The official site for EverQuest has been updated with a look into the depths of the Desert of Ro.

The Northern Desert of Ro is a vast and deadly desert that lies just beyond the eastern gates of Freeport. Several inns and a few of Lucan's militia can be found with the last, desperate reaches of temperate vegetation carpeting the flat of land just before the rise of the desert dunes. A tunnel carved into the steep ridge bordering the desert to the west, connects the desert to the Commonlands.

To the south, one will meet the sands of the Oasis of Marr, which separates the northern and southern reaches of the Ro desert. Legends speak that what is now the northern Desert of Ro was once the northern reaches of the ancient Elddar forest – the former home of the elves who had once resided upon Antonica, then called Tunaria. This forest was said to have been the most beautiful woodland Norrath has ever seen Spanning the whole of what is now the desert of Ro and Oasis of Marr, this forest is said to have been burned to the ground by the fiery wrath of Solusek Ro.

 

The northern desert is host to a great variety of inhabitants, range from rattlesnakes and giant tarantulas, to the dread cutthroat pirates of the desert. It is also rumored that the unfortunate citizens of Freeport who are infected with a plague of the mind are cast out into these desert lands to die. However, many of these desert madmen have survived the harsh, unforgiving desert heat and have grown all the more crazed from it.

Read more here.

I enjoy reading these lore stories. Even though it doesn't involve dragons and epic battles, its nice to see that every zone, even the most simple areas where noobs hunt(or used to hunt considering the zone is barren now) have lore behind them and have a reason for existing. This is what these FTP grinder games lack, any sort of significant story to their areas. They're just filled with mobs that spawn for the sole purpose of giving xp and nothing else.

Me too.

Everquest has the best, and most deep, lore for any MMORPG.

"Everquest has the best, and most deep, lore for any MMORPG"

You have not played many MMO's have you, at least the subscription ones, most of those MMO's have tons more lore than EQ.

It has taken them awhile to getting around to adding lore to EQ.

This game will cost a new player a fortune now, because all the old leveling areas are vacant you have to have all the newest and greatest expansions to get to the new leveling areas.

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Originally posted by Ozmodan

 

"Everquest has the best, and most deep, lore for any MMORPG"
You have not played many MMO's have you, at least the subscription ones, most of those MMO's have tons more lore than EQ.

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Like?

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This game will cost a new player a fortune now, because all the old leveling areas are vacant you have to have all the newest and greatest expansions to get to the new leveling areas.

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Erm... it costs $30 to be up to date. Hardly a fortune. Secrets of Faydwer includes all 14 expansions.

They named a desert after Ensign Ro?

Cool!

Originally posted by Ozmodan

"Everquest has the best, and most deep, lore for any MMORPG"

You have not played many MMO's have you, at least the subscription ones, most of those MMO's have tons more lore than EQ.

It has taken them awhile to getting around to adding lore to EQ.

This game will cost a new player a fortune now, because all the old leveling areas are vacant you have to have all the newest and greatest expansions to get to the new leveling areas.

 Yeah, actually there're WarHammer, Lord of the Ring and Ultima Online so EQ series isn't the best. BUT I CAN'T believe the above crap that ya mentioned Ozmo. You fail

Originally posted by celline

Originally posted by Ozmodan

"Everquest has the best, and most deep, lore for any MMORPG"

You have not played many MMO's have you, at least the subscription ones, most of those MMO's have tons more lore than EQ.

It has taken them awhile to getting around to adding lore to EQ.

This game will cost a new player a fortune now, because all the old leveling areas are vacant you have to have all the newest and greatest expansions to get to the new leveling areas.

 

 Yeah, actually there're WarHammer, Lord of the Ring and Ultima Online so EQ series isn't the best. BUT I CAN'T believe the above crap that ya mentioned Ozmo. You fail

I have to disagree.. I think everyone seems to be mistaking questing as lore. I've played a lot of games and I have to say EQ has tons of lore (14 expansions worth). The best part about EQ lore is they always found a way to explain a new continent popping out of nowhere. There is not a zone or area in EQ that does not have a story involved (if you're interested in seeking out that story, that is). From the creation of Norrath by dragons to the creation of the races by gods, EQ never had a lack of lore.

