I think what he meant was that in most games these days you start of being a hero. I played Vanguard to 47 then left because i could solo so easily. same as wow lotro and various others. dont get me wrong i love to solo, but prefer a game like EQ where i had to build myself up gear and skill wise before i could stand toe to toe with many mobs!

This made me feel as though i was an expert at my class. WOW i was the same as any other char with the same equip. VG again i just felt as though every player was always going to be as good as i was. In EQ i made a name for myself as being a well played Ranger. I could handle mobs that groups had trouble with.

Please someone come up with a game where we need to earn the right to be a hero again. Whats a world without heros? boring.

Whats a world where everyone is a hero? boring.

Relating to recreating an atmosphere of danger/difficuIty/discovery, I think it would be interesting if at some level, near the upper tiers of the game, it started becoming incredibly difficult to level up and stay that level.  Perhaps experience loss due to death could start going up exponentially, creating a situation where it was fairly rare to have character within 5 levels of the level cap, let alone actually at the level cap. 

For example, if the level cap were 50, I think it might create a compelling community if there were only a few hundred characters between 45 and 49, and only 5-10 level 50's.  The idea would be that the power and ability of the characters would be reflective of the rarity of getting to/maintaining such a level.  A guild would be considered fortunate and powerful if they had a single level 50 character, and their specific strengths as a guild would be highly dependent on what class that level 50 character is.

I like to imagine abilities, such as opening a portal to another plane, that would require the cooperative casting of say, 2 level 50 wizards, and a 50 magician.  If there were already 2 level 50 wizards on the server, and a level 49 magician, then the entire server would be watching closely as the level 49 magician got closer to 50, because it would potentially mean the opening of entirely new world content for everyone.

World setups such as this would provide an interesting atmosphere all around...much more entertaining than max level simply being an inevitability.

There will never be another, thank goodness! The game sucked endlessly and now there is competition and we don't have to put up with one crappy game because we can find one that is better than forced this and forced that. Mosted HATED that part of Everquest and quit because of it.

Originally posted by Billintoil

Relating to recreating an atmosphere of danger/difficuIty/discovery, I think it would be interesting if at some level, near the upper tiers of the game, it started becoming incredibly difficult to level up and stay that level.  Perhaps experience loss due to death could start going up exponentially, creating a situation where it was fairly rare to have character within 5 levels of the level cap, let alone actually at the level cap. 

For example, if the level cap were 50, I think it might create a compelling community if there were only a few hundred characters between 45 and 49, and only 5-10 level 50's.  The idea would be that the power and ability of the characters would be reflective of the rarity of getting to/maintaining such a level.  A guild would be considered fortunate and powerful if they had a single level 50 character, and their specific strengths as a guild would be highly dependent on what class that level 50 character is.

 

I like to imagine abilities, such as opening a portal to another plane, that would require the cooperative casting of say, 2 level 50 wizards, and a 50 magician.  If there were already 2 level 50 wizards on the server, and a level 49 magician, then the entire server would be watching closely as the level 49 magician got closer to 50, because it would potentially mean the opening of entirely new world content for everyone.

 

World setups such as this would provide an interesting atmosphere all around...much more entertaining than max level simply being an inevitability.

 

 

 

OMG man I love this idea.  That is freaking incredible!!!!  As long as everyone realizes that the "real" level cap is, say, 45, then they won't get as pissed when they find it near impossible to maintain 50.  But, as they get 46, 47, etc., to 50, they get some real power. 

I think if this is the case, the max level loss for a given day is one level.   So, if they die ten times at a raid, they only go down to 49; and don't lose so many months of work.

I think this is an interesting alternative to the current MMOs where levels have only one place to go...up.  Ok you're level 80 now with 1,000AA.  But think for a minute how much more impressive it would be to be level 50 in a world where it is unattainable for most everyone.

ALTERNATIVE.  Hey, let's blend in some Planetside mechanics.  For example, in Planetside, difficult abilities are obtained by killing numerous enemies without dying yourself.  So, rather than giving a super stiff death penalty, instead require them to "kill 20 mean mobs without dying"  It's different in EQ because it is much easier to kill NPCs than PCs; so I'm not sure how to tune this.  But you get the idea.

Originally posted by shukes33

I think what he meant was that in most games these days you start of being a hero. I played Vanguard to 47 then left because i could solo so easily. same as wow lotro and various others. dont get me wrong i love to solo, but prefer a game like EQ where i had to build myself up gear and skill wise before i could stand toe to toe with many mobs!

This made me feel as though i was an expert at my class. WOW i was the same as any other char with the same equip. VG again i just felt as though every player was always going to be as good as i was. In EQ i made a name for myself as being a well played Ranger. I could handle mobs that groups had trouble with.

Please someone come up with a game where we need to earn the right to be a hero again. Whats a world without heros? boring.

Whats a world where everyone is a hero? boring.

I believe you nailed it here. 

