh how I loved you BlackBurrow and Crushbone. But none are so dear as catle Mistmoore. I loved how a zone could rally around a high level group and wipe them out!

 

I miss the venerable Sand Giants as some idiot decided it was fun to train level 35 giants on level 12 - 15 characters hoping to slay the famous Lockjaw. I remember fatties at the zone lines that would block the passage. Fear the link dead fatty!

 

I will never forget the quest to get from Qeynos to Freeport at level 10. I will certainly never forget almost getting there to be eaten by a griffon in a low level zone and finding myself back in the lovely city of Qeynos. I was going to be a blacksmith you see and I could only get certain components from Freeport, plus all the auctions were in the tunnel.

 

I remember my first trip to the planes as a freshly minted 50. I remember funny spells like levitation and seeing druids being able to turn into a tree. I remember joys of having a kindly soul buff you with a SoW and the joy of a minor speed boost when I got jBoots.

 

I remember learning a bunch of different languages and becoming KoS to dwarfs (never liked those little buggers). Lol, mostly things you can not do in MMOs today. My Jedi is apparently already fluid in every language in the known galaxy, particularly in the beep language of some droids.

 

I loved a lot about EQ, but it was a lot work. Enjoyable with some frustration, but fun. I am not sure if it was the people or the game, probably a bit of both. I enjoy SWTOR a lot, probably more much my speed now

[Anomagnus]

I remember my time as an agent and solider on Rubi Ka, getting groups for things like the beast.

 

But while i loved doing that at the time, i know that i could never devote that amount of time to a game again.

 

MMOs have evolved as i have. Thats not a bad thing. I like having an MMO that i can use on my schedule.

[Dark_loki]

I played Asheron's Call on Darktide. I miss the epic feeling of knowing something amazing happened in your game world. Every time someone killed a major "umbra". those shadow dudes, there would be a message across the whole server letting you know that that player did something amazing and game impacting.

 

I remember when they added the "hollow" weapons which ignored all magic affects. Imagine all the mages on that server all of a sudden having to put points into strength to wear armor so they would stop getting owned.

 

Those really were fun times. You truly ha guilds that would PK anyone not in their guild, neutral guilds, and guilds that would only attack the known PK guilds. It was so much fun being able to take peoples gear.

 

I think gear that binds is the biggest sally pants move games have ever made. Makes having gear seem less epic. Although at this point in MMO"s all the so called "epic" gear can be obtained by every pre-teen playing.

[Alcarinn]

back in my day we took 40 people into LBRS and farmed the first UBRS key on our server.

 

back in my day i had to buff kings every five minutes on forty people for six hours while we cleared mc do the math

 

There are 12 5 minute periods in an hour.

 

12(5 minute periods) X 40(people) X 6(hours) = 2880 buffs i was casting in one mc clear, plus I was the OOC rezzer.

 

To this day I still wake up in a cold sweat due to the nightmares about constant whispers

 

KINGS!!!! KINGS!!!!! KINGS!!!!!!

 

Haha I remember that

 

when you finally done buffing the 1st buff ''almost ran out''

[AnarchIV]

The word "KS" exist no more,

 

I remember the DPS fight about bosses, they dont turn grey if another player attack them before you, the adrenalin increase waiting to see who get the drop

[Aisar]

The word "KS" exist no more,

 

I remember the DPS fight about bosses, they dont turn grey if another player attack them before you, the adrenalin increase waiting to see who get the drop

 

I had to think about that a minute but wow that is nuts. never knowing if the thing you are attacking is yours or not if someone else happens to hit it too around the same time.

[Coldasbluessoul]

1. I played everquest it was boring and sucked.

 

2. Who cares what some MMO fanatic did back in "what ever day" he played what ever game?

 

3. Back in my day we played board games. (Suck it)

[mobywv]

Back in the day I tanked stuff on anarchy online by pushing one button repeatedly.

 

The one time in my life I enjoyed tanking!

[abishe]

Back in my day...

 

 

- We didnt have raid groups. We rangled 100+ people and made groups of 6 to try and kill one world boss. None of this 8-man easy mode content. You had to actually have a sizeable group to get things done.

 

 

- Raid buffs took 30 minutes and you liked it. There was no massive raid group. Everyone just made their small groups and took orders.

 

 

- We didnt have these instances...if you wanted to kill something you had to camp its spawn and RACE against everyone else to get it. If you didnt get it you had to wait another 7 days just to get a chance to take it down.

 

 

- If you had a weapon that had a "The" in it, it was legitmately epic. There was MAYBE two or three on the server and it was drooled over.

 

 

- Purple loot was actually epic. None of these quest turn ins, full epic gear by soloing content bull*****. Being decked head to toe in purple actually meant something.

 

 

- Orange loot was MAYBE one or two per server.

 

 

 

- You couldn't solo your way 1-50. You HAD to group because mobs were too mean to kill by yourself. It built a genuine connection across the server and people really got to know eachother.

 

 

- Getting access to an endgame zone took WORK. Months and months of work to even get INSIDE.

 

 

 

 

 

THATS THE WAY IT WAS AND WE LOVED IT

 

 

(Feel free to add your own)

 

 

 

that's why those game's died out long, long ago.

even then it was not acceptable concept.

[Truga]

I say most people who like to "Work" video games, never have really "Worked" real jobs in their life.

 

I think it's the other way around. People like to work hard for good things, it gives an extra sense of achievement. It's people that had everything brought to them on a silver platter that go and throw a hissy fit when something in the game isn't instant gratification.

[Iusedtoplaywow]

Nothing will top the EQ 1 experience in its heyday, ever. Mark it.

 

That was the absolute peak of computer social gaming and WoW's 12 million subscribers isnt even coming CLOSE to touching that milestone.

 

I dream of playing a reskinned EQ 1 game one day, redesigned for newer hardware. Keep the gameplay exactly the same and trickle out the expansions like they do on the legends servers.

 

One can only dream...

[Darth-Malice]

Back in my day son it was all make believe.

[ColdBlueDemon]

Yea, I bought the game(s), leveled to 85 in under 3 days.

 

Then I bought gold from this chinese dude...yea my dad has 3 houses no skin off my back

 

Then I bought this totally epic purple gear, ha, I was such a ******...

 

Ooo then I clicked this button, sat and watched these 24 newbs kill these bosses, oh and then Deathwing died. Booyah, yea, Im pimp.

 

So now I skool all the nubs in org, letem know that man Im hardcore. Boom.

 

Yea swtor is for nubs, WoW will never die its for hardcore gamerz.

 

-(quoted from QQPallyHardcore)

[Shammus]

don't forget no maps, you could get lost in your own starting city for hours... and if you went some place you shouldn't you died, and had to retrieve your body to get your items.. sometimes entire play sessions were dedicated to getting your body back

 

the only classes who could affectively solo past like lvl 15 were druids, necros, and mages

 

Nothing will top the EQ 1 experience in its heyday, ever. Mark it.

 

That was the absolute peak of computer social gaming and WoW's 12 million subscribers isnt even coming CLOSE to touching that milestone.

 

I dream of playing a reskinned EQ 1 game one day, redesigned for newer hardware. Keep the gameplay exactly the same and trickle out the expansions like they do on the legends servers.

 

One can only dream...

 

 

supposedly eq3 is going to go back to its roots.

Edited January 11, 2012 by Shammus

[Merex]

Hours long grind groups at Firiona Vie in EQ1...oh man. Sitting at a came for hours while the tank ran out grabbing mobs. AA grind groups for talent points that are easily gained by leveling now. Yeah. Good times. It was all worth it when I got endless quiver though. Edited January 11, 2012 by Merex