Counting LOTRO as full of lore is a little misleading, as the lore was already there for the developers to work with. SWG should have been the same way.  I play LOTRO and am a big Tolkien fan, but there probably won't be content that Tolkien fans won't see coming and won't already know the story once it's released. With EQ, every expansion is a new and enjoyable addition to a grand form of storytelling.

Warhammer doesn't really count yet because it's not released.

I think also that EQ lore is almost 'hidden' within the game. Games like LOTRO and even WOW force you to follow a grand, pre-determined path with which you are forced to learn the lore. EQ never forced you into any lore nonsense... it was up to the player to decide if they wanted/cared to learn the lore at all... sorta like an extra-curricular after school activity.

oh yas i remember Ro,

our group would meet on the shore and some poor hasted sucker would lure a giant or three back to us and we'd flail around trying to kill it/them and then at the last second we'd either run like hell into the water only to be eaten by Lockjaw or run down the beach trying to train the giant onto some other hapless 1/2 health group who was camping that spawn.  At least it was easy to find your corpse there.  Wheee!  good times. 

If lore to some people is one sentence of explaining where an entire expansion with 10-20 zones came from then I suppose EQ has tons of it. Not that any other MMO has surpassed that, but others have certainly done the same. Actually other games make lore interactive by adding quest that forces you to learn the history of the land.

Originally posted by brostyn

If lore to some people is one sentence of explaining where an entire expansion with 10-20 zones came from then I suppose EQ has tons of it. Not that any other MMO has surpassed that, but others have certainly done the same. Actually other games make lore interactive by adding quest that forces you to learn the history of the land.

Some people want to play a game because it's a game... others want to play a game for the discovery factor involved. I like to discover things personally. If you can name one EQ expansion that can sum up the entire expansion lore in one sentence I'd love to know it. Explain why the zones and world dragons are in Kunark. Explain the Planes of Power and the reason all planes and gods are where they are. Explain Skyshrine, explain Cazic Thule, Explain Luclin... explain any one zone's history/lore in one sentence....

Originally posted by brostyn

If lore to some people is one sentence of explaining where an entire expansion with 10-20 zones came from then I suppose EQ has tons of it. Not that any other MMO has surpassed that, but others have certainly done the same. Actually other games make lore interactive by adding quest that forces you to learn the history of the land.

Well... I suspect that you're a "negative outlook" kind of person (your sig even proudly proclaims you as a cynic).  This is VERY common among gamers, but doesnt make it a good attitude when it comes to being able to look at something objectively.

You say EQ lore consists of "one sentence explaining 20 zones", yet I have spent COUNTLESS hours reading and enjoying TONS of backstory.

Its not always fully complete or cohesive, but if you're a "glass is half full type" that WANTS to have fun (rather than just have fun hating things), then you view that as PART of the experience of the game.  In life, RARELY do you have complete knowledge and history is NEVER fully consistent.  There are ALWAYS "versions" of history.  Of course in this day and age of short attention spans, impossible to satisfy expectations, and spoiler sites, everyone basically wants a perfectly crafted linear story that they can rocket through but then also wants infinite content in which they are the hero - go figure.

I'd rather have a rambling and sometimes flawed world filled with 1000s of stories sometimes only loosely connected that "feels" kind of real even if most of it goes nowhere.

Sure the new games "force" you to "learn" the "lore" by forced questing, but most players will ignore it anyway and sit with the cheat sheet rocketing from step a to step z.  I dont see what the difference is.

The other poster said it well.  LOTRO, Warcraft, Warhammer, etc has WELL established stories with COUNTLESS pages of novelization already written.  There are NO surprises there.

EQ was a TOTALLY original property (sure it borrowed heavy conceptually, but Norrath was a new place) and after over a dozen expansions, its fleshed out really impressively and is actually quite a compelling fantasy universe.

But of course if you're in the "nothing is good", "everything sucks", "there are only degrees of suckage" crowd, then Im sure none of this matters.  Seems that would be a really sad way to be.

