Everquest

Disclaimer:  If you started playing recently or have only been playing for a couple years hit the back button now.  I am not responsible for your failure to know about the old school.  This is a mocked up reflection of my recollections of how I viewed EQ (and the genre) from 2000 onward as a game and a benchmark for future games of the genre.  I am posting this for the people that are looking for something to read and not judge or flame (which seems to be the trend on these forums).

Knowing the Author:

My name is Michael Robinson (also known as GrandoReaper obviously),  I have been a big fan of RPG renaissance era (no not renaissance storyline) style of game play in both MMORPG’s and single player role playing games (Final fantasy is not renaissance, Baldur’s gate is.).  I started playing computer games at around 1993 on the Macintosh and later moved to PC games because I was getting tired of having to constantly check the back of the box to see if it would run on a Macintosh.  I have always believed that a game could have the choppiest of graphics but still have an amazing quality of game play and fluid to the storyline.  My “vet” status isn’t defined by how many MMO’s I have played or for how long I have played a single MMO.  I am a vet because the standards which MMO’s go by have changed dramatically, and I was there back when you could log onto an MMO and make time stand still.  I haven’t posted much on MMORPG.com, frankly because I read the posts and feel like all people will say is, “Wall of text go away!”

The General Thoughts:

Some seem to forget the status quo for MMO’s back when the genre was just being able to have a plural involved with it.  Back when you weren’t worried about the graphics but the quality of game play and the evolution of the game through expansions or large patches.  Now a day’s people like to just call this a poor “development” move for the game and shun it as unreliable in the long run.  But if you think about it when we were first given the opportunity to play EverQuest it was just a very difficult bare bones RPG that seemed like just a very large 3D RPG instead of thinking of it as a MMORPG.  The purpose of the expansions in my views was to give the players luxuries that weren’t present in the original game.  Everyone would stick around long enough just to see what new mechanic would make their life easier in the game.  Maybe this was the intended marketing model Verant wanted to sell to Sony, but whatever it was it sure did work.  The actual game itself was why people would play, because a raid wasn’t really known back then and also was only incorporated to give the game a sense of ending (because all games have an ending correct?).

Well we can all remember a time when a games difficulty was measured by its death penalty and not the amount of time it took to reach max level.  That is because back then the meaning as to why people started playing the game was different as it is now.  Social interaction while you were leveling would build friendships and pacts, which would eventually lead to your involvement in guilds and quite possibly raids.  In today’s new coming MMO’s you would level to max and then start the process of meeting new people and creating new bonds just for the fact that you share a common goal of getting loot.  EverQuest was mostly community orientated and from what I can see it still is, like a big family of players who like to have adventure by any means even if it is at max level or at half way to max you would still be able to have exciting moments either with friends or solo.  An exciting event in the game by my definition would be when your adrenaline starts pumping because you were so near to the verge of death (which would lose you around a day(s) worth of experience unless you knew where to find a person to resurrect you).  The only reason you would want to get loot is to make sure that your characters life expectancy would rise to avoid that dreaded death penalty.  With the current games of the genre involving many raids and player versus player options I cannot call them true MMORPG’s but I instead will call them MMOCPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Competitively Played Game).

Games are becoming more main stream now; the population of players is on the steady rise and doesn’t seem to be stopping.  You can’t tell me that you haven’t noticed an increased interest by many more new people; you honestly think that these are gamers coming out of the ductwork?  No they are new my friend; the first thing that a newbie tries to establish is to give a sense of knowing all about the current situation to their peers.  All I see on these forums are people claiming that an MMORPG is dead or about to die, take the amount of MMO’s as a whole and give me the percentage that actually failed form the whole.  Then tell me if you thought it was an actual playable game; do you regret that it is gone?  The player base of EverQuest is the same and quite possibly more people per server as it was back in 2003.  Because of those dreaded server merges which make sure that there is a certain amount of regular players per server.  These people aren’t just merging servers for the heck of it.  The move is a big one, servers cost loads of money and they want to make sure the move would have meaning to it instead of just wasting money.  Everyone has their own reasons for quitting a MMO, 90% of the people I talk to still that quit EQ did so because of something happening in their life that would either prevent them from playing or just was just because it made their life easier without logging on.

