Still looks pretty outdated. I wonder if DAoC will make it to 10 years...

Originally posted by ninjajucer

Still looks pretty outdated. I wonder if DAoC will make it to 10 years...

 

 

 

That is because (why can't I type outside the quote box rrrr....) they are not new pictures. Those pictures are old.

 

Originally posted by itpaladin

Originally posted by ninjajucer

Still looks pretty outdated. I wonder if DAoC will make it to 10 years...

 

 

 

That is because (why can't I type outside the quote box rrrr....) they are not new pictures. Those pictures are old.

 

 

Yeah, it looks like they're showing old screenshots of the game to show the celebration for the 10 year anniversary.

Actually, i played for 7 years on the rathe, and then moved on to other things, i tried the EQ trial recently, and the graphics look exactly like those SS's and exactly how they have for years... which makes me sad.. I miss the first few years of EQ.. nothing will ever be like that again:(

Originally posted by tigris67

Originally posted by itpaladin

Originally posted by ninjajucer

Still looks pretty outdated. I wonder if DAoC will make it to 10 years...

 

 

 

That is because (why can't I type outside the quote box rrrr....) they are not new pictures. Those pictures are old.

 

 

Yeah, it looks like they're showing old screenshots of the game to show the celebration for the 10 year anniversary.

Originally posted by RoadRebel

 

Actually, i played for 7 years on the rathe, and then moved on to other things, i tried the EQ trial recently, and the graphics look exactly like those SS's and exactly how they have for years... which makes me sad.. I miss the first few years of EQ.. nothing will ever be like that again:(

 

I played just about from the start, and then for about 5 years after that.  There was certainly nothing like it, and it was super for it's time.  My best experiences in a MMORPG have been from this game.  However, I think it was last summer when they offered free subscriptions for old players, and I gave it a try again.  Let me just say that for some reason, good memories should be left alone, and should be left as that...memories.  It was a bad and sad experience returning and finding out how drab and tedious things actually were.  But hey, I'll always have nothing but good thoughts from the past.

Even if I liked any of the older games, I could never play one that doesn't have today's features.  Quest trackers, mini maps with mob, npc and quest information, automatic self targeting, seperate mob and friendly targeting, tons of hotbar buttons for spells and abilities, right click sub-menus for avatars, names in chat window, links and so forth.  Ability to cast spells on the move or no interrupts unless specifically stunned, very fast mana and hp regeneration outside of combat, quest icons on NPCs and huge amounts of solo content that isn't about grinding mobs 10 levels below you.

BUT! at least showeq still works:) best thing ever for a game...

Everquest will always be the best MMO out there for those who played it within the first few years.

EQ did not have a lot of other games to draw from or copy, there was no pressure in terms of subscription numbers and revenue. The game was developed by a few fans of RPGs for fans of RPGs in the hopes of moving past Ultima Online

And it did it surprisingly well. The game was harder then most MMOs these days - death meant something, it took a long time to level up, items did not drop like candy and so where a lot more worth. Quests actually were quests - not fed ex and kill 20xyz variety thingies to level up.

It took up to 72 people (and more in the earlier days) to work together as a team (in times of 28k and 56k modems) to fight end bosses.

I remember raids into Temple of Veeshan, which took 2 evenings. People camping out in the middle of the dungeon, in a safe spot, and logging back in the next day.

There was competition between guilds on the same server - simply because nothing was instanced. Spawns where on different timers and most servers operated on a first come first serve basis. Some servers developed a real community with a reservation list for specific areas (planes of air and fear for example or Sleepers Tomb) - show me one other western MMO that has such a great community these days.

It's probably because it was the first proper MMO i ever played, but nothing has come close to it for me.

I see screenshots of the Avatar of War and the Dwarf King and i remember strategies, pulling methods and loot items (my Barbaria Shaman had the 1HB from the Dwarf King!) - i remember pulling the AoW all the way to the wakening land exit once and training an entire other raid that was waiting for my guild to fail. Nothing in WoW or any other MMO i played since has come close.

