To the joy of veterans around the world, EverQuest devs and Sony Online Entertainment recently launched a pair of brand new 'progression servers'. Both servers quickly shot to capacity as players began playing EQ on an even keel with fellows. MMORPG.com's Adam Tingle was one of those who gleefully launched himself on the progression server. See what he thinks of the experience. Be sure to leave us a comment or two below.

The year is 1999, I am nine years old with a head full of brightly colored additives and philosophical angst over the question “just who is the real Slim Shady?” Scattered around my newly fitted room, bought and paid for at IKEA, are PlayStation accessories, Harry Potter novels, and a proudly displayed paper-map emblazoned with the words “Norrath”. Sitting neatly under this wall decoration is a 15-inch Packard Bell monitor with the type of depth you would come to expect from an air-traffic-control terminal; attached to this monster of a display is a pristine white tower loaded with a Pentium 2 chipset, a Voodoo 3 graphics card, 32mbs of RAM, and Windows 98.

Read more of Adam Tingle's EverQuest the Returner.

I'm not going to fill you with a bunch of nonsense about my time back in the day with Everquest, but needless to say as a 25 year old today,  that started EQ on December 27th, 1999 - getting the client and a computer to play it on as a Christmas present...

Thank you for this article. I know exactly how you feel.

An hour and a half to level two, yet another Korean MMO that will never take off in the west.

Originally posted by Muppetier

An hour and a half to level two, yet another Korean MMO that will never take off in the west.

LOL your joking right? You do know that everquest is a WESTERN MMORPG that came out in 1999 right?

LOL this is kinda cool. i wonder if other older mmo's will ever follow suit.

Originally posted by strykr619

Originally posted by Muppetier

An hour and a half to level two, yet another Korean MMO that will never take off in the west.

LOL your joking right? You do know that everquest is a WESTERN MMORPG that came out in 1999 right?

 

I thought it was pretty damn funny. Funny as a sarcastic joke. I Literaly loled. Then thought about the possiblility that it was a troll, and loled some more.

Ah, great article!

I'm 25 as well, and I started EQ out towards the end of it's first year. I also played a wizard, a High Elf one (ironic, both wizards but on the complete opposite sides of Narroth). Just seeing that loading screen made memories creep back:-P

I remember doing the Staff of the Wheel quest for my wizard, involving going all over Narrath to gather the ten or some odd peaces of the staff to get a weapon with +10 int. However, soon after I did this, one could obtain a +10 earring with comparible ease, which mades all the effort for the stat boosting staff kinda sad, but the adventure of it and having said staff was still awesome.

I don't remember it taking all that long to make the first three levels, honostly, even on my warrior. But it does help to get a druid to hit you up with a damage shield, a SoW, and maybe a HoT.

I was a young alt-o-holic, I'd always see some Wood Elf Druid, High Elf Wizard, or crazy Half Elf Bard, not to mention the Shadowknight Trolls that travel into Freeport outskirts now and again, that impressed me so much with their mastery of their class (and it did take mastery of your class to really learn to kite and kick ass) that I just HAD to roll one:-P

Hey, if you're in the Butcherblock/ Faydark area, remember to collect those orc sholderpads for the Dwarf inside Kaladim!

I really hope EverQuest Next will do justice to the classes. While EQ2 was neat in it's own right, it just didn't feel enough like a true sequal. I miss a Shadowknight having a pet, and the old buffing systems of EQ1.

Have fun with the new servers!!! I don't think I'll have time to play though:-/

Maybe you could start a Paladin and go after the fabled Soulfire, now THAT was an epic weapon!

Why would anyone want to repeat the original EQ?  Yeah it was pretty neat back then i suppose, but I could only take 6 months of that game then.  Soon as AC1 came out, I was gone forever.  Never understood why people thought a restricted class/leveling system was great.

Originally posted by Daitengu

Originally posted by strykr619

Originally posted by Muppetier

An hour and a half to level two, yet another Korean MMO that will never take off in the west.

LOL your joking right? You do know that everquest is a WESTERN MMORPG that came out in 1999 right?

 

I thought it was pretty damn funny. Funny as a sarcastic joke. I Literaly loled. Then thought about the possiblility that it was a troll, and loled some more.

 

 He has to be joking.....right? Muppetier can be that insanely stupid......can he?

This read was awesome. It captured the soul of Everquest back in its hay-day. Thank you Adam.

In other news, I will sadly decline playing this new revival, as I do not agree with any expansion post Scars of Velious. If the server was locked at Kunark/Velious, I would gladly re-sub. But with every expansion eventually being unlocked, I find myself wanting to vomit.

Good luck to those who play, I will go back to Project 99.

