Everquest Mysteries

Chukzombi

Millie's Staff Member
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212,892
i thought i was hot shit when i got into PoP beta and was able to travel all the new zones with my GM powers. i scoured Plane of War thinking this was going to be our end game dungeon. i even met rallos zek. i told all my guildies how l33t i was.
sOMyWtY.jpg

zone was never implemented during PoP. :(
 

Zzen

Potato del Grande
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3,392
Goddam, those Luclin character models really were the beginning of the end, weren't they?
 
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Kuro

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
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21,222
Being forced to use them in order to get mobile meditate via horses was ass.
 
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Big_w_powah

Trakanon Raider
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twitch.tv/rajifritar

Going to be doing a series of streams on leveling new characters in EQ on Brekt Server. No twinking outside of spell cash. Doing this with my sister.

running a test stream now; I'll let you guys know when we go live, I believe the first real stream will be this evening.
 
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Conefed

Blackwing Lair Raider
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1,650
If you were warrior you died to fucking everything. Lvl 50. They're 35?. Fuck you dead. Can't invisible past. Can't out run. Can't out damage. Damage shields were extra FU.
One of the best moments of my entire career was receiving the Emblazoned Incarnadine Breastplate (Click Gather Shadows {invis}) while in Chardok, from I believe the Korokust. Wasn't even my guild. They were casual and only had paladins. I was xping in zone and was invited along. Even though it was tradable, they gave it to me.
Great times.
PS: name is from memory. It was shd war only and red.
 

Miguex

The lad himself
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I liked the Luclin models better for almost every race, and was always aware that almost no one felt the same. Miss my woodelf characters
 
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Himeo

Vyemm Raider
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Will another game recapture the "You're in our world now" vibe? Because that (and the music) was what made EQ amazing. The rest of the game has not aged well.
 
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Ukerric

Bearded Ape
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The "in our world" is very important.

I mean, if you think about it, that's what you tell people. No one recounts his great moment of the quest line for the staff of whatever (that you replaced 3h later). Or even the awesome cutscene of the the Gates of Icecrown. I mean, you mention "that's awesome", but you don't have to tell anyone about it. Because everyone saw the same cut scene. There's no real shared experience here. What you tell others is when you're crossing the Karanas and you hear a squish sound that suddenly picks up and you make it to the zone with that Hill Giant breathing on your neck. Or you're in a dungeon and you've targeted the wrong aoe and half of the zone lands in your camp. Or the train at Karnor Castle entrance that had the entire rear of the castle, and you (and a bunch of people) derailed it and survived. Mostly.

What makes stories you tell people isn't the story that any designer wrote. It's the things that didn't happen according to the plan. And yours, since the quest designer's plan is always that you win. And if you fail, you look on wowhead's comments how you're supposed to win, and come back and do so.

Without the world part, there's no chance of things going off-script, and things going off-script, whether good or ending with your group splattered over the room, those are what make stories that you remember. And stories are the heart of a social experience.
 
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Hadden

Trakanon Raider
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37
The "in our world" is very important.

Well said, Ukerric.

EverQuest worked because it established a set of rules (factions, spells/abilities, monsters, items, respawn times) and then let the players loose to do with it what they wanted.

In modern games every quest, item, ability, and encounter are doled out in a very controlled flow. There is little room for discovery or creativity; you simply follow the bread crumbs to max level and then raid for the best armor at the time.

I'd like to play a game that gives you a bunch of tools and monsters and releases you into the wild again. No hand-holding, no invisible walls, no checklists. It seems like all games that try this turn into shallow survival games with no real purpose.. hopefully that'll change.
 
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Ambiturner

Ssraeszha Raider
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Well said, Ukerric.

EverQuest worked because it established a set of rules (factions, spells/abilities, monsters, items, respawn times) and then let the players loose to do with it what they wanted.

In modern games every quest, item, ability, and encounter are doled out in a very controlled flow. There is little room for discovery or creativity; you simply follow the bread crumbs to max level and then raid for the best armor at the time.

I'd like to play a game that gives you a bunch of tools and monsters and releases you into the wild again. No hand-holding, no invisible walls, no checklists. It seems like all games that try this turn into shallow survival games with no real purpose.. hopefully that'll change.

Outside of whatever you mean by "checklists", EQ had all the things you complain about and pretty much every other MMO has all the things you said made EQ work.
 
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Hadden

Trakanon Raider
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37
Checklists as in a never-ending quest log of tasks you're supposed to accomplish to go to the next pre-determined location.
 

Dandai

<WoW Guild Officer>
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My contention as to why it felt like a "world" and not a virtual world is the lack of navigational quality of life tools. I present the video below as my supporting evidence. I know he doesn't mention MMOs, but in the context of EQ vs pretty much all modern MMO designs, it's quite fitting.


The tl;dr is you had to pay attention to the world because there was no dotted line, no !s, no Quest Helper addon, etc. NPCs gave you a quest with a written description of the location where you'd find the next step to continue the quest. With games that have "dotted lines" to follow, you're not paying attention to the world; you're following the dotted line to your next objective.
 
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Dandai

<WoW Guild Officer>
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Full disclosure - I enjoy and appreciate both types of games. I was simply calling attention to why two otherwise very similar games can have very different emotional impact and immersion.