EverQuest Reminisces:

                Starting your first character in your first MMO is a memory that isn’t easily forgotten.  We start out as newbs and because the genre was fairly new we were super newbies.  When I was level 5 I had this genius idea of staying in the newbie garden forever till max level, I mean sure it would take forever but I would be very safe and be able to kill more and more eventually.  This plan was halted because the mobs were getting too low for me; I was unaware that difference in level had anything to do with it.  Eventually I sent in a petition to a GM and he was having a hard time explaining to me that the reason I wasn’t getting experience is that I haven’t been fighting monsters that are within a certain level range of my own current level.  But when I ventured off into the outskirts of Crushbone I was presently surprised with the amount of dead bodies and people just trying to survive in the area, non-hostile mobs weren’t the only problem that I had now that I realized pretty quick that “scowling ready to attack” actually meant something.  From what I saw in chat these crushbone belts were pretty valuable if you were to sell them, but I didn’t really see why you would want the belts because they didn’t look so special.  When I had made a couple friends at the orc camps they informed me that the belts were to get xp fairly quickly.  Oh the enthusiasm I had when I got into Crushbone; this was the place that the belts dropped... the place that people would make mounds of money selling them.  Then it happened: Dvinn came.  Shouts flooded the chat that said, “RUN!!!!” “Dvinn is loose!!!”  What was the meaning of the Dvinn word?  Well after close inspection after I died it was the name of the monstrous dark elf that killed me quickly.  Players would constantly be zoning into crushbone and hanging out at the entrance before they found a group that was deeper in this old school citadel of anguish.  Because this was happening Dvinn never really did leave the entrance till players would band together for the common cause and slay him to prevent the slaughter from continuing.

                At around level 18 I went into what was called the throne room.  Before I entered the castle I was amazed by the sheer size of it, the vicious orcs that were outside of this castle had terrified me during my stay in the area.  As a magician I didn’t really live too long after the mob decided they weren’t going to stop attacking me.  I would get a glance of the front door opening and see a stream of blood coming from a fountain, who were they kidding?  I wasn’t going in there!  But eventually I got up the courage to enter the door; our group had a hard time killing the orc that occupied the throne.  But then they proceeded to tell me that there was a pathway behind the door that would lead to the actual beast that ruled over the area.  We didn’t exactly meet the requirements for attacking him because Dvinn was far stronger than the Emperor was.  Those were the days… when peril was around every corner and really started to get the blood pumping.  I dreamed of laying waste to the abyss of the crushbone, killing the emperor was the pinnacle of power in my mind at the time.  Mostly because I had no idea what the max level was.

                I decided to abandon my dreams of killing the Emperor, wanting to travel and see the world.  I heard from a couple adventurers that druids had the ability to travel around Norrath by simply casting a spell.  I found one of these circles that the druids would hang around, but alas the price was too great for me to travel by those means.  So I traveled further west, to the harbor.  Without a map the journey was quite interesting, especially when you have a Halfling chasing you asking for coins.  When I got onto the boat at the harbor I was amazed at the size of the ocean, it seemed to go on forever.  I reached Freeport the human city; the city was vast and huge.  The city was full of life as well, not to mention dead guards everywhere because of the ogre players that were invading the city for experience and money.  I saw these golden rods that trailed all the way to a building that seemed to be a bank of some sort, I picked one up an examined it.  What a half decent weapon it was, but I wondered what this mystical use of it was.  So I right clicked it and died.  Lesson learned but it was a harsh one, I was bound all the way back at the elf city.  So after another huge journey running naked I got back to my body, after deciding that Freeport was a death trap I went into the common lands and would kill random stuff.  People would talk of these “torches” as if they were actual locations instead of objects.  A tunnel appeared finally and I could see what they meant by torches, land marks of trade.  In no game have I ever seen so many people communicating and working with one another in a make shift bazaar.

                After some adventures and leveling I found a dock at the Oasis, this place was quite interesting because I wondered where the boat would go.  The journey was strange and alien to me, two cities of ogres I visited.  The Overthere was the last place I wanted to go until I saw there was a bunch of people around my level there grouping up.  That is when I learned of “hell levels”.  Weeks spent in that place leveling my eyeballs out, and the most dangerous creature in the land was the dreaded dragoon.  When you saw shouts of people saying, “Goon!!!” you ran for your life in which ever direction everyone else was running.  I saw a trend with these evil dark elves attacking travelers.  Both Dvinn and this dragoon were of the same heritage.  When people talked of weapons that were Epic I didn’t know that it meant actual items that exercised true experience within a player.  To have one was to become a god back in those days, no way something could kill you easily if you had one.  Fables of places like veeshan’s peak and Sebilis reached my ear; I was too scared to venture into such places so I continued to level up where everyone else was in Kunark.

                This is just an example of the amount of adventure I had in the great game of EverQuest, right now it is not the same game it was back then.  But you can still see the remnants of the past in every early zone.  That is why I keep playing from time to time, to remind myself of the fun that I had back then.  My friends in the game are long gone in EverQuest, either because I just lost track of them or because they went to greener pastures.  Sometimes when I play I get a glimpse of their name for about half a second then lose them because they just zoned or logged out, it has been so long sense I have seen them I can’t remember how to spell their name.