I have tons of fond memories of the game and the lure to go back to the begining is definately tugging at me. Does anyone know if they are unrolling the expansions on a timed slow pace? or if there are going to be power guilds blazing through content to unlock them as they did in the past ?

They have done the progression servers years ago and the first couple of weeks were always funny, especialy in Qeynos where Fippy Darkpaw would cut a path through 100's of lvl 3's on his suicide run to the Gate Guards.

Great read by the way Mr Tingle, got alot of chuckles out of your writing style again.

Ohhh 1 more thing, you think they will go back to the 9.99 dollar monthly fee while they progress (chuckle).

Originally posted by bumfman

I have tons of fond memories of the game and the lure to go back to the begining is definately tugging at me. Does anyone know if they are unrolling the expansions on a timed slow pace? or if there are going to be power guilds blazing through content to unlock them as they did in the past ?

They have done the progression servers years ago and the first couple of weeks were always funny, especialy in Qeynos where Fippy Darkpaw would cut a path through 100's of lvl 3's on his suicide run to the Gate Guards.

Great read by the way Mr Tingle, got alot of chuckles out of your writing style again.

The whole idea about this server is that there'll be a set period of time where people play in one expansion, then after that period, the entire server will have a chance to vote on whether or not to roll out the next one. Should the majority of people vote to stay in the current expansion,  they'll throw up another vote every week or so until the majority choose to roll out the next expansion.

I am glad they decided to do these Progression servers, and I am glad that people are enjoying them.  I hope they roll out nice and slow for the benefit of the folks who really loved the original game amd the first few expansions.

I really like the regular game ("Live" or whatever) myself, ut I dig the desire of people for the early days too. Back in 1999, I pretty much HATED EverQuest and was only playing because I wanted my husband's attention, and he was playing every single second of every single day that he wasn't sleeping, bathing or at work, but it did grow on me after a couple of years (when I quit trying to be a caster and switched to playing a shadow knight) and then I had great fun with it. 

Love to all my DESK brethren! ;)  

Slightly off topic, personally I would like them to release a Everquest Online Adventures Remake on the PS3. EQOA for the ps2 was my first ever MMO experience and my most fond memory of gaming next to my first time playing Final Fantasy 7. I know this is the OG EQ for PC, but I am an EQ fan neverthless.

Originally posted by neonwire

Originally posted by Daitengu

Originally posted by strykr619

Originally posted by Muppetier

An hour and a half to level two, yet another Korean MMO that will never take off in the west.

LOL your joking right? You do know that everquest is a WESTERN MMORPG that came out in 1999 right?

 

I thought it was pretty damn funny. Funny as a sarcastic joke. I Literaly loled. Then thought about the possiblility that it was a troll, and loled some more.

 

 He has to be joking.....right? Muppetier can be that insanely stupid......can he?

 

I wish I had  called it a Korean WOW Clone now.

Very cool article. I'm glad that this progression server opened; I'm having a ton of fun on it.

I was a little torn as to what race/class I should play. I had a ton of alts back in the day. On one hand I wanted to play my main again, a Wood Elf Warrior. On the other hand, I felt like it would be fun to play the DE Rogue whose name I eventually started using for all MMOs. I went with the latter and I'm surprised at how much fun I'm having despite the simplicity of the game.

I mean, as a Rogue you get Hide and Backstab fairly early, and then nothing ever changes after that. There's no new abilities to add to the hotbar and juggle around some kind of rotation. You target the mob, turn on autoattack, and occasionally hit Backstab while it's turned away. Damn simple. And yet it's still a lot of fun to contribute to a party. I find myself wondering what's the point of a hotbar three rows deep and a massive talent tree if combat is still fun with just two buttons.

OMG those GFX are BAD!

EQ with modern GFX might be good but I cant make myself play a game with such poor gfx, not at this time and age.

Originally posted by Karnage69

This read was awesome. It captured the soul of Everquest back in its hay-day. Thank you Adam.

 

In other news, I will sadly decline playing this new revival, as I do not agree with any expansion post Scars of Velious. If the server was locked at Kunark/Velious, I would gladly re-sub. But with every expansion eventually being unlocked, I find myself wanting to vomit.

 

Good luck to those who play, I will go back to Project 99.

The best kept secret in the MMO world at the moment. SOE's "try" at a classic type server is laughable. Some of us know where a gem lies between the easy garbage and virtual malls.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Why would anyone want to repeat the original EQ?  Yeah it was pretty neat back then i suppose, but I could only take 6 months of that game then.  Soon as AC1 came out, I was gone forever.  Never understood why people thought a restricted class/leveling system was great.

 

 thats why you cant understand it friend you answered your own question there :)