The EQ /con system did two things: a color-coding as to how tough the mob was compared to your level as well as an indication of its faction towards you, which was the much more interesting part of the /con system in my opinion. The latter was part of a much bigger feature that entailed the whole Faction-system, the many races in EQ, their many starting cities, and the corresponding political and racial landscape.
KoS races, SK-factions, Bard factions hating Mistmoore, Orcs on Faydwer siding with a particular Neriak faction half a continent away, that sort of shit. Nothing beats opening a door of some room in a remote Inn in Highpass to see a Dark Elf standing there, hoping to /con it and see if its amiable, indifferent, or going to whack your ass.
Somehow I feel that we will not see this ever again, because it requires so much other content and features (like having more then 8 races).
It will always amaze me how much content and features were in Original EQ, surely they must have had featurecreep too, but it does not show. Unfinished stuff, sure, bugs, sure but so many cool features.
To me this is one of the things that set games like EQ, WoW and EQ2 at release apart from all of the others. Essentially just "giving a shit" and really making an effort to include things that aren't necessary but make the game world feel more complete. VG does this to a lesser degree (though I think that may have just been because they ran out of time/money).
Examples:
- Swimming (in 3 dimensions)
- Doors that work (elevators too!)
- Buildings that contain furniture and appropriate items - Walk into a house in EQ or WoW and there are beds, tables, chairs, food, pets etc. Weapon stores had weapons, armor shops had armor, leather workers had hides on the wall, jewelers had gems, etc etc. Walk into a house in DAoC, OH LOOK TWO GUYS STANDING AROUND FELLATING EACH OTHER IN A GIANT EMPTY ROOM. Some games don't even have buildings you can walk inside, just blank store fronts with people standing in front of them.
- Detailed factions with alliances and interdependences and meaningful effects on the way the world viewed your character. Yeah those guards might be easy money but you might regret it later when you come across their better trained and equipped buddies a bit further down the road.
- Lore based reasons why there were NPCs there beyond just WE ARE FIGHTING THE ORCS. WE ARE HERE, THE ORCS ARE THERE. GO KILL 15 AND BRING ME THEIR TESTICLES.
- Dungeons, villages, castles, cities, floating chunks of rock in the sky, etc all had a story behind why they were how they were.
- Quests that genuinely told a story. Every game has fluff quests/grinding quests even EQ but it's the story based ones you remember.
I could go on for a while but the feeling I always got with these games is that someone genuinely CARED enough to include all of the tiny little details that made them standout from the pack rather than just some shit slapped together to get people to hop on board the monthly subscription treadmill.