In Closing:

                Graphics don’t define a game, the player defines the game from the personal experiences they have.  A hacker might be able to get an unfair advantage in the game but you know what?  They haven’t had the adventures that a legitimate player has had in the game.  No matter how much you cheat or exploit you will never reach the level of happiness that a legitimate player receives from playing the game in a relaxed state of mind.  Competitive gaming has no place in MMO’s because the true nature of them isn’t to be competitive but to give the player an opportunity to have adventures and make bonds with other people.  What most people don’t realize is that you don’t actually own the character that you are playing.  In every MMO they state that you are basically being allowed to play the character that is their property.  If you don’t believe me go read any MMO’s ELUA completely (like you’re supposed to).  Anyway I don’t have any more time to type now, gotta go get some work done.  If anybody would like to share their experiences please don’t be afraid to post them, ignore flamers.  I play on the Rathe server (originally karana), if you would like to contact me feel free. :) bye.

Wonderful read my man! I started EQ in Jan of 2001 myself could write about the same experiences! The first time someone dragged me away from North Qeynos and guided me to blackburrow, being a human I couldn't see a darn thing in the dark. Or being a wizard up until level 5 not knowing how to scribe a single spell, and having a fellow wizard purchase me ice frost to get me on my feet was so cool. The game was amazing because of the people there and the sense of adventure.

Games nowadays have people right and left, all doing their own thing and not wanting to give you the light of day. I wish for another game where everything may be foreign like it used to and where the developers will not hold your hand. The only problem with that is that it would not appeal to the mainstream, which would mean it would receive not enough revenue and would be pointless for them to make.

Quite beside the track.  You speak as if raiding was a natural thing.  It never was except in the mind of a few.  You are of the few and your ideas are a big reaon why EQ fails in the end.

See, dictating HOW TO PLAY a game which is supposedly open is a mistake, giving better reward in an area is dictating which gameplay is worthy, and which isn't.

The first players in EQ, they didn't raid.  They reach max level and quit.  The devs saw a bunch of players which where perhaps more social, less achievement oriented, and they put a system for these players.  This is called raiding.  Some achievers bend in, some didn't.  But the logical conclusion is that at the end, you will only have these socialisers left, nothing else, since the game is designed for them.

I was there when they implement the first raids, and I saw the reaction of the core players first hand.  They didn't appeal to the core players, they appeal to socialisers.  But socialisers will adapt, no matter the game or system, so designing the game for them is pretty much a mistake.

I have been explaining that for YEARS, to no avail.  You either understand my point, or you don't.  And the dev-ious obviously won't understand it ever.  They see the like of me write in a forum, and they start dreaming about me coming back and...-raid-?  LOL, as if it would be happening.

Nice post. Good memories from EQ, many of the same that you cited. EQ was my first MMORPG and it will always have a fond spot in my heart. Some of my favorite memories?

- Hunting in West Commons when giants still ran free. "GIANT!" ..and everyone would proceed to run to the top hill edges of the map until the big oaf would lumber in another direction. Also, "Watch out. Griff coming!"

- TRAIN!!!!!!! (pick any zone or dung)

- "Anyone have any water?" (desert)

- "Don't jump down that hole.." (then someone would jump down the hole) TRAIN!!!!

- "How long till the boat comes?"

- Getting drunk in the treetop city of Kelethin (?)

Good times...it's tough to tell others about it who never played. You had to be there.

Here is the irony as I understand, more or less, from a business perspective:

(1)  SOE really believed everyone wanted to raid, every night, and not attend grad school, not spend time with their kids, and not go out with friends in the evening.  You were expected to grind during the day and raid at night to "progress." This appeals to a small, tiny segment of the population with that amount of (1) time and (2) commitment. 

or

(2)  SOE focused on raiding because the developers wanted it.  Developers, and the "raid guilds" they joined were enthusiastic raiders.  As SOE focused more on raiding, more "normal" or "mainstream" gamers left.  You know what is more ironic?  Even the zerger, uber guilds left as well.  The amount of people that want to, or even, can play like a "hardcore, uber, zerger" is very small.

Excuse me, Everquest was originally "mainstream" with significant and some deep (fatal?) flaws.  It was technologically accessible, which contributed to its early success, similar to WoW's. 

The SOE staff insists on providing for zergers, and it is something that has cost them hundreds of thousands if not millions of subscribers.  Most of us just want a game where we can log-in and hang-out with our friends in a world of immersion, lore, and fun.