This isnt new lore. Eqplayers has began the process of making basic  geography lore more accesible to players and visitors of the website

Eq has over 2000 factions with lore associated with each one. Eq has done a magnificient job of linking each expansion to its pre everquest launch history . this gives contiuity and purpose  to an extent that few mmorpgs can offer or explore to the detail eq has.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

This game will cost a new player a fortune now, because all the old leveling areas are vacant you have to have all the newest and greatest expansions to get to the new leveling areas.

The latest expansion, Secrets of Faydwer, includes all previous expansions and in-game bonus items for a flat fee of $40.

Well you are right, for $39.99 you can upgrade to all the expansions.  Thank you for correcting my mistake, I was under the wrong impression.  Guess I should have done my homework.

But I will stand pat on the lore answer.  When EQ was launched, both of it's competitors, UO and AC had far more lore.  SOE has been slowly adding it.

Don't get me wrong, I am not bashing EQ, it is still doing much better than UO or AC and is still a vibrant community in this competitive marketplace, even with it's dated graphics and limited user friendliness. 

Originally posted by brostyn

If lore to some people is one sentence of explaining where an entire expansion with 10-20 zones came from then I suppose EQ has tons of it. Not that any other MMO has surpassed that, but others have certainly done the same. Actually other games make lore interactive by adding quest that forces you to learn the history of the land.

Exactly. I always read EQ had great lore. Uhm.....yeah.....this is just a guy who wrote 40 sentences about a desert.

ha, I started reading it thinking it was a new expansion.

(can't believe people have derailed this topic with silly EQ bashing..)

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Well you are right, for $39.99 you can upgrade to all the expansions.  Thank you for correcting my mistake, I was under the wrong impression.  Guess I should have done my homework.

But I will stand pat on the lore answer.  When EQ was launched, both of it's competitors, UO and AC had far more lore.  SOE has been slowly adding it.

Don't get me wrong, I am not bashing EQ, it is still doing much better than UO or AC and is still a vibrant community in this competitive marketplace, even with it's dated graphics and limited user friendliness. 

Uhhh dude, AC was launched a full year after EQ, AC didn't become a competitor till then, Did it have Lore ? sure, but it was the most convoluted nonsensical lore I had ever seen...they pulled it together later, but at first Turbine was trying so hard to be different that they had a bad case of Tabula Rasa syndrome...at least as far as the lore was concerned. ... and yeah UO had more lore, but that game drew upon the previous UO titles.

 It is called the EQ titanium pack, it is 39.99 and has every single expansion to date, get your facts straight before inserting your foot in your mouth.

this is not new lore. its lore that has been in the game since launch being placed in an area that is easily accessible by the playerbase

This is a good move by eqas it gives new player a source to reference the background story of the game their playing or considering to play

The lore in this article and the other ones like it were in the game at launch. some of it could be found in the handbook the majority of it can be found in game. 

EQ realizes  rits returning players and player considering playing the game for the first time have alot of apprehension regarding getting caught up. They have rcut the amount of kills to level in half. revamped their alternative ability system.  created an entire expansion that allows players to get everything they need without even taking a glance at the prior expansions and now have opted to include all previous expansions with the purchase of each new expansion.. the next expansion is due out in november

Currently EQ has activated all accounts that have been inactive for 6 months or more inviting  previus players to come back and try the game again. In addition any of those players that subscribe will get every current expansion in the game free.

I for one like knowing that this desert I am walking through wa s once an elvish forestwhose arrogance angered a god who moved a mountain to make it a desert.  that those elves split into two factions and one had to fight past the other to find their new home. I like to be able to see the remnants of what stayed behind themselve doomed themselves with their own magic.  How there was once a human outpost here that fought the trolls and teamed with the elves to use dark magic on the neighboring swamp to fend off the trolls. The zone itself is named after the deity who destroyed it.

those geography listings appearing in the eqplayers of tgame isnt some hack just making up geographical lore for places that have existed since the game launch. It is the history and details of the game  that were there to begin with ad they barely scratch the surface