Originally posted by Vrazule

"Even if I liked any of the older games, I could never play one that doesn't have today's features.  Quest trackers, mini maps with mob, npc and quest information, automatic self targeting, seperate mob and friendly targeting, tons of hotbar buttons for spells and abilities, right click sub-menus for avatars, names in chat window, links and so forth.  Ability to cast spells on the move or no interrupts unless specifically stunned, very fast mana and hp regeneration outside of combat, quest icons on NPCs and huge amounts of solo content that isn't about grinding mobs 10 levels below you."

Omg; everything that you stated in this post, is what has ruined most MMORPGS' and the true actual fact of having to " earn " or learn to play a game. EQ was fine without each and every one of those things, because it was a challenge, and you had to actually go out and look for things, and explore, not just right click something and bam, its there. And btw, there were links, There were hotbards, there were names in chat windows, but yeah, the fact that you state a mmorpg has to have those, just shows us how carebear and easy people want games now, and its sad that you never got to play eq and experience a true mmorpg, not all this crap we have now. 

Originally posted by kinido

Originally posted by Vrazule

"Even if I liked any of the older games, I could never play one that doesn't have today's features.  Quest trackers, mini maps with mob, npc and quest information, automatic self targeting, seperate mob and friendly targeting, tons of hotbar buttons for spells and abilities, right click sub-menus for avatars, names in chat window, links and so forth.  Ability to cast spells on the move or no interrupts unless specifically stunned, very fast mana and hp regeneration outside of combat, quest icons on NPCs and huge amounts of solo content that isn't about grinding mobs 10 levels below you."

Omg; everything that you stated in this post, is what has ruined most MMORPGS' and the true actual fact of having to " earn " or learn to play a game. EQ was fine without each and every one of those things, because it was a challenge, and you had to actually go out and look for things, and explore, not just right click something and bam, its there. And btw, there were links, There were hotbards, there were names in chat windows, but yeah, the fact that you state a mmorpg has to have those, just shows us how carebear and easy people want games now, and its sad that you never got to play eq and experience a true mmorpg, not all this crap we have now. 

I totally agree and while we are on the subject of advancements to make things easier/better we should get rid of Mobile phones, Airplanes, Cable, Satelite T.V, Cars, Solar power etc etc etc.

Those things just make us all far too carebear.

Originally posted by kinido

Omg; everything that you stated in this post, is what has ruined most MMORPGS' and the true actual fact of having to " earn " or learn to play a game. EQ was fine without each and every one of those things, because it was a challenge, and you had to actually go out and look for things, and explore, not just right click something and bam, its there. And btw, there were links, There were hotbards, there were names in chat windows, but yeah, the fact that you state a mmorpg has to have those, just shows us how carebear and easy people want games now, and its sad that you never got to play eq and experience a true mmorpg, not all this crap we have now. 

I completely agree with you Kinido, but don't put the new MMOs down. Interests change and people prefer different things. I believe that anyone who played, and enjoyed, EQ will always think back on it with positive views and will always miss the challenges in new MMOs. I agree - i think the wide variety of add ons and helpers in MMOs these days have made them a lot easier and it's not always down to player skill anymore, but rather player knowledge about add ons available.

But at the same time it also means that a lot more people play MMOs and stick with them - because they are fairly easy these days and because people can buy gold online and don't have to put any effort into the games anymore. So the communities are bigger, which means more options in the game (communicty quality is another matter of course). It's very easy to get a group in WoW or even join a raiding guild. Short and easy raid content means you can get through a dungeon in a few hours. A somewhat decent raiding guild can get through the entire raiding content of the current expansion in 3 days - unlike a 6 day raiding window in EQ.

There is pros and cons for both sides. The sad thing is that few (if any) new MMOs are going back to the EQ formula. Because fast and easy access can potentially equal WoW numbers (though so far nobody has succeeded). EQ style games are niche - there is not many people out there who are prepared to put some effort into an MMO these days. Look at Vanguard. Ignore the abysmal start. It's a very strong game now with good content and is very very EQ style - but the number of people playing is a fraction of what EQ had in it's best days.

