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Lenas

Trump's Staff
7,559
2,299
Original EQ was so hard to find information about. Does anyone remember EQAnswers.com?? It was my go to resource before Allakhazam got huge, but man, even then the info was so vague for quests like the screaming mace.

The ambiguous nature of EQ originally really is what hooked me. So hard to find factual information, and you had to try exploring basically alone. It was so great.
 

Borzak

Bronze Baron of the Realm
25,463
33,216
A big contributing factor was there was no place or very few places to look for information. Nowdays it could never happen. Everything is data mined, early access, alpha testing, beta testing forever. By the time a game goes live there's a 100 fan sites with a "how to" on how to accomplish everything in game from lvl 1 to the max lvl and such.
 
28
10
The epic forum wars.

Fights over killing raid bosses.

The fact that EQ as a world was defined by the actions of the players. It is pretty unique in being a raiding MMORPG that had a fair amount of sandbox elements.
 

Ryanz

<Banned>
18,901
52,944
Breaking the entrance of Plane of Fear was some of the most epic and nerve wrenching times as a child playing video games. Was everyone elses strat to run to the hill and log out, then everyone log in at the same time? Also having an enchanter made things like 10x easier.
 
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Ravishing

Uninspiring Title
<Bronze Donator>
8,456
3,577
Breaking the entrance of Plane of Fear was some of the most epic and nerve wrenching times as a child playing video games. Was everyone elses strat to run to the hill and log out, then everyone log in at the same time? Also having an enchanter made things like 10x easier.

Yup, run to hill,log out, meet in chat until all clear, log back in, res up, pull the damn imp that shadowsteps you into the dracholich, train your raid, wipe out, good luck doing naked corpse retrieval. After 3 hours you're ready to try again.

Then some lucky occasions we break in with 2 groups without even needing to log out. Was rare though
 

khorum

Murder Apologist
24,338
81,363
Camps! And claiming camps and trains and helping that next camp with a shit pull. All those things instancing removed forever.

Upperguk.jpg
 
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Identikit

Redneck Pornographer
<Bronze Donator>
2,210
3,868
eq had downtime built into the game that forced breaks and socialization. So when leveling you got to know the people around your level. Once you reached max and the friends you made while you level reach max level as well, you had met players and understood their capabilities, as well as made new friends.


I made many friends in eq that I still talk to to this day. I still visit the community boards. Cant say the same about other games. They never really give you an opportunity to just soak in the game world and chat about whatever.
 

khorum

Murder Apologist
24,338
81,363
We lost so much to instanced dungeons. The true test is this: do u think EQ would be as memorable if seb and karnors and Naggy's were instanced?

Everyone's got a story about a friend they made after they dragged their corpses out of sebs or helped them clear a camp.
 
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Itlan

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,994
744
KS, training, and wipes make for the best EQ stories. It was part of the world. The market was built by the players, not some random AH. Maps weren't a thing, you needed to memorize the zones. The infancy of the internet is what made EQ great in our minds, there will never be another game like it. Ever. In reality the game was a piece of shit, but that's what made it so much fun.
 
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Theodlard

Golden Knight of the Realm
19
2
I had a whole 3 ring binder of those maps.

This^

Recently my son was playing EQ and my wife stopped by and noticed there was an in game map. She scoffed at how soft EQ was these days. Of course this from the person who stayed lost in freeport most of the time.
 
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Synj

Dystopian Dreamer
<Gold Donor>
8,108
35,789
I had a whole 3 ring binder of those maps.

My wife was cleaning up my desk one day and found my binder of laminated maps and extensive notes with detailed coordinates of important locations, mobs, quests, etc. I'm fairly certain she would have been less disappointed in me had she instead found a list of women that I was banging. No I don't want to come to bed!
 
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Reactions: 2 users

Malakriss

Golden Baronet of the Realm
12,659
11,973
A big contributing factor was there was no place or very few places to look for information. Nowdays it could never happen. Everything is data mined, early access, alpha testing, beta testing forever. By the time a game goes live there's a 100 fan sites with a "how to" on how to accomplish everything in game from lvl 1 to the max lvl and such.

And yet in each game there's always a large group of noobs who don't know a god damn thing and seemingly don't know how to type in a web browser to find out either. Clueless forever.
 

pharmakos

soʞɐɯɹɐɥd
<Bronze Donator>
16,305
-2,234
How many originals are here? Who remembers the early days when you died and giving someone /consent meant they could loot your body! Talk about having to build up trust!

13 year old pharmakos looted several peoples' corpses in blackburrow that way.
 

Vandyn

Blackwing Lair Raider
3,656
1,382
Beyond all the other reasons (internet being a shadow of itself compared to now for example), I think one of the bigger reasons that made EQ great was it forced you to interact with your fellow player, whether that was in a positive or negative way. It was 'Massive Multiplayer' in every sense of the words. It's because of that forced interaction that relationships were formed. You were forced to converse with players/guildmates/rivals because the game demanded it for you to get any enjoyment out of it. Humans are social animals and when you are sitting in a camp for hours at a time, there is no choice but to strike up a convo otherwise you were just staring at dead space.
 
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Itlan

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,994
744
Yeah I think the fact that people would /ooc Itlan is in the zone, watch for trains made me feel like a god at 13.

Don't give a 13 year old that much power!
 
1,678
149
Original EQ was so hard to find information about. Does anyone remember EQAnswers.com?? It was my go to resource before Allakhazam got huge, but man, even then the info was so vague for quests like the screaming mace.

The ambiguous nature of EQ originally really is what hooked me. So hard to find factual information, and you had to try exploring basically alone. It was so great.

This. We used to get new spells and nobody knew what they were. The only way was to cast it on yourself or a low level bat and see what happened. Everything about the game was new, an adventure, and a challenge.
 

Kreugen

Vyemm Raider
6,599
793
The irony is many of the things that made Everquest great in 1999 turned out to be hugely problematic in the long run. Everquest could only be truly enjoyed if you started early, played often, and made lasting enough friends to catch you up if you ever took a break.

Example:

Forced grouping when there's groups available at any given level range? Great!

Forced grouping when you're the only person in a zone - Fuck!