Originally posted by Heltern

There will never be another, thank goodness! The game sucked endlessly and now there is competition and we don't have to put up with one crappy game because we can find one that is better than forced this and forced that. Mosted HATED that part of Everquest and quit because of it.

I played on Veeshan from June 1999 till 2002, guild upset some folks in foh and CT, so I moved with a friend to Firiona Vie. (the special ruleset server, where almost everything except epics was tradable/never boe, which suprisingly had a very mixed but reliable community..)

I left the game in 2005, then came back for 6 months in 2006.  Disks for all 11 expansions are deep in storage boxes.

To me, unless they rebuild eq1 with a new engine, and update some other componets, eq1 is a pleasant memory, but one I wouldn't head back to. If eq3 is indeed around the corner ( with sony the corner seems to be a 3-5 year time frame) the gameplay from eq1, combined with new ideas, no eq2 stuff and maybe some real 'class balancing' they might just get a niche market that would support the game.

I played EQ the second year it was out and it still today is my favorite game.

The closest MMO ive played that has rivaled it was Final Fantasy XI

As it was built on community, forcing you to party and making solo play worthless after the early levels.

The Sheer difficulty of taking a character to max level taking 1-2 years where it would only begin the amount of content Endgame would hold.

There was no PvP besides 'Ballista' -A PvP game might you say- this further pushed the community to a positive state of helping eachother then Mindless PvP.

FFXI is one of few MMOs that Take Away xp and can De-level you which makes you actually think through a strategy and having that sense of fear.

Everything that would need to make the Next great MMO has been said, and i hope that SE's new MMO that has been in the works for years now but has little information on it, will be the next Everquest in MMO history.

EDIT: I just read more of these replys and the EQ community could sure make an Awesome MMO, you guys have the Mind Set of True Creative and wonderfull thinking. (We should all get together and learn to code an engine and create the next 'EverQuest' :)

There was an eq emulator around for a while, and even tho it was unstable, it was playable.

http://www.eqemulator.net/main.php

White wolf, or something close to that, was the best of them. Then Sony threatened them with a million dollar law suite, and they dissapeared with the promise to build their own engine, and release it free. forge style. I am yet to see or hear from them again..

On a side note, cause I am sure someone will jump on me for posting a 'hackers site link' and it will probably get edited out.. What harm would it do to Sony to allow folks to play the classic 3 ( up to velious) for free? It would get them hooked, and THEN if folks want to move up, they pay for a transfer/upgrade.

Then again they might be like me and be happy to play there for ever.  :)

Hey all,

Nice thread going thought id add my 2 cents.

I dont think there will ever be another EQ or anything like it. Kinda like your first time we all know with who, when and where. Everytime after never the same. There are good games out there, but you'll never get that same feeling agian. EQ IMO started the online game industry. The community back then was great. I played SOLID for 6 years. The large raids and the fustration of getting flags added IMO to the charm and difficulty of the game. As the player base grew so did the all the crying on how hard the game is/was. Then came the dumb down, enter WOW and all the clones. You can make a game easy, fast leveling, cookie cutter gear equals tons of accounts $$$$.

Finally, maybe 38 studios has something good brewing that will be close to EQ, and not like the mindless dribble thats out there. As stated i played everyday for 6 years. With the games out there I havent made it a full year before cancelation.

Take care

Viggen

This is 'just my opinion'™ which will probably differ greatly from many, so hopefully I don't get flamed too hard for it.

TLDR; Everyone is copying each other, money is the focus.  No one's taking risks and forgot to ask themselves--is this game fun? through the different phases of development.

No, I don't think there will ever be a game like Everquest ever again, here's why:

Everquest was developed in a time where fierce competition wasn't the norm for MMO's.  For many, it was a first, and developers could freely implement ideas without having the looming shadow of other rival companies threatening to take subscriptions.  Ideas were original, and companies engaged in good old fashioned calculated risk taking. 

Now the market is out of it's infancy.  People recognize that there is a substantial amount of money in the genre and as such are fighting to get a piece of the pie.  While I would never fault a business for their desires to flourish and be profitable, it seems that more and more games come out where they're all flash and no substance, all in the name of grabbing sub's from Mr. Average Joe.  No one takes risks, no one keeps to their original 'vision'.  It's all about investors, in their glorious tunnel vision, thinking another WoW imitator is going to become their golden goose egg.

There's more to it... Of course.  Like the core fundamental of what a game should be: Fun.  Just to cite an example, take Final Fantasy Tactics, versus Wild Arms XF.  You'll hopefully have to look up the latter, and didn't get suckered into buying the game like myself.  The first is a FUN, richly detailed, pleasing to the eye, story driven, highly customizable RPG.  The latter is a richly detailed, pleasing to the eye, story driven, highly customizable RPG that insists you play their way else you will be digitally raped in new exciting ways before being treated to a very pretty game over screen.

*deep breath*

...But that's just my opinion.