Originally posted by kinido

Originally posted by Vrazule

"Even if I liked any of the older games, I could never play one that doesn't have today's features.  Quest trackers, mini maps with mob, npc and quest information, automatic self targeting, seperate mob and friendly targeting, tons of hotbar buttons for spells and abilities, right click sub-menus for avatars, names in chat window, links and so forth.  Ability to cast spells on the move or no interrupts unless specifically stunned, very fast mana and hp regeneration outside of combat, quest icons on NPCs and huge amounts of solo content that isn't about grinding mobs 10 levels below you."

Omg; everything that you stated in this post, is what has ruined most MMORPGS' and the true actual fact of having to " earn " or learn to play a game. EQ was fine without each and every one of those things, because it was a challenge, and you had to actually go out and look for things, and explore, not just right click something and bam, its there. And btw, there were links, There were hotbards, there were names in chat windows, but yeah, the fact that you state a mmorpg has to have those, just shows us how carebear and easy people want games now, and its sad that you never got to play eq and experience a true mmorpg, not all this crap we have now. 

I did play EQ, I started playing MMOs back in 1998 with UO then to EQ in 1999.  You may look at it as a dumbing down of the genre, I see it as a revolution freeing us from the tyranical grasp of hardcore nerds.
 

The last I played EQ Live, it had a beginning quest tracker.

I remember the devs saying that there STILL are undiscovered quests in the game.

I remember a quest that started by using your brain and common sense:

A lady walks around occasionally sighing. Just out of the blue I decided to ask her, "What is wrong".

BOOM! I triggered and found a quest.

All this EQ II / WoW style giving quests without having to use your brain some people find too easy. 

One of these days I hope to have enough income to resubscribe again and give my 65ish paladin another go with a guild, hopefully with people that I knew back then and would take me in. I would like to see the recent updates I have seen them add.

Originally posted by itpaladin

I lady walks around occasionally sighing. Just out of the blue I decided to ask her, "What is wrong".

BOOM! I triggered and found a quest.

Yeah those were some fantastic moments! Stuff like this would still work now, but developers are simply too scared to implement them. It's not "user friendly" enough and will not cater to a mass market.

i really quite enjoyed talking to NPCs by actually typing and having to find the right words and phrases to keep a conversation going. I am not a massive Roleplayer (i.e. i will not interact with other players via roleplay), but actually talking to NPCs really immersed me into the game.

It's not just advancement to change something, just because something is changed doesn't make it necessarily better. It just makes it different.

Yes the graphics on EQ are dated because it was made when Win95 was still being used and win98 was just getting strong so the OS it was aimed at couldn't push games like they can now. Graphics cards were nowhere near as powerful either, and systems couldn't hold as much RAM as they do these days. Even still for it's time you needed a strong machine to run everything on high, or to use all the Luclin models when they came out.

It was a different world then, both amongst the players and amongst reality so we can look back on EQ and remember all the things we liked and simply remember them. MMO's have gone much much more mainstream now, in large part BECAUSE of EQ. Would WoW have the numbers it does today if EQ hadn't shown that an MMO could -really- work? I doubt it would have even been made.

Ultima Online was probably a great game. I'd heard of it but never wanted to play. I was still in my MUD/MUSH phase when EQ came out. Why bother to pay for something I could do for free? EQ was worth it though, we as a people (The players) were willing to put up with all the hardships that EQ threw at us because our mindsets were different.

10 years later, WoW , WAR, AoC, EVE, etc, etc, are all aimed at different people. Most of us who played EQ a lot started familes, or our families got larger. Newer games are aimed at an easier environment because people, in general, do not want to spend 6 hours camping the pipe in Kurn's for the monk epic anymore for example. They don't want to sit in the same room hoping Frenzied Ghoul pops and drops the FBSS.

Remember EQ for what it was, a great, awesome, game for it's time, but just like we're not all going to go back to riding horse's or taking covered wagons, those Pioneer days are gone.